{"id":2783,"date":"2012-03-05T20:41:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T20:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=2783"},"modified":"2012-03-08T01:43:35","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T01:43:35","slug":"meeting-philip-levine-and-getting-to-know-two-fine-dedicated-poets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2012\/03\/meeting-philip-levine-and-getting-to-know-two-fine-dedicated-poets\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting Philip Levine and getting to know two fine & dedicated poets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EWB, Margaret Bashaar and Susan Yount<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, after the crowds and action of AWP, I am back in my basement office, only now I have new friends and new books to read and discover. But I’ll save that list of new friends and new books for a later blog, and tell you today about the top highlights of the conference.<\/p>\n

One highlight was meeting Susan Yount<\/strong> and Margaret Bashaar <\/strong>who were my tablemates. Have you heard of Arsenic Lobster Poetry<\/a><\/em><\/strong>? If not, look it up. \u00a0And I am not the only who thinks you should. The journal just got a great review in The Review Review<\/a>. <\/em> Susan Yount is its dedicated editor. Published three times a year online and then once yearly as a print anthology,\u00a0Arsenic Lobster’s <\/em>name (taken from a Lorca quote) might draw you in but the content will keep you reading.<\/p>\n

Margaret Bashaar<\/strong> is a micropublisher whose Hyacinth Girl Press<\/a><\/strong> puts out several chapbooks a year. Titles include “Nocturnes” by Kathleen Kirk<\/strong>, “Wicked Apples” by Susan Slaviero, “Book Four” by Niina Pollan, and “Thirteen Designer Vaginas” by Juliet Cook. \u00a0Forthcoming titles from the press include “Salt Ballads” by Brooklyn Copeland, “Home Bodies” by Sarah J. Sloat, and \u00a0“Catastrophe Theory” By Susan Yount. Margaret \u00a0has her own chapbook “Letters from Room 27 of the Grand Midway Hotel” published by Blood Pudding<\/a><\/strong> in 2011. \u00a0It got a stellar review in Melusine, The Blog<\/a>. \u00a0The geeky imprint of Hyacinth Girl Press is Prime Directive Press<\/strong> which put out a Star Trek anthology called “Make It So.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Madame Black-Eyed Susan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Together Susan and Margaret are also “poetry whores.” \u00a0Lest you think I am diss-ing them, let me explain it is a term they use for themselves as part of The Chicago Poetry Bordello<\/a>. <\/strong>Susan is Madame Black-Eyed Susan<\/strong> and Margaret is Claire Remette<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I attended the show Wednesday Night (A Leap-Year Valentine) at the Chopin Theatre. \u00a0It was a whole new way for me to see poetry performed. \u00a0I paid my token for a private reading with Claire (she said I was her first) and enjoyed watching a fan dance by Pearl Pistol<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As I had never attended an AWP Conference before I didn’t know what to expect. \u00a0But once I saw that Philip Levine <\/strong>would be there speaking with Carol Ann Duffy <\/strong>(Poet Laureate of Great Britain), I knew I wanted to go to the conference to meet him. \u00a0 For those of you who don’t know why I was so intent on meeting Philip Levine, I will refer you to pages 126 to 131 of Solace in So Many Words<\/strong><\/em> where two poems (“Songs” and “Waking in Alicante”) written by the U. S. Poet Laureate<\/strong> are reprinted.<\/p>\n

The International Ballroom was packed for this Poetry Foundation<\/a>-sponsored event.\u00a0I was taken with the poems of Carol Ann Duffy<\/strong>. First she read from her book The World’s Wife <\/em>(Anvil Poetry Press). She read “Mrs. Midas,” “The Devil’s Wife” and “Mrs. Beast.” Then she read from her latest book The Bees<\/strong> (Picador). Philip Levine read some of my favorites: “The Two,” “Gospel” and “Of Love and Other Disasters.” Then Poetry Magazine’s <\/em>Senior Editor Don Share<\/strong> led a discussion. After this, Carol Ann Duffy and Phil signed books and I was able to meet him and thank him for being in Solace in So Many Words<\/em>. I asked him to sign two copies of Solace in So Many Words<\/em> (one for each of my sons) and also a copy (for me) of On the Edge<\/em>, which was published by The Second Press in 1964. \u00a0My thanks to Mark Wiley <\/strong>for taking the pix.<\/p>\n

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Shaking hands with Philip Levine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Talking with Philip Levine and Carol Ann Duffy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Philip Levine shows Carol Ann Duffy his cover photo from 1964.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Philip Levine signs Solace in So Many Words<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, after the crowds and action of AWP, I am back in my basement office, only now I have new friends and new books to read and discover. But I’ll save that list of new friends and new books for a later blog, and tell you today about the top highlights of the conference. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,60,741,743,874,766,879,127,889,12,884,740,873,4,871,887,869,876,852,883,885,359,13,547,877,20,875,7,16,872,868,882,878,888,870,886,881,880,450,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-2783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-anthology","8":"tag-appreciation","9":"tag-arsenic-lobster","10":"tag-awp","11":"tag-brooklyn-copeland","12":"tag-carol-ann-duffy","13":"tag-claire-remette","14":"tag-contributors-2","15":"tag-don-share","16":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","17":"tag-gospel","18":"tag-hyacinth-girl-press","19":"tag-juliet-cook","20":"tag-kathleen-kirk","21":"tag-lorca","22":"tag-madame-black-eyed-susan","23":"tag-margaret-bashaar","24":"tag-melusine","25":"tag-nocturnes","26":"tag-of-love-and-other-disasters","27":"tag-on-the-edge","28":"tag-philip-levine","29":"tag-poetry","30":"tag-poetry-magazine","31":"tag-prime-directive-press","32":"tag-publication","33":"tag-sarah-sloat","34":"tag-solace","35":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","36":"tag-susan-slaviero","37":"tag-susan-yount","38":"tag-the-bees","39":"tag-the-chicago-poetry-bordello","40":"tag-the-poetry-foundation","41":"tag-the-review-review","42":"tag-the-second-press","43":"tag-the-worlds-wife","44":"tag-uk-poet-laureate","45":"tag-us-poet-laureate","46":"tag-weighed-words","47":"entry","48":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2783"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2821,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2783\/revisions\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}