Your Custom Text Goes HEre
Contributors to Catamaran’s 29th issue read from their work. Each contributor reads for 5 minutes after a brief introduction by the Catamaran editors.
Readings by (in order of appearance): Whitney DeVos, David Olsen, Paola Bruni, Tyler Womack, Susan Browne, Jory Post, Mary B. Moore, Robin Lysne, Gail Reitano, Barbara Bloom, Cheri Buijk, and Frank Paino.
On May 29th Danusha Lameris was in conversation with Zack Rogow about Bonfire Opera her new collection of poetry. Listen to the poetry reading and discussion.
“Bonfire Opera, Danusha Lameris’ ravishing second collection of poems, lives up to its title and then some. In melodic and sumptuous lines, she considers desire, sorrow, beauty and death. This is a collection you will want to keep close, ‘a reminder to begin, again, by listening carefully with the body’s rapt attention.’”
—Ellen Bass
Danusha Laméris' first book, The Moons of August(2014), was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press poetry prize and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award. Some of her poems have been published, or are forthcoming in: The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, The American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Tin House, Ploughshares, and The Sun Magazine. She's the winner of the Morton Marcus Poetry Prize and The Atlanta Review's International Poetry award. Her second book, Bonfire Opera, is due out from the University of Pittsburgh Press in spring 2020. She lives in Santa Cruz, California where she teaches poetry independently, and is the current Poet Laureate.
Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of twenty books or plays. His most recent book of poems, Irreverent Litanies, was published by Regal House. Rogow’s other books of poetry include Talking with the Radio: poems inspired by jazz and popular music. His play Colette Uncensored (coauthored with Lorri Holt) had its first public reading at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC; was performed at The Marsh in San Francisco/Berkeley, and in London at the Canal Café Theatre. His most recent book of translations is Bérénice 1934–44: An Actress in Occupied Paris, by Isabelle Stibbe. Rogow is the editor of an anthology of poetry of the U.S.A., The Face of Poetry, from University of California Press. His song lyrics include “A Love for Just Part” coauthored and sung by Carrie Wicks. He has taught in several MFA creative writing programs, and serves as a contributing editor of Catamaran Literary Reader.
On May 5th, 2020 Catamaran hosted a virtual “Lit Chat” reading with poet Frank Paino to talk about his newly released poetry collection titled Obscura. Frank reads from his book and discusses the poems and his process with Catamaran poetry editor Zack Rogow. After the reading Frank answers questions from the audience. Enjoy listening to the Lit Chat on the podcast link below
ABOUT THE BOOK In his long-anticipated third poetry collection, Frank Paino sheds his singular light on the most obscure corners of history and human nature, assembling a hagiography of unorthodox saints. Paino’s poems teach us to look deeply at the unsettling realities from which we instinctually look away—and they show us the rich rewards of beauty and wisdom we can gain by doing so.
PRAISE FOR OBSCURA This work, with a fetish-like attention to detail, enters the chambers of history we often avoid, stepping into skins both human and beast. Paino’s fascinations sift the wreckage out of grief, desperate to find a way we can all rightly live with so much loss. Because, reader, be warned: within these pages is no typical lyric meditation on how our bodies are destroyed or what becomes of them after their end. No, this is a book unlike anything else being written today. You won’t be likely to forget what you encounter here. To quote [Paino]’s description of an exquisitely beautiful photograph of a suicide victim who fell to her death: Once you’ve seen it, you’ll be "powerless to turn away." —Nickole Brown, from the foreword
Frank Paino's first two volumes of poetry were published by Cleveland State University Press: The Rapture of Matter (1991) and Out of Eden (1997). He has received a number of awards for his work, including a 2016 Individual Excellence Award from The Ohio Arts Council, a Pushcart Prize, and The Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature. His poems have appeared in Antioch Review, Catamaran, Crazyhorse, The Gettysburg Review, Green Mountains Review, The Kenyon Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, and World Literature Today, among other places.
Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of more than twenty books or plays. His most recent book of poems, Irreverent Litanies, was published in 2019 by Regal House. Rogow’s other books of poetry include Talking with the Radio: poems inspired by jazz and popular music and The Number Before Infinity. His poems have appeared in a variety of magazines, from the American Poetry Review to ZYZZYVA. He is the editor of an anthology of U.S. poetry, The Face of Poetry (University of California Press, 2005), which was the culmination of his nine years presenting national poets at the Lunch Poems Reading Series at the University of California, Berkeley.
Host Dennis Morton welcomed two guests to the Poetry Show on October 4, 2015. One was Catamaran Fall 2015 Issue contributor, poet Tom Crawford, who came to read from and discuss his new book, Caging the Robin. The other guest was Catherine Segurson, creator and editor of a true Santa Cruz treasure – Catamaran Literary Reader. To hear the one hour podcast tune in here:
http://blogs.kusp.org/poetryshow/2015/10/05/tom-crawford-and-a-new-catamaran/
Evolve!
Nurturing the New in Consciousness, the Arts, and Culture
with host Robin White Turtle Lysne, M.A., M.F.A., Ph.D.
This week's show on Evolve! features the Catamaran Writing Conference at Pebble Beach, which offers writers a chance to emerse themselves in literary history of the Central Coast while working on their poetry, or prose. This year the 2015 conference featured teachers such as: Ellen Bass, Jerico Brown, Christian Kiefer, Elizabeth McKenzie, Scott Hutchins, John Straley, Robin Hemley, Frances Lefkowitz. Set on the beautiful campus of Robert Louis Stevenson School, the four day conference offers workshops on craft, lectures, trips to Cannery Row - John Steinbeck’s inspiration, to Tor House of Robinson Jeffers, and Point Lobos, as well as Spoken Word drop in workshops, a Karen Joy Fowler lecture, student/faculty readings, and so much more. Interviews of the Founding Director, Catherine Segurson and many of the teachers are highlighted in this program of Evolve! You can listen to the podcast here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fireflywillowslive/2015/08/20/evolve
