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Title: Dennis Lee reads at Vancouver Island University
Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Description: Dennis Lee, the 2012 Gustafson Distinguished Poet Chair, will read selections of his work during a free public lecture at Vancouver Island University’s Malaspina Campus in Nanaimo on October 18. Entitled “Re-greening the Undermusic,” Lee’s lecture will explore the changes in his adult poetry over the last five decades.
Date: October 18, 2012
Title: Poetry Africa
Location: Durban, South Africa
Description: The popularity of the spoken word is evident in the powerful performance arc that threads through the 16th edition of Poetry Africa. Music is also a prominent presence in this landmark festival organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal) and made possible through principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund. Poetry Africa runs in Durban from 15 to 19 October at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, with the festival finale at BAT Centre on 20 October. Satellite events take place in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Cape Town before culminating at the main event in Durban.
Learn more here.
Start Date: October 15, 2012
End Date: October 20, 2012
copyright ©2004 by Verse Press
Just pretend my writing is like somebody else’s
What things are important to you?
I am deeply concerned about your opinion of me.
To you I want to appear pleasant
& then invisible.
I want to be an interesting story
none of you really remembers.
Just a kind of nervous thing you have, really.
& then nothing.
Nothing.
Almost an eternity of nothing.
& then a terrible cataclysm.
Notes on the Poem
When a poem addresses the reader using simple terms and a seemingly colloquial tone, do you more quickly warm to it than if the poem uses complex or obscure terms and phrases and a more formal voice? Is that the effect Matthew Rohrer achieves in "Second Poem For Theodore" ... or does something else happen? "Just pretend my writing is like somebody else’s" From the first line, the voice behind this poem sounds casual and self-effacing, although it's too early to tell if that modesty is charming or intended otherwise. Then the contradictions start. If the narrator is urging the reader to not identify the writing (and is it the writing in this poem, or in some other piece?), why does the narrator then insist: "I am deeply concerned about your opinion of me." The contradictions continue. "I want to be an interesting story none of you really remembers." Does the narrator have a fragile psyche, such that he does or doesn't want readers (since he says "none of you") to care specifically about him or his writing, or he does or doesn't want readers to remember him, or only as a story, not a person? Is he capricious and temperamental, or is he downright not to be trusted? From a "nervous thing," he dials it down to "nothing ... nothing ... an eternity of nothing", and then, explosively, wants to foist a terrible cataclysm on everyone? Isn't it amazing how a few simple lines can conjure an intriguing, albeit unsettling being?
Title: Pushcart Prize nomination deadline
Location: United States
Description: Little magazine and small book press editors (print or online) may make up to six nominations from their year’s publications by the Pushcart Prize December 1, (postmark) deadline. The nominations may be any combination of poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot.
Date: December 1, 2012
Title: Far Horizons Award For Poetry submission deadline
Description: The Malahat Review, Canada’s premier literary magazine, invites emerging poets from Canada, the United States, and elsewhere to enter the Far Horizons Award for Poetry. Eligible poets have yet to publish their poetry in book form (a book of poetry is defined to have a length of 48 pages or more). One prize of $1000 (CAD) is awarded. Poets contributing to The Malahat Review have won or been nominated for National Magazine Awards for Poetry and the Pushcart Prize.
Learn more here.
Date: May 1, 2014
Title: Bath Literature Festival
Location: Bath, Somerset, England
Description: The Bath Literature Festival is at the centre of local, national and international debate featuring some of the most intelligent, creative, and cutting edge thinkers alive today.
In its seventeen year history the Literature Festival has hosted Nobel and Booker Prize winners such as Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Hilary Mantel and Howard Jacobson; leading political thinkers from Tony Benn and Tariq Ali to Anna Politkovskaya and Eric Hobsbawm, poets ranging from poets laureate Andrew Motion and Carol Ann Duffy to Wendy Cope and Simon Armitage, and humorists from Garrison Keillor and Terry Pratchett to Steve Bell.
Learn more here.
Start Date: March 1, 2013
End Date: March 10, 2013
Title: John Ashbery attends as Kelly Writers House Fellow for Writers Teaching Writers
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Description: The Kelly Writers House Fellows program makes it possible for the youngest writers and writer-critics to have sustained contact with authors of great accomplishment in an informal atmosphere.
John Ashbery is the February 2013 Kelly Writers House Fellow. He will give a reading on Monday at 6:30 PM. On Tuesday at 10 AM the Writers House will host a brunch followed by a one-hour interview/conversation.
Learn more here.
Start Date: February 11, 2013
End Date: February 12, 2013
Title: Scottish Poetry Library presents Nothing But the Poem Redux
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Description: Our reading group where we read and explore poems by a well-known poet – no previous knowledge or experience necessary! And this year we’ve added a twist: at each meeting, we’ll also introduce you to an ‘if you liked this, you might like’ poet whose poems might tickle your fancy. This session is devoted to Kay Ryan.
Learn more here.
Date: December 15, 2012
Title: Book Week Scotland 2012
Location: Scotland
Description: Scottish Book Trust will be running the first Book Week Scotland, a national celebration of books and reading, from 26th November to 2nd December 2012.
During Book Week Scotland they will be working with a wide range of partner organisations, including libraries, schools, museums and workplaces, to deliver a packed programme of free projects and events, bringing Scots of all ages and from all walks of life together to celebrate the pleasures of books and reading.
Learn more here.
Start Date: November 26, 2012
End Date: December 2, 2012
Title: Scottish Poetry Library presents Gifted: The Edinburgh Book Sculptures on Tour 2012
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Description: Of late, no other subject has attracted quite so much interest at the Scottish Poetry Library as that of the mysterious paper sculptures. We will host an exhibition of all 10 sculptures as they reach the end of their Scotland-wide tour, in time for Book Week Scotland. In partnership with Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust.
Learn more here.
Start Date: November 24, 2012
End Date: December 8, 2012