Tonite: Small Press Celebration at Left Bank Books 7-9pm Wed 21 March 2012

Left Bank Books"In Praise of Great and Small"
C E L E B R A T E S
S M A L L   P R E S S   M O N T H
(The  E Y E S  of  M A R C H)

W e d n e s d a y
21 March 21
2 0 1 2

THREE ROOMS PRESS + FINISHING LINE PRESS + RAIN MOUNTAIN PRESS + LITTLE SKY PRESS + POETS WEAR PRADA

hosted by

Roxanne  H O F F M A N  and  Jack  C O O P E R
POETS WEAR PRADA
f e a t u r i n g
Five (5) Great Poets!
Kat  G E O R G E S + Peter  C A R L A F T E S + Peter  C H E L N I K +

Gil  F A G I A N I + Michael T.  Y O U N G

7 to 9 p.m.

17 Eighth (8th) Avenue,
Corner of  West 12th Street, G r e e n w i c h  V i l l a g e

plus--

A f t e r   P a r t y !
at

C H O C O L A T E   B A R

(n e  x   t        d     o      o       r        ...        1         9          )

KAT  G E O R G E S is an NYC poet, playwright, performer and designer. Her full-length poetry collection, Our Lady of the Hunger will be released soon on Three Rooms Press. In New York since 2003, she has directed numerous Off-Broadway plays, curated poetry readings (including the bi-monthly Son of a Pony poetry reading series at Cornelia Street Cafe), and performed widely. She is co-founder and editor of Three Rooms Press; their most recent books include Maintenant 6: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art; Have a NYC: New York Short Stories; and Mike Watt: On and Off Bass, a collection of photos and distilled tour diaries from the great punk rock bass player.


PETER  C A R L A F T E S  is an NYC playwright, poet, and performer. He is the author of 12 plays, including a noir treatment of Knut Hamsun’s Hunger, and his own celebrity rehab center spoof, Spin-Dry. Carlaftes has recently published three books: A Year on Facebook (humor), Drunkyard Dog (poetry) and Triumph for Rent (3 plays). He is co-founder and editor of Three Rooms Press; their most recent books include Maintenant 6: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art; Have a NYC: New York Short Stories; and Mike Watt: On and Off Bass, a collection of photos and distilled tour diaries from the great punk rock bass player. 

PETER  C H E L N I K's latest book is Strawberry Harmony:New Poems (Little Sky Press, March 2010).  His chapbook "Paradise Highway" was published by Poets Wear Prada in 2007. Other books include Railroad Heart, East Coast Line, Manhattan Wilderness, Eternity Road and Wildflower Serenade. He has had seven plays produced Off-Off-Broadway. These dramatic works include Street Rag, Prairie Fire, Parking Lot, Moving Target, Scarsdale Station and Tremont Vortex. Peter has also written Trick Bag, a novel of the 1960's. And yes, he does believe "the word will set you free."

GIL  F A G I A N I’s poetry collections include: Rooks (Rain Mountain Press, 2007), Grandpa’s Wine (Poets Wear Prada, 2008); translated into Italian by Paul D’Agostino, A Blanquito in El Barrio (Rain Mountain Press, 2009), Chianti in Connecticut (Bordighera Press, 2010) and just recently, Serfs of Psychiatry (Finishing Line Press).  He has translated into English poetry written in Italian, Abruzzese dialect and Spanish. Gil co-curates the Italian American Writers’ Association’s monthly readings at the Cornelia Street Café and is the Associate Editor of Feile-Festa: A Literary Arts Magazine.

MICHAEL T.  Y O U N G  has published three collections of poetry: Transcriptions of Daylight, Because the Wind Has Questions and, most recently, Living in the Counterpoint, which was published by Finishing Line Press.  His next full-length collection, The Beautiful Moment of Being Lost, will be published in 2013 by Black Coffee Press.  He received a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and was twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  He received a William Stafford Award and the Chaffin Poetry Award.  His work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous print and online journals including Fogged Clarity, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Potomac Review, The Raintown Review, and The Same.  His work is also in the anthologies Phoenix Rising and Chance of a Ghost and forthcoming in The Bug Book, and In the Black/In the Red.  He lives with his wife and children in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Go to the link on FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/​events/346193165425594

Fagiani's CHIANTI IN CONNECTICUT on SPD's Recommend New Titles List

Small Press Distribution, a non-profit literary arts organization located in Berkeley, California, highlighted Gil Fagiani’s newly published Chianti in Connecticut (Bordighera Press) in its "Recommended New Titles for Jan. 15-31":

"Gil Fagiani's muse is Italian American memory. These are poems of origins and belonging, of family, culture, politics. These are recollections, both elegiac and ironic, of a world Gil Fagiani observes from the privileged perspective of an insider who does not feel bound to the need to eulogize his community. They function as archival records, a museum of language in which a gallery of characters and objects and moments are captured in lines that vibrate with a sound, a touch, a presence"—Edvige Giunta

http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9781599540153/default.aspx

Gil Fagiani’s previous collections include A Blanquito in El Barrio (Rain Mountain Press, 2009) set in the streets and to the music of Spanish Harlem and  Rooks (Rain Mountain Press, 2007) recalling his years as cadet at a Pennsylvania military college in the 1960s.  His chapbook Grandpa’s Wine (Poets Wear Prada, 2008) has been translated into Italian by Paul D’Agostino and will be re-released as bi-lingual edition in 2011. His Serfs of Psychiatry is forthcoming  from Finishing Line Press later this year.

Lisella's AMORE Reviewed in FRA NOI & Interview w/ Fagiani Archived on LiveStream

Fred Gardaphe's review of  Maria Lisella's Amore on Hope Street (Finishing Line Press, 2009) in the February 2011 of Fra Noi ("Books & Beyond") is reprinted below:

2. POWERFUL POETRY

Over two dozen poetic gems come in sections on immigrant similarities and clashes, the family here and gone, and travels abroad and inside relationships in Maria Lisella’s Amore on Hope St.. Lisella excels at both lyric and narrative forms, bringing the real to the surface through things like a young girl’s pierced ears, and sometimes through the surreality of a Venetian fog. Through her skills at framing her subjects, she makes the past seem present and the present seem past, creating poetry you want to read and reread. ($14 paperback) http://www.finishinglinepress.com/  ISBN: 978-1-59924-533-1.

New York, December 15th, 2010 – NOTA BENE, a live discussion program, featuring dynamic conversation with leading Artists and Scholars of the Italian American Culture, hosted by Fred Gardaphe, Fulbright Fellow and Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies at Queens College/CUNY. NOTA BENE re-streams taped LIVE on Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 at 8pm. NOTA BENE can be seen on the Internet LIVE at WWW.LIVESTREAM.COM/ITALICS the third Wednesday of every month. It is then archived on the Livestream.com Site for future viewings.

 

NOTA BENE with Fred Gardaphe featured PWP authors and IAWA Reading Series Hosts Gil Fagiani and Maria Lisella on December 15th 2010.   The show can be heard by following the link to the archived webcast:

 

http://www.livestream.com/ITALICS/video?clipId=pla_5734eeb2-d6ac-44f4-88eb-a957b7498c07&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

Poems for Peace w/ FAGIANI, BRINSON, WISE, NYGAR & VERGA Veteran's Day @ Cornelia St. Cafe NYC

POEMS FOR PEACE - From the World of War

at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 11

at The Cornelia Street Café

29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY

Gil Fagiani, Thomas Brinson, Dayl Wise

and Walter Nygar

Host: Angelo Verga
Limited open mic-sign up (arrive early to make the list).
Cover $7


BY SUBWAY
A, B, C, D, E, F, and M to West 4th St. or 1 to Christopher St.-Sheridan Square.


BY CAR
Take 7th Avenue South, turn left on Bleecker; Cornelia Street is the second turning on the left. We're a quarter of the way down on the left hand side.

There is metered parking on the street until 10pm. After 10pm and on Sundays it's free.

Thomas Brinson, a Vietnam Veteran activist for over 40 years, has been writing poetry about surviving combat since 1967, when he was in the Central Highlands. His chapbook, Love and War, has been published by Dayl Wise's Post Traumatic Press. He lives and writes in Woodstock, NY with wife Jill and two cats.

Gil Fagiani's poetry collections include: Rooks (Rain Mountain Press, 2007), Grandpa's Wine (Poets Wear Prada, 2008), A Blanquito in El Barrio (Rain Mountain Press, 2009), Chianti in Connecticut (Bordighera Press, 2010) and Serfs of Psychiatry (Finishing Line Press, pending 2011). He has translated into English poetry written in Italian, Abruzzese dialect and Spanish. Gil is on the Board of Directors of the Italian American Writers' Association and is the Associate Editor of Feile-Festa.

Walt Nygard is the Vice President of Veterans For Peace, Northern New Jersey chapter 021. He is a USMC veteran of Vietnam, Okinawa and the Philippines, 1969 - 1970. He was born in Portland, Oregon and raised on US Army posts of the American West and Germany. Walt is a blue collar writer of poetry and fiction. His son Joe is a US Army veteran with service in the war in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division and is currently in Iraq.

Dayl Wise was drafted into the US Army with service in Viet Nam and Cambodia 1970. He is a member of Veterans for Peace. His poems have appeared in numerous publications. In his spare time, he runs Post Traumatic Press (PTP) and is the author of Poems and other stuff (PTP, 2004) and Basic Load (PTP, 2009). He lives in The Bronx and Woodstock, New York with his wife, the poet Alison Koffler.

Short Poem Enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson Fans Get Ready for Brevitas at the Bowery Poetry Club

Short Poem Enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson Fans Get Ready for Brevitas at the Bowery Poetry Club

Short Poem Enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson Fans Get Ready for Brevitas at the Bowery Poetry Club

 New York, NY, October 15, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Short poem enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson fans get ready. City Lore, an organization devoted to urban folk culture, and the Bowery Poetry Club will present the 7th Annual Brevitas Festival of The Short Poem on Sunday, November 14 from 2 to 6 p.m. Brevitas is an internet community of invited poets who email one to two original poems (14 lines max) to the group on the 1st and the 15th of each month. This reading and book release party is the annual occasion for Brevitas poets to actually meet in person. The program features each poet's top hits for 2010. Brevitas’ founders are poets Jim Pignetti and Steve Zeitlin, founder and executive director of City Lore. This year’s host is poet Flash Rosenberg, also known as a cartoonist, photographer, humorist, turtle wrangler and Artist-in-Residence for Live from the New York Public Library.

Brevitas will honor Emily Dickinson as Historical Guest Poet for her divine role as Patron Saint of the Short Poem. Poet and performer, Shelley Miller, will read a selection of Emily’s poems. There will also be a screening of “Emily Dickinson – Her True Self” an animated short by Flash Rosenberg, produced by the Lower Eastside Girls Club.

Also, a special Brevitas poetry dedication will be made for jailed Chinese dissident and recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace prize, Liu Xiaobo.

The following Brevitas poets will be reading:

D. F. August, Susan Gerardi Bello, Iris Berman, Claudia Carlson, Patricia Carragon, Gil Fagiani, Sanford Fraser, Christian Garaud, Bob Heman, Eileen Hennessy, Cindy Hochman, Judy Kamilhor, Andrew Kaufman, Susan T. Landry, Maria Lisella, Tsaurah Litzky, Georgia Luna, Sue Machlin,James McMenamin, Katrinka Moore, Jim Pignetti, Leslie Prosterman, Flash Rosenberg, Dorothea Hutton Scher, Susan Schipke, Zev Shanken, Hal Sirowitz, Ed Smith, Esther K. Smith, Richard Storm, Juanita Torrence-Thompson, John J. Trause, Alicia Vasquez, Angelo Verga, Carolyn Wells, Steve Zeitlin

The 2010 brevitas book of short poems will be presented to all who attend.

Guest poets will be invited to sign up for the Short Poem Open Mic (14 lines max).

7th Annual Brevitas Festival of the Short Poem

Sunday, November 14 from 2 to 6 p.m

Bowery Poetry Club

308 Bowery (between Houston & Bleecker Streets)

New York City - 212-614-0505

www.bowerypoetry.com

Admission: $7

###

Sat Oct 9: IAWA features FAGIANI & CALABRO in NYC at Cornelia St. Cafe

This month, the ITALIAN-AMERICAN WRITERS ASSOCIATION features John Calabro and Gil Fagiani, plus open mic  (5 minute limit).  Maria Lisella, Gil Fagiani, hosts.  The 2nd Saturday of every  month at The Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village, New York City. 6PM - 7:45pm. (Arrive at 5:45pm to sign-up for the open.) $7 Cover include one house drink.

Saturday October 9, 2010

6PM - 7:45PM

Doors Open at 5:45pm

The Italian-American Writers Association

features

JOHN CALABRO

&

GIL FAGIANI

Plus Open Mic

@

The Cornelia Street Cafe,

29 Cornelia Street

New York, NY,  10014

212.989.9319

http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com/

$7 Cover include one house drink

Your Hosts this Evening:  Maria Lisella & Gil Fagiani

About the Featured Writers:

Of John Calabro ’s work, Nino Ricci, author of Lives of the Saints and the Origins of Species, writes “Calabro’s work erases the line between the ordinary and the haunting, as if he has peeled back the skin of the real to make it realer.” An educator, a publisher and a writer, Calabro’s first novella, Bellecour, published in 2005 by Guernica Editions, was named by The Globe and Mail’s First Fiction reviewer as one of the top five books in that category for 2005. He published a collection of short stories called Somewhere Else in 2006. His short stories and essays have also appeared in Italian Canadiana, Strange Peregrination, and More Sweet Lemons (2010). The Cousin is his second novella.

The backdrop for Gil Fagiani’s most recent book of poetry, A Blanquito in El Barrio (Rain Mountain Press, 2009), are the streets and music of Spanish Harlem. “...a story peopled with desperate, decimated and unforgettable characters, whose lives Fagiani never condemns, but uplifts and honors with tough, vivid verses set to the pulsating rhythms of Latin dance halls,” writes Steve Zeitlin, Founding Director, City Lore: The New York Center For Urban Folk Culture. Accompanying his 72 poems is a glossary of Spanish and slang terms, and a discography. Emmy-award winner, Poetry Czar, proprietor of the Bowery Poetry Club Bob Holman named Blanquito among 2009’s most compelling reads. Fagiani’s poetry collection Rooks (Rain Mountain Press, 2007) is set at Pennsylvania Military College in the 1960s; his chapbook, Grandpa’s Wine (Poets Wear Prada, 2008) has been translated into Italian by Paul D’Agostino. Forthcoming collections include Chianti in Connecticut (Bordighera Press) and Serfs of Psychiatry to be released by Finishing Line Press in 2011.

 




Gil Fagiani
[Photo Credit: Maria Lisella]



New from Rain Mountain Press:

Poet Gil Fagiani’s Tribute to East Harlem



A Blanquito in El Barrio
by Gil Fagiani
Paperback
ISBN: 978-0980221138
Rainmountain Press (December 2009)
http://rainmountainpress.com/books12.html
Now Available at Amazon.com!



A Blanquito in El Barrio is no mere cautionary tale of a blanquito’s—a white man’s—descent into an inner city hell, but a tribute to the music, language and people of one of America’s truly mythic neighborhoods, El Barrio – East Harlem.

"Out of the squishy swamp of dead personal lyrics that is contemporary American poetry, Gil Fagiani’s hard-boned zombies rise out of his poetry collection, A Blanquito in El Barro. His poems are crafty narratives that sing the music of sex, compassion, friendship, justice, mercy, comedy, betrayal. Fagiani is a poet of unusual power. These poems have strong heart and deep soul. A Blanquito in El Barrio is that rare good thing—a necessary good book.” --Angelo Verga, author of A Hurricane Is, 33 NYC Poems, and Praise For What Remains.

A Blanquito in El Barrio
http://rainmountainpress.com/books12.html

Gil Fagiani| Grandapa's Wine

GRANDPA'S WINE is written where people make a life among the ruins of a shattered world. Feelings and memories take the place of an old coherence, now lost and never to be replaced. Gil Fagiani’s poems inhabit this world’s poignancy, searching its sorrows with unimpeachable candor and a spare language that perfectly suits its straightforward tastes and its undervalued satisfactions.
—Bob Viscusi, author of Astoria: A Novel, and An Oration Upon the Most Recent Death of Christopher Columbus


Gil Fagiani’s poems celebrate the older generation of Italian immigrants as they collide with America, as they simultaneously hold to old ways and forge new identities. His lean lines describe without judgment, like my grandmother tasting her sister-in-law's rosemary tomato sauce every Sunday, “good, good, good enough,” she would purr. This collection hums with love, but it is a love born of mastery of the ingredients, and the application of great discipline and control.
—Angelo Verga, author of A Hurricane Is, and 33 New York City Poems

GRANDPA'S WINE
by Gil Fagiani
ISBN 978-0-9817678-2-6
Soft cover,Saddle stitched,17 pp.
$8.00 (+ $1.50 S&H)

Photo Credit: Maria Lisella

Gil Fagiani’s poetry collection, Rooks is set at Pennsylvania Military College in the 1960s (Rain Mountain Press, 2007); his chapbook, Crossing 116th Street: A Blanquito in El Barrio was published by Skidrow Penthouse in 2004. He has translated poetry written from Italian, Abruzzese dialect, and Spanish into English. He co-hosts the monthly literary reading of the Italian American Writers’ Association at the Cornelia Street Café, and is Associate Editor of Feile-Festa: A Literary Arts Journal. Fagiani is a social worker by profession, and directs a residential treatment program for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in Downtown Brooklyn.

Listen to Gil Fagiani reading during National Poetry Month, April 2007,WNYC Newsroom, New York, NY