So sorry to hear this. From Book Soup, an announcement of the death of the store’s founder, Glenn Goldman:
We are proud to honor his memory by doing the thing he loved most: selling good books to good people.
LA Times obituary and appreciation here. Apparently the store will be sold.
The Hammer Museum features Frank Bidart, Jim Shepard, David Lehman, and Sven Birkerts in January. First up is Frank Bidart on January 15 at 7 P.M. I remember the first time I heard him read–around 1990, in the Sunset Canyon reading series at UCLA: Stephen Yenser gave an introduction in which he praised the surgical precision of FB’s punctuation. Not until I came to read the poems–like “To the Dead,” a poem that still elates and pierces me–did I really understand what he meant.
Matt and I both go back to work tomorrow–teaching for me, and rehearsals for Candida at the Colony Theatre in Burbank for him (he plays Mr. Burgess). I’ve never read this Shaw play, and I can’t even think of when I’ve had the opportunity to see it, so this will be a fresh experience indeed when it opens in early February.
The poetry faculty of the 2009 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference will be:
The conference website will be updated soon with the 2009 application deadline and other information.
It’s not news anymore that the wonderful Elizabeth Alexander will read a poem at Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20. But today the New York Times has the scoop on what the inaugural poet will wear: an ensemble by a New York designer, b. michael. A spokesperson told the Times via e-mail:
“It has been said of Elizabeth Alexander her ‘poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh’ and also her ‘instinct for turning her profound cultural vision into one that illuminates universal experience.’ This is b. michael’s inspiration for the tone.”
While the prose could be smoothed out a little, I’m utterly charmed by the idea of the clothing designer taking inspiration from qualities of EA’s work (at least as described by Rita Dove and Clarence Major).
(Elizabeth has agreed to return to the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference in summer 2009–she taught for us in 2007 as well, to great acclaim–and we are so pleased about this. The rest of the faculty are set but not up on the conference website yet. I’ll announce their names in a separate post.)
Tupelo Press is running The Big Save Endangered Literature Challenge, a push to encourage readers to buy at least one book of poetry directly from Tupelo’s website:
Because: if you order just one book from our website at list price (plus postage), Tupelo benefits and you benefit! We log in a genuine full sale, you get a wonderful new book to savor. When you buy one of our books from a bookstore or from Amazon we receive only about 35 cents after deducting for bookstore discounts (50%), distributor’s fee (30% of what’s left), plus the substantial cost of making our beautiful books. We can’t run even a lean non-profit on that. But buy directly from our website, the net to Tupelo after costs is about $11.00. The difference to us is monumental.
…if even half of the book lovers on our subscriber list buy just one book directly from our website, we can make our budget for the coming year.
I suspect that if you go to the website, you’ll have a hard time choosing, so why not buy two or three?
Here’s the list of authors.
Little blog lapse there. I have been busy with lots of things–teaching, working on the Napa conference, and running the household single-handedly, now that Matt has decamped to the Utah Shakespeare Festival for four months. (Curiously, he’s not in any Shakespeare plays this summer: Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and Ragueneau in Cyrano de Bergerac.) I’m actually still busy with all of these things, but I close the book on the academic year on June 16.
I did, however, get to accompany Miri’s class on a field trip yesterday. Can you guess where we are? This will be easy for Angelenos.
I’m thankful to be able to read all the lovely comments people have left about Felicia in the post below. If you’ve found this blog by searching for her name, please feel free to add your own comment. You can also find a link to a Facebook group in the comments.
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is coming up this weekend. Truly, this is an event with something for everyone, and if you’ve never been, you owe it to yourself to go. Check out the list of authors appearing and read the Stages Schedule for nonticketed events, particularly the Poetry Stage, which this year features Wanda Coleman, Mark Doty, Eloise Klein Healy, Robert Pinsky, David St. John, Jean Valentine, and many others.
The USC Master of Professional Writing Program will be sharing a booth with the USC Bookstore. Some of our faculty will be sitting in the booth to sign books and talk about the program with anyone who happens by. I’ll be there from 12-2 PM, overlapping for the first hour with Tristine Rainer and for the second with S.L. (Sid) Stebel. The MPW program is going through some exciting changes and has just announced the appointment of poet and playwright Brighde Mullins as its new Director. Stop by throughout the weekend and see Judith Freeman (The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved), Gabrielle Pina (Chasing Sophea), Gerald Locklin (New Orleans, Chicago, and Points Elsewhere), and Gina Nahai (Caspian Rain), among others. Hot-off-the-presses copies of the new issue of the Southern California Review will also be available.
Felicia Brewer–wife, mother, lawyer, raconteuse and kindhearted woman–died yesterday of a sudden illness at age 38, leaving her husband, John, and their two young daughters. They are in my prayers and also very much in my thoughts.
After great pain, a formal feeling comes —
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs —
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?
The Feet, mechanical, go round —
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought —
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone —
This is the Hour of Lead —
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow —
First — Chill — then Stupor — then the letting go —
–Emily Dickinson
Looks like this crisis is over until 2032, at which point we’ll probably be having only virtual poetry readings. And if we do, I want to give one in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.
For the full news, click here: Continue reading
Link to the poster with full details
Marilyn Hacker will read at Antioch University Los Angeles on Saturday, March 8 at 5:30 PM in room A1000. (Antioch is all one building–next to a large parking structure!–so it’s very easy to visit. Showing up at a large, unfamiliar campus and looking for a poetry reading can be a needle-haystack experience.) There will also be a panel discussion with Joyce Jenkins of the venerable Poetry Flash and Eloise Klein Healy, Professor Emerita and founding director of the Antioch M.F.A. program.
I realize only a handful of people are reading this, but you all really ought to go to this event, and bring your friends. I will be exhorting my USC workshop to attend. Marilyn Hacker is not only a singular, irresistible voice within her generation; she’s a poet who will be read for generations to come.
Nan Cohen 
