Tuesday, December 31, 2019

2019 in publications

A quick list of the places that included something of my work in 2019:

Futures Trading
Columbia Journal
The Curly Mind
Cleaver Magazine
Poetic Diversity
Scarlet Leaf Review
Humble Pie
Blue Unicorn
Caveat Lector
Angry Old Man
Bindweed
Shot Glass Journal
Origami Poems
riverbabble
EgoPHobia
Otoliths
Literary Yard
Failed Haiku
sPARKLE + bLINK
Bay Areas Generations program
The Furious Gazelle
The Berkeley Times
The Free Library of the Internet Void
Packingtown Review
The Big Windows Review
BlazeVOX
Rusty Truck
The Pangolin Review
MARY: a journal of new writing

a Viable chapbook from Zoetic Press

Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue: tributes to Julia Vinograd 
an anthology published by Zeitgeist Press

and finally, but most majorly, the big book:
Thousand, a ten-volume prose poem epic, from Mel C Thompson Publishing


If you go back through the blog year you will find links to the zines and the poems. 

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue: tributes to Julia Vinograd, contains “Old Blues” by Glenn Ingersoll

A release party for Julia Vinograd’s first posthumous collection, A Symphony for Broken Instruments, and an anthology celebrating her life and work, Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue, happened on 2pm, October 20th at Himalayan Flavors, 1585 University Ave. in Berkeley, California.

Zeigeist Press publisher Bruce Isaacson is responsible for putting together A Symphony for Broken Instruments, a selected works with a section of previously unpublished poems. The book is 384 pages total, including art by Deborah Vinograd and Chris Trian. At the same event, editor Deborah Fruchey presented Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue, full of tributes (poetry & prose) to, for, and about Julia Vinograd by a slew of friends and local writers.

The above is an edited version of what appears on the Zeitgeist Press website. 

My poem, “Old Blues,” appears in Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue, p. 54 - 55. “Old Blues” uses one of Julia’s recurring characters, although he isn’t actually in the poem, rather other characters (Very Thick Blacks, Vicious Violet, etc.) wonder where he’s gotten off to. 

I wanted to write something for Julia, and I thought it would be nice if it was included in the announced anthology. I considered reviewing my history with Julia, such as it was, meeting her first at a reading she gave at a Berkeley Senior Center the week I moved to Berkeley, buying each of her new books as it came out, selling her a chapbook which she praised. But that stuff wasn’t resolving into a poem. So I pulled out my personal anthology and reread poems of hers I had copied out. What did I like about her poems? One thing I liked was the way Julia Vinograd wrote about music, her wild metaphors creating a separate musical world instead of using music-related terms and concentrating on the instrument. It was a sort of grounded surrealism, grounded in that she was digging into the music to bring out feelings and images, rather than spinning words purely out of headspace. Maybe I could try something similar? I love using wild metaphors in my own poems. 

Here’s a stanza from “Old Blues”:

Old Blues is on the bus! announces Vicious Violet. 
She slaps a bus schedule on the table like a trump card. 
He’s playing for the missing,
that horn of his calling out all the stops, 
horning in on the dreams
travelers are trying to settle down in, 
vibrating their thighs,
unzipping their duffel bags to air out
the musky little tales they keep in a curl.

*

Both books, Symphony for Broken Instruments and Our Lady of Telegraph Avenue: tributes to Julia Vinograd, are published by Zeitgeist Press and are available from their website. 


Thursday, November 14, 2019

six poems at BlazeVOX

“Five Letters”
“The Stranger”
“Vents”
“Petrel”
“Worn Out West”
“The Gold Man’s Mine”
are in BlazeVOX #19



Sunday, September 29, 2019

renga in Berkeley Times, August 15, 2019

The Berkeley Times publishes an annual poetry issue. This year’s issue (August 15, 2019, vol. 9, no. 19) includes excerpts from the renga Alan Bern, Rebecca Radner, and I composed last fall/winter. 



Thursday, September 05, 2019

Backyards: Poets for Local Change, Sept 28, Alameda

This will be the second stop on my September “Islands” tour. First Angel, then Alameda. 

Backyards: Poets for Local Change
Hosted by Sharon Coleman and Jeanne Lupton

Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 7 PM – 9 PM

Free

Frank Bette Center for the Arts
1601 Paru St, Alameda
California 94501

Come join us for a poetry reading by eight incredible poets who are also dedicated to creating change locally and beyond. This is part of the ongoing 100 000 Poets for Change, a global poetry reading on the last Saturday of September. 

We are also honoring Jeanne Lupton, who has spent years running the reading series at Frank Bette.  She is retiring and this is her final reading. 

Rohan DaCosta
Alison Hart
Glenn Ingersoll
Tobey Kaplan
Aqueila M. Lewis-Ross
Dena Rod
Kimi Sugioka
Maurisa Thompson

Rohan DaCosta is a multi-disciplinary artist from the city of Chicago, working primarily through photography, writing, and song. Rohan explores complex dilemmas, and frequencies found in lovers, in families, in ecosystems, and in places. His book of photography, poetry, and song, The Edge of Fruitvale, was published by Nomadic Press on April 28, 2018, and has been nominated for a California Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a CLMP Firecracker Award.  His photography has been featured at The Flight Deck Gallery as a solo exhibition titled Ordinary People (2018). His photography has also been featured at Root Division Gallery as part of a group exhibition titled Let Me Be a Witness (2018). In 2018, he was awarded the Individual Artist Funding Grant by the City of Oakland for his arts exhibition, Trap : Trauma : Transformation (April 9 – May 18).

Alison Hart’s debut novel Mostly White (Torrey House Press, 2018) was praised by the National Book Award-winning author Isabel Allende as "So compelling it gave me goosebumps…” Alison identifies as a mixed race African American, Passamaquoddy Native American, Irish, Scottish and English woman of color. She is the author of the poetry collection Temp Words (Cosmo Press, 2015), a play Mother Daughter Dance, and her poems appear in Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California, (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2016).

Glenn Ingersoll works for the Berkeley Public Library, hosting Clearly Meant, a reading & interview series, out of the Claremont Branch. His longest stint running a series was Poetry & Pizza in San Francisco, a monthly reading co-curated with Clive Matson and Katharine Harer, which lasted for seven years. Glenn Ingersoll’s multi-volume prose-poem-epic 'Thousand' (Mel C Thompson Pub) is available from Amazon; ebook at Smashwords. He keeps two blogs, LoveSettlement and Dare I Read. Recent work has appeared in Sparkle + Blink, riverbabble, Humble Pie, and as a Zoetic Press chapbook.

Tobey Kaplan, originally from New York City, with degrees from Syracuse and San Francisco State Universities, has been teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area for forty years.  An active member of California Poets in the Schools and Associated Writing Programs,  Ms. Kaplan has given readings, workshops and presentations throughout the country regarding creative process, literacy and social change. For several years, she worked with the Native TANF program/Washoe Tribe to coordinate a range of educational services and identify career building programs for the Native American community in Alameda Country.
Ms. Kaplan has received grants from the California Arts Council, 1979-1982 to serve as poet in residence at community mental health centers. Her honors include: being named Dorland Mountain Colony Fellow, honorable mention Crazyhorse poetry prize 2008 and Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, as well as being the recipient of a Bay Area Award (New Langton Arts, 1996). Among her publications are: Across the Great Divide ( Androgyne, 1995). Her poems are published in numerous literary anthologies.  

Aqueila M. Lewis-Ross is a multi-talented, award-winning Bay Area Native well-versed in singing, poetry/spoken word, and journalism. Aqueila has studied and performed throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and is a graduate of Napa Valley College and University of California, Berkeley. Her book of poetry, Stop Hurting and Dance, published by Pochino Press, is a collection of stories overcoming fear, oppression, gentrification, and police brutality; she honors what it means to live with resilience, love and prosperity.  She holds the titles of Ms. Oakland Plus America 2014, SF Raw Performing Artist of the Year 2015, and was an Oakland Voices-KALW Community Journalist awardee in 2016 and Greater Bay Area Journalism Awardee in 2017.

Dena Rod is a writer, editor, and poet based in the Bay Area. They run the RADAR Productions  weblog and are the Assistant Creative Nonfiction Editor at homology lit. They were selected for RADAR Productions’ Show Us Your Spines Residency, Kearny Street Workshop’s Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab, and Winter Tangerine’s Summer Writer’s Workshop. Through creative nonfiction essays and poetry, Dena works to illuminate their diasporic experiences of Iranian American heritage and queer identity, combating negative stereotypes of their intersecting identities in the mainstream media

Kimi Sugioka is a poet, songwriter and educator who tries to confront and illuminate the cognitive dissonance she experiences at every turn in society, politics and media. She has an MFA from The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Publications include various anthologies: Standing Strong! Fillmore & Japantown and Endangered Species, Enduring Values, and Civil Liberties United. She has published a book of poetry, The Language of Birds, and, soon to be published, Wile & Wing.

Maurisa Thompson was born and raised in San Francisco, and is a proud alum of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People.  A poet and educator, she is a graduate of UC Riverside’s MFA program and is currently teaching English at John O’Connell High School in San Francisco. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Pedestal Magazine, The Black Scholar, La Bloga, Cosmonauts Avenue, the anthologies A Feather Floating on the Water: Poems for Our Children and En Vuelo: In Celebration of el Tecolote, and The Haight-Ashbury Journal, which nominated her for a Pushcart Prize.  She has worked with arts organizations including Richmond's RAW Talent and the Gluck Fellowship program at UC Riverside.  She is currently working on her first poetry manuscript that combines history and folklore with her grandparents’ stories from Louisiana and San Francisco, and a middle-grade novel exploring police brutality, which won the support of a Walter Grant from We Need Diverse Books.


Wednesday, September 04, 2019

Quiet Lightning on Angel Island, Sept 15

I will be reading an excerpt from Autobiography of a Book at the next Quiet Lightning event, Poetry in the Parks. 

Here is what looks like pretty darn complete information as copied from Quiet Lightning’s event announcement on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/585757751951570/

Poetry in Parks 2019: 
Quiet Lightning on Angel Island
open to the public


Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 11:30 AM – 4:30 PM

- Youth readings

- A literary mixtape curated by Katie Tandy and July Westhale, with all work published in sPARKLE & bLINK 101 featuring art by Connie Zheng: 

Norma Smith » David S. Maduli » Kate Hoyle » Syche Phillips » Abigail Licad » Julia Halprin Jackson » Johnny Alvarez » Glenn Ingersoll » Linette Escobar | Maddy Raskulinecz » Donna Laemmlen » Peter Bullen » Christina Newhard » Cassandra Dallett » Eric Darby » C.E. Shue » Kevin Dublin 

- Neighborhood Heroes, with readings by Kirin Khan, Genny Lim, Kenji C. Liu, Janice Lobo Sapigao, Truong Tran, Flo Oy Wong, and others TBA, curated by Kearny Street Workshop

- Music by Cindy Z 

- Live painting by Joshua Coffy, Nathalie Fabri, Dilcia Giron, and Allison Snopek, curated by ArtSpan

:: For links and more information ::

--
About Quiet Lightning

Now in its 10th year, Quiet Lightning is a San Francisco-based literary nonprofit with the mission to foster community based on literary expression and to provide a safe and supportive arena for said expression. Its flagship is the literary mixtape, a submission-based series with a completely blind selection process and different curators for every show, for which there are no introductions or banter. The shows are published as books, handed out free to the first 100 people at each show. All participating artists are paid and the shows are free to attend.  We’ve now produced 126 shows, featuring 1,200+ readings by 900+ different authors in 80+ venues and 100+ books. Quiet Lightning also maintains Litseen.com, a daily calendar of literary events. For more on QL: http://quietlightning.org/about/.

About California State Parks

The mission of CA State Parks is to provide for the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation. For more on California State Parks: https://www.parks.ca.gov/.

About Kearny Street Workshop

Founded in 1972, during the height of the Asian American cultural movement, Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country. We offer classes and workshops, salons, and student presentations, as well as professionally curated and produced exhibitions, performances, readings, and screenings. KSW makes artists out of community members and community members out of artists. For the past 45 years, KSW has nurtured the creative spirit, offered an important platform for new voices to be heard, and connected artists with community. For more on Kearny Street Workshop: https://kearnystreet.org/.

About ArtSpan

ArtSpan believes in the power of art to enrich lives. For 20-plus years we’ve championed an inclusive art experience and provided diverse audiences with an authentic connection to local art and artists. We support emerging and established artists who contribute to San Francisco’s inimitable creative energy, while bolstering the next generation of artists and encouraging the public to engage in preserving and furthering our vibrant art community. For more on ArtSpan: http://artspan.org/

With crucial support from SOMArts Cultural Center

SOMArts leverages the power of art as a tool for social change through multi-disciplinary events and exhibitions. Equipping artists with the space, mentorship and support they need to shift perspectives and innovate solutions, SOMArts fosters access to arts and culture for collective liberation and self-determination. For more on SOMArts: http://somarts.org/.

:: Ferry information / to get to the event :: 

> There are two ferries departing for Angel Island: from San Francisco at Pier 41, starting at 9:45am ($19.5 round trip, takes about 25 min); from Tiburon, starting at 10am ($15 round trip, takes about 15 min). 

> It’s suggested you arrive at least 20 minutes early.
Tiburon accepts cash and checks only, though you can purchase the SF tickets in advance.

> Once you arrive on Angel Island, you will see signs and Quiet Lightning greeters, but to get to the event site you simply take a right when you disembark from the ferry, and walk around the cove until you get to the picnic tables. It’s about a quarter of a mile walk on a flat surface.

> Accessibility is important to us! If you have any special needs, please email evan@quietlightning.org and we will do our absolute best to accommodate you.

:: Other possibly helpful information ::

> You are welcome to bring snacks, though there is a cafe on the island and we will have draft beer available for purchase, courtesy of Lagunitas. There are water fountains with potable water at the event site.

> Seating consists of wooden picnic tables, so if you have a cushion, a folding chair, or a blanket you’d like to bring, there’s plenty of space for it. If you need a seat, please email evan@quietlightning.org no later than 48 hours before the event and we will do our absolute best to accommodate you.

> Dogs are not allowed on the island, service animals excepted. This does not include the use of emotional support animals which are not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

> More information to be added here, but if you have any questions at all please direct them to evan@quietlightning.org.


at that link we get some statistics:

* For the literary mixtape, they say they received 85 submissions and accepted 17 (20%). Of those:
  • 8 have never read at Quiet Lightning before (47%)
  • 7 are returning (53%):
    • Norma Smith (2)
    • Julia Halprin Jackson (5)
    • Johnny Alvarez (1)
    • Glenn Ingersoll (2)
    • Linette Escobar (4)
    • Donna Laemmlen (2)
    • Peter Thomas Bullen (20)
    • Cassandra Dallett (20)
    • C.E. Shue (2)

As you can see, I’ve read with QL twice before, though I have applied and not been chosen many times. I’ve enjoyed my prior QL experiences and I’m looking forward to doing it again. 


And for those writers who haven’t been in the mix, if you can ask yourself, “Do I write like Cassandra Dallett &/or Peter Bullen?” and answer, “Well, yeah, more or less,” and you aren’t applying to QL, you’re leaving money on the table, man.

Video of my reading is viewable at YouTube.

[post updated with YouTube link, 12/22/23]

Monday, August 19, 2019

Bay Area Generations reading, August 26

Alan Bern and Rebecca Radner and I will be reading a renga (a haiku conversation) as part of the Bay Area Generations series. 

Monday, August 26, 2019
7:00-9:00 pm
406 14th Ave, Oakland, CA
requested donation $10, includes a program reproducing all the performed works.

A literary salon featuring curated works of San Francisco Bay Area poets, writers and storytellers.

The full line up:
Alan Bern + Glenn Ingersoll + Rebecca Radner


The three of us read with Bay Area Generations a year ago. It was great! Hope to see you there.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Thousand, a ten-volume prose-poem-epic by Glenn Ingersoll

100 words a day for a thousand days. That’s why it’s called Thousand. No other title could compass it. 

It begins when there’s a knock on the door. Somebody you know? Or no one you will ever meet? Before you go to the door you will need a drink.

A transcendental butler, a tea party for gnomes, a comet with perfect understanding, a boy who climbs down from the sky, a tour guide for the end of the world, an ant as key to a secret box, lost languages, a barnstormer, washing dishes. 


Originally a project for Glenn Ingersoll’s LoveSettlement blog, Thousand has been realized as a ten-volume book by Mel C. Thompson Publishing. Each plain-black volume neatly contains 10,000 of the whole’s 100,000 words. 

Thousand is available from Amazon.

Series: Thousand (Book 1)
Paperback: 104 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 12, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1727326571
ISBN-13: 978-1727326574

Also available as an ebook from Smashwords


Monday, August 12, 2019

three haiku at Failed Haiku

Failed Haiku specializes in senryu, or humorous, usually human-oriented haiku.

The editor produces an issue every month — often quite full. This month’s issue (#44, August 2019), wherein three of my haiku appear, is 126 pages. 


My poems appear on p.114. Scroll on down!

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Four poems at Literary Yard


“The Story About the Exercise”
“I Buy Tulips”
“Cake”
“Interoceptor”

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Three poems at Otoliths


“How My Mother Died”
“I Didn’t Take Off My Skin This Time”
"Time"

A print version of the issue is available from Lulu.com