Happy to be featured with Violeta Orozco, Sean Kelbley, and Mary Austin Speaker on Sunday, June 12 at 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. EST. on Zoom.
Join us for incredible poetry from the comfort of wherever you are!
Features followed by open mic (5 minutes per reader)
Hosted by Jonie McIntire
Free Event
Be sure to register for the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZ0uf…
Join us at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, May 25 EDT — Patricia Carragon, host of Brownstone Poets (which has an Open Mic this Saturday)
will be our guest poet (bio below)— bring one poem to receive comments/criticism — or just come and listen.
Hosted by John F. McMullen, Poet Laureate, Town of Yorktown, NY
Simply click Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83176155376
Bio
Patricia Carragon has been widely published online and in print. Her most recent publications include First Literary Review-East, I Wanna Be Loved by You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Jazz Musician, MER VOX Quarterly, Muddy River Review, The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow anthology, et al. Her poem, “For All We Know,” is forthcoming in the 2022 great weather for MEDIA anthology. Her fiction piece What Has to Happen Next has been nominated for Sundress Publications Annual Best of the Net Anthology. Her poem Paris the Beautiful won Poem of the Week from great weather for MEDIA. She was nominated by Bear Creek Haiku for a Pushcart Prize. Her debut novel, Angel Fire, is from Alien Buddha Press. Her books from Poets Wear Prada are Meowku and The Cupcake Chronicles. She hosts Brownstone Poets and is the editor-in-chief of its annual anthology.
Reminder: Brownstone Poets on Zoom
Saturday, May 28 , 2022
from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST on Zoom
Megha Sood
Juan Pablo Mobili
Carolyne Wright
Plus a limited open mic
$5
Hosted by Patricia Carragon
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early to read early in the program. Last-minute signup means you will read at the end of the program.
Plus a limited open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our May reading! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page:
https://fb.me/e/1a24ntQy8
Bios:
Megha Sood is an Award-winning Asian American Poet, Editor, Author, Literary Activist from New Jersey, USA. Recipient of 2021 Poet Fellowship from MVICW ( Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creating Writing) and a National Level Winner for the 2020 Poetry Matters Project. Recipient of “Certificate of Excellence” from Mayor, Jersey City.Associate Poetry Editor Literary Journals Mookychick (UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, Stanford University. Author of Chapbook ( “My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSongPress,2022). She blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16.
Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires, and adopted by New York. His poems appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, The Worcester Review, and The Banyan Review, Monotiths (Australia) and Impspired (UK), among many others. His work received an Honorable Mention from the International Human Rights Art Festival, and has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net, in 2020 and 2021. His chapbook, “Contraband,” will be published in 2022.
Carolyne Wright’s latest books are Masquerade, a memoir in poetry (Lost Horse Press, 2021) and This Dream the World: New & Selected Poems (Lost Horse, 2017), whose title poem received a Pushcart Prize and appeared in The Best American Poetry 2009. A Seattle native who has lived and taught all over the country, and on fellowships in Chile, Brazil, India and Bangladesh, she has 16 earlier books and anthologies of poetry, essays, and translation. A Contributing Editor for the Pushcart Prizes, Carolyne has received NEA and 4Culture grants. A Fulbright Scholar Award will take her back to Bahia, Brazil, post-CoVid-19.
May is warming up, and the days are longer, which means more time for reading.
Thank you Alien Buddha Press and my copy editor, Cindy Hochman of “100 Proof” Copyediting Services, for believing in my Angel Fire’s value.
Angel Fire is a novel, inspired by personal experiences and nightmares, that delves into the lives of three women protagonists, Sarah Kahn, Kate Robbins, and Dana Chu, living and working in New York City during the ’90s through the post- 9/11 world and the Obama election. The book is comprised of over 57,000 words, broken down into twenty-one chapters and an epilogue. The narrative contains elements of magic realism/ urban fantasy, and beyond the wry humor, there are bizarre twists involving erotic dreams, curses, cats, and paranormal visitations from a precocious ten-year-old girl named Allie, turning this story into a psychological thriller.
Praise for Angel Fire . . .
From Peter Marra:
. . . In Angel Fire, her debut novel, Patricia Carragon expertly crafts a tale that captures the essence of what life was like in the beginning of the new millennium. What starts out as a drama soon morphs into a supernatural thriller—an emotional roller coaster populated with fantastic characters who will stay with you for a long time. Angel Fire will keep you riveted until the last page.
From Thaddeus Rutkowski:
. . . Through twists and turns, and the disaster of 9/11, the stakes rise for all of the heroines, and we follow their lives with growing apprehension as we discover their fates. Carragon gives us a sharp-edged picture of people we see every day, but whose inner demons are rarely revealed.
From Charles Rammelkamp:
. . . like nested Russian dolls, the stories are contained within other stories written by other writers, until, in a dazzling epilogue, we learn the final version of the puzzle that makes up these words. Or do we? The final sentence revives the delicious ambiguity. Patricia Carragon’s novel is an impressive construction of plot and character, particularly for those who love a gothic tale, and, more philosophically, reflections on the written word, its origins and influence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two ways to purchase Angel Fire:
through Amazon or me.
Due to in-person venue cancellations, I will be posting the link to purchasing my debut novel, Angel Fire, on Amazon. Since these copies will be shipped from Amazon, they will not be signed.
If you want your signed copy from me, please send a personal message to pcarragon@gmail.com. Payment will be done on PayPal to pcarragon@gmail.com as a friend, not as a business. The cost will be $18, which includes shipping/handling. I do not charge for tax! If you don’t have PayPal, then I will accept a money order. Once the payment is done either through PayPal or money order, I will ship the book to you. Please don’t forget to give me your home address to ship the book.
Available on Amazon:
$12.99 (retail price before shipping and tax)
Brownstone Poets on Zoom
Saturday, May 28 , 2022
from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST on Zoom
Megha Sood
Juan Pablo Mobili
Carolyne Wright
Plus a limited open mic
$5
Hosted by Patricia Carragon
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early to read early in the program. Last-minute signup means you will read at the end of the program.
Plus a limited open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our May reading! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page:
https://fb.me/e/1a24ntQy8
Bios:
Megha Sood is an Award-winning Asian American Poet, Editor, Author, Literary Activist from New Jersey, USA. Recipient of 2021 Poet Fellowship from MVICW ( Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creating Writing) and a National Level Winner for the 2020 Poetry Matters Project. Recipient of “Certificate of Excellence” from Mayor, Jersey City.Associate Poetry Editor Literary Journals Mookychick (UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, Stanford University. Author of Chapbook ( “My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSongPress,2022). She blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16.
Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires, and adopted by New York. His poems appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, The Worcester Review, and The Banyan Review, Monotiths (Australia) and Impspired (UK), among many others. His work received an Honorable Mention from the International Human Rights Art Festival, and has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net, in 2020 and 2021. His chapbook, “Contraband,” will be published in 2022.
Carolyne Wright’s latest books are Masquerade, a memoir in poetry (Lost Horse Press, 2021) and This Dream the World: New & Selected Poems (Lost Horse, 2017), whose title poem received a Pushcart Prize and appeared in The Best American Poetry 2009. A Seattle native who has lived and taught all over the country, and on fellowships in Chile, Brazil, India and Bangladesh, she has 16 earlier books and anthologies of poetry, essays, and translation. A Contributing Editor for the Pushcart Prizes, Carolyne has received NEA and 4Culture grants. A Fulbright Scholar Award will take her back to Bahia, Brazil, post-CoVid-19.
Per Frank Murphy:
Dear friends, poets, writers, and artist. Home Planet News is now accepting material for our next edition. We are looking for poems, stories, reviews, essays, plays, memoirs, and graphic art of every type. We accept writing in Spanish with or without translations. We also accept works in other languages with translations and the author’s permission. Our deadline will be 10/1/22, and we will work hard to have the issue published by the end of the year. In submitting your work, please have your name on the first page of the work you’re submitting. In submitting reviews, please give the name of the press, the price, the number of pages, and, if possible, a link to the publisher or to any source where the book can be obtained.
Please send submissions to Frank Murphy at either
homeplanetnews@outlook.com or lmurphy227@gmail.com
Poet Matt Morris has been added to our list of editors and is incredibly helpful in making this issue possible. Home Planet News could use another editor. Someone who is either familiar with or willing to learn some basic WordPress, and we could always use another proofreader.
Brownstone Poets on Zoom
Saturday, May 28 , 2022
from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST on Zoom
Megha Sood
Juan Pablo Mobili
Carolyne Wright
Plus a limited open mic
$5
Hosted by Patricia Carragon
Please follow directions below, completing both steps at least two days before the reading to avoid delays entering the meeting room. Note the order of the open mic follows the order of signup. Sign up early to read early in the program. Last-minute signup means you will read at the end of the program.
Plus a limited open mic. Your $5 contribution keeps our annual anthology in print and pays our features. Hosted by Patricia Carragon, our Brooklyn girl and Editor-in-Chief.
Please follow these instructions:
Step 1: Make your $5 contribution: https://bit.ly/3bkqFmO
(Note that your contribution is not refundable.)
Step 2: Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bit.ly/3hnpy8D
Step 3: After making your contribution and completing your registration, you will receive a confidential confirmation email containing your unique link to join the event.
Looking forward to seeing you at our May reading! For your convenience, here is the link to our Facebook event page:
https://fb.me/e/1a24ntQy8
Bios:
Megha Sood is an Award-winning Asian American Poet, Editor, Author, Literary Activist from New Jersey, USA. Recipient of 2021 Poet Fellowship from MVICW ( Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creating Writing) and a National Level Winner for the 2020 Poetry Matters Project. Recipient of “Certificate of Excellence” from Mayor, Jersey City.Associate Poetry Editor Literary Journals Mookychick (UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, Stanford University. Author of Chapbook ( “My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSongPress,2022). She blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/ and tweets at @meghasood16.
Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires, and adopted by New York. His poems appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, The Worcester Review, and The Banyan Review, Monotiths (Australia) and Impspired (UK), among many others. His work received an Honorable Mention from the International Human Rights Art Festival, and has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net, in 2020 and 2021. His chapbook, “Contraband,” will be published in 2022.
Carolyne Wright’s latest books are Masquerade, a memoir in poetry (Lost Horse Press, 2021) and This Dream the World: New & Selected Poems (Lost Horse, 2017), whose title poem received a Pushcart Prize and appeared in The Best American Poetry 2009. A Seattle native who has lived and taught all over the country, and on fellowships in Chile, Brazil, India and Bangladesh, she has 16 earlier books and anthologies of poetry, essays, and translation. A Contributing Editor for the Pushcart Prizes, Carolyne has received NEA and 4Culture grants. A Fulbright Scholar Award will take her back to Bahia, Brazil, post-CoVid-19.
Pleased to be a guest poet at this festival on Friday, May 6.
Reading with friends:
Robert Gibbons, Eve Packer, Jeff Wright, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Ellen Lytle, Steven Koenig
CCNY’S 50TH ANNUAL
POETRY FESTIVAL
Division of Humanities and the Arts
Co-promotional sponsors:
The American Academy of Poets &
Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership
FRIDAY, MAY 6th, 2022
9:15 AM TO 5:00 PM
Featured Guest Poet:
Reginald Dwayne Betts
READINGS:
ELEMENTARY & JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
9:15 AM – NOON
HIGH SCHOOL POETRY WINNERS
NOON – 1:30 PM
GUEST OF HONOR:
Reginald Dwayne Betts
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
CCNY ENGLISH STUDENTS & INVITED GUESTS
2:30 PM – 5:00 PM
AARON DAVIS HALL
MARIAN ANDERSON THEATER
133RD STREET AT CONVENT AVENUE
CONTACT:
Pamela Laskin
(212)650-6356
http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/poetryoutreachcenter
Poet Reginald Dwayne Betts will be the featured guest poet for the 50th annual City College Poetry Festival held at the Marian Anderson Theater at Aaron Davis Hall (160 Convent Avenue). Dubbed “the Woodstock of the Spoken Word,” the festival has become New York’s longest-running poetry celebration.
“The City College Poetry Festival is the democratic voice of poetry in New York City public schools,” said Pamela Laskin, a lecturer in the City College English department and director of the CCNY Poetry Outreach Center, which produces the festival. “Its assumption is there are many poets, and they all have terrific stories to tell. This would make Walt Whitman proud.”
Upwards of 150 students from as many as 50 schools are expected to recite their poems at this year’s festival. The festival is “something the children always look forward to,” said Deborah Newman, a former teacher at P.S. 368 in Brooklyn, who had been attending the festival for over 13 years. “It’s a blessing, something that is real to them, and it’s an entire year of poetry for the children, leading up to this celebration. The teachers and the administrators love it, too.”
Some of the children who participated in the festival’s early years are now teachers who bring their classes. “In 1975, I introduced a third grade student to the audience of 400 cheering students, teachers, friends and family; in 1996, this same individual returned to the festival at City and introduced the readers from her fourth grade class,” recalls Barry Wallenstein, CCNY professor emeritus and former festival director.
“Over the past four decades, this event has become a place of reunion and affirmation for City College alumni, returning teachers, student-poets and friends of the College. I hope it and the important activities of the Poetry Outreach Center continue long beyond 2020.”
In addition to the readings by students, each year the festival invites one or more prominent poets to read their work. Among those who have appeared are Paul Simon, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Billy Collins, Major Jackson, Kimiko Hahn, Cornelius Eady, Patricia Smith, Richard Tillinghast, Tom Sleigh , Marilyn Nelson, Elana Bell and Aracelis Girmay, Tracy Smith, Marilyn Nelson, Jacqueline Woodson, Nicole Cooley David Groff, Estha Weiner and, most recently (on ZOOM), Nathalie Handal.
The event commences with readings by elementary school students, followed by poets from junior high schools. Beginning around noon, the winners of the festival’s citywide high school poetry contest will recite their poems, with the top three winners receiving the Poetry Prize, which are cash prizes.
A reading by Reginald Dwayne Betts will conclude the day.
The festival presents a special award for the best poem in a language other than English. Submissions have come from 20 different languages over the festival’s history, reflecting the diversity of both New York City and of CCNY.
This year, for the first time ever, The American Academy of Poets has agreed to be a co-promotional sponsor. As always, we are fortunate to have the Division of Humanities and the Arts sponsor our event, under the wonderful tutelage of Interim Dean Renata K. Miller. In addition, Andrew Rich’s Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership has lent its vital support and publicity.
Festival Sponsors
Renowned poet Reginald Dwayne Betts. Photo credit: Giancarlo Valentine
Celebrated poet, memoirist and educator Reginald Dwayne Betts is the featured poet at the 50th annual City College Poetry Festival on May 6 in CCNY’s Marian Anderson Theater. Dubbed “the Woodstock of the Spoken Word,” New York’s longest-running poetry celebration will also include Ukrainian essayist and translator Vasyl Makhno as guest poet. The all-day event that features budding poets from up to 50 public schools, runs from 9:15 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“The City College Poetry Festival is the democratic voice of poetry in New York City public schools,” said Pamela Laskin, a lecturer in CCNY’s English department and director of the CCNY Poetry Outreach Center, which produces the festival. “Its assumption is there are many poets, and they all have terrific stories to tell. This would make Walt Whitman proud.”
Upwards of 150 students from as many as 50 schools – both elementary and junior high — are expected to recite their poems, with the top three winners receiving the Poetry Prize.
The festival is “something the children always look forward to,” said Deborah Newman, a former teacher at P.S. 368 in Brooklyn, who had been attending the festival for over 13 years. “It’s a blessing, something that is real to them, and it’s an entire year of poetry for the children, leading up to this celebration. The teachers and the administrators love it, too.”
Some of the children who participated in the festival’s early years are now teachers who bring their classes. “In 1975, I introduced a third grade student to the audience of 400 cheering students, teachers, friends and family; in 1996, this same individual returned to the festival at City and introduced the readers from her fourth grade class,” recalls Barry Wallenstein, CCNY professor emeritus and former festival director.
“Over the past four decades, this event has become a place of reunion and affirmation for City College alumni, returning teachers, student-poets and friends of the College. I hope it and the important activities of the Poetry Outreach Center continue long beyond 2022.”
The festival concludes with a reading by Reginald Dwayne Betts. He continues the tradition of notable poets who’ve graced the festival since 1972. They include Paul Simon, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Billy Collins (read all).
About Reginald Dwayne Betts
In October 2018, The New York Times Magazine published Betts’ long essay “Getting Out.” Several months later, the piece was awarded a National Magazine Award. The publication was another example of Betts entering into a new genre and bringing the same depth and richness of self-reflection and exploration of the central problem on this generation: incarceration and its effects on families and communities. Read more.
About Vasyl Makhno
Based in the U.S., Vasyl Makhno’s numerous honors include the Encounter Award, The Ukranian-Jewish Literary Prize; and the Uri Shevelov Prize (twice). He was also twice a finalist for the BBC Book of the Year Award. Makhno is the author of 11 collections of poetry. His most recent, “A Paper Bridge,” appeared in 2017. He has also published two book of essays: “The Gertrude Stein Memorial Cultural and Recreation Park” and “Horn of Plenty.” Read more.
The American Academy of Poets debuts this year as a co-promotional sponsor. Click here for a list of all the sponsors.
For more information about the 50th CCNY Spring Poetry Festival, please contact Pamela L. Laskin at ccnypoetryoutreachcenter@gmail.com .
About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
Patricia Carragon's Blog: Words Give Me the Will to Write 