CD review: Our Voices Sound Like SIlence

George Fish reviews Our Voices Sound Like Silence, by Joseph Kerschbaum and Josh Johnson. Click on the Bloomington Alternative article
here.

Stephen James' poetry blog

The Poetry Knook

Stephen James' bio:
I live with my wife, an artist, in Indianapolis. Besides poetry, I like to take photographs, read books, travel overseas, and listen to news/political podcasts, college lectures and classic literature. You can read about my approach to poetry on my poetics page. To stay in touch, follow me on Twitter or connect on a variety of other social networks.

Plath on poetry

I'm reading Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" for an upcoming book discussion. Here's an interesting excerpt from the novel:

Now, lying on my back in bed, I imagined Buddy saying," Do you know what a poem is, Esther?"
"No, what?" I would say.
"A piece of dust"
Then just as he was smiling and starting to look proud, I would say, "So are the cadavers you cut up. So are the people you think you're curing. They're dust as dust as dust. I reckon a good poem lasts a whole lot longer than a hundred of those people put together."
And of course Buddy wouldn't have any answer to that, because what I said was true. People were made of nothing so much as dust, and I couldn't see that doctoring all that dust was a bit better than writing poems people would remember and repeat to themselves when they were unhappy or sick and couldn't sleep.

Nancy Pulley

Just received word about this book. I added the title in the 2009 list.

Pulley, Nancy: Dream Puzzle ($15, available at www.nancypulley.com)

Lylanne Musselman poem

Lylanne Musselman's poem "In Today's News Cycle" is posted on New Verse News.

Congratulations.

Half price for cabaret tribute to women in song

Cathy Kightlinger's Talk of the Town column in The Indianapolis Star (July 14, 2009) included this item:

A tribute to Hoosiers of song
Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf is teaming up with pianist/composer/educator Monika Herzig and singer-songwriter Tom Roznowski on Saturday at The Cabaret at the Connoisseur Room.

They will pay tribute to Hoosier songwriters and ragtime composers through songs and poems. Honorees include May Aufderheide, Julia Niebergall, Albert Von Tilzer, Paul Dresser, Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter and various Indiana Avenue luminaries, according to Krapf.

The show is at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Connoisseur Room, 127 E. Ohio St., Indianapolis. Tickets are $25, but members of the Writers Center of Indiana and anyone who hasn't been to the Cabaret at the Connoisseur Room are eligible for a 50 percent discount.
For more information and tickets, call (317) 294-7005.

Best Books of Indiana 2009: Poetry

Here are the five submissions in the poetry category of the Best Books of Indiana competition.

• A Matinee in Plato's Cove, by Robert Griffith of Evansville. (Water Press and Media, Argyle, Texas.)
• Bloodroot: Indiana Poems, by Norbert Krapf of Indianapolis. (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.)
• Rivers, Rails and Runways, by the Airpoets (Ruthelen Burns, Joyce Brinkman, Norbert Krapf, Joseph Heithaus and Jeannie Deeter Smith. (San Francisco Bay Press Publishing.)
• The Floating Bridge, by David Shumate of Indianapolis (University of Pittsburgh Press.)
• The Sea-Crossing of Saint Brendan , by Matthew Brennan of Terre Haute (Birch Book Press, Delhi, N.Y.)

The following titles were NOT submitted and, therefore, ineligible:
Boruch, Marianne: Grace, Fallen from (Wesleyan University Press, $22.95)
Kalamaras, George: Gold, Carp, Jack, Fruit, Mirrors (Bitter Oleander Press ($18)
Metres, Philip: To See the Earth (Cleveland State University Press)
Roeser, Dana: In the Truth Room (Northeastern University Press, $16.95) Winner of the Samuel French Morse Prize
Stanton, Maura: Immortal Sofa (University of Illinois Press, $40 or $17.95)

For other categories in the contest, click here.

A personal message

Thank you everybody for all the kind words and messages.

In case you didn't hear, after 31 years as a copy editor at The Indianapolis Star, the paper laid me off in a cost-cutting move. Though I've been anticipating this moment for the past two years, when it finally happened, I felt panic-stricken, even ashamed that it happened to me. Now, I feel relief that the ordeal is over.

I worry about the co-workers left behind, and especially some who got the ax after I left the building. While I was prepared, financially and emotionally to take the hit, I worry about my colleagues. I regret not being there when they received the terrible news. If you're of the praying persuasion, I urge you to think of them.

John Hawn

Mitchell L.H. Douglas in the InKY reading series

Adam Piper's 'And Life Remains'

A PR release about Adam Piper's poetry collection, And Life Remains:

http://www.mmdnewswire.com/adam-piper-5306.html


UPDATE: Here is a Kirkus review of Adam's collection:

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/kirkusreviews/discoveries/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003990376&imw=Y

If you wish to purchase, click on this Amazon link.

News from Jan Flexon

Jan Flexon, the lead singer of the Dancin' Nancys and host of Friday Underground events at Bookmama's, announced that her book, Words Are Electric, But Not Always Static Free (New Century Publishing), will be available in August.

She also will have work published in the inaugural issue of Icahabod's Sketchbook, an anthology published by Bookmama's. (Other contributors include Lylanne Musselman, Jennifer Lemming, Carolyn Everett and Miranda Marisco.)

Jan also will be part of the Kellogg Writers Series at the University of Indianapolis on Sept. 23.

The Dancin' Nancys are part of the compilation CD Give a Girl a Chance, which will benefit the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the New Community Project and the Young Peacemakers Film Project.

Indiana Authors Award

James Alexander Thom wins the first Indiana Authors Award (national author category).

Poet Jared Carter is a finalist in the regional author category.

Details at http://www.indianaauthorsaward.org/the-authors/the-finalists/

Th awards dinner, where the other category winners will be announced, is scheduled for 6:30. Sept. 26 at the Central Library, 40 E. St. Clair St., Indianapolis.

Lylanne Musselman's new chapbook

From Lylanne:

NEWS: I'm thrilled to share that Winged City Press is publishing my
chapbook, A Charm Bracelet For Cruising. Winged City is an imprint of
New Sins Press and publishes by invitation only. More info will follow on
availability, readings, book signings, etc.

Congratulations, Lylanne.