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Archive for September, 2006

Wave Poetry Bus Tour

Sunday, September 17th, 2006

Don’t know how I missed this, but the Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour is in Chicago tonight at the Green Mill. 

Here’s some background on the tour:

Stopping at 50 cities in 50 days the 2006 Poetry Bus Tour, sponsored by Seattle-based independent press Wave Books, is the biggest literary event of 2006 and the most ambitious poetry tour ever attempted.

Beginning September 4 and ending October 27, the bus tour will visit a variety of venues, including the Space Needle in Seattle, the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, the Museum of Natural History in LA, the Green Mill in Chicago, the DiA Arts Center in New York, and a number of bookstores, galleries, bars, prisons and schools all across the US and Canada.

Participating poets include Eileen Myles, James Tate, Cole Swensen, Dean Young, John Yau, Vijay Seshadri, Lewis Warsh, Joshua Beckman, Dara Wier, Juliana Spahr, John Godfrey, Joshua Clover, David Rivard, Noelle Kocot, Matthew Zapruder, Ann Lauterbach, Tyehimba Jess, Dana Levin, Hoa Nguyen, Jeff Clark, Richard Siken, Bob Hicok, Katy Lederer, Kim Addonizio, Arthur Sze, Catherine Wagner, Srikanth Reddy, Matthew Rohrer, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Bhanu Kapil and over 100 more.

There’s also a bus tour blog.  Here’s an article by Ross Simonini from the current issue of The Believer. 

Tonight’s event will take place at The Green Mill (4802 N. Broadway St) at 7pm, and will feature Joshua Beckman, Matthew Zapruder, Anthony McCann, Lisa Fishman, Richard Meier, Tyehimba Jess, Dustin Williamson, Catherine Wagner, Ariel Greenberg, Erica Bernheim, Joel Craig, and Tina Brown Celona.

(Thanks to Nathaniel and Michael for the tip.)

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Which it isn’t

Tuesday, September 12th, 2006

All the Southeast Michigan literary mafia get quoted in an Ann Arbor News story on selling the movie rights to your novel. (You do have a novel, don’t you?) Writers Steve Amick, Steve Gillis, Laura Kasischke, and Elizabeth Kostova share their experiences.  Check out Gillis:

Some authors, like Ann Arbor writer Steve Gillis, turn down movie option deals.

Gillis, who founded the 826 Michigan program for young writers, had an offer for his book, “Walter Falls,” but passed on the $20,000 option when he realized the producer wanted to turn the novel into a mystery, “which it isn’t,” he says.

“I didn’t want to get caught up in the whole process, and I felt I was selling my soul to the devil,” says Gillis. “My agent nearly killed me.”

I liked Walter Falls a lot.  BTW, I just saw today that Gillis has joined forces with Dan Wickett to create a new nonprofit publishing company, Dzanc Books. Gillis’s stubbornness plus Wickett’s energy: this could be fun.  I’ll be watching from a safe distance.

Also on the subject of souls to sell or not to sell: Gina Frangello.

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Discrete Reading Series

Monday, September 4th, 2006

The Discrete Reading series has had almost as many online venues as physical ones, and currently I’m not sure it’s online at all.  However, Chicago literary magazine After Hours, recently profiled in the Sun-Times, has a nice literary calendar that includes upcoming Discrete events: 

Sept 8: Anne Boyer and K. Silem Mohammad

Oct 6: Roberto Harrison and Michelle Noteboom

Oct 13: Anselm Berrigan and Brandon Downing

Nov 3: Kass Fleischer and Joe Amato

Dec 22: James Wagner

All events take place at 2830 N. Milwaukee Ave., 2nd floor, and begin at 8:00 pm.

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