This issue includes: 10 Recent Literary Novels That Take On Society | BOOKGLOW
“Arguably the best books and stories open minds and hearts, and take readers on a journey of wonder, questioning, and learning. They are rebellion and hope in print.” For more link HERE.
THE CREATIVE NEXUS art and literature news aggregate is hosted by poet and photographer, Roger Allen Baut (Chasing Tao).
A reading by Maya Angelou yesterday on Poetry Please brought her front and center in my mind. How could we celebrate Black History Month and not include Maya Angelou? So here she is, not a conventional beauty, but a Beauty and a Refuge … wise and sassy Phenomenal Woman …
phenomenal |fəˈnämənəl|
adjective
1 very remarkable; extraordinary
2 perceptible by the senses or through immediate experience: the phenomenal world.
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
– Maya Angelou
© poem, excerpt from Maya Angelou, The Complete Poetry; photograph “Maya Angelou visits York College, February 4, 2013” by York College and shared under CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
A Place for Freelance Artists (and Writers), The Haven Foundation (created by Stephen King) “gives financial assistance to provide temporary support needed to safeguard and sustain the careers of established freelance artists, writers and other members of the arts and art production communities who have suffered disabilities or experienced a career-threatening illness, accident, natural disaster or personal catastrophe. Grants are awarded and renewed at the discretion of the Haven Foundation Board.” Details including eligibility guidelines and application are HERE.
The Authors League Fund (writers helping writers) has assisted professional writers and dramatists who find themselves in financial need because of medical or health-related problems, temporary loss of income, or other misfortune. Details HERE.
Human Rights Watch administers the Hellman/Hammett Grants program for writers who have been victims of political persecution or are in financial need. Hellman/Hammett grants typically range from $1,000 to a maximum of $10,000. In addition to providing much needed financial assistance, the Hellman/Hammett grants focus attention on repression of free speech and censorship by publicizing the persecution that the grant recipients endured. Details HERE: 212 292 4700
PEN Writers’ Fund Grants of up to $2,000 available to published writers in acute financial crisis. No membership necessary. Application and details HERE arielle@pen.org Note the next deadline is March 15.
Opportunity Knocks
Elixir Press announces its 16th Annual Poetry Awards open to poets writing in English. Two prizes: Judges Award, $2,000; Editor’s Award, $1,000 and possible publication. $30 entry fee. Deadline: October 31. Details HERE.
Killer Nashville, a place for thriller, Suspense, Mystery Writers and Literature Lovers, is an “advocate for beginning and mid-list writers, as well as a resource for platform-building for established authors. It is a community of genre and non-genre writers whose work contains elements of mystery, thriller, or suspense.” Their 2016 Falcon Awards offers opportunities to submit under a range of categories and subcategories – including eBooks. Deadline: April 30. Details HERE
The Wenlock International Poetry Competition 2016 is now open for submissions. The deadline is March 7 but you can submit online. Details HERE.
.
Smartish Pace announces its 2016 Erskine J. Poetry Prize. All contest submissions are considered for publication even if they don’t win the prize. Deadline: October 15, 2016 Winning poet receives $200. Details HERE.
Opportunity Knocks
Writespace has opened the submissions call for its second anthology, In Medias Res: Stories from the In-Between. The seek looking stories about characters who are thrown into or stuck between different cultures, communities, families, races, genders, self-images, dimensions, continents, etc. Deadline April 28. Details HERE.
The French Literary Review: twice-yearly international magazine of poetry and prose. The review seeks contemporary poems; short stories and articles (1000-3000 words); novel extracts that stand on their own; paintings / drawings, all of which must have a French connection. Deadlines: 30 July and 30 December Details HERE.
The BeZine submission guidelines and mission statement.
TODAY: A reading of Myra Schneider’s poem Birds from her collection Circling the Core is a feature on Poetry Please at 4:30 W.E.T. Details HERE.
HEADS-UP HOLLYWOOD: Every Saturday night …
HEADS-UP SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion are relocating and this may be your last time to hear Michael read in Berkeley. TOMORROW NIGHT …
Second Light Live, Poem of the Month series HERE.
All Poetry dubs itself the largest poetry community, more than 500,000 poets. “Friendly advice and encouragement and detailed critiques when you’re ready. All Poetry hosts free contests with $50 cash prizes, active discussion forums, and an annual anthology to which you may contribute.” Free and optional paid monthly memberships are available. (I have not sampled this myself, but a friend has and reports a mostly positive experience. She was involved for several years.)
d’Verse Poets Pub “is a place for poets and writers to gather to celebrate poetry. We are many voices, but one song. Our goal is to celebrate; poets, verse & the difference it can make in the world. To discover poetry’s many facets and revel in it’s beauty, even when ugly at times.” This is a smaller and more intimate group than All Poetry (above) would appear to be. I can testify that there are some excellent poets participating and coaching one another. This is quite an ambitious project, long running and lead by a dedicated team.
Poetry Space Success: Eggs on Toast Valentines Competition: Carolyn O’Connell’s (Timeline, poetry) poem Lovers in the Window was one of the five selected winners of this competition. It can be read on the Poetry Space website.
Woven Tale Press garnered a review in Kirkus: “New York Times Notable Book author Tyler (Blue Glass, 2014) and her editorial team of artists and writers [including Michael Dickel (War Surrounds Us, Is a Rose Press, 2015)] present an eclectic collection of artwork and creative writing” You can sample Woven Tale Press by downloading their newest publication for free HERE.
Well done to Second Light Network (SLN) for yet another thumbs-up review. This one is from poet, publisher and educator, John Kilick, for their most recent anthology, Fanfare: “ …. another amazing piece of work, quiet equal to the first book [Her Wings of Glass], and introducing many new names. The book is so tight thematically and the high standard is never relaxed.”
Cheers for Kingsley Tufts Award Winner Ross Gay, Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude and Kate Tufts Discovery Award Winner
Danez Smith, [insert] boy. Details and a sampling of poems (worth your time) HERE.
RUMOR (Cold River Press) by Silva Zanoyan Merjanian, author and publisher donate profits to the Syrian-Armenian Relief Fund. I believe they raised about $5,000 thus far. Three of the poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The book won Best Book Award in the poetry category, NABE Fall 2015. Rock on, Silva!
PETRICHOR RISING (Aquillrelle, 2013) an anthology of the Grass Roots Poetry Group for the benefit of UNICEF. To read the Group’s story, link to “Petrichor Rising and How the Twitterverse Birthed Friendships That In Turn Birthed a Poetry Collection.”
CANBERRA: ONE LAST BORDER (Gininninderra Press, 2016) – poetry for refugees. Co-authored by Helen Hall and Sandra Renew, “launched by Thomas Albrecht the regional representative for UNHCR. The poems were mostly written last year in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, to raise awareness and some money for refugees.” The launch is on March 12 in Canberra. Details HERE.
HANDS & WINGS, POEMS FOR FREEDOM FROM TORTURE (White Rat Press, 2015). The poems in it are freely shared by A-list poets. The proceeds go to help with the rehabilitation and support of torture victims seeking protection in the U.K. That made me look into what services specificially designed for victims of torture might be available in other countries and that readers might want to support through donations or volunteer work. You may find your country’s offerings listed HERE.
by Tim Buck and originally published in Spectralyre (an online journal, recommended) and presented here with permission.
A poem should have two kinds of presence, because most quality poems have two kinds of presence — what’s written and what’s implicit.
A marvelous poem is composed of what’s on the page and what hovers like a ghost. Combined, those two aspects make up a glowing artistic volume. The written half of a marvelous poem transmutes segments of being into supple images and other inscribed substances — memory, metaphor, irony. That other, unwritten half, existing abstractly and silently, is made up of enriched consciousness, large time, and metaphysical atmosphere. Those three aspects lend the poem an aesthetic weight, a confident flair, an artistic momentum.
What’s unwritten bequeaths the glow to what’s written.
Poems that aren’t marvelous are almost always what’s on the page. Even accounting for an occasional quality flourish of textured mood and symbol, the un-marvelous poem betrays its deep artistic lack by not containing stuff that’s not there, that’s not written on the page. Instead of bringing enriched consciousness, large time, and metaphysical atmosphere to implicit presence and effect, an inartistic poem contents itself with shrunken spaces of personal and cultural experience. Also, an acquiescence to academic persona — to routinized materials of attitude and saying — results in spiritual anemia, small occasion, and airless being. It’s only what’s on the page. It’s surface and ego. It’s missing an unwritten aura.
There are, thankfully, exceptional poets today who do write in the haunted, elegant, and expansive style.
The poems of Adam Zagajewski allow unusual depth to happen and aesthetic presence to manifest. His work isn’t missing the glow, the echo, and the ambiance of what’s not written. The everyday therefore becomes clothed in subtle qualities of unexpected significance. It’s as if a strange luminescence has been added to ordinary light, imbuing written substance with In his poem “Luxembourg Gardens” from Unseen Hand, Zagajewski creates a sense of quiet and marvelous drama out of what trembles beyond the self:
Foreignness is lovely, a cold joy.
Yellow lights illuminate the windows on the Seine
(something truly enigmatic: other people’s lives).
Also from Unseen Hand comes the poem “Faces”. Here, the poet conjures from normality a volume of aesthetic savor and suspense:
I thought that the city is built not of houses,
squares, boulevards, parks, wide streets,
but of faces gleaming like lamps,
How does a writer of poems learn how to make poems that have another, unwritten half? How did the marvelous, exceptional poets like Zagajewski acquire enriched consciousness, accumulate large time, absorb metaphysical atmosphere?
Some basic research reveals interesting things.
In Zagajewski’s case, he is appreciative of classical music, especially sensitive to the works of Schubert and Mahler. An aspiring poet should consider saturating himself or herself with the music of Schubert and Mahler. Something significant that is intangible and ineffable might arc from ear to page, enriching the page with unwritten aspects.
Zagajewski’s essays, in addition to his poems, teem with much more time than the now. An aspiring poet should consider saturating himself or herself with history, especially keeping alive the textured worlds of great dead poets. Something peculiar having to do with old clocks and forgotten graveyards might rub off onto one’s work, enlarging its scope and spirit.
Most poets today write a sort of strident, over-confident verse. Orientation in these poems is a view straight onto materiality and personal circumstance. No buffering spiritual distance separates poet from his precipitate language, no suspicion that language itself is a form of unknown being. An almost hectoring absence of contemplative space and mystical concern makes today’s poetry a trial to endure. Zagajewski strives for what he calls “metaphysical modesty.” He also thinks about the problem and the possibility of hope in an absurd and deathly world. An aspiring poet should consider saturating himself or herself with the ideas of, say, Plotinus, Kant, and Unamuno, with the novels of Dostoevsky and Kafka, with the films of Bergman and Tarkovsky. If you’re unaccustomed to thinking about existence as such, about art as a mode of possible transcendence, perhaps you could work on that. Something weird might leak in, causing one’s poems to softly fill with paradox and wonder.
Poets should be conduits of the unwritten, of the unseen. A poem doesn’t have to be about or even mention music, history, and philosophy but should be infused or imbued with those elements.
– Tim Buck
© 2016, essay, Tim Buck, All rights reserved; photograph of Adam Zagajewski by Frankie Fouganthin under CC BY-SA license
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 