Category: Performance

Arkansas Literary Festival: Three Events I’m Hyped About

Blantantly copied and pasted straight from the Arkansas Times from their listings for Saturday, April 14:

Queer for You (Cox Creative Center, 3rd floor, 4 p.m.). Poets Bryan Borland (“My Life as Adam”), Nickole Brown (“Sister”) and Ed Madden (“Prodigal Variations”) will talk about building readership for work that addresses LGBTQ life. Borland, from Alexander, is editor of Assaracus, a quarterly journal of gay poetry; Nickole Brown, at one time an editorial assistant to Hunter S. Thompson, teaches at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; and Ed Madden, an Arkansas native, is associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina.

Magazine (Oxford American, 5:30 p.m.). The editors of three of the most well-regarded — and read — literary magazines gather to give a behind-the-scenes peek into the process of assembling their publications. With Marc Smirnoff of the Oxford American, Heidi Julavits of The Believer and Marco Roth of n+1. Of added interest, n+1 has been critical of The Believer and McSweeney’s, the company that publishes The Believer, so mannered sparks may fly. Perhaps more compelling, the Oxford American will be serving free cocktails during the panel and afterwards at a reception that lasts until 7:30 p.m.

Pub or Perish (Lulav: A Modern Eatery, 7 p.m.). David Koon, the Arkansas Times’ own Mark Twain, once again wraps up Saturday night’s festivities by handing the mike to local greats, who’ll read before an audience prone to tears and laughter thanks to ongoing lubrication from the bar.

For more on these and other readings and panels, visit the Arkansas Lit Fest website.

Upcoming Appearances

Discussion on Poetry, Publishing, and Marketing
Poets’ Roundtable
Saturday February 11
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Main Library – River Market
Little Rock, Arkansas

Ekphrastic Poetry Slam (Guest Judge)
Saturday, February 25
7:30 PM
Arkansas Arts Center
501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock, Arkansas

Collective Brightness: Religion through Poetry
Sunday, February 26
10:00 AM – Room 222
First United Methodist Church – The Forum
Conway, Arkansas

BLOOM Presents DIVINING DIVAS
Thursday, March 1
6:00 PM
Rehab Cocktail Lounge
3641 N Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois

AWP
March 1 – March 3
Chicago, Illinois

Assaracus: A Celebration of Gay Poetry
Friday, March 23
7:30 PM
CLAGS: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

Rainbow Book Fair
Saturday, March 24
11 AM – 5:30 PM 
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York, New York

LGBT Panel with Nickole Brown and Ed Madden
Arkansas Literary Festival
Saturday, April 14
Time & Location TBD

Sibling Rivalry Press Showcase
Saturday, April 28
3:00 PM
Decatur Library
215 Sycamore Street
Decatur, Georgia

Atlanta Queer Literary Festival Schedule

June 23-25
atlqueerlitfest.blogspot.com

Thursday, June 23
Opening Night Reading
7:30 p.m. at Charis Books & More
1189 Euclid Ave. NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
www.chariscircle.org
Features host Lisa Allender and readers Don Perryman, Sharon J. Sanders, Alice Teeter, Mose Hardin, Reginald Jackson, David Matthew Barnes, Iyana, Bailey White, Dustin Brookshire and Jef Blocker.

Friday, June 24
Keynote Address
7:30 p.m. at Decatur Public Library
215 Sycamore St.
Decatur, GA  30030
Features host Franklin Abbott, keynotes Bryan Borland and Theresa Davis, and Broadside Contest winner announcement and reading

Saturday, June 25
Readings, Panels & Workshops
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Decatur Public Library
11 a.m. to noon – Brunch in the lobby
11 a.m. Social Media Panel: Collin Kelley, Karen Head, Stan Fong
12 p.m. Publishing Panel: Bryan Borland, Craig Gidney, Philip Rafshoon
1 p.m. Film Panel: Andy Ditzler, Alex Arias, Taryn Crenshaw, Jim Farmer
2 p.m. Fiction Panel: Daniel Allex Cox, Craig Gidney, Collin Kelley
2 p.m. Poetry Reading: Akinfe Fatou, Bryan Borland
3 p.m. Diversity in Literature: Kerrie Cotton Williams, Akinfe Fatou, Bucky Motter, Charone Padgett, Craig Gidney
4 p.m. Poetry Workshop: Akinfe Fatou
4 p.m. Fiction Reading: Daniel Allen Cox, Megan Volpert, Daniel Black

AQLF Slam
7 p.m. at Java Monkey Coffee House
425 Church St.
Decatur, GA 30030
Features host Karen G and poets Gabe Moses, Erin Northern, Fran Varian and Chris August

Moving Target 002 – Learning Italian and an Adam Revision

More roadside fun, yo. Enjoy.  

Moving Target 001 – Borland Vlogs Luczak and Edwards

Without further adieu, here’s the first installment of what I’m calling MOVING TARGET! My new vlog from the side of the road.

This vlog features:

The Mop-Haired Boy by Raymond Luczak

Summer is a mop-haired toothy-grinned boy
who’s never had to work a single day in his life.
Lanky yet never gawky, he ambles by
all the girls with petals in their hair
oozing gasps of nectar in his wake.

Full of weed-induced giggles, he lazes about
and says, “Man, what’s happening,” a lot.
Nights of fireflies puncture the haze of his vision.
He inhales the poppy scents of romance,
but it’s not enough. So heroin it is.

He doesn’t understand why nobody wants him now.
He’s forgotten how one can stink after not bathing so long.
Forced to enter a methadone clinic, he cuts his hair.
Seeing his own pock-marked face in the mirror
for the first time is a terrible autumn.

The Touch of the Notch by Theresa Senato Edwards

She’d done absurd things as a child:
the counting of steps up stairways,
the repeating grip of the doorknob in her palm,
always going back to the knob,
going back to the corner of the door,
it had a notch in one of its grooves,
a smooth wooden pool of calm.

She’d rub a circle to the right,
outline the groove,
pray for resolve.

~
When she and her three year old
moved into their first apartment,
she decorated.
Inside the perfectly smooth door,
she gave her son a room
and looked for a hollow
space she could call home.
Ran her fingers down the wood
of every door,
closed eyes searching for indentation:
that invisible worry dump
to help with the nights
of her son’s temper tantrums,
the struggle to sleep by herself
before sleep became breaths of insomnia.

No notch in any door.
But she found a green dent
in beige primer on the hallway step.
In odd stillness, her fingers traced
the small spot
smooth like family,
quiet like a gift of understanding.

CHECK OUT ASSARACUS ISSUE 01 (featuring Raymond, not to mention his full-length collection, ROAD WORK AHEAD) AND VOICES THROUGH SKIN (by Theresa) – BOTH FROM SIBLING RIVALRY PRESS!

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