Feb 28, 2012 Poet Bernard Horn

Bernard Horn’s most recent book of poetry, Our Daily Words, was selected as a “Must Read” book and a finalist for the 2011 Massachusetts Book Award in Poetry, by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. About a quarter of the poems in the book concern Israel and were written during the nine months the author spent there in 2001, teaching at Haifa University. Winner of a Fulbright and five fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Horn’s poems and translations of Israel’s premier poet, Yehuda Amichai, have appeared in The New Yorker, The Manhattan Review, The Mississippi Review, Moment Magazine, and other publications. After teaching in the English Department at Northern Essex Community College for 13 years, Bernie moved on to his present position as Professor of English at Framingham State College, where he received the 2010 Distinguished Faculty Award. On Wednesday, November 16th, at 7:00 p.m., Bernard Horn will present, “Poetry & Terror: The Times & Life of a Family Man.” The program will include the author’s reflections on cross-cultural interrelationships – both in the challenges of translating Yehuda Amichai’s work and in his own poetry. He also will discuss how the activity of translating and the reality of history, in the form of terrorism, impact his writing process, which is grounded in his identity, not as an isolated individual, but as a member of a family and a first generation American.

Feb 7, 2012 Poets January Gil O'Neil/ Jennifer Jean

January Gil O'Neil Executive Director, Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Professor, Salem State University. Author of Underlife (CavanKerry Press 2009) and the forthcoming Misery Islands (CavanKerry Press 2014)! Trying to celebrate the extraordinay in the ordinary every day.

Jennifer Jean is the author of three poetry collections: The Archivist (Big Table Publishing); the multi-media venture: Fishwife (Whale Sound Press); and, In the War (Big Table Publishing). As well, she’s released, with composer Sarah Eide, a collaborative CD called Fishwife Tales which is comprised of art songs, recitations and rock ballads. It can be purchased at CDbaby and on iTunes. Her poetry, essays, literary interviews, and reviews have been published in numerous journals; her poem "The Women" was anthologized in Linebreak's inaugural anthology Two Weeks; her poem "Fishwife with Child," as set to music by Sarah Eide, won the 2011 Curtain Up! Prize; as well, she's received an Agnes Butler Award from the Academy of American Poets, and her long poem, The Legend of Liban the Merrow, was a finalist for the 2010 Firewheel Chapbook Award. Jennifer is a feature writer for the arts and lifestyle magazine Art Throb, an active member of the committee producing the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and she teaches writing and literature at Salem State University and Endicott College.

Jan 10, 2012 Poet Linda Larson

Linda Larson was born and educated in the Midwest and spent childhood vacations and more than a decade of her adult life in Madison County, Mississippi. While in Mississippi, she worked as a feature writer for The Capitol Reporter and The Jackson Advocate. Larson relocated to the Boston/ Cambridge area where she has lived and worked for the past twenty years.

For five years she served as editor of and contributor to Spare Change News, a homeless newspaper based in Cambridge.

Over the years Larson has struggled with mental illness, homelessness and alcohol addiction.
She has been recognized by both houses of the Massachusetts Legislature for her advocacy work on behalf of people with mental illnesses.

As Larson’s life has become more manageable, she has been able to realize her long-term goal in putting together a collection of poetry, Washing the Stones, published by Ibbetson Press, August, 2007. These poems go a long way towards recapturing her promise as a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars in the Seventies and as a teaching fellow in the creative writing doctoral program at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Her second collection of poetry is titled Mississippi Poems (ISCS PRESS).

Her new work in progress is tentatively entitled Hard Rain Falling.

Poet Robert K. Johnson Tuesday Oct. 20, 2011

Robert K. Johnson was the original poetry editor for the Ibbetson Street Press. A retired Professor of English/Suffolk University-Boston, Johnson has had a number of collections of poetry out, most recently "Choir of Day" (Ibbetson Street Press). Johnson is a recipient of the Ibbetson Street Press Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been widely published.

Dec. 13, 2011 Poet/ Publisher Gloria Mindock

Gloria Mindock, author of the poetry collections, Blood Soaked Dresses (Ibbetson St. Press, 2007) and Nothing Divine Here (U Soku Stampa, 2010), is editor and publisher of Cervena Barva Press, and in 2007, became the editor of the Istanbul Literary Review, an online journal based in Turkey.

Mindock is also the author of two poetry chapbooks, Doppelganger (S. Press) and Oh Angel (U Soku Stampa), and her poems have been published in numerous journals, including River Styx, Phoebe, Poesia, and Poet Lore, to name a few, as well as appearing in several anthologies. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and was awarded a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council distributed by the Somerville Arts Council.

Gloria Mindock

From 1984-1994. Mindock edited the Boston Literary Review/Blur and was co-founder of Theatre S & S Press, Inc. During its existence, Theatre S. received grants from the Polaroid Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Globe Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her poetry collection, Doppelganger, served as the text for theatre piece of the same name performed by Theatre S.

Over the years, Mindock has performed, acted, composed music, and sang in the theatre. Her most recent performance piece, Walking In El Salvador. is scheduled to debut this September.

Mindock lives in Somerville, MA, where she has worked as Social Worker, and also does freelance editing of manuscripts and conducts workshops for writers.

Nov. 15, 2011 Poet/Philosopher Jody Azzouni

Jody Azzouni was born in New York City, and returns there as often as possible. He is a Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. He has published books in philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science with Cambridge University Press, and Routledge (respectively), as well as a book of poetry, "The Lust for Blueprints," with The Poet's Press. He has published or will be publishing poems in places such as Artful Dodge, The Bitter Oleander, and Spillway. Samples of published poems and short stories of hers may be viewed at his website, http://www.azzouni.com/

Nov 8, 2011 5PM is poet, performer James Caroline

My Guest on Poet to Poet Nov 8, 2011 5PM is poet, performer James Caroline

Over the past 4 years, the award winning poet and performer Jme, also known as James Caroline, has made a name for himself nationally through slams and features. In February of 2006 he toured the West Coast with Def Poetry's Caroline Harvey on the highly successful I See Red tour. James is currently the front man for the band Miette with Matt Vears. His work is a rare mix of literary craft and vulnerability, and the intensity of his performances has garnered comparisons to Patti Smith.

James was voted Best Local Author in the 2006 Boston Phoenix poll. He is a multiple winner of Cambridge Poetry Awards for Best Erotic Male Performance Poet and Best Slam Poet Male. He has guest-lectured and performed at Mount Ida College, Hampshire College, Emerson College and Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. In May of 2007 he taught and performed at The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans. He has studied with Anya Achtenberg, Patricia Smith, Regie Gibson, Sascha Feinstein, and Toni Amato. During the spring of 2004 he directed and performed in Musician and the Muse, a performance of poetry and music at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center featuring Nicole Terez, Tom Daley, Regie Gibson, and Iyeoka Okoawo.

He has competed with two National Slam teams, and represented the Cantab Lounge in the first Individual World Poetry Slam. In 1997 he was commissioned to write the vocal text and act as artistic sound director for Naked Truths: Voices of Shame, Sexuality, and Eating Disorders in Women, which was performed at HERE multimedia center in Manhattan. He's been published in Quarry, Subliminal, Pinned Down by Pronouns (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for 2004), The Shadow Sacrament, the Cascadia Review, and Painted Bride Quarterly.