Local literary powerhouse and founder of The Attic has some exciting news to share. That’s right one of our Portland, OR literary treasures gets to help pick the NBCC Award winners for a three year term. Exciting news for one of our own. Thanks to the Attic for passing this press release along.
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is pleased to announce the outcome of membership voting to fill the eight board-member slots for three-year terms that begin in 2010. Joining–and in one case rejoining–the board in March are:
Mark Athitakis, Colette Bancroft, Gregg Barrios, David Biespiel, Stephen Burt, David Haglund, Barbara Hoffert, and Carolyn Kellogg
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This Sunday, Jan 31, is your last day to catch “Incorporamento” at The Armory. David Biespiel, founder of The Attic, and Oregon Ballet Theatre have joined forces to present a marriage of poetry and dance. Principal dancer Gavin Larsen performs to a reading of four of Biespiel’s poems.
The show’s at 10:15 pm, tickets are $15, and you can buy them at the door. (Online and phone sales have closed.)
David Biespiel’s latest poetry collection, The Book of Men and Women (UW Press), was selected by the Poetry Foundation for their Top Poetry of the Year. In the remarks on the announcement, Gina Rosemellia, Editorial Assistant for Poetry Magazine, had this to say, “In his book about regret, longing, and loss, Biespiel explores the intricacies of relationships between men and women in settings both real and imaginary.”
You can read our recent interview with Mr. Biespiel here, and Reading Local contributor Angela Allen’s review of The Book of Men and Women here.
Today’s Featured Book Event:
Poster by Kathy Foster
Always a treat, our annual Cheap Art & Craft Show features dozens of artists offering affordable art priced at $50 and under! This year’s confirmed artists include: Aijung Kim; Amelia Harnas; APAK Studio; Art Bureau; Berkley Illustration; Camp Smartypants; Carole Zoom; Crafty Folk; Criminal Crafts; Daydream Factory; Free Lauren Marsella; Gabriel Liston; Hopeful Monsters; Janet Julian; Jennifer Utley; Jill Bliss; Joelle Groendes; Juanita’s Velvets; Just Seeds; Kathy Brock; Keeganmeegan Press & Bindery; Kjirsten Winters; Kate Bingaman-Burt; Malinger; Michmash; Molly Muriel; Moontea Artwork; Ms. Starry Art; MuchoDesign; Nancy Prior; Nicole Georges; Nik Bresnick; Nowvember; Phoebe Owens; Pigeon Toe Ceramics; Pillow Fight Designs; Pink White Brown; Power and Light; Red Bat Press; Sarah Landwehr; Seann McKeel; Shamui; Skylaar Amann; Snap Design; Snarky Cards; Stephanie Simek; Suddenly, It’s Real!.
Other Book Events Today:
J. A. Jance (Murder By The Book, @4:00pm): Former TV journalist Ali Reynolds has taken on a media relations position with the police department and her first day on the job will test both her reporting and crime-solving skills. Jance’s previous book in the series, Cruel Intent, will be available in paperback in November.
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Today’s Featured Book Event:
Arty Words Vol. III Featuring Curtis White with Special Guest David Biespiel (Disjecta, @7:00pm, $8): Disjecta and Tin House get all eco-politico for the next installment of Arty Words, the literary/art/music sensation too rambunctious to be cage free. Vol. III features Curtis White marauding through sustainability’s seamy underbelly. White’s intelligence, colored by righteous indignation, is a slippery and protean thing. He’s tackled Liberalism and contemporary Art Culture and in his newest book, The Barbaric Heart, he examines the hidden ills of the environmental movement.
David Biespiel is widely recognized as one of the leading poets of his generation, a liberal commentator on national politics, & also one of the nation’s experts in teaching writing. In 1999, he founded the Attic Writers’ Workshop as a haven for writers in Portland’s historic Hawthorne district. Among his publications are The Book of Men and Women, Wild Civility, Pilgrims & Beggars, & Shattering Air. You can read Reading Local’s interview with David Biespiel here.
Other Book Events Today:
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Today’s Featured Book Event:
David Biespiel (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @4:00pm): Biespiel’s fifth poetry collection The Book of Men and Women (University of Washington), addresses our time and human condition in ways both domestic and global. A book party at The Saphire Hotel follows the reading.
Other Book Events Today:
Celebrate Oregon Through Poetry with Liz Nakazawa (Hollywood Library, @2:00pm): How would you describe Oregon through poetry? Do you have a favorite Oregon poet? Have you written a nature poem about Oregon? Share it with us! Liz Nakazawa, editor of the anthology “Deer Drink the Moon,” will be reading from her book, which features the works of 33 esteemed poets of Oregon. She will also invite audience members to share their favorite Oregon nature poems. Please keep readings to five minutes. We will be recording and offering these podcasts as part of the Oregon 150th celebration.
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This review is provided courtesy of contributor Angela Allen. Read more of Ms. Allen’s work on her beautiful website.
You’ll have to dig deeply among David Biespiel’s new poems – dictionary, Bible and encyclopedia on hand – to find reason to be hopeful about men and women.
Not that art has to be redemptive, but I like it that way, at least some of the time. Might a few poems out of the 44 in “The Book of Men and Women” (University of Washington Press, 2009, $19.95) be something other than downers?
To be fair, several in the last section of this 80-page volume lift up my heart. Among them: “The Hummingbird” (“I could have touched you as I touch a petal”) and “The Theory of Hats” (“She will come to sit on the porch like a dark sparrow/And let the sun creep slowly onto her hair/And grow old and wonder about the balance of things./And he beside her, sitting, too, distracted in the sun for hours,/ But all the same, both of them, at last, so much warmer”).
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I received a very kind, unprompted, but much appreciated note in my inbox a couple weeks ago. A note which just so happened to be from David Biespiel, one of Portland’s most accomplished and celebrated poets. And so began the back and forth which eventually led to the interview below. Biespiel’s new collection of poetry entitled The Book of Men and Women was just released from the University of Washington Press, and previous publications include Wild Civility, Pilgrims & Beggars, & Shattering Air.
Here are a few highlights from Biespiel’s lengthy list of accomplishments and activities:
- In 1999 Biespiel founded the Hawthorne based writers workshop Attic, where he still serves as Director.
- Since 2002 he has been the poetry columnist for The Oregonian, and you can also find him holding court on The Politico’s Arena.
- In 2005 he was appointed editor of Poetry Northwest, and has since turned this once dead publication into “a national venue for outstanding poems and a lively discourse about poetry and public culture.” Although an announcement regarding this position is below.
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