Neon Gallery Friday Night - January 29th 7:00PM

The Writers Place monthly Neon Gallery event is this Friday night and features Poetry, Art, & Music! Rick Malsick hosts & plays with musical guests River Cow Orchestra and Street Corner Choir. Poets from The Writers Place reading will be Wayne Courtois, Jen Harris, Pat Lawson, and Phyllis Becker.There will be art by The Visual Arts Group and Thomas Cobian, The Neon Warrior. This is a free event – all tips go to support The Writer’s Place. Bring a snack or dessert for the table (BASFTT). And definitely BYOB. This is a great way to spend the evening with friends. Everyone is welcome. Come to enjoy art, poetry, and music.

Location: 1921 E. Truman Rd. Kansas City, MO 64127   7PM to 10PM

SEPT 17 - DAVE SMITH - MIDWEST POETS SERIES

Wednesday, September 17, 2014 @ 7 p.m.

Dave Smith is the author of over 20 books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, His recent books include Hawks on Wires (poems, Louisiana State University, 2011); and Afield: Writers on Bird Dogs (edited with Robert DeMott, Skyhorse Press, 2010).

Smith has served as editor of The Southern Review, The New Virginia Review and the University of Utah Poets Series. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, twice. He recently joined the writing faculty at the University of Mississippi, after 11 years with Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars program.

Admission to the reading is $3 at the door. Books will be available for purchase at the event. A reception with book signing follows the reading. For more information, call the Center for Arts and Letters, 816-501-4607.

Kansas City Area Poetry Events Coming Up

I-70 Review Contributors Meeting
Tuesday January 21st, 2014
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Central Resource Library
9875 W. 87th ST.
Overland Park, KS  66212


Music - Poetry & Art 
Downtown Neon Gallery
Friday, January 24, 2014
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

1921 E. Truman Rd.
K.C., MO 64127



Writers Place Salon - Open Mic
Monday, January 27th, 2014
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
hosted by Sharon Eiker

3607 Pennsylvania
K.C., MO 64111

HADARA BAR-NADAV, WAYNE MILLER, AND COREY MARKS - Reading at The Writers Place
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

3607 Pennsylvania
K.C., MO 64111

Upcoming Poetry Events in The Kansas City Area

Riverfront Reading: Mary Bunten & Gary Lechliter Friday, January 10, 2014 8:00 PM

Fiction writer Mary Bunten and poet Gary Lechliter read from their work. Mary Bunten's work has appeared in SAVEUR, The Houston Press, Art Lies, The Austin Chronicle, and elsewhere. She currently works as the director of The Writers Place.

Gary Lechliter's poetry has recently appeared in Main Street Rag,New Mexico Poetry Review,Straylight, Tears in the Fence, and Wisconsin Review. He is the editor and publisher of the I-70 Review


Blue Monday @ the Uptown Arts Bar, Monday, January 13, 2014 8:00 PM
Five minutes of fame at our open mic, hosted by David Arnold Hughes, Uptown Arts Bar - 3611 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111 816-960-4611

This Friday Night - Spoken Word at Crossroads Coffee House

Reading at CROSSROADS COFFEE HOUSE

  OPEN MIC  7PM
    310 Southwest Blvd. K.C., MO 64108

Friday Night Open Mic Locally

Feb 17h -  Reading at

CROSSROADS COFFEE HOUSE 

OPEN MIC  7PM
                  310 Southwest Blvd. K.C., MO 64108

From the Hard to Believe Department

It's hard to believe Catch 21 is 50 years old.  I tried to recall my age at first reading it  and it threw me me.  I read it in the very late 1960's Probably '68 or '69 and did not realize that it was not not fresh off the presses then. Or maybe I knew but have forgotten.  It just seems that in my mind it was so relevant to the time.  Realizing that Joseph Heller actually began writing it in 1953 makes the story line even more remarkable to me.


also, a couple of notable local events...

Coming up: Sunday, December 11 - 2 p.m.
Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

Guy Masterson: Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales

Welsh-born actor Guy Masterson reads A Child's Christmas in Wales, one of the most popular works by Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas.

And at The Writers Place: Friday, December 16, 2011 7:00 pm
Holiday Holiday Reading and Party with the Music of Jim Abel and Kevin Hiatt
Readers will include Shawn Pavey, David Hughes, Michelle Pond, Martha Gershun, Tim Pettit, John Hastings, Lindsey Martin-Bowen, Carl Rhoden, Tina Hacker, Eve Ott, Susan Peters, and Phyllis Becker.
All donations will go to the Phil Miller scholarship.

W.S. Merwin Reads for the 57th Annual Poetry Day - October 6th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 20, 2011

W.S. Merwin Reads for 57th Annual Poetry Day

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is pleased to announce that poet, translator, and environmental activist W.S. Merwin will read in celebration of the 57th annual Poetry Day on Thursday, October 6. In a career spanning five decades, Merwin has become one of the most honored and widely read poets in America. From his first collection, A Mask for Janus, which W.H. Auden chose for the Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1952, to The Shadow of Sirius, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize, Merwin has written with sheer grace and limpid power about the natural world, time, and memory. Appointed U.S. poet laureate in 2010, Merwin lives, writes, and gardens in Hawaii, on the island of Maui. He has spent the last 30 years planting 19 acres with over 800 endangered species of palm, creating a sustainable forest. The property has recently been protected as the Merwin Conservancy.

What: Poetry Day: W.S. Merwin
When: Thursday, October 6, 6 p.m.
Where: Harold Washington Library
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 South State Street
Tickets: Free admission on a first-come, first-served basis

Inaugurated by Robert Frost in 1955, Poetry Day is one of the most distinguished poetry reading series in the country, having featured such poets of note as T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Carl Sandburg, W.H. Auden, Anne Sexton, John Ashbery, James Merrill, Adrienne Rich, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, and Robert Hass.

Find information about other Poetry Foundation events at www.poetryfoundation.org/ programs/events.

REMINDER - AMY LEIGH DAVIS TOMORROW AT WRITERS PLACE

Amy Leigh Davis Reading September 16

Friday, September 16, 2011 ~  7:00 PM 

 

THE WRITERS PLACE ~ 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, MO

Amy will be reading poems from her new book The Alter Ego of the Universe as well as new work.

Amy Leigh Davis Reading September 16

Friday, September 16, 2011 ~  7:00 PM at  THE WRITERS PLACE

Amy Leigh Davis, author of The Alter Ego of the Universe   recently published by Finishing Line Press will read from her book as well as new work.  I've had the pleasure of knowing Amy and experiencing her writing over a period of several years now.  Her works always seems fresh and active. This is a reading I  especially looking forward to.

Two other poets with whom I am not presently familiar  will also be reading. The are Susan Rieke, Mary Rogers-Grantham.  Rieke has  two books of poetry are Small Indulgences and From the Tower. She is Professor of English at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth.  Mary Rogers-Grantham’s collection is titled Clear Velvet.


Mark your calender for this event  at The Writers Place ~  3607 Pennsylvania
Kansas City, MO 64111-2820

Poetry Books and Jelly Bellies

Tools of the trade at a poetry gathering.

Hugo House to Host Their First Writers' Conference

The Richard Hugo House will be hosting their first ever writers' conference over the weekend of May 21-23 and boy, have they got some good stuff in store for participants. The conference will include panels and workshops, among other festivities, to the theme of Finding Your Readers in the 21st Century.

Not only are we in the middle of a terrible economy, but the modern publishing world as we know it is going through a historical transition and looking fairly uncertain for many professionals and book lovers. Local bookstores are closing; our favorite magazines and newspapers are increasingly becoming thinner; the industry has seen hundreds of lay offs; and as this decade's most popular saying goes, "Everything is moving to the web."

Full Story

The City of Newark and NJPAC to Host 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, October... -- NEWARK, N.J., April 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

 "The City of Newark and NJPAC to Host 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, October 7-10, 2010

Biennial event to feature MORE THAN three dozen renowned poets, including four U.S. Poets Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners, and other acclaimed, award-winning and widely-published poets - Tickets go on sale Friday, April 23rd

Expected to attract 20,000 to NJPAC and other Newark venues

NEWARK, N.J., April 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- From Thursday, October 7 through Sunday, October 10, the City of Newark and New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) will host the largest poetry event in North America, the 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. Tickets for the Festival go on sale beginning Friday, April 23rd (see below for complete Ticket Information and Festival Prices). The Festival is sponsored, in part, by the Bank of America and PSEG Foundation."    Full Story

Book Party for Nathalie Handal's - "Love and Strange Horses"

ANYONE IN NEW YORK    ~     This Thursday, APRIL 15, 2010

 A MUST to Put  on your Calendar

"Book Party for Nathalie Handal's Love and Strange Horses"

Gallery Bar - 120 Orchard ST. NY, NY

7:00pm - 10:00pm

I would so go to this if I were there.  Handal is a uniquely talented poet who has a very universal voice.  I loved her book Neverfield.

I'm Reading - 3:00 PM Tomorrow as the Longest Poetry Reading Continues

I will be reading as part of the history making LONGEST POETRY READING tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.




Prospero's Books
1800 West 39th Street - Kansas City, MO 64111-4402


if you can't be there...  you can watch on the live internet feed at


                      http://www.ustream.tv/channel/metaphormedia

Park University Will Host Regional Poetry Out Loud Competition

NEWS RELEASE:

Park University will host the regional high school competition Poetry Out Loud on Tuesday, Feb 16. This marks the second year Park will be the site of the regional competition for "Poetry Out Loud," at which local high school students recite three poems each. This year's competition will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the McCoy Meetin' House, located on the University's Parkville Campus. The event is free and open to the public.  [Full News Story Here]

Coffee Break - Announcements

Taking a short break from writing today to have a salad and post a few notes here.

Here's an announcement for those in our neighboring state of Kansas.
Kansas Voices writing contested, sponsored by the Winfield Arts & Humanities Council, is back for its 21st year. Authors are urged to submit short stories, prose or poetry.  Details here.

Issue 30 of Right Hand Pointing is up.

TWP POETRY READING SERIES @ THE JOHNSON COUNTY LIBRARY

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 7:00 pm  - Johnson County Public Library, 9875 W. 87th, Overland Park, KS

Featuring Jo McDougall and Steve Paul

TWP SALON  - Monday, January 25, 2010 - 7:00 pm - Open Mic opportunity hosted by Sharon Eiker
3607 Pennsylvania  - Kansas City, Missouri


Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net