Maine Literature Daily

Portland Slam Team - Port Veritas hosts Portland's longest running weekly Poetry Open Mic and Maine's only official Poetry Slam Competition. Port Veritas announces the 2009 Portland Slam Team. During National Poetry Month, sixteen poets competed in the semi-finals held at the North Star Music Café. Five poets were victorious and will compete in the National Poetry Slam in West Palm, FL in August. The Portland Slam team includes Wil "One L" Gibson, Tina "T$" Smith, Nathan Amadon, Jasper "Jazz" Wood, and Sam Title. POETRY SLAM Poetry Slam is the competitive form of spoken word. The Slam was developed by Chicago construction worker Mark Smith in the 1980's. The Slam format has grown and flourishes in hundreds of venues around the globe. Each year, Eighty teams and hundreds of poets compete for the title of National Poetry Slam Champions. The Slam Champions receive $5,000.00 prize. This year's competition is targeted for West Palm Beach Florida from August 3rd-9th

June 11th - Maine Women Writers Collection 50th Anniversary Symposium: "Women in the Archives: Using Archival Collections in Research and Teaching on U.S. Women", June 11-14, 2009, at Westbrook College Campus, University of New England, Portland, ME. The Symposium features panels on recovering prchival sources; collecting, archiving & curating; material culture & ephemera; Photography & visual culture; pedagogy and the archive; and private writing & biography. Presentations by established and emerging scholars in the humanities and interdisciplinary studies, as well as by curators and archivists from a range of libraries and special collections related to women. There will be a premiere of a film documenting the first 50 years of the Maine Women Writers Collection and a 50th Anniversary Reception. Participation of scholars, teachers, librarians, archivists, museum professionals, students, and all those interested in women’s writing and women’s lives is welcome. Symposium Registration: http://www.une.edu/mwwc/conferences/2009acadconfreg.asp or contact Jennifer Tuttle at jtuttle@une.edu; 207-221-4433. Symposium registration fee discounted if you register by May 15. Co-sponsored by University of New England's College of Arts and Sciences, the Westbrook College of Health Professions, the College of Pharmacy, the Center for Global Humanities, the Department of English and Language Studies, the Department of History, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

The Telling Room is looking for interested, motivated high school students to start up a Young Writers' Council. The YWC will meet once a month to write and workshop our own writing as well as to discuss Telling Room programs and ideas. We're looking for students who can provide helpful feedback about what The Telling Room is doing, what they'd like to see more of, and what new ideas they can bring to the table Participating students will have a chance to meet and work with young writers from other schools around Greater Portland and to workshop their writing with interested peers and professional writers. They'll also receive our undying gratitude and some good community leadership experience for college and beyond. FM Iemily@tellingroom.org or call 774-6064.

June 15th - August 3-7, The Telling Room hosts The Portland Hive for a week of writing workshops. A group of high school writers will share their work, hone their craft, and be involved in one-on-one mentoring with published writers. These writers include the recent winner of the Yale Series for Younger Poets, Arda Collins, local non-fiction writer Jaed Coffin, University of Michigan faculty member and poet Aaron McCollough, and local fiction writer Lewis Robinson. Students entering their junior or senior year of high school or their freshman year of college are invited.. FMI visit http://www.portlandhive.org. Deadline: June 15th. Contact CC Davies Robinson at cc@portlandhive.org or 712-3295.

July - The Telling Room, in collaboration with USM's satellite office of the Maine Writing Project, presents a Young Authors' Camp for students entering grades 4-6-7-8. The week-long camps offer young writers a chance to explore their imaginations while improving their prose and poetry writing skills. The 4-6th camp will run from July 13-17th, and the 7-8th camp will run July 27-31st, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. Lead teachers include Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Executive Director of The Telling Room, and Tim Hebda, teacher at the Waynflete School and National Writing Project Teacher Consultant, and a number of volunteers and local writers will stop in during the week. Students will work individually and in groups, and they will get out into the Old Port, allowing its summer sights, sounds, and smells to inspire new writing. Applications are available www.tellingroom.org. Cost for the week is $150, with some scholarships available. Email Tim at PortlandYAC@gmail.com if you have further questions. Deadline for applications May 29th. Off the Coast Magazine seeks submissions of art and poetry. 2009 Deadlines:

June 15th - Off the Coast literary magazine is seeking submissions: June 15, Open Submissions; September 15, Food!; December 15, Open Submissions. Send 1-3 quality poems, any subject or style cut-and-paste in the body of an e-mail. Postal submissions with SASE. Include contact information. B&W graphics and photos and for the cover in color or B&W. Send images in jpg format. Seek more artwork in photography in the magazine. For reviews, send a single copy of a newly published poetry book. Contributors receive one free copy. Additional copies of the issue their work appears in available for half cover price. Subscriptions: $35. Single issue: $10. The Spring 2009 International/Translation available now, with poems from South Africa, Sweden, Greece, Bangladesh and translations in eight languages including Turkish, German, French, Gaelic and Swedish. Forward all inquiries, submissions, and subscriptions to poetrylane2@gmail.com; Off the Coast, P.O. Box 14, Robbinston, ME 04671, 207-454-8026.

July 4th - The 5th annual Belfast Poetry Festival announces the Maine Postmark Poetry Contest. Maine residents invited to submit entries up to two (2) pages of poetry (one poem per page, please, so either two short poems or one longer poem); each entry must be accompanied by $5 reading fee (proceeds used to support the contest and the festival). Maine residents may submit more than one entry, but each additional entry is an additional $5. The Belfast Poetry Festival Committee will screen entries and forward finalists to an outside judge, a poet of national reputation, who will choose the final winner. That winner will be invited to read the winning poem and be honored at the Belfast Poetry Festival in October 2009 and announced in the Maine press. Submissions welcome from now until July 4, 2009; only submissions received with a Maine postmark dated July 3 or earlier will be accepted. Poems should be sent without the poet’s name on the poem and accompanied by a cover letter listing your name, contact information (address, email and phone) and the title of your poem(s) submitted so that poems can be read anonymously. Cover letters need not include biographical information. Poems sent without a cover letter will be disqualified. All poems must be original and previously unpublished. Poems will not be returned. Please send your entry, up to two pages and no more than two poems accompanied by a cover letter with your contact information and a check for $5 made out to the City of Belfast, to: Linda Buckmaster, Belfast Poet Laureate Attn: Maine Postmark Poetry Contest, 12 Huntress Ave,Belfast, ME 04915. FMI contact Arielle Greenberg at ariellecg@yahoo.com.

Tom Fallon has again revamped "Literary ETC" - now5literary.html Changes have also been made with the addition of creative pieces Here.

July 6th - Gary Lawless, poet, publisher and bookstore owner, will offer two courses at USM's Lewiston campus during the summer and fall. The July 6-August 21st course is "Poetry and the Natural World" relating the various approaches to the natural world in various cultures, present and past. The class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays. The fall course is "Howling With The Beats", meeting Tuesdays, which follows Beat writers and their influences, such as Blake, Beaudelaire, Rimbaud, Sakaki, Rexroth, etc. To register, FMI, call the college at 765-6500

from east to west: bicoastal verse - spring '09 is out. The quarterly poetry journal with featured poets:Mark Hartenbach, Eve Hanninen, Michael Macklin & Bart Solarcyz, featured artists:Jeff Filipski, Eve Hanninen, Cheryl Townsend, Jenny McGhee Dougherty, Ron Davis & Pamela Perkins, and "garden" poets:T. Birch, Wendy Howe, Lois Jones, Neil C. Leach, Jr., Russell Libby, Tom Moore, Kenneth Pobo, Bethan Townsend & Lewis Turco. See FE@WEST090001 to open the publication. The Summer 09 edition of "from east to west" is looking for "found" viisual art pieces - see the full submission call here.

Betsy Sholl, Maine Poet Laureate, has had her eighth collection of poetry, Rough Cradle published by Alice James Books. This collection focuses on human dichotomies: body and soul, mystery and knowledge, grief and ecstasy. Though the self is small in relation to death, love is enormous, and no life too small or mean to matter. "Rough Cradle" entreats us to love everything before we lose everything. "Solid, moving and thoughtful, this eighth collection from the Maine poet laureate...represents patience, affection and generous attention to whoever she loves and to what she hears and sees." Publishers Weekly. Order from Alice James Press

Moon Pie Press announce the publication of Kevin Sweeney's second poetry book, "Ordinary Time". The book will be available on the MPP website at www.moonpiepress.com, at Longfellow Books in downtown Portland, and at Nonesuch Books in South Portland. Kevin lives in South Portland. His first poetry book, also from Moon Pie Press, was "Rags of Prayer". Dave Roskos, Editor of Big Hammer: "Kevin takes a decidedly working class stance in his poetry. This rings true in his voice, in the people and places he chooses to write about, and in his plain-as-talking narrative style, all the while retaining a lyrical edge. Generosity, compassion, acceptance, humor and a good eye, combined with talent, make for good poetry. Kevin Sweeney is one of the good ones. Real good. Real."

Multiformalisms: Postmodern Poetics of Form, edited by Annie Finch and Susan M. Schultz Multiformalisms is a reference work for Postmodern Formalism. This book features essays and interviews from Michael Magee and K. Silem Mohammad, Annie Finch, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Juliana Chang, Ron Silliman, and many more. Individuals can order from B&N, Powell's and Amazon

Pudding House Publications has released Patricia Ranzoni: Greatest Hits, 1982 – 2008, #273 in its GOLD invitational Poets Greatest Hits National Archive. Modeled on the music industry’s issuance of greatest hits, the series collects poems most requested for reprint or performance. In a required introductory essay, Ranzoni has written on her life in relation to her poetry as well as on the lives of 12 significant poems, themselves. In addition to the Pudding House Programs Library, Poets House/NYC and other private collections, this archive is being acquired by the Special Collections of The Ohio State University Libraries, SUNY/Buffalo Lockwood Library and Kent State University. The series can be researched or ordered at this <http://www.puddinghouse.com>LINK under the GREATEST HITS. Ranzoni’s collection is available from her c/o pranzoni@aol.com

Ira Sadoff's "History Matters: Contemporary Poetry on the Margins of American Culture" has been published by the University of Iowa Press. In this capacious and energetic volume, Ira Sadoff argues that poets live and write within history, our artistic values always reflecting attitudes about both literary history and culture at large. History Matters does not return to the culture war that reduced complex arguments about human nature, creativity, identity, and interplay between individual and collective identity to slogans. See this link to ORDER.

Dawn Potter's "Tracing Paradise: Two Years in Harmony with John Milton" will be publidshed in May by the University of Massachusetts Press. What began as a whim turned rapidly into an obsession, and soon Potter was immersed in a strange and unexpected project: she found herself copying out every single word of Milton’s immense, convoluted epic. The book is her memoir of that long task. Though she writes perceptively about the details and techniques of Milton’s art, always her reactions are linked to her present-tense experiences as a poet, small-time farmer, family member, and citizen of a poor and beleaguered north-country town. See this page to ORDER

The Kids First Center, a private non-profit organization focused on helping children and parents cope with the effects of separation and divorce, has published a new book to help parents and professionals reduce the effects of divorce on children. “Kids First: What Kids Want Grown-Ups to Know About Separation and Divorce” is an honest and practical guide to providing emotional and physical well-being to children whose world is rocked by divorce. This book is preventative medicine for all divorcing parents,” says Christiane Northrup, MD, author of “Mother-Daughter Wisdom.” Says Felicity Myers, family therapist and mediator, Available at your local bookstore or library, as well as http://www.towerpub.com

A Rump-Sprung Chair and a One-Eyed Cat, a new collection of poems by Salt Coast Sages of Washington and Hancock counties, offers a range of poetry on topics from local events to the Irish countryside, from crackers and milk to baseball. Available at many local bookstores and other Maine retail shops for $10, as well as by mail, for $13.00 per book, check or money order payable to Salt Coast Sages at P.0. Box 263, Cutler, ME 04626. The poets also have copies for sale. Publishers and broadcasters should inquire about review copies. FMI on the book and the Sages, including a schedule of public readings, see www.saltcoastsages.com. The Sages will be available for additional library and bookstore appearances when traveling weather is predictably safe. To schedule a reading, email Gerald George

Wolf Moon Journal, A Magazine of Art and Opinion, has its Spring issue on the stands. Maine's plucky, independent magazine features images, essays, poetry, and book and film reviews. Sample articles are posted on the web site, but you will have to purchase or subscribe to gain the full benefit of the magazine. WOLFMOON.

Jessy Kendall has the new issue of Letter Founder out! The only true avant-garde literary journal in Maine. We need this to get outside the box of our "comfortable" literature. Kendall carries on with the legacy of the legendary Bern Porter.

Take a look at Poets and Writers magazine at this link: http://www.pw.org This magazine is an invaluable resource for writers.

UNE MAINE WOMEN WRITERS COLLECTION CELEBRATES 50 YEARS - The University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection (MWWC) will celebrate its 50th anniversary with an academic symposium, documentary film premiere, and a special reception on UNE’s Portland, Maine campus June 11-14, 2009. Located in the Abplanalp Library on UNE’s Portland Campus, MWWC is a pre-eminent special collection of published and non-published literary, cultural and social history sources, by and about women authors, either native or residents of Maine. These sources document and illustrate the times, circumstances and experiences of Maine women writers, revealing their public actions and private thoughts. Founded in 1959 by Grace Dow and Dorothy Healy to honor, preserve, and make available the writings of Maine women achieving literary recognition, the Collection now has over 6,000 volumes on more than 500 Maine women writers. The Collection also includes correspondence, photographs, personal papers, manuscripts, typescripts, artifacts, and audio recordings that provide insight into the lives and writing of both well-known and obscure Maine women authors. The Collection maintains an active acquisitions program in contemporary and historic manuscript material, as well as rare books. The three-day symposium entitled “Women in the Archives: Using Archival Collections in Research and Teaching on U.S. Women” will feature presentations by nationally known scholars in the humanities and interdisciplinary studies. To register, call 207-221-4433. The documentary film entitled "The Maine Women Writers Collection: The First Fifty Years" will premiere 3:15-4:15 p.m. on June 13th in Ludcke Auditorium on the UNE Portland Campus, followed by a 50th Anniversary reception from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in UNE’s Josephine S. Abplanalp '45 Library. Both the film and reception are free and open to the public. A chairs' roundtable and closing brunch will be held on Sunday, June 14th from 8:30-11:00 a.m. at the Holiday Inn By the Bay, 88 Spring Street, Portland. For more information about the MWWC symposium and the 50th Anniversary events, please contact Jennifer Tuttle at 207- 221-4433 or visit www.une.edu/mwwc.