Next Reading: The Performance Space, May 19th 2013

200 New Mexico Poems
Poetry Reading
May 19th, 2013, 2:00 to 4:00 PM
The Performance Space
7 Caliente Rd.
Eldorada at Santa Fe, NM (Ten Miles Southeast of Santa Fe)
2:00 to 4:00 PM

200 New Mexico Poems: 100 Poems Celebrating the Past, 100 More for the Future, is a dynamic celebration of New Mexico’s centennial through poetry. Its mission is to promote a broader understanding of the state’s unusual beauty and delicate ecology as well as foster a greater awareness of its distinct blend of cultural influences. Above all, the project shows that New Mexico’s enchantment is derived from its people, its stories and literature, and the aesthetics of its environment.

Since its inception, 200 New Mexico Poems has received positive reception and encouragement from people all over the United States. The quantity, quality, and uniqueness of submissions represented are outstanding and represent a wide and varied perspective of the state, which is not limited to residents of the region. New Mexico is often little understood by those who have never visited it and is likewise loved by many who have ventured even briefly across its borders. This collection provides the country, even the world, with a stunning multifaceted and layered interpretation of the state of New Mexico.

Featured readers include these contributing poets: Mary Dudley, Gayle Lauradunn, Jamie Figueroa, Pamela Yenser, Kelly Yenser, John Macker, Katherine DeBlassie, Janet Eigner, Kimberly Mathes, Kayce Verde, Susan Gardner, H. Marie Aragón, Katherine Seluja, Roy Beckemeyer, Michelle Holland, Georgia Santa Maria, Joanne Bodin, Karin Bradbery, Linda Monacelli-Johnson and more!

New Mexico State Poetry Society Youth Benefit features Food, Live Music by DOG STAR

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, post it on Facebook and Twitter, email to everyone on your list: NMSPS is throwing a fundraiser for YOUTH SCHOLARSIPS for the National Convention being held in July: http://www.nmpoetry.com/convention-nfsps.shtml#register

Friday, April 26th ­ 6:30 pm until 9:pm
at The Projects, Google Map: http://goo.gl/maps/c3CVP
3614 High St NE, Albuquerque, NM

NMSPS Spokesperson: Lisa Hase-Jackson

Host: Dee Cohen

Emcee: Andrea (Andi) Penner (http://pennerink.blogspot.com/)

Performance Poets: Eva Crespin & Matthew Brown

Food Coordination: Sari Krosinsky

­Dinner (*provided potluck-style by NMSPS members)

*To sign up to bring food and other items go to http://www.perfectpotluck.com
Under “Find a meal” enter coordinator last name “Krosinsky” and password “NMSPSfund”
­_________________________________________

Suggested donation at the door: $5 to $50.

($40 will pay for one complete youth scholarship for the convention and a one-year NMSPS membership!)
_________________________________________

Live Music by DogStar (http://www.dogstarband.com )
­Brief talk about NMSPS and the upcoming National Convention by Lisa Hase-Jackson
­Performance poetry with a little info about the youth poetry scene in ABQ

New Intern!

Hello dear readers.

It is my great pleasure to introduce Alexandria K.M., my new intern. Alex will assist with some of the administrative duties surrounding the publication of the 200 New Mexico Poems anthology. In addition, she will helping out at readings. I’ve asked Alex to provide a brief professional biography and a picture, which follow. Be sure to welcome her aboard when you meet.

Alexandra K. M. is currently a (reluctant) senior at Southwest Secondary Learning Center and takes dual-enrollment courses at CNM. She wants to be a writer when she grows up, and has lots of ideas, but has to work on the actual writing part (doing NaNoWriMo for the first time in November 2012 was really helpful; she made her word count and exceeded it). She spends most of her time thinking about and ironing out her stories and draws inspiration from pretty much everywhere. To date, she has roughly eighty characters in various stages of development and she is very protective of most of them, even if she does tend  to give them bad endings. Beyond writing, she has dabbled in theatre (and musical theatre, but she reserves her singing to the shower) and some art, mostly with Sharpies. Alexandra is obsessed with fiction: books, movies, TV shows, cartoons, anime, manga, webcomics, et cetera.

#1 Matachine El Rancho 1.1.11 by Joan Logghe

Reblogged from 200NewMexicoPoems:

He said so you remember
that night in El  Rancho
he wagged his tongue?

He said, welcome the newcomers
they are the heart also
of this valley

The word Valley makes me
hollow so rivers can flow
in a time for rivers

I have seen the snow
bless and bless the mountains
thirty seven times,

ten danzantes in ribbons,
and the malinche all in white…

Read more… 97 more words

Happy 1st year anniversary to 200 New Mexico Poems. It was on this day that the first poem, Matachine El Ranch 1.1.11 by Joan Logghe, was posted. Thanks for your support!

2013 THE NEXT BIG THING

Denise Low-Weso invited me to join a blog chain 2013 & THE NEXT BIG THING - a series of self-interviews with authors about what they’ve been working on with a  focus on their newest book or project. Be sure to check out Denise’s responses at: http://deniselow.blogspot.com/

And, here are my responses:

What is the title of your book?
200 New Mexico Poems: 100 Poems for the Past, 100 More for the Future

Where did the idea come from for the book?
The Kansas Project, Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems

What genre does your book fall under?
Poetry Anthology

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
200 New Mexico Poems: 100 Poems Celebrating the Past, 100 More for the Future, is a dynamic celebration of New Mexico’s centennial through poetry that means to promote a broader understanding of the state’s unusual beauty and delicate ecology as well as foster a greater awareness of its distinct blend of cultural influences.

Who is the publisher?
It is under consideration with UNM Press

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
It took a full year to collect 200 poems. By the time the poems have been arranged into thematic sections, as have revealed themselves over the course of the project’s evolution, and submitted for review, and finally published, the project will have been a nearly two-year commitment.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems, edited by Caryn Marriam-Goldberg,

A Bigger Boat: The Unlikely Success of the Albuquerque Poetry Slam Scene, edited by Susan McAllister, Don McIver, and Mikaela Renz.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The state’s centennial celebration, the Kansas project, and my undergraduate professor, Tom Averill.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Since its inception, 200 New Mexico Poems has received positive reception and encouragement from people all over the United States. The quantity, quality, and uniqueness of submissions represented are outstanding and represent a wide and varied perspective of the state, which is not limited to residents of the region. New Mexico is often little understood by those who have never visited it and is likewise loved by many who have ventured even briefly across its borders. This collection provides the country, even the world, with a stunning multifaceted and layered interpretation of the state of New Mexico.
 
And to keep 2013 THE NEXT BIG THING going, here are some wonderful writers and their recent books/projects:
 
Susan Jackson Rogers, Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6, (http://susanjacksonrodgers.com/category/blog-ish/)
Jennifer Simpson, Duke City Dime Stories, (http://jennifersimpsonwriter.com/)
Susan Tweit, Walking Nature Home, A Life’s Journey ,(http://susanjtweit.com/)
Page Lambert, Shifting Stars. (Pagelambert.com)
Samantha Tetango, 99 Poems for the 99 Percent & A Writers March, (http://writersmarch.wordpress.com/author/stetangco/)
 

Update: Print Anthology and Readings

In December, I submitted the requisite query letter to UNM Press by the suggested deadline of “the end of the year” and can now say that the project has progressed in status from “in negotiations” to “under formal consideration.” Since the poems in the collection were necessarily published somewhat in the order they were received and timed to coincide with holidays and regional events, the final collection will be reordered to reflect themes and motifs that have surfaced as the project has evolved. I expect this reordering will take approximately three months. Also, the final anthology will likely not contain all 200 poems, so I am considering other possible titles. One particularly appropriate title consideration is the state’s motto, It Grows as It Goes, which seems to fit with the nature of this project’s evolution.

Contributors to the project continue to express enthusiastic interest in scheduling a reading for the project. To that end, I am still trying to nail something down –preferably a venue that is free or at least very low cost. This aspect of the project has been alluding me these last few months mostly because every time I start to follow a lead, life throws some urgency my way and I am necessarily distracted and loose the thread. Fortunately my work schedule has lightened, which should afford me a little more time to focus on getting something definite scheduled. At this writing, I have a couple of venues in mind and will be approaching them later today. If anyone has a solid lead or connection to a free or low coast venue, do let me know. I will send out an email when I know more.

#200 I Breathe the Cottonwood by New Mexico Centennial Poet, Levi Romero

I take the sage brush scent in
The folding hills
The heat of the asphalt
Twenty-seven minutes past noon

Past the historic marker
And the twisted metal road sign
The yellow apple dotted orchards
The alfalfa

I take it all in

For you my brothers
And sisters
Lying on rubber mattresses
In your jail pods
Finger-nailing the names
Of your loved ones
On styrofoam cups

The cactus flower puckers
Its sweet magnolia lips
For you today
Its prickly arms stretching
Up toward the clouds and the sky

Las mesas, los arroyitos,
Los barrancos, el Río Grande
La urraca, el cuervo
The cigarette butt pinched
And yellowed, the crunched
Beer cans on the roadside

I take it all in

Past the presa and the remanse
The swimming hole
Where you frolicked in the water
With your first crush
Her hair wet and pasted
Against the slant of her forehead
Her bare shoulders glistening
con l’agua bendita

Throughout the genizaro valle
Las milpas de maíz
Are lined in processions
Their powdery tassels
Swaying back and forth
Like pueblo feast day dancers
Atrás, adelante, atrás, adelante
Heya, heya, heya, ha

Past the ancient flat roofed houses
Like loaves of bread and their
Backyard hornos with their black
Toothless mouths yawning
The acequias’ lazy gurgle
The tortolita’s mid-afternoon murmur
The cleansing cota flower
Los chapulines, las chicharras
El garambullo, el capulín

For you, my brothers and sisters
The willow, the mud puddles
Reflecting brown the earth’s skin

I take it all in

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