Star City Blog

Interview with James Crews, 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry

By Ladd Wendelin

Prairie Schooner, the nationally and internationally-recognized literary journal and publication of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department, will hold the 2012 Book Prize Celebration on Monday and Tuesday, January 30^th and 31^st on the UNL main campus, with readings, dance and visual interpretations of prose and poetry from three of this years honorees. Recipients include Greg Hrbek (Writer-in-Residence, Skidmore College) whose book of short stories won the 2010 Book Prize in Fiction, and Shane Book (filmmaker, New York Times Fellowship in Poetry), whose book of poems won the 2009 Book Prize in Poetry.

Lincoln-resident and award-winning poet James Crews will receive the 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. He is also the recipient of the Prairie Schooner Bernice Slote Award for Emerging Writers, and author of What Has Not Yet Left (2009 Copperdome Prize), One Hundred Small Yellow Envelopes, and Bending the Knot (2008 Gertrude Press Chapbook Prize). His new book of poetry is The Book of What Says, published by the University of Nebraska Press, which will be honored at the Book Prize Celebration this week. Mr. Crews answered some questions for Star City Blog readers via e-mail about the craft of poetry, writing it all down, and channeling his inner Buddhist.

SCB: When did you first begin writing poetry?

I love this question. I first began writing poems in the third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Brown, required us to memorize a poem each week and I got the bright idea of writing and memorizing my own poems. She was so encouraging, handing me books by Shel Silverstein and Robert Frost, that I got addicted to the process and (though I've always been shy) reading it to the rest of the class was pure pleasure. I've been writing poetry ever since then.

SCB: Do you remember your first poem? How was it received? 

My first poem, I believe, was "Ode to Summer" and Mrs. Brown loved it. My family also loved the fact that I was writing poems, making greeting cards of my own for everyone's birthday with little rhymes inside. I'm afraid I don't remember any of the text of that first poem, but I'll bet my mother still has it in a box somewhere.

SCB: Who in your career as a poet inspired or encouraged you to continue writing poetry?

I've been surrounded by folks who have encouraged me at every turn, and I feel grateful to all of the teachers and friends who have never told me how ridiculous it is to want to sit at a table and write poetry every day. My first poetry teacher, David Clewell, has been instrumental in my growth as a poet. I thought I wanted to be a fiction writer until I took his class and he reminded me of my first love, helped me to fall in love with language again and get to know what was happening in contemporary literature. He's now the Poet Laureate of Missouri, my home state, and it's a well-deserved post for someone who's been such a champion of young poets.

SCB: In "Paradoxical Undressing", you revisit the 2005 deaths of Janelle Hornickel and Michael Wamsley, who froze to death in rural Sarpy county during a snowstorm after abandoning their vehicle. It was later discovered that the couple was high on crystal meth. Briefly walk us through the composition of this poem. Despite the tragedy of this incident, what tone did you want to achieve in the reader's mind by the end of the poem?

I began this poem during a long, snowy winter in Wisconsin. I remember watching a 20/20report about the death of Janelle and Michael here in Nebraska and listening to the garbled 9/11 calls they had made once they realized they were lost. It was heartbreaking, but the detail that stuck with me was that idea of "paradoxical undressing": once we get cold enough, our body begins to tell us we're hot, burning up even, and we take off all of our clothes. I've always tried to find the silver lining in things and at the time I thought this was such a kindness our bodies do for us even in the midst of extreme pain. The poem finally found its legs, so to speak, when I realized it was all about this couple, that I wanted to capture their last tender moments together. I suppose that trying to describe their love, that last kiss, was my way also of helping the two of them find redemption in this horrible moment, even if only through my imagination. As Wallace Stevens said, "The world imagined is the ultimate good."

SCB: In several poems ("Palamino", "Sex in the Rain"), you allude to not wanting to forget, of capturing the moment, striving against how time can diminish our memory. In "Against Seizing", you write "As these waves illustrate / the endless cycle of give and take, realize that you / no longer trust in seizing each day and do not need a sun's pulse to offer warmth, or to feel it." As a poet, what's the greatest challenge in capturing feeling and emotion? Is language elusive, not enough, or does it do our senses justice at all?  

The greatest challenge is capturing a feeling without being sentimental, using image and narrative to do so; I hope I have succeeded in this. The failure of language is certainly not an original theme among writers since words can never live up to the real thing. But what else do we have, when that moment has passed? We can describe it, tell a story to bring it back. I've always been someone who's abhorred change, and even as I realize it's the nature of everything--time passes and we will pass away--some stubborn part of me wants to hold on for dear life and never let go. "Against Seizing" was born after a day spent observing the tide pools at a beach outside Malibu. Every time a new wave swept in, the tide pools would change completely and of course nature has no choice but to accept this. We are encouraged to "seize the day," but what if we didn't? What if we didn't cling so tightly to our fixed ideas of how things should be and just accepted things as they are, without forcing it? I suppose the Buddhist in me is starting to come out.

SCB: Robert Frost once described poetry as beginning as a "lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, homesickness, lovesickness." Where does poetry begin for you? Where does it originate? 

I love Frost's description, and I would absolutely agree. For me, poetry begins as that lump of wanting to hold onto something, someone. I'd say the homesickness and lovesickness both originate from a place of craving safety and solid ground which none of us will ever have when it comes to love (our partner's always changing) or even home for that matter: Our notions of home shift just as the place changes. More and more, though, my poems begin with a line or two that I just find mystifying or intoxicating and feel a need to follow to its logical conclusion. And then I just chip away and chip away until the poem feels finished and makes sense and has that extra charge of the something-or-other (which can take years to bring about).

SCB: What was the last poem you read by another poet, and what was the one line that stuck out at you? 

I was reading an anthology this morning called The Book of Luminous Things, edited by Czeslaw Milosz, and these lines from Mary Oliver's poem, "Wild Geese" stood out. It's good advice for a poet:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

SCB: Compose a haiku. 

It is difficult
to pull silver from the sky
Try being the moon 

 ***

Thank you, James! For more information on The Book of What Says, James Crew, and to read an excerpt, visit http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/?q=book-what-stays

The 2012 Prairie Schooner Book Prize Celebration runs Monday, January 30th and Tuesday, Jan. 31st, 2012. The Celebration is Free and Open to the Public.

Author meet-and-greet/Q&A is Monday, January 30th, from 2-4 p.m. at Dudley Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL Campus. Readings and performances (visual interp, modern dance) begins at 8 p.m., Room 15, Anderson Hall, UNL Campus. 

 

 

 

 

            

 

How the “One Book, One Lincoln” Program Can Change How You See the World

By Eric Jones

We meet in an oak paneled café filled with the sounds of steam as baristas rush back and forth like train engineers hauling logs into a furnace. This is the Scooter’s on 84^th and Van Dorn, an immaculate machine of service filled with businessmen going over schematics, students designing ads, and Gloria Strope, the Chair of the Selection Committee for this year’s “One Book, One Lincoln” program.

Lincoln is about two things: books and coffee. And the Lincoln City Libraries have been providing us with reasons to meet at coffee houses like this for the past decade. The "One Book, One Lincoln” program takes a pool of books nominated by Lincoln residents, etches it down to the top three, then opens up voting to the public, and the winner is officially endorsed as “the book that all of Lincoln is reading”.

This year’s winner was announced on September 6^th, and is the longest of any book ever selected. “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese is a medical drama that takes place in a small town called Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. It follows a cast of surgeons of multiple ethnic and spiritual origins as they struggle to “fix holes” in a third world environment. Gloria and I met to discuss what any of this has to say about folks in Lincoln.

“The themes are world-wide themes,” Gloria says, her open copy of the book is marked with pencil notes and scraps of torn paper with quotes scribbled on them, “healing with forgiveness is a main theme of the book. Also, medicine. People may not have the same technologies and resources around the world, but they have the  same illnesses.” Verghese exposes the humanity of us all by deeply examining a cross section of multi-cultured individuals.

Much of the novel takes place in the hospital of Missing, so-named for the locals’ inability to pronounce the English word, “Mission”. The name also implies a staff of people who are ‘missing’ from their original homes. Hema and Ghosh are both Indian immigrants who left to practice medicine where they were needed. Thomas Stone is an Englishman, and Sister Mary Joseph Praise is a former nun who has been ripped from her covenant with God by an incident in the vagabond town of Aden, which she refuses to ever speak of.

Like these characters, Lincolnites are also transported from the quaint suburban life of the pleasant football saturated city of Lincoln to the remote forests of Addis Ababa where food is a commodity and the government is always brewing a new coup. We go there together, and attach ourselves to characters who might be plucked up and thrown into jail on the whim of a new dictator, or who might easily find themselves under the blade on a dirty operating table.

“It is so eye opening to read a book together,” Gloria says. When an entire city reads a book together, it draws the community tighter and promotes unity. The Mill, a coffee shop in the Haymarket, stays open for Memorial Day in order to host the announcement of the year’s top nominated books. (Dave Eggers’ “Zeitoun” and Nicole Krauss’ “A History of Love” were the other two nominees.) “The Mill is caddy-cornered across from the Scooters, and has a big deck full of tables and chairs.” Gloria’s eyes widen to illustrate the scope of the event, “And we have well over a hundred people come to hear the announcement. It helps to promote the Foundation for Lincoln Public Libraries. It’s a big event, and it’s only the beginning.”

Last Sunday, at the Walt Branch Library, Roy Ruai served food from his native Ethiopia to promote the book and his Arican Restaurant on N. 27^th St. The food and discussion bring out the rich multicultural vibe that Lincoln shares with Verghese’s medical epic. “It’s a real multicultural experience,” says Gloria, “and I think Lincoln is a real multicultural city.   

The “One Book, One Lincoln” program started as an extension of Seattle’s “If all Seattle Read the Same Book” which was begun in 1998 by Nancy Pearl, a librarian at the time who has gone on to write “Book Lust”, an ultimate list of books for reading groups, and is now National Public Radio’s official literature consultant.

The idea of a city-wide book club thrust Seattle into the publishing spotlight, and made it a mecca in the literary field. With eight library branches, twenty listed bookstores, and events planned from now until March of next year to celebrate OBOL, Lincoln is primed to be a successor of the Seattle surge.

The easiest way to participate is by going to your nearest library or bookstore and picking up a copy of the book, "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese. For more information about OBOL check their blog, which has a list of upcoming events and talks that will introduce you to varying perspectives on the novel’s complexities.

 

The Pen with No Name: Why the Greatest Reading Series in Lincoln is the One You’ll Never Hear About

By Eric Jones

It’s 3:45 pm on a Friday. Zen’s Lounge on N. 11^th is a quiet bar at this hour, except for two people who are frantic. You’ll see them when you come in for your afternoon Moscow Mule.

Nima Kian, an Iranian with a Los Angeles personality, is thrashing out extension chords for a microphone on a fold out podium. Marianne Kunkel, in a purple blazer and bookworm glasses, has the dexterity of a seasoned athlete, sliding furniture across the room and rushing to greet early arrivals for today’s reading.

By 4:00, the lights of the bar are turned low. All the empty seats are filled. Marianne is at the podium. She does not sweat. She is not out of breath. Her smile and the podium’s reading light are the only things visible. “Welcome,” she says, “to the no name reading series.”

For the next hour, you and your Moscow Mule are transfixed by the litany of readers performing creative essays, poetry, and fiction. Much of it with an eye on Lincoln itself. Jason Hertz’s recent series of haikus and poems touch Lincoln’s core, invoking the kind of wonder that a traveling minstrel might have in our fair city.

But why have you not heard of any of this before? This reading series has been running for five years now, a product of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English faculty that’s been passed down from moderator to moderator every two years.  

The reason you’ve never heard about it: It has no name.

“That’s controversial,” Nima said to me when we discussed the significance of whether or not “No Name” was, in fact, no name. Nima is a third year PhD student of Creative Writing at UNL, “For us, the no name aspect represents your name not representing your work. It’s your work and your voice and what you deliver that represents your name.”

In keeping with the no name aspect of “No Name”, Nima suggested that the next schedule of readings would be posted with no names on them.  Marianne echoed Nima’s sentiment, “At this point, especially as graduate students, there’s so much emphasis on professionalization, on publication, that I’ve always felt that going to those no name reading series was a retreat from that. Nima and I really want to emphasize the no name quality because it strips us of the pressure of getting our name out there, of making our name have weight.”

There is a balancing act in chasing the no name description of “No Name” between the act of shameless self-promotion and spreading the word. Marianne, who is also in her third year of a Creative Writing PhD, inherited her passion for rhythm and verse from her musical family.

She compares spreading the word to the way that songs from albums spread before the age of iTunes. “Instead of ruining it,” she says, “it creates a buzz around that artist, and I think it’ll work the same way here. I don’t think we’ll be able to preserve the anonymity up until the very moment the person walks up to the podium.”

Still, just how to preserve any anonymity at all, while opening the venue up to a wider audience, is going to be the greatest challenge of this year’s “No Name” team. Both Nima and Marianne are new to the no name game, having only three readings under their belt so far, and both admit that the previous team’s running of “No Name” was incredibly polished.

So far this year, wires have been broken, batteries have gone dead, a recorder went missing, and a microphone has cut out during the reading. But none of this has phased the performances at all. All of these problems have rolled out over an ongoing series that refuses to stop no matter what.

“All of these mishaps happening early on is a great sign,” Nima says optimistically, “because we’re getting all of the faults sorted out.” Despite the various technical failings of the early readings, none of the audience seems to know that anything has gone wrong.

The podcasts don’t miss a beat, and the readings have fired off to schedule. (You can check out the 2011-12 schedule, and the podcasts, here: http://www.unl.edu/noname/)  “When you’re at Zen’s Lounge during no name. Its no longer Zen’s Lounge,” Nima says, “no name is the venue, and Zen’s Lounge is the theatre.”

And he’s right. The best seat in the house is just inside Zen’s front door, where you can see the faces of the patrons coming in. They enter, and their expression registers that certainly they must have stepped into the wrong building. This is not a bar. It is only as their eyes adjust and the words floating in the air become coherent that they realize what is happening.

The transformation from confusion to understanding, lost to found, is exactly what no name is all about. It is that anonymity that protects the reading series and keeps it going, that anonymity that makes it easier for the writer to find their voice.   In that anonymity, Marianne Kunkel and Nima Kian are able to take that isn’t, and turn it into something that is.

Nebraska Summer Writers Conference 'Has Something for Everyone'

By Allysha Martin

Do you have a great idea for a novel (or short story or poetry) but just need some motivation to get it going? Or do you just love literature in general?

If so, organizers think you'll probably enjoy the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference, June 11th to 17th.

 “We have registrants who have already published novels and poetry collections, and we also have people attend who have just started writing their very first poems, or who have been working on a memoir for years, off and on," said author Emily M. Danforth, assistant director of the conference. "This week is their chance to really devote themselves to writing: to process, practice, and workshop."

While conferences in the past have primarily focused on adult literature, this year’s presents some renowned artists who write for the younger audience, including Daniel Handler, author of the Lemony Snicket children's series. 

Literally Running for Dollars

You don’t even have to run! This fundraising race takes place Saturday, June 4th, starting at 7:30 am. We’d love to have you join one of our teams in the 10K run, the 3K run, or the 3K walk. Our teams are called Go Big Read! The entry fee is $17 per person payable to Lincoln Track Club, and you can register online at www.lincolnrun.org/Havelock/havelock.htm.

via lincolnliteracy.org

The Best of Children, Teen/Pre-Teen and Suspense/Mystery Books

By Sally Cobau

Yesterday, I gave my best recommendations for fiction, non-fiction and cookbooks. Today, I'm tackling children's books, teen and pre-teen books and mystery and suspense.

Children’s books

Even before I had children, I spent plenty of time in the children’s section in bookstores.  After reading adult literature, kids books can feel refreshing with their bright colors and lack of cynicism.  Now that I have kids, I’ve read lots and lots of picture books.  Sometimes their favorites aren’t mine—they love Clifford and Bernstein Bears, for example, books I’m not too keen about, though, of course I do read them.  And there are the lovely picture books that appeal to adults more than children.  But then there are those magical books which somehow appeal to both kids and adults.  I’ve listed some here.

The Best of Fiction, Non-Fiction and Cookbooks, Just in Time for the Holidays

By Sally Cobau

Every year for Christmas, my Dad got me a book. 

As I tore into the presents on the top of my list — the Walkman in high school, the “lemon twist” in grade school — I always wondered in the back of my mind what the book would be.  He seemed to perfectly gauge what I wanted, what I needed. As a kid I got the Little House books and then when I became a teenager I got The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath.  It seemed just right for an angst-ridden teen: after all, the poet stuck her head in an oven. I have to admit I was amazed by that fact, and to this day Sylvia Plath is one of my favorite poets.

This year, like usual, I’ll be buying lots of books for my kids, friends and relatives. Perhaps because I write book reviews now, my dad no longer gives me the one-book-a year present; instead, my husband does. Sometimes he gives me comical books that poke fun of the lives we’re leading, while other times he gets me classics that I’ve never had the time to read. Whatever book it is, it’s usually my favorite gift.

Here are a couple of suggestions of books to give as gifts for 2010, starting with fiction, non-fiction and cookbooks; tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 15, I'll share my suggestions for kids, teens and the suspense/mystery genre.

Neal Obermeyer, Editorial Cartoonist

Editor's note: Neal Obermeyer, cartoonist for the Lincoln Journal Star, BoldNebraska.org and the San Diego Reader, shares his experiences at this year's 24 Hour Comics Day at Krypton Comics, 2819 S. 125th Ave. in Omaha from noon on Saturday, Oct. 2 to noon on Sunday, Oct. 3. "48 HOURS: A Collection of Two 24 Hour Comics," featuring Obermeyer's prodcutions from two previous years, is available at Krypton and Legend Comics, 5131 Leavenworth St. in Omaha.

By Neal Obermeyer

True to the spirit of 24 Hour Comics Day, I am writing this in desperate need of sleep. Maybe magic will happen. Most likely, I will trudge my way through, hoping it'll seem better in the morning. And there you have it -- 24 Hour Comics Day in a bloggy nutshell.

For a slightly more useful background, 24 Hour Comics Day is an international event started by comics creator Scott McCloud. The challenge is to create a 24-page comic book from scratch in 24 hours. Variations on the theme have sprung up in the digital age, but the basic premise is always the same -- you come with a blank slate, and 24 hours later, you leave with a finished work.

This was my fourth year. I love the challenge and I always try to recruit more people to join in. What usually holds people back from trying is the same thing that holds people back from finishing -- perfection. Some people say "Oh, I can't draw very well" or "I'm not really a writer." Similarly, some people spend hours on each page, making sure each stroke is perfect, and then noon rolls around and they have three pages and a sense of "What did I just do?"

That's why I always tell people, focus on the challenge. Complete the book. Don't worry about quality -- focus on the quantity and the quality will come in its own charming way.

How you go about completing the challenge is different for everyone. Some people script their entire story before putting any pictures on paper. Others fly completely blind. I'm usually somewhere in between. I like to have a general sense of where I'm going, but I can't let it get too nailed down, otherwise I'll get bored. The story needs to unfold while I'm writing it, so that there's a sense of discovery throughout the night.

This year, my appreciation of the Pablo's Triangle show at Lincoln Calling and the festivities that followed meant that I was four hours late to Krypton Comics for the start of 24 Hour Comics Day. So I was already behind on the challenge, and hangovers don't do much for my creativity.

I sat and doodled for a while, trying to find things that seemed fun to draw. I also wrote down random words that popped into my head, hoping for inspiration. At one point, I thought I would come up with some profession that I knew nothing about (I was thinking about actuaries) and then write a detailed story about an actuary, only making up everything about what actuaries do.

In Short: Briefs for Oct. 6, 2010

Navajo weaving demonstration Oct. 7 to 9: Native American weavers will be on the 3rd floor of Morrill Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln City Campus, demonstrating their art on looms from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7 to Saturday, Oct. 9. 

Lecture by textiles artist Xia Gao set for Friday, Oct. 8 at LUX Center:  Former UNL professor and acclaimed textiles artist Xia Gao is giving a lecture about her work and creative process on Oct. 8 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at LUX Center for the Arts, 2601 N. 48th St.  Her exhibition “Unsettled,” currently showing at the LUX, and this lecture are in collaboration with the Textile Society of America Conference.

Blues, Brews and Bowling Poker Run fundraiser for KZUM set for Saturday: The activities for the day will kick off at Hollywood Bowl, 920 N. 48th St., at 10:30 a.m. with check-in for the poker run. Participants can check in, collect their playing card(s), and head out on the 89.3-mile run and enjoy the scenery and sponsored stops along the way. Door prize and grand prize winners, sponsored by local businesses, will be announced between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. For those who do not ride or drive, there will be a craft beer and food pairing event inside the Hollywood Bowl lounge from noon to 3 p.m. Enjoy local and national craft beers well-paired with small food samplings, all guided by K&Z Distributing’s craft beer experts. Cost is $15 per person and includes the opportunity to win one of five brewer prize packs. For bowling enthusiasts, half of all proceeds from open bowling games purchased at Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, Oct. 9th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. will go to KZUM. The day will be rounded out by live music on a specially constructed stage on the bowling lanes featuring Jerry Pranksters at 4:30 pm and Levi Williams at 8 p.m.

In Short: Briefs for Sept. 30

Compiled by Star City Blog staff

Lincoln City Libraries' annual book sale runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday: Open to the public, the book sale began today, Sept. 30, at 10 a.m. and runs until 7 p.m. Friday hours are also 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., while Saturday the sale runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The book sale is being held at the Lancaster Event Center, 4100 N. 84th St.

Lincoln Children's Zoo's annual food drive begins Friday: Most of the Zoo’s animals stay on grounds and are fed daily while the park is closed for the season, and on Friday, the Zoo will be accepting food donations for the animals. Donations help the food budget and fortify the animals to get through the winter. Items that can be donated include:  Baby food (mango), canned peas/corn/beans/pumpkin, cereal, honey, jelly, peanut butter, juice, syrup, graham crackers, nuts, marshmallows, sunflower seeds, raisins, dried fruits, trail mix, frozen meat (no pork, and must be less than 1 year old), frozen fruit/vegetables, bird seed, sugar-free ice cream cones, skittles and tea bags, as well as dish soap, laundry soap, paper towels and, sponges.