Doug Holder interviews poet Ravi Teja Yelamanchili

June 4, 2019 5PM Luke Salisbury author of " No Common War"

Luke Salisbury

view it live at  5PM  June 4 at  http://somervillemedia.org 

No Common War is a fictionalized history of the author's family's participation in the abolition movement and the Civil War. The names of key persons and places are real. The Union soldier on the book's jacket is Moreau Salisbury.

In 1835 two Salisbury brothers accompany the Great Cheese, a 1,800-pound monstrosity created by the leading citizens of Sandy Creek, New York, to Washington City to promote the town and celebrate New York State. In the nation's capitol, they witness the whipping of a slave on Christmas Day. Mason Salisbury demands to know if the slaver is a Christian, and is struck across the face with the whip. Worse would have happened but for Mason's brother Lorenzo's striking the slaver with the butt of his shotgun.

Mason becomes an implacable abolitionist, frequently speaking for the cause and showing his scar. He helps escaped slaves reach Canada. in 1861 his son, Moreau, is at seminary at Cazenovia when Ft. Sumter is fired on. Moreau returns home, telling his father he cannot reconcile "Thou shalt not kill" with killing, even against the abomination of slavery. Moreau's mind is changed when he discovers an escaped slave trying to get to Lake Ontario (four miles from Sandy Creek) and his family shelters the man until he can be transported to Canada. Moreau does not know that Mason, his father, has manipulated his discovery.

Afterward, Moreau and his cousin Merrick (Lorenzo's son) join the 24th New York Volunteers, but not before Moreau falls in love with Helen, a local girl.

The 24th is billeted outside Washington, held in reserve when the Union and Confederate armies meet at Bull Run, but witness fleeing Union soldiers and disillusioned civilians who went to see a spectacle but discovered war. During the winter the 24th bivouac on the grounds of Robert E. Lee's Arlington, Virginia plantation and venture into Washington for drinking and womanizing.

The summer of 1862 is a succession of battles. The 24th meets rebels for the first time at Cedar Mountain. Moreau and Merrick see men killed, smell powder and blood, hear the screams of the wounded. They stand abreast and fire at Confederate soldiers also standing abreast and firing at them.

The 24th fights at Groveton, is part of the disastrous charge at the sunken railroad at Second Bull run, fights its way up South Mountain under heavy fire, and then Antietam. The 24th is in the third wave through the cornfield at Antietam.

Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history. There are almost 22,000 casualties. The cornfield will be crossed and recrossed fifteen times, and when the battle is over a person could walk across it without touching the ground for the bodies.

Moreau is shot through the ankle. Merrick receives a Minie ball in the knee. Word of their wounds reaches Sandy Creek. Moreau's and Merrick's fathers go to the battlefield, arriving the day after the end of the battle. They find their sons in among the four acres of wounded. Surgeons are amputating limbs, men are crying out in pain, blood pools under the boards and tables used for surgery. The two fathers talk a surgeon out of amputating their sons' legs.

Moreau barely survives the trip home. Merrick dies along the way.

At home, Moreau becomes increasingly depressed, angry, distant from his parents, cruel to Helen who has waited faithfully for his return. He becomes addicted to morphine. He considers suicide. There are terrible arguments with Helen, the grief of Moreau's mother whose love cannot reach her son, anger at Mason for supporting the war, and finally a violent father-son confrontation. The family is desperate.  Mason tries to find the freed slave, to remind Moreau what he had fought for, but cannot locate him. It is a long, brutal winter.

But spring will come, and with it love and trust. The price has been high.

Poet Ravi Teja Yelamanchili May 21, 2019 5PM

see it live at  http://somervillemedia.org

                                    Ravi Teja Yelamanchili 

Ravi Teja Yelamanchili is currently working at Vision33 as a Technical Business Analyst. His writing has previously been published in the Muddy River Poetry Review, the Somerville Times, Sahitya Akademi’s Indian Literature, Muse India, and several other journals. He also won the Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program Contest, and the University of Pittsburgh Undergraduate Poetry Contest.

My guest May 14 5PM Aaron Tillman, author of "Every Single Bone in My Brain"Aaron Tillman

Aaron Tillman

Aaron Tillman is a fiction writer and Pushcart Prize nominee for 2019 and 2018. He is Associate Professor of English at Newbury College and Director of Newbury's Honors Program. His short story collection, Every Single Bone in My Brain, was published by Braddock Avenue Books in July of 2017, and his book of critical nonfiction, Magical American Jew: The Enigma of Difference in Contemporary Jewish American Short Fiction and Film, was published by Lexington Books in November 2017. Aaron received the John Gardner Memorial Prize in Fiction from Harpur Palate and a Short Story Award for New Writers from Glimmer Train Stories; he won First Prize in the Nancy Potter Short Story Contest at University of Rhode Island, and his novel was a finalist in the 2016 Molly Ivors Prize for Fiction. His stories have appeared in Mississippi Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Harpur Palate, Sou'Wester, upstreet, The Tishman Review, The Madison Review, Arcadia Magazine, The Carolina Quarterly, great weather for MEDIA, Prick of the Spindle, Burrow Press Review, and elsewhere. He has recorded two stories for broadcast on the Words & Music program at Tufts University and another for Functionally Literate Radio. His essays have appeared in The Writer's Chronicle, Studies in American Humor, Symbolism, The CEA Critic, and The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America (Mythopoeic 2009).

April 2, 2019 Dan Lynn Watt author of "History Lessons: A Memoir of Growing Up in an American Communist Family

History Lessons traces Dan Lynn Watt's journey through childhood in New York during the McCarthy era. He marched on May Day with his war hero father and activist mother, chanting "We don't want another war!" and "Jim Crow must go!" At camp, he sang about world peace, freedom, and workers' rights. At school, he attempted to hide his family's politics. He takes you inside family struggles against racism and political repression. Disillusioned with communism by the 1960s, he became a civil rights and antiwar activist.

Curious Peach 











“What wond’rous Life in this I lead!
Ripe Apples drop about my head;
The Luscious Clusters of the Vine
Upon my Mouth do crush their Wine;
The Nectaren, and curious Peach,
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on Melons, as I pass,
Insnar’d with Flow’rs, I fall on Grass”



---Andrew Marvell, The Garden

March 26, 2019 5P.M. Brian Coleman, author of "Buy Me, Boston."

  watch it live at 5PM http://www.somervillemedia.org

Take a trip to the Boston of yesteryear, guided by advertisements for the businesses and characters that made the city tick in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s – restaurants, hair salons, bands, bars, clothing boutiques and more.

Buy Me, Boston features over 375 vintage advertisements, posters and flyers. These images have been scanned from original sources, including issues of The Boston Phoenix, The Real Paper, The Bay State Banner, Boston After Dark, Boston Rock and many more, straight from the stockpiles of renowned archivists and historians like David Bieber, Kay Bourne, Chuck White and Wayne Valdez.

Compiled and curated by journalist Brian Coleman, Buy Me, Boston is a unique, time-traveling journey back to a city that exists only in the fond memories of longtime denizens. Whether you patronized these establishments and happenings the first time around, or just want to know more about our unique town and the people whose energy and creativity fuels it, this book guarantees smiles with the turn of every new page.

PRAISE FOR "BUY ME, BOSTON":  

“A snapshot of a particular time and place when the city bristled with an alt-weekly energy, an underground thrust, and a whole lot of questionable hairstyles. Coleman has created a treasure chest of Boston memorabilia, reminding longtime dwellers of things we didn’t even know we missed.”

– Boston Globe (Nina MacLaughlin)

“A romp through this city’s dirty-water years… it’s an experience meant to be shared.”

– Boston Magazine (Shaula Clark)

“This is about the best history book you will find about our culture. It’s all true, I was there!”

– Willie “Loco” Alexander

“A time capsule, showing what independent papers in the Boston area looked like from the 1960s through the ‘80s.”

– Sue O’Connell, NECN

March 12, 2019 :Harris Gardner and Kirk Etherton--will talk about the Boston National Poetry Month Festival: April 3rd to 7th on Poet to Poet

Doug Holder (center) to interview Harris Gardner  left ( Co-founder of the Boston National Poetry Festival) and Board Member and Director of Marketing Kirk Etherton (far right)

To see the interview live  click on http://somervillemedia.org at 5PM  March 12. This is a production of the Somerville Media Center.  https://www.bostonnationalpoetry.org/https://www.bostonnationalpoetry.org/

Doug Holder Interviews Belle Brett author of "Gina in the Floating World"

Feb 19, 2018 5PM Doug Holder to interview film critic and novelist Dan Kimmel, author of " Father of the Bride of Frankenstein"

Dan Kimmel

I will talk with Kimmel about his latest novel, Father of the Bride of Frankenstein.   To see the interview live go to:  http://somervillemedia.org 

Daniel M. Kimmel (born 1955) is an American film critic and author.^[1][2]

In September 2014, he became editor of The Jewish Advocate where he served through December 2015. He received a B.A. from the University of Rochester and a degree in law from Boston University.

Kimmel was the Boston correspondent for Variety from 1986 to 2013, and has been a TV columnist for The Boston Herald. From 1984 to 2009, he was a film reviewer for the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Massachusetts. His reviews can be found at NorthShoreMovies.net and the Sci-Fi Movie Page. Until his promotion he was the "Movie Maven" for The Jewish Advocate. His essays on classic science fiction films were being published in The Internet Review of Science Fiction from 2005–2010 and are now in Space and Time.

He is a past president and current member of the Boston Society of Film Critics. In May 2012, he became founding co-chair of the Boston Online Film Critics Association.

Kimmel is the author of several books and has co-written a play The Waldorf Conference about the Hollywood blacklist. His 2004 history of Fox, The Fourth Network, received the Cable Center Award for best book of the year. His collection of essays titled Jar Jar Binks Must Die was nominated for a Hugo Award in the category "Best Related Work".^[3] His novel Shh! It's a Secret was on the shortlist for the Compton Crook Award given to best first novel by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. His latest is Time on My Hands: My Misadventures in Time Travel. He is the 2018 recipient of the Skylark Award given by the New England Science Fiction Association.

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene: Feb 12 5PM Doug Holder Interviews Novelist Belle Brett on Poet to Poet Writer to Writer

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene: Feb 12 5PM Doug Holder Interviews Novelist Belle...:   ( Click on for full information)

Novelist Belle Brett  see it live on 5PM on http://somervillemedia.org  In Brett’s debut novel, an American student embarks on a jo...

Novelist Belle Brett 

Feb 12 5PM Doug Holder Interviews Belle Brett about her new novel " Gina in the Floating World"

Gina in the Floating World

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In a whirlwind of hopes and fears, 23-year old Dorothy Falwell travels to Tokyo to pursue an international banking internship, far away from her restrictive Midwest Catholic upbringing. It is 1981, and Japan, with its booming economy and complex culture, is her Oz. The ambitious, but naïve Dorothy must figure out how to navigate the twists and unexpected detours on her personal journey, especially after she accepts a job as a hostess in a run-down suburban bar to support her venture. Renamed Gina by her blustery bar boss, she finds that her new friends aren’t the most reliable guides. In contrast, the suave Mr. Tambuki appears to have all the answers and is even willing to pay Gina to spend time with him. Patiently, he lures her into his world of unorthodox Zen instruction, erotic art, and high octane sex. Small wonder that her moral compass goes haywire, and the bizarre starts to feel normal. But when she realizes she may be in grave danger, will she find herself at a point of no return? Or will she, like the Dorothy for whom she is named, discover that she had power over her destiny all along?

Doug Holder Interviews Philosopher Richard Oxenberg about--On the Meanin...

Jan 22, 2019 5PM Stephanie Schorow author of "Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down story of Boston's most Notorious Neighborhood"

Stephanie Schorow

SEE the show live at 5PM at http://somervillemedia.org

 http://poettopoetwritertowriter.blogspot.com http://poettopoetwritertowriter.blogspot.com
 
On Jan 22 at 5PM I will be interviewing journalist Stephanie Schorow on my show Poet to Poet Writer to Writer( Somerville Media Center) about her new book "Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down story of Boston's most Notorious Neighborhood"--I remember visiting the Combat Zone in the 1970s when I was a student at Boston University -- I wanted to experience "life." I went to a seedy bar--one that Wilbur Mills might have frequented--sat down and was about to order when the woman next to me said, " Give this kid a glass of milk." That's Life!

A Boston-based freelance writer and journalism instructor, Stephanie Schorow is the author, co-author, or editor of eight books on Boston history: Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down story of Boston's most Notorious Neighborhood; Drinking Boston: A History of the City and its Spirits; The Cocoanut Grove Fire; Boston on Fire; East of Boston: Notes from the Harbor Island; and The Crime of the Century: How the Brink’s Robbers Stole Millions and the Hearts of Boston. With co-author Beverly Ford, she wrote The Boston Mob Guide: Hit Men, Hoodlums and Hangouts and served as the editor of Boston's Fire Trail with the Boston Fire Historical Society. She has worked as an editor and reporter for the Boston Herald, The Associated Press and numerous other publications. She currently writes restaurant reviews for the Boston Globe North section.
She currently teaches professional writing at Lasell College in Newton, Mass. She has also taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Regis College, Lesley University and Emerson College.
She is now coordinating a Citizen Journalism Program for Malden Access Television. See: MATV's Neighborhood View at https://neighborhoodview.org.

Doug Holder Interviews Poet Steven Ostrowski Co-Author of Penultimate H...

Jan 15, 2019 5PM: Richard Oxenberg author of "On the Meaning of Human Being: Heidegger and the Bible in Dialogue"

 
 see it live at 5PM at  http://somervillemedia.org




Richard Oxenberg received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Emory University, with a concentration in Religion and Ethics. He has written numerous articles on religious philosophy and on the application of ethical principles to our political situation. He is currently teaching at Endicott College in Beverly, MA. His book, "On the Meaning of Human Being: Heidegger and the Bible in Dialogue" has recently been published by Political Animal Press.

Jan 8, 2018 5PM Steven Ostrowski and Benjamin Ostrowski: Father and Son Write to Each Other

Ben  and  Steve Ostrowski 

Penultimate Human Constellation by Steven Ostrowski and Benjamin Ostrowski


 
“You will never encounter another volume of poetry like this. Father and son, Steven and Benjamin Ostrowski give the reader the most intimate and engaging look into a closeness between two family members I’ve yet encountered; a dialogue couched in experimental form and imagery that is always fresh and inventive. A book of correspondences that often spans oceans and continents as the two are separated. Not a single lazy line and nothing telegraphed. Surprises abound around every corner, hallmarked by wit, love and a genuine, deep affection for one another. Each poem is masterfully sectioned by the authors, a joy to read. Would that all fathers and sons could share such a genuine interest in each other’s lives. Imaginative writing at its very finest, employing free-association writing techniques that keep the reader transfixed and entertained page after page. Unique is a term often overused. Penultimate Human Constellation is inarguably unique, and lives up to the volume’s title in the most unanticipated and delightful ways.” -Robert Nazarene, founding editor & publisher,
The American Journal of Poetry

David P. Miller: Actor, Poet, Librarian

David P. Miller’s chapbook, The Afterimages, was published in 2014. His poems have recently appeared in Meat for Tea, Ibbetson Street, Constellations, riverbabble, What Rough Beast, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, and Autumn Sky Poetry Daily. A Boston resident, he was a member of the multidisciplinary Mobius Artists Group for 25 years.  He has a new book forthcoming from Nixes Mate Press.

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene: Doug Holder Interviews poet George Ellenbogen

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene: Doug Holder Interviews poet George Ellenbogen