CHECK OUT SPIRAL ORB 5

SPIRAL ORB is an experiment in permaculture poetics, juxtaposition, interrelationships, and intertextuality—a cross-pollination. The opening poem composts fragments from each of the pieces in Spiral Orb. Standing also as the table of contents, each line is embedded with a hyperlink to its original piece. Once at each piece, you will find links to the other pieces.  Spiral Orb Five is a special issue on A Poetic Inventory of Saguaro National Park.

Listen to my poem VERDIN Auriparus Flaviceps HERE

READ the text on Spiral Orb

Trickhouse Live September 18 at Casa Libre 7-9 p.m.

HI, I’ll be presenting for Trickhouse Live at Casa Libre W/ Deanne Stillman Tuesday, September 18 7-9 p.m. $5 Suggested Donation

Trick House Live is an integrative arts series that brings together people working with words, images, sounds, videos, and a variety of performances. The series serves as a venue for visiting artists to interact with local artists and for the borders between genres and mediums to be permeable. Trickhouse Live is a physical world extension of the online cross-genre arts journal, Trickhouse.org which is based in Tucson.

Deanne Stillman is the award-winning author of Mustang, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2008, and the cult classic Twentynine Palms, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2001 which Hunter Thompson called “A strange and brilliant story by an important American writer.” Her latest book, Desert Reckoning, is based on her acclaimed Rolling Stone article, “The Great Mojave Manhunt.” She is a member of the core faculty at the UC Riverside-Palm Desert Low Residency MFA Creative Writing Program and currently divides her time between Tucson, AZ and Los Angeles, CA.

I make poems and visual art. You can view a portfolio of my visual art at valyntinagrenier.com. I hosts Back Room Live, and blog at Harriet Homemaker and Life Long Press. The photo was taken by Richard Siken at LIVE @ LIV, thanks Richard!

NEW- YOU’RE MINE YOUS, MP3s of LOVE all month long…

I’ll be posting vocal Valentines all month long! The first one goes out to Marisa Prietto- be mine…

Happy Love Month +V

DESTROY

THE DESTROYER

Text by:  Nicole Wilson, Brandon Downing, Natasha Stagg, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Amaranth Borsuk, Chris Hosea, Tony Mancus, Whitney DeVos, Annie Guthrie, Brian Oliu

Art by:  Yuko Fukuzumi, Nicholas Hay, Sarah Duncan, and Casey Wilson

Opinion Pieces by:  Joe Hall, Steven M. Brown, Kim Largey-Soloway, and Lulu Antipyrene

And MORE.

Editors:  Drew Krewer,  Maureen McHugh
Managing Editor:  Meagan Lehr
Art Editor:  Andy Campbell
Web Designer:  Jason Criscio

GONE FISHING!

I’ve been busy!

Hi. I had hoped to get some MP3’s of a few of my favorite pieces of writing up… alas, I’ve been super busy with my visual art blog and getting ready for two shows in APRIL! Check out what I’ve been up to at HARRIET HOMEMAKER and please come back the last Saturday of April for more literary arts…

Happy Monday +V

IT’S LOVE MONTH ! Send us something !

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE WHAT WE’VE ALREADY POSTED ! And we’ll be posting all month long ! Send us a page, paragraph, chapter, scene, essay, article or poem, about LOVE along w/ your photo JPEG, bio and/or an MP3 of you reading the piece to backroomlive@gmail.com !

IT’S LOVE MONTH!

Hi, we’ll be posting about LOVE all month long, SCROLL DOWN FOR OUR FIRST INSTALLMENT!

Send us a page, paragraph, chapter, scene, essay, article or poem along w/ your photo JPEG,  bio and/or  MP3 file of you reading the piece.  Send us some LOVE to backroomlive@gmail.com

It’s SATURDAY NIGHT!!!

SCROLL DOWN FOR ! POETRY ! PROSE ! PLAYWRITING ! by ! LISA SCHLESINGER ! KATE GREENSTREET ! TREVOR CALVERT ! ANDREW RUSH ! YAY US !

NEXT SATURDAY ! TREVOR CALVERT ! KATE GREENSTREET ! LISA SCHLESINGER ! ANDREW RUSH !

CHECK BACK IN NEXT SATURDAY AT 7PM !

ALSO, we’ll be posting writing and voice files about LOVE all February long.  Send us a page, paragraph, chapter, scene, essay, article or poem along w/ your photo JPEG, bio, and if you have one or can make one, an mp3 file of you reading the piece. We’ll be reading December 26th 2010 – February 14th 2011. So, send us some LOVE to backroomlive@gmail.com

Join our group on Facebook and read more about this months authors on our events page!

! ANN ROBINSON ! JOSEPH ZACCARDI ! RICHARD CRUWYS BROWN ! brought to us by this month’s guest curator MELANIE STOFF MAIER !

Curator’s note:  Carl Sandburg said, “a poem is like an echo asking a shadow to dance.” I think this is a such a wonderful description of what I do as a poet:  listen to the echoes, see the shadows in everyday life and from the past, then fuse these to make what I hope is poetic music.  It’s that process that makes hours spent writing melt away.  I love the fact that I’m so often surprised as to where my poems take me.

POETRY ! PROSE ! BROUGHT TO US BY AISHA SLOAN !

! POETRY BY CAVE  CANEM FELLOWS ! TOMMYE BLOUNT ! NANDI COMER ! ARICKA  M. FOREMAN ! PROSE BY AISHA SLOAN !

ALSO, February is LOVE month! Send us some writing about love, check out our SEND US SOME LOVE! page for details…

Happy Saturday +V.

Join us LIVE at Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson Az Saturday September 18th at 6pm for readings by ! Karen Brennan ! Jane Miller ! Valyntina Grenier !

Conrad Wilde is located at 439 N. 6th Ave. #171 Tucson Az.

Life-long Press will be producing a limited number of handmade chapbooks featuring writing by each of the authors!

The writers, their writing, and voices will be posted here throughout the month. Scroll down to see whats up.

SATURDAY NIGHT!

W/ZACH BUSCHER! WHITNEY DeVOS! ANDREW SHUTA! SHELLY TAYLOR!

!WELCOME SATURDAY NIGHT!

W/BETH ALVARADO! JOSH GARCIA! JULIE LAUTERBACH-COLBY! STEPHANIE BALZER!

BRL Saturday Night- A Tribute to MARLON EVANS w/ writing from Joseph O’Connell, Frances Sjoberg, Franci Washburn and Simon J. Ortiz, curated by Wendy Burk

Poet Marlon B. Evans was born on October 8, 1952 and left this world on July 28, 2009. Wendy Burk: Marlon was Tohono O’odham and Akimel O’odham, Desert and River People. He received a B.S. from Rochester Institute of Technology and a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He had just completed his first year of graduate work in the University of Arizona American Indian Studies Program, with an emphasis in poetry and media arts.

When I think about Marlon, I think about the poems he wrote, and also the poems he had not yet written. We can’t know what those poems would be. But you can read a feature on Marlon’s work in the Fall 2007 issue of Red Ink Magazine, a journal of Native voices that was very close to his heart. And thanks to Marlon’s good friend Eric Mache, you can watch a video of Marlon reciting his poem “A Eurocentric Memoir.”

Marlon surrounded himself with a circle of other writers and artists, as talented and unforgettable as he was. Here, a few of them share their work in tribute to our friend Marlon Evans.

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT curated by Trevor Calvert

SCROLL DOWN! for new writing by ! Ryan Bartlett ! Steffi Drews ! Bhanu Kapil !

THANKS SO MUCH, for reading and writing and Trevor for bringing us these poems; I hope you all like the way they look! +V

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!!!!

SCROLL DOWN FOR NEW WRITING BY Jack Morgan ! Elizabeth Terrazas ! Lukas Champagne ! Alisa Heinzman ! John Kusper !

NEXT MONTH GUEST CURATOR Trevor Calvert!

Back Room Live ! SATURDAY NIGHT ! Mumolo ! Burford ! Zetter ! Prickett

MAURICE BURFORD ! SHARON ZETTER ! BEN PRICKETT ! and this months currator SARA MUMOLO ! Thanks Sara and thanks for Reading +V.

Also, 7PM

!

*******2009 BAY AREA POETRY MARATHON*******

“An ear and mind opener… this event delivers the real thing: edgy stuff, poetry with a real bite!” –SAN FRANCISCO MAGAZINE

Come hear poetry by: ME * SAMANTHA GILES * CAROLINE GOODWIN * OWEN HILL * SARA MUMULO * ERIC OLSON * STEPHEN VINCENT * DELLA WATSON * JESSICA WICKENS at THE LAB, 2948 16th Street (@ Capp), San Francisco *1 block from the Mission BART stop*

!

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT ! Debbie Yee ! Margaret Rhee ! Oscar Bermeo ! Craig Santos Perez !

Scroll Down for this months writing brought to us by Craig Santos Perez and come back for  guest curators Sara Mumolo, Saturday June 27th and Trevor Calvert, Saturday August 29th. Also, look out for some new Pages! As always, looking for new writing.

Thanks Craig :]

+V.

BACK ROOM LIVE !

SCROLL DOWN for  poetry by HARMONY HOLIDAY and WENDY BURK,  collaborative epistolary poetry by DELLA WATSON and JESSICA WICKENS and a travel essay by LAURA BRENNAN!

Come back in May and June to see what our guest curators bring to the screen!
05/30/09 CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ
06/27/09 SARA MUMOLO

SEND US SOME PAGES!

GILLIAN AND I ARE LOOKING FOR PAGES TO READ. CHECK OUT OUR SUBMISSIONS PAGE AND SEND US SOME +V

BACK ROOM LIVE NOW! RIGHT NOW! CHOI ! RICKEL ! HUDSON ! HAMEL

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT ! scroll down for new writing by  Boyer Rickel ! Chiwan Choi ! Victoria A. Hudson ! and NEW ! Life-long Press Co-Editor Gillian Hamel ! Also, check out our new and updated Pages,  top  right.  Submit some pages of your own +V.

Goldman ! Cully ! Moctezuma ! Durback ! Right Now !

The next installment of Back Room Live ! On Line ! is ready to be read. Many of you are used to this event happening at Mc Nally’s in Oakland Ca. Now, thanks to free blogs! you can check out the NEW multi-genre blogging series Back Room Live, right here! If you are a writer who would like to join the series, I’ll be posting the work of 4 new people the last Saturday of every month at 7pm. So check out the site to see what we’re posting and what we’re looking to post. Scroll down to see this month’s poetry and script!

Welcome to the debut posts for BRL Saturday Night! Featuring the writing of Veronica Carlos-Landa ! Jenny Drai ! Sarah Garrigan !

Scroll past this months post to read the bios of each of the writers. Thanks so much for logging on +V.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

BACK ROOM LIVE ! SATURDAY NIGHT ! January 31st 2008

! SARAH GARRIGAN ! VERONICA CARLOS-LANDA! JENNY DRAI ! 7pm !  Join us for our debut posting!

Coming soon backroomlive.blogspot.com a photo archive of the Back Room Live reading series from Mc Nally’s Irish Pub in Oakland. Also, Thursday January 8th join us live at Book Zoo in Oakland at 7pm w/BRL Editors Choice Edition/ contributors ! Brenda Hillman ! Sara Mumolo ! Barbara Claire Freeman ! Craig Santos Perez ! Hope to see you +V.

Jenny Drai likes to say she was raised by wolves, but really she is the child of librarians, which may or may not be the same thing.  A graduate of the poetry program at Saint Mary’s College of California, her work has appeared in Court Green, Five Fingers Review, and The Tiny as well as other journals.  She has written a novel, John Clare, which awaits publication, and is currently working on a novella, Dark Age, about a fifth century book of laws, a list of names, and a divorced writer with too much time on her hands.  She likes to swim and run and enjoy scotch in a responsible fashion in Oakland, California, but she has also lived in Chicago, Hamburg, and Munich. She works in the home furnishings industry.

Veronica Carlos-Landa is a Mexican-American poet who has lived in California all of her life and never plans to leave. She received her BA from UC Berkeley and her MFA from St. Mary’s College. Vero, as her friends affectionately call her, also teaches, learns, loves, sews, knits, and loves to drink beer.

Sarah Garrigan is a student at the University of California at Berkeley working towards a degree in English. She is currently a Co-Publicity Chair for the Berkeley Poetry Review. After college, she looks forward to living in a box while discovering what exactly one can do with a B.A. in English. She enjoys drinking chai lattes, wandering around San Francisco, and pretending to work on her senior thesis.