Saturday, December 29, 2012

2013 Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway


BJ Ward is the author of Jackleg Opera: Collected Poems 1990-2012, forthcoming in September, 2013, as part of the IO Poetry Series (North Atlantic Books). His other books areGravedigger's Birthday17 Love Poems with No Despair, and Landing in New Jersey with Soft Hands. His poems have been featured on Poetry Daily, NPR's "The Writer's Almanac," and New Jersey Network's "State of the Arts," as well as in publications such as Poetry,TriQuarterly, and Painted Bride Quarterly. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts. He co-directs the Creative Writing degree program at Warren County Community College. To read more of Ward's work visit the Poetry Foundation or Painted Bride Quarterly.

Want to study with BJ Ward? At the 2013 Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway, BJ will be leading two exciting, new workshops: the Algonquin-Style Poetry Workshop and one day of the Creative Writing Sampler. He will also be leading an Advanced Poetry section and available for tutorials. Click here to find out more. 

ROY ORBISON’S LAST THREE NOTES by BJ Ward


12 mph over the speed limit on Route 80, I realize
the way I know the exact size of my bones
is the way I know I am the only one in America
listening to Roy Orbison singing “Blue Bayou”
at this precise moment right now,
and I feel sorry for everyone else.
Do they realize they are missing
his third from last note?-Bluuuueee-
and how it becomes a giant mouth I’m driving into-
“Bay”-pronounced bi-becomes the finger
pointing back-biiiiiiii-and all the sealed up cars
greasing along this dirty, pot-holed clavicle of New Jersey
don’t know this “you”-constant as my exhaust smoke-
yooooouuuu- and the beats underneath, more insistent
than the landlord knocking on the door-horns, drums, guitar, bass-
my Toyota Corolla is now one serious vehicle,
and the band and I are all alone, filling it up-
Roy and me in our cool sunglasses up front
and his musicians barely fitting their instruments in the back,
driving into the blue-bom bom bom-pulling ahead
of the pollution faster than New Jersey can spit it out-
Bye-boom bom-his leggy background singers must be jammed
in the trunk because suddenly I hear them and suddenly
we are Odysseus and his boys bringing the Sirens with us,
and the cassette player is our black box
containing all essential details in case we don’t make it,
but I know we’re going to make it because
Roy, my cool copilot, turns to me and says,
like the President says to his top general
after a war has been won, or like Morgan Earp
on his deathbed said to Wyatt when vengence
was up to him, or like Gretchen Honecker
said when I knew I was about to get my first kiss,
Roy turns to me and says, “You-”
This entry was posted in Poetry68. .

Cuckoldom BY BJ WARD

BJ Ward, “Cuckoldom,” from Poetry (September 2006). Copyright © 2006 by BJ Ward. Source: Poetry (September 2006).


Such conundrums
of English. I blame
my ex-wife. She
rearranged my
dictionary, or re-
taught an old story:
in this book,
if you look
for alimony,
it follows
acrimony (nothing
between). However,
contrition still
borders contrivance
(if it can be seen).
Untruth in her
troth sallowed
the language, sullied
a certain conjugation:
how she lied
as she lay with me.
Apparently her
monogamy was too
close to monotony.

Alas, after parting
with that particular
lass, I remain
a student
examining all
our words’
gradation:
how anniversary
now precedes
annihilation.


The Photographer's Divorce by BJ Ward

She walks out the door for the final time
and her absence is already moving in, clutching
its baggage, looking for whiskey in his cupboard,
negatives in his camera.
Her absence sets the table for one
where it and the man will dine
alone together for many nights.
As they eat each night
in the stark light of a single
candle (how could flame be so cold?),
the absence’s shadow flattens out
across the walls he and she once painted together,
leaves a film that thickens his house,
aggregately closing the space he lives in
like a constricting automatic
camera lens
attempting to photograph an object
or occurrence
to which he’s too close to see clearly.

It’s focusing and focusing
not able to get it—
it focuses so hard
it pulls the garden into the house,
and then the street—
after that, a mountain, a few distant clouds—
soon the whole world
is something he can’t see
as it crowds his house.
In fact, everything is now in his house
except her. 





The Story of a Marriage By Andrew Sean Greer

The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
Andrew Sean Greer's The Story of a Marriage (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is a beautiful, lyrical novel of the 1950s in a country at war with itself—sexually repressed, patriotic, torn by racism, and smitten with domesticity. Narrated by Pearlie, a woman married to a man with secrets, this is a book full of urgent questions. "How could I possibly explain my marriage?" Pearlie asks. "Anyone watching a ship from land is no judge of its seaworthiness, for the vital part is always underwater. It can't be seen."— Cathleen Medwick

Independent Bookstores

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Bird  by Bird by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott seems immediately like your new best friend—funny, sunny, spiritual. This book can teach you how to write wonderfully, though its lessons are as much about life as they are about writing.
— Diane Sawyer


All-Time Favorite Books

Manhattan User's Guide

Friday, December 21, 2012

National Book Awards - 2012

David Boring

David Boring by Daniel Clowes

David Boring By Daniel Clowes
116 pages; Pantheon
David Boring opened me up to the world of graphic novels. Clowes creates quirky characters who are ordinary and flawed. They get themselves into the most extraordinary and bizarre predicaments. The main character is seeking the perfect woman, and there are many mishaps along the way. I still can't believe how deeply you can fall into these novels, which I had, sadly, dismissed as picture books. The emotion conveyed in the illustrations is so intense—the experience is a whole new way of reading.
— Rachel McAdams
 

Pocket Poets

Monday, December 17, 2012

Falling off the Wind by Richard Meibers

From the author
Falling off the Wind is a heartfelt, insightful story of a man stripped of everything familiar and dear to him. Clement Scheutz finds himself stranded on a small Caribbean island with no money, the woman he loves has left him, his boat has been smashed on the rocks by a hurricane, and he has been accused of killing a local Puerto Rican. He gets a job helping rebuild a local restaurant while trying to put the boat and his life back together. In the process he helps the restaurant owner cope with her teenage daughter and find out who killed her uncle.
 

Book Description (from Amazon) Publication Date: October 1, 2012

Clement Scheutz, his schooner smashed on the rocks of Puerto Rico by a hurricane, is accused of killing a local islander. The woman he loves has deserted him and he is without money. While putting the boat back together, he helps rebuild a local restaurant and finds new love with the owner. 
 
“Few authors can combine both compelling characters and gripping plot. Meibers does so here – his richly-drawn Clem character is both introspective and swashbuckling, both poet and pirate.” -David Brody 

“A modern version of a Joseph Conrad adventure. Meibers has created an engaging tale of life on a Caribbean island where his challenges reflect our own.” 
-Dwight Harshbarger

About the author: Richard lives in central Massachusetts. He is the author of The Fitchburg Watch, a non-fiction history of manufacturing in the United States and the Scheutz trilogy.

My review:
Falling of the wind: A sailboat falls off the wind when it points its bow further from the eye of the wind. The opposite of heading up into the wind.

After Hurricane Sandy hit my home, I thought that I would be completely turned off by a plot that starts off with a boat smashing on the rocks because of a hurricane. Fortunately I was able to plow through and continue on the journey that Meibers crafted in his fourth novel. 

Meibers takes us through two story lines with one being the love story and the other being the horrible Hurricane Hugo. Although this story is a work of fiction, the date and locale of Hurricane Hugo are factual. This adventure story delves into the lifestyle of a Caribbean sailor and explores the realities of life lived on a boat.  It is also filled with hardship and love, without being too sappy. 

Something that I know distracted a few reviewers was the sprinkling of Spanish phrases throughout the novel. Even though I never had a lick of Spanish in high school, I seemed to be able to use context clues to figure out what was happening. 

I would recommend anyone that loves sailing and romance to pick up a copy today. Falling off the Wind by Richard Meibers was given to me for a free review by The Cadence Group. 

Sunday, December 9, 2012

826 National Store

826 National StoreCo-founded by Dave Eggers and Nínive Calegari in 2002, 826 National is an organization of nine non-profit tutoring and writing centers that serves 30,000 students in eight cities across the country. Free one-on-one tutoring attention in our vibrant writing labs empowers students to be playful and imaginative, hone their writing and thinking skills, and flourish as published authors. 

For philanthropic creative types who want to support the development of young voices — and find some out-of-this-world gifts that give back this holiday season — check out our online store! All proceeds help to fuel our endlessly fun and formative after-school tutoring programs, writing workshops, and field trips for under-resourced youth.

We sell a plethora of items that would delight all writers young and old, students, teachers, and even coffee drinkers! Behind every Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the 21st century lies one of our Emergency Novel-Finishing Kits, or at very least our “Are You Absolutely, Positively, Wholeheartedly Ready to Publish Your Novel?” poster. For amazing parents and teachers we’ve crafted the Don’t Forget to Write collection, featuring over 100 creative writing lessons for elementary and secondary students. For kiddos we have the world famous 826 Pocket Activity Book and Cartoon Activity Book, as well as our declarative Future Author tees. And we have so much more, including signed benefit books from famous authors826 student publicationst-shirtscoffee mugssnuggiesand tote bags.
-Claire and the 826 crew

The 2012 National Book Award Winners

at the side (côtés) of poetry

translated from the Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
at the side (côtés) of poetry

A Poet Reveals Her 6 Rules for Writing


samantha reynolds

Bending the Mind Around the Dream’s Blown Fuse



Timothy Liu is the author of eight books of poems, most recently Bending the Mind Around the Dream’s Blown Fuse. Translated into ten languages, his poems have been widely anthologized, including The Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize. His journals and papers are archived in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. Liu is a Professor of English at William Paterson University and lives with his husband in Manhattan. His website can be found at timothyliu.comuf.com

An excerpt from the novel "Double Feature" by Owen King

Taken as a whole, no one who read the screenplay for Who We Are denied that it was clever in its composition, original in its pattern, and ruthlessly unsentimental in its conclusions. It was also “a bit portentous,” according to Sam’s father…

Owen King is a graduate of Vassar College and the MFA program at the Columbia University School of the Arts. He is the author of We’re All in This Together: A Novella and Stories, as well as the co-editor of Who Can Save Us Now? Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories. His writing has appeared in One Story, Paste Magazine, Prairie Schooner, andSubtropics, among other publications. Owen has also taught creative writing at Columbia University and Fordham University, and is a working screenwriter with a script in development at Anonymous Content by the producer of Winter’s Bone. He is married to the novelist Kelly Braffet.

Oprah Announces Her Second Pick for Oprah's Book Club 2.0



This masterful debut novel was so astonishing that Oprah had to share it with the world. Watch to find out what Oprah loved so much about Ayana Mathis' The Twelve Tribes of Hattie.

Booklyn Sale

From Light to Dark and Back by Madeleine Fuchs Holzer, Ed.D

These lessons focus on poems about light and darkness:

There's a certain Slant of light (258) by Emily Dickinson 
Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
The Coming of Light by Mark Strand

Growing the Hell Up: From Middle Earth to NJ

The MacArthur “Genius” on his forthcoming sci-fi epic, Monstro, and the evolution of his wily main character, Yunior.


529-5185-junot-diaz.jpg

Award Winning Humorist and Lifelong Runner

by Bob Schwartz

 

"Why we carbo load, fartlek train, hit the wall... and love every minute of it".

Bob Schwartz delves into the world of training, racing, the mindset of the distance runner, the multiple skills of runner's, motivation and recovery, the marathoner, injuries, aging gracefully, competition and effort. This book is hilarious! Whether you are a novice runner or a professional marathoner, this book is for you. Schwartz nails the ins and outs of running and how being a runner is more of a lifestyle then a sport. Unless you are a runner, you would think that his encounters and rational are exaggerated, but being a runner myself, I felt comfort in knowing that I am not alone. As an added bonus, B.K. Taylor's illustrations appear in the beginning of each chapter. Although not your ordinary book on running, this book is a serious look at the total running experience in an honest and comical way. Most running books are stuffy and clinical and humorless, but not this one. Schwartz is able to capture the pitfalls of running, that we do not always hear enough about. He's earnest and funny all at the same time.

Highlights include:
  • The intricate art of drinking on the run from paper cups
  • Trying to reacquaint fingers to toes after years of tight hamstrings
  • Hitting the wall
  • Having your heart flutter with the newest cushioned training shoe
  • Discovering cross-training contraptions designed to strengthen your gluteus maximus
  • Getting excited about the latest flavor of energy gel on the market
If you love this book, you should also check out the sequel I Run Therefore I Am- Still Nuts!
  • Suffering from RWIA, otherwise known as running watch information addiction
  • The addictive nature of high-intensity interval training
  • The depths of despair upon learning your favorite shoes will be discontinued
  • Embracing the saving grace of age-graded race time calculators
  • Attempting to run with a reluctant canine companion
  • Trying out running in the oxymoron of barefoot shoes
Visit Bob at www.facebook.com/runninglaughs, www.runninglaughsblog.com, & @runninglaughs.
Available at bookstores everywhere. Human Kinetics Publisher

Click here to preview of some of the hysterical chapter illustrations from the book. BK can be reached at bktaylorstudio@comcast.net.