News & Reviews
In descending order of up-to-datedness; i.e. the most recent additions are at the top. Sooner or later, the oldest stuff will vanish or get relegated to the attic.

Submit local poetry news, reviews you've written of stuff you liked or hated, other strong opinions, gossip whether relevant or scandalous to: arachne@madpoetry.org

News

Poetry postcards paired with the abstract art of local artist, Sarah Spencer, are now available for free in Madison courtesy of the Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf program sponsored by Woodrow Hall Editions. The poetry was submitted by poets worldwide in answer to the phrase "No Direct Route Home" in which poems were to take the reader on a surprising detour. The work of 30-some poets was selected out of over 800 submissions. These postcards are presently available at Ma Cha Teahouse & Gallery and Milward Farrell Fine Arts Gallery both on Monroe Street and at Zu Zu's Café & Market near Vilas Zoo. Look for them at Madison Central as well as the Southside, Ashman and Monroe Street branch libraries during National Poetry Month in April. Other locations will be announced in March. To find out more about Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf, visit PoetryJumpsOfftheShelf.com or email Shoshauna Shy: shoshaunashy@yahoo.com.

SEARCH STARTS FOR NEXT STATE POET LAUREATE
The search for Wisconsin's third Poet Laureate starts April 1st.
State poets are encouraged to apply for this prestigious 2-year post, which commences Sept. 1. Appointed by the Governor, the Laureate promotes poetry throughout the state, attending public functions, giving readings, and visiting schools and/or other venues. The person who succeeds our current Poet Laureate, Denise Sweet of Green Bay, must demonstrate a proven level of skill in writing and reading poetry, a history of publishing individual poems and/or books of poetry, and experience at promoting poetry in Wisconsin. She/he must also be a resident of Wisconsin for at least one year prior to the May 9th, 2008 application deadline, be at least 18 years old, and be available to travel throughout the state. For an application form and detailed guidelines, poets should visit the Wisconsin Art Board's website, http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov, or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the Wisconsin Arts Board, Attn: Poet Laureate Guidelines, First Floor, 101 East Wilson Street, Madison, WI 53702. For further information about this press release or details about the Governor-appointed Poet Laureate position, contact Poet Laureate Commission Chair Linda Ware, at linda.ware@uwc.edu.

Calls for Submissions

Adult Madison Poets!
Madison Magazine in collaboration with Madison Poet Laureate, Fabu, will feature one poem a month beginning with their June edition. The poem can be any genre, on any subject but 20 lines or less. Fabu will contribute a short intro to the selected poem. No pay involved, but Madison Magazine, on behalf of Fabu, will contribute a monthly amount to the John Tueschan Poet Laureate Memorial Fund. In addition, Madison Magazine will feature the poet reading their work on the magazine's web page. Poems can be sent by snail mail to Madison Magazine at 7025 Raymond Rd, Madison, WI 53719 or the preferred way: by emailing Fabu at blkpoetess68@hotmail.com. We are accepting poems as of April 1st. This is part of Fabu's initiative as the new poet laureate to place poems in new spaces and places.

WARNING: Some local poets have questioned a mysterious posting on Craigslist that solicited poets and offered $1000 payment. This is only a come-on, trolling for suckers to sign up for gigscrib.com, a "freelance" and work-at-home job site—the kind of "offer" that's technically illegal to put in newspapers.

Awards & Publications

David Scheler, Cross Plains, WI, was a finalist for Permafrost's Midnight Sun Chapbook award, in the top 10 of 180 poets from 8 countries.

Sara Parrell won first place and Susan Elbe won third place in the 14th Annual Juried Reading of the Poetry Center of Chicago. The awards were announced on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at a reading of the 8 finalists at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. Literary Activist and award-winning poet E. Ethelbert Miller served as Final Judge for this year's competition. Poems are posted at poetrycenter.org/reading/juried.html.

Tim Walsh of Madison, WI, was a finalist in the 2008 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award contest for his manuscript My Career in the Secret Mission Service.

Andrea Potos has won the 2007 Sow's Ear Poetry Review Prize, for her poem "Bread," judged by Marge Piercy.

Poetry Books

Constellation of the Dragonfly, a poetry chapbook by F.J. Bergmann, the shadowy entity behind madpoetry.org, has just been published by Plan B Press, Alexandria, VA. All of the poems are science-fiction, published by literary journals that should have known better. Buy it at Avol's, Room of One's Own, and Rainbow bookstores! The book can also be ordered from fibitz.com/books/constell.html or planbpress.com/bergmannconstellation.html, where sample poems may be read.

Tim Walsh's new book, Blue Lace Colander, has just been released by Marsh River Editions.

Robin Chapman's new poetry book, Smoke and Strong Whiskey, was published by WordTech Editions in February 2007 and is available from her, in local bookstores, or at http://www.wordtechweb.com/chapman-smoke.html.

Lisa Marie Brodsky's new chapbook, We Nod Our Dark Heads, was published by Parallel Press in March 2008 and is available from her, or at Avol's Bookstore, 315 W. Gorham, for $10.

Tapes, CDs, DVDs, videos

R. Virgil Ellis has a new multimedia DVD, Mandelbröt Room: The Intermedia Art of R. Virgil Ellis, produced by Woodhenge Productions, 2007, Cambridge, Wisconsin. See ronellis@hughes.net.

Old News: Old but relevant articles previously posted on this page.

On the Other Side of the Eye
By Bryan Thao Worra
Poetry Book
Sam's Dot Publishing, 2007
$10.00
samsdotpublishing.com

         Once one has read several hundred poetry collections over the course of a handful of years, it takes an especially powerful and unique voice to separate itself from the vortex of black ink spilled on white paper. Often these voices come from outside the American experience, yet uses itself to translate that experience with fresh insights. Bryan Thao Worra's first collection, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EYE, clearly distinguishes itself as apart yet mixed, full of strange devices and exquisitely memorable constructs that leaves the reader immersed in wonder. A Laotian-American writer, he is replete with the memory of his native country, "The Kingdom of a Million Elephants", and uses their traditions of oral story-telling and song in his poetry. Yet his reactions to being displaced cannot be denied or withheld, as evidenced in the poem "Aliens": "As I run down my strange streets/an accidental alien without/ a ray gun." An ardent Lovecraftian scholar, Bryan Thao Worra pays oblique tribute to HPL in "The Deep Ones" adroitly mixing images of things rising from the sea with the ambitions of his native Laos after civil war and despot rule. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EYE is rife with pop culture references, yet underlying all is a universal truth: that poetry speaks of the human experience and all that it contains.

Review by James P. Roberts
author, FAMOUS WISCONSIN AUTHORS.
JRob52162@aol.com

Old Reviews: Reviews previously posted on this page.

The Literary Journal Swap Shelf
At the Monroe Street Branch Library, 1705 Monroe St., 266-6390, on a lower shelf south of the magazine shelves. Bring in literary journals and magazines you no longer want, and help yourself to those that sit waiting! There's no charge and no check-out for these 'zines.