2 good ones…
Live Lit: Christy Crutchfield, Lily Ladewig, Andrea Lawlor, Gustavo Llarull, & Matt Weingast
Friday, March 27 @ Amherst Books @ 8pm
I’m reading. Don’t know what quite yet, but I have a feeling it will be some poems.
Emily Kendal Frey & Zachary Schomburg
jubilat/Jones Reading Series
Sunday, March 29 @ The Jones Library @ 3pm
Poetrygasms! Get there early for a seat, it’s going to be major.
I am remiss in not posting immediately about the following new fantastic publications:
Full Catastrophe Living by Zach Savich
I cannot say enough good things about Zach’s first collection, which won this year’s Iowa Poetry Prize. Can barely express my love for it. Nestled between the covers: nighttime in the corn fields, Don Quixote in the audience, boiling in the honey. His language does the beating for my heart.
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry
This is Jed’s first novel, published by Penguin in February. It’s getting a lot of great press and was already featured in the New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Details, and other big magazines. I loved reading it and was so gripped by the plot I completely forgot that I was reading a book by a friend–I was just reading a great book. A delicious novel to devour on a cold and rainy afternoon. It feels like drinking tea with milk and sugar.
Airport by Emily Kendal Frey
Frey’s new e-chapbook is exquisite, balancing a timelessly beautiful design with accessible online technology. The poems are lyrical and seem to float from the page, with each turn feeling like a new arrival. Read it, read it, read it. Then come to see her read at the Jones Library this Sunday!
And last but certainly not least…
It’s no wonder editor Seth Landman loves these poems about whaling, basketball, and Britney Spears, and you will too! All by beautiful friends Brian Baldi, Ezekial Black, Warm Jack Christian, Ari Feld, Lewis Freedman, Anjali Khosla Mullany, Mark Leidner, Edward Mullany, Emily Toder, & Lesley Yalen. Buy it for $6 here.
What: UMass Amherst MFA Alum Showcase
When: Thursday, March 12 (tomorrow) @ 7pm
Where: Augusta Savage Gallery, New Africa House, UMass
Who: Seth Landman, Kevin Meek, Lesley Yalen, & Jung Yun
Since the weather’s getting warmer and the drinks are getting cooler, I have a new guilty pleasure. Ordering an iced coffee at a local coffee shop and then pouring a little nip of Bailey’s (preferably their new Mint Chocolate flavor, only 99 cents at Pop’s Liquors).
It’s pretty darn tasty. And if you stroll around outside with it, it’s also deliciously illegal. Yum!
Last week I caught that nasty cold that everybody seems to be passing around like Skittles and ended up in bed for most of the weekend. Luckily Netflix finally fixed their “Watch Instant” software for Macs so I caught up on some serious movie-watching. I saw:
Bottle Shock
This was an under-the-radar movie of the Sideways Wine Comedy Oeuvre that came out last year and is based on the true story of how California wine became globally recognized in the 1970s. Not the greatest movie of the year but totally enjoyable and it’s nice to see Bill Pullman back in action. The sun-drenched cinematography made me want to visit Napa and drink bottles and bottles of really, really good Chardonnay.
W.
Eh. The best part was Thandie Newton’s constipated portrayal of Condoleezza Rice.
BBC’s newest version of Sense & Sensibility
OK, I love Masterpiece Theater (now re-invented by PBS as the snazzier Masterpiece Classic) and Jane Austen novels as much as the next person who loves Masterpiece Theater and Jane Austen, but I don’t understand why this new film was made because it doesn’t improve on Ang Lee’s 1995 film at all. OK, it’s a half-hour longer, so I suppose that makes it better. And there are some funny characters, like Lady Middleton and the elder Miss Steele, that were written out of the film and, yes, there’s the scene when Willoughby comes back towards the end to try to apologize. But I swear, screenwriter Andrew Davies bites off of Emma Thompson’s screenplay in almost every scene. That said I totally loved every minute of it because I’m a sucker.
I’m teaching the sestina form in my class next week and I want to put a packet together of contemporary sestinas, ideally from the past 10 years. Can anybody recommend some??? Thank you in advance.
