Mortal Softness and Ishle Yi Park

[susanstinson]

They've posted the table of contents of the latest issue of Lambda Book Report on the Lambda web site. They didn't post the Fat and The Word article online, but, if you like, you can see the cover or read "Mortal Softness," the review of Venus of Chalk.

Also included are links to the cover story, with interviews of five gay poets; a review of a new book by the poet Carl Phillips; and others of Femme's Dictionary, poetry by Carol Guess; Wrestling with God&Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition by Steven Greenberg; a revisit to Crimes Against Nature by Minnie Bruce Pratt, and a write up about Pride&Joy, Northampton's lgbt bookstore, along with links to news and queries.

Also, local folks might want to consider going to see Ishle Yi Park, the poet laureate of Queens, tomorrow at Amherst College.


Ishle Yi Park, the poet laureate of Queens, will perform a mix of poems,
spoken-word raps and songs on Tuesday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. in the Frontroom of
the Keefe Campus Center at Amherst College. Sponsored by the Amherst College
Asian Students Association and the Amherst College English Department, the
event is free and open to the public.

Park, a Korean-American woman born and raised in Queens, was named the
borough's third poet laureate last year. The New York Times described her as
"an operatic 26-year-old who seems to delight in flouting people's
expectations" who combines "an angelic face and the soul of a rock star."
Her CD, Work is Love, is available at www.ishle.com and includes tracks with
Korean traditional drums, Spanish guitar, beatboxing and music produced by
Japan's critically acclaimed DJ Honda.

She is the author of The Temperature of Water (Kaya Press, 2004), recipient
of a fiction grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Gregory
Millard Fellow. Her work has been published in over 20 anthologies,
including The Beacon Best of 2001 and The Best American Poetry of 2003,
edited by Pulitzer-Prize-winning Yosuf Komunyakaa.

Ishle has performed across the United States, Cuba and Korea. She is the
first Korean-American woman ever to compete and feature on the finals stage
at the National Poetry Slam. She was featured in "Russell Simmons Presents:
Def Poetry Jam" on HBO, and appeared on the NAACP Image Awards reading a
tribute poem to Venus and Serena Williams.

Ishle works in New York City and across the country to bring Asian-American
artists into public high schools, and has taught creative writing in high
schools, colleges, prisons and community centers throughout New York and
California.

Comments

[felicks.livejournal.com]

I've seen Ishle - I thought she lived out here! Anyway, she's amazing.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

I missed her -- pre-storm made my arthritis worse, so didn't go, but I'm going to keep my eye out for her in the future.

[arielblue.livejournal.com]

Cool! I really do need to subscribe to that instead of tracking down a copy when I think of it. Nice to see the review of Carol Guess's book, too -- I knew her when she lived here in Bloomington & have always admired her writing.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Cool.

[heartwork.livejournal.com]

hi. i came across your journal by way of daisydumont. i'm a big fan of poetry and she told me to check your journal for poets when i asked her for some ideas for leisure reading.

i am a huge fan of noho also. i wish i could live there. maybe someday.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Hello. It's true, I'm a lover of poetry -- Adrienne Rich, Carl Phillips, Robert Creeley, Ruth Stone, Theodore Roetke, Rita Dove, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Muriel Rukeyser, Tess Gallagher, Denise Levertov -- lots. arielblue, who is commenting just above this, knows a ton about poetry.