June 17th, 2008 bhenricksen
Of the better-known poets who contributed to From the Other World: Poems in Memory of James Wright, I hear most often from Gibbons Ruark. In promoting the collection at libraries and bookstores, I’ve more than once chosen to read his contribution to the book, a poem called “With Our Wives in Late October.” Recently I emailed him to say how much people have appreciated this lovely and delicate poem. He responded to tell me that it was a conflation of a number of days spent with Jim and Annie during an autumn when they were neighbors. Here’s how it begins:
“Wandering with weather down the long hillside,
We come to the slender reeds in the water,
All of us who lazed by our own rivers
Summer and autumn.
Looking for redwings or leaves that were falling.
Light that was flying, the red wing of summer,
Never dreaming to be by one sure river
Gathered together.”
Gibbons ends the poem by describing the first stars of evening and “the loveliest faces of women.” It’s a wonderful tribute not only to James, but to Annie Wright and Kay Ruark.
Gibbons will have a poem in the June 25th issue of The New Republic.
Posted in Book Event, James Wright, Poetry | No Comments »
June 13th, 2008 bhenricksen
Last night Northern Lights Books and Gifts of Duluth, MN threw a launch party for Anthony Bukoski’s North of the Port, his fifth collection of short stories. With these books, lovingly depicting the joys and heartaches of the Polish community in Superior, Wisconsin, Tony has achieved a well-deserved national following. While his writing is rooted firmly in regional culture, his themes of love, loss, and endurance, evoked by way of the everyday, are universal. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Event, regional literature | No Comments »
May 8th, 2008 bhenricksen
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I drove to Crosby, a small city about 100 miles west of Duluth. This year is the 30th Anniversary for the Hallett Memorial Library, and Peggi, the lady who runs things with great energy, skill and good humor, had invited me as part of the celebration. On Thursday evening I spoke about James Wright, and on Friday I conducted a workshop on fiction for the Quill Masters.
The QMs are an enthusiastic group of local writers, and we had a lot of fun bouncing ideas around. I talked about how to tweak dialogue to suggest the things that characters won’t say outright, and how to shape plots so that what is unsaid at the outset rises to the surface as things heat up.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Event, Writing Lessons | No Comments »
April 29th, 2008 bhenricksen
Being an obscure writer with an obscure publisher puts you out there on your own. You’re a Willy Loman, chatting up the managers of bookstores, writing snappy letters to regional buyers, and leaving off fliers at libraries. Willy was out there on a shoeshine and a smile. I wear sneakers. Either way, you meet all kinds, and it can be especially exciting if you have a speech problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Event, Minnesota Literature | 2 Comments »
April 9th, 2008 bhenricksen
I live in Duluth, springtime’s last stop, so my wife and I looked forward to our short stay in the Twin Cities over the weekend. I’ve edited a collection of poems in honor of a great American poet, and we went 150 miles south to do a couple of book events and to see green grass. We called our trip The James Wright Mystery Tour, the mystery being whether anyone would show up for the events. From the Other World: Poems in Memory of James Wright has contributions from some major American poets–Galway Kinnell, C. K. Williams, and others–and also from some fine poets with a more regional fame. A few in this latter group joined me to read both their own poems and Wright’s, and to talk about his importance to Minnesota. Wright had taught at our state university in the Sixties and wrote some of his best poems during those years. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Book Event, James Wright, Minnesota Literature, Poetry | No Comments »
