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

Hosted by Quiet Lightning and Kearny Street Workshop

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 ::

http://quietlightning.org/poetry-in-parks-2019/

--

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.

see also: http://quietlightning.org/?fbclid=IwAR1pHbxJrWOFW0Fpo2SOEGUND_O-fB4dOAbaTn4cEbvNniLinnkze5fv6f4

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]

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. 

Bay Area Generations Show #72

Monday, August 26, 2019

7:00-9:00 pm

at Joyce Gordon Gallery

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:

Guy Biederman + Tony Aldarondo

Lyra Halprin + Julia Jackson

Sam Delaune + Erica Peck

Alan Bern + Glenn Ingersoll + Rebecca Radner

Natasha Dennerstein + RFS 

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

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. 

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!

Four poems at Literary Yard

Four poems are up at Literary Yard:

“The Story About the Exercise”

“I Buy Tulips”

“Cake”

“Interoceptor”

Three poems at Otoliths

Three poems are included in issue 54 (August 2019) of 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. 

“Boy Meets Girl” as a Viable chapbook from Zoetic Press

Two stories have been published as part of the Viable chapbook series from Zoetic Press: “Boy Meets Girl: The Monk Story” and “Boy Meets Girl: The Bus Station Story.”

The Viable series is distributed as part of a Zoetic Press patreon subscription; however, the editors tell me one may purchase a single copy for $8 from info@zoeticpress.com, using PayPal. 

Three poems at EgoPhobia

Three poems appear at EgoPhobia, issue #58, summer 2019 :

“Meat People”

“more air on the tracks”

“slowly rowing this breath like a skate-bug upon a molasses of gravity”

EgoPhobia is a literary ezine out of Romania. They publish in English and Romanian.

eleven haiku at riverbabble

riverbabble #35, summer 2019, contains a page of my haiku: 

Eleven!

six haiku at Origami Poems

Origami Poems features pdfs you can print out at home and fold into tiny booklets. Led by Jan Keough, they’ve been at it since 2009. So they’ve got quite a library by now. 

My little book of six haiku, bus stop bench, is now available. (Follow that link to print out the pdf.)

For my author pic to go with my bio and book preview they found my old blogger portrait, with me holding Sundy. One of the haiku features a cat fussing — yes, it’s Sundy who was a-fussin’! So that’s appropriate. 

I went to the copy shop and printed out a big batch and have been handing it out free at readings and to friends and strangers who seem amenable. It’s fun to have something I can afford to give away. A quick read that gets a smile. 

“letters walking target feathers” at Shot Glass Journal

Shot Glass Journal, issue #28, May 2019, 
contains 

“letters walking target feathers”

Shot Glass, dedicated to poems of 16 lines or less, is one of three online journals by Muse-Pie Press.

The title is excerpted from a poem by H. D. Moe. 

“enveloped by hurricanes’ thinking elephant” in Bindweed’s Devil’s Guts anthology

The latest Bindweed anthology, Devil’s Guts, which includes my poem ““enveloped by hurricanes’ thinking elephant” is now available from lulu.com

four found poems at Angry Old Man

The following four found poems

appear in Issue 7 of Angry Old Man:

“My mother pinned a rose on me”

“Looking for trouble”

“Look at a flower”

“Let’s go” 

Caveat Lector features three excerpts from Autobiography of a Book

Three excerpts from Autobiography of a Book appear in the Spring 2019, v. 29 no. 2, issue of Caveat Lector.

They appear under the Essay heading, introduced by a note I wrote to give a reader a sense of what Book is up to. 

Here’s a direct link to the excerpts: link

"The man in the coffin" in Humble Pie #16, cover & poem

"Customer Service" in Blue Unicorn, Spring 2019

Reading with Babar-in-Exile at Octopus on 5/9/19

I will be reading with Babar-in-Exile this coming Thursday. Here’s the announcement from their website:

Babar in Exile celebrates its FOURTH BIRTHDAY (!!) with a romp through the minds of light-struck poets (and maybe some cake). For our 18th installment, we are excited to feature two former and very active participants of Café Babar and Poetry above Paradise series of the 1990’s who have been in the poetry trenches ever since. Blogger and poet Glenn Ingersoll currently runs the reading and interview series Clearly Meant at the Berkeley Public Library. And mental health advocate and multi-genre writer Deborah Fruchey is hard at work editing an anthology of tribute poetry to Julia Vinograd for Zeitgeist Press. As well we welcome “honorary Babarian” Yume Kim, a perspective-challenging SF poet who will feel right at home with these rad oldsters.

So come on down to check out a slice of Bay Area poetry history, now and in the making, and make your way home with a bindle full of inspiration and a thimbleful more hope for the species.

Babar in Exile #18

a revival of the Cafe Babar, Paradise Lounge, and Club Chameleon reading series
featuring

Glenn Ingersoll

Deborah Fruchey

and Yume Kim

and you, in our infamous open mic

Hosted by Richard Loranger and Paul Corman-Roberts

free of charge and oppression

Glenn Ingersoll hit the scene back in the 90s when Cafe Babar and Poetry Above Paradise were hot, and snagged features at both places. Where fame went after that is hard to say. Currently Ingersoll works for the Berkeley Public Library where he hosts Clearly Meant, a reading & interview series. He keeps two blogs, LoveSettlement and Dare I Read. He has two chapbooks, City Walks (broken boulder) and Fact (Avantacular). Recent work is in Sparkle + Blink, Mary, The Walrus, and Caveat Lector. The multi-volume prose beast, Thousand, is on its way from MCT Publishing.

Deborah Fruchey tried to write her first book at the age of 8. She went by the name Debralee Pagan for a while, but people still mispronounced it, so she gave up. Her first novel was chosen as a Best Book by the American Bookseller’s Association, and her manual on mental illness was once described as “The best book of its kind.” Her latest is a volume of flash fiction called Priestess of Secrets. All of her work is available on Amazon. Deborah has spent too much of her life in churches, psych wards, and poetry readings, and has appeared in 10 anthologies. She is the editor of the coming anthology in tribute to Julia Vinograd, from Zeitgeist Press - you are invited to contribute! Her ambition is to acquire a cult following and a flat stomach. If she can’t have that, she would settle for never receiving a robocall ever again!

Yume Kim lives in San Francisco but commutes to South Bay for tutoring/teaching. She is a grad  recipient of both an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She is also a Kundiman fellow recipient from Fordham University. Her forthcoming chapbook (title TBA) will be published by Nomadic Press sometime this year.

Date: 

Thursday, May 9, 2019 - 7:00pm

Octopus Literary Salon

2101 Webster Street at 22nd St.

Uptown Oakland

19th Street BART

“The man in the coffin” in Humble Pie

The Spring 2019 issue of Humble Pie, a literary magazine of the California College of the Arts in Oakland, is including my poem, “The man in the coffin.” 

I am going to be at the publication reading tomorrow night, May 7, 8pm at the A2 Cafe on the CCA campus, 5212 Broadway (at the foot of College Ave). There will be free pie. See you there!

Two poems at Scarlet Leaf Review

"had enough of want some make” and “anything that ends”

appear in the March/April issue of Scarlet Leaf Review.

“Beautiful People, Beautiful Food” in Poetic Diversity

"Beautiful People, Beautiful Food” 

is in the April 2019 issue 

of Poetic Diversity. 

“Instead” in Cleaver Magazine

The poem ”Instead” appears in Cleaver Magazine, issue no. 25, Spring 2019. 

“Instead” is one of a series of poems I crafted from (or found in) the library database of the University of California at Berkeley when I was a student there. All the lines are titles, usually of books. 

14 months

The poems I posted about yesterday started doing the rounds in December, 2017. I sent them to a few different places right away. Then I turned my attention to sending out other poems and doing other things. 

Publishers responded over the course of the next several months. Poems that were part of this series but which had gone out in other batches began to place. Few responses to this particular batch of five. In fact, four of the publishers to which I sent this batch in December, 2017 had not responded as of yesterday when I wrote to withdraw the poems from consideration. Publishers stop publishing, submissions get overlooked. 

Middle of 2018 I made a new push to get this batch before editors, every couple months sending it to another place. Rejections came in. I like the poems. I like them as much as others in the series that were taken up quickly. So I kept them going out.

Finally, an acceptance! An ezine took one. Yay! Dutifully, I wrote fifteen places I’d sent the poems to over the course of 14 months, fifteen places that had not yet responded, in order to tell them one of the poems had been spoken for, and asking  them to continue to consider the other four. Shortly thereafter I got a rejection, prompted, perhaps, by the notification. Then I got an email from Reuben Woolley of The Curly Mind, an email including a link to a post on the ezine that featured the four poems. 

Mr Woolley had not just accepted the poems, he had right away posted them. I like it when that happens! 

So, just a week after I’d written to notify editors that one poem was no longer available, I wrote to them again to tell them that none were. 

Fourteen months from first submission until I could close the book on the batch. Nothing unusual in this. No records set or disturbing stories. It felt a little weird to have this batch circle and circle while other poems in the series settled. Is there anything to learn? I think it just confirms what I already know. The randomness. 

Sometimes the poem will find the editor who loves it on its first foray. Other times it will take many a trek past editors near and far. And, yes, there are still some poems I started sending out in 2017 that haven’t yet found anyone (besides me) who loves them. 

four poems at The Curly Mind

Four poems have posted at The Curly Mind: linguistically innovative poetry.

Click the link above to read 

“this clouded kiss I rain in you” 
“your immediate wisdom” 
“only unopened to be a drum” 
“wind made of random arrows”

“of defeat” at Columbia Journal

The poem "of defeat” at Columbia Journal.

"Inevitable Hopes" at Futures Trading

Futures Trading #6.2 is up now.

Click through the link above. 

Scroll down to page 24 to read my poem “Inevitable Hopes”.

"Enveloped by hurricanes' thinking elephant" at Bindweed

Bindweed has posted 

“Enveloped by hurricanes’ thinking elephant”

as part of their 

Devil's Guts 2018 anthology.

“two too neutral,” a poem at BLUEPEPPER

BLUEPEPPER has posted the poem

“two too neutral”

Three poems at Mojave Heart Review

The November issue of Mojave Heart Review includes three of my poems. Each gets its own link, plus the bio: 

”distracting accomplishments burn in palm trees” 
”feeling this occasion’s context” 
”the making of each thoughtful aim” 

my bio!

Previously Published: a rejection horror story at Submittable

Submittable is a software program that handles submissions for literary magazines and arts organizations. Mid-October Submittable put out a call for Rejection Horror Stories, promising to post their favorites on their blog.

I wrote up a story that's haunted me for at least 15 years. The folks at Submittable liked it (or it scared them). Here's a link (scroll down; it's the fourth piece on the page):

Submittable 2018 Halloween Rejection Horror feature includes "Previously Published"

“Yes” at Quiet Lightning

The video features me performing the poem “Yes” during Quiet Lightning’s May 7, 2018 event at StudioToBe in Oakland. If the video doesn't appear above you can click through and watch on youtube. 

At each reading Quiet Lightning gives away a magazine called Sparkle and Blink that includes all the work performed on that date. If you go, you get a copy free. Often there are back issues for sale, too. I have picked up several that way. 

“Yes” originally published in the magazine, Askew.

“Live Here” at Mary: a journal of new writing

The Spring 2018 issue of Mary: a journal of new writing features: 

Live Here

Two poems at Courtship of Winds

Two poems in the Summer 2018 Courtship of Winds. 

Follow the link above to read 
“Rooted” 
“My Role in History”

Two poems at Visitant

The first poem posted in June: 
The Rarity of Snakes 

 The second posted in July: 
You Have to Look Through

Two poems at First Literary Review - East

The March 2018 issue features: 
loyal to the unadjusted just 
The poem appears near the bottom of the page. 

The July/August issue features: 
a wind picks up a hymn afloat upon one stem of flame 
You have to scroll all the way down the page. My poem is second from the bottom.

“The Homefront” at Crack the Spine

“The Homefront,” a poem written during the Iraq invasion back in 2003, found a place in Crack the Spine, an online magazine, issue 231:

”The Homefront”

My thanks to the editors.

Autobiography of a Book: 3 excerpts at Hawai’i Pacific Review

Autobiography of a Book is a book talking itself into existence. Every word is part of the book’s body; this is the book’s life. 

Three excerpts from the manuscript have been published in Hawai’i Pacific Review:

in which the book reviews its positions

in which the book, awake at last, revisits other readers

in which the book asserts a certain capability and exercises it

3 poems in Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine

Three poems appear in Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, issue #9, Fall/Winter 2018. 

Follow the link above and advance to pages 38 through 42 to read

“Sleep, my darling”

“The Elephant”

“I would like you to go now”

5 poems in Dodging the Rain

Five poems appear in the Irish ezine Dodging the Rain.

Follow the link above to read

“universal agent of slight chaos”

“understanding equivalent difference, its happy goodbye”

“trying to dust the light off an inner stone”

“I write on enlightened dice”

“sailing in on little tips of white knives”

My thanks to H. D. Moe for the titles.