Marianne Murphy Zarzana
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The Pig Gig in Litchfield on Sunday, May 15 at 2 p.m.

4/30/2011

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James Lenfestey, the editor of Low Down and Coming On: A Feast of Delicious and Dangerous Poems about Pigs, will host a reading on Sunday, May 15 at 2 p.m. at the Litchfield Opera House (downtown, next to the post office--corner of 2nd St. and Marshall Ave. ).  
Free will donations at the door.  Refreshments will be available.

The anthology is dedicated to poet and essayist Bill Holm, professor emeritus of English at SMSU, whose idea it was before he died unexpectedly in 2009. In Bill's honor, over a dozen "pig gigs" have been presented in the Twin Cities area.

The book has been described on www.commongoodbooks.com as "a corpulent, beautifully designed hardcover anthology of 133 poems (and one recipe) by 103 poets (and one architect), edited with an introduction by James P. Lenfestey."

The Common Good Books website also states that "Lenfestey has done a yeoman's job gathering up poems from around the world and throughout literary time, including poems by a Nobel Prize winner (Pablo Neruda, in a new translation), two US Poet Laureates (Donald Hall, Ted Kooser), five state poet laureates (Robert Bly, Jane Gentry, William Kloefcorn, David Lee, Linda Pastan) and one Provincial treasure (John B. Lee). Plus nearly 100 others, some published here for the first time, others multiple blue ribbon winners. All the poets seem to find in our close porcine cousins something both delicious and dangerous, 'so right it's wrong,' as one poet says of his gourmand love."

The book contains funny, sad, and otherwise fascinating poems about pigs. Other poets include Carl Sandburg, William Blake, Joe Paddock, Bill Holm, James Lenfestey, Margaret Atwood, Wendell Berry, Robert Bly, Billie Collins, Louise Erdrich, Walt Whitman, Robert Service, Anne Sexton, Ted Hughes, and Shelley.  

Those reading selections from the book include Joe Paddock, James Lenfestey, Nancy Paddock, Bill Peltier, Darlene Kotelnicki and Carole Wendt.

Micawber's Books, a popular book store in Minneapolis, has called Low Down and Coming On the best poetry book of 2010.

"This book proves that pigs do fly," writes Eric Utne, founder of the Utne Reader.

Jim and I won't be able to go because we have another commitment, but I hope a good crowd gathers. The reading sounds like a wonderful way to honor Bill Holm and celebrate world-class poetry by bringing it to the people. I look forward to buying a copy and reading it this summer.
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Poetry Out Loud - National Finals in Washington, DC on April 29

4/29/2011

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Check out the Poetry Out Loud website hosted by the Poetry Foundation. Here's what's going on:

"From Fairbanks, Alaska, to Knoxville, Tennessee, 53 students from across the country will converge on Washington, DC on April 28-29, 2011 to compete in the National Finals of Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, the nation's largest youth poetry recitation competition. These young competitors advanced from a field of more than 365,000 students who tested their skills in poetry recitation in more than 2,000 schools nationwide. The top finalists and their schools will receive $50,000 in awards." 

On this website, they'll be posting videos of the top three winners reciting their poems. I've had the opportunity to judge and to serve as master of ceremonies when the regional competition has been held at Southwest Minnesota State University. I've been amazed at the talented students who memorized and recited poems by heart. 

Do you know poems by heart? If so, which ones? Your own? Other poets?

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Happy Birthday, Harper Lee

4/28/2011

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Today is the birthday of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. It was published on July 11, 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1961. It's one of my all-time favorite books. You can read more about Lee on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor.

The book is still a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted "Best Novel of the Century" in a poll by the Library Journal.


According to The Writer's Almanac, when the book was first published in 1961, "The opening line of the Washington Post review read, 'A hundred pounds of sermons on tolerance, or an equal measure of invective deploring the lack of it, will weigh far less in the scale of enlightenment than a mere 18 ounces of new fiction bearing the title To Kill a Mockingbird.'"
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The Last Deployment by Bronson Lemer

4/27/2011

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Here is the trailer for a new book coming out in June 2011 by Minnesota State University, Mankato MFA in Creative Writing alum Bronson Lemer: 
The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TIi6jtvKoII

Lemer is a creative writer, journalist, editor, and teacher. He spent six years as a carpenter with the North Dakota Army National Guard, including deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. His experiences in Iraq are the basis for his memoir The Last Deployment. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in mass communications and English from Minnesota State University Moorhead and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. His creative writing has appeared in The Reykjavik Grapevine, Blue Earth Review, and Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers.


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"Staff Sgt. Metz" by Dorianne Laux

4/26/2011

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Today's poem on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor is "Staff Sgt. Metz" by Dorianne Laux from The Book of Men: Poems. © W.W. Norton, 2011.

This achingly beautiful poem made me recall the many times I've passed a young, sober-faced soldier "in his camo gear and buzz cut" at the airport. 

Laux captures the tension of this scene with understatement--"Metz is alive for now"--and telling details--"the countless bones of his foot trapped in his boot"--along with the emotional landscape of one attentive bystander: "I don't believe in anything anymore: / god, country, money or love. / All that matters to me now / is his life, the body so perfectly made. . ." 

Dorianne Laux is one of my favorite poets, and I plan to read her new book of poems after the semester wraps up. 

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Window Washer

4/25/2011

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American Life in Poetry: Column 318
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
I love poems that take pains to observe people at their tasks, and here’s a fine one by Christopher Todd Matthews, who lives in Virginia.


Window Washer
 

One hand slops suds on, one
hustles them down like a blind.
Brusque noon glare, filtered thus,
loosens and glows. For five or
six minutes he owns the place,
dismal coffee bar, and us, its
huddled underemployed. A blade,
black line against the topmost glass,

begins, slices off the outer lather,
flings it away, works inward,
corrals the frothy middle, and carves,
with quick cuts, the stuff down,
not looking for anything, beneath
or inside. Homes to the last,
cleans its edges, grooms it for
the end, then shaves it off

and flings it away. Which is
splendid, and merciless. And all
in the wrist. Then, he looks at us.
We makers of filth, we splashers
and spitters. We sitters and watchers.
Who like to see him work.
Who love it when he leaves
and gives it back: our grim hideout,
half spoiled by clarity.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by Christopher Todd Matthews, and reprinted from Field, No. 82, 2010, by permission of Christopher Todd Matthews and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2011 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

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More Than Writing Conference at Minnesota State University, Mankato

4/24/2011

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On Saturday, I attended the More Than Writing Conference at Minnesota State University, Mankato, organized by the MFA grad students in the Creative Writing Program, including two SMSU grads, Jessica Welu and Jason Zahn.
  
A panel of first-year grad students gave a wonderful reading that included Chris Oveson, an instructor at SMSU, and Jessica Welu, a 2010 graduate of SMSU. A terrific panel titled "The Juggling Act: The Writing and Life after the MFA" was presented by writers Becky Fjelland-Davis, Gwen Hart and Roger Hart. I read on an SMSU panel with poets Susan McLean, Chris Oveson and Jerry Schaefer. So great to connect with some of my former professors, Rick Robbins, Roger Sheffer, Donna Casella, and good friends from grad school. Many thanks to Chris Oveson for organizing this panel. And thanks to all those at MSU, Mankato who made this conference happen.

As I head into the home stretch of this semester, the readings and conversations with fellow travelers on the writing path re-energized me, reminded me of all the unexpected joys to be found along the way.

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Rules for Writers

4/23/2011

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Here's a good article published last year in The Guardian: "Rules for Writers." Great  suggestions from some of the best writers around. 
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The Only Failure

4/22/2011

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"I'm proof against that word 'failure.' I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best."  -George Eliot
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SMSU Perceptions Literary Magazine - 2011

4/21/2011

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As part of SMSU's Fine Arts Celebration, a reading and reception was held today in the Whipple Gallery for Perceptions, the annual student literary and arts magazine. Students read their published poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and the top submission in each genre was awarded a "Don't Starve for Your Art" gift certificate for groceries. Afterwards, faculty, staff, students and family members enjoyed punch and delicious marble cake with fondant frosting that matched the brilliant green leaf image on the Perceptions cover. 

I love the energy in a room after a reading--the hum of intense conversations, the laughter a welcome release from the jitters of a public reading, the lit talk--"send out that poem, don't sit on it!"--and exciting news of acceptance at graduate school next fall. 

The student editors looked triumphant as they handed out copies of Perceptions, the finished product. What had they put into it? A semester of weekly night meetings, lunchtime at a table in the Student Center encouraging fellow students to submit their work, hours huddled around the computer screen choosing student art work, discussing submissions, making selections, emailing, and handling myriad tasks large and small. Now a new crop of SMSU student writers are in print, their words on their way out into the world.

Congratulations to all of you for your hard work andon a great publication!
 Ashley Nyren, Managing Editor; Laura Bania and Patrick VanNevel, Fiction Editors; Ari Copenhaver, Poetry Editor; Amanda J. Ochs and Courtney Casperson, Art/Design Editors; Brittney Heimermann, Submissions Manager; and staff members: Carrie Long, Daniel Kilkelly, Jamal Michel, Dannica Dufur, Kathrin Dzimian, Rochelle Luebke, and Brianna Johnson-Schaar.
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    I love to play with words. To capture moments on the page. To explore the physical and spiritual geography of what I call "fly-over country." I write from imagination, observation and my own experience of wandering in fly-over country--the literal, physical spaces of my life on the Minnesota prairie and the inner territory of the soul. 

    I teach writing at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota. I enjoy cooking and traveling with my husband Jim, reading, practicing yoga, playing tennis, biking, hiking and gardening.

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