Emerging Writers Network

Detroit Poetry

Detroit's Write Word Write Now, an incredible collection of poets, and the group responsible for the fantastic quartet of Snowbound Readings in the fall of 2006/winter 2007, are back!!!

The following comes from the Detroit Poetry Collective, and I can wholeheartedly recommend you attend all four of the readings they've set up for this summer as I've seen at least one of the performers that will be present each of those nights and all are well worth your time.

DETROIT, Mich., May 24, 2008 -  Detroit Poetry Collective & Music Hall Center for Performing Arts Presents the Write Word Write Now Summer Solstice Series for 2008. This year’s Solstice Series is scheduled for June 20^th, July 18^th, August 22^nd, and September 19^th at the Jazz Café inside the Music Hall, Detroit MI. Artists include world renown poets such as Carl Phillips, Allison Joseph, Ross Gay, Janice Harrington, Vievee Francis and emerging writers, Dwayne Betts & Ashaki Jackson; while also presenting our Detroit-based talent, the Write Word Write Now coterie. The writers may be available for interviews upon request."By integrating spoken word with the written word, we're creating a new hybrid poet/writer...and there's a need to cultivate artists who have been able to combine the two, they are the future of Detroit's poetic legacy...soon we'll be a literary mecca..." said Christina Archer, President of Detroit Poetry Collective. "We would like to put Detroit on the map as one of the great cultural cities among many other things.  And I am excited to continue my efforts, exposing the community to, not only poetry in our own backyard, but poetry across the world." 

We present this reading series to create a poetic, literary atmosphere in the Detroit area that attracts & sustains the hybrid academic and spoken word poet/writer.  We are celebrating and cultivating creative, multicultural, critical thinkers in the Detroit area by recognizing artists abroad and at home; providing a safe-haven; and developing an outlet for the groundbreaking voice.

DOORS & DINNER AT 6PM; READINGS START AT 7PM.

LOCATION: Jazz Cafe at Music Hall, 350 Madison, Detroit, MI 482226

June 20th:  Kahn Davison, Ashaki Jackson, Jamaal May, Vievee Francis

July 18th:   Will Copeland, francine J. harris, Ross Gay, Allison Joseph

Aug. 22nd:  Nandi Comer, C.M. Archer, Dwayne Betts

Sept. 19th:  D. Blair, Tommye Blount, Janice Harrington, Carl Phillips

About The Detroit Poetry Collective

The Detroit Poetry Collective was formed to cultivate urban artists through creative writing (poetry, fiction, and non-fiction); to develop, provide and support literary programs that foster multicultural literacy and creative critical thinking.  Its purpose is to provide a safe-haven for Detroit writers by way of academic readings, scholarships, stipends, awards, poetry slams, writer’s retreats, conferences, guest speakers, workshops and public events.

Jeff Parker Reads from Ovenman

The University of West Florida had Jeff Parker come down and read from his fantastic debut novel, Ovenman, last week, and have very kindly, for those of you like myself, who were unable to procure tickets to either Florida, or the event itself, have placed a video of the reading online.  Wander on over and view it.

Roy Kesey on his story, "Interview"

As Dzanc Books author Roy Kesey is bouncing merrily across this country, in a two weeks from hell version of the book tour, he's been reading the story "Interview" from his collection, All Over.  The story involves some 56 replies to job interview questions.  No questions, just the responses.  It's a great read, and even better possibly seeing Roy read it aloud.  Roy was kind enough to provide a little background on this particular story for the EWN:

“Interview” owes a fairly huge (and, I hope, clear, or else I shouldn’t have cut the epigraph) formal debt to Donald Barthelme’s “The Glass Mountain.” As it happens, there was a period in my early thirties when I would dip into 60 Stories like it was God’s own guacamole--great huge handfuls at a time, smears down the front of my shirt, pushing the bowl across the table to friends and grunting, You have to try this guac. And within that period, there was a much shorter period when it seemed like every time I dipped in, I’d see a trick I wanted to try.

It’s embarrassing to admit that it took me so long to discover his work, and painful to think of certain less enjoyable books I limped through when I could have been reading him instead. But in a way, I’m glad I didn’t come to Barthelme any earlier--if I had, I’d have become a hopelessly shoddy clone. Even as it was, resisting the urge to mimic his voice was sometimes beyond my strength; I threw those stories away, but didn’t regret writing them. In other, luckier moments, I had the common sense to try only to sort out the mechanisms that allowed him to pull certain rabbits out of certain hats, and then to explore how those mechanisms might work with my own particular weasels and wastepaper baskets. Sometimes it came off and sometimes it didn’t. In the end, “Interview” borrows little more, I think, than the sequential numbering and a touch of mental/social stance--which, let me be the first to say it, is plenty.

In terms of the content, several years before writing the story, I had taken a job as the director of a language center at a university in northern Peru, and at some point it became clear that we needed more professors who were native English speakers. We couldn’t offer much in the way of salary or benefits, so I was leaning hard on the “Come to Exotic Peru!” angle. Also, I had no idea what I was doing. I put advertisements up on a couple of list-servs, and was flooded with applications that I duly sorted and spindled.

I originally planned to do the interviews by phone, and then received word from above that they all had to be in person. Most of the applicants were from the U.S. and Canada, so I worked up a preliminary list and itinerary, gave it to my boss, and was in turn handed a frighteningly large stack of U.S. currency, and told to go try to find some teachers.

Which I did.

But I wasn’t very good at it.

I drew up a numbered list of questions, most of them so vague (What’s your theory of teaching? No, yes, I know, but your theory of teaching? Your teaching theory? What is it?) that they were impossible to answer in a way that would give me any more information than I already had from the candidates’ resumes. My only immediate hire from that trip was a guy who was later fired for gross misconduct, then submitted a misguided application for political asylum to the Peruvian government, was subsequently deported, and in only one of several bizarre coincidences, served as a case study that my wife had to analyze at the Diplomatic Academy five or six years later.

More to the point of “Interview,” though, was what happened in the course of other people I talked to on that trip. I did a number of pre-interview chats over the phone to narrow the field, and in the middle of one of those phone calls, an applicant offered that his previous job had ended when he was made the scapegoat for a scandal he’d had nothing to do with. Before I could respond to that, he said, “And the funny thing is, the same thing happened in the job before that. And the job before that!”

That guy didn’t get an in-person interview, but I will always be grateful for the material and voicing he gave me. That, combined with the structure I ripped off from Barthelme, gave me something that, at the beginning, was nothing more than a reasonably amusing job interview with the questions suppressed but figure-outable. Over the course of a dozen drafts, it morphed into what it is now, something weirder and bigger and sadder, or so I allow myself to hope.

Valid (?) Brief Absence from the Site

Sorry for the recent lack of posts, I went on the road with Roy Kesey, Dzanc's first author, for the first few readings on his current tour for All Over.  While glad to be home, and not envying Roy the remaining two weeks he has away from his own, it was a fun time while it lasted for me.

Roy arrived in Detroit on Monday the 22nd and I picked him up and took him to the house of an old friend of his.  The next morning I picked him up and drove him to the campus of the University of Michigan where he participated in a roundtable with about a dozen students in the MFA program there, along with Program Director, Eileen Pollack.  It was a very interesting hour or so - great questions from Eileen and the students and it became even more apparent to me, sitting in the background and listening, just how much time and effort Roy has put into his own writing over the years.

Later in the afternoon, I introduced Roy to my Dzanc partner, Steve Gillis, and his family, and then Steve, Roy and I headed back towards campus.  We met with future Dzanc author, Michael Czyzniejewski (who drove up from Bowling Green, OH), for dinner and great conversation.  As the clock moved towards 7 p.m., we wandered across the street to Shaman Drum Bookstore where All Over would be officially launched.  We wandered into a fantastic crowd of about 50 people or so.  I apologize in advance to any names I miss but I remember seeing/talking to Eileen Pollack, Keith Taylor, Ray McDaniel, Matt Bell and his wife, Jessica, Dwayne Hayes, Jessica Bomarito, Aaron Burch, Pasha Malla, Keith Hood, Potter, Sarah Sala, Elizabeth Dougherty, Natasha Stagg and her friend, Don, Randy Devita (meaning along with Roy and Eileen, Shaman Drum had three authors from Best American Short Stories 2007 within five feet of each other) and Tamara Christie-Glynn, plus many faces I didn't recognize.  Not to mention the fantastic Kyle Minor and his wife and two children, including budding young writer Ian, who I had the pleasure of buying a short book from.  All they did was drive up from Ohio to support Roy and Dzanc.

Ray gave his usual fantastic introduction, and Roy read both "Interview" and "Hat" and to our excitement, is a truly great reader.  Even though Shaman Drum was one of the heaviest purchasers of Roy's titles, they sold out of All Over that night!  Many of the aforementioned then headed over to a party thrown by Elizabeth Ellen and Aaron Burch at their home, and a few who couldn't make the reading showed up there - Stefan and Sanaz Kiesbye, and Barry Graham and his wife as well.  It was a great night.

Roy Kesey Coming to a Venue Near You Soon!

He’ll be reading in the Midwest, on both the West and East Coasts, and the South as well.  He’s hitting big cities and smaller ones as well.  Bookstores, Reading Series, and universities.  Find the event closest to you, spread the word, and show up in force.  The full schedule is below, but first – where you can find Roy’s All Over!

Amazon has begun showing the collection (Dzanc’s debut title) as in stock, though they only have five left!  Get yours now!

You can also purchase it from the Dzanc website and it will soon be in Barnes & Nobles, Borders, and independent stores across the country.  You can also have your favorite local independent order it if they’ve not done so yet – let them know they can get it through Baker & Taylor, or direct from Dzanc (they can email Dan at [email protected]).

Back to the schedule for where you can see Roy!

Catching Up on Author Readings

No, not with this post.  Don't be silly.  I'm barely keeping up with the Poetry Month Works of the Day.  But, soon, I will be posting about some great readings attended in recent months (man, I used to be able to say weeks there, but, not really any longer).

So, tune back in soon to read about Liesel Litzenburger's return to the UM, catching Christina Kallery at Poet's Follies in Grosse Pointe, the last Snowbound Series reading with JoAnna Karner, Kawita Kandpal (all she did was bring about 80 people to tears with her words), and Vievee Francis (her second books is going to be a freaking MONSTER), then there was the Thomas Sayers Ellis reading, and an Inside Out Literary Arts Project reading with Nandi Comer, Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann. 

In the past four weeks I've had the pleasure of hitting Ann Arbor one night in the middle of each.  This was to catch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tom Bissell, Ander Monson and Arthur Phillips.  For the last three you readers will get some bonus information as I was fortunate enough to be asked to tag along to their post-reading activities - let's just say Bissell's got an entourage like one Vinnie Chase.  The other two, slightly smaller, yet no less cool to hang out with.

Looking forward to sharing my impressions and notes soon.

Catching Up On Readings - One

Author Readings - January 31, 2007 - Work In Process Series - Crazy Wisdom in Ann Arbor

Dubbed the EMU WIP Reading as two professors from their faculty were pulled in for the evening:  Christine Hume and Jeff Parker.

Jeff introduced Christine and told a story about seeing her for the first time and noticing her tattoo of a mosquito, which reminded...  At this point, Christine let Jeff know that the tattoo was of a Crane Fly, completely destroying his introduction plan.

Christine read 9 new poems:

-  Ambient Flowers (in which she channeled Carolyn Burgenet - you can rest assure I've butchered the spelling of that name)

-  Nocurnal Dimensions of the Future

-  Nine Stitches and Liquid Morphine

-  You May Find This Night

-  One that I completely missed the name of - though she did lead in with the mention that it might have become obvious to the audience by this point that she suffered from insomnia

-  Field of Suspicion (This was led into with a comment that her poems were building tension which would be broken by Jeff's humor)

-  Recurrent Curse

-  Ward

-  Noctoluscent Elegy

Christine then introduced Jeff, who read a story called 2 Hours 53 Minutes, which was written for an anthology about love letters called Love is a Four Letter Word.

The WIP series appears to be a very well attended series as I arrived about ten minutes early and only found a seat due to the kindness of another.  Christine's poems were hit and miss with me - some of those that may have been heavily results of her insomnia didn't click with me - not that I strongly disliked them,  I just didn't get them - didn't have that excited moment in them where the poem just grabs my attention front and center.  A few of the poems did just that though.  And Christine's reading style was very smooth - looking up frequently and reading in a strong voice.

Parker's story did hit home with me - written in the from of nothing but emails from the protagonist to his wife and some former girlfriends, all of which occur in the slightly less than 3 hours indicated in the title.  This story is great, and Jeff tackled it with his usual self-depreciating style.

Author Reading(s) - Poet's Follies - Grosse Pointe Park, MI - January 26, 2007

The Poet's Follies was held last night at the Grosse Pointe Art Center and this month there was a full line-up.  The band The Luddites (or at least 5/11 of them) were the house band for the night, playing a few songs, playing back-up for spoken word poet, Marsha Carter.  International Womens Writing Guild founder/director, Hannelore Hahn read a few passages/experiences from her autobiography.  Mariela Griffor was there as M.C. and poet, and Peter Markus was the headliner.

Marsha Carter was the first reader to perform, and as stated the partial-Luddites played a nice slightly jazzy background for her spoken word efforts - So What Do You Do? and Broccoli Don't Taste Like Peach Cobbler, both of which were highly entertaining and thought provoking.

Hannelore Hahn read about five sections, or episodes, from her autobiography after flying in from New York for this event.  She and her parents were German refugees and she discussed what she felt the differences were between refugees and exiles.

Mariela Griffor read five pieces (though one was incredibly short) from her debut collection, Exiliana:

-  I was coughing when she read the title and couldn't tell - though it might be Robust (about her grandfather)

-  How <word not heard> Begins

-  Heartland (about both her native land, and her first husband)

-  Love versus Man (which was the original title of the book - and was about her first husband)

-  Valentine's Day in Detroit (for Edward)

Mariela read these poems, which could be both dark and very emotional, in a strong, confident voice.  They were very touching poems.

Then Peter read.  He was announced as the Wayne State University 2007 Detroit Urban Writer-in Residency a few days back.  He started by reading the first and last pages of an essay he's written entitled "Why I Can't Say Yoknapatawpha County," a piece on place and how important Markus finds it to be in regards to one's writing.

Stories read came from what could very well be Peter's fourth installment in his books of mud.

-  What the Fish of the River Tells Us To Do

-  Fish Head, or The Fish That Got Away

-  We Eat Mud

-  Our Mother is a Fish (which takes as its title, his favorite sentence ever, of course, from Faulkner)

-  The Sound the Hammer Makes

I've expounded greatly on this blog over the past few months in regards to my appreciation of Peter's work.  Hearing bits from that essay were interesting, allowing for some more understanding of his work.  I strongly suggest you go out and find some of his work, much is available online (see below about three posts for example), and try to go see him read.

Author Reading(s) - Rattawut Lapcharoensap and Elwood Reid - Ann Arbor - January 25, 2007

This reading was one of the University of Michigan Zell Reading Series efforts - in the East Quad's Residential College Auditorium.  The occasion brought back to UM MFA graduates - Elwood Reid and the more recently graduated Rattawut Lapcharoensap (or, kindly, A, to his friends).  Both have seen post graduate success.

Lapcharoensap was introduced first and read a new effort.  Like the stories in his collection, Sightseeing, this new one was set in Thailand.  It concerned some locals working as valets (the title of the story was Valet) at an authentic Thai restaurant that was getting its ass kicked by a newer, flashier restaurant across the highway - one with an animatronic dragon outside, blowing propane flames every so often. 

Lapcharoensap does a nice job reading - looking up frequently and finding a nice rhythm.  The story was pretty long, which is hard to do with a new work and keep attention, but Rattawut did a nice job.  The story might not have been his best (though, I always have a hard time telling just how good a longer story is when listening and not reading) - but since his best are award winners, that's not all that bad, but it had some great lines and moments throughout. 

Next up was Elwood Reid, who was in a class with me way back when.  He remarked how generous the university had been with him as it was the third time he'd been invited by Eileen Pollock.  The other two times he had to bail at last second and was shocked the university asked him a third time.

He read a story that was published in GQ a year and a half ago or so - Deck Ape.  It's a story fans of Daniel Woodrell might enjoy, and much more humorous than the typical Elwood Reid fare.  It's apparently one of many Elwood has written with these characters and will probably be looking for a home in future years.

The Zell series is looking to be quite good this semester so take a look for more details online and try to arrange your schedule for a visit or two.

Author(s) Reading - Snowbound Reading Series - January 17, 2007 - The Scarab Club - Detroit, MI

The third session of the four monthly readings that are to be known as the Snowbound Series was this past Wednesday night.  Two more Write Word, Write Now students, Tommeye Blount, and Scheherazade, as well as Detroit area poet, Robert Fanning, all read from their work.

The word is obviously getting out as there had to be between 75 and 100 people jammed into the already cozy Fireside Lounge in the Scarab Club, and as with the previous two months' readings - those who made the effort, got way more than their money's worth (hell, had they had to actually pay something they still could have said that!).

Detroit Free Press columnist, Desiree Cooper once again took the hosting reins and had a nice introduction, and the event was even semi-sponsored as coffee was provided by Shawn of Cafe 1923 of Hamtramck, a wonderful spot frequented by poets, writers and readers alike.

First up was Tommeye Blount, who noted that this past year or so, he's been thinking about what is man and how does he deal with the answer - either accepting or rejecting it. 

The first poem was inspired by the work of Jean Michel Basquiat, and was titled, Man, Myth and Demons.  He followed this first poem with:

-         The Uncertainty of a Man in Men’s Fragrance

-         Neil Armstrong’s Missing Article Found Underneath the Static

-         The Lifeboat Foundation – a Non-Profit Foundation

-         The Moth Man’s Lament

-         How to Dismantle Superman – My Father, Detroit, 2005

-         Keepers of the Aviary

-         Drawing of a Birthday Party While Eating Bread Putting at a Family Buffet

-         A Father Runs Away with the Circus and Other Tales

-         A Man Who Cleans Up Road Kill Talks About Earning a Living

-         He Died of Heroin Abuse and a Weak Heart Which Made His Extremities Swell

-         Cleaning Father’s Kitchen Cabinets

Blount is a performer.  He uses inflection of voice, cocked head and facial features to draw the reader into his poem, and not just sit there thinking Tommeye Blount is talking to them.  He spent a lot of time in his poems working through childhood and family issues, as well as pop culture, art and the daily headlines.

Next up was the quite pregnant, Scheherezade (I want to say Parrish, please correct me if I'm wrong), who noted that Driftwood issue number 9 is coming soon and contains two of her poems!

She read:

-         I’m From

-         On Wanting to Have a More Common Name Like My Godfather, or my Neighbor Whom I Loathe

-         A Patty Cake for Miss Mary, Little Sally, and Rachel, the Hooker That Lived Down the Street

-         Birds of a Feather

-         <I missed it, but it had to do with a Patient having a 16# tumor removed from her face and getting a new life>

-         The Better Half – A Wife’s Love

-         I Love You

-         The Zen of Birthing Class (with the near classic lines “Do not urinate on the instructor’s furniture,” and “If there are snacks, partake.”)

Another rock solid reader, often drawing laughter from the crowd, both with her poetry, and her in-between poems comments.  She even had a bit of a self-reflective "hmpf" after reading The Better Half.

Last, but not least, was EWN favorite, Robert Fanning.  Robert has begun to concentrate on writing again recently - as Program Director of InsideOut Literary Arts Project, he's quite busy, even without the writing.  He read:

-         Dying Star

-         One and a Half Miles Away From Dying

-         The Boy Who Taught Me How to Whistle (about his older brother who committed suicide nearly two years ago, without leaving a note)

-         The Man Who Names Wars

-         Limbo’s Babies Softly Falling

-         A Deer in the Target

-         Aurora Borealis

-         Tributary

-         The Darkness, Literal and Figuratively – for Gabriel Fanning, 19 months

-         Lights Bought Lies

Robert is a fantastic reader, one who brings voices to his various characters.  his poems bring forth a great deal of laughter, but also come around to that moment when you as a reader catch the deeper meanings, and they are there. 

I'm planning on posting the Q&A session that all three readers particpated in, sometime later today.

Overall, again, just a fantastic reading series and wonderful environment to get to hang around for a couple of hours.  The next, and currently final, one is Wednesday, February 21st, again at 7 p.m. and again, free.