UCSD Library V-Blog

It's that time of year: National Poetry Month.

One of the things I've done this year to celebrate is to participate in the UCSD Library's V-blog for poets. Click on the link to see poets such as Rachel Winchester, Alex Bosworth, and myself (among others) read and discuss poems on video. I read two poems from my recently released Mendeleev's Mandala. 

And for my poet friends, it's not too late to participate. Christina Continelli is still accepting videos, so follow the link for more info.

Neat on the Net: Word Nerd Edition

I haven't done a Neat on the Net in over a year, but recently I've found a few interesting things for word-lovers.

1) The Found Poetry Review will be celebrating National Poetry Month 2015 with a challenge called Poetry Month Scouts, in which you can earn poetry merit badges by completing tasks in five poetic categories: remix, erasure, conceptual chance operations, and out and about. If you complete all the badges within the month of April, you'll even win a prize.

This looks like so much fun! Get more information and sign up here.  And, if you are like me and hesitate to sign up to submit all your work in early drafts so that it might be published as part of the project, the prompts and assignments will all be available at the site as of April 1, and you can play along unofficially. You can't win if you don't play, though.

2) English T-shirts in Japan are regularly hilarious, though I have to say, this was truer in the past. Apparently the same phenomenon is still pretty amusing in China. Eric Doise reports on the t-shirts he saw during his two years in China in the Peace Corps on his website. This video of a slideshow presentation (entitled "What English Language T-shirt from China Can Teach Us About Translation") not only provides funny examples, but also considers the nature of translation, semiotics, and the role of the design elements of the alphabet when the language is not used conventionally. For those of us who've puzzled over strange English, it's thought-provoking.

3) Haruki Murakami is going to do a personal advice column. Yes, it's true. It's like a dream come true.....

Big Poetry Giveaway Results!

National Poetry Month has once again drawn to a close. I hope everyone celebrated in ways that stimulated their creativity and pleased their souls.

I'd like to thank the 23 people who participated in the Big Poetry Giveaway here at my blog. Don't hold your breath any longer--the results are in! Using a random number generator, I have been able to determine the winners of the two books of poetry I'm giving away this year.

And they are:

Renee, who has won a copy of my book, The Insomniac's Weather Report,

and

Jessica (not me, a different Jessica!), who has won the California anthology, Yuba Flows, featuring (among other poets) the very talented Judy Halebsky.

Congratulations to Renee and Jessica, and thanks to everybody for participating!

PS Renee and Jessica, you each should have received  an email from me inquiring about a physical address to send your book to. If you haven't, please let me know.

Lost & Found Poems for Poetry Month

The Found Poetry Review is preparing a fun Found Poetry Project, spearheaded by poet Jenni B. Baker, to celebrate Poetry Month (in April). They are busy assebling more than 400 Found Poetry Kits to be distributed in left in public places like coffee shops, campuses, and libraries in communities all over the US. Lucky recoverers of the Found Poetry Kits will find in them everything needed to write a found poem: a description of what found poetry is, a source text from which to elicit their own found poem, a pad of paper and a pen, and instructions about how to upload their found poems to a website to share them with the poetry-loving public for Poetry Month.

Here's how you can get involved. You can keep your eyes peeled and see if you can be one of the lucky 250 to find a kit. Or you can go to the project's website and sign up to be sent 5 poetry kits to distribute in your community. Or you can find out at their website how to make kits of your own to spread the scope of the project. Also, check out the project's Kickstarter page; they've been fully funded now, but you can still see information about the project there.

Isn't this a great idea for National Poetry Month?

Free Posters

Check out poet Karen Weyant's blog The Scrapper Poet and learn how you can get the 2012 free National Poetry Month poster offered by the Academy of American Poets. Visit their website as well to see the design of this year's poster featuring work by Philip Levine, and also peruse posters from previous years.

Thanks for the heads-up, Karen!