Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha on Tour

The lovely Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha has a new book of poetry coming out, Love Cake, and is going on tour. For those of you who unfortunately missed seeing Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha when she promoted The Revolution Starts at Home, this is a great opportunity to check her out. As of right now, she will be touring Ontario, New York, Connecticut and Vermont and Pennsylvania, hopefully adding on additional dates. If you in the area for one of her events, check her out.

Even More Upcoming Events

If the last two posts I had about upcoming events weren't enough, there are also two events going on Friday.

April 16 Master Poetry Class with Catherine Bowman 11 am-1 pm 110 Morrill Hall
Catherine Bowman is a poet and Ruth Lilly Professor at Indiana University. She has published several poetry books, including 1-800-HOT-RIBS and Rock Farm, and has won numerous awards, including the New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. Her work has appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Best American Poetry, River Styx, The Los Angeles Times, An Exhilaration of Forms, Ploughshares, Conjunctions and TriQuarterly. To RSVP, email Robin Silbergleid at silberg1@msu.edu. Please bring a sample of your creative writing to work on.

April 16 Catherine Bowman Poetry Reading 3 pm 213 Morrill Hall
Again, the same poet will be reading her work. I really love her poem "I Want to Be Your Shoebox." There's something really child-like about the poem, but it's exactly how I feel about certain boys in my life.

More Upcoming Events

As promised, I have another set of upcoming events that are happening in and around MSU.

April 14 The Poem as Vehicle 3 pm Snyder Hall Common Area
Christine Rhein, who is reading next week, will be giving a talk about the poem as a vehicle. Ms. Rhein will be talking about the elements that work together to make an effective poem and show the audience the kind of trial and error that goes on it creating poems, making it easier for the audience to engineer poems.

April 14 Nineteenth-Century Women Crusaders and Poets 7 pm C204 Snyder Hall
This is the presentation that I keep mentioning here on the blog. I'm going to be talking about some activist women poets who wrote about politics. I'll be focusing on Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Ann Plato, Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, Sarah Louisa Forten and Francis E.W. Harper. I'll be discussing their poetry and the racism and sexism that they both fight and accidentally defend.

April 22 Red Cedar Review Issue Release Party 7:30 pm Scene Metrospace
The Red Cedar Review, the nationally-known literary magazine here at MSU, will be celebrating the release of it's next issue. Everyone is welcome to come by to hear some of the author's of the new issue read.

April 29 Poetry Chalking in front of Phillips
The Center for Poetry often has poetry chalkings in the Spring. Basically, you can just bring yourself and the Center will give you a poem and chalk to decorate the sidewalk with. (You're allowed to bring your own poems, if you'd like, but you're not required.) I've always had a great time at these kinds of events, especially if it's a beautiful day.

Like before, all these events are free and open to the public, so make sure you stop by for some of them.

Upcoming Poetry Readings for April

In the next couple of weeks, there are going to be a ton of things creative writing related going on around MSU. Everyone should definitely check some of this out, because it looks like it's going to be tons of fun. I'm planning on going to some, but probably not all, of these events, just because I have lots of schoolwork that I'm supposed to be doing.

April 6 Steve Healey 7 pm RCAH Theatre
Dr. Healey was one of my professors last semester, and I can guarantee that he is one of the nicest and mellow people around. He was a wonderful professor, and I'm really sad I'm not in his class anymore. I'm excited to hear his poetry because everyone tells me that his book Earthling is amazing.

April 13 Christine Rhein 7 pm RCAH Theatre
I've read two of her poems (both about the second World War). I'm partial to prose poems and poems based on family history, so I'm looking forward to hearing her.

April 20 Ruelaine Stokes 7 pm RCAH Theatre
I've interacted with Ms. Stokes a few times around campus, mostly during Center for Poetry events. She's a great technical writer and I hear she's also a good teacher.

April 23 Diane Wakoski and Jerome Rothenberg 4:30 pm MSU Library
I've seen Ms. Wakowski give poetry readings and lectures, and both were tons of fun. One of my favorite things to hear about is her interactions with other poets, so I'm interested in seeing her read with Mr. Rothenberg. It's hard for me to pick out a favorite Wakoski poem, but I love "Blue Monday." It's a perfect break-up poem.

All of these events are free and open to the public, so even if you're not currently a Spartan, you can hear these poets read. There are some other events going on this month that are poetry or creative writing related, and once I get a chance, I'll try to post some information. Hope to see you around.