blog
last night closed out the bankhead visiting writer's series here at UA. for those of you not in the know, i've been the organizer of the event all year long as part of my RA-ship. the experience has been amazing...here is the full schedule and some notes on favorites:
8/28/08
rikki ducornet
rikki stayed at UA for a semester and taught a class. i was in charge of getting her here and there in town because she does not drive. first, being her chauffeur turned out to be great. she is enegertic and intelligent and always likes to talk. i thought we got along really well with the exception of a few political arguments in the grocery at the super-target. second, she is talented writer and painter and her work ethic is something i was to cultivate in myself.
9/25/08
barry hannah
i was lucky enough to introduce barry at his reading. an unforgettable experience on all sides. had dinner with the man too. think his work is some of the best out there. i hope he stays around for awhile and gives the world a few more books. not that the world deserves them.
10/24/08
aaron kunin
imagine a younger, smarter egon from the ghost busters and you might be close to this man and his mind. i was totally stunned by the amount of information he delivers in a reading. at this one, our venue got changed last minute from a big room to a small, mic-less classroom full of science experiments about soil. strange. he was a quiet reader, and everyone in the room accommodated him with silence and it was very cool. also, i think a friend of mine broke one of the erosion experiments.
11/06/08
rodney jones
rodney stayed for a week at ua. i had a pretty good chance at getting to know him. a great guy all around. after he left i bought his books and read them and loved them. he is, now, maybe my favorite living poet. nuff said.
11/20/08
ilya kaminsky
if you've never heard of this guy you need to get wise. his reading was epic in that fireball from the beyond kind of way.
12/4/08
angela ball & rick campbell
staged this reading in an art gallery. rick has some work about pittsburgh and so we talked for awhile about iron cities and their gradual sink into the earth. kind of sad, but his work is beautiful and evened things out. angela has that cool elegance that you expect from cool poets but rarely get.
SPRING
2/5/09
claudia rankine
on the ride back to the airport the day after her reading, claudia asked me why i was such a sad person. this caught me off guard. but the comment speaks both to the strength of her personality and her interest in those around her. for the record, i don't think i'm a sad person. also for the record, claudia packed the kids in at her reading, standing room only, maybe our biggest one of the year. she had multimedia and a voice that could call the devil in for supper.
2/26/09
jean thompson
this was the reading i screwed up. well, not the actually reading, but the payment for jean who was understandably upset with me. outside of that, jean read one, single story for a little over an hour. it was about hauntings, very cool. she is a midwest girl and it was nice to hear that accent come out every now and again. her more recent story collection, throw like a girl, is amazing.
3/12/09
lydia millet
lydia was great. i don't know how to really classify what she writers outside the large umbrella of, fiction. that said, nothing she does seems to really fit there.
4/16/09
paul maliszewski & sandi winsenberg
this was last night and it was one of my favorites. it was our only dedicated nonfiction reading. check out sandi's blog, cancer bitch. and check out paul's new book, fakers. actually, before you check out paul's book, check his bio, dude has started some serious shit in the writing world via little cons and persona creation. both of these people are awesome.
adios, bankhead 08-09. it has been real.
(last night, because i introduced sandi, i got dinner at a fancy restaurant. i had a banana cream pie with white chocolate crust for dessert. nom-icide, darling.)
8/28/08
rikki ducornet
rikki stayed at UA for a semester and taught a class. i was in charge of getting her here and there in town because she does not drive. first, being her chauffeur turned out to be great. she is enegertic and intelligent and always likes to talk. i thought we got along really well with the exception of a few political arguments in the grocery at the super-target. second, she is talented writer and painter and her work ethic is something i was to cultivate in myself.
9/25/08
barry hannah
i was lucky enough to introduce barry at his reading. an unforgettable experience on all sides. had dinner with the man too. think his work is some of the best out there. i hope he stays around for awhile and gives the world a few more books. not that the world deserves them.
10/24/08
aaron kunin
imagine a younger, smarter egon from the ghost busters and you might be close to this man and his mind. i was totally stunned by the amount of information he delivers in a reading. at this one, our venue got changed last minute from a big room to a small, mic-less classroom full of science experiments about soil. strange. he was a quiet reader, and everyone in the room accommodated him with silence and it was very cool. also, i think a friend of mine broke one of the erosion experiments.
11/06/08
rodney jones
rodney stayed for a week at ua. i had a pretty good chance at getting to know him. a great guy all around. after he left i bought his books and read them and loved them. he is, now, maybe my favorite living poet. nuff said.
11/20/08
ilya kaminsky
if you've never heard of this guy you need to get wise. his reading was epic in that fireball from the beyond kind of way.
12/4/08
angela ball & rick campbell
staged this reading in an art gallery. rick has some work about pittsburgh and so we talked for awhile about iron cities and their gradual sink into the earth. kind of sad, but his work is beautiful and evened things out. angela has that cool elegance that you expect from cool poets but rarely get.
SPRING
2/5/09
claudia rankine
on the ride back to the airport the day after her reading, claudia asked me why i was such a sad person. this caught me off guard. but the comment speaks both to the strength of her personality and her interest in those around her. for the record, i don't think i'm a sad person. also for the record, claudia packed the kids in at her reading, standing room only, maybe our biggest one of the year. she had multimedia and a voice that could call the devil in for supper.
2/26/09
jean thompson
this was the reading i screwed up. well, not the actually reading, but the payment for jean who was understandably upset with me. outside of that, jean read one, single story for a little over an hour. it was about hauntings, very cool. she is a midwest girl and it was nice to hear that accent come out every now and again. her more recent story collection, throw like a girl, is amazing.
3/12/09
lydia millet
lydia was great. i don't know how to really classify what she writers outside the large umbrella of, fiction. that said, nothing she does seems to really fit there.
4/16/09
paul maliszewski & sandi winsenberg
this was last night and it was one of my favorites. it was our only dedicated nonfiction reading. check out sandi's blog, cancer bitch. and check out paul's new book, fakers. actually, before you check out paul's book, check his bio, dude has started some serious shit in the writing world via little cons and persona creation. both of these people are awesome.
adios, bankhead 08-09. it has been real.
(last night, because i introduced sandi, i got dinner at a fancy restaurant. i had a banana cream pie with white chocolate crust for dessert. nom-icide, darling.)