Alaska Quarterly Review Benefit Reading Series: Melinda Moustakis, Hananah Zaheer & Arna Bontemps Hemenway

Help Alaska Quarterly Review (AQR) reach new literary milestones. Please mark your calendars for Pièces de Résistance, an extraordinary benefit series celebrating AQR’s 40th anniversary. Join the publication for 21 free, live online readings and conversations, featuring 58 exceptional new, emerging, and established poets and writers who have appeared in AQR. Pièces de Résistance runs from October 4, 2020 to May 2, 2021 hosted by the Anchorage Museum and moderated by author Heather Lende and AQR Co-Founder and Editor Ronald Spatz.

While all of the Pièces de Résistance events are free, consider making a tax-exempt donation to support AQR through our 501c3 affiliate, the Center for the Narrative & Lyric Arts.

This event features readings by Melinda Moustakis, Hananah Zaheer and Arna Bontemps Hemenway.

Learn more here.

from No Sky

Sarah Riggs, translated from the French written by Etel Adnan

copyright ©2019 by Etel Adnan English translation © 2019 by Sarah Riggs



Truths are
department stores:
you are going up,
you take the escalator,
you don’t come back

In the tentative
darkness of the
raisins there was
half of the
        sun
then the shadow
of the past

Sometimes I get ready for the
  voyage of no return,
but dawn raises the curtains,
  and my adolescence
  is standing at the corner
      of nowhere

Under the wonder of
cold skies

Notes on the Poem

What an intoxicating experience, when a poem introduces you to an image, in just a few words captures your attention and fascination ... and then takes you in unexpected directions from what you thought the image might mean. This crisp excerpt from 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize winning collection Time, by Sarah Riggs, translated from poetry originally written in French by Etel Adnan, is endlessly surprising. "Truths are department stores" is a statement that instantly intrigues. A truth is considered an absolute, a single entity. How, then, does that equate to an entity that houses many sections and varieties of items? Or does that single truth house many dimensions? Navigating that single place with many places within it ... well, an escalator is the perfect conveyance, isn't it? Not only is an escalator a piece of everyday magic - that we take for granted while it miraculously transports between building floors, airport terminals, from subway to street and more ... "you are going up, you take the escalator" but it creates illusions that both charm and can cause harm. "you don't come back" With your usual comings and goings, you go and you do come back. What does it mean, then, when a mundane or innocent thought or activity necessitates being ready for a possible "voyage of no return"? Should we always be prepared for the epic and irreversible? This particular escalator - enchantingly but also rather deceptively - is taking you up but never returning you, to the departments through which you have passed, to your adolescence, to your past.

Virtual Summer Teachers Institute 2021 — Poetry in an Antiracist Classroom proposal submission deadline

The Poetry Foundation seeks to place essential poems before the largest possible audience, serve all poetry communities, and is committed to antiracist practices and policies. In July 2021, the Poetry Foundation will run a virtual institute for over 200 teachers, ranging from Kindergarten to the Community College level, who will learn new ways to teach poetry to their students. The institute is free to attend. This will be the 6th annual institute expanded to a broad, virtual educator audience.

The theme for the 2021 Institute is “Poetry in an Antiracist Classroom,” and the Foundation seeks presentation proposals from experienced educators, teaching artists, and visiting poets to present on aspects of teaching that give other teachers practical ideas on how to combine poetry teaching with antiracist practices.

Learn more here.

Spontaneous Poetry Writing Webinar

Spontaneous poetry writing is the act of connecting with someone — whether that’s a stranger, a loved one, a friend, or a client — to write a poem that captures a feeling, moment, image or essence of the conversation. The craft of spontaneous poetry writing encourages meaningful dialogue and exploratory conversations, and can prompt moving poetry that mirrors the experience using some of the speaker’s own words.

Join Kate Marshall Flaherty and poets from across Canada in learning about the craft of spontaneous poetry writing, and practice in real-time with fellow writers. This webinar is FREE for members of the League of Canadian Poets and The Writers’ Union of Canada.

Learn more here.

ReLit Awards submission deadline

On the twentieth anniversary of the inception of the ReLit Awards, founder Kenneth J. Harvey, passes the torch along to his daughter, Katherine Alexandra Harvey.

ReLit’s mandate is to reignite passion in literature. The awards – for poetry, novels and short fiction – aim to provide writers with the platform and acknowledgement to continue their literary pursuits. ReLit is also growing to include a literary journal and mentorship opportunities for aspiring teenage writers.

ReLit’s focus will remain on writer’s at the beginning of their careers and independent presses.

Learn more here.

Talonbooks Poetry Launch

Cecily Nicholson will introduce the following wonderful Talon authors: Fred Wah reading from Music at the Heart of Thinking; Colin Browne reading from Here; Junie Desil reading from eat salt | gaze at the ocean; Taryn Hubbard reading from Desire Path.

Learn more here.

LAUNCH: Cross-Pollinations: Canadian Health Humanities Virtual Rounds

The Canadian Association of Health Humanities and the League of Canadian Poets are partnering to deliver a series of monthly rounds focused on health, arts and humanities. These live sessions will feature both artists and professionals in the Health Humanities field for a multi-faceted conversation about topics related to healthcare, art, healing, and humanities.

This is a poetry-packed launch event, featuring the talented poets Ronna Bloom, Charlie C Petch, Ron Charach and Rajinderpal S Pal.

Learn more here.