Poetdelphian Kelly McQuain reads with Elizabeth Scanlon and Kasey Jueds on Wed. Feb. 25th. Full details on Facebook at this LINK.
Poetry at Moonstone — Fergie’s Pub, 2/25/15
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Journal Spotlight: Thrush
Happy New Year!
The January edition of Thrush Poetry Journal offers an opportunity to give a couple shout outs to the Poetdelphia community. Poetdelphian Valerie Fox has work in the new issue, as does friend of Poetdelphia Craig Moreau. Check it out at the link. Thrush has distinguished itself in only a few years as a journal to watch. Kudos to Valerie (and her collaborator Arlene Ang) and to Craig! Valerie and Craig have books out if you are curious for more. Valerie’s books include The Glass Book (Texture Press, 2011). Craig is the author of Chelsea Boy (Chelsea Station Editions, 2011). Thrush is named after the songbird whose cry is among the most distinctive and beautiful. It’s published six times a year online in alternating months.
http://www.thrushpoetryjournal.com/january-2015.html
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Image from the Audubon Index.
Winston Smith was Black
Philadelphia novelist and educator Simone Zelitch tackles the Orwellian state of police-citizen relationships in this thoughtful and provocative essay. Check it out! #ICantBreathe #GeorgeOrwell #1984
George Orwell 1903-1950
I’m always afraid to teach George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four. Frankly, I feel too close to the book. Full disclosure: my husband gave me a facsimile edition of the original manuscript as an engagement present. It’s the size of a coffee-table and has insertions in Orwell’s spidery handwriting. We quote lines of the novel to each other like a secret code.
What motivated me to teach it last Fall? I’d read an excerpt from David Eggers’ The Circle, a 
satirical novel about the seductive power of internet transparency, and I decided that the only way to help my students understand that novel’s ironies would be to open with the Orwell. I thought I’d teach the first hundred pages of Nineteen Eighty-four, show the film version to fill in the narrative gaps, and move on to the breezier, easier world of Eggers’ social-media addicts.
But…
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Open Letter to White Poets
Poets, what is an artist’s responsibility to the political moment? Poet Danez Smith raises that issue here. http://donshare.blogspot.com/2014/11/open-letter-to-white-poets-from-danez.html
Read his powerful, succinct poem “juxtaposing the black boy & bullet” here: http://blogthisrock.blogspot.com/2014/01/poem-of-week-danez-smith.html
#DanezSmith #Ferguson #poetry
Danez Smith, from Split This Rock
Submit to Press 1
Poetdelphians, Elizabeth Thorpe (editor of Press 1) is currently accepting submissions (fiction, poetry, lyrics).
Joanna Fuhrman’s Abecedarian of Writing Ideas–
Submissions open for Crimmins Prize (at Philadelphia Stories)
http://www.philadelphiastories.org/sandy-crimmins-national-prize-poetry
Deadline is Nov. 15.
This year’s judge is Jeffrey Ethan Lee.
Call for poems: “Of the street” from Magma
Here’s a call for poems on “street” theme from the excellent UK poetry journal Magma.
Call for contributions – Magma 61 on the theme of ‘the street’
Musehouse: Fall Catalog
Check out the fall offerings from Musehouse.
Check out the fall offerings at Musehouse in Mt. Airy.
http://www.musehousecenter.com
Lynn Levin is offering two four-week courses in October, one on working with prompts for poetry writing, and the other in writing poems using short forms (triolet, rondel, and so on).
Amongst others offering workshops this fall are Kristina Moriconi, Grant Clauser, and Leonard Gontarek.
Here’s their full catalog:
http://www.musehousecenter.com/Musehouse_Fall-2014.pdf
“Velvet Rodeo” by Kelly McQuain (Reviewed)
Dear Poetdelphians, wanted to share this review of Kelly McQuain’s Velvet Rodeo (winner of the 2013 Bloom chapbook prize)–
Valerie
“Velvet Rodeo” by Kelly McQuain (Reviewed).
Poetdelphia 