Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Institute Presents Regie Cabico

Tomorrow night--that's Wednesday July 7--there will be a spoken word performance by renowned Filipino American poet Regie Cabico, 7 pm in the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium. Poet and UW professor Timothy Yu raves about Regie, describing him as "a compelling, provocative, and hysterically funny performer, and also a wonderful mentor and teacher to younger artists." Regie will be performing with another artist, Rachel McKibbens, as part of the Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Educator Training Institute going on at UW this week.

Here's a schedule of the public performances that are sponsored by the program, all of which are free:

http://www.thedailypage.com/theguide/details.php?event=241845

Summer in Madison

Some suggestions for how to spend next Sunday, July 11. First, take in the always enjoyable Art Fair on the Square, and then, from 2:00 - 3:30, attend the poetry reading and book signing at Avol's, where editor Patrick Randolph and some contributors will be reading from "Empty Shoes: Poems on the Hungry & Homeless." All proceed from book sales at the reading will go to benefit food pantries and homeless shelters.

Aimee Nez blogging for Ploughshares

Former poetry fellow, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, is the guest blogger this summer for the Ploughshares Blog...because, you know, when you have a three-year-old and have just given birth to your second son and you have a book coming out, well life gets so slow and you have to find some way to fill up your time.

Or in other words--Aimee, we're impressed.

TriQuarterly Online

The first issue of TriQuarterly Online is up and looks really great. There is fiction by our friend and neighbor Jane Hamilton and also an interview about teaching creative writing with last year's visiting writer, Janet Burroway. Check it out.

Tony Doerr in today's NY Times

From today's New York Times, here's Tony Doerr, former Institute fiction fellow, on mushroom hunting and coping with life during difficult times.

Something to Read This Weekend/Some Things to Look Forward to Reading

The current issue of Willow Springs features a story and commentary by Brandi Reissenweber (above) and poetry by Colleen Abel, two of our former Institute Fellows; and

Former CW major undergrad Monica Lewis's poem "Tile Sex" will appear in the forthcoming anthology from Fearless Books, Touching: Poems of Love, Longing, and Desire; and

Former MFA poet Lisa Marie Brodsky Auter will have several poems in the August issue of StepMom Magazine.

Congrats, to one and all.

Two Phenomenal Books, One Phenomenal Poet

In the summer 2010 issue of Rain Taxi both of Nick Lantz's books, The Lightning That Struck the Neighbor's House and We Don't Know We Don't Know are reviewed. Here's the first paragraph:

"Nick Lantz's We Don't Know We Don't Know and The Lightning That Strikes the Neighbors' House are both phenomenal books—the former is the 2009 Bakeless Prize-winner for poetry, the latter the 2010 Felix Pollack Prize-winner. Let's acknowledge that any writer who won just one of those contests would be worth attention; to win both prizes, and to have the books come out basically simultaneously, is the equivalent of a baseball player hitting a home run not just in his first at-bat, but off his first pitch."

Nick is a former MFA poet and Institute Fellow in poetry.

All Kinds of Good News

A few posts ago we congratulated Jesse Lee Kercheval on receiving a Wisconsin Library Association 2010 Outstanding Achievement award for her book of poetry, Cinema Muto. Today we learned that former MFA Lauren Groff and former undergrad Patrick Sommerville also received WLA 2010 Outstanding Achievement awards for their 2009 works of fiction, namely Lauren's story collection Delicate Edible Birds and Patrick's novel, The Cradle.

And warmest wishes to former Institute poet, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and her husband Dustin Parsons on the birth of Pascal's little brother, Jasper Rosendo Parsons.

Congratulations one and all.

Vanderbes and Trussoni: Best Summer Reads

Justin Cronin's summer reading recommendations for the Today Show include two novels by UW writers, Angelology by former undergrad Danielle Trussoni and Strangers at the Feast by former Institute Fellow, Jennifer Vanderbes. (That's Jen up above.)

Meet Verse Wisconsin

We've added a link to Verse Wisconsin today (it's over there to your right under "The Madison Community" heading) and while we were at it, we thought we'd also post this article about the history (and future) of Verse Wisconsin that appeared in the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters magazine. One of the things that makes our creative writing program so strong is the vibrant community writing scene that extends to all corners of the state, some of it university-affilliated, but much of it not. No matter where the writers hail from, it's a warm and generous community and you'll get a sense of just one of the many groups that are a part of it by clicking here.