Entries in readings (6)
Elliott Bay Book Company: Donna Miscolta & Oliver de la Paz
Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 8:40PM I'll be reading with Donna Miscolta at the Elliott Bay Book Company. Here's the write-up from their website:
DONNA MISCOLTA & OLIVER DE LA PAZ
08/11/2011 7:00 pm
Two fine writers from hereabouts—fiction writer Donna Miscolta from Seattle, and poet Oliver de la Paz down from Bellingham, where he teaches at Western Washington—read here tonight from recent books. For Donna Miscolta, it is her luminous, long-awaited debut novel, When the de la Cruz Family Danced (Signal 8 Press), that makes it an extra-special occasion. "A smoothly written debut that sways between the Philippines and the U.S., between the present and past, and between the secrets and hard truths of its compelling characters. This is a complex story of immigration and loss that packs an emotional punch." – Cristina Garcia. "This extraordinary novel illustrates a family's long journey toward making peace—with the world, with the family, and with individual selves. Miscolta is a pitch-perfect prose stylist and a passionately empathetic creator ..." – Antonya Nelson. Requiem for the Orchard is Oliver de la Paz's third collection of poems. "In Requiem for the Orchard, the chrome bumpers of a truck meet salt cake and coral, and we are introduced to eloquent poems of witness and celebration that deftly bridge the speaker's childhood to his own first forays into fatherhood. It is impossible to return to the safe territory of the person you were before you read these achingly beautiful poems, filled with terror and gracenotes." – Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
Location:
- The Elliott Bay Book Company
- 1521 Tenth Avenue
- Seattle, Washington
- 98122
- United States
Two New Events in the Calendar
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 1:36PM Two readings were added to the calendar for the month of October.
October 15, a reading for Filipino American History Month in Seattle, WA
October 30, a reading for the Loggernaut Reading Series in Portland, OR.
Reading at Open Books, May 25th at 7:30PM
Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 2:30PM I'll be reading at Open Books with the poet Allen Braden. I'd love to see you there!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 07:30 PM
ALLEN BRADEN & OLIVER DE LA PAZ
There are, in Allen Braden's first book of poems,
A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood ($16.95 Georgia), sixteen sonnets, each with a title beginning "Taboo against the Word Beauty...." Seeking after and exploring the occasions of beauty, and beauty's counterweight, seems fundamental to his harsh and elegant work. The world of these poems is rural, the vision is unsentimental -- "his future's on a hoist / overhead like a side of venison." Hunting, farming, and working with tools feature prominently in Braden's meditations on love and the destructive nature of life. His touchstone is perhaps that "climatic moment // of neither coming nor going, when breath ends, / before song begins."
In Requiem for the Orchard ($14.95 Akron), Oliver de la Paz's third collection, coming of age is handled with a sly intensity. Through sharp detail -- "the Ferris wheel / was the tallest thing in the valley" -- and emotional truth -- as a teen-ager "nothing / went better than planned" -- de la Paz conveys the experience of growing up a cultural outsider in rural Oregon. Coming of age is a life-long process, and so it is here, too. Among the fatherhood poems there's this lulling reassurance from the free-verse lullaby "No One Sleeps through the Night" -- "Little no one, peace and go. / I'll be watching while the sleep gods // lean and cast their shadows here."
Reading for Speakeasy3, March 5th
Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 12:24PM I'll be one of several readers for Speakeasy3 at Mindport Exhibits.
The reading is from 7PM to 9PM on Friday, March 5th, and includes local poets Susan J. Erickson, Karl Galbraith, Christine Kendall, David M. Laws, and myself.
Reading at Pittsburg State, February 25th, 8PM
Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 12:15PM I'll be reading at Pittsburg State University in Kansas on February 25th, 8:00 p.m. in the Governors Room. Do stop by!
Reading Tonight and other stuff
Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 2:17PM SKAGIT RIVER POETRY FESTIVAL SHOWCASE
Start: 7:00 pm
***
Finished up the Berryman unit in my long poem class. The students seemed much more appreciative of his ordered mayhem. Good to see and hear.
They turned a corner after seeing him read on YouTube. To wit, I think students got the sense of his cadence by listening to him read and talk. Lots of "Ah ha" moments after I aired this in class.
***
Playoff Football. Early still, but so far it's a stinker.
***
Gathering more books for my Ekphrasis class in the Spring. I need more short fiction selections/short-shorts, etc. All suggestions welcome. I was supposed to turn in my book orders yesterday, but *shrug*.
***
Current Spin:
Jay Reatard. RIP