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In many countries, Father’s Day was observed this past Sunday, an occasion in which fatherhood is celebrated and reflected upon. Over the centuries, poets have explored and honored their relationships with their fathers in poems such as “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, “Yesterday” by W. S. Merwin, and “My Father. A Tree.” by Tina Chang. This week, write a poem dedicated to a father figure in your life. Try writing it from the perspective of a child as an added challenge.
The author of Love and Other Poems steals time to write poetry during cab rides across New York City.
From Love and Other Poems, published by Copper Canyon Press in February 2021.
“I cannot say if the emptiness is / a grand celestial body or a vacuum / so complete nothing can escape.” Michael Kleber-Diggs reads from his debut poetry collection, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions, 2021), winner of the 2020 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, and speaks with Tracy K. Smith in this celebratory virtual event. Worldly Things is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“since I couldn't say my name / I opened // as if preparing for a throat / culture...” In this video for Colby College, visiting professor of English Adam Giannelli reads his poem “Stutter” from his award-winning debut collection, From Tremulous Hinge (University of Iowa Press, 2017).
The 2022 Lighthouse Sessions Men’s Retreat was held from August 14 to August 19 for poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and translators at the Whitehead Light Station, a lighthouse in Tenants Harbor, Maine. The retreat featured daily writing sessions on an individual and group level, coaching on how to read your work aloud, nightly wrap-ups, reflections, and a lobster bake.
Wide Open Writing, 16 Twin Pond Road, Topsham, ME 04086. Dulcie Witman, cofounder.
The Tusen Takk Foundation offers residencies of three to eight weeks from March to December to poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers at the modern Tusen Takk guesthouse on an isolated peninsula on Lake Michigan, approximately 25 miles from Traverse City, Michigan, in the northwest region of the state. Residents attend one at a time and are provided with private lodging including a kitchen, living area, and two bedrooms, as well as round-the-clock access to attached studio space and the Tusen Takk Foundation library.
Tusen Takk Foundation, 5560 Leland Woods Drive, Leland, MI 49654. (231) 224-6580. Maggie Pavao, Assistant Director.
Black Earth: Selected Poems and Prose, a new collection of writing by Osip Mandelstam, translated from the Russian by Peter France and forthcoming in July from New Directions, offers a fresh look at the celebrated work of the revered Russian poet who died in a Stalinist labor camp in 1938. Known for the electric and haunting poems written toward the end of his life, Mandelstam was also part of the symbolist movement, as evidenced in his poem “Notre-Dame,” which reimagines what the Parisian cathedral looked like when it was built in medieval France. “Here, where a Roman judge once judged an alien people, / stands a basilica, fresh minted, full of joy,” he writes, “as Adam long ago stood tall and flexed his sinews, / its muscles ripple through the light crisscrossing vaults.” Write a poem about an old building in your neighborhood that reimagines what it looked like when first constructed. Try to combine images of the structure with the history behind its survival.
The author of Love and Other Poems offers an antidote to the usual despair and hysteria on Twitter by writing an endless poem about love.
Submissions are open for the Letras Boricuas Fellowships. Cosponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund, the fellowships aim to connect and support Puerto Rican writers. This year fifteen writers will each receive an unrestricted grant of $25,000. A second cohort of fifteen writers will be selected in 2022 and all thirty fellows will be invited to gather in San Juan in April 2023. Writers may be working in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or children’s literature. Applications may be in Spanish and/or English.
Using only the online submission system, submit a personal statement, an artist statement, information about past publication, a résumé, and a work sample of 10 poems or up to 20 pages of writing by June 20. Spoken-word poets should submit 3 audio files of up to 2 minutes each. There is no submission fee. Writers must self-identify as Puerto Rican and live in either Puerto Rico or the United States to be eligible. Writers must also have a history of publication in their genre. Visit the website for complete guidelines, including more details about eligibility. The first cohort of fifteen writers will be announced in fall 2021.
Housed at the Flamboyan Foundation, the Flamboyan Arts Fund was created in partnership with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Hamilton, his renown musical. The fund works to “preserve, amplify, and strengthen the arts in Puerto Rico” and has provided support to both organizations and individual artists. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, meanwhile, aims to “build just communities where ideas and imagination can thrive” and is a major benefactor of the arts and humanities in the United States.
