Tuesday November 17, 2009
We’ve just heard that Sam Hamill (founding editor of Copper Canyon Press and director of Poets Against War) and his wife Gray Foster are in need of assistance from their friends in the poetic community. Here’s the letter than has been circulated with this news:
Dear friends of Sam Hamill and Gray Foster, Copper Canyon Press, and Poets Against the War:
You may have heard that Sam and Gray have had some financial reverses lately. Both have also have had recent hospital stays and still need treatment not covered by insurance. Because of impaired hearing, Sam can no longer teach classes. He survives on his pension but has no room for emergency expenses.
We think that their friends will want to help Sam and Gray get through a difficult patch, and that’s why we are raising funds in their behalf. No contribution is too small, and the names (though not the amount of donation) will be given in a few weeks to Sam and Gray, along with the total of contributions. Because of the emergency, donations must be received before the end of the month. This kind of fund doesn’t qualify for tax-exempt status, so we suggest that those for whom this is a concern first determine the amount they would like to donate and then deduct from it the figure they estimate they would save if the contribution were deductible.
Because Alfred is in the U.S., he has set up a dollar account for the fund and checks or money orders (in dollars) should be made out in his name and sent to P.O. Box 214, Hopkinton, RI 02833 U.S.A.
This effort is probably best described not as charity but as compensation for unpaid labor involved in the founding and management of Copper Canyon Press and the website Poets Against the War, both extraordinary achievements for which we would like to show gratitude.
If you can forward this letter to those on your mailing lists, that would be great. Thank you for your interest and cooperation.
Sincerely,
Alfred Corn
Marilyn Hacker
Sunday November 15, 2009
The Lark Ascending was a New York City literary performance group who sought to revive classic works of high culture by performing them live in a chamber setting. Their last performance was more than a year ago, but they’ve just announced that the audio recordings and program notes of all their readings have been made available online for free downloading by anyone who wants to listen: Literary Downloads at The Twickenham Press. It’s a treasure trove of old classics—lots of Milton, including a dramatic reading of selections from Paradise Lost entitled “The Great Debate in Hell,” works from Lord Byron, T.S. Eliot and Walt Whitman, and a whole program devoted to women poets of the English Renaissance, “Shakespeare’s Sisters.” Bravo!
For more online listening, visit our audio library:
Links to audio poetry archives and podcasts
Sunday November 8, 2009
For poets who are spending the long winter evenings reading, revising and combining their poems into collections, here’s an updated list of upcoming contest entry deadlines:
Required reading before you submit to any contests:
"What's Really Wrong with Poetry Book Contests?," by David Alpaugh
How to put together a poetry manuscript for publication
"A Word To the Wise: On entering your poems in competition," by Kurt Heintz
"You Do It Because You Love It," by S.A. Griffin
Related resources:
More contest links
Wednesday November 4, 2009
Our friend Michael Rothenberg is involved in an interesting journey this fall: Rockpile, a collaboration with David Meltzer “in the tradition of the troubadour and with the spirit of improvisation and collaboration,”—the two poets have been travelling across the U.S. performing poetry composed on the road “in a spontaneous fusion with local musicians.” They started the tour last month in Los Angeles & Albuquerque, and this week they’ve made it all the way across to Washington, D.C. and New York City—if you can’t make it to any of the cities where they are performing, you can follow the tour on the Rockpile blog, which has the poets’ road musings, performance videos, and more. The whole thing is meant to conclude with “a final grand performance” in San Francisco. Keep on truckin’, poets!
More postings on poetry/music collaborations:
Poetry and Music, Sister Arts Allied (2007)
Listen to the woodlark’s song: “Lullula” (2006)
Jazz & poetry on the road together in Copenhagen, Amsterdam & London (2005)
Are songs poetry? (2004)
Poetry + music, an inspired collaboration (2004)
Caught in the Act, The making of a live poetry + music CD, by Whitman McGowan (2004)
Ngoma: Entering the Dreamtime with Music and Poetry (2002)
