All-Star Women Poets Read to Benefit Democratic Women Candidates

For immediate release

Contact: Larissa Shmailo 

larissa@larissashmailo.com

212-712-9865

ALL-STAR WOMEN POETS READ TO BENEFIT DEMOCRATIC PARTY 9/29

Women poets read in support of Democrat women candidates

Cornelia Street Café

29 Cornelia off Bleecker

Greenwich Village, NYC

Saturday, September 29, 6:00 – 7:15 pm

$20 cover / $10 minimum

New York City — On September 29, as part of the global 100 Thousand Poets for Change initiative, seven leading New York City women poets will read to benefit the Democratic National Committee’s (Democrats.org) midterm election efforts. Proceeds will be earmarked for the campaigns of progressive women candidates and candidates in battleground states.

All-Star Women Poets Read will feature Lee Ann Brown (In the Laurels, Caught; Polyverse); Elaine Equi (Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems; Sentences and Rain); Rachel Hadas (“The Golden Road”; The Iphigenia Plays of Euripides - New Verse Translations); Patricia Spears Jones (A Lucent Fire: New & Selected Poems; Painkiller); Trace Peterson  (Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics; Collected Poems of Gil Ott); and Larissa Shmailo (Patient Women, Medusa’s Country), led by mistress of ceremonies Maggie Balistreri (The Evasion-English Dictionary Expanded Edition; A Balistreri Collection: abc poems).

All-Star Women Poets Read will celebrate the growing role of women in political leadership today and send a message of #neverTrump to Republican anti-women agendas.  Voter registration information and volunteer opportunities to help Democratic midterm candidates will be distributed at the reading and a special message of support from district Congressman Jerrold Nadler will be read.

All-Star Women Poets Read is part of the eighth annual global event, 100 Thousand Poets for Change (100TPC), a nonprofit, grassroots organization which brings communities together for sustainability and peace. This year’s events involve nearly 2,000 individuals and organizations and include a special initiative among families and in classrooms, “Read a Poem to a Child,” to highlight the importance and vulnerability of children.       

All poems read at All-Star Women Poets Read and 100TPC will be archived at Stanford University.

For more information, contact Larissa Shmailo (All-Star Women Poets Read) at 212-712-9865 or Michael Rothenberg (100TPC) at 305-753-4569.

Senator John McCain 1936-2018

I was horrified at John McCain's bombing of the North Vietnamese people, but moved by how he stayed with his fellow captives for five years at the Hanoi Hilton, even when he was offered immediate release; I loathed his support of the NRA, but admired how he defended Obama as a good and decent man when one of his supporters called him an "Arab I don't trust"; I hated his support of Trump's tax giveaway, but honored his single-handed refusal to destroy ACA. In the time of Republican toadyism, I loved McCain's bipartisanship and the way he called Trump out on his bullshit. I would never have voted for him, but deeply grieve this honorable man. May the kingdom of heaven be his.

DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER! ALL-STAR WOMEN POETS READ!

SAVE THE DATE!

SLY BANG TO BE PUBLISHED BY SPUYTEN DUYVIL

My second novel, Sly Bang, will be published by Spuyten Duyvil in 2018-19! Thanks to publisher Tod Thilleman!

My sister Tamara

Today would have been my sister Tamara's 70th birthday, had she lived. Five years have passed swiftly since the untimely death of my sibling, who supported me creatively, and, when I needed it, financially - the reason I called her "Theo," as Vincent van Gogh called his benefactor-brother.

This poem of mine was her favorite. Thanks, Theo!

Ladybug

Ladybug, the autumnal, menopausal forest is aflame,
Burning with your yearning and desire: go home.
No season of mists or mellow fruitfulness for you, only
The hot flash of Eros dying, growing old.

Fall now, the deep loam envelopes your breasts,
Dugs that hang low. The crimson leaves as
Veined as your hands, varices red and blue,
Glitter with last dew, the brilliance before death.

Can you, withered Phoenix, rise?
Female over fifty, do you have your music, too?

LAST DAY TO ENTER MEDUSA'S COUNTRY GIVEAWAY!

Today is the last day to enter the Goodreads book giveaway to win a free copy of MEDUSA'S COUNTRY, poetry with a kick! Final hours - enter today!

ENTER THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY HERE!

TWO AWP PROPOSALS ACCEPTED FOR PORTLAND 2019!!!!

Spectacular news! Two AWP proposals I am participating in have been accepted for the 2019 Portland Conference! So thrilled to be moderating "Hybrid Sex Writing: What's Your Position?" with panelists Cecilia Tan, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Jonathan Penton, and extra-amazing special guest Erica Jong!!!!! I am also event organizer and panelist for "The Critical Creative: The Editor-Poet" with our brilliant moderator Marc Vincenz and wonderful panelists Amy King, Kwame Dawes, and Michael Anania! What incredible colleagues and what great panels! Looking forward to a brilliant literary spring in 2019!