Irving Toast, disembodied poet laureate from the late 1890's, has found his favorite haunting place at KRUU-LP 100.1 FM, "The Voice of Fairfield" on Sunday mornings at 10:30 am.

Though at times you may hear his ethereal jabbering wending its way through the microphone cords, his chosen earthly medium, and host of the show, is Fairfield poet Rustin Larson.

Irving, through Rustin, will be interviewing established and emerging poets and writers from the North American literary scene and hosting haunting literary performances from talent near and far.

Tune in this Sunday, April 20^th to catch a brand new interview with renowned New Hampshire poet, W. E. Butts.

Pour the pancake batter, Maybelle! This one is gooood!

Craig Deininger bats second on Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost with host Rustin Larson, Sunday, April 27 at 10:30 am!

Wander in the desert and contemplate badger-shaped galaxies with poet Craig Deininger in the next episode of Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost.

Deininger has been writing poetry seriously for over 20 years. He has studied at U-Mass and Oxford, and has a life of travels and adventures, which seem to fuel his insights.

Deininger is currently putting together a comprehensive manuscript of his work, including 40 out of 800 or 900 poems. His work has appeared in The Iowa Review, Glyphs, Riverbend, and Craig has taught creative writing workshops in Amherst, Moab, and Banner Elk.

So dim the lights and place your fingers lightly on the table. The spirits are about to speak

Tune in May 4th, 10:30 am CT as Suzanne Frischkorn pays a visit to the haunted studio (via phone call). Suzanne Frischkorn is the author of five chapbooks, most recently American Flamingo, (2008), and Spring Tide, selected by Mary Oliver for the Aldrich Poetry Award (2005).

Lit Windowpane, her first full-length book, will be released by
Main Street Rag Press in autumn, 2008. Her poems have recently
appeared, or are forthcoming in Ecotone, Indiana Review, Diode, No Tell Motel, MiPOesias, Salt Flats Annual, and the anthology Conversation Pieces: Poems That Talk to Other Poems, part of the Everyman's Library Pocket Poet Series (Knopf, 2007)

From 2001 to 2005 she served as an editor for Samsära Quarterly. She is the recipient of a 2007 Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism.

Sunday, May 18th at 10:30 am CST tune in for Mary Swander. (She brought her banjo!)

Mary's Swander's most recent work is a forthcoming book of poetry entitled The Girls on the Roof (Turning
Point Press, 2009). This long narrative poem is the story of a mother
and daughter stuck on top of the roof of catfish dive on the banks of
the Mississippi River for three days during the 1993 flood. There, they
discover they’ve both had an affair with the same man.

J. P. Dancing Bear, Sunday, June 15th at 10:30 am, central time.

J.P. Dancing Bear lives in Northern California. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in hundreds of publications including Shenandoah, Mississippi Review, Cimarron Review, Poetry East, North American Review, Atlanta Review, Verse Daily, The National Poetry Review, Poetry International, Marlboro Review, Hotel Amerika, Interim, Seattle Review, Permafrost, Puerto Del Sol, Controlled Burn, Cranky, Rattle, Americas Review, and Slipstream.

Mark Cox chairs the Department of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington and teaches in the MFA in Writing Program of Vermont College. He is the recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Kansas Arts Commission Fellowship, two awards from the Vermont Council on the Arts, and a Bread Loaf Writers' conference Fellowship.

Cox has published poems in such magazines as American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Crazyhorse. Ampersand Press published his chapbook, Barbells of the Gods, in 1988. Godine published Smoulder, his first full-length collection in 1989. His second collection, Thirty-Seven Years from the Stone, and his latest book, Natural Causes, were both published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Michael Carrino's second book of poetry, Under This Combustible Sky, is a richly-peopled collection whose denizens are portrayed in a stark light, like that of certain Hopper paintings, a light no less beautiful for its starkness and hard edges. Reading these poems, one realizes that in lives so full of defeat there are redemptions in solitude, and victories within the sacredness of the moment. 'For me,' Carrino writes in the poem "Cat, Rose, Musical Score", 'self absorbed and anxious, objects explain/ passion, obsession; how you have/ no control unless you agree/ before dancing white on white in silence--/ we are what we arrange.' This could well be a statement of the aesthetic brought to the arrangement of this book: a pure witnessing, at times, of a moment's details which speak volumes of the poem's subject in a language that is both economical and plainly spoken, yet rich in its precision.

I think of the poem "The Woman" in which a photograph of a soldier's Korean mistress is ogled and handed around the family table, a favorite conversation piece:

Sunday, May 11th at 10:30 am CT tune in for some Emerson, Pavese, Complicated Pasta and a tribute to the late Robert Long's poetry!

Robert Long's poems appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including The New Yorker, Poetry, and Partisan Review, as
well as three earlier collections. He taught at several colleges and
universities, including La Salle University, where he was
writer-in-residence. He died on October 13, 2006. Blue was his last published collection of poetry.

Next episode: Sunday, August 3 at 10:30 am CT tune in for a fascinating interview with Jim Autry!

Autry is the retired president of the Meredith Magazine Group, and had a distinguished career as an editor and publisher. Autry has been active in many civic, charitable, and arts organizations, most notably working with disability rights groups for more than 35 years. He served as president, chairman, and chairman emeritus of the Epilepsy Foundation of America. He is a founding member of the board of Peoplefor the American Way. He is also a founder of the Des Moines National Poetry Festival.

Poets: Bill Graeser and Dan Troxell.

Bill Graeser is from Long Island and is the
University's Locksmith. Dan is from Des Moines and is the host of
"Readings at Zanzibar's" (it's the KGB of the Midwest, sweetheart).
Hey, I've read there. This series rocks the beans in the roasting
machine.

L'chaim!

YO!  BABY-POP!  IT'S THIS PART THAT HAS THE KLEZMER MUSIC ON IT! 

Poets: Bill Graeser and Dan Troxell.

Bill Graeser is from Long Island and is the University's Locksmith. Dan is from Des Moines and is the host of "Readings at Zanzibar's" (it's the KGB of the Midwest, sweetheart). Hey, I've read there. This series rocks the beans in the roasting machine.

L'chaim!

Tune in Sundays at 10:30 am central or Mondays at 1:30 pm central.

Poet Dorianne Laux rumbles into the haunted studio (via phone call) and shakes things up with her unstoppable verse.

Dorianne Laux was born in Augusta, Maine, in 1952. She worked as a sanatorium cook, a gas station manager, a maid, and a donut holer before receiving a B.A. in English from Mills College in 1988.

Laux is the author of Facts About the Moon (W. W. Norton 2005), which was the recipient of the Oregon Book Award, chosen by Ai, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Her other collections include Smoke (BOA Editions, 2000); What We Carry (1994), finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Awake (1990), which was nominated for the San Francisco Bay Area Book Critics Award for Poetry.

Poet Dorianne Laux wraps it up with host Rustin Larson in a delicious 6 minute conclusion to her interview.

Then after a brief musical interlude, poet Rustin Larson reads his lyrical narrative essay "Elegy" which first appeared in the journal The MacGuffin in 1997. Ah, literary history. Can y'all smell it in the toaster? Whiff the sesame seed, the poppy seed, the garlic and onion bagels of beauty and truth.

Joseph Millar is the author of Fortune, from Eastern Washington University Press. His first collection, Overtime (2001), was finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Millar grew up in Pennsylvania, attended Johns Hopkins University and spent 25 years in the San
Francisco Bay area, working at a variety of jobs, from telephone repairman to commercial fisherman. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines including TriQuarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, DoubleTake, Ploughshares, New Letters, Manoa, and River Styx.

He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in Poetry, the Moncalvo Center for the Arts, and Oregon Literary Arts. He teaches at Oregon State University, The University of Oregon, and Pacific University’s MFA in Writing Program.

KEEPING THE TIGERS BEHIND US by Glenn J. Freeman is the winner of the judge's prize in the Sixth Annual Elixir Press Poetry Awards. Judge Jim McGarrah says in the introduction: "Freeman fuses pop culture with Chinese philosophy, sophisticated poetic technique and a thorough knowledge of craft with street savvy rhythms and idiomatic expression in a masterful way." Glenn Freeman grew up in Maryland and has lived in Vermont, Minnesota, and Florida. His work has appeared in such publications as Poetry, The Cimarron Review, The Lullwater Review, Talking River Review and the anthology Leaves by Night, Flowers by Day. read more »

Craig and his cat, Fergus, head for the desert.  Like, this is the OTHER Deininger interview.  Different from the first one!  If Darth Vader's daughter is out there, sup?  Craig did this show and then zipped off for Pacifica to study mythology, PhD in fact.  He's is living in a tent in the desert with his cat, and has reported in exactly once.  Fergus has found his inner mountain lion, and Craig is watching the galaxies whirl and is writing about this strange life in the wilderness.

So, who says Rock L'Orange
can't write? Certainly not I, Irving Toast, your beloved disembodied
poet laureate! Rock L'Orange's short fictions are tres poetique and
come at you from all sorts of weird angles. I love 'em. He should be
more widely read. Let me repeat that. He should be more widely read.
Ah, but his writings shall hit the airwaves soon, and you shall give a
listen to his fictional Autobiography of Clerk Typist GS-5

In a reading recorded at the MUM Library on October 15th, 2008, Professor Larson intoned selections from his forthcoming book The Wine-Dark House (Blue Light Press).

Rustin Larson’s poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Iowa Review, North American Review, Poetry East, The Atlanta Review and other magazines. Crazy Star, his latest collection, was selected for the Loess Hills Book’s Poetry Series in 2005. Larson won 1^st Editor’s Prize from Rhino magazine in 2000 and has won prizes for his poetry from The National Poet Hunt and The Chester H. Jones Foundation among others. A

Joy Lyle, Joy Lyle, Joy Lyle! This was a live reading taped on
Wednesday night, October 15th at the MUM Library. Most of you chose to watch the presidential debate that evening. Hey, I'm cool. But the Ghost was there to record Joy's rockin' reading and it is offered thusly on the next episode of Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost, 10:30 am, Sunday, October 26th and 1:30 pm, Monday, October 27.

How to describe Joy's reading? Oh, I listened to it on a CD with my eyes closed as I was driving down Highway 34 to Oskaloosa and babycakes I could SEE! I'm here to tell the tale aren't I? And now it's your turn!

Carolyn Guinzio is the author of Quarry (Fall 2008, Free Verse Editions, Parlor Press), and West Pullman
(Bordighera, 2005), winner of the Bordighera Poetry Prize. She holds an MFA from Bard College and has received awards from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Fund for Poetry, and the arts councils of Illinois and Kentucky. Her work has appeared in the journals Colorado Review, 42opus, New American Writing, Phoebe, and Willow Springs, among others. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Here's what they are saying about Carolyn Guinzio:

The mysterious Chinese convenience store's

second door

opens upon the darkened China

of the mind.

Its tea is some sort
of excursion

and temporarily deals
with the permanent.

A rider boards, wants to be left off

at the bridge.

The mask she wears:
watch parts, microscopes, radio antennae.

  The Ghost gives up a lyric/narrative sequence entitled "Pavement" by Rustin Larson for the next episode of Irving. One quarter rock opera, one quarter literary jam session, and a good half of a long poem in progress, we'll take fries with that, a swig of the oh-be-joyful, and worship our muses and literary goddesses at will, be there the frank fact of the winter moon shining over the shimmering snows or no.

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!

 

"Molana" Jalaledin Rumi (1207-1273) was a poet and a scholar, a Sufi mystic, a learned theologian, and a seeker of the Divine inbibed in every human being, which is the ineffable meaning of life. He was an orthodox, sober professor until he met a wandering Sage – Shams of Tabriz (Persia) and was transformed into an enraptured lover of God. Through his life, teachings and poetry, he seeks to convey this meaning which can be found in this inner-dwelling divine of every human being.

confused puppet interviews himself; the
blues guitar goes twang; Rustin reads a robust rendition of some
rousing rural rarebits. This all happens Sunday at 10:30am/Monday 1:30 pm central.

Daffodils
bloom, fevers flash, nebulae hover,

pulse
white and yellow. Can you smile dawn and dusk
and pretend it doesn't hurt? The nurse

stops
a moment her whirl,

Robert Long's poems appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including The New Yorker, Poetry, and Partisan Review, as
well as three earlier collections. He taught at several colleges and
universities, including La Salle University, where he was
writer-in-residence. He died on October 13, 2006. Blue was his last published collection of poetry.

"Robert Long is not like us poets who snivel in our ivory towers: he
lives in the good old, the hope to die USA. His muse is firmly
installed amidst the kitchenware, and he-- as the slang phrase puts
it-- really cooks. These poems are a perfect example what Hart Crane
means by 'talking USA'."

--Bill Knott

If anyone wants further information about Robert Long or his book, Blue, C. J. Pavone, publisher can be reached directly through snail mail at

Chimpanzees live about 60
years in captivity.

While living in Germany in the 1980s Belinda began Gypsy Literary Magazine and Sanctuary Tape Series where she published writings and vocal performances of poets from many countries. Sanctuary ran about 6 years and Gypsy for 10 years before its resurrection in 2004. She also published many books under the VERGIN PRESS imprint including VOCES FRONTERIZAS, writings based on life on the U.S./Mexican border sponsored by the El Paso Public Library as well as THE GULF WAR: MANY PERSPECTIVES, EARTH TONES, IMAGES OF JIM MORRISON and HENRY MILLER AND MY BIG SUR DAYS.

I put the final edits on Radianthology #1 and it has been llama-tested and mother-approved and is ready for broad(web)cast on Sunday, April 12th at 10:30 am and Monday, April 13th at 1:30 pm (Central). http://www.kruufm.com. It features some wonderful word performances by Ray Succre, Patricia Fargnoli, Paul A. Toth and Jacob Russell.

And for good measure I threw in Craig Deininger reading (once again) "Perhaps the Aliens," a short episode of Dr. Whom by the BBC Radio Women's Auxillary (spoof), Mark Twain praising book royalties in the afterlife, my poem "Carroll Street" and yeah, I jam on my guitar once in a while. OK, a lot, as spacers, audio dingbats as it were. The ghost of Truman Capote also makes a cameo appearance for a public service announcement. All in a day's work.

Renowned national poet Marvin Bell visited the studios of KRUU recently and was interviewed by Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost's own Rustin Larson. This interview will air Sunday, May 31st at 10:30 am and Monday June 1st at 1:30 pm central time. In this fascinating program, Marvin reads selected poems from his latest books, talks about his long career as a writer and teacher, and discusses recent world events in the light of his poetry.

From: Freddy Fonseca
To: All Fairfield poets and writers

I'm inviting all Fairfield poets, including those who may have moved, to submit original poetry (published and non-published) to a space on my new website: Fairfield Creates Foundation, along with your photo and short bio. Eventually, the best of these poems will be selected for a book on Fairfield poets I'm planning to edit and publish. August 31, 2009 is the deadline for submissions.

The theme of this collection is "Fairfield's Poets As They'd Like To Be Remembered", which is the 'working title' of the book for now. Before you make your selections, I suggest that you ask yourself three questions:

Which of my poems would I like to be remembered by?
Which poems will I most likely be remembered by?
Which of these poems are really "me"?

Have you ever sat down to lunch with someone and felt like you’ve become a memory sandwich? Say your present is a slice of multi grain and the sandwich goes down through strata of deviled whatever, shredded cheddar, a cool crisp year of Romaine, an autumn of roasted garlic till you hit that subtly spicy bit of sweet relish that’s been haunting you all along. She was hard to forget, wasn’t she? And equally hard to forgive.

Such entrées veteran fiction writer Gladys Swan (who, by the way, is a major presence in The Iowa Source’s recently released poetry anthology, Leaves by Night, Flowers by Day) serves us in her short story collection, A Garden amid Fires, released in 2006 by BkMk Press.

Marge Piercy is the author of seventeen novels including The New York Times Bestseller Gone To Soldiers; the National Bestsellers Braided Lives and The Longings of Women and the classic Woman on the Edge of Time; seventeen volumes of poetry, and a critically acclaimed memoir Sleeping with Cats. Born in center city Detroit, educated at the University of Michigan, the recipient of four honorary doctorates, she has been a key player in many of the major progressive political battles of our time, including the anti-Vietnam war and the women's movement, and more recently an active participant in the resistance to the war in Iraq.

A popular speaker on college campuses, she has been a featured writer on Bill Moyers’ PBS Specials, Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, Terri Gross’ Fresh Air, the Today Show, and many radio programs nationwide including Air America and Oprah & Friends.

Gladys Swan joins the circus and writes about it in her new poetry chapbook; a couple of Diane Frank singles are ready to spin; an original musical composition from the hosts of The Pocky Talky Music Mystery Show will make you scream; cool surf-drunk-punk vibes from The Lear Jets; and more on the next episode of Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost, Sunday, February 28th at 10:30 am, and Monday, March 1st at 1:30 pm.

Blue Chord

from baby to mother

from guitar to amp

David Krump received the 2006 Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry and The Poetry Foundation. He is a graduate student at University of Oxford, and he divides his time between the UK and La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he is the literary coordinator for The Pump House Regional Arts Center. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in such journals as Colorado Review, Disquieting Muses Quarterly Review, and Verse.  His chapbook Night is a Good Child received the Florence Khan Memorial Award.

He recently wrote a play called 5000 pounds: seven soldiers’ stories, which debuted at The Pump House in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and will be appearing on Wisconsin Public Television in 2010.

Kim Groninga was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1970. She attended the University of Northern Iowa where she studied music, dance, philosophy, journalism, and creative writing. She graduated in 1993 with a BFA in individual studies in creative expression then moved to Iowa City and completed three semesters of coursework at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Along the way, Kim traded her maiden name, Huebner, for her husband's name, Groninga, and has published under both names. Kim has worked as a waitress, tree trimmer, art class model, veterinary assistant, flute teacher, and editor. A few years ago, she moved back to Cedar Falls with her husband, Tim; daughter, Carly; and two cats, Socrates and Wesley Crusher.

Synonymous with elegance, refinement and real sophistication, La Crosse, Wisconsin are the two words (or are they three?) which led Irving Toast upon a small cross-region trek to find poetry alive and thriving in its natural habitat.  This open mic, recorded on March 18, 2010 at The Pump House Regional Arts Center, is filled with the strong, the strange and the pure strombolic elements of poetic achievement.  Featuring National Poetry Series winner, William Stobb; Ruth Lily Prize winner, David Krump; and a cast of characters culled from the students and faculties of Viterbo University and The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, this program is sure to tickle the teleportation unit of the muse.  Give a listen and a half.  Yours, clear, cold and fire-brewed, Irving Toast.

Glenn Watt is one of those outstanding American voices living right amongst you.  His poetry has the warbling, liquid clarity of a rare songbird I'm not informed enough to give a name to.  He could, though.  He walks among the filtered light of branches and the trill of the songbirds on a daily basis, and these things form a vibration or a pulse in his writing.  

Author of a chapbook, Glad Music (The Contemporary Review, 1996), and contributor to magazines such as Passages North, The MacGuffin, The Iowa Source and others, Glenn Watt has a small collection of poems forthcoming in the anthology, This Enduring Gift.  He lives in Fairfield.

The true measure of one's success as a poet is not the size of the auditorium in which one reads, nor the poshness of the hotel room, nor the size of the paycheck; it is instead measured by the size and quality of the linguine one is served, and whether or not it comes with a salad and breadsticks.

This is the third installment of the La Crosse trilogy: my (Rustin Larson's) reading at The Pump House Regional Arts Center on the evening of March 18, 2010.  What a night!  Up against Willie Nelson, who was performing in an auditorium about a block away, I still managed to draw together a nice gathering.  And afterwards there was ... LINGUINE!  La Crosse, I love you!

***

BREAKING NEWS

Keith Ratzlaff's books of poetry are Dubious Angels: Poems after Paul Klee; Man Under A Pear Tree; and Across The Known World. His awards include the 1996 Anhinga Prize for Poetry, the Theodore Roethke Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He is Professor of English at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he teaches writing and literature.

His most recent book published by Anhinga Press was Then, a Thousand Crows (2009).

Stephen Oliver is the author of fifteen titles of poetry. His work has appeared in innumerable international literary publications. A number of his creative non fiction works feature in Antipodes, A North American Journal of Australian literature.

Stephen has lived in Paris, Vienna, London, San Francisco, Greece and Israel. Signed on with the radio ship The Voice of Peace broadcasting in the Mediterranean out of Jaffa, Israel. Freelanced as production voice, narrator, newsreader, announcer, voice actor, vocal coach, journalist, radio producer, copy and feature writer. Lived in Australia for the last two decades. Currently resides in NZ .

Richard Robbins was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Southern California and Montana. He studied as an undergraduate with Glover Davis and Carolyn Forché at San Diego State University, and as a graduate student with Richard Hugo, Madeline DeFrees, and Tess Gallagher at the University of Montana. His first collection, The Invisible Wedding, was published by the University of Missouri Press in 1984 as part of its Breakthrough Series. This was followed by Famous Persons We Have Known, published in 2000 by Eastern Washington University Press, and The Untested Hand, released in 2008 by The Backwaters Press. Radioactive City was published by Bellday Books in 2009.

Steven P. Schneider is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Texas-Pan American, where he also serves as Director of New Programs and Special Projects for the College of Arts and Humanities. Steven is a founding member of the South Texas Literacy Coalition in the Rio Grande Valley and is the recipient of two Big Read grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has used the "Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives" traveling exhibit to promote the teaching of culturally relevant literature and creativity. Steven offers a variety of workshops on these topics to both high school and college students and teachers.

Amy MacLennan grew up on the peninsula south of San Francisco, and she now makes her home in Oregon's Rogue Valley. Amy received a Master of Arts in English from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, CA. She has appeared at the Petaluma Poetry Walk, the San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival, the Art & Soul Festival's Oakland Literature Expo, Bloomsbury Books in Ashland, Looking Glass Books and Broadway Books in Portland, the Sacramento Poetry Center and Cody’s Books in Berkeley. Amy has taught poetry workshops through the Sequoia Adult School. She is currently the Managing Editor of The Cortland Review. One of her poems is featured as a downloadable broadside by Broadsided Press. She has also been published or has poems forthcoming in River Styx, Hayden's Ferry Review, Linebreak, Rattle, Wisconsin Review, Folio, South Dakota Review, Cimarron Review, and Gingko Tree Review.

A live broadcast featuring the creator and contributors of this "glowing, historically important anthology of poets who live, or have lived, in Fairfield, Iowa."

THIS ENDURING GIFT, selected and introduced by Freddy Fonseca, features a total of 76 poets and is arranged in 16 chapters covering these topics:

Chapter 1: The Poetry of Remembrance and Renewal

Chapter 2: The Poetry of Nature, the Cosmos, and the Soul

Chapter 3: The Poetry of Mysteries and Imagination — View introduction

Chapter 4: The Poetry of Whimsicality and Simple Things

Chapter 5: The Poetry of Darkness and the Eerie Nocturnal

It was a blast having Sharon Bousquet in the studio, hearing her new poems (which totally kick the proverbial @#$%, by the way) and hearing her mesmerizing way with the guitar and voice. New poems, new songs, great company. Grab a scone and a cup of coffee and tune in to some fine music AND poetry, and find out what Sharon has been up to lately.

Sharon Bousquet is an award-winning songwriter/fingerstyle guitarist, and a seminar leader of The Singing Body – a system combining yoga, singing, breath and integrative movement to free your natural voice.

With 5 CDs to her credit spanning a stylistic range from contemporary folk to pop to bluesy a cappella rants, Bousquet's work continues to deepen and reward repeat listening.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Helene Cardona for my KRUU radio show, Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost. Not only is Helene a fine poet, you've also seen her on-screen in popular movies like CHOCOLAT. Tune in  to hear this fascinating interview.

JOHN MELLA came up through the ranks of the littles in the sixties and seventies (CAROLINA QUARTERLY, PRAIRIE SCHOONER, CHICAGO REVIEW), culminating in a flurry of awards from the Illinois Arts Council and the publication, in 1976, of a novel, TRANSFORMATIONS. Having made his tiny splash, he vanished within it, emerging only to field such arcane as an an article on printed spoonerisms and another on Canto Three of Nabokov’s PALE FIRE. He constructed crosswords impossible of solution. Ennui gripped him. To appease his indolence, he commenced publication of a lexicographical newsletter. It, too, found its way into the Lethean Library. Sanity beckoned. In 1992, over egg-rolls and some very palatable pot-stickers, at a luncheon with his long-enduring mother, the sunlight glancing among the jumbled cutlery, LIGHT was born.

John FitzGerald is an attorney for the disabled who writes in every spare moment. His three books of poetry are Spring Water (Turning Point, 2005), Telling Time by the  Shadows (Turning Point, 2008), and The Mind (Salmon  Poetry, 2011).

John also contributed to the anthology Poetry: Reading it, Writing it, Publishing it (Salmon Poetry, 2010).

John has worked as Development Director for Red Hen Press and as the Associate Book Editor for Cider Press Review.

Here are some links to his work:

3 poems at Moonday:
Precision
Descended of Thieves
Tooth Fairy
http://home.earthlink.net/~pero/john-m-fitzgerald.html

Just as it says, it's part one of the party to launch Raven Garland's new website:

Starts off with Bill Godfrey telling me all about life and poetry.  Not to be missed.  

Then there are the noises of people eating food stuffs that all begin with the letter "P."  Peppermint Patties, Pineapples, you get the idea.  

And then Raven speaks and a whole slew of poets reads.  This will not all be done in one episode, so tune in at a later date (TBA) to hear the rest.

I had the great honor of interviewing one of my all-time favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye. 

Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Jordan, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she later received her B.A. in English and world religions from Trinity University. [Click read more below.]

Join Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost in a visit with Susan Klauber.

about the author:

Susan Klauber, a Sudbury, Ontario native who has lived and travelled around the world (North & S. America, Europe, India) has always been drawn by the power of foreign cultures to broaden her understanding of life. Since 1983, she has been based in Fairfield, Iowa where she writes and pursues her interest in creating a better world through spiritual development.

Blue Light Press published her first book of poetry and prose, Face-off at Center Ice in 1996. Susan’s prose and poetry have appeared in the Harcourt Canada textbook Elements of English 11, in the journals The MacGuffin, Poetry Motel, The Iowa Source, Contemporary Review, and in the anthologies Eclipsed Moon Coins: Twenty-Six Visionary Poets, The Dryland Fish, and the newly released This Enduring Gift.

Naomi Shihab Nye introduces the reading:  Fairfield's Rustin Larson, Poetry at Round Top Festival, May 5, 2012.

ANNOUNCING A SPECIAL EVENT 12/13/12

Walt Whitman Live!!!!

MUM Library North Lounge

Thursday, December 13th, 2012, 7:30 pm

Free and Open to the General Public

Sponsors: Humanities Iowa and

Maharishi University of Management Library