Event Report – Sullivan & Gordon

On April 2, 2009, in the penultimate event of the Spring 2009 New Writing Series schedule, Flarf poets Nada Gordon and Gary Sullivan read to an audience of nearly 60 people in Soderberg Auditorium. After a combined reading of about 40 minutes, Gordon and Sullivan took questions from the audience.

Gary Sullivan

Ben Friedlander

Nada Gordon

Documentation
For more photos, visit the NWS flikr page. The event was recorded on digital video tape by Carey Haskell.

Set Lit

For the first half of the reading, the poets read alternately. In the following set-list, GS beside a title denotes that Gary Sullivan was the reader, NG beside a title denotes that Nada Gordon was the reader.

1) To a Sought Caterpillar (GS)
2) An Abecedarian of Spam Senders (NG)
3) They of the Mayonnaise (GS)
4) Unicorn Believers Don’t Declare Fatwas (NG)
5) The Giraffe (GS)
6) A Fun fact About Light (NG)
7) Plop Takes (GS)

Nada Gordon
8] Ding
9) Between “Cartoon Sight” and “Floozy Winds”
10) Voice Dhoti Gong
11) Wrong Face

Gary Sullivan
12) Mmhmm
13) Anagrams of American Imperialism
14) Poem
15) Mooing Sound
16) Own Face
17) Kenfuckintucky
18) My Poetry
19) My Favorite Poets

Nada Gordon
20) I Love Men

Nada Gordon and Gary Sullivan (song)
21) “A Few of My Favorite/ Inexplicable Things”

Questions
1) Are there more poets like you out there?
2) What kind of reactions do you get from different audiences?
3) How long have you guys been together, either working professionally or personally?
4) When did you start combining comic art and poetry? (for GS)
5) What do you think the computer is going to be to poetry?
6) How did you write that question poem? (for Nada)
7) Do you guys have a specific writing process?
8] What kind of balance do you try to achieve between the realistic/ concrete and the absurd/ abstract in your poetry?

Event Report – Claudia Rankine

On March 25, 2009, in an event co-sponsored by the Honors College, poet, editor and anthologist Claudia Rankine read to an audience of more than 145 people in Little Hall 130. Steve Evans introduced the event, which was the fifth of the Spring 2009 New Writing Series schedule. After the nearly hour-long video-screening and reading, Rankine took questions from the audience.

Claudia Rankine

Claudia Rankine

Zidane Head Butt

Documentation For more photos, visit the NWS flikr page. The event was recorded on digital video tape by Carey Haskell.

Set List – compiled by Katie Lattari (after the jump)

Event Report – Grady Awards

Event Report

On March 19, 2009, the undergraduate and graduate winners of the Steve Grady Awards for Creative Writing (full bios here) read their original works to a packed Soderberg Auditorium for the fourth event of the Spring 2009 schedule. Steve Evans introduced the poets and Dave Kress introduced the fiction writers who together read for about an hour and a half.

Katie Lattari (L) and Amber Kapiloff (R)

Grady Awards

Grady Awards

Grady Awards

Poet Richard LaPlante

David Kress

Set List

Amber Kapiloff – “Pieces” (undergraduate fiction: honorable mention)

Katie Lattari – “I Break Leaves in Brittle Mornings”, “Reference” (undergraduate poetry: honorable mention)

Michael Fournier – “Dramatic Persuasion” (graduate fiction: honorable mention)

Rick LaPlante – “Magic”, “Double You”, “Petrified Forest”, “Let’s Tango At Night”, “Well-Wishers” (undergraduate poetry: second place)

Katie Lattari: “Origins and Interviews” (undergraduate fiction: second place)

Meghan Dowling – “Americana”, “Men at Work”, “Gone” (graduate poetry: second place)

Shaun Irland – “Breaking Everest” (graduate fiction: second place)

Dane Bolding – “Summer Rain”, “A Scent of Smoke”, “Leaves of Clouds”, “Almost the same as eating snow.”, “Presidents Pass the Time”, “Dakota”, “Out of State”, Haiku (untitled), Haiku (untitled), “Post Office Blues #22″ (undergraduate poetry: first place)

Chris Tarbell – “The True Story of Peter Danvers” (undergraduate fiction: first place)

Alison Fraser – “When Paul Marries and I am His Groom”, “A Narrow Cavity for Him”, “If I Do or Don’t”, “On Both Sides”, “What Has Happened After 1947” (graduate poetry: first place)

Meghan Dowling – “ReadMe” (graduate fiction: first place)

Documentation
The event was recorded on digital video tape by Carey Haskell.

Event Report – Kenneth Goldsmith

Description
Kenneth Goldsmith read to an audience of 45 people in the UMaine New Writing Series on February 19, 2009. Goldsmith opened his set with an homage to Maine artist and poet Bern Porter before excerpting widely from his own works. A question and answer session with the audience followed.

Kenneth Goldsmith

Kenneth Goldsmith

Kenneth Goldsmith

Documentation
For more photographs, visit the NWS Flickr page here. An mp3 recording was made using an Audio-technical condenser Lo-Z AT835b microphone attached to a Marantz PMD660 Portable Solid State Recorder. The event was recorded on digital video tape by Carey Haskell.

SET LIST – compiled by Stephanie Schaffner

1. The Last Acts of St. Fuck You by Bern Porter
2. Excerpt from The Weather
3. Excerpt from Sports
4. Excerpt from Traffic
5. Excerpt from “Poem for Larry Craig”
6. Excerpt from An Attack – NYC on 9/11 (title approximate)
7. Excerpts from Head Citations

This event was co-sponsored by the UMaine Intermedia Visiting Artist Program, with generous support from the Lloyd H. Elliott Fund and the Distinguished Lecture/Cultural Affairs Committee.

Event Report – Magdalena Zurawski & CA Conrad

Description
On January 30, 2009, fiction writer Magdalena Zurawski and poet CA Conrad read to an audience of about 35 people in Soderberg Auditorium for the second event of the Spring 2009 schedule. Steve Evans introduced the writers, who each read for about 25 minutes. Conrad read from The Book of Frank and Soma(tic) Midge. Zurawski read excerpts from her book The Bruise. Afterward, Zurawski and Conrad took questions from the audience.

Poet CA Conrad

Magdalena Zurawski

Zurawski & Conrad

Documentation
For more photographs, visit the NWS Flickr page here. An mp3 recording was made using an Audio-technical condenser Lo-Z AT835b microphone attached to a Marantz PMD660 Portable Solid State Recorder. The event was also recorded on digital video tape.

Event Report – Richard Blanco

On January 22, 2009, Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco read to an audience of about 40 people in Soderberg Auditorium for the inaugural event of the Spring 2009 schedule. Steve Evans introduced the poet, who read for about 50 minutes from his two books City of a Hundred Fires and Directions to the Beach of the Dead. Afterward, Blanco fielded questions from audience members.

Poet Richard Blanco

For more photographs, visit the NWS Flickr page here. Artist John Bailly’s pictures from the event are on Facebook here.

An mp3 recording was made using an Audio-technical condenser Lo-Z AT835b microphone attached to a Marantz PMD660 Portable Solid State Recorder. The event was also recorded on digital video tape.

Event Report – Richard Deming & Nancy Kuhl

EVENT REPORT On December 5, 2008, American poets Nancy Kuhl and Richard Deming read to an audience of about 50 people in Soderberg Auditorium for the seventh and final event of the Fall 2008 schedule. Steve Evans introduced the poets, who each read for about twenty minutes. Kuhl opened up the event and read from her book The Wife of the Left Hand, her chapbook The Nocturnal Factory, as well as from some new material. Deming followed and read from his manuscript “Day for Night,” and from his book Let’s Not Call it Consequence. Afterward, both Kuhl and Deming fielded questions from audience members.

Click images below to enlarge. For more images, visit the NWS flickr page.

Poets Richard Deming and Nancy Kuhl

Nancy Kuhl

Richard Deming

Richard Deming

Nancy Kuhl

SET LIST

Event Report – Alan Halsey and Geraldine Monk

Event Report On November 20, 2008, English poets Geraldine Monk and Alan Halsey read to an audience of about 60 people in the Soderberg Auditorium for the sixth and penultimate event of the Fall 2008 schedule. Steve Evans introduced the poets, who each read for about a half an hour. Halsey led off the event, and read from his book The Text of Shelley’s Death. Monk followed and read from her books Selected Poems and Ghost and Other Sonnets. Afterward, both Monk and Halsey took questions from audience members.

Documentation An mp3 recording was made using an Audio-technical condenser Lo-Z AT835b microphone attached to a Marantz PMD660 Portable Solid State Recorder. The event was also recorded on digital video tape. Click images below to enlarge. For more photos, visit the NWS flickr page.

Geraldine Monk

Alan Halsey

Monk and Halsey talk with student writers

Set List

Event Report – Lydia Millet

Event Report On October 23, 2008, novelist Lydia Millet read to an audience of about 65 people in Neville 100 for the fifth event of the Fall 2008 season (see preview here). Dave Kress introduced the half-hour-long set in which Millet read from her novel How the Dead Dream, the first of a planned three-book series. Afterward, Millet fielded questions from audience members.

Documentation An mp3 recording was made using an Audio-technical condenser Lo-Z AT835b microphone attached to a Marantz PMD660 Portable Solid State Recorder. The event was also recorded on digital video tape. Click images below to enlarge.

Novelist Lydia Millet

Lydia Millet fielding an audience member’s question

Novelist Lydia Millet talking with audience

Dave Kress introducing Lydia Millet

Audience members

Dave Kress Introducing

Set List compiled by Katie Lattari

Introduction by Dave Kress
Reading by Lydia Millet

Excerpt from the first chapter of the novel How the Dead Dream

Questions

1] Does the main character [of How the Dead Dream] follow along the same sort of path as Milo from Catch-22?
2] Do you know the bit from Walt Whitman about turning to/ toward the animals? If so, does this mindset inform your writing?
3] Do you have children?
4] Is this book part of a series?
5] Do you find the themes of capitalism and money in your books particularly topical given the financial crisis going on currently in this country?
6] Do you find the money aspect or the animal aspect more preferable [in the context of your book]?
7] Did you know this book was going to be part of a series from the start?
8] Would you say your novels are more concerned with plot or with character?
9] Do you think you would write differently if you didn’t have the pressure of your novels having to sell well and be liked?
10] Do you fight with your publisher much about your books, and in particular that you wanted to write a series?
11] How do you find time to write?
12] Have you seen the publishing industry change over your career as a writer?
13] When you first started writing and publishing, how wide was your distribution?
14] Can you talk about your personal relationship with animals and how that affects your writing?

Tom Raworth Event Report & Set List

Event Report In the fourth event of the Fall 2008 season, poet Tom Raworth read to an audience of approximately 50 people in the Hill Auditorium on October 16, 2008. Steve Evans introduced the half-hour long reading, after which Raworth fielded questions and talked to audience members one-on-one.

Documentation An mp3 recording was made using an Audio-technical condenser Lo-Z AT835b microphone attached to a Marantz PMD660 Portable Solid State Recorder. The event was also recorded on digital video tape. Click images below to enlarge. For the full photoset, visit our flickr page here.

Tom Raworth moments before his reading

Tom Raworth talks with audience

Tom Raworth answering questions after his reading

Set List compiled by Katie Lattari

Introduction by Steve Evans
Poetry reading by Tom Raworth
1. Three
2. The Blown Agent
3. Ah, the poetry of Miss Parrot’s feet demonstrating the tango
4. Metaphysics of Magicians
5. King of the Snow
6. Just Another Whistle Stop
7. No Peace, Black Holes, Earth Cracks
8. Dormitory Life (opens an mp3 of the poem)
9. Shadows
10. No Hard Feelings
11. Follow the Food
12. Intellectual Compost 4
13. Coal Grass Blood Night Emerald
14. You Can’t Get Out
15. Going Away Poem for Lee Harwood
16. Georgia on My Mind
17. Caller
18. Mechanical Gardens
19. Viagara
20. Pelf, Pelf
21. Icequakes
22. Data Death: Zerone
23. Rivers of Bling
24. Once and For All
25. Creaking Candle
26. Shuck
27. Seething with Adventure
28. Chips
29. Birthday Poem (with Florence Wylde Raworth)
30. From Mountains and Gardens
31. Capture of Karadzic
32. You Need It, We Rent It
33. University Days

Questions
1) Can you talk about the tempo/ velocity of your reading? Can you talk about the fact that you don’t introduce your poems?
2) Do you compose your poems as quickly as you read them?
3) Did your earlier style differ from your current style?
4) How long ago did you write “University Days”?
5) When did you come out with your first book?
6) When you write a poem, do you have a clear goal at the start?
7) How do you title your poems?