Poet Phillip Schultz Reading in NJ

Philip Schultz   photo by Monica Banks

The Warren County Community College Visiting Authors Series continues this Wednesday, October 13th, with a reading by Philip Schultz, recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

The event is free and open to the public.

It will be held in Room 123 at WCCC and will begin at 7:00 p.m. The WCCC Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges, will provide complimentary refreshments.

One of American poetry's longtime masters of the art, Philip Schultz is the founder/director of The Writers Studio, a private school for fiction and poetry writing based in New York City. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Failure (Harcourt 2007), winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. His other collections include The God of Loneliness: New and Selected Poems (2010), Living in the Past (2004), and The Holy Worm of Praise (2002), all published by Harcourt. He is also the author of Deep Within the Ravine (Viking 1984), recipient of The Academy of American Poets Lamont Prize; Like Wings (Viking 1978), winner of an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award as well as a National Book Award nomination; and the poetry chapbook, My Guardian Angel Stein (1986).

He lives in East Hampton, New York, with his wife, sculptor Monica Banks, and their two sons, Elias and August.


The WCCC Visiting Authors Series is supported by a grant from the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission. All facilities comply with ADA regulations and are fully accessible.

After Mr. Schultz’s reading, there will be a brief Q & A with the audience and a book signing. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

For directions to the college or to find out about WCCC’s Creative Writing degree program, please call (908) 835-9222 or visit www.warren.edu.

Redefinition

I heard Garrison Keillor read a poem recently on his Writer's Almanac program and knew that I read it myself once. It was from a book I bought back in 1987.

The poem was "Clara: In the Post Office" by Linda Hasselstrom who is a poet and essayist - and also a working ranch woman.

She is a writer of the High Plains whose work is rooted in the landscape. Her land is southwestern South Dakota around Hermosa where she lives. She writes, ranches, conducts writing retreats, and tends a botanic garden on the land homesteaded by her grandfather in 1899.

She was dubbed a “prairie philosopher” by Booklist magazine and is the winner of the Western American Writer award.

Her books include No Place Like Home: Notes from a Western Life , Between Grass and Sky: Where I Live and Work , Bitter Creek Junction,and Feels Like Far: A Rancher's Life on the Great Plains .

The poem surprised me then and it still surprises me.  That's always a compliment for a poem.

In the poem, she redefines the word "feminist."

I keep telling you, I'm not a feminist.
I grew up an only child on a ranch,
so I drove tractors, learned to ride.
When the truck wouldn't start, I went to town
for parts. The man behind the counter
told me I couldn't rebuild a carburetor.
I could: every carburetor on the place. That's
necessity, not feminism.

I think about all the words that might be used to define me - teacher, poet, writer, father, son, husband and others. For most, if not all of them, I would want to redefine the usual definition which doesn't quite fit me.

Hasselstrom doesn't define with a definition, but as we often do in life, she defines by example.

It's not
that I don't like men; I love them - when I can.
But I've stopped counting on them
to change my flats or open my doors.
That's not feminism; that's just good sense.

"Clara: In the Post Office" is from her book Roadkill which appears to be out of print right now. That's too bad. So, I'm happy to give it another chance this month on our October prompt page on the main site.

We ask you this month to write a poem that redefines a word. You might choose one that describes you but doesn't describe you. But you can also just redefine a word that you'd assume we all know by now.

Live Webcast From The Dodge Poetry Festival

Can't make it to the Dodge Poetry Festival this week?  There will be two free live webcasts done by NJN.


Thursday, October 7, 2010 7:30 - 10:30 (EST)
Opening Night "Poetry Sampler" featuring: Amiri Baraka, Tara Betts, Jericho Brown, Michael Cirelli, Billy Collins, Kwame Dawes, Matthew Dickman, Rita Dove, Martín Espada, Rigoberto González, Rachel Hadas, Bob Hicok, Tyehimba Jess, Galway Kinnell, Dorianne Laux, Dunya Mikhail, Nancy Morejón, Joseph Millar, Malena Mörling, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Sharon Olds, Marie Ponsot, Claudia Rankine, Kay Ryan


Sunday, October 10, 2010, Noon - 1 pm (EST)
U.S. Poets Laureates read: Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Kay Ryan, Mark Strand

Webcast link: http://www.njn.net/arts/dodgepoetryfestival

Geraldine R. Dodge Festival Begins Today

The 4-day Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival begins tonight.

Now in it's 24th year, the biennial festival - the largest poetry event in North America - will be held for the first time in Newark, New Jersey, the state's largest city.

A Poetry Sampler reading on Thursday evening, October 7th, features 24 poets and launches the Festival.

Friday is High School Student Day.

The full Festival schedule is online as a printable pdf document, and a list of festival poets with biographies is also online.

Events will be held in venues accommodating anywhere from 100 to over 2,700 people. The evening programs will be held in NJPAC’s Prudential Hall - a world-class performance space.There are single and multi-day ticket options.

The Festival is accessible via Newark's mass-transit hubs, including an international airport, major bus lines, a light-rail system and PATH service from Manhattan.