Richard Hugo House's National Poetry Month Celebration
Seattle, Wash., based Richard Hugo House is celebrating National Poetry Month. For every day this month, local poets are being filmed in odd places throughout the area reading their favorite poems. Those videos will be published on the publisher's blog, so check them out.
Here's an example from the project; Peter Pereira reads Frank O'Hara's "Lana Turner Has Collapsed!"
For those in the Seattle area, please check out the other events and activities the publisher is hosting:
A Good Line: Artists on Poems
April 1-30; reception on April 12, 6-9 p.m.
Local artists Gala Bent, Sharon Arnold, Troy Gua, Counsel Langley, Ryan Molenkamp, Amanda Manitach, Erin Shafkind, Nola Avienne, David Lasky, Liz Tran, Shaun Kardinal and Jed Dunkerley create new work based on poems they love. These paintings are on display throughout the month of April at the House. Gallery opening and happy hour on Tuesday, April 12, 6-9 p.m.
Recto Verso: A Small Press Expo
April 9, 2-6 p.m.
Meet local and visiting publishers and gain exposure to the independent publishing industry, featuring Copper Canyon Press, Wave Books, Future Tense Books, Chin Music Press and many other local and visiting presses and publishers. There will be readings by Aaron Kunin (Fence), Kevin Sampsell (Future Tense), Ed Skoog (Copper Canyon Press), Michael Riley Parker (Wonderlust) and others; informal talks; and drinks throughout the afternoon. Admission is $5-15 sliding scale (Includes gifts and a nifty book bag with price of entry). Presented in partnership with Pilot Books.
A Reading with Melissa Kwasny and Christopher Howell
April 18, 7 p.m.
Melissa Kwasny, former Seattleite and student of Richard Hugo’s at the University of Montana, visits Hugo House for a reading from her new collection of prose poems, “Nine Senses.” Kwasny is joined by Spokane poet Christopher Howell. A former journalist for the US Navy in the Vietnam War, Howell is the author of eight collections of poetry, including “The Crime of Luck” and “Light’s Ladder,” winner of the Washington State Book Award in 2005. The reading is free.
What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?
April 20, 7 p.m.
Peter Pereira, Kathleen Flenniken, Judith Roche and Bob Redmond talk and read poems about the destruction and healing of our natural world. The reading is free.
Poetry Rocks!
April 21, 7:30 p.m.
Jose Bold, Sara Edwards, Goldfinch and Jason Dodson of the Maldives are taking their favorite poems to the natural next step: turning them into songs. Expect to hear poems from Wallace Stevens, Dean Young, Walt Whitman, Yeats, Keats, Dorothy Parker, Theodore Roethke and more translated into musical beauty. (There are rumors that Jose Bold may riff on Jewel’s “A Night Without Armor” to keep irony alive.) Each musician, great lyricists in their own right, performs original work, too. Come for the music and stay for the poetry. Tickets are $10 and available by calling (206) 322-7030.
Write Out: A Happy Hour for Writers
April 26, 6-8 p.m.
Hugo House’s new, popular happy hour for writers is bards-only this month. Guests Carol Guess, John Burgess and David Nixon of “Awesome” offer writing prompts to get you started and then hunker down and write. If their prompts don’t do it for you, a grab-bag of writing prompts and exercises and a small library of books on writing are available to inspire you. And to further inspire you, happy hour specials are available at the bar.
4 Courses
April 27, 6:30 p.m.
Joyce Carol Oates once wrote, “If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?” At 4 Courses, featuring four pairings of writers—Langdon Cook, Kevin Craft, Kate Lebo and Martha Silano—with food from Tom Douglas Restaurants and pie from High 5 Pie , Oates’ question is answered with a resounding “Yes!” Tickets are $15/$10 for students and seniors and available by calling (206) 322-7030.
“Cheap Wine and Poetry”
April 28, 7-10 p.m.
Hugo House closes out the month with its popular reading series, featuring poets Roberto Ascalon, Elizabeth Austen, Paul Nelson and Katharine Ogle. Plus, cheap wine! The reading, as always, is free. Open mic follows the featured readers.
Details at www.hugohouse.org or call (206) 322-7030. ***Please stop by Reading Frenzy for today's National Poetry Month Blog Tour stop on Dylan Thomas.