Dirty Water/BASH: Video, Poems, and a Short Notice Invitation

Posted by on April 17, 2012 No comments

Last September, the first of three (so far) readings in the BASH Reading Series at Brookline Booksmith spilled over into an after-reading in Jonathan Papas’ living room. Afaa Michael Weaver, Nick Demske, Molly McGuire, Rad Thie, Rebecca Wolff, and Michele Harris read, several of them for a second time that evening. (BASH had featured Weaver, Demske, and Wolff.) I caught at least one poem (or part of one poem) by the first three on video, and I found the files on my phone this afternoon. And so I share them with you. Molly McGuire, incidentally, will be reading at 7PM, this Thursday, April 19 with Jim Goar and Peter Richards at Lorem Ipsum Books in Inman Square as part of the Dirty Water Reading Series.

But now the videos. Sorry for the quality. Sorry Molly for starting the recording a ways into your poem. Sorry everybody.

Afaa Micahel Weaver, “COMPOSITION FOR WHITE CRITICS WHO THINK AFRICAN-AMERICAN POETS CANNOT WORK IN CONTEXTS OF PURE CONCERNS FOR LANGUAGE AND POST-POSTMODERN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY INVENTIVENESS IN LYRIC EXPRESSION DUE TO THEIR SELF-LIMITING CONCERNS WITH LANGUAGE AS A MEANS OF SELF-EXPRESSION AND RACIAL/CULTURAL IDENTITY IN POETRY THAT IS ULTIMATELY PERHAPS BEAUTIFUL HOWEVER TOO TRITE AND TOO FOLKSY TO BE POST [//] THEORIST EFFICACY”:

Nick Demske, from his Starfucker series (can’t make out the title):

Molly McGuire, from Flummydiddles:

Edit: The statement about how many videos were recorded has been changed to reflect the actual number of videos. Lord.

The Last GRS for 2011-2012: The Curator’s Reading

Posted by on April 16, 2012 No comments

It’s a longstanding tradition (ahem.. 2 years…) for the GRS curators to host a final reading for the year in which they hand-pick an all star line up of 4 special guest readers, and then read themselves. And so, without further ado, we present to you the line up for this year’s Curator’s Reading. The reading will be held on Friday April 20th in Walker 230 at 7pm.

Amber McBride is a second year MFA Poetry student!! She enjoys baby unicorns, baby puffins and babyShiloh, her puppy. She also likes birds and men with long hair and beards. Next semester she will beinterning at the Furious Flower Poetry Center in Harrisonburg Virginia while writing her thesis . Here shewill be meeting and working with Joanne Gabbin, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. Sheis very excited about this opportunity to bribe one of them into writing the intro to her first collection ofpoetry. Just kidding…kinda.

 

Born under the big Montana sky, Demetra Perros has retired from her days of ropin’ doggies and howlin’ at the moon… for now. She set out east to see what the big hoopla was about. Life among them city slickers sure is different, but at least she’s found some wells to wet her pen. She’s layin’ down her saddle and spurs to deliver to you the prose of a prairie pioneer.

 

Before bartending in Copenhagen but after working in a psychiatrist’s office, Ben Lobpries sold Oriental rugs in downtown Chicago.  He started teaching to support his writing habit and ended up liking it, so now he does that instead.  He has a “professional” CV, but the unofficial one is way more interesting.  You should buy him a drink and ask him about it. For tonight, Ben will be reading fiction.

 

Aaron Krol writes poetry with all the vibrant and varied splendor of his favorite colors: beige, taupe, paste, oatmeal and carpet. Prepare to experience scorching red fury, fathomless blue sorrow and verdant green envy – or at least eraser-red mild irritation, sleet-blue downcast ennui, and chewing-gum-green “oh, that was nice.”  Shannon Wagner studies cat-having at Emerson, where she pursues her MFA in having-a-cat, curates the GRS, and has a cat. Her fellow curator has rejected her repeated requests to devote her fifteen minutes to performative feline possession, so she will be reading poetry. Reluctantly.

 

Things you might not know about Emily Neeves: she has a blue belt in karate. She likes holding chainsaws. It would take her one hour and 4 minutes to become infected from a zombie bite. Her first short story was accepted for publication in the print journalSalamander this spring and will be out in June. She hasn’t decided what she wants to read to you all yet, but there’s a good likelihood it will be fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.

 

Superstitiously Fun: GRS on Friday the 13th

Posted by on April 9, 2012 No comments

Friday the 13th is upon us. Where will you go to make sure all that bad luck stays far far away? The GRS! We’re returning to the Beard Room for our penultimate reading of the year. Shannon will be attending a wedding, so in her stead you’ll find Emerson’s very own Redivider EIC David Snyder. The reading will be packed with the usual munchies and feature the stellar prose and/or poetic stylings of the following Emersonians.

Donald Vincent is the only African-American male in the MFA program at Emerson. He is in his fourth semester and will be reading poetry.
Poet, dachshund enthusiast, legal resident of New York, prankster, unicorn with glittered hooves. You can call Charlotte Seley whatever you want but don’t call her cupcake. She is the poetry editor of Redivider and has published work online in Chronogram, InDigest Magazine, inter|rupture, and others.

 

Miranda Roberson hails from Fargo, where the people there look for any excuse to elongate their o’s, dooontchaknooow. She’ll be reading nonfiction and poetry, both without long o’s, so don’t get your hopes up.

A long time ago, Amy Lester was asked, “Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’?”  Well, of course she had, but she happily disregarded it.  And she has continued to disregard the sentiment ever since.  In fact, two years ago, she decided to try and add “writing” to her list of trades by pursuing an MFA in creative nonfiction.  So her former piano teacher (may she rest in peace) can take THAT!

Abby Travis has gotten a bit bored with standard bio notes, so she’ll save you the trouble. She’s from just outside the Twin Cities of Minnesota, right at a place of flux and change, where the suburbs give way to the prairie. Lately she’s been thinking a lot about expectations–why we expect certain things in our experience to be a certain way or follow certain patterns or rules. You should know that on Friday she’ll be reading nonfiction, and it probably won’t be what you expect to hear.

Miranda Moody is a mystery.

GRS Teams Up With GSP for ROTFLMAO Good Time

Posted by on March 26, 2012 No comments

Acronym overload alert! This Friday, the GRS/GSP (Graduate Students for Publishing–it’s new, and promises to be sweet) are teaming forces and budgets to bring you lots of food and beverages and literary sensations beyond your wildest dreams. The food/drink selection will be some old and some new. If you’ve never been to a GRS, this is the one to see. If you’re knee deep in thesis-work, this is the break you’ve been yearning for. And if your a GRS regular, we’ve got everything you love, and more. Here are the reader bios.

Grace Schauer is a music note printed in small type to indicate that she is melodically and harmonically nonessential.  She was born in 1815 and wrote her first poems shortly after.  Having stretched a two-year program past all decency and reason, she will graduate in May.

After his undergraduate years at Baker University, Keith Gaboury earned a MA inEnglish / creative writing at San Francisco State University. He’s currently attendingEmerson College’s MFA program. Keith will be reading from a collection of ekphrasticpoetry, outer space-theme poems and a persona poem in the voice of an animal. Come tothe GRS and guess who is speaking!

Kelly Addams is a first year MFA student. She will be reading fiction.

Andy Dost is a second year in the publishing program, taking odd jobs as they come. He sticks to a need-to-know clause on all contracts and will not pry into business practices or blow whistles. Odd jobs include writing nonfiction, editing, coding, high-security exchanges of goods, and otherwise. Whistle-making companies need not apply.

Nicole Miller is a final year MFA student in fiction, who is currently writing a novel and a memoir.  She grew up in New York city, near Washington Square, which is also the setting of the novel excerpt she will be reading at the GRS.  For recent writing online, you can check out her article, “Cavafy in Paradise”, on translating the Alexandrian poet C.P. Cavafy at the House of Literature in Paros, Greece, last summer:http://www.emerson.edu/academics/academic-services/graduate-studies/department-news/creative-writing-student-attends-translation-workshop-greece

Lauren Johnson: Due to some confusion over where in the world is the real Lauren Johnson, we’ve been delayed in obtaining a bio. It’s coming soon!

 

Get the Paddy Wagon Ready–It’s the GRS!

Posted by on March 12, 2012 No comments

We assume you’re all recovering from a wild Spring Break in Cancun, but don’t bother nursing those hangovers just yet: It’s a special St. Patty’s Day edition of the GRS! We haven’t seen many of you since you left for AWP, and we have a lot of catching up to do. We’ve got snacks. We’ve got caffine. We’re in our beloved Beard Room. And we’ve got a kickass reader line-up. Check out their bios below.

Paige Towers is a writer who has a large white dog, minimal amounts of money and a scar on her upper lip. She may or may not be famous one day.

Ashley Alexander is a first year nonfictionalist, poet, and barback. Once, while studying in London, she smoked a cigarette with Jude Law. It was not as sensual an experience as it sounds.

Sarah Chaves is a nonfiction writer from Revere, MA. She is also Portuguese. People seem to really like this about her, especially when she gets angry and yells in Portuguese. Mais sangria!

Shannon LeBlanc is a first year MFA nonfiction student who is accepting suggestions for a thesis. For ideas, here are her current interests: yoga, running, cuddling, chips, and humus. She lives in Somerville with her best friend from childhood and their two terrorist cats.

Martin C. Hansen is the author of an influential instruction manual for the idle rich entitled Shop Yourself Stupid!, an uplifting self-improvement book for shut-ins called Shop Yourself, Stupid!, and the best-selling satirical bodice-ripper, Then the Bride Said ‘Surprise!’ His future plans include writing a travel guide to the penny mines of the future, inventing a condom that not only prevents but actually cures STDs, endorsing a pro-model pogo stick, marketing a shoehorn for removing one’s foot from one’s mouth and pillaging an MFA in Nonfiction from Emerson College, among other get-rich-slow schemes.

John Fantin was born about 3 seconds ago, and that’s why he has no biography.

FJORDS FOR SATURDAY

Posted by on March 8, 2012 1 comment

TWO READINGS TODAY & TOMORROW

Posted by on March 8, 2012 No comments

TODAY: Literary Death Match at Club Oberon
JUDGES: Tom Perotta (author of The Leftovers, Little Children. and Election), Joe Piccirillo (of Conan or Bust) and Niki Luparelli (of Steamy Bohemians)
THE ‘CONTESTANTS’: Bob Shea (author of Dinosaur vs. the Potty), Lizzie Stark (author of Leaving Mundania and editor of Fringe), Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (winner of the 2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award), and Ken Calhoun (author of Big Swing)

Introduced by Todd Zuniga (founder of LDM and editor of Opium Magazine). Doors at 7pm. $10 in advance/$15 at the door—students, $8 at the door. Alexandria and Lizzie are Emerson alums with strong wills to live and their chops are unimpeachable. You can read Vernacular’s interview with Alexandria here.


Image from Lost Wackys

FRIDAY: BASH #2 at Brookline Booksmith
READERS: Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (author of Black Swan and ]Open Interval[), Thomas Sayers Ellis (author of Skin, Inc. and The Maverick Room), and Jericho Brown (winner of the American Book Award for Please, also winner of an NEA fellowship for poetry).

Aafa Michael Weaver (‘poet, translator, oracle, empath, and first Elder of Cave Canem’) will introduce the readers. My friend Jon Papas put this together, and it’s the first of several events he has lined up for Spring 2012 that you do not want to miss.

GRS Reading 3/2

Posted by on February 27, 2012 No comments

Not going to AWP? That’s right–because the party’s happening right here in Boston! The GRS is hosting its third reading installment of the semester, and we’ve got 5 fantabulous readers plus food and a special guest appearance by Liz Pashley as co-curator (since Emily is going to be stressed out, broke, and frozen in Chicago).

Get ready to kick your spring breaks off with some good times!

Here are your readers:

Kevin Cutrer was raised in the American South, has lived in South America, and writes poems and stories about both. He’s a first year poetry student whose work has appeared in various publications in the US, Canada, and the UK, including, most recently, The Hudson Review, The Cimarron Review, and the anthology A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry edited by Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz. He and his wife live in Arlington.

Jensen Toperzer spends time traveling in a blue police box and dragging people off on adventures. Often, time is lost track of, as are trains of thought; where and when one is becomes extremely muddled.

Sarah Addison is a second-year MFA student who is interested in playwriting, screenwriting, novel writing, and short story writing, especially of the linked variety.  She recently had a story published in the first issue of “Words Apart,” an online literary magazine started by Emerson College graduate students in writing and publishing.  Sarah is a fan of 19th century British literature, not only for the love stories, meandering plots, stock characters, and irony, but for their goals of social consciousness and social betterment.  She will be reading fiction at Friday’s GRS.

Adam Hanover is the rarest of endangered species: a poet who still writes sonnets.  You probably know me better as the barista who slings your lattes next door in a crooked Phillies cap while singing Justin Bieber songs a capella.

Sarah Banse is the old woman you see on the 10th floor or at Ploughshares and you think to yourself, There is no way she is student-but alas you are wrong.  She writes fiction when she is not overwhelmed from being an old woman.

Look at those smiling faces! So eager to read for you all!

GRS Readers for 2/17

Posted by on February 13, 2012 No comments

Looking for something to do this Friday? Come to the Graduate Reading Series! (7PM, Beard Room). Here’s who’s reading this week.

Susannah Clark is doing the E Street Shuffle.

Elizabeth Christensen likes the word cacophony and eating whole avocados with a spoon. She’ll be reading fiction.

Thea Engst hails from Fabius, New York. She grew up on her father’s dairy farm but hates cheese. She’s currently working on her thesis, writing poems about family, travel, current events but never about cheese.

Luke M. Jones is a jack of all trades and not quite a master of any of them. So avant garde it’s just plain weird? Improbably ’80s sci fi? 10 pages about a lampshade? Don’t put anything past Luke. Well, maybe not the lampshade…

Jon McConnell writes fiction, and then he reads it.

Elizabeth Pashley is a second year MFA student in fiction, though perhaps she is better known for her gut tickling non-fiction and Vogonesque poetry. When she is not saving kittens from trees or serenading the homeless with her ukulele, she contemplates the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, since she has yet to find the question. Elizabeth will be reading fiction. Probably.

Readers for 2/17!

The Graduate Reading Series Kicks Off Spring 2012 With TWO Awesome Events

Posted by on January 31, 2012 No comments

The Graduate Reading Series is back! Since you all must have missed us so much over the break, we decided to jump-start Spring 2012 with a double booking of GRS events! That’s right, you get to see Shannon and Emily’s smiling faces TWICE in one glorious night! Oh, and you also get to attend two very different but very cool events.

The first event is our first ever (and hopefully annual) Literary Agent Panel. Like the Grants and Residencies Panel of the fall, it’s a networking and professional development event. Come hear Boston-based literary agent Lorin Rees discuss how to catch an agent’s attention and what it’s like to work with one. After the discussion, there will be a question and answer period, so come with questions! Lorin has also graciously offered to meet one-on-one with 15 lucky participants from the panel. Sign-ups for this opportunity will take place at the end of the event, which runs from 5-6pm and will be held in Walker 202 this Friday, 2/3/12. The individual meetings will take place on Thursday 2/9 between 1 and 5 pm.

Our second event of the night is our First Reading for Spring 2012. We’ve got a great menu and an even better line up. Check them out below. The reading will be in the Beard Room at 7PM, this Friday (2/3).

Lea McLellan is a first year nonfiction student at Emerson College. Lea has been published in Seven Days: Vermont’s Alternative Newsweekly and she was a blogger for Asia Society in New York. She was the editor-in-chief of the University of Vermont’s alternative newspaper, The Water Tower for three, glorious years. She is also pretty fun to hang out with…she thinks.

 Rebecca Podos is a fiction writer. She enjoys things, and works for the Rees Literary Agency, where you should all send your work for her to read. Rebecca@reesagency.com

 Zaynah Qutubuddin is from Richmond, Virginia and even though her family wants her back after she graduates in May, she plans to remain in Boston for a little while longer. Beyond that plan to not move (except possibly to a new apartment), she is not entirely sure what she will be doing. But that’s okay because she is currently excited to complete her collection of short stories for her fiction thesis and is enjoying being an editorial intern at the Pohly Company.

 Ricky Davis is a daddy. And a bear. He is a daddy bear. He’s also a second year MFA student who enjoys writing prose and poems about strange things happening to ordinary people. His work has appeared in Prick of the Spindle, Phantom Kangaroo and Scissors & Spackle. And he has small hands. Very small hands.

Marlena Clark is in her second year of the MFA program for Fiction. If you need to find her, she’ll be in the library, in the super secret room o’ carrels where it is actually quiet.

Amanda Hartzell strings words together and has yet to master optical illusions.  She’ll be reading fiction.

Our Readers for 2/3!