Want to do a reading with another poet?

Poet Wendy Brown-Baez has a chapbook called transparencies of light forthcoming by Finishing Line Press, but they can't start the print run until she has advance sales. She thought up the idea of a poetry salon, like a jewelry party or Tupperware party but with poetry. She is happy to do this in tandem with another poet.

Her book is mainly persona poems of women telling their stories, and she would love to organize readings in the spring with a male poet, so the two voices would be a contrast or interweave with each other. She is happy to do everything she can to set up readings in cafes, bookstores, etc. (wherever it is free).

If interested, contact Wendy Brown-Baez at poetaluna@yahoo.com or call 612-437-3355.

www.finishinglinepress.com * www.wendybrownbaez.com

Check out David Oppegaard's blog: Deep Thoughts With Blogagaard

Name of your blog: Deep Thoughts With Blogagaard

Link to your blog: www.blogagaard.blogspot.com

What your blog is about: The voice I blog in is a slightly insane version of myself that often refers to itself as “Blogagaard” or “We here at Blogagaard.”  Sometimes I review books or movies, sometimes I talk about writing, but mostly I just post on the world around Blogagaard and the skewed way Blogagaard perceives it, with the occasional posting or plug of my own writing along the way.

Your name (if you're not blogging anonymously): David Oppegaard

Years you were in the program (and year you graduated from Hamline): 2004-2006 ('06 grad)

When you started blogging: August 2005

Why you blog: I started a different blog when I was traveling in Europe to keep my friends updated. By the time I came back, I was already addicted to instant gratification of seeing your words on the web instantly.

Who your intended audience is: My intended audience, at the beginning, was pretty much just my friends. Now that I’m a published author, I try to aim my posts at a more general audience and discuss the craft of writing more than I used to. Hopefully my blog amuses as many people as possible.

What blogs you like to read: I used to read a lot of blogs, but then many of my friends stopped blogging, and I drifted away from blog reading in general. In some ways I see blogging as a big fad that reached its height in the ought’s, but there are obviously many hardcore bloggers still going strong and new blogs popping up every day.

Advice to or question for bloggers: I suppose my only advice is that blogging is a marathon, not a race, so if you’re just starting a blog, don’t pour your whole soul/life story into it in the first couple of months, because you’ll burn yourself out pretty fast and suddenly you won’t feel like blogging anymore.

P.S. from GLaaS: Be sure to check out David's blog because he's also experimenting with publishing some of his best blogging moments over the years.  All hail drunken blogging, indeed.  If you're new to blogging, there's a lot of material to laugh about here.  In a good way.

Come meet the low-residency folks on July 12th at 7

GLS Low-Residency Reading and Reception: Monday, July 12  7:00 pm  
A Meet and Greet for the GLS Community

Did you know that GLS offers a low-residency MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults?  Twice a year, students in this program come from across the nation to the Hamline campus for a 10-day residency full of seminars, workshops, lectures, and readings.  At this summer’s residency (July 8 – 18), faculty, visiting writers, graduating students, and guest editors/publishers will deliver lectures and offer seminars that examine a broad range of issues for writers in the field.  Because these low-residency students and faculty are only on campus for a short time, they rarely get to meet other students in our programs.  But this summer, we're opening the doors and bringing everyone together! 

We’d like to invite all members of the GLS community to a special residency reading and reception on Monday evening, July 12 at 7:00 pm in the Kay Fredericks room, 3rd floor of the Klas Center.  The reading will feature our faculty/authors Ron Koertge, Jane Resh Thomas, Anne Ursu, Lisa Jahn-Clough, and Jackie Briggs-Martin.  A book signing and reception will follow.  We hope you can join us for this special event.  It will be a great way to meet these students and the wonderful faculty who teach in our low-residency program!

These are really great authors with tons of writing experience and books under their belts, not to mention all the great students you've never met.  So come on out and meet them all!

Calling all Terry Tempest Williams fans

Wow.  Finding Beauty in a Broken World is exciting to read.  I'm captivated by the unusual formatting, the careful structure/form, and the fascinating content.  I admit a bias toward mosaic, mixed-genre, creatively-formatted forms, but I think this book would draw most any serious reader into its meticulously and seemingly-effortlessly crafted world of beauty and disaster.

I've read a couple of Williams' essays, too, and I'm wondering if you have a favorite you could recommend.  Which of her books do you love most?  Which articles?  Which essays?  If you have any suggestions to share in this week before she comes to visit Hamline (someone pinch me), please do. 

And don't forget all of her events on campus; this is a rare chance.  :)

Alumni Poetry Book Club: April 27

The Hamline GLS Alumni are hosting a Poetry Book Club on the last Tuesday of each month from 7:30-9pm at Jean Larson's house. On April 27, we will discuss The Voice of Robert Desnos: Selected Poems.

This is an incentive for graduates interested in poetry to read a whole book of poems, to come up with questions/insights/what works what doesn't/ favorite moments, and discuss them with alumni. You can sit back, engage, read part, read all. Come monthly, come sometimes. Flexible and low key--unless someone decides to raise a ruckus!--you know how poetry can affect some of us.

Please email Jean at jeanielars@comcast.net for more information.

Alumni Happy Hour: April 21

Author Terry Tempest Williams is coming to Hamline!

We’ll be at Sweeney’s Saloon (96 North Dale Street in St. Paul) starting at 5:30 pm.  Around 7:00 we’ll head over to campus for the “Author’s Interview” program that begins at 7:30 pm in Sundin Hall.  GLS Alumni Board will buy the first round of drinks (beer or wine).

Peter Hoeg

Haley said...

Okay. So I'm not a girl who reads a lot of fiction...I like fiction, I just usually get drawn to other things first. I'm saying this because I'm a little behind the times when it comes to what's 'hot' in the fiction world.

However, I just started reading Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg...and omg, I'm obsessed.

I'm wondering if anyone out there has read other works by him. This novel is so harsh and ornate. Are the rest of his writings so awesome?

Are there any authors you love?

You know how sometimes you find an author you love?  You can't talk about the author and his/her works enough.  You wish everyone you knew would read that author's work, and then talk with you for hours about the author (or at least love that author as much as you do, if that's even possible).

We would love to hear about that author (or those authors) from you.  What elements of their craft send shivers down your spine?  Which of their characters do you have literary crushes on?  What settings do they bring to life so vibrantly you want to visit them?   Feel free to wax as eloquent as you want.  Any author is fair game, any genre, any age range.

Email us your passionate musings, and be sure to send some links to the author's home or fan pages, if you have any.

Sincerely,
Future Fans of Your Favorite Authors