Monday, May 20, 2019

FREE downloads of RATTLE ebook-issues from the archive

Timothy Green (rattle.com), posted by Ellie Askew
Some News in May
Dear Rattle Readers,

It's only a random Monday in May, but we've reached a critical mass of news and updates, so I hope you don't mind a quick off-season email blast before our summer issue appears.

The most exciting thing might be that we've finally figured out what to do with ebooks: we're giving them away.

For the last decade we've had a love-hate relationship with ebooks: There are some wonderful benefits for some people but, frankly, we'll always prefer the stillness of paper. We've experimented with different ebook distribution methods, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but what makes the most sense is just to make them free. Subscribers can still use a password to download the current issue, but once all of the poems have appeared individually at rattle.com, we'll release those ebooks into the wild.

At the moment, we have issues 50–62 available for download in standard EPUB and MOBI-Kindle formats. We'll also be adding new issues as we go, and gradually converting older issues into ebooks, so that eventually our entire archive will be available this way. Put them on your phones and tablets and bring poetry everywhere you go, even where there isn't wifi!

This also means that many of our conversations will be available online for the first time. This set of issues includes great interviews with poets like Jimmy Santiago Baca, Francesca Bell, and Maggie Nelson. See more on that below.

We've interviewed nearly 100 poets over 24 years, and it's time we put that resource online in a way that's searchable, so we'll also be republishing them as regular web pages. To start, I've just put up my conversation with Stephen Dunn from issue #60. This is one of our most popular interviews—some have called it a "master's class in poetry," and Dunn truly is a master, with a tremendous amount of wisdom to share over these 10,000 words.

We'll be adding more conversations like this throughout the rest of the year, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates.

In other news, we're happy to announce the next round of Rattle Chapbook Prize winners. This trio of manuscripts covers a wide range of topics and moods. Print subscribers can look forward to each of them riding along with issues starting this fall.

Finally, we've released our third A Poet's Space video, visiting with 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize winner Dave Harris on campus at U.C.-San Diego. We're trying to decide whether or not we should make more of these, so if you enjoy it, be sure to share and give it a thumbs-up or comment on YouTube to let us know.

That's all for now. The summer issue and chapbook are at the printer and about to be shipped. I'll check in with our regular summer calls for submission email next month. Until then—

Cheers,
Timothy Green
Editor / Rattle
p.s. You're receiving this email because, as someone who has submitted poems, subscribed, or purchased issues, we think these occasional updates serve your established legitimate interests, but you can unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of the email any time if you'd rather not get them.
2019 Rattle Chapbook Winners
We're excited to announce the three winners of the 2019 Rattle Chapbook Prize: Al Ortolani, Christina Olson, and Jimmy Pappas. Visit the winners page for more on each of them. Their chapbooks will be included free to all subscribers for three straight issues, starting with Al's Hansel and Gretel Get the Word on the Street this fall.

"Turbulence"
by Dave Harris
The third installment of our new series with Blank Verse Films, A Poet's Space, was released last month, featuring 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize winner Dave Harris's "Turbulence." As with the first two videos, the goal is to provide an intimate glimpse into the spaces where poems are actually born. Join Dave in La Jolla, California, at the link.

Conversation with Stephen Dunn
An excerpt from the conversation …
__________

GREEN: You said that poetry matters, and that’s something I’m always curious about. Why does poetry matter? There’s a sense that it does, that we take it for granted as readers and writers of poetry, but to communicate that to other people who haven’t had the experience yet is difficult. So why does poetry matter? 
DUNN: The poetry that ends up mattering speaks to things we half-know but are inarticulate about. It gives us language and the music of language for what we didn’t know we knew. So a combination of insight and beauty. I also liken the writing of it to basketball—you discover that you can be better than yourself for a little while. If you’re writing a good poem, it means you’re discovering things that you didn’t know you knew. In basketball, if you’re hitting your shots, you feel in the realm of the magical.

GREEN: Do you think that writing is that same feeling as being “in the zone”?

DUNN: Yes. But then, almost always, you have to revise.
Rattle eBooks
Finally, here's your chance to download all those ebooks. We have a baker's dozen online to start with, featuring the following conversations and tribute themes:

#62: Jimmy Santiago Baca & 2018 Poetry Prize
#61: Marvin Artis & First Publication
#60: Stephen Dunn & Athlete Poets
#59: Alejandro Escudé & Immigrant Poets
#58: Diana Goetsch & 2017 Poetry Prize
#57: Ken Meisel & Rust Belt Poets
#56: Francesca Bell & Mental Illness
#55: A.M. Juster & Civil Servants
#54: Meena Alexander & 2016 Poetry Prize
#53: Jennifer Jean & Adjuncts
#52: Brendan Constantine & Angelenos
#51: Maggie Nelson & Feminist Poets
#50: Lester Graves Lennon & 2015 Poetry Prize

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Askew Reading Series, May 11, 2019, with Nink Poise, Poet Laureate Pam Shea, Christopher Nyerges

AskewLit.com; ChristopherNyerges.com; VillagePoets.com
FEATURED PERFORMERS
Nink Poise is a young, Vietnamese-American, Rattle-published poet and short story writer living in San Diego. After her father's political execution in Vietnam, she was raised as a boy to carry on the family name. But she escaped with her mother by boat, spending her childhood in refugee camps in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Themes of her work focus on finding a home in the face of catastrophe, rituals of silence and forgiveness, and the pleasures of the imagination. She was a PEN Emerging Voices finalist and the 2018 Wrightwood Literary Festival Poetry Slam champion.

Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga Pamela Shea (villagepoets.com) began writing at 5 and uses poetry to chronicle life and as a means of catharsis. Combining poetry and photography, she's inspired by family, nature, triumph, and strife. An impressive record of community service, formerly working in the medical field, and currently teaching fitness have kept her active. She enjoys “taking poetry to the people” in the community and the L.A. Public Library. Her work has been featured by the California Contemporary Ballet, which choreographed one of her poems. She has been published in the Altadena Poetry Review and the California State Poetry Society’s California Quarterly.

Naturalist Christopher Nyerges (christophernyerges.com) has a passion for poetry, wild foods, self-reliant living, and survival. He teaches local wild food outings with over 33,000 students having passed through his classes over the decades. Former editor of Wilderness Way, he is an outdoor columnist for Pasadena Weekly, and the author of more than 20 books like Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants, How to Survive Anywhere, Foraging California and Foraging North America. He runs the School of Self-Reliance and teaches survival skills to city-dwellers at Pasadena City College.

LitFest Pasadena (May 18-19)

WEBSITE: litfestpasadena.org
8th Annual LitFest Pasadena
Two Action-Packed Days and Nights of Literary Events the weekend of May 18th & 19th
Free in the historic Playhouse District
1:00pm - 9:00pm
The mission of LitFest Pasadena is to provide an opportunity for authors and community members to celebrate literature of all kinds, to instill a love of reading and writing, and to provide a public intersection of dialogue around the variety of topics and ideas that books inspire.

Light Bringer Project, P.O. Box 968, Pasadena, California 91102

In memoriam: This year’s LitFest Pasadena is dedicated to Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, who was a frequent participant and supporter. He was also a contributor to the Literature for Life online publication and teacher resource, which brings authors into classrooms in Los Angeles public schools.

LitFest Pasadena 2019 Schedule

Saturday and Sunday, May 18-19
1:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Playhouse District
FREE
The city and Southland’s free books-and-authors festival returns for its 8th year with two days of panels, discussions, readings, workshops, performances, and literary activities. Over 150 authors and special guest speakers will appear in more than 50 events from the afternoon into the late evening. LitFest Pasadena is held throughout the historic Playhouse District at Vroman’s Bookstore, the Pasadena Playhouse, and other local establishments within walking distance. ATTEND

Looking to get involved?
Volunteer
 

Rattle Reading Series featuring Poet Tim Green (May 12, 2019)

Timothy Green (rattle.com/readings)
Flintridge Bookstore & Coffee House(Second Sundays) Rattle presents a reading featuring poets from its current issue every month at the Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse. Free. Scheduled poets are subject to change.

Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse
1010 Foothill Blvd.
La Cañada-Flintridge, CA 91011 (map)
flintridgebooks.com
 
__________
Sunday, May 12th, 5:00 pm
Timothy Green & Quincy Lehr
(Download flyer)

Quincy R. LehrQuincy R. Lehr is an American poet who was raised in Norman, Oklahoma, and presently lives in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in print and online venues in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, and the Czech Republic, including American Arts Quarterly, Cadenza, The Chimaera, and The Raintown Review. His first book of poetry, Across the Grid of Streets, was published by Seven Towers (Dublin) in 2008, and his second, Obscure Classics of English Progressive Rock, also by Seven Towers in 2011. His book-length poem Heimat is now available from Barefoot Muse Press. He is also the editor of The Raintown Review. His poem “War Song” appeared in issue #53 of Rattle.
 
Timothy Green[Host] Timothy Green has worked as editor of Rattle since 2004. His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Connecticut Review, The Florida Review, Mid-American Review, and Nimrod International Journal. Green has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award, and his first book, American Fractal (Red Hen Press, 2009), won the Phi Kappa Phi award from the University of Southern California. He is a contributing columnist for the (Riverside) Press Enterprise and co-founder of the Wrightwood Literary Festival. He lives in Wrightwood with his wife and two children. More

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Book TV: Sen. Mike Lee, Melinda Gates, Joseph Stiglitz

May 11-13, 2019
Who's on: Sen. Mike Lee, Melinda Gates and Joseph Stiglitz
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS
After Words with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Our Lost Declaration: America's Fight Against Tyranny from King George to the Deep State
10 pm ET Saturday; 9 pm ET Sunday; 12 and 3 am ET Monday

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah offers his thoughts on the overreach of government in colonial times and today. He's interviewed by Georgetown Law professor Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz.
Melinda Gates, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
10:55 pm ET Saturday; 7 pm ET Sunday

Philanthropist, businesswoman and global advocate Melinda Gates discusses her life and work with women around the world.
Joseph Stiglitz, People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent
9 pm ET Saturday

Economist Joseph Stiglitz argues that big companies dominating large sectors of the economy are contributing to inequality and a slowdown in growth.
Order now:
The Presidents: Noted Historians Rank America's Best–and Worst–Chief Executives
C-SPAN recently published its 10th book with PublicAffairs, The Presidents: Noted Historians Rank America's Best -and Worst - Chief Executives, edited by Brian Lamb and Susan Swain.

The Presidents is organized by C-SPAN's much-cited Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership with special contributions from Douglas Brinkley, Edna Medford and Richard Norton Smith. For more information about all of the historians and the book, go to www.c-span.org/thepresidents.
About Book TV
Every Saturday 8 am ET through Monday 8 am ET 
 
Every weekend C-SPAN2 features Book TV — a 48-hour block of nonfiction book programming. Book TV brings you a rich variety of topics, such as history, biography, politics, current events, the media and more. Watch author interviews, readings, panels and live coverage from the nation's largest book fairs.
 
Experience Book TV all weekend, every weekend on C-SPAN2.
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