What if Sean Connery were talking about a singles bar?

Posted by Jeff on Sep 5th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

The shingles isn’t healing as quickly as I’d hoped, so I’m still holed up at home and even limiting the Zoom events I’m attending these days. When I do attend, I keep the camera off. It still looks as if I have bad acne. It’s not worse than it was before, but it’s hard to tell if it’s getting better. The areas that were in extreme pain three weeks ago now get near-painfully itchy at times.

The worst part is that I’ve had to bow out of several IRL events with friends to which I’d been looking forward – just as life is slowly returning back to normal in Ontario.
I’m giving the shingles another two weeks to clear up, because I have three performance events scheduled by the end of September… and one of them is a live one:

1) Spoken Word in the Park
My first IRL gig in more than a year and a half, on the 21st. Apparently it’s in a park, way way out in the west end of Toronto. And there’s an open mic. Really, that’s all I know. Assuming it doesn’t rain, I’ll read and/or perform a set of all-new material, most of which has barely been heard by Canadian audiences, if at all.

2) Ad Lib’s Got Talent
Damon Lum’s informal monthly series is back on Zoom on the 24th.

3) Bill’s Back at the Globe
An international group of poets, including some I know via Zoom, will be reading from Act I of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus on the 25th. You can watch it on Facebook Live.

But wait, there’s more!

October is going to be another big month, because I have no less than three (3) international Zoom poetry gigs lined up. (Four, if you count another Ad Lib night.) When features come, they come not single spies, but in trios.

Details for all of the above on the right sidebar, with relevant links to be updated when available.

Here’s a song I hadn’t heard in well over thirty years and have become inexplicably obsessed with lately:

Happy Labour Day, Charlie Brown.

Anthology 2. Or, two anthologies

Posted by Jeff on Aug 22nd, 2021 in News | 0 comments

Hi. Remember a few months ago, when I said that I was being published in a handful of literary anthologies this year?
Well, I wasn’t lying. I wouldn’t lie to you, you know. (Assuming anybody reads this and there’s a “you” there.)

And now, two more of these anthologies are out and available for sale.

This Tuesday night is the online launch party for Sinew: 10 Years of Poetry in the Brew. It even has a poster and everything.
(The theme of the anthology is “bodies”. Hence all the… bodies in the poster.)

This new book includes my silly prose poem “Kirschner’s Groovy Style”, along with works from many writers from around the world… including some whom I’ve met and gotten to know, virtually, through Zoom poetry events.

Click here to order a copy of Sinew.
You can also get it at Barnes & Noble and other sources. Yes, something I wrote is going to be sold in Barnes & Noble. Isn’t that sweet?

Details about the online launch, including a link, on the right sidebar.
I’ll be reading my piece… but with the camera off, unfortunately, due to illness. (Shingles.)

If you happen to be in the Nashville area, there’s also a live launch party on Saturday, at Portland Brew East. I won’t be there, not just because of the shingles, but because the commute looks a bit tough.
(Though I do have a feature in Nashville next February – and I’m really hoping it’ll be a live gig and everything. If travel is back to relative normal by then.)

Also out this month: Paper Teller Diorama – the annual anthology by Great Weather for Media in New York, which features my experimental poem “How to Make Money in Poetry”.
The press is planning a series of online readings from the anthology over the next several months, and I assume I’m going to be performing in one of them… but have no idea when yet.

Click here to order a copy of Paper Teller Diorama.

Have a good one. Don’t take any wooden igloos.

I’m all right, Jackanory

Posted by Jeff on Jun 20th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

Hi there.

Up for some poetry on a Saturday morning?
Think of it like the Saturday morning cartoons from your childhood.

This Saturday the 26th at 9:00 a.m. EST, I’m featuring on Zoom in Jackanory (based in Wakefield, England) along with my Nashville friend Christine Hall (host of Poetry in the Brew) and British poet Pauline Seawards. Hosted by Halima Mayat. There’s also an open mic, so bring something of your own. Link on the right sidebar.

That’s about it for now.

Now watch this.

Bye there.

Lucky we didn’t say anything about the Runcible Knife

Posted by Jeff on May 2nd, 2021 in News | 0 comments

It’s May. Two events coming up… and a bit more publication news.

First up: next Sunday, I’m doing another Zoom feature in Runcible Spoon, based in Leeds, England. This is my second Runcible gig in less than five months – they must like me or something.

The other feature will be my Australian Zoom buddy Skylar J. Wynter, who has been very busy over the last year. Her recent book Pieces of Humanity was included in gift bags for Academy Award nominees, which makes her, if not famous, at least famous-adjacent.
The night (afternoon here) will be hosted by American expat Kathleen Strafford, and there will be an open mic, so tune in and bring something of yours to read or perform. Another truly international poetry event.

Also, another Ad Lib night happening later in the month. I promote this monthly event as a gig, even though it’s really more of a glorified open-mic night these days… anyway, bring something to share for a supportive group.

More info and stuff on the side. If there’s no Zoom link yet, be patient.

*****

Also: the Italian arts website The Dreaming Machine recently published my poem “If It Happened Now”. Here’s the linky link.

I initially worried that this poem was going to offend and anger people. I was expecting reactions like, “How dare you suggest cancel culture might exist!” or “How dare you take a swipe at the #MeToo movement!” or “How dare you make fun of Saint Ronan Farrow! And his brave sister, God bless her!”
Instead, people seem to like the poem. And the few who don’t are more like, “Oh come on, you’re just trying too hard again, stupid. More of your dumb hacky stand-up clichés,” followed by bored yawns and snorts.

But that’s the weird thing about offence, isn’t it?
I have a long history of offending and angering people, with my spoken word and social-media posts, and ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s not on purpose. It’s when I think I’m going to offend people that nothing happens, or I get bored reactions like the one above. But then, people – sometimes even the same people – will completely freak out and tell me I’m single-handedly destroying society because of one throwaway line that I didn’t think about, that it never even occurred to me would be offensive. That’s what happened with “A Love Letter”, of course, and with a few other pieces. It’s a constant learning experience. You can never predict what will trigger people, or what won’t.

Anyway. Who cares? It’s just art.
Like this:

Good day.

April, come I will

Posted by Jeff on Mar 28th, 2021 in News | 0 comments

April isn’t shaping up to be quite the Month of Jeff that March tried to be. But with the silly lockdown still going on everywhere, I’m still racking up the online performance gigs. Here’s what I got coming up:

1) Life of Brian
This Saturday night, I’m going to play Brian Cohen (the Graham Chapman role) in a live Zoom script reading of the classic Monty Python movie – just in time for Easter. Put together by Mark Kalzer, who also organized the It’s a Wonderful Life reading a few months ago in which I played Mr. Potter. Mark, my friend Damon Lum, and other local actors will play multiple smaller roles. The reading will be livestreamed on Facebook.

2) The Word Is Write
Instead of taking that left turn at Albuquerque, or missing it, why not just stay there? This weekly New Mexico-based poetry open mic is hosted by Marissa Prada, and I’m featuring alongside Maine poet Generalissimo Bryan Franco.

3) Voices of Poetry
A showcase of different, unique poetic styles, hosted by James “Mr. Speaker” Sears. Featuring poets from New York, Virginia and Baltimore. I get to be the token Canadian.

More info/links on the right sidebar.

* * * * *

Performance of spoken word is fun and cool, but it’s publication where the real literary credibility lies. This year – thanks to the contacts I’ve been making or reconnecting with via Zoom – I’m being published in no fewer than five (5) anthologies, in three different countries:

1) Things Fall Apart: Mischievous Machines (Leeds, U.K.)
Hannah Stone, who co-hosted my feature at WordSpace in 2018, edited this anthology of comedic poems and prose about historical technology failures. It includes my flash-fiction piece “The Flying Car”. Copies are limited; to get one, e-mail Hannah at hannahstone14@hotmail.com. It’s £2.50 including shipping.

2) Globalisation: The Sphere Keeps Spinning (Sydney, Australia)
My poem “ZoomMobile” appears in this Zoom-inspired anthology edited by Kelly Van Nelson, who recently interviewed me in the podcast Wordsmith. The book includes dozens of globalization-themed works by poets from around the world. You can buy a copy at this link.

3) Brownstone Poets 2021 Anthology (New York)
This annual anthology, edited by Patricia Carragon, will be published around June and include my poem “This Is Not Real Poetry” (written in late 2015).

4) Great Weather for Media (New York)
I’ve got a bit of a history with this NYC press, having featured in their Sunday series at the Parkside Lounge in 2014. This year, they’ve accepted my experimental poem “How to Make Money in Poetry” for their annual anthology, which is due out in August.

5) Bodies (Nashville)
Poetry in the Brew is one of the blessings of the Zoom poetry world, a weekly series in which poets from around the world feel safe to try out new material before a supportive community. In 2021, the series is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an anthology called “Bodies”, on the theme of… bodies. Included will be my comical prose poem, “Kirschner’s Groovy Style”. This will also be published in August.

See? I do stuff. I write, I perform, I even pretend to act.
Now have a swell spring. Here’s a puppy.