Kim Dower's poem "Bottled Water," from her book Slice of Moon, was featured on American Life in Poetry. The site is a project for newspapers helmed by Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate of the United States 2004-2006. Kooser says that Dower's poem is about "what we go through to quench our thirst today."
Check out the full poem here.
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Journalist Jenny Chen for Asian Fortune News sat down with Red Hen author Andrew Lam to discuss his short story collection Birds of Paradise.
In the interview, Lam discusses an array of topics, including the difficulties of writing fiction, his experiences as a Vietnamese immigrant in the United States, and Vietnamese diaspora.
Lam states in the interview, “I hope to share the sadness and joy of those who had been robbed of their homeland but who managed to remake themselves in the New World. In some way, while their stories are particular to their history, their experience is universal – losing home, remaking one’s self, see the optimism in the tragic, spiritual awakening through tragedy. All these things are not meant for any particular group or readership but for anyone who is interested in the human condition.”
Read the full interview, as well as an excerpt from Birds of Paradise entitled “The Palmist,” here: http://www.asianfortunenews.com/2013/12/vietnamese-american-writer-wins-penoakland-award/
In an interview with The Poetry Foundation's Stacey Lynn Brown, Tess Taylor discusses her collection of poetry, The Forage House, and her connection to her famous ancestor, Thomas Jefferson.
Taylor does not shy away from answering questions about the complex figure that is Thomas Jefferson. She also provides insight into the intricacies of poetic writing. Taylor states in the interview, "Sometimes when I wrote about shards I was writing quickly, jotting fast, and what felt like a poem would come out. Sometimes what I captured that way felt more resonant than prose I kept trying to capture later. The prose I wrote tried to fill in the story. The poems made use of the absence."
Read more about Tess Taylor and her collection of poetry, The Forage House, at The Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/247028
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Chicano author and journalist, Daniel Olivas, heaped praise upon Verónica Reyes' poetry collection Chopper! Chopper! on Twitter, proclaiming it to be "powerful, heartbreaking, hopeful."
View Olivas' tweet here.
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Poetic imagery does not manifest itself merely in words. What about the visuals created when a poem is on the page? The editors at the Poetry Foundation refer to this as the "fine art of poetry" and use Douglas Kearney's poetry collection Patter as a prime example.
In the article, "The Fine Art of Poetry," two of Kearney's poems are showcased, "Every Hard Rapper’s Father Ever: Father of the Year" and "Noah/Ham: Fathers of the Year." The editors at the Poetry Foundation write, "See Douglas Kearney’s 'Every Hard Rapper’s Father Ever: Father of the Year,' and notice how hard it is, at first, to do anything but see it. The poem plays with sound and sense, but it also plays with space…"
To read more about the visuals of poetry, visit the Poetry Foundation here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/guide/87
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At first glance, Douglas Kearney's poems in his collection, Patter, consist of words clustered in impossible ways on the page, leaving the reader to wonder how they are read. Now, Kearney himself as provided recordings of his poems at The Poetry Foundation that prove to be as startling sonically as they are visually.
Hear Kearney read four of his poems featured in his collection Patter at The Poetry Foundation's website, which has also provided videos of Kearney performing two additional works, "Coverage" and "Is, Ain't."
Visit the site here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/12/douglas-kearneys-fathers-of-the-year/
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This month we hosted our annual anniversary luncheon celebrating 19 years of success. "Its (Red Hen's) success shows there is still an unquenchable thirst for exceptional literature in Pasadena and beyond." We celebrated with readings from authors Charles Yu, C.D. Wright, and Alice Sebold as well as two young elementary school students from our Writing in the Schools program.
Read the articles recapping the event:
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Mariano Zaro chats with William Archila for the sixth installment of the interview series from Poetry.LA. William Archila has not yet been published by Red Hen, but his second book of poetry won the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Red Hen.
To see the full interview, click here.
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Kim Dower talks with AM Northwest about "parenting your parents," one of the themes of Slice of Moon.
To watch the video of this interview, click here.
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Helen Verongos from The New York Times chats with Tess Taylor about the many difficult themes of the poetry in her new book The Forage House.
To read the full interview, click here.
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Verónica Reyes reads two poems from her new book, Chopper! Chopper! From Bordered Lives, in an interview with the Over Coffee internet radio show. See her read again at the San Gabriel Valley Pride's Pride Fesival this Saturday!
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Richmond Times-Dispatch's Michael Paul Williams covers the first-time meeting of Tess Taylor and another descendant of Thomas Jefferson, Gayle Jessup White.
To read the full story, click here.
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Justin Goldberg from C-Ville Weekly talks with Tess Taylor about the use of poetry to discuss family history in The Forage House.
To read the full interview, click here.
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In his article "Politics, poetry & pop: An Autumn of literary options," Jonathan Kirsch talks Kim Dower and her new collection of poetry.
"Kim Dower is best known in these parts as 'Kim From L.A.,' a book publicist of transcending charm and accomplishment. But her appreciative readers also look forward to her poetry, the latest of which is collected in Slice of Moon. In a poem titled 'Dreams Do That' she explains that 'important dreams/sleep in the pockets of our hearts, folded/like handkerchiefs, waiting for a special occasion.' On the occasion of her new book, she allows her readers an intimate glimpse of those important dreams."
Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal.com
To read the full article, click here.
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Mary Evelyn Greene talks to Lori Myers from Hippocampus Magazine about the struggles and triumphs of raising a child with Fetal Alcohol Sydrome.
To read the full interview, click here.
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