Meet a few of this year’s writers in personal interviews with Writers Program Curator Donna Miscolta (pictured right). You’ll discover links between poetry and music, a writer’s method of character development, and some tips on presenting written work. Michael Magee, Anna Balint, and Angela Martinez Dy share their ideas and a sampling of their work.
Please join us for our May Reading Series to hear the 2009 Jack Straw Writers read their new work:
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FRIDAY, MAY 15, 7:00pm
Lana Hechtman Ayers, Anna Balint, Priscilla Long, Michael Magee.
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THURSDAY, MAY 21, 7:00pm
Rachel Dilworth, Alma Garcia, Laura Hirschfield, Kim-An Lieberman.
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FRIDAY, MAY 29, 7:00pm
Angela Martinez Dy, Madeline Ostrander, Kevin Simmonds, Storme Webber.
Donna Miscolta will host at Jack Straw Productions, located at 4261 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle. Admission to each reading is a $5 suggested donation, which comes with a gift of the 2009 Jack Straw Writers Anthology, featuring new work by this year’s writers.
This podcast was produced as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. Music in this podcast is performed by Shulamit Kleinerman and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Inspired by the ancients, Kevin Craft weaves classical themes into contemporary poetry. His studies and travels have led him to write with a deep sense of history. As he puts it, every writer has an inheritance, and he sought his in the Mediterranean.
Kevin holds a BA in English and French from the University of Maryland and an MFA in English from the University of Washinagton. His first book, Solar Prominence (Cloubank Books), won the Samuel & Rhea Gorsline Prize in 2004. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), Camargo Foundation (France), and Washington Arts Commission/Artist Trust. He teaches at Everett Community College and at the UW’s Rome Center in Italy.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
Music in this podcast is performed by Yerba Buena and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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As a poet and a storyteller, Brian McGuigan tells it like it is, and then some. A listener of his work can feel grimy streets underfoot and see cracks in the buildings. His poems are personal and visceral and he has a great appreciation for the way things used to be.
Born in Queens, NY, Brian McGuigan is a poet, performer and raconteur, living in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle. His chapbook, “More Than I Left Behind,” was published by Spankstra Press (2006), and he is currently at work on a full-length manuscript of poetry entitled “Eat the Rich.” His poems have appeared in Filter, Rivet Magazine, Nerve Cowboy, and LOCUSPOINT, among others, and he has performed at Bumbershoot, the Seattle Public Library, Seattle Poetry Festival, Burning Word, Annex Theater and many other venues. Brian works in marketing and programs at Richard Hugo House and is the co-founder and curator of “Cheap Wine and Poetry,” Seattle’s ever-cool reading series. For more, visit brianwithani.com.
THIS PODCAST CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
Music in this podcast is performed by Johanna Kunin and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Judith Skillman grew up amidst a family of scientists and her poems reflect her early exposure to the natural world. She was often awakened at night to see a meteor shower or lunar eclipse. Her writing plays on themes in nature, elucidated by strong, earthy images.
Judith’s tenth book, Heat Lightning, New and Selected Poems 1986-2006, was published by Silverfish Review Press. “The Carnival of All or Nothing” was a finalist in the American Poetry Journal contest and is forthcoming from Cervéna Barva Press. Skillman is the recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets, The King County Arts Commission, and the Washington State Arts Commission. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and she has completed residencies at Centrum and Hedgebrook. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, FIELD, The Iowa Review, and many other journals. An educator, editor, and translator, Judith lives with her husband in Kennydale, WA.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music in this podcast is performed by the Bird Tribe Orchestra and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Sharon Cumberland draws from her diverse life experience, including several years in a religious order, for her poems and fiction writing. She came up with the idea to write poems in plainsong, or Gregorian chant. The scope of this form, she says, allows her to write about anything and everything.
Sharon is an Associate Professor of English at Seattle University and will direct the Creative Writing Program starting in 2008-09. She has published two chapbooks, The Arithmetic of Mourning (Green Rock Press), and Sharon Cumberland: Greatest Hits 1985-2000 (Pudding House Press) as well as poems in Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Kalliope, Verse, The Midwest Quarterly and Image, among many others. Twice nominated for Pushcart Prizes, she has won Kalliope’s Sue Saniel Elkind Award, Writer’s Haven Bright Side competition, and the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association 2007 Zola Award for Poetry. She is a frequent artist-in-residence at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. She has recently turned to writing fiction and has completed her first novel.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
Music in this podcast is performed by Tamara Friedman and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Rebecca Hoogs studies the roots of language and works with words’ meanings in her poetry. The result is dynamic wordplay that reads and sounds like a riddle, but cuts deeper into word evolution.
Rebecca is the author of a chapbook, Grenade, and her poems have appeared in Poetry, AGNI, Crazyhorse, Zyzzyva, The Journal, Poetry Northwest, The Florida Review, and others. She is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Artist Trust. In 2007, she presented commissioned work at the Seattle Poetry Festival and The Roethke Readings, a presentation of the ACT Theatre. She is the Director of Education Programs for Seattle Arts & Lectures, and is the curator for its Poetry Series.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
Music in this podcast is performed by the Bella Musica Woodwind Trio and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Through his rich experience driving public transit buses in Seattle for more than 20 years, Michael Spence has innumerable stories to recount in his poetry. His unique perspective from the driver’s seat can be humorous, insightful, sorrowful, and revealing about society in general.
Michael’s poems have appeared in journals such as Poetry, Poetry Northwest, The New Republic, Antioch Review, Yale Review, Georgia Review, and Southern Review. He has published two poetry collections, The Spine (Purdue University Press) and Adam Chooses (Rose Alley Press), and has been included in the anthologies Poetry Comes Up Where It Can (University of Utah Press) and Limbs of the Pine, Peaks of the Range (Rose Alley Press). He lives in Tukwila, WA, with his wife, writer and teacher Sharon Hashimoto.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
Music in this podcast is performed by Karin Kajita and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Merna Ann Hecht has devoted much of her life to teaching and helping children. When she isn’t teaching, she’s cooking because she finds cooking calms her down. And when she isn’t cooking, she’s fretting about the world. Those are the three things she does and the focus of her writing.
Merna is a storyteller, poet, and educator. Her years of work in specialized settings include the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center School, BRIDGES: A Center for Grieving Children, detention centers and facilities for homeless youth. She also teaches in the Writers in the Schools Program. Hecht is a recipient of the National Storytelling Network 2008 Brimstone Award for Applied Storytelling. Her writing has appeared in Kaleidoscope, Out of Line, Talking Points: Journal of Whole Language, The National Storytelling Journal, Standing: An Anthology of Women Poets, The Storyteller’s Classroom, Chosen Tales, and other books and journals.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
Music in this podcast is performed by Matt Weiner and Del Rey and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Wendy Call came to writing through her work in political activism. Her experience as a community organizer inspired her to write about why people work for change in their communities. In this podcast, she explores how political writing can be effective and how different countries approach political journalism.
Wendy was writer-in-residence at Richard Hugo House from 2006-2008, and is co-editor of Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide (Plume/Penguin, 2007). Excerpts from her nonfiction book-in-progress, No Word for Welcome, have won awards from 4Culture, Artist Trust, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Seattle City Artist Program. Call’s writing has appeared in more than 20 magazines and literary journals in seven countries, often accompanied by her photographs. She has taught creative writing workshops in English and Spanish at universities, community centers, newsrooms, and detention centers.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
Music in this podcast is performed by Joel Salsman and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Ghida Sinno has created a series of stories looking at how different people experienced 9-11, or 9-1-1 as she calls it. The stories reflect the perspectives of Arab Americans and others, a half an hour after the attacks, a week after the attacks, a year after the attacks. Sinno uses irony and humor to soften her topic and allow readers to indulge in her writing.
Sinno was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. She earned a B.A. in English Literature from UCLA and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. She has received grants from Artist Trust and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She was a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook and most recently at Casa Libre in Tucson, AZ. Her work has appeared in the Seattle Review, Many Mountains Moving, and Westwind Review. This podcast was produced as part of the 2008 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org.
THIS PODCAST CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE.
Music in this podcast is performed by The Owcharuk Sextet and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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