Greg Ames Reading Friday CANCELLED

DWC Fans,

Have you noticed the snow?

Unfortunately, the heavy snow and wind up and down the east coast has made travel between NYC, Binghamton and Syracuse near impossible. We're sorry to announce that the Greg Ames reading scheduled for Friday, 2/26 at 7 pm has been cancelled.

As we hope to reschedule, we'll keep you posted on any developments.

In the meantime, stay in, stay warm, read a good book. Might we recommend Buffalo Lockjaw?

Let's Get Ekphrastic!

Suffer from the winter blahs? Time to go ekphrastic!

What's ekphrasis?

It's the interpretation of one art form to another. Ekphrasis is probably most common in music. A composer watches a film and writes the musical score--the story she hears as she watches the film. In Becky Sernett's Ekphrastic Writing workshop that begins Saturday, March 6 (2:00 - 4:00 p.m., and runs for 4 weeks), writers will get the chance to translate the stories they see and hear in visual and musical art into words. The first class will meet at the Downtown Writer's Center, and future classes will make excursions to local art galleries.

There's still room to register, so sign up now!

Rust Wire Interview with Greg Ames

Please join us Friday, February 26th at 7pm for a reading by award-winning novelist Greg Ames.

And in the meantime, check out this interview with Greg for Rust Wire.

See you downtown!

Small Press Spotlight :: H_NGM_N

Yesterday (scroll down!) Nate Pritts gave a little background on his History of Small Press Publishing class & the project the students are working on - spotlight interviews with current small presses!

Fitting that today's interview, conducted by DWC student Jack Davis, is with Nate in his capacity as founder & principal editor of H_NGM_N - an online journal found here, with a burgeoning book series, here.

Take it, Jack!


Jack Davis: Besides individuality, what attributes do you think might make a poetic piece stand out more affectively?

Nate Pritts: One of the first things I notice about a poem is its use of a consistent voice - or its consistent misuse of consistency in terms of voice. I'm also drawn to a sense of risk, a sense of recklessness - either in terms of imagery, the utterance itself, the subject being discussed & the speaker's relationship to it. A poem that feels too safe or tidy turns me off immediately.


JD: Could you reveal your feelings, contrasting established writing tempos with oral performance rhythms and perhaps other orchestrations that might shape the sound or silence?

NP: For a long time I never paid much attention to how my poems sounded - I didn't read them out loud very much & worked on the page for the page. Now, I'm very aware - constantly reading my poems out to hear how the meaning is enforced or undermined by the sounds. I think what this means is that I'm thinking of my poetry in both private & public ways & trying to strike a balance between a poetic line that has rhythm & a driven compelling force established both through the meaning & the sounds.


JD: Other than READ, WRITE, and SUBMIT, what might be your best advise for an aspiring poet?

NP: Those are three pretty good words of advice. I was asked the other night for some general advice - not specifically about writing - & I said "I think we should all try really damn hard all the time." So, in addition to reading & writing & submitting - we should care a lot about those things. We should bust our asses.


JD: Whose responsibility to experience is the mystery, shape, or practice of poetry-the poet or the reader?

NP: The word responsibility trips me up a little here but I think, in general, the poet is the one who is writing the poem. I can't walk around & ensure all my readers are "doing it right." I need to do the best job I can to create the poem as an experience in & of itself - not just notation of an experience, but a little circus of its own.


JD: Are we relegating the art of poetry to epitaph?

NP: I don't think we are! But some people might be. I think there are lots of people who think of poetry as one specific thing - & some of these people are poets! It's time to embrace the various possibilities for the lively & dynamic art of poetry making. Poets can't complain that no one reads poetry & sulk. We need to find answers & work hard.


JD: If it’s not prying, could you share some personal favorite poems by form & content?


NP: I have too many poems & poets that I would list as favorites to even mention. I think that should be the point - & my favorites are wide ranging. Though I don't typically write formal verse, some of my favorite poems are in set forms. I don't think we can discount anything.

That Ongoing Conversation

Nate Pritts teaches at the DWC but can usually be found here - http://www.natepritts.com

This season, the DWC is running a class on “publishing” in the PRO Program & I’m lucky enough to be the one teaching it. Overall, the class details the history of literary publication - both in terms of literary journals & publishing houses, as they are records of literary movements & as they forge sustaining relationships in the lives of our major authors. Of course, we’re also tracking the contemporary landscape, figuring out where in the world our own work fits in.

In pure Marxist fashion, we'll wrest the means of production & dissemination from the vast & faceless & offer up our own work - via online journals or produced chapbooks.

One of our ongoing projects is for each class member to pick one small / literary / independent press as the focus for their special project, asking the head honcho of said press a few questions as a way of illuminating their mission (why they do what they do) & their aesthetic (of the work they publish & of the physical deliverable objects).

So stay tuned. We’ll be posting up the resulting interviews as “small press spotlights” right here on the DWC blog in the near future.

Regrets to Those Who Were Turned Away This Evening...

Good evening and thanks to those who made the effort to attend the reading this evening. I understand that, due to miscommunication with the front desk, that some of you were told there was no reading at the DWC. This was unfortunate since I arrived to set up just after you left. On such a damp, sloppy night it is hard enough to get out the door but to miss the reading must have been disheartening. I just wanted you to know that I am sorry for the miscue and disappointment that faced each of you who missed the reading.

Thanks to those who were there and thanks to Lyrae for sharing her work. Anyone who would want to purchase either of Lyrae's books can contact Phil when he returns next week. There are more in his office and they are worth the dead presidents!

Georgia
Pinch-hitting DWC Host

] Open Interval [ - Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon and Her New Work

In 2006, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon read from her first book, Black Swan, which had won the Cave Canem Prize. I was enthralled in the moment as she read and wanted more, so I bought the book to lounge in the language when the busy life around me permitted, with a cup of tea by my side on the table and Anthony Hamilton crooning in the background, much like now on this snowy morning.

Lyrae returns to the DWC this evening at 7 p.m. to read from her new collection ] Open Interval [ and perhaps share even newer work. ] Open Interval [ was a finalist for the National Book Award so this Cornell University Assistant Professor has significantly stepped up her game.

The stars in the sky, the flowers before her in the garden, the divorce and the accepting the life ahead as a sole entity rather than a partner all come to play in this collection.

A sparse sense of phrasing is prevalent in Lyrae's work. It is obvious that she trusts the intelligence of her readers. As she references Harriet Tubman, astronomy, Rilke, her interior world, her ancestors, there is plenty of room for the reader to slow down in the poem. Even her relationship with punctuation serves to slow the eye down and allow the mind to rest in each word. And punctuation becomes a new symbology with this poet. There are personal symbols for breath and timing that give these poems a unique profile.

To experience these poems in breath, in sound, join us in the Downtown Writer's Center at the Greater Syracuse YMCA at 340 Montgomery Street, at 7 p.m. This is still another FREE reading sponsored by the DWC with funding from the NYS Council on the Arts. We hope to see you tonight and to introduce you to Lyrae Van-Clief-Stefanon.