New Poems Online

I have three poems up in the current issue of Right Hand Pointing. It's an interesting online journal. Check it out!

Reading in Bemidji This Weekend

On Saturday, 9/20, I will be reading in Bemidji with some old friends. The readers are Gail Rixen, Anthony Swann, Diane Pittman, and Erin Marsh. Gail Rixen and I go back over ten years. We met in CarolAnn Russell's "Bemidji Poetry Salon," and have since taught together in a Bemidji Elementary "poet in the schools" day, and at the Thief River Falls Young Author's Conference. Gail has been a tireless supporter, and especially pushed and encouraged me to send out my full-length manuscript. I was thrilled when Loonfeather accepted it and Gail was named as the editor (along with Betty Rossi). Her insights are always good, and her poetry excellent. Diane Pittman was a regular attendee of the Creative Words Coffeehouse that I ran ten years or so ago at the Headwaters School of Music and Art. I remembering envying the volume of poetry she had memorized. I look forward to hearing her new work! Anthony Swann was also a Creative Words Coffee-houser, and has also had some connection through the Jackpine Writers Bloc. I don't know Erin Marsh, but look forward to meeting her.

Bemidji has such an important place in my poetic development--it was while attending BSU and studying with CarolAnn Russell that I really began writing poetry seriously, and being affiliated with her and with the vibrant writing community there was crucial for me. It will be a lot of fun to be back there, in that place and with those people.

Here are the details:

7 p.m.
September 20, 2008
Masonic Building
501 Bemidji Avenue, Bemidji
Free and open to the public

Octopus Beak

I have a poem in the inaugural issue of Octopus Beak Inc., a new online journal based in Thailand. Not sure yet if this is going to be a high-quality, reliably-published journal or not. It currently has some bugs, but I know how hard it is to get a complex website up and running, let alone to get everything to work right at first. On first look the content seems to be good. The editor had read some of my poetry online and contacted me to request a submission, so I sent something. Be sure to check out my "headshot," which is actually a painting by Alec Olander, formerly of Nevis, MN, now of NY, NY.