The Mad Poets Blog

How are you kicking off National Poetry Month (NaPoMo, to the web 2.0 crowd)? Are you starting a Poem a Day challenge? Are you cracking open a new collection of verse or perhaps re-visiting an old favorite? Well, whatever you’re doing, make sure you leave time to check out a very special event at the Swarthmore Public Library.

Daniel Hoffman

This Thursday, April 1st, the Mad Poets Society presents Daniel Hoffman at the Swarthmore Public Library. This is a rare and wonderful opportunity to hear one of the best poets of our time in an intimate, personal setting.

Hoffman has published 13 books of poetry in a long distinguished career. From 1973 to 1974, he was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (the appointment now called the Poet Laureate). He also is a Chancellor Emeritus of The Academy of American Poets. His poems have won numerous awards, the most recent from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from The Sewanee Review.

In describing Hoffman’s poems, Stephen Dunn said, “In them is a lifetime of careful observance, the voice rarely raised yet passionate in its precisions, the man behind it enough a lover of life to have been properly critical of the way we’ve lived it.”

The Whole Nine Yards by Daniel Hoffman

Read & hear Daniel Hoffman’s “The Center of Attention” on poets.org.

On Thursday, Hoffman will read excerpts from his latest book, The Whole Nine Yards, and also from Over the Summer Water, a collection of poems by his late wife Elizabeth McFarland, who was poetry editor of The Ladies’ Home Journal from 1948-61.

This program begins at 7:30 p.m., hosted by Linda Fischer. The event is free and open to the public. After the reading, Daniel Hoffman will be available to sign books.

It’s Monday… and again with all this rain! Blech!

Oh well, we press on into Spring, and as we press, we pause every once in a while for a great reading, a new book, a unique performance, etc. etc. etc. You just point us where to go. Get shameless and post a comment promoting yourself and your upcoming events!

Here’s what we’ve got going on this week. Thursday is a doozy for us!!

*Week of March 29*

• Thurs., April 1, 7:30p: Daniel Hoffman, former U.S. Poet Laureate, will read at the Swarthmore Public Library. This very special event kicks off National Poetry Month! It’s free and open to the public, and will be hosted by Linda Fischer.
• Thurs., April 1, 6p-8p: The Light of Unity Association and the Mad Poets Society present the 1st Thursdays performance series at the University of Pennsylvania Bookstore. This month, the line-up includes Deborah Derrickson Kossman, Peter Baroth, Michael Steffen, Denice Frohman (Ms. Misconception), Cole Larry Eubanks, Shani Sheryl Asantewaa, Strothers, and music by Jafar Barron & Anthony Mohammed. Admission is $7, with proceeds split between the performers and OIC International.

There’s nothing more poetic than a dreary, rainy Monday after a beautiful Spring weekend. It’s like the weather is also mourning the loss of all that sweet weekend freedom.

But the upside of Monday is all the shamelessness. So bring it on!

As for us…

*Week of Mar 22nd*

• Fri, Mar 26, 7:15p: John Timpane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reads at the Big Blue Marble Bookstore, for Poetry Aloud & Alive hosted by Mike Cohen. The reading is free, open to the public, and followed by an open-ears-open-minds-open-reading-go-round.

Rainy days and Mondays…. eh…

This blechy weather has me dying for just a little bit of sunshine. So let your light shine, why don’t ya?!? Share your good news: your upcoming readings, performances, or appearances; the places where we can read your work or buy your books; your radio shows, your articles, your blogs, your websites, your online stores, etc. etc. etc. It’s all about you, so get shameless!

As for us…

*Week of Mar 15*

• Thurs, Mar 18, 7pm: Student Poets from Academy Park High School in Sharon Hill will read at the Delaware County Institute of Science. This event is co-sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Poets for Young Voices. Come on out to support these budding poets!

Last night’s 2010 kick-off at Milkboy was a total blast! We packed the house at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe — including a whopping 19 readers in the open mic!!!

We opened our new genre-bending event with a flash fiction reading by Randall Brown and poetry reading by Ed Krizek. Randall’s stories were personal and quirky, bolstered by the modest confidence of his delivery. Ed battled repeated mic troubles to bring us moving poems that were both emotional and funny, and often an adept balance of both.

I was inspired and delighted by both readers; but as usual I was completely dazzled by the tremendous talent in the open mic. As With 19 readers, the influences ranged from Homer to hip-hop and subjects ran the gamut from babies to Abe Lincoln.

In addition to getting a chance to share 2 poems last night, all of our open mic participants were vying for an opportunity to be a featured reader at Milkboy this November. Here’s how it works: at the end of each reading, we’ll collect votes from everyone in the audience. Whoever has the most cumulative votes after October’s reading will get a feature slot in November, alongside Joe Roarty.

After last night’s open mic at Milkboy, we collected votes from 26 audience members. Here are the top vote grabbers thus far:

Howard Lieberman: 4
Betti Kahn: 3
Ben Heins: 3
Joseph Dorazio: 2
Zsu: 2
Jess Bouchard: 2
Todd Stevens: 2

As you can see, it’s very close. And since we just got started it’s still anybody’s reading. The key to this contest is going to be showing up every month with your very best poems and your very best performance. I look forward to seeing what next month brings!

Tonight we kick-off a new, old event for the Mad Poets. The Mad Poet Bryn Mawr series at Milkboy Acoustic Cafe (a series which has been alive and kicking on Lancaster Ave for at least 6 years) starts a new year as the Milkboy Mixed-Genre Series. Every month (or mostly every month), our featured readers will include poets and prose writers. For me, this is very exciting. My best friend is a fiction writer, and although I’ve always found my voice comes easiest in poems, I find the craft of writing prose always impresses and inspires me. I can’t wait to see the dynamic things that happen when put these readings together every month. The readings start at 7pm at the Milkboy Acoustic Cafe on Lancaster Ave (same building as the Bryn Mawr Film Institute). The readings are free & open to public.

In addition to the new genre, we’re also kicking off a new open mic contest that will land the winner a featured reading slot as part of the Milkboy series in Novemember! Come on out, bring your ears, bring your poems, bring it on!! I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited for the kick off of this series.

This month, we’ve got Ed Krizek reading poetry and Randall Brown bringing the fiction.

Here’s a little about them:

Ed Krizek, poet

Ed Krizek was born in New York City and now runs a sales and marketing business in Swarthmore, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia.  He holds a BA and MS from University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA and MPH from Columbia University.  He is active in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County, has published over forty-five articles, poems and short stories in various publications, and won prizes in several poetry and short story competitions including the Emotions Magazine 1999 poetry competition, Mad Poets Society contests from 2006, 2001 and 1999 and Pennsylvania Poetry Society Contest 2007. Ed is also president of Greater Philadelphia Poets for Young Voices an offshoot of Mad Poets Society dedicated to finding and promoting high school aged poets.

Randall Brown, flash fiction

Randall Brown teaches at and directs Rosemont College’s MFA in Creative Writing program. He is the author of the award-winning flash fiction collection Mad To Live, and his essay appears in The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field. Also, from 2004-2009, he happily toiled on the staff of the flash fiction journal SmokeLong Quarterly in a number of roles, including Lead Editor. Since discovering the flash form in 2004, he has published flash, edited it, talked about it, written about it, read tens of thousands unpublished pieces of it, taught it, workshopped it, lectured on it, and fallen madly in love with it. He’s a member of a daily flash fiction workshop, and his blog FlashFiction.Net has a singular mission: “to prepare writers, readers, editors, and fans for the imminent rise to power of that machine of compression, that hugest of things in the tiniest of spaces—micro, sudden, flash, fiction.” He also enjoys fly fishing, the outdoors version of this world of (very) tiny things.

It’s Monday again… what’s going on?

Drop a comment letting us know where you’re reading, where we can read your work, where you’re hosting an event, performing, or where we can buy your book.

As for us, we’ve got a lot going on this week.

*Week of Mar 8*

• Wed, Mar 10, 6:30pm: Amy Laub leads the Mad Poets Critique Circle at the Coffee Club in Media, Pa. Bring 15 copies of one of your own poems for roundtable critique & discussion. Free & open to the public.
• Thurs, Mar 11, 7pm: Ed Krizek (poetry) & Randall Brown (fiction) are the featured readers at the Milkboy Acoustic Cafe mixed genre series. The reading is free, open to public & followed by an open mic. Also, since this is the first reading of the year (sadly, snow killed our Feb reading), this is your first chance to participate in the Open Mic contest & vie for a featured reading in November. Hosted by Autumn Konopka.
• Sat, Mar 13, 2pm: The Business of Words, poetry reading and writing workshop moderated by Tamara Oakman, at the Blue Grotto at Community Education Center in West Philadelphia. Free and open to the public. Bring 10 copies of your own poem.
• Sat, Mar 13, 7pm: Ruth Rouff & Al Taconelli read for the Otherwise-Poetry at Churchill series in Pottstown, Pa. The reading is free, open to public & followed by an open mic. Hosted by Glenn McLaughlin.
• Sat, Mar 13, 7pm: A Little Spring Madness in the Mansion Parlor at the Media Borough Hall. Featured poets include Joseph Dorazio, Amy E. Laub, Linda Fischer & Chris Schaeffer, and Nick Filone is the featured musician. Hosted by Brian Sammond.

It’s Monday. It’s March. The sun is shining, the snow is melting & it’s more than 50 degrees outside (at least it was for a minute or two). All good news.

What’s your good news???? Bring on the shamelessness. Tell us where you’re reading, performing, publishing, etc. etc. etc.

As for us, we’re on the map this week with an all open mic!

*Week of Mar 1*

• Tues Mar 2, 7pm: Open Mic at Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville