These invited poets offered thoughts about poets they admired from April 2014-December 2015. To read their essays, click HERE. This monthly series was originally presented as a live web chat hosted by Dom Zuccone. Web-cast recordings on our YouTube channel will be forthcoming.
PublicationsPlease try to purchase from your local independent bookseller before you shop on Amazon.
COVER ARTIST: Lydia Bodnar Balahutrak
Mister Bubbles (from Boxed series)
“Mr. Bubbles” is part of a series intended as visual plays on words or phrases …By association, Mr. Bubbles presents a deceptive appearance of [a]… pseudo strongman who hides behind the bull’s head in order to intimidate … a bullheaded bully. However, his body is flaccid and bulbously round, a laughable empty plastic shell with air bubbles in his groin, and no guts. Mr. Bubbles is obviously full of hot air, with bubbles that can be easily popped. Although the series dates from ten years ago, it’s almost uncanny how my work speaks to 2020. Now, due to the pandemic we’re all finding ourselves” boxed” in, one way or another, and in our own personal bubbles. I’ve discovered that this art work exhibits its own “Wicked Wit”! Enjoy!
Krista Leigh Steinke, Filmmaker, is a lens-based artist and educator working in photography, moving image, and installation. Her work, situated between the photographic and the abstract, presents poetic reflections on time, place, perception, and the interconnection between human experience and the natural world. She regularly exhibits and screens her work in museums, galleries, and film festivals across the country, as well as internationally. She currently divides her time between Houston, TX and rural New York State.
Nick Rattner, Poet, is Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Coast. He is a former basketball journalist and Editor for Ugly Duckling Presse. New work has appeared / will soon appear in Colorado Review, The Cortland Review, Sixth Finch, Pleiades, Asymptote, and Denver Quarterly. With Marta del Pozo, he has translated the work of poets Yván Yauri and Czar Gutiérrez. At present, he is translating Spanish poet Juan Andrés García Román and Mexican novelist Salvador Elizondo.
Robin Davidson is a poet, translator, and professor of English at the University of Houston- Downtown. She is author of Luminous Other, recipient of The Ashland Poetry Press’s 2012 Richard Snyder Memorial Publication Prize. She is co-translator with Ewa Elżbieta Nowakowska of The New Century: Poems by Ewa Lipska (Northwestern UP)as well as two poetry chapbooks, Kneeling in the Dojo (Finishing Line Press) and City that Ripens on the Tree of the World (Calypso Editions). She has received, among other awards, a Fulbright professorship at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and an NEA translation fellowship.
Carmen Giménez Smith is an American poet and lyric essay writer. She has won a number of awards for her poetry including the Juniper Prize for her third collection of poems, titled Goodbye, Flicker, published in 2012. The following year her collection called Milk and Filth won the National Book Critics Circle Award (Poetry). In 2010 she was awarded the American Book Award for her memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds. Around the same time she produced three chapbooks” Glitch (2010), followed by Reason’s Monster and Can We Talk Here in 2011.
Patricia Spears Jones’s poetry collections include Painkiller (2010), Femme du Monde(2006), The Weather That Kills (1995), and several chapbooks. Her work has been featured in numerous anthologies, including Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry (2013), Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days (2010), Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009), and Best American Poetry (2000).
Cyrus Cassells’ has five poetry collections: The Crossed-Out Swastika, More Than Peace and Cypresses (both from Copper Canyon Press); Beautiful Signor which won the Lambda Literary Award; Soul Make a Path Through Shouting , which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and received the William Carlos Williams Award; and The Mud Actor , his first book, which was a National Poetry Series selection. Cassells is the recipient of a 1995 Pushcart Prize, the Peter I.B. Lavan Younger Poets Award and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has worked as a translator, film critic, actor and teacher. He is a professor of English at Texas State.
TONY HOAGLAND has authored 5 books of poetry, most recently Application for Release from the Dream: Poems (2015). Other titles include Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty, Sweet Ruin, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Donkey Gospel, winner of the James Laughlin Award of The Academy of American Poets, and What Narcissism Means to Me, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award as well as two collection of essays about poetry, Real Sofistikashun, & Twenty Poems That Could Save America and Other Essays all published by Graywolf Press. He has received the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers, the Mark Twain Award from the Poetry Foundation, and the O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize from the Folger Shakespeare Library, as well as NEA and Guggenheim Fellowships among others. He teaches at the University of Houston and in the low-residency MFA program at Warren Wilson College. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
RAINA J. LEÓN is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, CantoMundo and Macondo, and has been published in over 50 publications in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and academic scholarship. Her first collection of poetry, Canticle of Idols was a finalist for both the Cave Canem First Book Poetry Prize and the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. Her second book, Boogeyman Dawn was a finalist for the Naomi Long Madgett Prize. In 2016, her third book, sombra: dis(locate) and a chapbook, profeta without refuge, were released. She has received fellowships and residencies with Macondo, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Montana Artists Refuge, the Macdowell Colony, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Annamaghkerrig, Ireland and Ragdale. She is currently an associate professor of education in the Kalmanovitz School of Education at St. Mary’s College of California.
SASHA WEST‘s first book Failure and I Bury the Body, was selected by D. Nurkse for the National Poetry Series, and published by Harper Collins. Her poems have appeared in the Southern Review, Ninth Letter, Forklift, Ohio, Third Coast, Born, and elsewhere. She holds graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Houston, where she was editor of Gulf Coast. Her work has garnered awards including scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Rice University’s Parks Fellowship, Pushcart nominations, and Inprint’s Verlaine Prize. She lives in Austin and teaches writing at the University of Texas’s LBJ School of Public Affairs.
JUDGES: WORK (2017)
Niki Herd is the author of The Language of Shedding Skin (Main Street Rag). Herd co-edited with Meg Day Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master (Pleiades Press). Herd’s poetry, essays, and criticism appear in or are forthcoming from Oxford University Press, Copper Nickel, Academy of American Poets (Poem-a-Day), Lit Hub, The Rumpus, and Salon, among other journals and anthologies. Her work has been supported by the Ucross Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Newberry Library, and Cave Canem.
Lily Hoang is the author of four books, including Changing, recipient of a PEN Open Books Award. Her choose-your-own adventure love story Old Cat Lady is forthcoming from 1913 Books in October 2015. With Joshua Marie Wilkinson, she edited the anthology The Force of What’s Possible: Writers on Accessibility and the Avant-Garde. She teaches in the MFA program at New Mexico State University, where she is Associate Department Head. She is Prose Editor at Puerto del Sol and Nonfiction Editor at Drunken Boat.
Yerra Sugarman is the author of three poetry collections: Forms of Gone, which was a National Book Critics Circle “Favorite First Book,” The Bag of Broken Glass, which was a National Book Critics Circle “Recommended Book,” and Aunt Bird Her poetry, translations, and critical articles have appeared in numerous journals. She has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, PEN American Center’s PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, a “Discovery”/The Nation Poetry Prize, the Poetry Society of America’s George Bogin Memorial Award and its Cecil Hemley Memorial Award, a Canada Council Grant for Creative Writers, a Chicago Literary Award, and a Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award.
Elizabeth Lyons holds an MFA from Purdue University and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Houston. Her poems have appeared in Tin House, Indiana Review, New South, and Salt Hill. A recipient of fellowships and prizes from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Vermont Studio Center, the I-Park Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets, she lives in Houston, TX.
Join Mary McDonald, award winning media artist for a live talk with Q and A on the possibilities offered by Augmented and Mixed Reality, 360 and binaural sound, and mixed media layers. Learn tools, techniques, tips and tricks for going beyond flat video to create immersive artistic experiences. Explore the ways to expand the boundaries of your art. McDonald will demonstrate the tools and techniques used to create her three most recent projects — Times in Sound, a 360 Binaural Sound experience, Augmented Reality poetry installation, On the Margin of History and the multilayered poetry film, Wishing Well, for River Revery, an outdoor Augmented Reality poetry installation.
Join award winning media artist and poetry filmmaker Mary McDonald for a hands-on workshop on how to use accessible mobile editing tools for video and photos. These mobile apps allow you to easily perform sophisticated editing of film and photos, opening the door to all poets and artists, no experience necessary. Bring your smartphone or tablet, photos and video clips, and your unique vision and creativity. We will walk through the process of creating film from a variety of media using free/low cost apps. To participate in this hands-on workshop, please download the mobile video editing app prior to the workshop. Videoleap (iPhone) or Vivacut (Android)
Mary McDonald is a Canadian writer and multimedia artist whose work explores word through sound, image, and movement. McDonald is passionate about creating with digital technology, bringing text and multimedia art directly into community, historic and natural spaces through AR (augmented reality). McDonald’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses text, photography, poetryfilm, music and sound, interactive AR (augmented reality) installations, and community participatory arts projects. Her poetry films and AR installations have been exhibited widely in Canada and internationally. McDonald’s poetry film and AR installation, On the Margin of History, created from the collaborative poem of Syrian poet Mohamad Kebbewar and Serbian born poet, Natasha Boskic, was exhibited at the Glucksman Gallery in Cork, Ireland; in Novi Sad, Serbia for the Fortress of Peace platform; in Bath, UK; in Porto, Portugal and at the Surrey City Art Gallery, BC, Canada where her work was awarded first prize in new media, performative and digital work. Poetry films from her River Revery work were screened at Wordsfest, London; Houston’s Reel Poetry Film Festival, and Newlyn International Film Festival, UK. McDonald’s play, 13 inches of closet space was performed through the London One Act Festival and her poly-vocal poem, “It’s all in the telling” was performed as part of Whissper. Her writing has been published in Occasus and The New Quarterly. Mary was awarded a city of London’s Community Arts Investment Program grant by the London Arts Council for, River Revery AR/poetry film/transmedia storytelling collaboration with poet, Penn Kemp. McDonald’s most recent project is Times in Sound, Letters of War, a 360 binaural sound work composed of over 700 fragments of WWI letters.
For two years, Helen Dewbery has been collaborating with poets published by Nine Arches Press to create poetry film. Showing some of these poetry films, Helen will talk about how she approaches this work, the challenges that have arisen, and some of the key processes used to create these unique works.
Song of the Soil (UK) Filmmaker Helen Dewbery Poet Jessica Mookherjee [2:21]
Metaphysician (UK) Filmmaker Helen Dewbery Poet: Gregory Leadbetter [4:20]
Woman Running Alone (UK) Filmmaker Helen Dewbery Poet Maria Taylor [ 1:54]
Bowing Out (UK) Filmmaker Helen Dewbery Poet Rosie Garland [3:15]
Neap Tide (UK) Filmmaker Helen Dewbery Poet Abegail Morley [2:36]
Helen Dewbery talks about, writes about and creates poetry films, and established Poetry Film Live, the online poetry film journal. Her poetry films have been shown at poetry events and festivals in the UK and internationally. She provides training and support for new practitioners of poetry film and has worked with poets to make collaborative work. Helen is co-director of The Big Poetry Weekend festival in Swindon, UK.
Since 2007 StAnza has offered a film program as part of each spring festival, showing the cutting-edge medium of the filmpoem as well as filmed readings and performances. For REELpoetry, Festival Director, Eleanor Livingstone, has collected a selection of short films from recent festivals, ranging from the playful to the poignant and interrogating themes from climate crisis to folklore. These include films commissioned by or created for StAnza, and also sourced from across Scotland and beyond – Sweden, Romania and the Netherlands. StAnza 2021 will take place online from 6–14 March at www.stanzapoetry.orgDe Van Man Taal (Netherlands) directed by Juan de Graaf, from il Luster, Ruben van Gogh [1.47]
Leavings (England) filmed by the Society of Authors, Jaqueline Saphra [1.41]
Being Home (Romania) animations by artist Raluca Popa, curated by Simona Nastac and produced by the National Museum of Romanian Literature Matei Hutopila [0.38]
The North Torn in Two (Romania) animations by artist Raluca Popa, curated by Simona Nastac and produced by the National Museum of Romanian Literature Matei Hutopila [0.58]
Room 309 (Romania) animations by artist Raluca Popa, curated by Simona Nastac and produced by the National Museum of Romanian Literature Livia Ștefan [1.45]
Sausages (Romania) animations by artist Raluca Popa, curated by Simona Nastac and produced by the National Museum of Romanian Literature Andrei Dosa [0.51]
What Pushed Me into Darkness (Romania) animations by artist Raluca Popa, curated by Simona Nastac and produced by the National Museum of Romanian Literature Victor Țvetov [1.43]
The City (Sweden/Syrian) by film maker Marie Silkeberg, Ghayath Almadhoun [6.59]
Raaga (Scotland) film also by Roseanne Watt, Roseanne Watt [3.03]
Trawl (Scotland) by Steve Smart, music composted and performed by Alex South, Matthew Caley [2.06]
Bright Coast (Scotland) Images by Bryan Angus, Music by Pete Stollery, Martin Malone [3.16]
When I think of my mother (Scotland) Jinling Wu, Music Orbit by Corbyn Kites, Jinling Wu [1.38]
Homefound (Scotland) Video by Catherine Wilson, Catherine Wilson [5.48]
rnational Poetry Festival (www.stanzapoetry.org). Her first full collection, Even the Sea (Red Squirrel Press, 2010), now in a second edition, was shortlisted for the 2010 inaugural London New Poetry award for first collections. Her other publications include The Last King of Fife (HappenStance, 2005), A Sampler (HappenStance, 2008) and as editor Skein of Geese (The Shed Press, 2008), Migraasje: Versions in Scots and Shetlandic (Stravaigers, 2008), Bridging the Continental Divide (StAnza, 2015), Necessarily Looking Backward (StAnza, 2018) and The Arch (StAnza 2019).
it would look like this if it could…
Sabina England’s specialty is combining sign language, poetry, and performance art in her films. Using deaf sign language, she injects a compelling element that animates her work and speaks to us in new ways. Sabina is including a new videopoem in progress that will premier at REELpoetry, and has also curated this selection of films that samples some of her work.
Poetry by Rumi in Sign Language (USA) Filmmaker: Sabina England, Poet: Malawa Rumi [02:11]
Abode of Felicity (USA) Filmmaker & Poet: Sabina England [02:55]
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heavens (USA) Filmmaker: Sabina England, Poet: WB Yeats [02:47]
Deaf Brown Gurl (USA/India)Filmmaker & Poet: Sabina England [08:12]
Wild Whispers: New Mexico (USA) Filmmaker: Sabina England, Poet: Chaucer Cameron [4:59]
Shanghai Sabz-2200 / Cyberpunk TechDream (USA/China) Filmmaker & Poet: Sabina England [01:58]
Seasons / Mawsam (USA) Filmmaker: Sabina England, Poet: N/A [06:12]
Poema 15 Por Pablo Neruda (USA) Filmmaker: Sabina England, Poet: Pablo Neruda [05:13]
Into the Woods Love is Death (USA) Filmmaker & Poet: Sabina England [01:36]
Namaz Ki Udasi (India/USA) Filmmaker: Sabina England, Poet: N/A [07:17]
Allah Earth: Costa Rica (USA/Costa Rica) Filmmaker & Poet: Sabina England [05:23]
Sabina England is a filmmaker, playwright and performance artist. She studied at London Film Academy and received a certificate in filmmaking. She originally started out writing stage plays, a few which were performed in London, UK, at Soho Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, East 15 Acting School, and Tristan Bates Theater. She then pivoted to filmmaking, releasing silent comedy shorts on Youtube, which got the attention of famed movie critic, Roger Ebert, who praised her works in one of his newsletters. Sabina then wrote, directed and produced her first narrative short, Wedding Night, which premiered at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. Over the years, Sabina has won several awards for her short films and multimedia projects.
You may visit SabinaEngland.com for more information and follow her on Instagram @Sabina_England to stay updated on her works
3:00 – 3:15 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25
Dave Bonta: “I picture a poem in my mind when I’m writing or reading a poem, picture it semiconsciously, as like a room or a house without any furniture, and the reader furnishes it.” In this conversation we learn about creating content, communicating, overcoming technical barriers and more. Dave has assembled the go-to site to see and think about filmpoetry and videopoems, Moving Poems, which is accurately tagged as “the best poetry videos on the web.”
Noon- 1 PM SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28
The genie’s out of the bottle and there is no going back. There’s a whole world that’s capable of watching us. So, how do we incorporate virtual elements into live festivals as we go forward? Join panelists Chaucer Cameron, Helen Dewbery, Sabina England, Lucy English; Eleanor Livingstone, Mary McDonald, Fran Sanders and Sarah Tremlett as they think out loud, speculate and conjecture, explore and experiment, and wrestle with their collective thoughts of this hybrid hydra that becomes a new form of festival with infinite possibilities.
The Book of Hours is a calendar of poetry films inspired by medieval books of hours. The themes are our complicated relationship with landscape, the unreliability of memory, and the unexpected beauty of moments in our lives. This selection follows the seasons through one year. The Book of Hours was shortlisted for the New Media Writing Award in 2018.Do Nothing (UK) Filmmaker Helen Dewbery Poet Lucy English [2:47]
The Retreat (Australia) Filmmaker Marie Craven Poet Lucy English [1:43}
The Woman at the Window (USA) Filmmaker: Marcia Pelletiere Poet Lucy English [2:07]
The River Girl (UK) filmmaker Helena Astbury Poet Lucy English [2:07]
What is Love (Spain) Filmmaker Eduardo Yague Poet Lucy English [3:27]
The Perseids (Belgium) Filmmaker Marc Neys Poet Lucy English [3:01]
Still There (USA) Filmmaker Matt Mullins Poet Lucy English [ 3 :19]
Things I found in The Hedge (USA) Filmmaker Kathryn Darnell Poet Lucy English [3:00]
Solstice Sol Invictus (UK) Filmmaker Sarah Tremlett Poets Lucy English, Sarah Tremlett [2: 57]
Lucy English is a Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University where she is head of the Creative Writing Research Centre. She is a spoken word poet and novelist. She is co-director, with Sarah Tremlett, of Liberated Words, a CIC company, which creates, curates and screens poetry films. Lucy’s most recent project is, The Book of Hours, a reimagining of a medieval book of hours in poetry film format. The Book of Hours contains 48 poetry films created in collaboration with 27 collaborators from Europe, America and Australia. Films from this project have been screened at many international poetry film festivals including Visible Verse, Canada; Weimar and Zebra, Germany; Lisbon, Portugal; Newlyn in the U.K and Athens, Greece. The poetry from this project was published in book form by Burning Eye Press in 2018.
Wild Whispers is an exciting and collaborative transnational poetry film project. It started with one poem and led to 14 versions in 10 languages and 12 poetry films. The films, in different languages, were all ‘whispered’ from the previous one. The project travelled from England to India, Australia, Taiwan, France, South Africa, the Netherlands, Sweden, Wales and the USA, creating poetry films in English, Malayalam, Chinese, French, Afrikaans, Dutch, American Sign Language, Navajo, Spanish, and Welsh. Chaucer will talk about the inspiration behind this project and show some of the films.
Frog on Water (UK: English) Filmmaker and editor: Helen Dewbery Poet: Chaucer Cameron
Vellatthinu Mukalile Thavala/ Paani Par Mendhak (India: Malayalam and Urdu) Filmmaker and editor Rajesh James Translation Jose Varghese
Shadow Lullaby (Australia: English) Filmmaker and editor Marie Craven Translation Jhilmil Breckenridge, Candida Baker
綠金色的陰影躍進我的眼睛 (Taiwan: Chinese) Translation, filmmaker and editor: Ye Mimi
Une ombre vert mordoré est entrée dans mes yeux (France and Morocco: French) Filmmaker and editor: bobie (Yves Bommenel) Translation: Marie Laureillard
’n Brons-groen skaduwee in my oë / bronze-green shadow in my eyes
(South Africa Language: Afrikaans) Filmmaker, director and translation Erentia Bedeker Editor: Diek Grobler
In het woud (Netherlands: Dutch) Translation, filmmaker and director Judith Dekker
no title ( New Mexico, USA: Navajo, American Sign Language and English)
Filmmaker and editor: Sabina England Translation: Meryl Van Der Bergh (Dutch to English translation), World Translation Center (Navajo), Sabina England (American Sign Language and improved English prose).
frog_poem_text.doc (Berlin, Germany & Austin, Texas: English) Filmmaker and editor Annelyse Gelman Translation: Annelyse Gelman / Google Translate
Búsqueda (UK: Spanish) Translation: Cristina Navazo-Eguía Newton
La búsqueda (Sweden: Spanish) Filmmaker and editor: Eduardo Yagüe
Translation: Cristina Navazo-Eguía Newton
Chwiliad (UK: Welsh) Filmmaker and editor: Othniel Smith Translation Sharon Larkin
Sea Change (USA: English) Erasure, filmmaker and editor: Dave Bonta
Translation: Sharon Larkin
Chaucer Cameron is the author of ‘In an Ideal World I’d Not Be Murdered’, which will be published in the Spring of 2021. Her poetry has also been published in journals, anthologies and online. Her poetry-films have screened at festivals, universities and poetry events. Chaucer is co-editor of Poetry Film Live. www.chaucercameron.com
Poetry filmmaker, poet and theorist, Sarah Tremlett, is interviewed by author and poetry filmmaker Dr Meriel Lland, on her leading reference work The Poetics of Poetry Film – Film Poetry, Videopoetry, Lyric Voice, Reflection (April, 2021), commissioned by Intellect Books and The University of Chicago Press [412 pages, 60 col., 20 b/w illus].
‘The first book of its kind, it classifies the different types of poetry film, shedding light on the fast-growing genre and citing works from poetry filmmakers worldwide. A ground-breaking industry bible for anyone interested in poetry, digital media, filmmaking, art and creative writing as well as poetry film-makers.’
In this revealing interview Lland brings to light some of the key questions raised; both in creating such a large work, but also how Tremlett’s thinking develops around subjects such as time, lyric voice, subjectivity, the remediation of the page poem, and audio-visual philosophical practice. The book equally interweaves historical and contemporary facts with numerous artists’ voices, discussing their personal approaches to poetry film, film poetry and videopoetry today.
Selected films will also be screened.
Sarah Tremlett (Poem Film) MPhil, FRSA, SWIP is a poetry film-maker, videopoet, poet and theorist, particularly enquiring into the philosophy of poetry film. She is co-director of Liberated Words Poetry Film events, editor of Liberated Words online, a judge at festivals, and author of leading publication The Poetics of Poetry Film (Intellect Books and University of Chicago Press, April 2021).
She has given presentations on her own poetry films worldwide. Recent commissions include: Selfie with Marilyn – by American poet Heidi Seaborn, from the Visible Poetry Project; and from Brighton University for – Bird Poem – a family history poetry film by poet Dr Helen Johnson. Curations include the touring screening Uprooted (with films on the refugee crisis) as part of REELpoetry festival, Houston 2020; and Poetry Films for the Environment for LYRA Poetry Festival 2020.
We are delighted to partner with Brazos Bookstore for poetry readings and add workshops at Rudyard’s British Pub by the poets reading. These events are scheduled mid-afternoon on consecutive Sundays. Readings at Brazos Bookstore introduce you to the poet’s latest work, while the two-hour workshops at Rudyard’s are an opportunity to tunnel into the core of their poetry, explore technique and do some writing.
READINGS FREE
$10 WORKSHOP REGISTRATION HERE
