Marianne Murphy Zarzana
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Zac Hammer Dances in Marshall: NYC Shines in Fly-over Country

7/22/2011

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Every summer the Southwest School of Dance in Marshall, Minnesota holds a week-long dance camp at Southwest Minnesota State University. Zac Hammer, one of our daughter's friends, took lessons at the dance school in town for five years, 10 to 15 years old, went on to study dance at Southern Methodist University, and now dances professionally in New York. Last winter he danced in the renowned Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, and he'll do so again this year. For the past four summers he's returned to Marshall to teach at the dance camp. At the end of the week, the dancers present a showcase of dances, and the dance teachers each perform as well, always a treat, a bit of NYC right here in fly-over country. Tonight Zac performed a modern dance duo with one of the other teachers. The artistry and intensity were beyond amazing, one of those "out-of-Marshall" experiences.

Phil Dacey, poet and SMSU professor emeritus of English, who now lives in Manhattan, loves the art of dance and loves to write about it. While Jim and I were at a writing conference in NYC, we introduced Phil to Zac.  Later Phil interviewed Zac and wrote the poem below (published in The Raintown Review, Dec. 2008), which he gave me permission to post here. He captures Zac's spirit and energy, and the form he chose makes the poem move like modern dance, creates great music. Enjoy! 

I recently found a quote by Voltaire that encourages us to read and to dance, two of my favorite things: "Let us read and let us dance, two delights that will never do any harm to the world."

ZAC HAMMER

“A peanut butter bagel,” he orders.  “Breakfast
for a dancer.  Protein.”  We’re midtown, 8th Avenue,
near where he’ll rehearse at noon.  But first
his dancing’s all in words for this interview:

“I can eat like a pig, and drink like a fish--
water, that is; by the gallon jug in the studio.”
Outside the cafe window, the morning rush
does its own dance, a classic of color, noise, and flow.

“Ballet, modern, post-mod--I like it all.
But I’m at home with modern, how it gets down
on the ground, so much so even a crawl
can be part of it.  That feels more human

“to me than ballet, which favors the vertical,
transcending the earth.  But modern’s bare feet bring
us close to the source, the mother.   Sole on soil.
My god is gravity; let it do its thing.

“Still, I remember my first ballet shoes.
I bought them at K-Mart in Marshall, Minnesota.
I thought they were beautiful.  And they were.  But I was
no aspirant to the world of Anna Pavlova--

“to my sister’s, yes.  One day she’d come home from class
and shown off her developee.  One leg held straight out
at right angles to the other, arms raised.  The stress
made her tremble; I trembled in awe at the sight.

“I want to do that, I told my parents, who
weren’t surprised, given the shows--song and dance--
I mounted for them in their bedroom all through
childhood (I was now ten).  My first audience!”

Pause for coffee, bagel, and fond thoughts.
Then a turn: “The smokers in dance are what I don’t like.
Whole corps de cigarettes, trashed lungs.  I don’t get it.
The smell of sweat sure beats the smell of smoke.

“And there are the jobs one takes to make ends meet.
For many summers, I performed at Mary Kay
conventions.  Once I was hired to impersonate
a dancing bottle of champagne--Veuve Clicquot!

“But the pleasures make the struggles all worthwhile.
You wouldn’t believe the endorphin rush.  It’s addictive.
And to pursue the same line of work as Angel
Corella...Well, it’s not a bad way to live.

“Corella’s great because he combines the virile
and the tender, the muscular and the lightest of
touches. As to the dead, Nijinsky rules:
his Rite of Spring pissed everybody off.

“I’d love to dance it someday.  To throw myself
percussively to the floor as the music pounds.
To hulk and make the most of the body’s heft.
Beauty’s not what’s pretty but what offends.”

That’s Whitman, too, I say.  “Yes, he wore his hat
indoors or out, right?  If I could dance in the role
of Walt, I’d portray him as both athletic and sweet.
Hey, a poetic version of Angel Corella!

“In fact, I’ve long believed the arts should serve
each other.  What fun, and more, to blur the line
between arts!  If I had two lives to live,
I’d live one as an art historian.”

A book about dance?  “What influenced me most
was Zen in the Art of Archery.  It taught
me to see that the dancer at his or her best
is all at once archer, arrow, bow, and target.”

The clock’s hands are doing their usual soft-shoe.
“Dancing with the David Parsons Company
has made going to work--what I’ve got to do
now--a pleasure.  My one-year anniversary

with them is coming up soon.  I’m riding a wave.”
Goodbyes, and then the wave and he are gone
down 8th Avenue--a stage where every move
he makes is spotlit by a midday sun.


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Yellow Medicine Review at SMSU

5/9/2011

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In 2008, thanks to a generous grant from the Ford Foundation, on behalf of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University, a new publication, Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought, was launched by Dr. Judy Wilson, Associate Professor of English at SMSU.

The title, Yellow Medicine Review, incorporates the name of a river in Southwest Minnesota. According to the YMR website, "The Dakota came together at the river to dig the yellow root of a special plant that was used for medicinal purposes, for healing. Such is the spirit of Yellow Medicine Review." 


The website notes that "Yellow Medicine Review opens a new pathway for scholarly and creative expression. New paths lead to new places, into the territory where emerging voices and visions are beginning to take their places among already established indigenous writers, artists and scholars." 


YMR encourages submissions from indigenous perspectives in the area of fiction, poetry, scholarly essays, and art.  The journal defines indigenous universally as representative of all pre-colonial peoples and is published twice yearly. The Spring 2011 issue is now available.

See the website for details, to order single copies, and for subscription information.
You may also order current and past issues via Yellow Medicine Review's Storefront at Amazon.com.

If you've already read YMR, I encourage you to post a comment here with your feedback.
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Poetry Nominated for National Magazine Award

4/5/2011

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Today I received this press release (below) by email from the Poetry Foundation. I like subscribing (free) to their email newsletter and keeping up to date on news in the poetry world. I've been a subscriber to Poetry magazine for a long time and always look forward to seeing it arrive in my mailbox in its clear plastic envelope.


CHICAGO
— The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is proud to announce that the magazine is a finalist for a National Magazine Award in the category of “General Excellence, Print.” Poetry shares distinguished company with fellow finalists Lapham’s Quarterly, The Paris Review, The Sun, and Virginia Quarterly Review in the “Literary, Political and Professional Magazines” category. This is the third Ellie nomination for the Poetry Foundation, but the first for the print magazine—the Chicago Poetry Tour and Poetry Magazine podcast were nominated for Digital Ellies in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and the Poetry Magazine podcast won the National Magazine Award for Digital Media in the “Podcasting” category in March 2011.

The American Society of Magazine Editors’ awards for print journalism have been presented each year since 1966. The awards, sponsored by ASME in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, are regarded as the “most prestigious in the magazine industry,” according to the New York Times.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized for our work in print, especially so soon after ASME awarded our efforts in digital media,” said magazine editor Christian Wiman. “Poetry will be turning 100 next year, and with each issue the magazine has stayed true to its original mission to discover and celebrate the best poetry. We’re so grateful for this nomination and proud to be included in such fine company.”

Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Poetry’s editorial mission is to discover new voices, present new work by internationally recognized poets, and enliven discussion about and readership for contemporary poetry. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H. D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and other now-classic authors. In recent years, more than a third of the authors published in the magazine have been writers appearing for the first time.

By showcasing both established and emerging poets alongside provocative reviews, essays, and criticism, Poetry sparks conversation and brings new readers to the art form. And it does so in innovative ways. The April and December issues featured questions and answers with both established poets—2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout, H.L. Hix, and Jane Hirshfield—and newer talents—Sina Queyras, Cathy Park Hong, and Spencer Reece. The September issue presented new work by Wisława Szymborska and Yusef Komunyakaa. And the October issue offered a collection of poems from 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Eleanor Ross Taylor and the late Rachel Wetzsteon, a conversation between critic Ange Mlinko and Iain McGilchrist about poetry and neuroscience, and Fanny Howe’s look at an unearthed poetry manuscript from the Holocaust.

“A month at a time, for a century now, Poetry magazine has made a home for the best in poetry and criticism,” said Poetry Foundation.

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Kitchen Scraps

3/29/2011

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 Kitchen Scraps is a newly launched by-invitation online and print publication created by editor Chris Oveson for author’s “leftovers.”  

On the website www.talkingdogpress, Oveson writes, "So often, I am cooking in the kitchen and always making more than I need. Many of the best things don’t fit on the plate and go into the refrigerator only to be forgotten.  These usually end up becoming scraps for the dog." For Kitchen Scraps, "We are looking for works that didn’t quite fit in your other collections for whatever reason.  Once a year, we send out invitations to authors whose work we have been impressed with. The theme of this publication is 'there is nothing too fatty, sweet, hard, or grisly.' If you have pieces that may have been too harsh, or not 'quite right' for other editors, they will find a home here."

Oveson's first issue of Kitchen Scraps includes poems by SMSU professor emeritus Leo Dangel as well as current SMSU writing professors Susan McLean, Adrian C. Louis, David Pichaske, Anthony Neil Smith, and myself.

Many thanks to Chris Oveson, my colleague in the SMSU English Department, for creating Kitchen Scraps and for generously inviting me and other writers to submit our work. 
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Philip Dacey in Verse Wisconsin Online

3/23/2011

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In the March 2011 issue of Verse Wisconsin Online, Philip Dacey, poet and beloved SMSU professor emeritus, has:
* three new poems 
* a review of his new book Mosquito Operas: New & Selected Short Poems (Rain Mountain Press, 2010)
* an interview by Karla Huston.

The theme of the issue is "Poems in Form."  Enjoy!
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Stalking the Spirit

11/28/2010

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Today I read Gregory Wolfe's editorial statement titled "Stalking the Spirit" in the new issue of Image (a journal focused on art, faith and mystery). He quotes Annie Dillard and Gerard Manley Hopkins, two of my favorite writers. About both of these writers, says Wolfe, "In the act of exploring nature's mysteries, they teach us how to write. The process might be described as a four-fold effort involving sacrificing, seeing, stalking, and sacramentalizing." 

Wolfe is addressing MFA graduates in creative writing at their commencement, but his words seem wise for writers to heed any place along their path: "This is the end toward which your writing must always strive, the weaving together of words so as to invite the indwelling of the Word. As you embark on your writing careers, practice self-sacrifice, see the world truly, and stalk the spirit within the flesh.

He continues: "Then you will be able to confect sacraments that unite your journeys to those of your readers--and to the journey of the one who descended from air to earth, who was gashed and galled by our pettiness and vanity, only to rise again and ascend through the air, but not before he revealed through the gash in his side the burning heat of his sacred heart."

Good words to sustain us on our writing journeys.
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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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