Poetry Commerce

Hard Times for Poetry Too

As difficult as it is for me to think ahead to 2010 I suppose when planning for an event with a $1.3 million price tag it's not all that early. For 12 times dating back to 1986, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has funded a biannual  Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey but sadly the event which drew 19,000 people last year has been scrapped for 2010.

This is not my first blogging on hard economic times for poetry/arts, and I'm relatively certain it won't be my last. Still, I am honestly a little surprised by it, even though It probably didn't  require a crystal ball or tarot cards to see it coming.

The Dodge Festival has been sort of the Woodstock of poetry and regularly draws from the ranks of the well established poets. Names like Stephen Dunn, Sharon Olds, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ruth Stone, Mary Oliver, Theodore Weiss, Stanley Kunitz, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Amira Baraka, and Kenneth Koch to name a few. And that is only some from the first event. Since that time, there have been many more including:

• William Stafford
• W. S. Merwin
• Carolyn Forche
• Richard Wilbur
• Li-Young Lee
• Naomi Shihab Nye
• Joy Harjo
• Philip Levine
• Rita Dove
• Jane Kenyon
• Donald Hall
• Adrienne Rich
• Robert Bly
• Robert Creeley
• Paul Muldoon
• Robert Pinsky
• Edwasr Hirsch
• Heather McHugh
• Billy Collins
• Franz Wright
• Jorie Graham
• Ted Kooser
• Robert Simic

Those are just a few of the names, the list of participating poets is enormous and covers a broad spectrum of poetic voice.  Perhaps the only name I think missing from the list that surprises me is that of John Ashbery.

My point in listing the names is simply to underscore the magnitude of what was been lost by the cancellation of the Festival.

It's hard to argue with the decision by the foundation. David Grant the CEO for the foundation lists a decline of 30% in the assets of the endowment from a year ago.

For the short term this is a blow to public support for poetry. The good news is that Grant says the foundation will continue to work to bring poetry to schools. He did not rule out a return of the festival in some form if not the same after taking a two year cycle off.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Technorati Tags: hard times for poetry,Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation,Dodge Poetry Festival

For my birthday...

I intended to post this earlier, but I've just been swamped. This was a gift from my wife for my birthday last Saturday. It's a Libelle fountain pen. I have a Waterman that was also a gift from her that I use regularly. Occasionally I have got to work and left it behind at home or the reverse. She decided I needed the ability to leave one at home for writing. The tough decision now, is which one?

Local KC Area Poetry Events

The Main Street Rag Poetry Showcase, Sun. 1/18, 7p, The Writers Place -  3607 Pennsylvania Kansas City, MO        View Map

Join Main Street Rag co-founder, Shawn Pavey, as he welcomes Iris Appelquist and Jason Ryberg as featured poets for this month's event! Iris and Jason will read from their upcoming book, Blunt Trauma. 

This month will be BYO beverages and snacks. The tailspinning economy is hitting us in the pants, especially in the parts of the pants that hold the cash. As a result, there is no budget for refreshments anymore. C'est la vie. Bring what you need, bring extra to share, and we'll take a "stone soup" approach to the good times.
As always, an open mic follows our featured poets. No sign up sheet, but please limit poems to 1 at a time and less than 5 minutes.
I look forward to seeing you all there! Please feel free to repost this. Any questions, call Shawn at   816-868-2707       

Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm   

Poetry Reading Series@ The Johnson County Library
Patricia Miller and Robert Stewart
January 20, 7PM  - 9875 West 87th Street | Overland Park, KS 66212

Patricia Cleary Miller is the author of the non-fiction book, Westport: Missouri's Port of Many Returns, and the poetry books Starting a Swan Dive and Dresden.  She holds the Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas and taught there and at the University of Missouri-Kansas City before coming to Rockhurst University, where she has now taught writing and literature for twenty-five years.  A past chair of the Department of English, she is currently chair of the Humanities Division.  A former Bunting Fellow in poetry at Harvard/Radcliffe, she was granted the Harvard Alumni Association Award and the Hiram Hunn Award.  In 1987, with the help of her students, she founded the Rockhurst Review, which she continues to edit.

Robert Stewart's books include Outside Language: Essays (Helicon Nine Editions, a finalist in the PEN Center USA Literary Awards for 2004, and winner of the 2004 Thorpe Menn Award), Plumbers (poems), and others.  He has the particular joy of being married to a better poet than he is, Lisa Stewart.  However, some of his poems have weaseled their way into Denver Quarterly, Poetry Northwest, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Stand, The Literary Review and other magazines.  Anthology editorships include Spud Songs: An Anthology of Potato Poems (with Gloria Vando, a benefit for hunger relief), Voices From the Interior, and Decade: Modern American Poets, co-edited with Trish Reeves).  In 2008, the magazine he edits, New Letters, won a National Magazine Award for the Essay.

Technorati Tags: poetry events,Kansas City area,Robert Stewart,Patricia Cleary Miller,Jason Ryberg,Iris Appelquist,Main Street Rag

There's something funny about....

• A happy birthday card from the Community Blood Center
• A dream in which the part of the dreamer is played by Harrison Ford

Technorati Tags: A poets life,something funny

It's In The Mail..... almost

 The procrastination is over.  I've readied my submission to an annual review that I am especially fond of.  This will be my third year of submission. The first year - zing I was accepted. Last year nada. So I'm trying to remain hopeful that this years material has something that will stick. Everything all done up and stamped. Just need to drop it in the mail in the morning.

For some reason I always feel good when I submit to this review. I don't know why, I just do. Anyone feel that way about any place in particular that you send your work?

Word List:

A new year calls for a new word list. I decided this on the way home from the office tonight.  I sometimes get away from my list and it really is sad, because having a list of uniquely interesting words at my finder tips often will spark something. That's just a side benefit. What I rely on the list for is to get me away from using the same words often when I'm writing. If I use it, I cross it off my list. The idea is to keep adding words even as I subtract them.

Feeling kind of yuckie tonight. Almost like I'm trying to come down with something. Headache and mussels ache. I think I'll try and read a while, if my eyes and my head will cooperate.

Technorati Tags: poetry submissions,word list

Stretching.... Ah, Saturday Morning

Listening to Savage Garden / Crash and Burn.....

It was cruel and unusual punishment working yesterday but this too has past.  I need to go to the store this morning. Old Mother Hubbard is starting to look like she's among the privileged. I don't think procrastination as a plan is working. Time for the backup plan.

The sky is overcast and it's dreary out. Don't appear to be changing anytime soon.

I need to mull over some  submissions I want in the mail by Monday.

Have a picture I want to work on too to submit to a journal. This would be the first time submitting photos.

Clock is ticking in my head. I hate that.

Technorati Tags: a poet's life