throw up your arms

Green Day's 21 Guns is stuck in my head today. I'm not really a Green Day fan, but somehow today, the song skipped through my head, & I followed it, & now I'm stuck. It doesn't hurt that this is the version from the American Idiot musical...




Next Friday I'll be reading as part of the Gulf Coast Reading Series at Brazo's Bookstore with Celeste Prince and Thomas Calder. I'll read poems, they'll read fiction. Free; 7 p.m.

and hey, it's October. Beautiful.

NEXT WEDNESDAY:
Gigantic Sequins presents: Shine On (celebrating the publication of issue 2.2) A reading featuring Jim Daniels, Elizabeth Hoover, and Alayna Frankenberry. ModernFormations Gallery, 4919 Penn Ave., Lawrenceville; doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the readings follow at 8 p.m. Cover charge, $5 includes dessert. 412-362-0274.

Jim Daniels’ recent collections include Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry, and From Milltown to Malltown, a collaborative book with photographer Charlee Brodsky and writer Jane McCafferty. Forthcoming books include All of the Above, Adastra Press, Trigger Man, his fourth collection of short fiction, Michigan State University Press, and Birth Marks, BOA Editions. He recently wrote and produced the independent film “Mr. Pleasant” which premiered at the Three Rivers Film Festival in November. He lives in South Oakland, near the boyhood homes of Dan Marino and Andy Warhol.

Alayna Frankenberry graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in Creative Writing and Hispanic Studies. Her work has appeared in Weave, Open Thread, OH NO, and Night Train. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. She serves as the unofficial Poet Laureate of Munhall, Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth Hoover received her MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University and has published poetry in The Adirondack Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, the Atlanta Review, and The Other Journal. Recently, New Letters nominated her for a Pushcart Prize.

Gigantic Sequins issue 2.2, and tickets for our summer raffle will be available for sale at the reading, as will books and chapbooks of our readers. Hope to see you there (and the next night too, at the Cave Canem reading...)

Reading : Houston : Saturday 6 p.m.

Once you're done at this Saturday's amazing Houston Indie Book Fest, mozy a few blocks over to The Joanna for a killer FREE event!

You'll hear readings from OH NO contributors Jesse Donaldson, Greg Koehler, Ben Pelhan, Becca Wadlinge, and yours truly. Check out the main page of Houston's Indie Book Fest to read more about OH NO in the exhibitor spotlight!

You'll view a screening of BEBE ZEVA, a documentary (mdmafilms.org)!

You'll take part in a Q&A with directors Megan Boyle and Tao Lin!

See you there? See you there.

The Joanna
4014 Graustark

If you happen to be in Baton Rouge, LA tomorrow, come to this small press panel & reading:

The Delta Mouth Literary Festival is a two-day event on Thursday, March 17, and Friday, March 18, 2011, presented by LSU's New Delta Review. For more information, visit the DELTA MOUTH event page at http://tiny.cc/be5zp

for a world slowly happening

Tomorrow is the grand finale of Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series & my last reading in Pittsburgh until who knows when.

With Lisa Alexander
Jill Khoury, Jason Irwin,
Fred Peterson, Kayla Sargeson.
Open Mic to Follow.

Hemingway's
3911 Forbes Avenue (in Oakland)
Free & open to the public / Jimmy Cvetic hosts.

July 7th Reading

Wednesday, July 7 2010, 8:00pm, $5

This is a benefit reading to fund Nikki Allen and Renée Alberts' out-of-town readings this summer. These girls were the first poets I met when I moved from Boston to Pittsburgh & it seems entirely fitting that one of my last readings here will be in support of them.

Besides Renée, Nikki, and myself, the benefit will also feature Jerome Crooks with Red Bob, Kayla Sargeson, Brian Francis, DJ Brewer, Holly Coleman and a DJ set afterward from Joseph Wilk.


Shadow Lounge
www.shadowlounge.net
5972 Baum Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA 15206-3815
(412) 363-8277

If you can't make it to the event, but want to support the tour, you can make a donation at http://cutandruntour.blogspot.com/. Nikki & Renée will say nice things about you. They will mean them.

Reading this Saturday :

Join us to celebrate the release of Natural Language: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Sunday Poetry and Reading Series Anthology with a reading and reception!

featuring readings from some contributing writers:
Nikki Allen • Madalon Amenta • Tess Barry • Margaret Bashaar • Jan Beatty • Deborah Bogen • CM Burroughs • Jay Carson • Kristofer Collins • Jerome Crooks • Jim Daniels • Toi Derricotte • Barbara Edelman • Che Elias • Angele Ellis • Jessica Fenlon • Rebecca Foust • Crystal Hoffman • Jason Irwin • Robert Isenberg • Marc Jampole • Dana Killmeyer • Sophie Klahr • Karen Lillis • Joseph Lyons • Sharon Fagan McDermott • Heather McNaugher • Judith R. Robinson • Richard St. John • Ed Steck • Michelle Stoner • Justin Vicari • Judith Vollmer • Stacey Waite • Michael Wurster

Renée Alberts, editor
Connie Amoroso, designing editor

Natural Language: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Sunday Poetry and Reading Series Anthology collects work from featured writers of the library’s monthly reading series. The Sunday Poetry and Reading Series, which began in 2007, is free to the public and features academic, experimental and spoken-word Pittsburgh poets and writers. The anthology was made possible by a donation from Poets for Humanity.

Books will be available for purchase for $10 each.
All proceeds will directly support the continuation of poetry programming at the library.

Saturday, May 8, 2010
2 pm

International Poetry Room
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main (Oakland)
4400 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

412-622-3151
newandfeatured@carnegielibrary.org
www.carnegielibrary.org

Reading this Saturday :

This Saturday I'll be part of the first ever Tin Front Reading!

Saturday, March 20, 2010
7:00pm - 8:00pm
216 East Eighth Avenue
Homestead, Pa 15120

Hungry Sphinx Reading Series

Next week I'll be featured at the Hungry Sphinx Reading series alongside the poet Jerome Crooks. I've never been to the series, but it's run by Carlow University undergraduates & I've been informed the cafe's quite cozy.

Tuesday, November 17th
8 pm - 10 pm

Open Mic follows feature
(Bean, if you're reading this, WINKWINK)

No cover / one drink minimum

Sphinx Cafe
401 Atwood St. (corner of Bates & Atwood)
412-621-1153


In other news, for the past two weeks I have been reading a few John Ashbery poems every morning while eating breakfast, pre-coffee. The effect is delightful.

Six Degree Reading

"the Six Degree Reading hopes to embrace poets from several of Pittsburgh's disparate poetry micro-communities, and collapse those six degrees to zero, connecting those whose paths not have crossed..." - Renee Alberts, curator of the series

featuring: Michelle Stoner, Sophie Klahr, Jason Kirin, Jerome Crooks, Holly Coleman, Nikki Allen, and Renée Alberts

Saturday, February 7th,
7:oo pm, $5
Most Wanted Fine Art
5015 Penn Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15224

POETSBURGH @ THE MATCHWOOD FESTIVAL

old church + poems + dance party
sounds good to me
see ya

Come read with me this Sunday!

Since my dear friend Betsy Wheeler's careers are colliding in mysterious ways, she won't be able to read her poems with me as planned this Sunday at the library. But maybe you can!

From I'll be reading from 2 - 2:30, & there will be a half hour "open mic," in the quiet reading room at the Carnegie Library's main branch in Oakland. It should be an interesting time, & hey, like I said, a great free Father's Day gift, whether your dad is a writer himself or a proud patron. Hope to see you there!

(for further information on this reading series, see the previous post..)

excited ! : Myself & my dear friend Betsy Wheeler will be reading together on Sunday June 15 at the sunday poetry & reading series, from 2-3 p.m. Betsy's not from the 'burgh, so it's going to be an extra treat. for you and me both. AND it's father's day that sunday, so it's going to be an extra treat for you, and me, and my dad. who introduced me to poetry in the first place but that's another story..

Sunday Poetry & Reading Series: A free monthly series
featuring readings from academic, experimental and
spoken-word Pittsburgh poets and writers.
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Main First Floor - Quiet Reading Room
2 - 3 p.m.
For more information, call 412.622.3151 or visit www.carnegielibrary.org.

from the press release: other up-coming sunday offerings at the CLP:

Sunday ❘ 5 • 18 ❘ 2 pm ❘ Terrance Hayes
Terrance Hayes is the author of Hip Logic, Wind in a Box and Muscular Music and has been the recipient of many honors and awards including a National Poetry Series award, a Pushcart Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He teaches creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University.

Sunday ❘ 7 • 20 ❘ 2 pm ❘ The Typewriter Girls
The Typewriter Girls are decadent intellectuals with an uncanny penchant for monkey breeding. Descendants of the Cabaret Voltaire, their Dada-bred performances feature comedy, music, and poetry, and in the words of Comte de Lautreamont, embody the concept that “poetry must be made by all.”

Sunday ❘ 8 • 17 ❘ 2 pm ❘ Heather McNaugher
Heather McNaugher is an Assistant Professor of English at Chatham University’s MFA program. Her chapbook, Panic & Joy, was published this spring by Finishing Line Press.‘

On Friday, January 18th, at 7:30 P.M.
I will be reading poems alongside Sten Carlson and Dan Remein at Choice Cuts, the Slaughterhouse Gallery Reading Series, down in Lawrenceville, a convenient 10 minute walk from my house. Your presence would be delightful.

and afterwards, perhaps, there will be tea & Scrabble?

You're invited!

BLUES, SUGAR, BONES:
A reading of poems by Carolyn Elliot,
Anne Marie Rooney, and Sophie Klahr,
who will read from her new chapbook
"_____Versus Recovery" (Pilot Books, 2007).
Free of charge. Adventures to follow.

November 9th, 8 P.M.
ModernFormations Gallery & Performance Space,
4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh PA.