The Wild Fig Coffee & Books will host a reading by students of Frank X Walker’s ENG 407 class. The University of Kentucky students include Chris Best, Lauren Chelsea Comberger, Sabirah Rayford, and Shannan Slone.
For more information, check out the Facebook Event page.
| When: | Friday, December 11, 2015 @ 6pm |
| Where: | The Wild Fig |
| 726 N. Limestone | |
| Lexington, KY 40508 | |
| (859) 252-3052 |
Lexington’s Chevy Chaser Magazine annually collects a list of books by local authors that it recommends for the holiday shopping season. In this year’s Literary Roundup, Bianca Spriggs recommends Frank X Walker’s About Flight and Circe’s Lament: Anthology of Wild Women Poetry.
On About Flight:
Just when you think you know what to expect from a Frank X Walker poetry collection, this highly decorated former Kentucky poet laureate and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets releases a slender tome of heavy-hitting autobiographical poems that revolve around the heartbreak of bearing witness to a family member’s crippling addiction. These poems lament and mourn, yes, but most of all, they do not back away or flinch from the sobering topic of substance abuse and the lingering effects someone’s addiction can have on their family.
On Circe’s Lament:
Whether religious text, classical epic, or family lore, narratives of so-called “wild women” such as Circe of “The Odyssey” still give readers the urge to speculate about legendary women, from Amazon to roots-worker, goddess to gunslinger. What compelled these fascinating women to act? What set them apart? This anthology boasts a collection of exhilarating women from poets from around the world who channel the infamous, the historical, the wild woman next door – and even the one in the mirror.
The list also includes National Book Award Finalist Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions) by Ada Limón and Trampoline (Ohio University Press) by Robert Gipe (who was one of the featured readers at Holler Poets Series 84).
For more information, you can read the full write-up by clicking here.
Edited by Bianca Spriggs and Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
Circe’s Lament is an exciting new anthology of poetry about wild women. Poets from around the world have contributed narratives and given voices to an amazingly diverse female cast—women who neither flinch nor apologize, and who mesmerize us generation after generation with their strength. We invite you to welcome the wild into your home with this anthology.
What others say about Circe’s Lament
Circe’s Lament collects work by some of the best poets writing today—from Ellen Bass to Frank X Walker—in celebration of the wild feminine: the fierce, the furious, the bruised and battered, the hilarious, the mythical, the stereotypical, the fairytale turned inside out. Here you’ll find Miss America and Janis Joplin, Barbie and Medusa, along with—in Nickole Brown’s stunning and tender homage—a grandmother who can cuss up a storm and uses “fucker” as a term of endearment. The women in these poems behave in the most unladylike ways—swearing, sexing, drinking, dancing, hitting back, running away, bleeding, broke and broken. But just when you might start to think this celebration of “the bad girl” is veering toward romanticizing her, comes a poem like “The Girl,” by Linda Casebeer—as heart-breaking and frank and true a poem about being young and female and vulnerable and tough as I’ve ever read anywhere. Read it and weep. And be grateful for the work these editors have done to bring these voices to us.
Circe’s Lament is a collection of powerhouse poems by women that make you want to get down and growl. These aren’t poems for the faint of heart or the bashful. These are poems for the she-wolves. These are poems for the brazen hussies. These are poems for the wicked, the loud-mouthed, the ballsy, and the big-hearted. Lean in and listen closely. They’ll teach you how to bite.
Authors
tina andry, Britt Ashley, Stacey Balkun, Makalani Bandele, Bianca Bargo, Ellen Bass, Roberta Beary, Elizabeth Beck, Lauren Boisvert, Roger Bonair-Agard, Nickole Brown, Elizabeth Burton, Greg Candela, Linda Casebeer, Sherry Chandler, Sharon L. Charde, Lucia Cherciu, Elizabeth Cohen, Star Coulbrooke, Barbara Crooker, Lucille Lang Day, Nancy Diedrichs, Joanie DiMartino, Laurel Dixon, Teneice Durrant, Meg Eden, Lynnell Edwards, Marta Ferguson, Ruth Foley, Sarah Freligh, Karen L. George, Kate Hadfield, Ellen Hagan, Gwen Hart, Lisa Hartz, Sheryl Holmberg, Karen Paul Holmes, Hope Johnson, Julia Johnson, Susan Johnson, Amanda Johnston, Marilyn Kallet, Penelope Karageorge, Diane Kendig, Karen Kovacik, Shayla Lawson, Emily Leider, Marsha Mathews, Andrew Merton, Teresa Milbrodt, Pamela Miller, Holly Mitchell, Maria Nazos, Sheryl Nelms, Jeremy Paden, Julia Paganelli, Tina Parker, Catherine Perkins, Kiki Petrosino, Sosha Pinson, Carol Quinn, Hila Ratzabi, Nicholas Samaras, Leona Sevick, Hilary Sheers, Dan Sicoli, Joan Jobe Smith, Bianca Spriggs, Alison Stone, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, Victoria Sullivan, Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, Sheree Renée Thomas, Jessica D. Thompson, Alison Townsend, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Elsa Valmidiano, Frank X Walker, Amy Watkins, Patricia Wellingham-Jones, July Westhale, K. Nicole Wilson, Laura Madeline Wiseman, Debra Woolley, Jessica Wright, Katy Yocom
From the Preface
Women who break stereotypes and societal expectations continue to thrill our imaginations with how they did it. How did these women manage to balance their gender, sexuality, and power? Where did they find the strength to shoulder the consequences of rejecting the expectation of how women should behave? What do we continue to learn from the stories we tell one another of these icons, characters, and legends? What does a woman sacrifice in order to come into her own power? What does she mourn? What does she celebrate? This anthology seeks to answer these questions by highlighting the legendary, the local, the familial, and the self. It also explores the bigger question: Why do audiences continue over the ages to be spellbound by women who challenge and complicate convention?
Circe’s Lament should certainly not be read as comprehensive in terms of the narratives we chose to highlight, but rather treated as a summoning, as a kind of welcome table. We hope that as you read through this host of poetry about wild women—from the classic to the contemporary, from the legendary to the little-known—you’ll get the sense from their collective narrative that no woman ever needs to feel alone or exiled. It is our hope that you will read and celebrate, not just those highlighted in this collection, but all of the bold, bright, wild women in your own life.
—The Editors
Cover photo by Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer
This Sunday, December 6th, Frank X Walker will be discussing his recently published chapbook from Accents Publishing, About Flight, at The Wild Fig. The reading will be the first for the Sunday Salons, a new project by the recently reopened bookstore. The series is designed to move away from traditional literary readings to engage community members and writers in a more interactive space.
About Flight, which was released earlier this year, is a collection of poems that deal with the emotional ramifications of a brother’s addiction to crack cocaine. Randall Horton, author of Pitch Dark Anarchy (Northwestern University Press) and Hook: A Memoir (Augury Books), said, “Frank X Walker gives us the beautiful ugly narrative of a brother who is wrestling with chemical dependency, and losing. The high, in all of its beautiful contradictions takes on the metaphor of flight, and so we soar through the terrible highs and lows of a protagonist who carries his family with him into the den of iniquity.”
| When: | Sunday, December 6, 2015 @ 2pm |
| Where: | The Wild Fig |
| 726 N. Limestone | |
| Lexington, KY 40508 | |
| (859) 252-3052 |
Multidisciplinary artist and Danville, Kentucky native, Frank X Walker, is the former Poet Laureate of Kentucky, and Professor in the department of English and the African American and Africana Studies Program at the University of Kentucky. The founding editor of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture is a Cave Canem Fellow, co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, and the author of seven collections of poetry including Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, winner of the 2014 NAACP Image Award for best poetry collection. The Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry recipient is the originator of the word, Affrilachia, and wholly committed to deconstructing and forging a new definition of a pluralistic Appalachia.
The Carnegie Center’s back door.
This month’s Teen Howl will take place on December 3rd at 6pm at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. According to Elizabeth Beck, “We are featuring ALL Teen Howl poets”.
Teen Howl was founded in 2011 by Elizabeth Beck and Jay McCoy as a chance for the under-21 crowd to have their own venue for poetical self-expression. Named after Allen Ginsberg’s poem, the first meetings actually included readings from “Howl“. Teen Howl normally takes place at the Morris book shop.
The mission of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning is to empower “people to explore and express their voices through imaginative learning and the literary arts” (source). Street parking is available anywhere along Gratz Park (except along yellow lines), and guests may also get a parking pass at the front desk for designated Transylvania University parking lots.
| When: | Thursday, December 3rd, 2015 @ 6pm |
| Where: | The Carnegie Center |
| 251 W. Second St. | |
| Lexington, KY 40507 | |
| (859) 254-4175 ext. 21 |
Jiv Johnson, indecisive over which drink to choose at a Cracker Barrel.
Hello everyone! My name is Jiv Johnson and I’m extraordinarily grateful to be the new intern for Accents Publishing. I guess I should probably talk a little about myself and what I’ll be bringing to the writing community here in Lexington and beyond.
I’m 18 and from Mount Sterling, Kentucky. Currently, I’m a freshman at the University of Kentucky pursuing a BA in English and a minor in Appalachian Studies. I’ve been writing poetry pretty much most of my life. However, I’m more interested in the advocacy for writing in general; I’ve always found that writing seems to be an underrated art-form in a lot of artistic communities, always considered an accompanying art to other medias. Thankfully, I’ve found a position here at Accents where I’ll be doing what I love: writing about writing.
My job here will be focused on expanding communications between Accents and the greater writing community. What this means, really, is that I’ll be publishing posts and keeping any readers of the blog more up-to-date on literary happenings around the region. Outside the region, I’ll be giving more wide-ranging news on writing events such as national conferences Accents is participating in or successes of Accents writers beyond Lexington. Through some outreach to other publishing companies or writing projects, I’ll hopefully help bridge a gap between the Accents community and the overall national/international artistic conversation. The blog will still be focused on Accents related writing/authors—I’ll just be communicating more with local writing havens around town such as The Wild Fig, Morris Book Store, and countless others. I’ll also be contacting individual writers before any releases about book readings or writing events to make a more personal post about their work.
I look forward to bringing more writing news to everyone!
The 90th Holler Poets Series will feature award-winning poet Maggie Smith, Accents’ newest poet Jay McCoy, and musical guest Squeaky Feet.
Maggie Smith
(photo by Lauren Powers)
Maggie Smith has won awards for her books The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (Tupelo Press, 2015) and Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press, 2005). She is from Columbus, Ohio and received her Master of Fine Arts from The Ohio State University.
Jay McCoy is co-founder of the Teen Howl Poetry Series in Lexington, Kentucky (along with Elizabeth Beck). Teen Howl is an open-mic for the under-21 crowd and always hosts a teen and adult feature. Jay’s newest collection, The Occupation (Accents Publishing, 2015), is currently available from the Accents Store.
Squeaky Feet is a band featuring Arlo Barnette and Zoey Barrett. They also played at Holler 71 with GA Smith and Sherry Chandler. You can visit their Bandcamp page here or like them on Facebook.
Check out the Facebook Event page for more information.
| When: | Wednesday, November 18, 2015 @ 8pm |
| Where: | Al’s Bar |
| 601 N. Limestone | |
| Lexington, KY 40508 | |
| (859) 309-2901 |
We are proud to announce The Occupation by Jay McCoy!
“These are brave and hard-won poems, full of poignant witness and startling affirmation in the face of life’s most heartbreaking challenges. Jay McCoy is a keen craftsman, constructing lyrics that whisper and sting and celebrate at once. Here is a poet who truly understands the full expressive potential of his forms, and who mines those forms to maximum effect. But be warned: this is not the typical bland stuff of mild-mannered chapbooks. McCoy’s delicately crafted but harrowing poems will make your hair stand on end.”
—Young Smith
“ The Occupation marks the arrival of a brave new voice in American poetry”
Calling
Your voice through
the phone line cracked
on the other end before
you said the first word,
so I knew
what you needed/wanted
to say, but could not yet
wrap your mind around all
possibilities, positive/negative,
so I just waited.
You may order a copy at the Accents store; orders will begin shipping on or before November 30, 2015.
image by John Lackey
The 89th Holler Poets Series will feature Accents Publishing’s Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel’s Pauletta Hansel, and the musical guest will be WUKY’s DeBraun Thomas.
Katerina Stoykova-Klemer is Accents Publishing’s Senior Editor and founder; she also starred and co-wrote Thomas Southerland’s Proud Citizen.
Pauletta Hansel is celebrating her fifth book of poetry, Tangle (Dos Madres Press, 2015) which came out in September.
image by Bev Denton
Also, DeBraun Thomas is celebrating the release of his debut album All My Colors Are Blind.
Check out the Facebook Event page for more information.
| When: | Wednesday, October 28, 2015 @ 8pm |
| Where: | Al’s Bar |
| 601 N. Limestone | |
| Lexington, KY 40508 | |
| (859) 309-2901 |
Former Kentucky poet laureate and Accents author Frank X. Walker will be reading from About Flight (Accents Publishing) on Saturday, October 17th at 1pm.
About Flight is a poetry collection about dealing with a brother’s addiction to crack cocaine. In an interview with Christopher McCurry, Walker discusses the intersection of his superhero/villain language and addiction: “If there is an intersection it would start with how much of a super villain addiction is and how only superhero sized efforts could ever defeat it. In my reality, mere mortals don’t stand a chance.”
Randall Horton, author of Pitch Dark Anarchy (Northwestern University Press) and Hook: A Memoir (Augury Books), said, “Up until this point in American history, no poet has written an honest and believable lament about the crippling effects from the tornado swirl of a crack pipe, how a little rock being melted between thin mesh screen creates pallid smoke: a monster, a slave to the white lady that is cocaine.”
| When: | Saturday, October 17, 2015 @ 1pm |
| Where: | the Morris book shop |
| 882 E. High Street | |
| Lexington, KY 40502 | |
| (859) 276-0494 |