March 25, 2008
Rock the Belz
Okay, before you do anything else, go get your calendar. Or your Blackberry. Or at least get a pen so you can write these dates on your hand for future reference.
Okay, you got your pen, plus your calendar/hand/scrap of paper? Now, write down April 1 and April 3.
Here's why:
First, on April 1, the superlative & brilliant Aaron Belz will be reading from his new book, The Bird Hoverer (of which I have a copy, a well-read copy, so I can vouch for its brilliance). You may or may not know that Mr. Belz is the curator of the Observable poetry series at Schlafly Bottleworks, and that he is personally responsible for bringing poets like Robin Schiff and Gabriel Gudding to St. Louis. Mr. Belz's fine taste in poetry springs from his own poetic genius, and you'll get a first-hand taste of that on April Fool's Day. Where, you ask? At the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar, at 8 p.m.
Then, two days later on April 3, you can see for yourself what a great poetic curator Aaron is, at this month's Observable reading (which, as I mentioned before, takes place at the Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest - also at 8 p.m.) Yep, this is the blowout first-name reading for 2008. EIGHT KATES. As one of the participants in the first first-name reading back in '04 (the legendary Three Stephanies Reading) I can also vouch for the brillance of this particular school of poetic categorization. Here's the skinny on the eight Kates, lifted from the Observable website:
April 3 – Eight Kates: Colby, Marvin, Ford, Greenstreet, Peterson, Pringle, Schapira, Lederer
Kate Colby is author of Unbecoming Behavior (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2007) and Fruitlands (Litmus Press, 2006). Recent work can be found in Bay Poetics, New American Writing and Vanitas. She lives in Providence.
Cate Marvin's first book, World's Tallest Disaster (Sarabande, 2001), was awarded the Kathryn A. Morton Prize by Robert Pinksy. She is co-editor with Michael Dumanis of Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande, January 2006). Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Poetry, Slate, and elsewhere.
Katie Ford is the author of Deposition and Colosseum (Graywolf Press, 2002 and 2008), as well as a chapbook, Storm (Marick Press, 2007). Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poets & Writers, Partisan Review, Seneca Review, and Ploughshares. She is Poetry Editor of New Orleans Review and currently teaches at Franklin & Marshall College.
Kate Greenstreet is the author of case sensitive (Ahsahta Press, 2006) and Learning the Language (Etherdome Press, 2005). Visit her online at kickingwind.com.
Katie Peterson is the author of This One Tree, published by New Issues. Beginning in the Fall of 2007, she will be the Robert Aird Professor of Humanities and Poet in Residence at Deep Springs College. She was born in California.
Kate Pringle has one chapbook: Temper and Felicity are Lovers, out on TAXT. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Fourteen Hills, 42opus, Alice Blue, Denver Quarterly, Dusie, foursquare, & more.
Kate Schapira lives and writes in Providence, where she organizes the Publicly Complex reading series, and teaches throughout Rhode Island. Her chapbook, Phoenix Memory, is available from horse less press.
Katy Lederer is the author of Winter Sex (Verse Press, 2002) and The Heaven-Sent Leaf (BOA Editions, forthcoming 2008), as well as the memoir Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers (Crown, 2003).
Whew. If that isn't a tour de force, I don't know what is. Now, go read some Aaron Belz poems at meaningless.com and prepare to be steamrollered by them, in a good way. If you think poetry readings are boring (I agree with you there, most of the time) I'll say that I have quite a few friends who don't even like poetry, or poetry readings, who refuse to miss the first Thursday at Bottleworks...