April, come I will

Posted by 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.

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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.