Welcome to NorthONews, your connection to what’s happening on the literary scene in the Twin Cities, Minnesota and beyond. This is still a work in progress — but it works! Please send your news, suggestions or comments to Northography.
In a nationally televised press conference, Charles Brittain Fleming, CEO of Northography.com, announced today that the Minnesota-based literary project will close after three years of operation. Fleming, also known as “Britt,” stated that “the tight credit market has made it impossible to obtain the necessary operating capital, while demand for web-based poetry workshops has seen a steep decline.” Britt also went on to explain how he found it “increasingly difficult to compete with Big Poetry outfits who deliberately undersell the market.”
Loyal Northography customers were saddened by the news. “It was a very valuable service,” commented SherryAnn Margaret Toulouse-McBeth, one of the founding members, “I don’t know where I’m going to find another regional web-based literary workshop. Come to think of it, I don’t know where I’m going, period.” Others expressed similar sentiments, but were thankful for the opportunity to have participated in such a unique endeavor. At an impromptu gathering of devotees formed at The Lucky Goose in St. Paul, celebrated local poet Seamus Von Chmelinski remarked, “Norsography wash grreat fun, deschpite the somewhat eccentric adminish..admensch..guy in charge.”
Northography will be missed by poets and freinds alike. Perhaps when poetry futures rise again, and public demand for bizarre experimental verse begins to climb, it will make a comeback. For now, though, hard times demand that this shopkeeper hangs up the “closed” sign, locks the doors, and walks down the street for a stiff one.
Wendy Brown-Baez is performing La Noche del Amor as part of OP ED ART Cabaret — an evening of extraordinary multi-cultural, dynamic, cutting edge dance, spoken word, and comedy with Maia Maiden, Deja Stowers, Aneka Mcmullen, Farheen Hakeem, and Renee Copeland
Friday April 3, Saturday April 4th at 8:00pm
Patrick’s Cabaret
3010 Minnehaha Ave S MPLS 55406
If you contact Wendy before the show, she can leave will call tickets for $8 (paid to her) or it is $10 at the door.
poetaluna (at) yahoo.com for more info: calendar Patrick’s Cabaret
A Poetry Workshop
taught by LouAnn Shepard Muhm
sponsored by Region 2 Arts Council
In this workshop, we will focus on the revision of rough drafts of poems. Topics will include compression, line breaks, titles, word choice and punctuation. Each participant will have the option of bringing one poem-in-progress to the group for discussion and advice on revision. There will be time for Q &A to cover other topics of interest to participants. Participants: Please bring 10 copies of a poem you would like to revise with the input of the instructor and the group (optional), and one copy of a poem that you love written by someone else.
Saturday, April 18
Region 2 Arts Council Boardroom
(downstairs at the Bemidji Community Arts Center)
426 Bemidji Avenue
Bemidji, MN
10 am – 4 pm
cost: $40
Registration deadline: April 13
PDF and application form: seeing-again-registration21
Bryan Thao Worra has been selected by the National Endowment for the Arts as a 2009 Fellow in Literature for Poetry. NEA Literature Fellowships are awarded to published creative writers of exceptional talent in the areas of prose and poetry to advance the goal of encouraging and supporting artistic creativity and preserving our diverse cultural heritage. The NEA was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, and the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts.
This year, out of over 1,000 applications received from across the country, only 42 were awarded after being judged by 10 of the country’s leading poets. The award for poetry comes only once every 2 years. The award also comes with $25,000 for Bryan to continue his work to study and advance awareness of Laotian American poetry.
Kevin Zepper finds inspiration on the shelves of thrift stores. Check it out here.
Alex Stolis has been busy. Stefan-Boltzman Law appears in the latest issue of Literary Mary. How to fall in love with an artist (nominated for a Pushcart) appears in Oak Bend Review. The Tarot card poems- The High Priestess attends a Masked Ball, The Empress becomes an Agnostic, 0A, The Emperor contemplates abdication, The Hierophant decides to take a mistress, Justice Crosses the river alone — all appear in hotmetal press. In the Avatar Review winter issue are the Dick & Jane poems, We Look & See, monosyllabic love song, 0A, Days & Deeds and another Dick & Jane poem. S is for Spot, S is for Sally, S is for… appears in Boiling River.
Look for a poem by Britt Fleming in www.nefariousballerina.com, Poetry and Art of the Intelligently Erotic. The name of the poem is “The Conversion of Mass into Energy,” on page 23. The printed version will come out in 2009.
Britt also has poems published in Very Bad Poetry. Really.
“What It’s Like to Fall in Love with an Artist,” by Alex Stolis, a 2008 Pushcart Nomination, will be published in the November/December issue of Oak Bend Review.
A poem by Alex Stolis, “Dick & Jane-Fun wherever we are,” has been published in use these words. It was previously posted on Northography.
Alex Stolis and Julia Singer have a poem, “Oh Sweet Nuthin’” in the summer issue of Shaking like a Mountain.
Cold Wake Press has published Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks; a conversation, by Julia Klatt Singer & Alex Stolis.
Betty Benner, Richard Hagen, Maia Cavelli, Linda McKay and Karsten Piper have poems appearing in Talking Stick 17, just released.
LouAnn Muhm has three poems in Right Hand Pointing, Volume 22.
Several Northography.com members have recently published books. Buy them and read them.
“I Bring You Dead Things,” by Kevin Zepper. Send $8.00 to him at 1021 13th Street South, Moorhead, MN 56560.
“Healing Tree” by Joyce Chelmo. Send $10.95 plus $2.50 for shipping and handling to her at 1118 Washington Ave. South, Detroit Lakes, MN 56501.
“Awaking Indigo” by Diana Lundell. $10.00 through PayPal, or through Puddinghouse Press.
“The Cockeyed Precsion of Time” by Linda Back McKay. $12.95 through PayPal.
“Breaking the Glass” by LouAnn Shepard Muhm. $11.95 at Amazon.com.
“The Watch” by Norita Dittberner-Jax, $12 through PayPal, Whistling Shade Press.
“Love in the End” by Mary Kay Rummel, $8.00 at amazon.com, spdbooks.org, Micawbers Books in St. Anthony Village in St. Paul, Magers and Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis Uptown, or directly from Bright Hill press at wordthur@stny.rr.com.