PICS: Halina Duraj Reads at the Federal Dust Reading Series

Halina Duraj (The Family Cannon, Augury Books, 2014) read at the Federal Dust Reading Series on August 1st. The reading took place at Litmore in Baltimore, Maryland. Litmore aims to provide a space for writers, readers and audiences to come together for workshops, readings, and support. The space provides daily and monthly writing studios, houses a free access community poetry library, and also sells vintage clothes (as pictured!).

Authors featured during this event included Eric Nelson, Alicia Puglionesi, and Michael B. Tager. Thanks to poet Matthew Zingg for putting together the series! For more details, check out the Federal Dust site.

Halina Duraj reads from The Family Cannon

 

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Halina Duraj at the Federal Dust Reading Series

Halina Duraj, author of The Family Cannon (Augury Books, 2014), will be reading at the Federal Dust Reading Series on August 1st. Hosted by Matthew Zingg, the event will take place at Litmore in Baltimore, Maryland. Authors featured during this event include Eric NelsonAlicia Puglionesi, and Michael B. Tager. For more details, see the reading series’ site!

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Only one more day left in our open reading period for poetry and prose!

Submit now via Submittable, and thank you for your interest in Augury Books!

Federal Dust Holds Twelfth Poetry Reading

Robert Thornton’s Temple of Flora (1807), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The Federal Dust Reading Series is holding its twelfth poetry reading on March 27th. Hosted by Matthew Zingg, the event will take place at Litmore in Baltimore, Maryland. Poets being featured during this event include Paige Taggart, Niina Pollari, Michael Morse, and Will Schutt.

Paige Taggart’s poems have been published by Augury friend Joe Pan‘s Brooklyn Arts Press. Joe Pan’s poetry collection is forthcoming from Augury in 2015.

Bruce Covey on "What’s New in Poetry?"

Bruce Covey doing introductions at a “What’s New in Poetry?” reading

Bruce Covey, publisher and editor at Coconut Books, recently announced the closing of “What’s New in Poetry?,” a reading series organized by Covey at Emory University in Atlanta. The series ran for 12 years, co-hosted by Coconut Magazine’s senior editor, Gina Meyers, from 2011-2014, and brought over 300 new and emerging poets to students at the university. Covey recently shed some light on the beginning and end of an expansive venture in contemporary poetry.

 

Nick: What drove you to start ‘What’s New in Poetry?’

Bruce: At the time, I was teaching Creative Writing at Emory, and the Program brought only 1-2 poets per year to campus, all of whom were recognized and widely lauded figures.  More than once my students told me about the distance they felt from these readers–they couldn’t imagine what had to happen for them to get from point A (where they were at the moment) to point B (e.g., winning a Pulitzer Prize).  Also at the time there wasn’t much of an independent reading scene in Atlanta–a pretty established slam series, but not much else.  I wanted to start a series that focused on writers with 0-2 books that took place in the Emory residence halls–bringing poetry to the students on their own terms and in their own homes.  In addition to these younger writers, I wanted to feature more established small press and experimental writers, so students could be exposed to a wide range of aesthetics (the Creative Writing department as a whole tended to favor very traditional poets).  In every case, I asked writers to hang around after the readings just to talk with students.  Pretty soon after that, the series started to draw poets from the Atlanta community.  And not long after that our audience expanded to 70-100 per event.

N: Is there a reading that sticks out in your mind, for whatever reason, as remarkable? A particular poet? A moment?

B: Honestly, I really loved all of our readers and readings–I love poetry readings, and everyone has been wonderful.  But meeting Ron Padgett for the first time was wonderful.  He was one of the first two poets (along with Ted Berrigan) I’d read and liked (in high school).  It’s the most nervous I’d been before a reading, but Ron was incredibly nice and gave an incredible reading–totally humble and funny and powerful as his work always is.  But we’ve had a lot of terrific moments.

N: Do you think the closing of the series will be a blow to the poetry community at Emory? In Atlanta?

B: I guess so?  I mean, Atlanta has some great and relatively recent reading series that have already and will continue to bring awesome poets to town.  And I’m not sure how much we remained on Emory’s radar after I stopped teaching & after Harmony Neal and Molly Brodak left as fellows–even though the series took place on campus, we didn’t draw many students over the past two years.  The gap we leave is probably one of volume (we brought more than 70 readers last year) and the fact that we could pay each reader–something I was always proud of. That said, I’m not worried about poetry thriving in Atlanta–it will continue to do so, and I’ll still be around with Coconut and other things.

 

The final events in the series are listed on Facebook. A large portion of “What’s New in Poetry?” readings can be listened to and downloaded for free via iTunes. Links to this material and a full archive of the series’ past events can be found at the Emory Poetry Council webpage.

Also, Coconut Magazine’s submission period is currently open! Head over to their site for more details.

PICS from Federal Dust and Cabin/Fire’s Joint Reading

Two Baltimore reading series, Federal Dust and Cabin/Fire, joined forces earlier this month to throw “Federal Fire,” their first joint reading and cook-out. Hosted by Justin Sirois and Matthew Zingg, the reading featured Michelle Dove, Mark Cugini, Eric Nelson and Adam Wilson.

There were well-crafted words. There were hot dogs. There were marshmallows, a fire pit and a giant Mother’s Day card. A good time was had by all—see the pics below!

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

Michelle Dove reads at Federal Fire

Mark Cugini reads at Federal Fire

Justin Sirois with giant Mother’s Day card at Federal Fire

Eric Nelson reads for Federal Fire

Adam Wilson reads for Federal Fire

 

Matthew Zingg’s ‘Mediations on Perspective’

Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography

M E D I A T I O N S   O N   P E R S P E C T I V E
by Matthew Zingg

Because the sky was wax paper the planes were
flies stuck in their holding patterns.

From a few thousand feet downtown must seem
          like something a man
could carve into a walnut shell.

It was just one of those days.

On the rooftop again a couple of dumb Lowells
in our hungover pajamas wagging two dollar
                 egg salad sandwiches
above our heads like late minute commandments.

You said: the city was wearing its clearest uniform.

I said: the brow of the park looked
scabrous and fresh

in its Sunday best, the air a shade
of yellow easiest to forget.

It was a game we played—to see how far the other
could take all this acreage.

A balloon lifts up a couple blocks away

and it means an explosion, a portent
or it means a slow eye. In other words

there is nowhere else to go up here, stretched
          thin as we are
across this autumn afternoon.

Matthew Zingg‘s work can be found in The Paris-American, The Awl, Blackbird, Cider Press Review, HTML Giant, The Madison Review, Birdfeast, The Rumpus, Everyday Genius, and Muzzle, among others. He lives in Baltimore where he hosts the Federal Dust Reading Series.