Lively Words

Session 21

Connie Voisine in Las Cruces from Al Martinez on Vimeo.

After a restful first half of the summer, we're fortunate to get back into the swing of things with an excellent session featuring poet and friend Connie Voisine reading in Southern New Mexico. The reading was recorded last fall and it has aged rather nicely over the intervening seasons.

Connie reads a few poems from her fantastic collection Rare High Meadow of Which I Might Dream, which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize last year.

Bonus poems and a brief conversation with Connie will be posted soon, so check back in a few weeks.

Stay lively.

Summer Break

 

Somewhere in the rush to get summer going we got caught up in the rapids of it all. Let's blame it on the frenzy around "grads and dads" or the World Cup or the NBA playoffs. Take your pick.

This is a long way of saying we've taken a small break but we'll be back in July with a great reading by poet Connie Voisine, whose excellent collection Rare High Meadow of Which I Might Dream was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize last year.

Check out the book and read one of the poems from it. From the Fishouse has more goodness too.

Session 20

Tim Staley in Las Cruces from Al Martinez on Vimeo.

Of all the literary events sponsored by my graduate program in Las Cruces, NM, the fall benefit reading is one of my favorites. Proceeds from tickets sold for the event go directly to one of the local food banks. Last year's event was excellent all around. It featured top-notch readings by Antonya Nelson and Robert Boswell, and it became a kind of homecoming event for alumni of the program.

While in Las Cruces, I also had the chance to record Tim Staley for Session 20. It's great. Tim and I used to talk about writing during and after our weekly racquetball games in grad school. He's an old friend and it's an honor to have his reading included in the project.

Check out the bonus poem (below) recorded in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park a week earlier at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

In a related interview, Tim talks about how he uses poetry to teach his high school students.

Enjoy.

Tim Staley in San Francisco from Al Martinez on Vimeo.