July 12 5PM Poet Mark Pawlak-- author of new poetry collection Reconnaissance: New & Selected Poems & Poetic Journals 2005-2015

Mark Pawlak

  Doug Holder interviews poet Mark Pawlak about his new poetry collection " Reconnaissance"






                   
Mark Pawlak was born in Buffalo, New York in 1948. He moved to
  Boston in 1966 to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where
  he studied physics, and he has continued to live in the Boston area. At
  the MIT, Pawlak enrolled in a poetry seminar with Denise Levertov.
  Poetry has been an integral part of his life and work ever since. His
  original poems, and his translations from the German of Bertolt Brecht
  and others, have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies.
  Levertov introduced his first poetry collection, The Buffalo Sequence
  (Copper Canyon, 1978). Eight other collections have followed, the most
  recent, RECONNAISSANCE: New an Selected Poems and Poetic Journals (Hanging
  Loose). Pawlak is also the editor of a number of anthologies. PRESENT
  TENSE: Poets in the World (Hanging Loose, 2004), is a collection of
  contemporary political poetry. With Dick Lourie, he has edited four
  anthologies of outstanding high school writing, Shooting the Rat,
  Bullseye, Smart Like Me, and When We Were Countries (all from Hanging Loose)

 

July 5, 2016 5PM Doug Holder Interviews Kathleen Spivack about her new novel Unspeakable Things ( Knoph 2016)

Kathleen Spivack

To view the interview live go to  http://scatvsomerville.org

KATHLEEN SPIVACK is an award-winning writer. She studied with Robert Lowell and remained friends with him for eighteen years, and is the author of many books, among them Moments of Past Happiness, A History of Yearning, and With Robert Lowell and His Circle. She has had residencies at the Radcliffe Institute, Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and the American Academy in Rome, and has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fulbright Commission. She teaches in Boston and Paris.

Unspeakable Things

A novel

By Kathleen Spivack

About the Book:

A wild, erotic novel—a daring debut—from the much-admired, award-winning poet, author of Flying Inland, A History of Yearning, and With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, and Others. A strange, haunting novel about survival and love in all its forms; about sexual awakenings and dark secrets; about European refugee intellectuals who have fled Hitler’s armies with their dreams intact and who have come to an elusive new (American) “can do, will do” world they cannot seem to find. A novel steeped in surreal storytelling and beautiful music that transports its half-broken souls—and us—to another realm of the senses. 

The setting: the early 1940s, New York—city of refuge, city of hope, with the specter of a red-hot Europe at war.

At the novel’s center:  Anna (known as the Rat), an exotic Hungarian countess with the face of an angel, beautiful eyes, and a seraphic smile, with a passionate intelligence, an exquisite ugliness, and the power to enchant . . . Her second cousin Herbert, a former minor Austrian civil servant who believes in Esperanto and the international rights of man, wheeling and dealing in New York, powerful in the social sphere yet under the thumb of his wife, Adeline . . . Michael, their missing homosexual son . . . Felix, a German pediatrician who dabbles in genetic engineering, practicing from his Upper East Side office with his little dachshund, Schatzie, by his side . . . The Tolstoi String Quartet, four men and their instruments, who for twenty years lived as one, playing the great concert halls of Europe, escaping to New York with their money sewn into the silk linings of their instrument cases . . .

And watching them all: Herbert’s eight-year-old granddaughter, Maria, who understands from the furtive fear of her mother, and the huddled penury of their lives, and the sense of being in hiding, even in New York, that life is a test of courage and silence, Maria witnessing the family’s strange comings and goings, being regaled at night, when most are asleep, with the intoxicating, thrilling stories of their secret pasts . . . of lives lived in Saint Petersburg . . . of husbands being sent to the front and large, dangerous debts owed to the Tsar of imperial Russia, of late-night visits by coach to the palace of the Romanovs to beg for mercy and avoid execution . . . and at the heart of the stories, told through the long nights with no dawn in sight, the strange, electrifying tale of a pact made in desperation with the private adviser to the Tsar and Tsarina—the mystic faith healer Grigory Rasputin (Russian for “debauched one”), a pact of “companionship” between Anna (the Rat) and the scheming Siberian peasant–turned–holy man, called the Devil by some, the self-proclaimed “only true Christ,” meeting night after night in Rasputin’s apartments, and the spellbinding, unspeakable things done there in the name of penance and pleasure . . .

June 28, 2016 Poet Lori Desrosiers 5PM

Lori Desrosiers

see the program live at  ( Click on)

Lori Desrosiers is the author of The Philosopher’s Daughter, published by Salmon Poetry in 2013 and a chapbook, Inner Sky from Glass Lyre Press. Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak is her second full-length collection. Her poems have appeared in New Millennium Review, Contemporary American Voices, Best Indie Lit New England, String Poet, Blue Fifth Review, Pirene's Fountain, The New Verse News, The Mom Egg, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish-American Poetry and many other journals and anthologies. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She edits Naugatuck River Review, a journal of narrative poetry and WORDPEACE, an online journal dedicated to peace and justice. She teaches Literature and Composition at Westfield State University and Holyoke Community College, and Poetry in the Interdisciplinary Studies program for the Lesley University M.F.A. graduate program.

Blurbs

Lori Desrosiers’ Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak enfolds in an origami of memory the poet’s life and the lives of her family and others.  As with any fine poetry, the poems mostly transcend clock-time, soaring to a Blakean cleansing of the “doors of perception.”  In vignettes alchemized from everyday experiences, the poet gives us an “eternity in an hour” of music-laced memoir.  Here is an immersion in the dance of a woman who shakes off the shackles of domestic oppression; here is a gentle dreamer who embraces the liberation of being a daring writer.  

--Susan Deer Cloud, Author of Hunger Moon

Opening this new book by Lori Desrosiers you will find of memory and search, of second-thoughts and playful indecisions, poems that go back in time to retrieve music and mend heart.

Indeed, the reader will find all kinds of music here: there is a violin that lacks music and there is a brother's voice that speaks like father's--but not when he sings. There is a reveille at 7.15am, and there is a young baby whose voice is known by her singing. And it is music that brings half-deaf father back from the dead. Page after page the reader will come to learn that it is memory--that beautiful, final chord, which reveals us to ourselves, and yet is unwritten by us.


                                            --- Ilya Kaminsky
                                       -

June 14, 2016 5PM Sharon Shaloo--Executive Director of the Mass. Center for the Book

Sharon Shaloo

Watch this show live at  http://scatvsomerville.org

Sharon Shaloo is the executive director for the Massachusetts Center for the Book, located in Boston. Every year Mass Book presents the Mass. Book Awards that honors writers in the Commonwealth and beyond. A resident of Arlington and member of the town’s Tourism and Economic Development Committee, Shaloo has worked on a literary map of the state, which  includes landmarks from every city and town in the commonwealth. 

Shaloo grew up in New Jersey and earned her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University. She has lived in Indiana, New York City and participated in a teaching exchange in London. When her husband’s career path brought her to the Bay State, she originally moved to Boston, but later chose to settle in Arlington.

Poet and Owner of the Grolier Poetry Book Shop Ifeanyi Menkiti June 7 5PM

Ifeanyi Menkiti

Born in Onitsha, Nigeria, poet and philosopher Ifeanyi Menkiti came to the United States to attend Pomona College, where he wrote a thesis about Ezra Pound. He went on to complete a PhD at Harvard under the great political philosopher John Rawls. Since 1973, Menkiti has taught philosophy at Wellesley College, while continuing his work as a poet. In 2006, he took on yet another role, as proprietor of Harvard Square’s venerable Grolier Poetry Book Shop.

May 24, 2016 Poet Jennifer Martelli

Jennifer Martelli was born and raised in Massachusetts, and graduated from Boston University and The Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program for Writers. She’s taught high school English as well as women’s literature at Emerson College in Boston.
Her work has appeared, or will appear, in the following publications: The Denver Quarterly, Folio, Calliope, Kalliope, The Mississippi Review, The Bellingham Review, Kindred, Bitterzoet, ZigZag Folio, The Inflectionist Review, Sugared Water, Slippery Elm, Tar River Review and Bop Dead City. She was a finalist for the Sue Elkind Poetry Prize and a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant in Poetry. Her chapbook, “Apostrophe,” was published in 2011 by BigTable Publishing Company.
Link to a recent interview By bopdeadcity
http://bopdeadcity.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/interview-with-jennifer-martelli/

May 17 Poet Carla Schwartz

Carla Schwartz is a poet, filmmaker, photographer, and lyricist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Aurorean, Fulcrum, Common Ground Review, Cactus Heart, First-Literary Journal East, Switched-on Gutenberg, Wordgathering, Naugatuck River Review, Stone Highway Review, Boston Poetry Magazine, Literary Juice, Solstice Magazine, Ibbetson Street Magazine, Inkstain Press, Emerge Literary Journal, Enizagam, Equinox, and 05401, among others. Her book, Mother, One More Thing is available through WordTech  and Turning Point Books (2014). Her poem, In Defense of Peaches, was a Massachusetts Poetry Foundation Poem of the Moment. Her poem, Late for Dinner, was a semi-finalist for the Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Contest. Her video work incorporates poetry, documentary,  and instructional videos. Her youtube videos have had hundreds of thousands of views. She has performed and read her work in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Carla is also a professional writer with a doctoral degree from Princeton University. Learn more at her website at carlapoet.com.

Poet, Writer, Performer CD Collins April 26, 2016

 

C.D. Collins

Kentucky native CD Collins follows the storytelling traditions of the South, both as a solo artist and when accompanied by musicians.  Her short fiction collection Blue Land was published by Polyho Press, her poetry collection by Ibbetson Street Press. As one of the originators of the resurgence of spoken word with live music, her work has been archived in four compact discs: Kentucky Stories (winner Best Spoken-Word album Boston Poetry Awards) Subtracting Down, and Carousel Lounge. Her most recent disc, Clean Coal/Big Lie, is currently being released in a series of one-woman shows.  Afterheat is her first novel.

Collins has performed in a variety of venues including Berklee College of Music Performance Hall, Boston Public Library, Club Passim, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art and the New York Public Library.   Collins’ fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines including StoryQuarterly, Phoebe, Salamander and The Pennsylvania Review.

Collins has received grants and awards from Massachusetts College of Art, Somerville Arts Council, the St. Botolph Club, The Kentucky Foundation for Women, the Cambridge Arts Council, and Women Waging Peace.

Collins holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Kentucky where she studied with author and activist Wendell Berry.

 She was recently a guest at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for a pilot conference to advance the development of innovative technologies that support the inclusion of people with disabilities.

 Her recent projects include:

A book of essays, titled Blue Folks of Troublesome to be released in a limited edition letter press format with original artwork as well as in multimedia tablet display.  This book is a project of MHM Fine Art Studios in Lowell, MA and Dutch artist and designer Markus Haala.

A collaboration of spoken-word and music with Russian-born Santon, a blind, autistic musical savant  and recent graduate of Berklee College of Music. With a grant from the Malden Cultural Council they are currently recording a compact disc titles Night Animals.

Praise for Blue Land:

“CD Collins has the voice of a natural-born storyteller.  Original and unforgettable.” Stephen McCauley, novelist

“Altogether brilliant collection...” Ray Olson, Booklist.

Praise for CD Collins

“Laurie Anderson meets William Faulkner.”

more info at www.cdcollins.com

Tuesday April 5, 2016 5PM Editor, Publisher, Writer, Newton Writing and Publishing Center Founder-- Robin Stratton

Robin Stratton

Robin Stratton has been a writing coach in the Boston area for over 20 years. She is the author of four novels, including one which was a National Indie Excellence Book Award finalist, two collections of poetry and short fiction, and a writing guide. A four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she’s been published in Word Riot, 63 Channels, Antithesis Common, Poor Richard’s Almanac(k), Blink-Ink, Pig in a Poke, Chick Flicks, Up the Staircase, Shoots and Vines, and many others. She is Acquisitions Editor for Big Table Publishing Company, Senior Editor of Boston Literary Magazine, and Director of the Newton Writing and Publishing Center.

March 29th 5PM Poet Sergio Inestrosa

Sergio Inestrosa received his PhD in Literature from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico in 1998. Sergio was a Jesuit student for 8 years in Central America, living in El Salvador, Panama and Nicaragua. While in El Salvador he studied with Ignacio Ellacuria, a well known Jesuit scholar who was killed in 1988 by the military. When Professor Inestrosa returned to Mexico, he studied to receive a Masters in Communication and became a professor and researcher in the Communication field. He has presented many research papers in Mexico, Latin America, USA and Asia, and has published 6 books in Mexico. In 1999 he taught Spanish at the Estrella Mountain College in Avondale, Arizona, and in 2000 he conducted Postdoctoral research at Harvard, focusing on the works of Octavio Paz. Since coming to Endicott, Professor Inestrosa has been teaching Spanish and Mexican Culture and has been busy organizing a Spanish Cine Club on campus. He has also developed the Spanish minor and designed many new courses, including Spanish for Professionals, Spanish Cinema, Spanish Translation, Spanish Composition, Latin American History and Culture, and a Latin American literature course. Professor Inestrosa loves to read, write, meet people, learn new languages, cook, and play soccer. He is married and has two children.
Sergio Inestrosa's area of expertise includes: US/Mexico relations. His recent collection of poetry is Los Bordes del Placer

March 15, 2016 Poet, Musician, artist Gilmore Tamny

 

Gilmore Tamny

Gilmore Tamny is an writer, poet, artist, and musician living in Somerville, MA. She's been working on the drawing series Lines, Dots, Circles for the last several years and utilizing both right and left hand has now amassed in in the neighborhood of 450 drawings. In the 90’s she was in the band The Yips which released three full length records. Weather Weapon, her current band, released Weather Weapon on bandcamp in March 2015. She received an MFA from Emerson College in 2002. She has a story in Madison Smartt Bell’s Narrative Design, essays in Not A Rose by Heide Hatry and The Dan Clowes Reader. Her poetry, artwork and short fiction has appeared in various literary magazines. Her novel My Days with Millicent is being serialized online at Ohioedit. She was Somerville's (MA) November 2014 Artist of the Month. She is a committed artiste, feminist, rawk fan, old master painting junkie and audio book listener.

March 1, 2016 5PM Poet, publisher of Salamander Magazine: Jennifer Barber

Jennifer Barber

Jennifer Barber grew up in the Boston area, where she loved gymnastics and modern dance, and graduated as an English major from Colby College in Maine. She studied Old and Middle English at Oxford University and Québécois poetry in Montreal on a Watson Fellowship. She received her M.F.A. in poetry from Columbia University. Having worked in textbook publishing for several years in New York and Boston, she now teaches literature and creative writing at Suffolk University as a scholar in residence. Her books are Works on Paper (The Word Works, 2016, winner of the 2015 Tenth Gate Prize); Given Away (Kore Press, 2012); and Rigging the Wind (Kore Press, 2003, winner of the 2002 Kore First Book Prize). Her poetry has appeared in Agni, the Georgia Review, the Gettysburg Review, Ibbetson Street, Orion, the New Yorker, Poetry, Poetry Daily, Post Road, and elsewhere. Her husband is the fiction writer and translator Peter Brown and she has two children, Jeff, age 27; and Zoe, age 17.

Feb 22, 2016 5PM Michael C. Keith author of "Bits, Specks, Crumbs, Flecks"

Michael C. Keith

 Michael C. Keith is the author of over 20 books (mostly on media topics) and many articles and short stories. In 2003 his memoir, The Next Better Place, was published by Algonquin Books and received high praise from critics. Keith teaches Communication at Boston College and is the recipient of numerous awards for his scholarship in radio studies. We will be talking about Keith's latest collection of short, short fiction " Bits, Specks, Crumbs and Flecks."

Feb 16, 2016 4PM Poet Bridgit Brown

 



Bridgit Brown is a native of Boston and a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Emerson College. Bridgit has freelanced as a writer and her work has appeared in a number of publications, including the Boston Globe, Herald, Bay State Banner, Color Magazine, WGBH Arts, Huffington Post, and Ibbetson Street Magazine. She is a recipient of the Nadia Aisenberg Poetry Award from the Writers Room of Boston and a Fulbright Lecturing and Research Award. This spring, Bridgit will release her first book of poems, Singsongs, via Ibbetson Street Press. Singsongs, according to Bridgit, captures her life experiences in poetry and song.

Jan 19, 2016 Archivist/ Poet Paige Roberts 5PM

Paige Roberts  Poet and Archivist at Phillips Academy

Jan 12, 2012 Sydney Adams

Behind the scenes, high on the fifth floor of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL), is a vast collection peppered with relics from Andover’s past. As students pass unwittingly in the lower levels of the stacks, Garver Room and the OWHL lobby, leadership of this invaluable collection, the Phillips Academy Archives, has changed hands.

On January 3, 2012 Dr. Paige Roberts succeeded Timothy Sprattler as the School Archivist.
Andover’s archives hold several pieces of the school’s history, with articles ranging from early land deeds and financial records to old fire buckets from the former campus fire station.

As the School Archivist, Roberts will be in charge of sorting, organizing and digitizing these mementos from Andover’s history.

Elizabeth Tully, Director of the OWHL, said, “Paige is poised to lead the Archive as we plan for an increasingly integrated digital future.”


Beyond her proficiency in organizing and preserving records, Roberts was selected because of her potential to “engage with the curriculum and prepare materials and activities to support original archival research by students.”

Roberts has also been named the Associate Director of the OWHL, a position which extends her duties to other portions of the library.

Roberts brings classroom experience to the position, having served as an instructor of American Studies at the University of Southern Maine (USM). At USM, Roberts helped provide references to scholars and design archiving spaces for institutions.

Throughout her professional years, Roberts has developed new archival techniques to increase the accessibility and vitality of the archived collections. While she was the director of the Beverly Historical Society, she developed “model archival collaborations” which allowed for the exchange of materials between schools and public libraries.

Roberts also served as the head of special collections at the State Library of Massachusetts in Boston, an archivist at Springfield College, Director of the Beverly Historical Society and will soon be the President of the New England Archivists.

To reduce the time it would take for Roberts to adjust to Andover and the OWHL, Sprattler spent his final months as School Archivist orchestrating an enormous renovation of the school’s archives. Just a week into her position, Roberts has been able to successfully navigate through the historical resources.

Roberts received a B.A. from Bates College in Political Science, a MLS from Simmons College concentrating in archives management, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from George Washington University with an emphasis in New England culture

Alexis Ivy Jan 12, 2016

 

Poet Alexis Ivy

Alexis Ivy is an educator of high-risk populations in her hometown, Boston.  Her most recent poems have appeared in Main Street Rag, Off The Coast, Spare Change News, Tar River Poetry, The Santa Fe Literary Review, Eclipse, Yellow Medicine Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, J Journal and upcoming in The Worcester Review.  Her first poetry collection, Romance with Small-Time Crooks was published in 2013 by BlazeVOX [books].  She is  finding a home for her next collection, Taking the Homeless Census which has been a runner-up for University of Wisconsin's Brittingham & Felix Pollack Prize.  

Dec 8, 2015 5PM Richard Fox

Richard Fox

Richard H. Fox was born and bred in Worcester MA. He attended Webster University, as much artist colony as college, in the early 1970’s. These diverse cultures shaped his world view and love of words. He is a former President of Poetry Oasis, Inc., a non-profit poetry association dedicated to education and promoting local poets, and was Managing Editor of its journal Diner. Richard’s poems have appeared in numerous journals including Above Place, Boston Literary Magazine, OVS, Poetry Quarterly, Midstream Magazine, and Worcester Review. He is the author of two poetry collections: Time Bomb (2013) and wandering in puzzle boxes (2015). A cancer survivor, many of Richard’s poems focus on cancer from the patient’s point of view drawing on hope, humor, and unforeseen gifts. He seconds Stanley Kunitz’ motion that people in Worcester are “provoked to poetry.”

 

Dec 1, 2015 5PM Poet, Writer, Editor Laurette Folk

Laurette Folk received a semifinalist nomination and “Noted Writer” award from the Boston Fiction Festival and has been published in upstreet, The Boston Globe Magazine, Literary Mama, Narrative Northeast, Italian Americana, Talking Writing, among others. Ms. Folk is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA in Writing program and teaches at North Shore Community College.

Poet Laurin Macios Nov 3 5PM

Laurin Macios

Laurin Macios directs Mass Poetry’s programs, including Student Day of Poetry, Poetry on the T, Common Threads, U35, and Professional Development, and manages the crew of dedicated volunteers and interns who help make Mass Poetry run smoothly. She holds an MFA from the University of New Hampshire, where she taught on fellowship for three years, and has a background in publishing. Her publications and other personal poetic happenings can be found at www.laurinbeckermacios.com.

Laurin Becker Macios was born in Miami, Florida and raised just short of everywhere (Florida, Germany, North Carolina, Colorado, and Holland). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing Poetry from the University of New Hampshire and is Program Director of Mass Poetry. She previously worked in publishing and taught writing courses at UNH. She lives in Boston with six plants and one wicked awesome husband.

Thomas Lyons--Owner of the New England Mobile Book Fair Tues Oct 13, 2015

Thomas Lyons ( Owner of the New England Mobile Book Fair)

Thomas Lyons, the former insurance executive bought New England Mobile Book Fair (NEMBF), the largest independent bookstore in New England. From the parking lot, the squat cinderblock building nestled in a commercial strip in Newton Highlands, looks unremarkable. But step inside to a bibliophile’s dream. Its 32,000 square feet (more warehouse than shop around the corner) is piled floor to ceiling with books. Classics. Best sellers. Remainders and picture books. NEMBF, which is neither mobile nor a fair, is so named because the first lot of books was bought from a woman who sold books out of her car at school book fairs. With the books came the name, and it stayed. More than half a century later, the store still offers discounts to schools and libraries, and the less than accurate name has long been just one of the store’s endearing peculiarities. Until recently, all of the books (yes, one million plus) were arranged by publisher rather than by genre, as is done in the vast majority of bookstores.

Poet Mary Buchinger Oct 6, 2015

  Poet Mary Buchinger

Mary Buchinger’s poems have appeared in numerous journals including AGNI, Booth, Cortland Review, DIAGRAM, Fifth Wednesday, Ibbetson Street, New Madrid, Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry, Slice Magazine, The Massachusetts Review; her work also has been published internationally—in Canada, England, France, Germany, Sweden, and The Netherlands. She has read her work locally in Cambridge and Boston, as well as in Amsterdam and at the Library of Congress. Mary was the recipient of both the Daniel Varoujan Award, judged by Marge Piercy, and the Firman Houghton Award from the New England Poetry Club. Her collection, Roomful of Sparrows (2008), was a semi-finalist in the New Women’s Voices Series.

Mary Buchinger (Bodwell) holds a doctorate in Applied Linguistics from Boston University and is Associate Professor of English and Communication Studies at MCPHS University in Boston. More about where she has published poetry can be found in the Poets & Writers Directory:http://www.pw.org/content/mary_buchinger.

Sept 25, 2015 5PM Poet Christopher Reilley

Poet Christopher Reilley

Christopher Reilley is the current poet laureate of Dedham, MA and founder of the Dedham Poet Society and a contributing editor of Acoustic Ink. He is the author of Grief Tattoos, and the upcoming One Night Stanza from Big Table publishing, his work has appeared in a wide variety of places, like Frog Croon, Word Salad, and Chaos Writers, and in such anthologies as “Sanctuary,” “Silent Consciousness,” and “Hot Summer Nights.” He is also the host of the Dedham version of 100 Thousand Poets for Change event in late September.

Sept 15, 2015 Michael Gerhard Martin 5PM

Michael Gerhard Martin

Michael Gerhard Martin holds an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches first year rhetoric at Babson, and fiction for the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. His work has appeared in the Ocean State Review, The Museum of Americana Lit Review, Bayou Magazine, The Rust Belt Chic Pittsburgh Anthology, and on Salon.com. He has been a finalist for the Dzanc Disquiet International Literary Festival short play contest, the Nelligan Prize, the Iowa Short Fiction Award & John Simmons Short Fiction Award, a Glimmer Train New Writers contest, and the Hudson Prize. He won the 2013 James Knudsen Prize for fiction from the University of New Orleans, and he is the author of the short story collection, Easiest If I Had A Gun.​

Aug 4, 2015 Poet, Actor, Playwright George MacDonald 5PM

George MacDonald   (Watch the show live at  http://scatvsomerville.org)

George MacDonald is an accomplished writer, actor and comedian. George has over 23 years sober and spreads his recovery message through the gift of comedy. George has performed with such stars as Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Dane Cook, and Dennis Miller, just to name a few. George is also a playwright, some of his works include: At The Funny Factory, Waiting for Whitey, and Whistling Past The Graveyard. George is a member of The Dramatist Guild of America, Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

July 14 5PM Poet Afaa Michael Weaver

Afaa Michael Weaver

 

Afaa Michael Weaver

In 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, Afaa Michael Weaver, formerly known as Michael S. Weaver, was born to working class parents. He attended public schools and graduated as a National Merit finalist at the age of sixteen. After two years at the University of Maryland, he entered the world of factory life alongside his father and uncles and remained a factory worker for fifteen years. These years were a literary apprenticeship during which he wrote and published poetry, short fiction, and freelance journalism. During that time he also started 7th Son Press and Blind Alleys, a literary journal.

His first book of poetry, Water Song, was published in 1985 as part of the Callaloo series. He received a NEA fellowship for poetry six months after signing the contract for the collection and left factory life to attend Brown University’s graduate writing program on a full university fellowship, where he completed an MA with a focus on theater and playwriting. Concurrently, he completed his BA in literature in English at Excelsior College.

Tess Onwueme, the Nigerian playwright, gave him the Ibo name “Afaa," meaning “oracle," while Dr. Perng Ching-hsi, of National Taiwan University has given him the Chinese name “Wei Yafeng," derived from “Wei” for flourishing or blossoming, and “Yafeng," the title of a section of poems from the Book of Songs, the oldest anthology of Chinese poetry.

Since Water Song, Weaver has published several more collections of poetry, including City of Eternal Spring (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014); The Government of Nature (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013), for which he received the Kingsley Tufts Award; The Plum Flower Dance: Poems 1985 to 2005 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007); Multitudes (Sarabande Books, 2000); and The Ten Lights of God (Bucknell University Press, 2000). His full-length play Rosa was produced in 1993 at Venture Theater in Philadelphia. His short fiction appears Children of the Night: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present (Little, Brown, 1997), edited by Gloria Naylor, and Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American (Penguin Books, 1999), edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan .

Weaver has been a Pew fellow in poetry and taught in National Taiwan University and Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan as a Fulbright Scholar. He teaches at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Poet,Writer, Professor Kevin Carey author of the short story collection " Beach People" July 7 5PM

Kevin Carey

Kevin Carey teaches in the English Department at Salem State University. He writes poetry, fiction, drama, and the occasional personal essay. His work can be found in several literary journals:  The Apple Valley Review,  The Literary Review, The Comstock Review, and The Paterson Literary Review.




See new poem http://www.connotationpress.com/a-poetry-congeries-with-john-hoppenthaler/may-2015/2552-kevin-carey-poetry
See recent interview with Kevin: https://geosireads.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/interview-with-kevin-carey-author-of-the-beach-people/
His book of poetry, The One Fifteen to Penn Station, is available from CavanKerry Press, NJ. http://www.upne.com/1933880297.html and Amazon.com. A new book of poems, Jesus Was a Homeboy, is forthcoming (Fall 2016 - CK Press).
“Carey’s poems, firmly rooted in the American landscape of the city and its surrounding towns, bring these places and people alive for us in poetry that is specific, clear, and unflinching,” Maria Mazziotti Gillan
 A new chapbbok of fiction - The Beach People - from Red Bird Chapbooks. Now available at http://www.redbirdchapbooks.com/kevin-carey.html
"In Carey’s fiction we meet a band of fast food workers, bartenders, carny operators, a bookie, a nursing home resident and a retired Navy man, all of them intersecting at the boardwalk institutions of this urban beach. These are not the suntan lathered bathing beauties or the muscle men who fawn over them. These are not the families with children making sand castles at low tide. These “Beach People” live across the street, working day after day, trying to survive, in sometimes desperate ways, the insanity of the routine, wanting more but settling for less, and daring to dream too much."


New poems Chicago / Wishing Well http://www.chagrinriverreview.com/kevin-carey.html
Read Home for the Holidays (Best of the Net 2011) http://www.leahbrowning.net/Apple/Spring_2011/Kevin_Carey.html
Read a short story Lucky Day at Ragazine http://ragazine.cc/2013/06/kevin-careyfiction/

Reading of a poem Crazy Stuff at book launch. http://poetmom.blogspot.com/2012/05/kevin-carey-crazy-stuff.html
Watch a new short film collaboration (with his son) www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPQlWdyCf0
Watch a Revere Beach music video Kevin made in the 90's of the band West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPaCHdW7BLw
His latest documentary project is a film about New Jersey poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan called All That Lies Between Us.
Watch Movie Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaFUVTEC9JU 

Nina Rubinstein Alonso Poet and publisher of Constellations magazine. June 30th 5PM

Nina  Rubinstein Alonso  (Left)  with poet Kathleen Spivack

Nina Rubinstein Alonso’s poetry appeared in Ploughshares, The New Yorker, Bagel Bards, Ibbetson Street, The New Boston Review, MomEgg, U. Mass. Review, etc. and her stories in Southern Women’s Review, won a Pushcart nominee, and Broadkill Review. David Godine Press published her book This Body. She works with Constellations a Journal of Poetry and Fiction (www.constellations-lit.com) and directs Fresh Pond Ballet in Cambridge (www.freshpondballet.com). 


Watch this show live at  http://www.scatvsomerville.org 

Buell Hollister author of Leeram in Fordlandia June 2 5PM

My guest will be Buell Hollister former president of the St. Botolph Club in Boston and author of Leeram in Fordlandia   watch it live at Poet to Poet

May 12, 2015 Sebastian Lockwood 5PM

SEEE IT LIVE at  http://scatvsomerville.org 

Sebastian Lockwood

Sebastian Lockwood is a Storyteller who specializes in the epics:  The Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer’s Odyssey,  CAESAR: the man from Venus,  Beowulf, and… Monkey: A Journey to the West.  These are the great tales of heroic struggle and self-discovery.  Lockwood is now narrating a series of audio books available at Audible.com and Amazon.com.  Working as a traveling bard, teacher and audio book narrator, Lockwood lives with his wife, singer and producer, Nanette Perrotte, by Crotched Mountain, NH.

U/Mass Boston MFA Poets Adam M. Graaf and Alyssa Mazzarella April 28 5PM

 

Adam M. Graaf is completing his MFA at the University of Massachusetts Boston where hecurrently teaches creative writing. He previously taught poetry at Bay State Correctional Center and tutored students enrolled in the Veterans Upward Bound program. Adam served nine years
in the Army Reserve, deploying once to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003/2004. He is an active member of Warrior Writers Boston where he co-facilitates writing workshops. Adam’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in War, Literature & the Arts, Breakwater Review, and CONSEQUENCE. In 2013, he received the New England Poetry Club’s The John Holmes
Award.


Alyssa Mazzarella is an MFA candidate in poetry and an instructor for Introduction to Creative

Writing at UMass Boston. In 2013 and 2014, she received an Academy of American Poets Prize, a Mary Doyle Curran Scholarship, and a Brian Rattigan Scholarship. She’s previously taught at Baystate Correctional Center and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and holds a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College. Her poems have appeared in Freshwater and Common Ground Review.

Tuesday, April 21 5PM Wendell Smith

Poet, Journalist, Physician Wendell Smith

Wendell Smith’s poems have appeared in Constellations, Ibbetson Street, The Kansas Quarterly, View Northwestand elsewhere. He has meditated with a raj yoga, Sahaj Marg, for forty years. He thinks Ramon Guthrie and Maximum Security Ward should become to 20th century poetry what Melville and Moby Dick became to 19th century fiction. Smith was among the founder members of the Boston Phoenix.

April 7 Elizabeth Kirschner author of the memior Waking The Bones

( A new memoir from poet Elizabeth Kirschner  Waking The Bones)

Elizabeth Kirschner has published five volumes of poetry, most recently, MY LIFE AS A DOLL,  Autumn House Press, 2008, and SURRENDER TO LIGHT, Cherry Grove Editions, 2009. The former was nominated for the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Patterson Book Prize and named Kirschner as the Literary Arts Fellow in the state of Maine, 2010. Her memoir, WALKING THE BONES is forthcoming from The Piscataqua Press.

Kirschner has been writing and teaching multi-genres across four decades. She served as faculty in Fairfield University’s low-residence MFA in Creative Writing Program and has also taught at Boston College and Carnegie-Mellon University.

She has collaborated with with many classical composers and this work is featured on numerous CD’s, including The Dichterliebe in Four Seasons, Schumann/Kirschner.

She currently serves as a writing mentor and manuscript consultant and teaches various workshops in and around her community in Kittery Point, ME.

March 17 5PM Steve Glines Publisher, Editor and novelist--discusses his new novel "Poplar Hill"

Steve Glines

 Steve Glines is the founder of the Wilderness House Literary Review and Press  http://www.whlreview.com. He is also the designer for the Ibbetson Street Press   http://ibbetsonpress.com

view the interview live at 5PM  March 17   http://scatvsomerville.org



He has a new novel in the works  "Poplar Hill"


The synopsis: An eccentric old lady scoffs at death by holding a "living
wake." Everyone in the county attends. When she has a real heart attack,
we follow her as she descends into the hell of pre-war Nazi Germany.



Below is a link to the promotional video


http://tinyurl.com/k8p89np

Poet David Blair Feb 24, 2015 5PM

David Blair’s first book, Ascension Days (Del Sol Press, 2007), was chosen for the Del Sol Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in AGNI, Harvard Review, Ploughshares,Fence, Barnstorm, Slate,storySouth, and elsewhere. He is associate professor at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Massachusetts.