Erica Wright

Ping-Pong Launch Party and Reading

The Ping•Pong East Coast Launch Party at Happy Ending

The Henry Miller Library is pleased to announce the annual publication of Ping•Pong, a journal of the arts.  The editors continue to serve up the best artists from the the global art and literary scene by publishing a vibrant group of poets, writers, artists, and photographers. This issue continues Ping•Pong’s commitment to a cultural dialogue between contemporary artists and the aesthetics set forth by Henry Miller and Anais Nin.

The Ping•Pong East Coast Launch Party will take place at the Happy Ending Bar on Saturday, November 7th and will feature readings by contributors Cheryl Burke, Erica Wright, Jennifer Firestone, Whitney Porter, Kate Hall, Erika Lutzner, and Joey Cannizzaro, as well as editors Maria Garcia Teutsch  and Christine Hamm. Special guests (to be announced) will also perform. Readings will begin at 7:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

An Early Celebration

Richard Garcia's "Fugue of the New Year" is now published at Guernica, HERE: "The paper tries for an uplifting tone: / The murder rate is down." 

When She Named Fire: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by American Women

Unwieldy and heavy, promising as much backache as discovery, the poetry anthology is a staple of the college classroom. It is difficult to imagine such a text being as enjoyable as it is educational, but recently the anthology has gotten a makeover. Independent presses are tackling smaller areas of the poetic landscape, and the result is books that can be read cover to cover. When She Named Fire is substantive, weighing in at 461 poems, but it is not unmanageable. This text belongs on a nightstand as easily as it belongs in American Poetry 230--a credit to editor Andrea Hollander Budy. Continue...

Asking for Everything

A new poem by Lilah Hegnauer, author of Dark Under Kiganda Skies (Ausable Press), is now published at Guernica, HERE. Enjoy! 

the sentence

In the October 1st issue of Guernica, you will find an excerpt from Sébastien Smirou's book-length poem My Lorenzo (translated from the French by Andrew Zawacki). Read it HERE.

Ping-Pong

I just received my copy of Ping-Pong in the mail. It's a beautiful issue featuring artwork by Susan Harlan and Chir Birmingham as well as poetry by Kim Addonizio, Kate Greenstreet, and Andrew Zawacki. I am pleased to have two of my poems included, as well: "He Gives Me Vaccinations in My Sleep" and "Night Sweats." 

To learn more about Ping-Pong, which is associated with the Henry Miller Library, and to see a complete table of contents, go HERE.

 

Upcoming Reading

Nickole Brown

One my favorite young poets, Nickole Brown, has a new poem in the latest issue of Guernica. Read "Monarch & Mulberry."

     Listen—those two M’s—mulberry tree, 
     crawling with monarchs,

     that birdshit beautiful 
     mess, staining bare feet and slopping

     [...]

New Orleans Poetry

On September 1st, Guernica published a special issue honoring the four-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Included in this dynamic issue, guest-edited by Pia Ehrhardt, were poems by New Orleans locals Mark Yakich, Andy Young, and Brad Richard. Four of Richard's most talented high school students are also included.

Letters to a Stranger by Thomas James

It is hard not to read Thomas James’s first and only collection of poems, Letters to a Stranger, as a suicide note. It was published to near-silence two years before the young poet shot himself in 1974. Continue...