Congratulations, Hamline Class of 2012!

Graduation for Hamline is today, and we'd like to congratulate you graduates for finishing your degrees!  We look forward to seeing you at alumni events in the future.  : )

Cracked Walnut Reading Series Prepares for Another Season

The Cracked Walnut Reading Series is preparing for another round of readings, and big things are in store.

The Cracked Walnut Reading series takes place in innovative locations througout the Twin Cities. Readers tend to address the space which adds to the unique flavor of each reading. Some examples of past locations include The Braemer Skating Arena, Local D'lish, The Midtown Global Market, and the Washburn McGreavy Hillside Funeral Chapel. For more information on the Cracked Walnut reading series visit satishjayaraj.tumblr.com/CWRS

If you wish to become involved in the Cracked Walnut Readings join the mailing list by e-mailing me at crackedwalnut@gmail.com.

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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Phalen Park1615 Phalen Dr.

St Paul, MN 55106

3:00 - 8:00 PM (reading at 4:30)

Cracked Walnut and Red Bird Chapbooks would like to invite you to our picnic fundraiser where we will celebrate the great work of the poets and artists who contributed to Red Bird's Broadside series. Featured Readers will be Kelly Hansen Maher, Donna Isaac, Jamie Lynn Buehner, Shelly Love, Chris Title, Wendy Brown-Baez, Didi Koka, Jenny McDougal, Sandy Beach.  The reading itself will start at 4:30 at the Amphitheater, and we have rented out the close by picnic shelter for the rest of the evening. We will have some simple refreshments and appetizers available and invite you to bring finger foods that you are willing to share.

This will also be a fundraising event for Cracked Walnut and Redbird, and there will be items for sale. We are planning on becoming registered a Non-profit company.  Your kind donations, either cash or check, will help us with this endeavor.

Please follow the evite for more info and to accept our invitation
http://new.evite.com/#view_invite:eid=0366NC2ZTL7RSYAS4EPBRBFNCLSGXA

Upcoming Poetry Book Club

Thursday, May 31, 2012: Night Clerk at the Hotel of Both Worlds by Angela Ball. First of all, I love the title. Second, she's a Mississippi poet who I don't hear about all of the time, and I'm curious about poets on the other end of our river. Third, in Donald Revell's review, he calls the poems "ghostly hotel assemblages of Joseph Cornell". Maybe it's just too close to Halloween, but I'm dying to read this!
Suggested by Haley Lasché

Thursday, June 28, 2012: Whorled by Ed Bok Lee's (new book)
Suggested by Sarah Spleiss

Thursday, July 26, 2012: What Work Is by Philip Levine
Suggested by Kathleen Keller

Thursday, August 30, 2012: Dread by Ai. I saw a reading in memorial to the poet Ai at AWP last year. She is not someone whom I am all too familiar with; however, Marilyn Chin, Major Jackson and Eavan Boland were all reading her works to celebrate her (and I really like all of them). The book Dread is full of characters, each poem creating a portrait in a single long stanza. I've only flipped through it, but I'd love to read it with you guys!
Suggested by Haley Lasché

Thursday, September 27, 2012: Invisible Strings by Jim Moore
Suggested by Jean Larson

Thursday, October 25, 2012: Willow Room Green Door by Deborah Keenan
Suggested by Libby Casey Irwin

Anything tempting you to read and come discuss with us?! Pick up your copy from Micawber's in St. Paul (sale price for members of our club - yet another great reason to support your local bookstores).  It's always a good idea to give them a call before you head over in case they're having a hard time getting ahold of the book.

Hamline GLS Alumni Poetry Book Club meets on the last Thursday of each month from 7:30-9 at Jean Larson's house (Barnes and Noble at Har Mar in case of emergency). Read part, read all. Sit back or engage. Come monthly, come sometimes. Flexible and low key. (Unless someone decides to raise a ruckus.)

Email Jean at jeanielars@comcast.net for more information and/or to get on the Book Club's mailing list.  You can also get Facebook Invitations if you join the group.  See you there.

Congratulate new graduates at the Green Light Sendoff on May 19th

Yes, it's that time of year again when we bid the new graduates farewell.  As soon as their ceremony is over, they'll stop by to talk to professors, current students, and alumni.  Some will bring their families.  They'll pick up the gifts we made them, and then they will belong to us!  (This is not sinister at all, it's just that they'll be alumni and part of the alumni association, and . . .)

Green Light Sendoff

May 19th

4:30-6
CWP House

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And if that's not enough fun for you, when you're done with this party, head on to the West Egg After Party.  It's their end-of-semester party, and there will be a cook-out.  They require that you bring your cheerful self and a healthy non-self-destructive attitude towards alcohol consumption.  If you're feeling ambitious, you can bring a delicious dish or beloved beverage to share.  Both animal and vegetable food grills we be going.

Songs may be sung, poorly. Poetry may be recited, spontaneously. Stories may be shared, gratuitously.  Fun will be had, memorably.

Location: The Burgess Street Poetry House - 1026 Burgess Street; St. Paul, MN 55103

With love, respect, and unflinching support, now as ever,

The West Egg Literati

'06 alum Lawrence Benson's Miras Press debut poetry collection reading May 18th

Miras Press, the brainchild of MFA '06 Alum Lawrence Benson, is presenting a publication reading of its debut poetry collection, Rainsongs: Poems of a Woman's Life by Meta Commerse.  Lawence Benson will also read selected poems. More information available at http://www.miraspress.com/ and Facebook/MirasPress.

Friday, May 18, 2012

7PM

Phillips Community Center, Multipurpose room

2323 11th Ave S; Minneapolis, MN

Talking Image Connection reading on May 12th

This April, ceramic artists Amber Ginsburg and Joseph Madrigal will set up Flo(we){u}r, a clay bomb manufacturing plant at The Soap Factory.  They'll make replicas of the terra cotta test bombs commissioned by ourmilitary in WWI.  During the war, pilots used the flour-filled bombs to calibrate their targets.  Amber and Joseph's bombs, filled with flour and seeds, will be launched to plant fields of flowers.

Saturday, May 12th, 8 PM

Flo(we){u}r Power

a TalkingImageConnection reading,

responding to Flo(we){u}r at the Soap Factory
514 2nd St. SE; Minneapolis, MN

Featured writers: Brian Beatty, Andrea Jenkins, MC Hyland, Michael Moore, Andy Sturdevant, May Lee Yang.  These readins always make me want to write, and the end result of this installation (planting flowers) is pretty awesome.  For more information about the reading, contact Alison Morse at  yackmor@talkimage.org.


Brian Beatty's jokes, poems and stories have appeared in many print and online publications. He's also the creator and host of mnartists.org's monthly literary podcast, You Are Hear. Brian's 2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival show is titled "Minimum Rage."

MC Hyland is the author of Neveragainland (Lowbrow Press) and the chapbooks Every Night In Magic City (H_NGM_N), Residential, As In (Blue Hour Press) and (with Kate Lorenz and Friedrich Kerksieck) the hesitancies (Small Fires Press). She lives in Minneapolis, where she runs DoubleCross Press and the Pocket Lab Reading Series, and works at Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

Andrea Jenkins, author of two chapbooks, tributaries: poems celebrating black history and Pieces of A Scream, is a Poet, Spoken Word and Performance Artist. Winner of the 2010 Naked Stages and Verve Grant(s) she co-curates the Queer Voices, one of the longest running LGBT reading series in the country. Most recently she was published in the anthology, Gender Outlaws II: The Next Generation.

Michael Kiesow Moore's work has appeared in Talking Stick 20, Water~Stone Review, The Rockhurst Review, Evergreen Chronicles, The James White Review and the book Losing Loved Ones to AIDS, among other publications, and his awards include a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship. Michael founded and curates the Birchbark Books Reading Series at Birchbark Books and teaches creative writing at the Loft Literary Center. He also teaches classes on “Writing Peace into the World,” and founded the Loft’s Peace and Social Justice Writers group. http://www.michaelkiesowmoore.com/.

Alison Morse's poems and stories have been published in Water~Stone Review, Natural Bridge, The Pedestal, Rhino, Opium Magazine, mnartists.org and other places. In 2012, she completed a collection of stories about Kenyan social justice activist Wahu Kaara for the Women PeaceMakers Program at the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. She is also the 2012 "poet laureate" for the St. Paul JCC. Alison teaches English and runs TalkingImageConnection.

Andy Sturdevant is an artist, writer and arts administrator living in South Minneapolis. He has written for a variety of places, including mnartists.org, Rain Taxi, Art Review and Preview!, Mpls. St. Paul and in publications of the Walker Art Center and the Jerome Foundation. In addition, Andy writes a weekly column on arts and visual culture in Minneapolis-St. Paul for MinnPost. He also directs and host Salon Saloon and is co-creator of the Common Room at The Soap Factory. The results of Andy's solo and collaborative explorations and conversations about artmaking often take the physical forms of pamphlets, printed matter, books, and drawings. They also manifest themselves in ephemeral, site-specific performance and interactions. By the way, Andy was born in Ohio, raised in Kentucky and has lived in Minneapolis since 2005.

May Lee Yang is a playwright, poet, prose writer, and performance artist. She has been hailed by Twin Cities Metro Magazine as “on the way to becoming one of the most powerful and colorful voices in local theater.” Her theater-based works have been presented at Mu Performing Arts, the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT), Out North Theater, the 2011 National Asian American Theater Festival, the MN Fringe Festival and others. Her most recent works include Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman and Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star. She has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Performance Network, the Midwestern Voices and Visions Residency Award, the Playwright Center, the Loft Literary Center, and is a winner of the 2011 Bush Leadership Fellowship. In her 9-5 life, she works as the Executive Director of Hmong Arts Connection, a non-profit based in St. Paul, MN. Be sure to check out her website http://www.lazyhmongwoman.com/.

Help make gifts for graduates!

The Best Gift You'll Ever Make (Book Arts with MC Hyland)

Thursday, May 10 @ 6:30 PM

CWP House @ 1500 Englewood, Saint Paul

This year, we’re creating beautiful gifts for members of the 2012 graduating class under the guidance of MN book arts maven, poet and publisher MC Hyland. Don't worry if you have never done anything like this. This event is the perfect time to give it a try and a great time to get ideas for your own handmade gift books. Meet us at the CWP House, and bring a glue stick, bone folder, and exacto knife if you have them. (If not, that's okay too. :) Hope to see you there.

MC Hyland was born in Washington, D.C., raised in Massachusetts, and after stints in Boston, Philadelphia, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has found her way to Minneapolis. She is a poet, letterpress printer, and bookmaker, and runs DoubleCross Press, a publisher of chapbooks and broadsides by (mostly) emerging (mostly) poets. She also runs the Pocket Lab reading series and works as an administrator at the Minnesota Center for Books Arts, a letterpress and writing teacher through local nonprofits, and a cheesemonger. Poems from Neveragainland have appeared or are forthcoming in Colorado Review, Slant, H_NGM_N, The Paris Review, apocryphaltext, LIT, 751 Magazine, Platte Valley Review, 42 Opus, Fairy Tale Review, among other places

Poetry-Film Festival Call for Films (not making this up)

This just sounds awesome.  Anyone entering?  If you are, be sure to let us know!

SECOND Annual Poetry-Film Festival

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

October 2012

Showcasing films inspired by and about poetry and poets.  We will accept films from anywhere.  The evening will include groupings of film shorts, live poetry readings, Q and A with poets and filmmakers, and live music.  We are looking for innovative work, and will consider any poetry-films that meet the qualifications at their classy website.  Submissions due July 3, 2012.

Graduate Readings This Spring

Please support our wonderful graduates as they read and present from their final work. All events are free and open to the public.  Be sure to check the most updated schedule at the new Hamline site.

MALS Graduate Forum
Saturday, April 28th
GLC 100E
1:00 PM

Join our MALS graduates as they present from their final capstone projects in this stimulating afternoon of craft and process conversation. This is always an amazing set of presentations, representing the breadth of interests folks in our MALS program have.  Since the MALS program is being discontinued, be sure to attend while you still can!

MFA Graduate Readings

GLC 100E

7:00 PM

March 9th Mary Kane Jenny McDougal Todd Pederson Gretchen Marquette Caitlin Thompson	March 16th Katie Halcrow Bri Sharkey Matthew Smith Susan McNerney .	March 30th Sara Dailey Elena Cisneros Tom Rohde Derek Sullivan .
April 13th Ico Erik DeLapp Naomi Haugen Judith Watters Sarah Clay	April 20th Lisa Blauersouth Libby Rasmussen Sue Sorenson Kael Wagner Steve McPherson	April 27th Gerri Buchanan Adam Johnson Alida Winternheimer Charlie Hartman .
May 4th Julia Jenson Stephanie Olson Laura Theobald Rachel Gabriel	May 11th Julie Bach Diane Embry Michael Polak Ellen Tichich

Poetry Book Club 2012 edition

Well, it's going to be a great year for the poetry book club! 

Thursday, January 26, 2012: Red Bird by Mary Oliver

Thursday, February 23, 2012: Talking to my Body by Anna Swir
Suggested by Beth Gedatus

Thursday, March 29, 2012: Given Sugar, Given Salt by Jane Hirschfield.
Suggested by Kathleen Keller

Thursday, April 26, 2012: Coming to That by Dorothea Tanning -- the 101-year old former visual artist who just published through Graywolf. She thinks of herself as "the oldest living emerging poet." Very intriguing -- and Dan Chiasson wrote two full pages of review. (Kind of amazing.)
Suggested by Paulette Warren MOST VOTES!!!

Thursday, May 31, 2012: Night Clerk at the Hotel of Both Worlds by Angela Ball. First of all, I love the title. Second, she's a Mississippi poet who I don't hear about all of the time, and I'm curious about poets on the other end of our river. Third, in Donald Revell's review, he calls the poems "ghostly hotel assemblages of Joseph Cornell". Maybe it's just too close to Halloween, but I'm dying to read this!
Suggested by Haley Lasché

Thursday, June 28, 2012: Whorled (Ed Bok Lee's new book)
Suggested by Sarah Spleiss

Thursday, July 26, 2012: What Work Is by Philip Levine
Suggested by Kathleen Keller

Thursday, August 30, 2012: Dread by Ai. I saw a reading in memorial to the poet Ai at AWP last year. She is not someone whom I am all too familiar with; however, Marilyn Chin, Major Jackson and Eavan Boland were all reading her works to celebrate her (and I really like all of them). The book Dread is full of characters, each poem creating a portrait in a single long stanza. I've only flipped through it, but I'd love to read it with you guys!
Suggested by Haley Lasché

Thursday, September 27, 2012: Invisible Strings by Jim Moore
Suggested by Jean Larson

Thursday, October 25, 2012: Willow Room Green Door by Deborah Keenan
Suggested by Libby Casey Irwin

Anything tempting you to read and come discuss with us?! Pick up your copy from Micawber's in St. Paul (sale price for members of our club - yet another great reason to support your local bookstores).  It's always a good idea to give them a call before you head over in case they're having a hard time getting ahold of the book.

Hamline GLS Alumni Poetry Book Club meets on the last Thursday of each month from 7:30-9 at Jean Larson's house (Barnes and Noble at Har Mar in case of emergency). Read part, read all. Sit back or engage. Come monthly, come sometimes. Flexible and low key. (Unless someone decides to raise a ruckus.)

Email Jean at jeanielars@comcast.net for more information and/or to get on the Book Club's mailing list.  You can also get Facebook Invitations if you join the group.  See you there.

Planning brunch Sunday!

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It's that time of year again! Please join us on Sunday, January 15th for a New Year's Explosive Planning Brunch at Annette’s house 1202 Adams St. NE, 11:30 AM (please bring a dish to share).

We'll be discussing the next several months' events, and we'd like to have your thoughts to make this organization strong. Come to share your ideas or just to help vote. Our organization is nothing without you. We need you, and we need to continue to work toward being a successful organization. Won't you help us do that?

If you'd like to contact us for more information or to share suggestions or ideas, email our FB page or email us.

See you there!

- your glsbrd

Water~Stone deadline and next GLS Alumni Writers' Group meeting

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Water~Stone postmark deadline is Thursday, December 1.  Now that we're not students anymore, we can submit.  Yay!

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Monday, December 5, 2011

7-10 pm

The Sarah Hayes Residence

Please join us as we kick off the Hamline GLS Alumni Writers’ Group!

This multi-genre writers’ group meets the first Monday of every month at 7:00 pm, giving participants a chance to start the month off focused on writing.

The goals for this group are to build community, have fun, and support fellow writers as we strive to keep writing an active part of our busy lives. You are invited to bring pieces to share and/or workshop as well as any concepts or ideas you’d like to explore or get feedback on.

Come to one meeting, come regularly… It’s up to you.  For more information, including directions, and/or to get on the Writers’ Group mailing list, email Sarah at sarah@innerrealms.net.  You can also join the group on Facebook and get reminders sent.

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This Thursday (Poetry), Friday (West Egg), and Saturday (Save the MALS program)

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Thursday, November 17th
7:30 - 9pm

Poetry Book Club will be at Har Mar Mall Barnes and Noble Bookstore at the corner of Snelling and County Road B.  Sarah Spleiss and a few others will secure some tables in Starbucks within the bookstore.  Enjoy discussing Red Bird by Mary Oliver!   Map here.

And for poetry book club lovers, Jean will email the nominations for next year out out for voting by the end of this coming weekend.  (This gives any stragglers one last chance to submit.)  Let her know!

Hamline GLS Alumni Poetry Book Club usually meets on the last Thursday of each month from 7:30-9 at Jean Larson's house (except for the Thanksgiving month exception). Read part, read all. Sit back or engage. Come monthly, come sometimes. Flexible and low key. (Unless someone decides to raise a ruckus.)

Email Jean at jeanielars@comcast.net for more information and/or to get on the Book Club's mailing list.

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Friday, November 18th
7:30pm - 9:00pm

Rock Paper Scissors LAUNCH PARTY and Liver Demolition at the Turf Club

Celebrate the launch of this year's r,p,s and hear some readers from its golden pages!

1601 University Ave.
Saint Paul, MN 55104

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Saturday, November 19th
3:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Satish Jayaraj invited you to
Save the MALS program Planning meeting

1600 Englewood apt 103
St Paul MN 55104

 

From Satish:

 

"As some of you may know, a decision was made by the VP of Hamline, David Stern, to halt new students entering the MALS program and to shut it down after current students (myself included) graduate. I am going to be fighting this tooth and nail. I always loved the MALS program even as an MFA because of how well our beloved faculty integrated the two programs. If the MALS program is shut down over frivolous reasons, ( reasons which we will discuss) how much will the MFA deteriorate as a result? I am very afraid of how far this slippery slope will go. Some of us MFA grads know how remarkable the Hamline program is when we talk to MFA's in other programs, so it is as much an MFA concern as it is a MALS." 

 

"I am holding an emergency meeting at my apartment to brainstorm all the different creative ways at our disposal to put a plan into action and act on it. At the very least it will be a letter/essay writing workshop. At the most we'll do so much on multiple levels and reach several audiences that we'll overwhelm the V.P. into repealing his decision.  I'm looking to hear big, small, cliche, repetitive, weird ideas and anything between and beyond."

"I have a decent amount of writing instruments, but bring your own in case and bring your laptops if you have any (For research) Food and beer to keep us going will also be appreciated. I lack furniture for a large crowd, but I have plenty of soft carpet, no I will not be insulted if you think it prudent to bring soft cushions, or anything else for that matter that my pad might be missing. RSVP (612-568-7660) so I know what to expect, and it's never too late to start shooting out ideas and asking questions."

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Faculty Appreciation Potluck November 4th

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Friday, November 4

5:30pm - 7:00pm
Giddens Learning Center: Gallery Room

GLS alumni are getting together with our past faculty to thank them for their wonderful influence. Start thinking about what dish you'd like to bring.  Post your ideas on Facebook or at glsalumnibrd@hamline.edu.  Afterwards, you can head straight over to the Water~Stone reading if you'd like.

This is a great, low-key event where you can thank those great faculty members one more time for all they contributed to your education and growth as a writer.  Also a great place to try some amazing food.  And talk to your fellow alumni.  We'd love to see you there.

- your glsbrd

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Interview with Ann Iversion on her new book (reading at Hamline 15 October)

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It's a busy month and a busy week for alumni!  Here's another reading and an interview with the reader! 

GLS alum Ann Iverson will be reading from her new poetry collection, Art Lessons, at Hamline on Oct. 15, 7:00pm, in Giddens Learning Center. Ann and I finished up our MFA programs about the same time and have been in a writer's group together for about the past 10 years. Her art and poetry has been such an inspiration to me that I wanted to talk with her a little more about this new book and share it with the readers of this blog. If you haven't had a chance to read Ann's work, you now have three great books to add to your reading list.  --Teresa Boyer
 

Teresa: What inspired this third collection of poetry?

Ann: This book comes from a personal need to burn the torch for art and poetry, which often gets overlooked in a world saturated with technologies and gloomy forecasts. During the war of which my stepson served three tours of duty (the subject of my second book, Definite Space) I needed to find what God meant and how making art and poetry helped me to define what it means to exist. I am here and I am alive. Making art and poetry help me to exist in such a confusing world. 

Teresa: It seems like such a short time since your last collection was published and I know you are creating art and working full-time, too. How do you manage to fuel and sustain such a rich body of work?

Ann: I have no idea! I have a motto: One by one I get things done, but ten by ten, I’m lost again. But really, the thought of getting messy with paints and putting on the last glazing effect keeps me energized and makes me whole. It’s a slow process, actually, depending on the situations that life offers us. I consider Van Gogh who painted over 900 masterpieces in a decade span and then consider what I’ve done in a certain way. My style at work is to keep those who follow energized with promise and acceptance, and, thus, that is returned to me. I believe in whimsy and whimsy energizes me. I have sisters and friends who believe in me and a wiener dog who keeps me laughing despite the pressures. And I don’t have small children, yet a stepson who has served three tours of duty in Iraq so the emotional strain is quite significant.

Teresa: How is this collection different from your previous ones?

Ann: This collection feels more like my first collection, Come Now to the Window, in that I did not have one topic, as I did in Definite Space. It’s a whirl of poems that came together gracefully only due to Kirsten Dierking’s extraordinary talent in vision and manuscript arrangement. But on the other hand, weaving through them are the gracious experiences of life and what it has to offer. When my second book was in publication mode, I began to write again, stretching towards a new understanding after the effects of the book Definite Space, based on my stepson’s three tours of duty in Iraq as a Military Police Officer and canine dog handler. Art offered and offers me solace. Like right now as I write, I’m thinking of my newest piece out in my makeshift garage/art studio and want to tackle it some more, but the job and life demands, this interview does not. I love it. Staying in the moment of what you love is important and I love this.  Truly I do.

Teresa: How does your practice of art inform your practice of writing and vice versa?

Ann: It’s a peculiar, amazing exchange and happens either in the moment of working in both genres or just on a crazy day of work and then I see or hear something that triggers the connection. When I paint and my mind is clear of crap, often lines come to me. Yet when I write, my mind is not often cleared of crap and so…I think visual arts is often more freeing because you don’t have to worry so much about how it will be interpreted. That could be wildly debated, but in my experience in working in both creative activities, I just get less freaked out when I show a painting or collage to the world or even friends versus a poem.

Teresa: What poets and artists are you most interested in today?

Ann: Joyce Sutphen, Arlinda Henderson, Tim Flugum, Li Young Lee, Mary Oliver and the list goes. Sometimes I am very inclined about reading a book about war. The Holocaust haunts me.

Teresa: What subjects continue to interest you as an artist?

Ann: Big wild flowers. That’s the only thing I know how to do. I’m not a trained artist but just a person who likes color and add beauty to my small world.

Teresa: What advice do you have for other Hamline alumnus who are trying to pursue publication?

Ann: Be good to people, because people are good. Be generous with your love for the world. Start small, publish in local venues first. Don’t disregard what you might think is a trite opportunity. But then go for the gusto and try to crack the glass domes of prestigious journals. Poetry and life are strange and peculiar and beautiful and magnificent, and the best yet: unpredictable. Even in this world intoxicated with technology, there is a place and need for poetry. If it makes you happy to write, keep doing it. It’s your legacy. Throw your hand-held device into the pond and write.

Teresa: Where can we find your book, Art Lessons?

Ann: Hamline bookstore, Amazon, technical devices for reading books (whatever they might be and they are cool though I am not familiar with them,) and small local bookstores as well as mainstream.  

Ann Iverson is a visual artist and poet and has worked in education for years. She holds Masters degrees in both fine arts and liberal studies from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Her work has appeared in several literary magazines. Ann’s poetry collections include Come Now to the Window published by Laurel Poetry Collective, Definite Space, and now the soon to be released Art Lessons published by Holy Cow! Press. A few of her poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s public radio segment, ‘Writer's Almanac.’ Ann's artwork was recently selected and installed in the new University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital. 


If you'd like to conduct an interview or be interviewed for the blog, contact us. 
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Book Festival this Saturday 15 October!

This event is tons of fun, so if you've never been, give it a try this year.  They have panels and lectures and readings and a book sale and tables set up by local publishers and literary magazines (including Water~Stone).  Rain Taxi sponsors it, and they may still need some volunteers if you want to help out. See their website for all the fabulous details.  (There is a lot going on.)

Some GLS-related folks are making appearances this year!  If I missed anyone, let me know, so we can add them to the list.

Panel This Must Be The Place: Representing Minnesota 
12:30 pm Rain Room
Mary Rockcastle

Morning Mixer
10:00–10:30 am
Geoff Herbachfor  Stupid Fast
Lightsey Darst for Find the Girl

See you there!

Friday, October 14th Happy Hour and Reading

Friday, October 14th

5-6:30 Happy Hour

7:00 Reading

You may have heard that Deborah Keenan and Barrie Borich will be part of a reading featuring contributors to American Tensions: Literature of Identity and Social Justice.  (This is one star-studded anthology, holy cow!)  The reading starts at 7:00 pm in the Kay Fredericks Ballroom in the Klas Center.

If you plan to attend the reading or if you just want to say hi, we'd love to invite you to join us at a happy hour at Old Chicago in Roseville before the event. (The 8" pizzas are $3 until 6!)  We’ll be there from 5‑6:30 pm at the Old Chicago located at the corner of County Road B & Snelling Avenue.

Hope to see you there!

- your glsbrd

Call for poetry book club suggestions (due October 15th)

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Jean is taking nominations for next year’s poetry book club selections.  Please send her 1-3 choices with a short sentence (or two or three) about why you’d like us to read the poet and/or book.  When you’re choosing it would be helpful if you would do a search or call Micawbers (where we get a discount) to see if the book is available and in paperback.

Nominations: due by October 15th 
Voting online by mailing list members: after that

Email Jean at jeanielars@comcast.net for more information and/or to get on the Book Club's mailing list.

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Poetry Book Club meets September 29th (correction!)

The Hamline GLS Alumni Poetry Book Club’s September book is Flood Song by Shewin Bitsui. We'll be meeting at Jean's from 7:30-9 and possibly taking advantage of the porch, if the weather cooperates.

Publisher's weekly describes Flood Songs as "a sequence of untitled fragmentary lyrics, which, taken together, form a long poem that is part stream-of-consciousness road movie of the Southwest and part visionary investigation of personal memory."  Sherman Alexie likes it, too (high praise in my book).

Poet Haley Lasche, who suggested the book, says:

I’m starting to realize that in my literary tastes, I’m being drawn more frequently to the same publishers. I didn’t mean for this to happen; however, in the last six months, I’ve accidentally bought four books from Copper Canyon Press. The poetry collection Flood Songs is one of those titles. At first, it was the landscape of the page, how the white space created in the bloated top margins meet the first lines which began to feel like the morning horizon. And then it was how the human body senses the world surrounding it: both what is natural and what is man-made. In Bitsui’s acts of lyricism, I forget about my own needs for narrative. I am reminded that there are many ways to meditate.

Sound like something that makes you want to read and come discuss with us?! Pick up your copy from Micawber's in St. Paul (sale price for members of our club - yet another great reason to support your local bookstores).

Hamline GLS Alumni Poetry Book Club meets on the last Thursday of each month from 7:30-9 at Jean Larson's house (Barnes and Noble at Har Mar in case of emergency). Read part, read all. Sit back or engage. Come monthly, come sometimes. Flexible and low key. (Unless someone decides to raise a ruckus.)

Email Jean at jeanielars@comcast.net for more information and/or to get on the Book Club's mailing list.  (We'll be taking suggestions for the next year of poetry goodness soon, so be sure you're on the list!)

Come to Jean Larson's Book Release Party This Thursday

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Thursday, September 15 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Broadcraft Press has just published Jean's book of poems about the Boundary Waters and Lake Superior.   Please come hear a few of the poems from The Superior Life and celebrate with her!

Micawber's Books

2238 Carter Ave

St. Paul, Minnesota 55108

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