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September 4, 2012

Reading and Writing through Alice Notley’s Grave of Light: a poetry workshop

Title: Reading and Writing through Alice Notley’s Grave of Light: a poetry workshop

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada / online
Description: In this workshop (which runs every Sunday from September 9th to December 9th, except October 7th), participants in person and online will study the work of Alice Notley, engaging her book Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005. This book of poetry will generate conversation and strategies for the writing participants enact.

Learn more here.

Date: December 2, 2012

September 4, 2012

Reading and Writing through Alice Notley’s Grave of Light: a poetry workshop

Title: Reading and Writing through Alice Notley’s Grave of Light: a poetry workshop

Learn more here.

Date: December 9, 2012

September 4, 2012September 4, 2012

Reading and Writing through Alice Notley’s Grave of Light: a poetry workshop

Title: Reading and Writing through Alice Notley’s Grave of Light: a poetry workshop

Learn more here.
Date: September 9, 2012

September 4, 2012

Preston Guild Poem winner announced

Title: Preston Guild Poem winner announced

Location: Preston, UK
Description: Prestonian Michael Symmons Roberts, professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, will read a Guild poem and present awards at Preston’s County Hall.

Learn more here.

Date: September 6, 2012

September 2, 2012September 27, 2019

Man’s Song / Woman’s Song

Khaled Mattawa, translated from the Arabic written by Adonis

Man’s Song

Sideways,
I glimpsed your face drawn on the trunk of a palm
and saw the sun, black in your hands.
I tied my longing to that tree and carried night in a basket
carried the whole city
and scattered myself before your eyes.
Then I saw your face hungry like a child’s.
I circled it with invocations
and above it I sprinked jasmine buds.

Woman’s Song

Sideways,
I caught sight of his old man’s face
robbed by days and sorrows.
he came to me holding his green jars to his chest
rushing to the last supper.
Each jar was a bay
and a wedding held for a harbor and a boat
where days and shores drown
where seagulls probe their past and sailors divine the future.
He came to me hungry and I stretched my love toward him,
a loaf of bread, a glass cup, and a bed.
I opened the doors to wind and sun
and shared with him the last supper.

Notes on the Poem
According to the Griffin Poetry Prize rules, translated works submitted for the prize "are assessed for their quality as poetry in English; the focus is on the achievement of the translator." Translator Khaled Mattawa has forged some intriguing poems that spring as unique entities from the source of Adonis' works in Arabic. Even if you do not know Arabic to make the comparison, it's clear that unto themselves, Mattawa's translated poems can captivate all on their own. This is illustrated well in the juxtaposition of two poems that might or might not be describing the same encounter from two different perspectives.

Adonis is noted for a range of work that in style and subject matter swoops from the mystical and metaphysical to the intimate and meditative. In twinned poems told from a man's and a woman's point of view, Mattawa seems to have captured everything from the earthly to the universal in subtly suggested themes, arrived at through echoes and contrasts.

Both poems start with the word "Sideways". Does that negate or skew both narrators' observations, since everything that follows is not faced head on? Alternatively, do the man and the woman just see each other from different angles that reveal things they or we might not see straight on?

The man "scattered myself before your eyes", one phrase which illustrates his figurative method of describing his encounter with the woman. By contrast, the woman waits to be approached - "he came to me" - and she focuses somewhat more than the man on the concrete, from the green jars he is carrying to the things they share later. That said, she strays into metaphor to describe those objects.

The man uses the first ("I glimpsed") and second ("your face") person in his song. The woman uses first ("I caught sight") and third ("he came to me") person in her song, creating a seeming distance between herself and the man.

Those contrasts and differences aside, they both see and notice unspecified tolls taken in each other's faces. Echoed words and phrases such as "hungry", "he came to me" and "the last supper" culminate in sharing and coming together. As a translator and a poet, Mattawa crafts this pair of poems to converge in a most satisfying fashion.

August 28, 2012

Swindon Festival of Poetry

Title: Swindon Festival of Poetry

Location: Swindon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Description: Events offered by the first Swindon Festival of Poetry include: Poetry ‘On The Buses’ with glamorous Clippie Mabel Watson and knowledgeable Tour Guide Barry Dicks. The Domestic Cherry team will show you just what Swindon is about from the comfort of a restored Tiger Cub vintage bus. Mystery guests, fun, poetry and a typical Swindon packed lunch included. Leaving from Bay 1, Swindon Bus Station, correct change only, no pets.

Learn more here.

Start Date: October 4, 2012
End Date: October 9, 2012

August 28, 2012

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival

Title: Ubud Writers & Readers Festival

Location: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
Description: The 9th Ubud Writers & Readers Festival program is here bringing Indonesian and international writers, readers, thinkers and artists together in the unique setting of Ubud to engage in conversations and exchange ideas.

Learn more here.

Start Date: October 3, 2012
End Date: October 7, 2012

August 28, 2012

Thomas Morton Memorial Prize in Literary Excellence submission deadline

Title: Thomas Morton Memorial Prize in Literary Excellence submission deadline

Location: International
Description: The Inaugural Thomas Morton Memorial Prize in Literary Excellence recognizes the single best piece of short fiction and poem submitted to The Puritan. Submissions will be read and judged by the editors of The Puritan in a double-blind judging process. Fiction submissions are capped at 12,000 words, and submissions of poetry must be no longer than 3 pages in length.

Learn more here.

Date: September 30, 2012

August 28, 2012

Bristol Poetry Festival

Title: Bristol Poetry Festival

Location: Bristol, UK
Description: Bristol Poetry Festival brings together the most entertaining, inspirational and award-winning poets and performers from Bristol, the South West, the UK and the World in an annual celebration of language, imagination and life.

Learn more here.

Start Date: September 24, 2012
End Date: September 30, 2012

August 28, 2012

Fredericton Poetry Weekend

Title: Fredericton Poetry Weekend

Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
Description: Poetry Weekend is an annual gathering of poets in Fredericton, New Brunswick, usually on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Readings take place in Memorial Hall at 11am, 2pm, and 8pm Saturday and Sunday.

Learn more here.

Start Date: September 29, 2012
End Date: September 30, 2012