Some Tuesday Poetry News

Happy New Year!  All of us here at Albany Poets wish you the best in the new year. 

Here is some upstate New York poetry news concerning some upcoming events and other things going on the community.

TONIGHT, Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 8:00PM

Albany Poets Presents NO GIMMICK OPEN MIC
Valentines, 17 New Scotland Ave, Albany

We start off the new year with our monthly open mic for poetry, music, and spoken word.  Old school open mic.  No gimmicks, no themes.   Sign up starts at 7:00, reading starts at 8:00.

Poet Rock Ritual
The Putnam Den, 63A Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs

If you are up in the Saratoga are tonight be sure to check out what Margot Malia Lynch is doing up at the Putnam Den with her weekly open mic of words and music.

The weekly poetry open mic continues!
Please join us at The Putnam Den every Tues.
Sign up is at 8
$5 suggested donation
21+

Poetry Slam
then the Poet Rock Ritual: open mic for poets and any kind of word artist. You will be backed up by a live band:
Chris Turano on Drums
Marc Latzky on Bass
and a mystery Guitarist.

Margot is hosting.

Happy new decade

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic
Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs

More poetry in Saratoga!  Here is the info from host Carol Graser:

the first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents:

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic
Wednesday, January 6
7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start
Featured Poets:
Barbara Vink
$3
Hosted by Carol Graser
Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs
www.caffelena.org     583-0022

Barbara Vink has been coordinating the Voorheesville Public Library Every Other Thursday Night Poets since its onset in 1991. She also hosts Poetry Performance Day events, and has been in a performance trio for several years with Tom Corrado and Larry Rapant.  She has read her poetry at many local venues and was one of the editors and contributors to the anthology Poetry Don't Pump.

Friday, January 8

No Gimmick Open Mic at the UAG
UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street, Albany

No Gimmick Open Mic at the UAG is Albany Poets’ open mic series for poetry and spoken word held at the UAG Gallery on the second Fridays of the month during the fall and spring semesters.

We return Friday, January 8 to kick off the new year with your words.

The UAG Gallery is located at 247 Lark Street, Albany NY. The readings start at 7:00PM. This is a free event.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Woodstock Poetry Society
Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, Woodstock

Poets Bruce Weber and Laurie Byro will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, January 9th at 2pm. The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Bruce Weber - Bruce Weber is the author of five published books of poetry, "These Poems are Not Pretty", "How the Poem Died", "Poetic Justice", "The First Time I Had Sex with T. S. Eliot", and the just released "The Break-up of My  First Marriage".  Bruce’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, as well as in several anthologies including recently in Up is Up, But So Is Down: Downtown Writings, 1978-1992, and Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers (New Paltz, NY: Codhill Press, 2007). He has performed regularly in the tri-state area, both alone and with his performance group, Bruce Weber’s No Chance Ensemble, which has produced the CD "Let’s Dine Like Jack Johnson Tonight". He is the organizer of the Unorganicized Sunday Reading at ABC NO RIO, editor of the broadside Stained Sheets, and the producer of the long running Alternative New Year’s Day Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza. By day, Bruce is Senior Curator at the National Academy Museum, and splits his time between his homes in New York City and Saugerties, New York.

Laurie Byro - Laurie Byro's short stories and poetry have appeared in a dozen or so small presses. Additionally, her work has been published in The Literary Review, Single Parent, Redactions, Aim, Chaminade Review, Chronogram, Grasslimb, Re:al Journal, The New Jersey Journal of Poets, Red Rock Review, The Paterson Literary Review among others. Her work can be googled in on-line e-zines and in the Guardian Unlimited on-line workshop. She was thrice nominated for “The Pushcart Prize” and has won or placed in 27 IBPC competitions.  Her work was recently published in The Poetry of Place Anthology (honoring William Carlos Williams).  Her children’s poem "A Captain's Cat" has appeared in Cricket Magazine and a textbook "Measuring up to the Illinois Learning Standards". In 2009, Mayor Barra proclaimed Laurie Byro as the “Official Poet Laureate of Allendale, NJ.”  Her work draws on myth and fairytale and her experiences of foreign places in the years she worked as a travel agent. Her poetry insists upon the continuing importance of fantasy, mystery and “the other” in our lives. Laurie is head of circulation at a library in New Jersey where she facilitates a poetry circle.

Judith Saunders and William Seaton at Woodstock Poetry Society and Festival, June 13

From our friend Phillip Levine, host of the Woodstock Poetry Society and the weekly poetry night at the Colony Cafe:

Poet Judith Saunders presenting her poetry and poet William Seaton presenting a talk (Winged Words: Notes on the Oral Performance of Poetry") will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, June 13 at 2pm.

The reading is usually hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine, however he will be more than capably replaced as host for this reading by Donald Lev. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Judith Saunders, long-time resident of the Hudson Valley, is a professor of English at Marist College. Her poems, humor, and creative nonfiction have appeared in many literary journals and little magazines, regional and national, most recently in Home Planet News, Poet Lore, Chronogram, The Hudson River Valley Review, and The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Her chapbook collection, Check-Out Counter Suite, was a winner in the 1992 Panhandler Poetry Chapbook Competition, sponsored by the University of West Florida.

William Seaton is the author of Spoor of Desire: Selected Poems and Tourist Snapshots and the producer of the /Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series/. Recipient of the Ada Louise Ballard Fellowship in the Humanities and the Helen Fairall Scholarship Award in Comparative Literature, he has published studies in learned publications such as the Iowa Journal of Literary Studies and Bruccoli Clark's Dictionary of Literary Biography series. During the last year, his reviews have appeared in Poetry Flash, Home Planet News, Chiron Review, and Chronogram. This summer he will teach a workshop series in a newly organized College of Poetry.

Winged Words: Notes on the Oral Performance of Poetry" is an investigation of orality in poetry. The essay explores the history of the oral performance of poetry from Sappho to rap as well as distinguishing the typical generic characteristics of oral and written texts. How is poetry different for a silent reader and a listener to a live performance? Is either experience better? Are today's coffee house readers the real poetic traditionalists? Part of this lecture was presented in an earlier form at the Woodstock Library in March of 2007.

This talk is made possible by The New York Council for the Humanities for support and funding of the /Speakers in the Schools /program.

Here's our upcoming 2009 schedule of featured readers:
Jul 11 - LisaAnn LoBasso, Marnie Andrews; Raphael Kosek
Aug 8 - Susan Lewis; India Radfar
Sep 12 – Gioia Timpanelli
Oct 10 – Patti Martin; Susan Hoover, Victoria Sullivan
Nov 14 – Angelo Verga; **George Wallace
Dec 12 – Open Mike & Annual Business & Planning Meeting

Also, why not become a 2009 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival?  Membership is a nominal $15 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number.) Your membership helps pay for hall rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

Donald Lev and Frank Boyer Reading in Woodstock, May 9

Phillip Levine sent along the following announcement for this weekend’s Woodstock Poetry Society reading with Frank Boyer and Donald Lev.  If you are in the Woodstock area on Saturday afternoon, this would be a great reading to check out.

Poets Frank Boyer and Donald Lev will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival returns to the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, May 9th at 2pm. Note: WPS&F meetings are held the 2nd Saturday of every month at the Woodstock Town Hall, except during the winter months when we meet at the Woodstock Community Center (56 Rock City Road).  The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Frank Boyer was born and raised in the Middle West. Throughout the 1980's, he was based in New York City, where he was active in the performance art scene and also wrote and performed poetry. He has lived upstate since 1992, and is the single parent of a teen-age son. He is glad to read and to hear poetry whenever he can.

Donald Lev was born in New York City in 1936. He attended Hunter College, worked in the wire rooms of the Daily News and New York Times, and then drove a taxi cab for 20 years (with a 6-year hiatus in which he ran messages for, and contributed poetry to, The Village Voice and operated the Home Planet Bookshop on the Lower East Side). His earliest poems appeared in print in 1958 and he started his first small press magazine, HYN Anthology, in 1969. Among his honors have been a Madeline Sadin Award from New York Quarterly in 1973 and a Life Time Achievement Award from the Catskill Reading Society/Outloudbooks in 2003. Outloudbooks has just brought out his The Darkness Above: Selected Poems 1968-2002 a sampling from the first four decades of his writing. His brief underground film-acting career pinnacled with his portrayal (he wrote his own lines) of "The Poet" in Robert Downey Sr.'s 1969 classic Putney Swope. He and his reclusive cat Kit Smart live in High Falls, NY, where he spends most of his time publishing the literary tabloid Home Planet News, which he and his late wife Enid Dame founded in 1979.

Here's our upcoming 2009 schedule of featured readers:
Jun 13 - Judith Saunders; William Seaton
Jul 11 - Marnie Andrews; Raphael Kosek
Aug 8 - Susan Lewis; India Radfar
Sep 12 – Cornelius Eady; Gioia Timpanelli
Oct 10 – Patti Martin; Susan Hoover, Victoria Sullivan
Nov 14 – George Wallace; TBA
Dec 12 – Open Mike & Annual Business & Planning Meeting

Roberta Allen and Naton Leslie at the Woodstock Poetry Society

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

Roberta Allen and Naton Leslie will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, September 13th 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.

Roberta Allen is the author of eight books, including the novel, THE DREAMING GIRL, praised by the Village Voice; two story collections, THE TRAVELING WOMAN and CERTAIN PEOPLE, both praised by The New York Times Book Review; a novella-in-stories, THE DAUGHTER, praised by the VLS; a memoir, AMAZON DREAM, praised by the LA Reader & the VLS; and three writing guides. She is finishing a story collection called NOW THAT HE'S DEAD. She is on the faculty of The New School, has taught in the writing program at Columbia, and teaches private writing classes in New York and Woodstock. Allen is also a visual artist who has exhibited worldwide, with work in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Naton Leslie is the author of a book of narrative nonfiction, That Might Be Useful (Lyon Press, 2005), six volumes of poetry: Three Shadows Are Dark Daughters (1998), Moving to Find Work (2000), Salvaged Maxims (2002), Egress (2004), The Last Best Motif (2004), and Emma Saves Her Life (2007). A collection of his short fiction, Marconi's Dream and Other Stories (2003), won the George Garrett Fiction Prize, and he is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He teaches writing and literature at Siena College, in Loudonville, New York.

For more information on this series in Woodstock, contact Philip Levine at 845-246-8565 or pprod@mindspring.com

Woodstock Poetry Society, July 12

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival, as part of the Woodstock Arts Consortium is sponsoring the following poetry event as part of the Woodstock "Second Saturdays" Art Events. For a full listing of "Second Saturday" events, go to: www.woodstockartsconsortium.org.

Poets Baron James Ashanti and Bertha Rogers will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, July 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.

Baron James Ashanti has widely been published nationally and internationally over a 40 year career.  He is listed in:  Who's Who in The World; Who's Who in America;  Who's Who in American Education; Who's Who in America, Writer, Editors & Poets;  Who's Who in North American Poetry;  The International Who's Who in Poetry; and The International Writer and Author's Who's Who.  He has read poetry along with Allen Ginsberg; Gwen Brooks; and Amiri Baraka.  In 2004 Mr. Ashanti did a reading tour of Ireland which included Beal Feirste (Belfast), Northen Ireland and the Yeats House, Sligeah (Sligo).  For most of the last decade his work has centered on Asia and Ireland.

Bertha Rogers's poems appear in journals and anthologies. She has published four collections of poetry, and her fifth collection, Heart Turned Back, will be published in 2009 by Salmon Poetry, Ireland. Her translation of Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, was published in 2000, and her translation of the riddle-poems from the Anglo-Saxon Exeter Book will be published in 2008.  Her poem “Rhomboid” won PhiloPhonema’s Lyric Recovery  Award in 2001, selected by Alfred Corn; and her poem “Truck Stand” was selected by John Ashbery for display in the Albany Airport to celebrate the Millay Colony’s 3Oth anniversary. In 2006 she was the recipient of an AE Ventures Grant for excellence in both poetry and visual art and for contributions to the field through the not-for-profit literary press and center she founded, www.brighthillpress.org.  In 2007 she was given the 2007 Teaching Artist Distinguished Service to the Arts in Education Field by Partners for Arts Education and the Association of Teaching Artists in New York. She also serves as program manager for the New York State Literary Web Site, www.nyslittree.org, publisher of the first Literary Map of New York State (2005), in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts.  Her web site is www.bertharogers.com.

Here's our upcoming schedule of featured readers:
8/9 - Gretchen Primack (rescheduled), Philip Pardi
9/13 - Roberta Allen, Naton Leslie
10/11 - Mary Kathryn Jablonski, Will Nixon

Also, why not become a 2008 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival?
Membership is a nominal $15 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number.)  Your membership helps pay for hall rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

Upcoming "Special Guests" at the Colony Café - Monday Night Open Mic for June 2008

Every Monday Night "Forever". All events include an open mic of poetry/prose/performance hosted by Phillip Levine (Chronogram Poetry Editor).
Doors Open at 7pm, start time is 7:30pm. Features read for approximately 20-25mins each, beginning around 8pm. Open mic before & after the featured readers.

Upcoming "Special Guests":

Monday, June 2nd, 2008:
Northeast Center for Special Care - Resident Poets, Artists and Musicians

Monday, June 9th, 2008:
Steven Cleaver (poetry, fiction) - Steven Cleaver is a poet and fiction writer. His first novel, Saving Erasmus, was named Best of 2007 by Publishers Weekly and he was called an Original Voice by Borders Books. His poetry has won awards and has been listed on Poets Against the War. He brings a quirky sense of humor and a wry outlook on life to his writings. He is working on a book of poetry, Dear God, Or Whatever Your Name is Now and a second novel, The Gaps Between the Platforms.

Brett Bevell (poet) - Brett Bevell is the author of the illustrated poetry books America Needs a Buddhist President (White Cloud Press 2004) and America Needs a Woman President (Monkfish 2007), as well as The Reiki Magic Guide To Self Attunement (Crossing Press 2007).

Brett won the 1995 Paul Laurance Dunbar Poetry Prize, and has published his work in progressive and literary magazines around the country such as Chronogram and Earth First Journal. He lives and works at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY

Monday, June 16th, 2008:
Teresa Costa (poet) - Teresa Costa can be reached at: manxcat12491@yahoo.com

Jan Castro (poet) - I moved from St. Louis to New York City and Ulster County about a year ago, on June 22nd, 2005. Here are some of my many poetry publications, performances!  Published Poetry includes: Wax-Winged, libretto and letterpress by Eclectic Press, 2005; The Last Frontier, 2002, and poems in Eyeball No. 5,” New Letters; Memories and Memoirs… by  Missouri Authors; Poem for Julius Hemphill on WSQ CD, Justin Time Records, disk 137-2, 2000; Exquisite Corpse, Contact II, Telephone, Greenfield Review, Roof I, Weid, Abraxas; and the portfolio Thirteen Poets from Nevertheless Press.

Poetry Readings include: New Music Circle and other Jam Sessions, River Styx at Duff's, Community College, E. St. Louis; Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis Poetry Center, Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, University of Kentucky at Lexington, Cornell U., U. of Wisconsin, Edinburgh and London Arts Festivals, Washington U., Webster U., Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, St. Louis U., Laumeier Sculpture Park, U. of Louisville, Missouri Botanical Garden, Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Conference at the University of Iowa; New College in San Francisco, U. of Missouri-St. Louis; Small Press Book Fair at New York U.; Staten Island College, Lindenwood U., and radio programs in California, Missouri, and other states. 1996 -2000: Cassis, France; Co-Host, New Music Circle on HDHX, Sept. 17;  Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club on Oct. 5; Obie's Pub: Sept. and Oct. 11;   Left Bank Books on Nov. 2; Brandt's Spoken Word Sundays on Dec. 7 ’97; Poetry for University City Municipal Commission, March 21; poetry for River Styx at Duff’s, April 19;  Day of the Dead Beats reading, Blueberry Hill, Nov. 1; Meramec Writing Festival 2000, March 31; 3rd annual “Howl” reading, April 16: biography panelist and poet, MO Center for the Book: U. of MO, Columbia, 11 Nov. 2000.  2001 - 2006: two concerts at the Galaxy club; poetry performance with Gash-Voigt Dance Theater; exhibition & reading of The Last Frontier for Special Collections Washington University, St. Louis; Southern Illinois U., E. St. Louis; Lindenwood U., St. Charles MO; “Poem for a Poet” danced at Forest Park Community College by Gash-Voigt Dance Theater; Taproots Arts Fair; and YMCA Meet the Authors at Arthur’s Picnic in the Park, St. Louis.

Author: Sonia Delaunay: La Moderne, The Art & Life of Georgia O'Keeffe, The Last Frontier (poetry); co-editor, Seeking St. Louis, Voices from a River City, 1670-2000, Margaret Atwood: Vision and Forms; Contributing Editor, Sculpture Magazine, 1996 to present; freelance writer: The Nation, American Poetry Review, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Black Renaissance Noire, belles lettres.

Curator and memberships: Midwest Sculpture (06), Sonia Delaunay: La Moderne (02); Guest Art Advisor, Sculpture Key West (06); humanities professor, guest lecturer, arts consultant at universities; Founding Executive Director and award-winning Editor for Big River Association; member of Board of National Coalition of Independent Scholars; member, New York’s PEN American Center. See Jan Garden Castro at www.google.com and www.sculpture.org

Monday, June 23rd, 2008 - 7pm:
Thom Francis (poet) - Thom Francis, an upstate New York native, has been a writer and spoken word artist since he was old enough to understand, and therefore question the nature of the world in which we all exist. His skepticism, an attribute that seems to have been instilled in Thom since birth, has only been strengthened by the struggles in which he has encountered throughout the course of his thirty years of survival. These various struggles have made Thom an extremely strong and empathetic person, as well as the perfect candidate to pursue a calling in which he exposes the peculiarity exhibited by the human race. His work, based upon personal experience as well as general observations, always reveals an outlook commonly overlooked by the average observer.

Since Thom has been involved in the Albany area poetry scene he has been featured at such open mics and events as The School of Night (Valentines), Vox (Albany Center Galleries), Web of Consciousness (C@fe Web), Live from the Living Room (Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center), Open Spoken (Colony Café, Woodstock), Kill Your TV, Feed Your Ears (Lark Street Bookshop), Third Thursday Poetry Open Mic (Lark Street Bookshop), Poets in the Park (Washington Park), the Albany Word Fest 2001, 2002 (Thacher Park), 2003 (Valentines), 2006 (UAG Gallery), and 2007 (Tess' Lark Tavern), and LARKfest in 2006 and 2007.

Mary Panza (poet) - Mary Panza currently serves as the Vice President of Albany Poets.  She is the host of the monthly poetry and spoken word open mic, Poets Speak Loud, held at the Lark Tavern. She has been involved in the Albany poetry community for over a decade hosting events, performing her own work, producing a local poetry CD, and editing an anthology on the local Albany scene.

Monday, June 30th, 2008 - 7pm:
Craig Hancock & The Kinderhook Group (poetry) - Craig Hancock’s poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, most recently Hudson River Art and Peer Glass.  For the past twenty years, he has taught writing at UAlbany, working mainly with Educational Opportunity Program students, who help keep him honest, paid, and real. Most recently, he has been looking deep and hard into the heart of language.  One result, Meaning-Centered Grammar (Equinox, Ltd) appeared in late 2005.  He is now working on a follow-up book, a more fully integrated grammar and rhetoric.  He is a founding member and past President of the Hudson Valley Writer’s guild, founder of the Kinderhook Writer’s Group.  Most of his recent poems have come out as songs.

Planned July Schedule:
7/7 - Billy Internicola (poet); Frank LaRonca (poet)
7/14 - Allen Murphy (poet); Judy Lechner (poet)
7/21 - Joanne Pagano Weber (writer/painter); Bruce Weber (poet/art historian)
7/28 - Donald Lev & Home Planet News Benefit

Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock, NY
(845)679-5342 - www.colonycafe.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.

Woodstock Poetry Society

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival as part of the Woodstock Arts Consortium is sponsoring the following poetry event as part of the Woodstock "Second Saturdays" Art Events. For a full listing of "Second Saturday" events, go to their website at:  www.woodstockartsconsortium.org.

Poets Barbara Louise Ungar, Sparrow, and Sylvia Mae Gorelick will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, March 8th 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.

Barbara Louise Ungar - Barbara Louise Ungar won the 2006 Gival Press Poetry Award for her collection entitled The Origin of the Milky Way, which appeared from Gival Press in December of 2007. She is also the author of Thrift, and the chapbooks Sequel and Neoclassical Barbra, as well as the essay Haiku In English, forthcoming in Simply Haiku. An associate professor of English at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, she lives in Saratoga Springs with her son Izaak.

Sparrow - Sparrow divides his time between studying French, doing Sudoku, and running for President of the United States.  (Look for his campaign literature on http://www.groundreport.com/sparrow.)  Sparrow plays ocarina and mop handle in the band Foamola.  (See them on YouTube.)  He owns one (pink) watch, which he bought at a 99¢ store, and which is 2 hours and 36 minutes slow.

Sylvia Mae Gorelick - Sylvia Mae Gorelick is sixteen years old. She began writing poems in September and has put together one book of poems called (bank of america) (in parentheses). She does not go to school and lives in Phoenicia with reluctance.

Also, why not become a 2008 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival?
Membership is a nominal $15 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number.)  Your membership helps pay for hall rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

For more information contact Phillip Levine at pprod@mindspring.com

November 2007 "Special Guests" at the Colony Café Monday Night Open Mic

The featured readers for the November open mics have been announced.  Below is information on all of the upcoming readings.  The Monday Night Open Mic at the Colony Café (Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock) takes place every Monday night starting at 7:00PM with and open mic before and after the featured readers. All events include an open mic of poetry/prose/performance hosted by Phillip Levine.

Monday, November 5th, 2007: Resident Poets, Musicians, and Artists from Northeast Center for Special Care
A select group of poets, musicians and artists from Northeast Center for Special Care will be performing original music and poetry, and exhibiting original paintings, prints and drawings at the Colony Cafe on Monday night,  November 5th.

The Northeast Center for Special Care is an innovative long-term care, rehabilitation, recovery and community reentry program for individuals recovering from multiple disabilities acquired from complex injuries, mainly traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.

Monday, November 12th, 2007: Efrayim Levenson and Deborah Emin
Efrayim Levenson's poems have been published in Above Water, ArtVoice, Bflo Journal, Blatherskite, The Buffalo News Poetry Page, Earth's Daughters, Foist, The Grin, Medicinal Purposes Literary Review, Pure Light, Swift Kick, and Tempus Fugit.  His new chapbook, Dances With Tears, published in March 2007 by Poets Wear Prada, was a featured selection in Poets House's 2007 Showcase.

More information can be found at http://efrayimlevenson.blogspot.com, http://timessquareshoutout.blogspot.com, and www.chabadrego.org/poetry

Deborah Emin is the author of the novel, Scags at 7. Set in the 1950s suburban world outside of Chicago, the story is told by the seven-year-old Scags about her summer vacation. Believing she is about to embark on a lazy, fun-filled couple of months, it is anything but that as her beloved Pops falls apart and with him the world as she knew it.

Sample pages of the novel are available on the publisher's website: www.kedziepress.com. More than you may want to know about Deborah's other work is on her website: www.deborahemin.com.

Monday, November 19th, 2007: Tim Verhaegen, Patricia Martin and Gus Mancini
Tim Verhaegen was raised on Long Island.  He has been living in the Capital District since 1980.  He is a member of the Every Other Thursday Poetry group in Voorheesville and the Armchair Poets in Troy. His poetry appears in Many Waters and Poetry Don't Pump Gas, an anthology created by the Voorheesville poets.  His poetry is inspired by his Long Island childhood, his gay identity, his insatiable curiosity about the workings of people, and the stories of the people that surround him.  Wordsmiths Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, David Gray and Melanie Safka are his lyrical heroes. He has featured at nearly every poetry open mic in the capital district.  He will be featuring at Caffe Lena in Saratoga November 7th. He loves the spoken word, he chooses his most personal, intimate poetry for the spoken word experience.  http://www.thursdaypoets.blogspot.com/

Join the irrepressible duo Mancini and Martin to experience some live IN the Moment sharing-- a rich aura/aural tapestry of original music and evocative words, selected from their upcoming same-titled cd.

Monday, November 26th, 2007: Cate McNider and Cheryl A. Rice
Cate McNider is an artist in her own residence in West Hurley four days out of the week. Originally from North Carolina, she migrated to NYC after a two year stint studying acting and modern dance in London. While auditioning and acting, the writing became more satisfying and creatively expedient. She has read her work at St. Marks Church, NYC, The Knitting Factory and various Brooklyn café’s.

Cate’s work has been published in several journals, The Westmoreland News, VA, and at www.thelisteningbody.com. In 1990, ”Guardian’s Trust” was made into a song by the late Michael Hedges on his Road to Return album. Cate continues to write lyrics, collaborating with the musician/lyricist & Oscar nominee Ramsey McLean of New Orleans.  Their song ‘Straydog Mountain’ is a hit.  A collection of her poems is on the way.

Born on Long Island in 1962, Cheryl A. Rice has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. She has had both poems and prose published in Chronogram, The Country and Abroad, The Florida Review, The Gathering of the Tribes, Home Planet News, Mangrove, Other:, The Temple/El Templo, Ulster Magazine, and The Woodstock Times, and online at www.albanypoets.com, www.poetrypoetry.com, and www.thehiddencity.com. She has lived in New York's Hudson Valley for over 25 years.

For further information about the Monday Night Open Mic or possible bookings contact Phillip Levine at pprod@mindspring.com. For information about the Colony Café contact Mariann Harrigfeld at mariann@colonycafe.com or call 845-679-5342.