POETRY WORKSHOPS - CHICAGO

POETRY WORKSHOP Forms and Features: Ode Saturday, November 14 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Please email library@poetryfoundation.org to register in advance. All experience levels are welcome to a discussion and creative workshop moderated by library staff. In November, Forms and Features focuses on the ode, a lyric poem that addresses, and often praises, a person, place, thing, or idea. Space is limited to 15 participants.   POETRY WORKSHOP Forms and Features: Line Saturday, December 12 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Please email library@poetryfoundation.org​ to register in advance. All experience levels are welcome to a discussion and creative workshop moderated by library staff. In December, Forms and Features focuses on the line, an organizing feature that shapes a poem’s sound and meaning. Space is limited to 15 participants.

AWARD DEADLINE

Walt Whitman Award Deadline: November 1   There’s just a couple of days left to submit your manuscript to the Walt Whitman Award, the country’s most valuable first-book prize in poetry. The winner receives $5,000; book publication by the award-winning Graywolf Press; and an all-expenses-paid, six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy. The winning title is also distributed to thousands of Academy members. Carolyn Forché will judge. Learn more about the Walt Whitman Award.

POEMS for HALLOWEEN

Spirits, Verses, Nevermore!   As October winds down to a close, get your tricks and treats ready for Halloween with these poems featuring ghosts, bats, vampires, and a raven who forever speaks one unforgettable word. “Because I could not stop for Death (479)” by Emily Dickinson “Ghosts and Fashion” by Elaine Equi “Ghost in the Land of Skeletons” by Christopher Kennedy “Hallow-E’en, 1914” by Winifred M. Letts “Ghosts That Need Reminding” by Dana Levin “Haunted Houses” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “Restless Ghost” by Eric Pankey “Spirit Birds” by Stanley Plumly “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe “Bats” by Paisley Rekdal “Theme in Yellow” by Carl Sandburg “The Vampyre" by John Stagg

a POEM for your THOUGHTS

Welcome to American Life in Poetry. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visitwww.americanlifeinpoetry.org.

******************************

American Life in Poetry: Column 532

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

 

How’s this poem for its ability to collapse all the years from childhood to middle age in a matter of fifteen short lines? George Bilgere is one of this column’s favorite poets. He lives and teaches in Ohio. The Wading Pool  The toddlers in their tadpole bodies, with their squirt guns and snorkels, their beautiful mommies and inflatable whales, are still too young to understand that this is as good as it gets. Soon they must leave the wading pool and stand all day at the concession stand with their hormones and snow cones, their soul patches and tribal tattoos, pretending not to notice how beautiful they are, until they simply can’t stand it and before you know it they’re lined up on lawn chairs, dozing in the noonday sun with their stretch marks and beer bellies, their Wall Street Journals and SPF 50.

poetry EVENT - Washington. DC

THE LIFE OF A POET: ALICE FULTON

Wednesday, November 4, 7:00 PM
THE LIFE OF A POET: ALICE FULTON

Bobbitt Prize winner, Alice Fulton will discuss her work with Ron Charles, editor of The Washington Post's Book World. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. Co-sponsored by the Hill Center and the Washington Post.

Location: Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital (921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE)
Contact: (202) 707-5394

Click here for more information.

---

This service is provided by the Library of Congress at www.LOC.gov

POETRY event - CHICAGO

READING Jacqueline Woodson:Brown Girl Dreaming Sunday, November 1, 2:00 PM First United Methodist Church 77 West Washington Street

Tickets available for free atchicagohumanitiesfestival.org.

Jacqueline Woodson takes to the stage for a conversation about her life and influences. Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), Woodson’s memoir in verse, has won both a National Book Award for Young People and the Newbery Honor. In 2015, Woodson was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation.

READING Poetry off the Shelf: Ciaran Carson Monday, November 2, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission

Poet, musician, scholar, prosewriter, and translator, Ciaran Carson was appointed poetry chair at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in 2003. Wake Forest University Press has published 15 of his volumes, including First Language(1994), which won the first-ever TS Eliot Prize, Breaking News (2003), which won the prestigious Forward Prize, and From Elsewhere (2015).

CELEBRATION POETRY Fall PARTY Wednesday, November 4 6:30 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission

Join us for Poetry magazine's seasonal party! Celebrate the September, October, and November 2015 issues ofPoetry magazine with contributors, editors, and the poetry curious. Festivities include readings, performances, music, and libations. Featuring readings from Poetry contributorsJohn Beer and Ed Roberson and contributor and 2015 Lilly/Rosenberg Fellow Jamila Woods, with music by avery r young and de deacon board.

CONVERSATION Library Book Club: Patricia Smith Tuesday, November 10 12:30 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission

All experience levels are welcome to a monthly book group moderated by library staff. In November, the book club discusses Patricia Smith’s Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah. Patricia Smith will attend. Space is limited to 15 participants. Please reserve your spot by emailing library@poetryfoundation.org.

READING Poetry off the Shelf: Patricia Smith and Reginald Dwayne Betts Tuesday, November 10, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission

Patricia Smith is the author of six books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler (2008), a chronicle of the human and environmental cost of Hurricane Katrina which was nominated for a National Book Award and Teahouse of the Almighty, a 2005 National Poetry Series selection. Reginald Dwayne Betts is author of the poetry collections Shahid Reads His Own Palm (2010), and Bastards of the Reagan Era (2015).

PERFORMANCE & DISCUSSION An Adventure Was Home: Gertrude Stein in Chicago Wednesday, November 11, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission

An evening of readings and discussion inspired by Gertrude Stein’s November 1934 visit to Chicago, when she read at the Renaissance Society and the Arts Club of Chicago. Featuring Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Liesl Olson, Lyn Hejinian and Patrick Durgin. 

READING The Open Door Readings: November Tuesday, November 17, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission

The Open Door series presents work from Chicago’s new and emerging poets and highlights the area’s outstanding writing programs. November's Open Door Reading presents University of Illinois at Chicago’s Roger Reeves and his student Cristina Correa with Illinois State University’s Francesco Levato and his student Benjamin Busch.

PRESENTATION Presenting the Fuller Award to Haki Madhubuti Wednesday, November 18 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation 61 West Superior Street Free admission A reception follows the program

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, in co-sponsorship with the Poetry Foundation, will present Haki Madhubuti with its Fuller Award, recognizing Dr. Madhubuti’s outstanding lifetime contributions to literature. Richard Steele will emcee an evening filled with tributes, performances and reflections from Angela Jackson, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Nora Brooks Blakely, Useni Eugene Perkins, Regina Taylor, Runako Jahi, Kelly Norman Ellis, Safisha Madhubuti, and more.

poetry CONTESTS - NYC

HOME | PSA | EVENTS | POETRY | AWARDS | STORE

AWARDS SEASON Annual Awards and Chapbook Fellowships Accepting Submissions until December 22nd Annual Awards judges include: Cyrus Cassells, Eduardo Corral, Elaine Equi, Yona Harvey, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Laura Kasischke, Jennifer Moxley, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Carmen Giménez Smith, & others Chapbook judges: Rigoberto González, Linda Gregerson,Major Jackson, and Marilyn Nelson  Each year from October to December the Poetry Society offers contests for poets at all stages of their careers, from a prize for high school students, to our Chapbook Fellowships for poets who have not yet published a full-length collection, to our first book contest, and our award for a poet over forty who has published no more than one book.  We're thrilled to announce we're currently accepting submissions, which are free to members. Begin your submission today. Good luck!  Not a Member of the Poetry Society of America?

read this POEM OUT LOUD

Swallows Leonora Speyer

They dip their wings in the sunset, They dash against the air As if to break themselves upon its stillness: In every movement, too swift to count, Is a revelry of indecision, A furtive delight in trees they do not desire And in grasses that shall not know their weight. They hover and lean toward the meadow With little edged cries; And then, As if frightened at the earth’s nearness, They seek the high austerity of evening sky And swirl into its depth.

poetic BIRTHDAYS for OCTOBER

10/21/1772  Samuel Taylor Coleridge-was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher. It was his poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," a poem which I read in the 5th grade, that fostered my love for poetry. Coleridge was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England.

10/27/1932 -  Sylvia Plath - was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. In 1982 she won a posthumous PULITZER PRIZE for "The Collected Poems." Plath published her first poem at the age of eight.

10/27/1914 -  Dylan Thomas - was a Welsh poet and writer, A lot of his poetry appeared in print when he was a teenager. Dylan caught the attention of the literary world in 1934 with the publication of his poem "Light breaks where no sun shines."



10/30/1885 - Ezra Pound was an American poet and critic whose contribution to poetry began with his development of IMAGISM, a poetic movement which stressed clarity, precision and economy of language.

To read more biographical info and samplings of poetry GOOGLE their names

poetry EVENT - NYC

HOME | PSA | EVENTS | POETRY | AWARDS | STORE

UPCOMING EVENTS Monday, Nov 2, 6:00pmNew York, NY Poems for All! A Celebration of Knopf/Everyman's Library Pocket Poets featuring Eavan Boland, Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Vijay Seshadri, and Maria Tucci. Actors and poets gather to read favorite poems from the more than one hundred volumes on this extraordinary list of books, anchored in the 20th century and roundly flourishing in the 21st: Animal Poems, Poems of the Sea, Cat Poems, Dog Poems, Zen Poems, War Poems, Garden Poems, and more. Admission is free. Reserve your seat HERE. (For assistance with online reservations, please visit the welcome desk at the Library for the Performing Arts' Lincoln Center Plaza entrance, where volunteers will make a reservation for you, even if you do not use email. All registered seats are released 15 minutes before start time, so we recommend that you arrive early.) New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center Bruno Walter Auditorium 111 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY    Tuesday, Nov 10, 7:00pmNew York, NY  THE POETRY SOCIETY READINGS AT MCNALLY JACKSON with Richie Hofmann & Rickey Laurentiis Richie Hofmann is the author of the collection, Second Empire (Alice James Books, 2015), winner of the Beatrice Hawley Award.  He is the recipient of a 2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, and his poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares,The New Republic, Kenyon Review, and Poetry. Rickey Laurentiis is the author of Boy with Thorn, selected by Terrance Hayes for the 2014 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, forthcoming from University of Pittsburgh Press in Fall 2015. He is the recipient of a 2013 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2012 Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Born and raised in New Orleans, he currently resides in Brooklyn. Admission is free. McNally Jackson Books 52 Prince Street New York, NY  10012  Sunday, Nov 15, 3:00pmNew York, NY Owen Sheers with Nick Laird Owen Sheers will read from his play Pink Mist and Nick Laird will read new poems. A conversation and Q&A with the audience will follow. Owen Sheers is an author, poet and playwright. He has published two poetry collections, The Blue Book and Skirrid Hill, which won a Somerset Maugham Award. His verse drama Pink Mist, commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and published by Faber in June 2013, won the Hay Festival Poetry Medal and the Wales Book of the Year 2014. Nick Laird is a poet and novelist from Northern Ireland. His most recent poetry collection, Go Giants, was published by W. W. Norton in 2013. He is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York. Wine and cheese reception to follow. Sponsored by Faber UK. Thirteenth Street Repertory Theatre 50 West 13th Street New York, NY 10011  Monday, Nov 16, 6:30pm Queens, NY LITERARY LEGACIES: Robin Coste Lewis and Sharon Olds Literary Legacies explores issues of influence among noteworthy contemporary poets. This latest installment of the series pairs former teacher and student, Robin Coste Lewis and Sharon Olds, to read from their work and have a conversation with Alice Quinn. Robin Coste Lewis is the author of Voyage of the Sable Venus (Knopf, 2015) a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry. She is a Provost's Fellow at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles. Sharon Olds is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including most recently Stag's Leap(Alfred A. Knopf, 2012), recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. She held the position of New York state poet laureate from 1998 to 2000 and currently teaches poetry workshops at New York University's Graduate Creative Writing Program as well as a workshop at Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York Co-sponsored by Queens College MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation. Admission is free. Queens College Godwin Ternbach Museum Klapper Hall  Thursday, Nov 19, 7:00pm New York, NY THE NEW SALON AT FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: READINGS AND CONVERSATIONS Nick Flynn & Gregory Pardlo, with Alice Quinn Nick Flynn has received fellowships and awards from, among other organizations, The Guggenheim Foundation, PEN, and The Library of Congress. He is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston, where he is in residence each spring. In 2015 he published his ninth book, My Feelings (Graywolf), a collection of poems. Gregory Pardlo's collection Digest (Four Way Books) won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.Digest was also shortlisted for the 2015 NAACP Image Award and is a current finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His other honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. His first collection Totem was selected by Brenda Hillman for the APR/Honickman Prize in 2007. Pardlo lives with his family in Brooklyn. Admission is free. Co-sponsored by Poets Out Loud, Fordham University's poetry series.  Lincoln Center Campus 113 West 60th Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10023