Friday, October 247PM Carole Huxley Theatre, New York State Museum, Downtown AlbanyU. S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic has chosen two New Yorkers for the Witter Bynner Prize of the Library of Congress. The prize was created in 1980 to support the work of young poets and “new voices in poetry.” The New York Center for the Book and the New York State Library are sponsoring a reading by this year’s honorees, Monica Youn and Matthew Thorburn. A former Rhodes Scholar and Wallace Stegner Fellow, Monica Youn is a media and entertainment attorney at NYU Law School’s Brennan Center, as well as a creative writing instructor at Columbia University. Her collections include Barter (2003), and the forthcoming Ignatz, which is inspired by the mouse of the early 20th century comic strip, “Krazy Kat.” Her poems have appeared in numerous collections, including the Norton Anthology: Language for a New Century. Matthew Thorburn, a business writer for an international law firm and founder of the little magazine Good Foot, is a past winner of the Mississippi Review Prize and the Belfast Poetry Festival’s first Festivo Prize. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, and The American Poetry Review. His first collection, Subject to Change (2004), deals with the mutable nature of language, memory, and meaning in everyday life.
Tickets for the reading by Martin Espada on November 22nd in Woodstock (see earlier Blog posting) can now be purchased through Paypal by going to the Woodstock Poetry Society website (www.woodstockpoetry.com), as well as at the Golden Notebook Bookstore, in Woodstock, and at the Phoenicia (NY) Pharmacy.
 Join MotherJudge and the poet Essence for a free evening of music and more to be followed by the Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.
'Women for Obama,' a group of diverse women from throughout the Capital District, will host a night of unity and support for Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.
All are welcome! Essence & MotherJudge will start off the evening at 6PM. Folding Sky, Rumdummies, The Last Conspirators, and improvisional skits by Albany-based theatre group Wit & Will round out the evening, with remarks by some of the Capital Region's prominent female Obama supporters. In addition to enjoying an evening of free musical entertainment, poetry and theatre, attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about Obama's strong commitment to a variety of issues of deep importance to women as the 2008 presidential election draws near. Stay to watch the Presidential debate that evening between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain on the Public House's large screen television. For more information, contact Janet K. Kash (518)368-0354 or (518)756-9501 JanetKKash@aol.com WOMEN FOR OBAMA NIGHT OF UNITY Weds., October 15th, 6 to 9 PM Pearl Street Public House (formerly Pagliacci's) 44 North Pearl Street Downtown Albany (across from Times Union Center) FREE - NO COVER Labels: poets, The Poet Essence
Martin Espada will be reading at the Kleinert/James Arts Center, 34 Tinker Street, Woodstock, NY, on Saturday, November 22nd at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $12 and are available at the Golden Notebook Bookstore, in Woodstock, and at the Phoenicia (NY) Pharmacy.
Martín Espada
Called“the Latino poet of his generation” and “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors,” Martín Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. He has published sixteen books in all as a poet, editor and translator. The Republic of Poetry, a collection of poems published by Norton in 2006, received the 2007 Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Another collection, Imagine the Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Other books of poetry include Alabanza: New and Selected Poems (Norton, 2003), A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen (Norton, 2000), City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (Norton, 1993), and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (Curbstone, 1990). He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Robert Creeley Award, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, the Charity Randall Citation, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Premio Fronterizo, two NEA Fellowships, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. His poems have appeared in the The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s and The Nation. He has also published a collection of essays, Zapata’s Disciple (South End, 1998); edited two anthologies, Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination from Curbstone Press (Curbstone, 1994) and El Coro: A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry (University of Massachusetts, 1997); and released an audiobook of poetry called Now the Dead will Dance the Mambo (Leapfrog, 2004). His work has been translated into ten languages. A former tenant lawyer in Boston, Espada is now a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he teaches creative writing and the work of Pablo Neruda.
 The Hudson Valley Writers Guild and the Albany Institute of History and Art are sponsoring a workshop, “Writing from Art,” which will focus on poetry and other creative writing inspired by the exhibit Impressionist Giverny. Award winning Albany poet and teacher Therese Broderick will join with Erika Sanger, Director of Education of the Albany Institute, to conduct the workshop. The workshop includes writing, mentoring, discussion of the exhibit, and sharing of work. The exhibit has an emphasis on landscapes, with the same site rendered by different painters. The themes of place, viewpoint, and interpretation will be featured. The option of writing en plein air at Albany Washington Park is offered, as well as writing in the museum from the exhibit works. A Reading of works will be held Friday, Nov. 7 at the museum’s Albany First Friday evening.
Artists from America and Europe transformed Giverny village from a sleepy hamlet to a colorful and thriving artists' community. IMPRESSIONIST GIVERNY traces the evolution of art produced in the village and the impact of this artist community.
Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008 10 am - 3 pm · WORKSHOP and Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 6:30 pm · READING at the Albany Institute of History and Art; 1215 Washington Ave., Albany. $25 for members of sponsors (above); $30 non-members. To register, contact Erika Sanger at sangere@albanyinstitute.org or 518.463.4478 X404 About the Hudson Valley Writers Guild
The Hudson Valley Writers Guild, founded in 1983, is a non-profit membership organization of over 200 writers throughout the region. The Guild serves as an information clearinghouse for the local writing community, and it furthers writing and reading in the region through its public programs, peer workshops, and special member benefits. Labels: HVWG, workshops
 Richard Jeffrey Newman will read his poetry at the next program in the Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series. The event will be held at Baby Grand Books at 7 West Street in Warwick at 4:00 p.m. on October 4. Following the feature, others are welcome to read original work. Admission is free.
Poet, translator, essayist and educator, Richard Jeffrey Newman is the author of a book of original poetry, The Silence Of Men (which includes a foreword by Yusef Komunyakaa), and of Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan and Selections from Saadi’s Bustan, translations of two masterpieces of 13th century Iranian poetry. In addition, he co-translated with Prof. John Moyne a selection of work by Rumi titled A Bird in the Garden of Angels,. Newman’s poems and essays have appeared in a wide range of journals, including Salon.com, The American Voice, Prairie Schooner, and Birmingham Poetry Review. In addition, he has completed a verse translation of a book-length section of the Shahnameh, the Persian national epic, for which he is seeking a publisher. Richard Jeffrey Newman is Literary Arts Director of Persian Arts Festival, sits on the advisory board of The Translation Project. He is Associate Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, where he coordinates the Creative Writing Project. Newman says, “I first called myself a poet when I was 22 years old. That choice saved my life. Giving myself to the language, claiming the language as mine to work, was a paradox I did not even understand that I was entering; and yet entering that paradox gave me my voice back (how I lost it is a story too long to tell here). It also gave me - and I am not being melodramatic - a reason to live.” In his translations, which were commissioned by the International Society for Iranian Culture, he has focused on finding verse forms in English that can embody the spirit and content of the poetic masterpieces he has been asked to work with, the formal characteristics of which are virtually impossible to reproduce in English. Newman’s work as a translator has also led him to investigate the reception of classical Iranian literature in the English-speaking world. This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. On November 1, Jake St. John, Colleen Keenan, and Dave Spinelli of the New London (Connecticut) school of poets will read. For further information, contact: William Seaton/ Poetry on the Loose, Inc. at 845-294-8085 or email seaton@frontiernet.net Labels: poetry events
 Albany Poets in association w/ Flim Forum + Les Figues Press is hosting a special edition of Albany Poets Presents at Valentines (17 New Scotland Ave., Albany) on Tuesday, October 7th featuring Vanessa Place and Matthew Klane.
Vanessa Place is a writer and lawyer, and co-director of Les Figues Press. She is the author of Dies: A Sentence (Les Figues Press), a 50,000-word, one-sentence novella; the post-conceptual novel La Medusa (Fiction Collective 2), and the forthcoming Notes on Conceptualisms (Ugly Duckling Presse), in collaboration with appropriation poet Robert Fitterman, and a nonfiction book, The Guilt Project: Rape and Morality (Other Press). Other work has appeared in other publications, including Western Humanities Review, Northwest Review, Insert Fold Magazine, Greetings #10, 4th Street: A Poetry Bimonthly, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Bookforum, and theextraroom (Ger.). Her collaboration with artist/performer Lamya Regragui will debut at Cent Quatre in Paris/Los Angeles in 2009, and she is collaborating with conceptual artist Stephanie Taylor on the film “Murderous Square Dance at the Spiral Jetty.” Place is a co-founder of Les Figures Press, described by critic Terry Castle as “an elegant vessel for experimental American writing of an extraordinarily assured and ingenious sort.” Matthew Klane is co-editor and founder of Flim Forum Press, publisher of the experimental poetry anthologies Oh One Arrow and A Sing Economy. His book, B____ Meditations, is forthcoming, this fall, from Stockport Flats Press. His recent chapbooks include Sorrow Songs, Friend Delighting the Eloquent, and The-Associated Press. Also: The Meister-Reich Experiments, an evolving hypertext, online at www.housepress.org. Other recent work can be found in The New Chief Tongue and online at Open Letters Monthly and Otoliths. He currently lives and writes in Albany, New York. $3 suggested donation ALBANY POETS PRESENTS is Albany Poets’ monthly open mic for poetry, spoken word, and music. See: www.albanypoets.com. FLIM FORUM PRESS, founded in 2005, is an independent press that provides SPACE to emerging poets working in a variety of experimental modes. See:
www.flimforum.blogspot.com. Labels: Albany Poets, open mic, poetry events
 Songwriter James Krueger and Poet Bob Wright will give a performance at Arts Upstairs Gallery on Saturday, October 4 at 7:30 PM. Hailed by judges as "an extraordinarily talented writer with a real talent for poetic imagery" Krueger is a two time honor award winner in the Great American Songwriting Contest. A founding member of the Woodstock Poetry Society and acting coordinator for six years, the Athens, NY poet Bob Wright has been published in periodicals and anthologies throughout the US such as Oxalis and Yankee Magazine. The Arts Upstairs Gallery is located at 60 Main Street in Phoenicia, NY. You can find out more about this program by calling 845-594-2249.
A man of few words, great insight and much humor, Athens, NY poet Bob Wright has been writing poetry for some 20 years. He has actively been reading his work at various venues in the Northeast for many years as well as hosting several regular poetry readings in the Hudson Valley. Currently he is the host of a bimonthly poetry reading at the Athens Cultural Center and is the curator of the web-based Hudson Valley Poetry Calendar (www.poetz.com/hudson), a reasonably comprehensive listing of poetry events in the counties along the Hudson River. He was one of the founders of the Woodstock Poetry Society and for six years acted as its coordinator. Before that, in its last year, he served as president of the Stone Ridge Poetry Society, in Stone Ridge, New York. His poetry has been published in such diverse periodicals as Oxalis, Yankee, the Christian Science Monitor, Freefall Magazine, Heliotrope, and the North Dakota Quarterly. One of his poems appeared recently in Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers, published by Codhill Press. James Krueger has been writing and performing his own music since the age of fifteen. His richly poetic songs backed by his unique finger-style guitar playing celebrate the beauty of the Catskill region, gently connecting listeners to the natural world without ever forcing a message. A review in the Chronogram described Krueger's music as "something you'll put on and won't take off" adding that his music and lyrics "reflect a deep, healthy connection with nature." Krueger is the recipient of numerous grants and has performed for such diverse groups as the North American Bluebird Society, National Artists for Mental Health, the Sierra Club, The New York Maple Growers' Association and the Thendara Mountain Club. He has released four solo CDs including his latest title, a live recording called Live in Denver, NY. You can hear James Krueger's music and find out more about him by visiting his web site www.jameskrueger.com. The Arts Upstairs is a cooperative gallery that regularly showcases quality local art. The theme of the artwork hanging on October 4 will be "Pot Luck." What: Performance by poet Bob Wright and songwriter James Krueger
Where: The Arts Upstairs Gallery, 60 Main Street, Phoenicia, NY
When: Saturday October 4, 7:30 – 9:00 PM
Cost: $5
Contact: info@jameskrueger.com or 845-594-2249 Labels: Bob Wright, poetry events
 This month sponsored by the members of the Story Quilt Committee of the Galway Public Library
Philip Memmer is the author of two books of poems, most recently Threat of Pleasure, which was published in June 2008 by Word Press. Word Press also published his Sweetheart, Baby, Darling in 2004. He is also the author of three chapbooks of poems, including Greatest Hits (Pudding House Publications), The Apartment (piccadilly press) and For Resident (FootHills Publishing). His third collection of poems, Lucifer: A Hagiography, was selected for the Idaho Prize from Lost Horse Press, and will be published in February 2009. Philip Memmer's poems have appeared widely in literary journals, including Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Southern Poetry Review, Mid-American Review, Epoch, Tar River Poetry, and many others. His work has also appeared in several anthologies, including 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, edited by Billy Collins.
Memmer is the director of the Arts Branch of the YMCA of Greater Syracuse, where he founded the Downtown Writer's Center in 2001. He is the editor of Two Rivers Review, associate editor for Tiger Bark Press, and the current poetry editor of the journal Stone Canoe. Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, October 1 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Philip Memmer $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs www.caffelena.org 583-0022 Labels: Caffe Lena, open mic
 Came across this website today that offers over 3,400 works by over 340 authors that you can read right in your browser. The site, Classic Reader, is ad supported but free to read and browse their huge library. Click the link below to check it out.
Considering all of the rain and miserable weather that is heading to the Albany area, this site may make the weekend a lot nicer. Classic Reader Offers Free Classic (duh) Literature Online - Download Squad Labels: books, web links
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