Part 1 of the 2016 Poetry Crush Valentine Issue with Bianca Stone, Timothy Liu, Steven Leyva, Joe Hall, Loren Erdrich, Joanna Penn Cooper, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Lauren Gordon, Vanessa Gabb, and Cheryl Quimba!
By Bianca Stone
It's one of my first and still favorite mags. And I'm in excellent company, too: Michael Klein, Natalie Shapiro, Dean Rader, William Logan, Matthew Lippman and so many more!
Lookit all that fine writin'.
"Knox’s humor is the kind of funny which is surprising, generous, and vulnerable, and which demands generosity and vulnerability from the reader. This is the kind of funny we have found in writers as various as Gertrude Stein, Samuel Beckett, Antonin Artaud, and Kenneth Koch, as well as in many of the contemporary writers included by Stephen Burt in the modern “elliptical” mode. Absurdism, surrealism, camp, bait-and-switch, jiggery-pokery: the kind of funny, you don’t get what you paid for, you can’t sell it on. It’s the humor, not the gravity it supposedly punctures, which makes Days of Shame & Failure worthy of our attention, all the way through."
Thank you, Ailbhe, for such a brilliant, expansive read!
Join me for what promises to be a super exciting six-session class at the Des Moines Social Club beginning February 8 for poets of all levels. We'll meet every Monday for 6 weeks from 6-7:30. Here's what's on the menu:
Nothing thrills like a creative moment—the kind in which you see the world with entirely new eyes. But those moments are elusive. When we try to force them, they disappear. Many times, it’s fear, self-censorship, and reliance on logic that stops us from listening to ourselves. But poetry is an ideal medium to practice creative bravery, because every memory, every idea, contains the seed of a poem.
Each session will explore fun strategies to get your memories, experience and ideas down on paper and into poems. We’ll read exciting work by contemporary poets, then practice and share our results.
The class will end with a student reading at the Des Moines Social Club in the evening. Your friends, family, and fans are invited! The voices that tell you “No” are not invited!
The total for all six sessions is $160. Register here: https://59759.blackbaudhosting.com/59759/Writing-Poetry-without-a-parachute-08Feb2016
This is going to rock! I hope to see you there!
“As great as her work is on the page, it’s even better when she’s doing it in the German accent of an angry gynecologist, or the wise voice of a retired Hollywood stunt dog,” Compton said.
That Shanna...always talking about gynecologists.
...is pretty much the best thing ever. Thank you!!!!!
"Part James Tate, part Denis Johnson"?! Whoa! I'll take it! Thanks, BS!
Beginning Feb 6, I'll be teaching a six-session poetry writing class at the Des Moines Social Club called "Writing Without A Parachute"! Sign ups start soon. I can't wait!
Click to go to there!
