2008 Albany Word Fest Update

So far this years Albany Word Fest (This Weekend! April 18-19) is looking like it will be the biggest and best yet!

Four days until the 2008 Albany Word Fest and there is still time to sign up online for the Friday Night Open Mic at the UAG Gallery.  So far there are 75 poets signed up for the open mic with the online signup closing tomorrow evening.  Poets who do not sign up online will be able to sign up at the open mic at the UAG on Friday night.

Also, we are very excited to announce THE POET ESSENCE will be performing at the Psycho Cluster F#*k on Saturday night.  The Poet Essence is one of Albany's best spoken word artists and it is a real honor to have her as part of this years event.

Saturday's annual Psycho Cluster F#* will also be featuring The Johnny Bravehearts (Mary Panza, John Weiler, Monica Roach), The House Band of the Apocalypse (Thom Francis, K.J. Spencer, Aaron Christiansen), a multimedia performance from poet Nicole K with VJ Fongaboo of Twisted Pair Visuals, plus more acts to be announced this week...

The 2008 Albany Word Fest will also be the place to grab your copy of the long awaited, much anticipated OTHER:NINE.   The ninth issue of our litery magazine will be available featuring Maria Barr, Shuan Baxter, Chris Brabham, Seth Brown, Scott Casale, Michael J. Conner, Stephen H. Donohue, Tom Harmon, Nicole Karas, Adam Kress, Penny Meacham-Cornelius, Lisa Nolan, T. Kilgore Splake, Leigh Vandebogart, Dan Wilcox, and Hollice Danielle Wiles. Plus, an updated listing of all of the poetry readings and open mics in the area, the return of Miss Mona, and more.

We will launching some new features on the Albany Poets website for the Word Fest including an online open mic, a new look for the OTHER: site, and updated poets profiles and poems.

For more information on the 2008 Albany Word Fest and to sign up for the open mic, go to www.albanywordfest.com

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival Reading Featuring Gretchen Primack and Allen C. Fischer

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival as part of the Woodstock Arts Consortium is sponsoring the following poetry event as part of the Woodstock Arts Week. For a full listing of Arts Week events, see: www.woodstockartsconsortium.org.

Poets Gretchen Primack and Allen C. Fischer will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, April 12th at 2pm. Note: WPS&F meetings are held the 2nd Saturday of every month.

The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Gretchen Primack’s publication credits include The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, FIELD, New Orleans Review, Rhino, Best New Poets 2006, and others. Her chapbook The Slow Creaking of Planets is freshly minted from Finishing Line Press.  She teaches at Bard College and at two maximum-security prisons through the Bard Prison Initiative. More information and poems can be found at www.gretchenprimack.com.

Allen Fischer is not reluctant to draw on his business background in his poetry. Although he lives for the most part in Saugerties, NY, he splits his time between city (Brooklyn, NY) and country (Saugerties, NY) with one month a year near Hamburg, Germany, his wife's home town. His writing is also somewhat peripatetic as feelings and concerns are dealt with through the historic, social and scenic lenses of these various locations.

Retired as director of marketing for a nationwide corporation, Fischer's writing is as likely to mine the images and conflicts of the world of business as it is to describe the seasonal extremes of upstate New York.  From the Philadelphia area, a graduate of Haverford College, he attended Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies both in Washington DC and Bologna Italy. Later, he served in the US Army, also in Italy, thus setting in motion a life of changing locations.

Fischer came to poetry relatively late, beginning to write "whenever possible" in his forties.  For about 12 years, he worked closely with poet William Matthews.  Allen Fischer has published widely in journals such as The Greensboro Review, Indiana Review, The Laurel Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, Rattapallax and River Styx. In 1997, his poems were selected for inclusion in the Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry and Bright Hill Press' Out of the Catskills and Just Beyond, and in 2007, Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers.

Sally Rhodes Live From The Living Room

Live From The Living Room, a featured reading series with an open mic afterwards is held on the second Wednesday of every month at the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center, 332 Hudson Avenue, Albany, NY.  The next reading is April 9th with local poet/dancer Sally Rhodes   

Sally is a local poet who has, from time to time, incorporated dance into her public featured readings.

Sign up is at 7pm with 7:30 start time with host Don Levy  and $2.00 suggested donation.  For more info call (518) 462-6138.  This is a straight-friendly reading.