MARSH HAWK REVIEW IS FRESH!

You are invited to peruse the just-released Fall 2020 issue of the Marsh Hawk Press Review. This issue is edited by Daniel Morris, and you can see it HERE. 

Poetry + Spirituality with Donald Lopez, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, and Thomas Fink

 You are invited to an online event at Poets House:

THURSDAY, November 12 | 5pm (Eastern Time) Poetry + Spirituality: On The Lotus Sutra with Donald Lopez, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, and Thomas Fink The Lotus Sutra, the last sermon of the Shakyamuni Buddha, remains one of the most influential sutras in Buddhist literature. Poet, scholar, and educator Donald Lopez, author of the first comprehensive history of the Lotus Sutra in English, will lead a panel discussion on poetry and spirituality, with Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Thomas Fink, delving into the poetics of sacred texts. Donald Lopez is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author, translator, and editor of numerous works in the field of Buddhist Studies, on topics ranging from Buddhist philosophy to Buddhism and Science. He has also written extensively on the European encounter with Buddhism. Among anthologies, he is the editor of the Buddhism volume of the Norton Anthology of World Religions and Buddhist Scriptures for Penguin Classics. His recent books include Dispelling the Darkness: A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet (with Thupten Jinpa), Gendun Chopel: Tibet’s Modern Visionary, and Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side: A Guide to the Lotus Sutra(with Jacqueline Stone). In 2008, he was the first scholar of Buddhism to deliver the Terry Lectures at Yale. In 2014, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (edited with Robert Buswell) was awarded the Dartmouth Medal for best reference work of the year. In 2000, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Jennifer Kwon Dobbs is the author of two chapbooks, Notes from a Missing Person (Essay Press, 2015) and Necro Citizens (German/English edition, hochroth Verlag, 2019), and two poetry collections, Paper Pavilion (White Pine Press Poetry Prize, 2007) and Interrogation Room (White Pine Press, 2018) mentioned in The New York Times and praised by World Literature Today for “a vigorous restlessness.” Kwon Dobbs, who has received, most recently, the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award for poetry, a Jerome Hill Artists Fellowship and a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant, has also published work in Crazyhorse, jubilat, The Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Poetry International, and elsewhere. Poetry editor at AGNI, she is associate professor of creative writing at St. Olaf College and a guest lecturer at Universität Bielefeld. Thomas Fink has published 11 books of poetry—most recently A Pageant for Every Addiction (Marsh Hawk Press, 2020), written collaboratively with Maya D. Mason, Hedge Fund Certainty (Meritage Press and i.e. Press, 2019) and Selected Poems & Poetic Series (Marsh Hawk Press, 2016)—as well as two books of criticism, including “A Different Sense of Power”: Problems of Community in Late Twentieth-Century U.S. Poetry (Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2001) and three edited anthologies, including Reading the Difficulties: Dialogues with Contemporary American Innovative Poetry (U of Alabama Press, 2014). His work appeared in Best American Poetry 2007, edited by David Lehman and Heather McHugh. His paintings hang in various collections. Fink is Professor of English at CUNY-LaGuardia.

TONY TRIGLIO ON "CHAPTER ONE"

Tony Triglio is latest addition to discuss writerly beginnings for Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" Project!

SANDY MCINTOSH ON FRENCH NATIONAL TV

FRANCE NATIONAL TV CHANNEL M6 will air a documentary about Trump and women, in which Sandy McIntosh will be interviewed, on Wednesday, Oct. 28th. It will air at 9:00 pm Paris time.

CONGRATULATIONS TO CHRISTINA OLIVARES

INFORMATION FROM NYFA:

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced the 2020 recipients and finalists of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program, which it has administered for the past 35 years with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).  

During an especially challenging year for those in the creative community, NYFA has awarded a total of $588,000 to 85 artists (including one collaboration) whose ages range from 28-73 years throughout New York State in the following disciplines: Craft/Sculpture, Digital/Electronic Arts, Nonfiction Literature, Poetry, and Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts. Fifteen finalists, who do not receive a cash award, but benefit from a range of other NYFA services, were also announced.

 

Christina Olivares is among this year's Finalists in the Poetry category.

 

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program makes unrestricted cash grants of $7,000 to artists working in 15 disciplines, awarding Fellowships to five disciplines per year on a triennial basis. The program is highly competitive and this year’s recipients and finalists were selected by discipline-specific peer panels from an applicant pool of 3,536 artists. 

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2020 NYSCA/NYFA ARTIST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM RECIPIENTS AND FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

 

$588,000 Awarded to 85 New York State Artists

 

New York, NY – The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced the 2020 recipients and finalists of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program, which it has administered for the past 35 years with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts(NYSCA). For the 2020 Fellowship year, the organization has awarded a total of $588,000 to 85 artists (including one collaboration) whose ages range from 28-73 years throughout New York State in the following disciplines: Craft/Sculpture, Digital/Electronic Arts, Nonfiction Literature, Poetry, and Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts. Fifteen finalists, who do not receive a cash award, but benefit from a range of other NYFA services, were also announced. A complete list of the Fellows and Finalists follows. Since it was launched in 1985, the program has awarded over $32.5 million to more than 5,000 artists.

 

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program makes unrestricted cash grants of $7,000 to artists working in 15 disciplines, awarding Fellowships to five disciplines per year on a triennial basis. The program is highly competitive and this year’s recipients and finalists were selected by discipline-specific peer panels from an applicant pool of 3,536 artists. 

 

Each year, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship offers a unique snapshot of contemporary arts across New York State. From almost 4,000 applications in five disciplines, there were key themes that emerged. Shining a light on the diverse cultural fabric that makes up the state were explorations of race and ethnicity, immigration, cultural displacement, and what it means to be a first-generation American as well as work that examines current political issues such as climate change, LGBTQIA+ rights, and racial and gender equality from highly personal perspectives. 

 

“This year is an especially meaningful one in the long history of this program, as unrestricted artist grants are needed now more than ever,” said Michael L. Royce, Executive Director of NYFA. “We are thrilled to partner with NYSCA to recognize artists of all disciplines across New York State with NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships; to be selected by a peer jury is an incredible honor and hopefully a validating one no matter the artist’s career stage,” he added.

 

“The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship recognizes that artists of all disciplines, backgrounds, ages, and career stages are at the heart of our state’s powerful creative ecosystem and make vital contributions to the diversity of expression in New York,” said Mara Manus, Executive Director of NYSCA. “As our field faces innumerable challenges, we are proud to continue our partnership with NYFA to provide critical support to artists whose work helps build healthy communities in all regions of the state.”

 

Many of the 2020 Fellows have underscored the importance of receiving the award in a tumultuous year, finding encouragement from their peers and the $7,000 instrumental to forging ahead in their careers.

 

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, a Craft/Sculpture Fellow from Stone Ridge, NY, says that the award encourages her to take more risks in her work and to push beyond familiar comforts in the studio. "The organization's significant affirmation of my work's creative value and contribution to the field is especially meaningful during this pandemic. Through stress, sorrow, and loss, I have struggled to be artistically creative in isolation. But the NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship has shored up my confidence, inspiring me to embrace new directions with renewed spirit."

 

For Ge Gao, a Nonfiction Literature Fellow from Brooklyn, NY, the Fellowship “gives me something that's exactly what I need right now in life and in my writing practice: some financial support, some recognition, and some encouragement during this noisy, disturbing, lonely time when our critical thinking and reflective writing should be valued more than ever.”

 

Yesenia Montilla, a Poetry Fellow from New York, NY, came to poetry later in life and says that receiving the fellowship is one of the highlights of her life thus far. “This fellowship will provide me with a freedom that I didn't think possible, it will allow for the type of slow down and deliberate attention that is hard to do when juggling so many financial responsibilities alongside all the uncertainty that 2020 has cemented. More than that, I think knowing that my work is hitting some sweet spots and that maybe in some distant place or just down the road, someone is benefiting from my words in some way, is also a great reward.”

 

Major funding is also provided by the New York State Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). Additional funding is provided by Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation.

 

Fellowship Recipients and Finalists by Discipline and County of Residence:

 

Craft/Sculpture

 

Fellows

Fanny Allié (Kings)

Patricia Ayres (New York)

Julia Bland (Kings)

Vivian Chiu (New York)

Katie Coughlin (Kings)

Jes Fan (Kings)

Marilyn J Friedman (New York)

Ignacio Gonzalez-Lang (New York)

Zac Hacmon (New York)
Benjamin Heller (Kings)

Heidi Lau (New York)

Meg Lipke (Columbia)

Chico MacMurtrie (Kings)

Matthew Mazzotta (St. Lawrence)

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray (Ulster)

John Monti (Kings)

Emily Oliveira (Kings)

Erin M. Riley (Kings)
David B. Smith (Kings)

Elif Uras (New York)

Alison Elizabeth Taylor (Kings)
  

Finalists       

David Henderson (Kings)

Asif Mian (Queens)

Rowan Renee (Kings)

         

Panelists     

Annalisa Barron (Monroe)

Sharif Bey (Onondaga)

Esperanza Cortés (New York)

Jim Osman (Kings)

Padma Rajendran (Greene)

 

Digital/Electronic Arts

 

Fellows

Sean Capone (Kings)

Luba Drozd (Kings)

Jonathan Ehrenberg (New York)

Olalekan Jeyifous (Kings)

Jess Johnson (New York)

Carl Lee (Erie)

Warren Lehrer (Queens)

Dana Levy (New York)

Ani Liu (Queens)

Umber Majeed (Kings)***
Michael Mandiberg (Kings)

nova Milne (Kings)*

Kameron Neal (Kings)

 

Finalists

Bang Geul Han (Kings)

Dev Harlan (New York)

DOTDOT (Kate Stevenson and Christopher White)* (New York)

 

Panelists

Andrew Demirjian (New York)

Ella Gant (Oneida)

Qin Han (Suffolk)

Anna Scime (Erie)

Ziyang Wu (Kings)

 

Nonfiction Literature

 

Fellows

Ariel Aberg-Riger (Erie)

Patrick Arden (New York)

Thomas A. Bass (Oneida)

Alvin Eng (New York)

Spencer Everett (New York)

Ge Gao (New York)

Shahnaz Habib (Kings)

Madhu H. Kaza (Kings)

Richard Scott Larson (Kings)

Stacy Parker Le Melle (New York)

Heather Dune Macadam (Suffolk)

Christola Phoenix (New York)

Emily Raboteau (New York)

Mosi Secret (Kings)

Melissa Valentine (Kings)

 

Finalists

Suzanne Cope (Kings)

Pardiss Kebriaei (Manhattan)

Kristen Radtke (Brooklyn)

 

Panelists

Joseph Bruchac (Saratoga)

Caitlin Cass (Erie)

Eve Dunbar (Dutchess)

Mychal Denzel Smith (Kings)

Nadia Owusu (Kings)

 

Poetry

 

Fellows

Albert Abonado (Monroe)

Shayok Misha Chowdhury (Kings)

Ama Codjoe (Bronx)**

t’ai freedom ford (Kings)

Ellen Hagan (New York)

Marwa Helal (Kings)

Omotara James (Queens)

Joseph O. Legaspi (Queens)

Ricardo Alberto Maldonado (Kings)

Shane McCrae (New York)

Yesenia Montilla (New York)

Nicole Sealey (Kings)

John Steven Murillo (Kings)

Cindy Tran (Queens)

Jenny Mengyu Xie (New York)

 

Finalists

Pamela Hart (Westchester)

Sahar Muradi (New York)

Christina Olivares (Bronx)

 

Panelists

Grisel Y. Acosta (Bronx)

Gbenga Adesina (Madison)

Jacquline Jones LaMon (Nassau)

Alison Meyers (Monroe)

Kendra Sullivan (Kings)

 

Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts

 

Fellows

Olaronke Akinmowo (Kings)

Miguel A. Aragón (Richmond)**

Osi Audu (Ulster)

Melanie Baker (Dutchess)

Geoffrey Chadsey (Kings)

Sue Collier (New York)

Kevin Frances (New York)

Shanti Grumbine (Ulster)

Frederick Hayes (Kings)

Darina Karpov (Kings)

Selena Kimball (Kings)

Derek Lerner (New York)

Carlos Llobet (Erie)

Matthew Northridge (Orange)

Norm Paris (Kings)

Joseph Radoccia (Dutchess)

Julia Randall (New York)

David Sandlin (New York)

Lena Schmid (Kings)

Kyung Eun You (Queens)

 

Finalists

Lori Nelson Field (New York)

Komikka Patton Martian (Kings)

Deborah Wasserman (Queens)

 

Panelists

Sun Young Kang (Erie)

Kakyoung Lee (Kings)

Justin Sanz (Kings)

Charlotte Schulz (Westchester)

Charles Wilkin (Sullivan)

 

*Collaborative

**DCLA Fellow

***Deutsche Bank Fellow

DAVID LEHMAN TO JUDGE NEXT MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZE

David Lehman will be the judge for our next Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize Award. More info is at the link: https://marshhawkpress.org/marsh-hawk-press-poetry-prize-awards/ Info about David Lehman also is at https://marshhawkpress.org/2021-marsh-hawk-press-poetry-prizes-contest-judge-david-lehman/

The contest opens for submissions on December 1, 2020.

SANDY MCINTOSH ON PBS FRONTLINE

Sandy McIntosh is featured in the PBS Frontline's “The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden.” Featured is a portion of the interview they did with Sandy for their previous documentaries before the 2016 election. You can see the show at this link:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-choice-2020-trump-vs-biden/

MARY MACKEY AND SUSAN TERRIS CONVERSE!

Marsh Hawk Press poets Mary Mackey and Susan Terris have interviewed each other about their poetry and their poetics in the current issue of Dichtung Yammer, an online literary magazine edited by Thomas Fink. You can see their conversation HERE, but here's an excerpt:

So here’s to being outsiders and taking risks: two women exploring the real and surreal, plunging into poetry like white-water canoers who don’t know if there’s going to be another waterfall just around the next bend.

WARNING RE SCAMS!

Marsh Hawk Press has been informed that someone(s) impersonating our organization is claiming that we are hiring and that recipients have been identified as those we’d be interested in interviewing via Skype. Please be aware that this is a scam and we are neither hiring or interviewing job applicants.

REVIEW OF GEOFFREY O'BRIEN'S NEW MARSH HAWK PRESS BOOK!

Norman Finkelstein reviews Geoffrey O'Brien's HOW WORDS CAST THEIR SPELL ON A POET -- the first book to come out of Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" series!  You can see the review at Hyperallergic, but here's an excerpt:

A longtime writer for the New York Review of Books, O’Brien is the author of eight volumes of poetry as well as numerous books on film, popular music, and the art of reading. Here, he trains his sensitive, meticulous instruments of attention and his eloquent prose style upon his own poetic origins. This is, as he writes in the introductory poem, “not about wanting to be a poet / or trying to become a poet.” Rather, “The question here was only / where did poetry come from in a single random life / …haunted like a house by what is overheard / a transience perpetually surviving.”

SANDY MCINTOSH RECALLS SCHOOLDAYS WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP

Sandy McIntosh presents the article "The year Trump went astray: A former New York Military Academy classmate on the emergence of a self-promoter" in today's Daily News. The article begins:

For Donald Trump, his senior year at New York Military Academy was transformative...

and schoolmate Sandy was there to witness. Click on above link to read more!

DAVID B. AXELROD, AUGUST "CHAPTER ONE" POET

Photo by Jim Tiller, Daytona News-Journal

David B. Axelrod, our August "Chapter One" poet, writes on "The Value of the Local: Red Met for the Poets on Long Island Sound." You can read his contribution at https://marshhawkpress.org/david-b-axelrod-the-value-of-the-local-red-meat-for-the-poets-on-long-island/

"Chapter One" presents poets talking about their beginnings as writers; its Table of Contents is at https://marshhawkpress.org/chapter-one/

SANDY MCINTOSH IN PARIS MATCH!

Sandy McIntosh is featured in the new issue of Paris Match which features a long piece on Donald Trump's childhood, including Sandy's growing up with the U.S. President.

"CHAPTER ONE" RELEASES FIRST BOOK!

From today’s issue of Critical Notes: The Latest News and Reviews From National Book Critics Circle Members:

Sandy McIntosh, an NBCC member and the publisher of Marsh Hawk Press, announced the publication of Where Did Poetry Come From by Geoffrey O’Brien, the first volume in Marsh Hawk’s series of books tied to its Chapter One: On Becoming a Poet project. The project features the memoirs of outstanding poets from diverse backgrounds, recalling the ways by which they found their start as writers. While creative writing programs seek to develop the talents of maturing writers, recondite but essential information about the development of the writing craft will be discovered in the early memoirs—the Chapter Ones—of established poets published in this series. Each month, the press publishes an original essay, eventually to be collected in an anthology.

"MAKING THE NOVEL"

Eileen R. Tabios has created a new project focused on the arduity of "MAKING THE NOVEL." The project presents excerpts from novels in three categories:

1) from unpublished or in-progress novels;

2) deleted excerpts from published versions of novels; and

3) from "failed" novels (as defined by their writers).

Participants in the inaugural release include Marsh Hawkers Martha King, Sandy McIntosh, and Eileen R. Tabios.

Go HERE for the first issue, along with an introduction to and submissions information for future issues.

THE MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZES, 2020

Marsh Hawk Press congratulates the recipients of our Annual Prizes as judged by Susan Howe:

The MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZE
($1,000.00 Cash Prize and Publication of the Book)

Tony Trigilio “Proof Something Happened” 

The ROBERT CREELEY MEMORIAL AWARD
($250.00 Cash Prize)

Erin Malone “Site of Disappearance”

The ROCHELLE RATNER MEMORIAL AWARD
($250.00 Cash Prize)

Rebecca A. Durham “Loss/Less”

FINALISTS

Ralph J. Long, Jr., Doug Ramspeck, Margaret Young, S.D. Lishan, Jeremy Voight, Richard Fein, Toni Simon, Lily Rose Kosmicki, Alina Stefanescu, Jessica Cuello, Sasha Smith, Mimi Tempestt, Clemonce Heard, Eric Burger, and Kika Dorsey

CHAPTER ONE PRESENTS JULIE MARIE WADE

Julie Marie Wade is our July "Chapter One" poet; you can read her contribution at https://marshhawkpress.org/julie-marie-wade-small-doors/

"Chapter One" presents poets talking about their beginnings as writers; its Table of Contents is at https://marshhawkpress.org/chapter-one/

THE POETRY SHED REVIEWS Mary Mackey

Congratulations to Mary Mackey for the new review of her book The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams! You can see the review HERE, but here's an excerpt:

"One can’t help but be impressed by Mackey’s dynamic range, the fluidity of her lines, and the strength of her convictions. If these poems hadn’t already been written, they would be waiting for someone to write them down, not only for us to enjoy but as a gift to future generations. . . . This is a book I will return to again and again for its wisdom, its humility and its irrepressible spirit. Read it and you will not be disappointed except for the fact that it must eventually end. I can’t recommend it enough. Without poets like Mary Mackey our lives would be poorer indeed.”

THE CHAPTER ONE SERIES

Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" series continues, most recently with David Lehman and Denise Low. Go HERE to navigate for entire list of featured poets which we also note here:

June 2020: David Lehman: Poetic Influences: Ben Jonson’s “My Picture Left in Scotland”

May 2020: Denise Low: “The Fourth Dimension of Writing”

April 2020: Stephanie Strickland: “Late To the Party”

March 2020: Barbara Novack: “Singing the Melody”

February 2020: Geoffrey O’Brien: “WHERE DID POETRY COME FROM: Three Early Encounters”,

January 2020: Amy Gerstler: “Ships In Bottles”

December 2019: Poetic Influences: Mary Mackey on John Keats’s “Negative Capability”

November 2019: Basil King: “The Past is as Present as I Want the Future to Be”

October 2019: David Lehman: “Opening Shot”

September 2019: Daniel Morris: “Reading Spivack/Reading Myself”

August 2019: Indigo Moor: “A Long Overdue Apology”

 July 2019: Lynne Thompson: “Father Tongue”

June 2019: Kim Shuck: “Maybe the Pepperwood Tree Taught Me to Write”

May 2019: Sandy McIntosh: “Two Bookstores and Two Capote Intrusions”

April 2019: Eileen R. Tabios: “My First Book”

March 2019: Jason McCall: “Who Are You?”

February 2019: Burt Kimmelman: “My Tutelage”

January 2019: Jane Hirshfield: “A Continuously Accidental and Precarious Thing”

December 2018: Mary Mackey: “Fever and Jungles: On Becoming a Poet”

November 2018: Phillip Lopate: “The Poetry Years”

October 2018: Denise Duhamel: “Mr. Rogers and Me”

HARRIET ZINNES' MEMORIAL SERVICE AT POETS' HOUSE

The Memorial Service for Harriet Zinnes, March 7, 2020 at Poets House, New York, is now available on YOUTUBE.  You are invited to peruse.  The program was as follows:

Alice Zinnes (daughter); 

2012 video of Harriet Zinnes reading during her 2012 book launch; 

Clifford Zinnes (son); 

Thomas Fink (poet and critic); 

Gheorghe Costinescu (composer) and his musical composition, "Song of Goethe's Wanderer's NIght-Song": Jeremy Huw Williams, baritone and Paula Fan, piano; 

Burt Kimmelman (poet, essayist and editor); 

Gao Ping's (composer) musical compositions, "Two Pieces After Harriet Zinnes: The Gaze and Wings": Gao Ping performing; 

Nelly Frechin de Castet (translator and scholar); 

2019 video of Harriet Zinnes reading her last poems, one month before she died; and 

Audience remarks: Sebastian Zinnes (grandson), Melanie Henley Heyn (opera singer). 

Please note, Rachel Simon is the writer quoted during introductory remarks.

RECOMMENDED BY SPD!

We're pleased to share that Thomas Fink's and Maya Mason's new book, A PAGEANT FOR EVERY ADDICTION, is on SPD's latest Recommended List! Go HERE for more information!

LET'S #READINDIE !

Independent publishers champion the widest array of voices possible, bringing forth books that uniquely challenge, inform, and compel us. In this moment when you need books the most, support indie publishers and #ReadIndie.