Poetry madness!
Do you live in or near the following cities?
SEATTLE, WA
SANTA CRUZ, CA
SPOKANE, WA
AMHERST, MA
NORTHAMPTON, MA
ASHLAND, OR
PORTLAND, OR
NEW YORK, NY
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Then you must visit the POETRY BUS!! The bus will visit many, many more cities throughout the US and Canada too so check out the full schedule.
Stopping at 50 cities in 50 days, the Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour is the biggest literary event of 2006. Beginning September 4 and ending October 27, over one hundred poets, along with musicians, filmmakers and journalists, will participate as the bus traverses North America, bringing innovative poetry to big cities and small towns across the U.S. and Canada. Sponsored by Wave Books, the poetry bus will go more places with more poets reading more poems than was ever previously believed possible.
Venues include: The Space Needle in Seattle, WA; The Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD; The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, MN; The Bama Theater in Tuscaloosa, AL; James Turrell’s Roden Crater in AZ; Dia:Beacon in Beacon, NY; Dia Art Foundation in New York, NY; as well as bookstores, galleries, clubs, prisons and schools across the continent.
Participating poets include: Eileen Myles, James Tate, Cole Swensen, Dean Young, Joshua Beckman, Noelle Kocot, Matthew Zapruder, Tyehimba Jess, Hoa Nguyen, Richard Siken, Katy Lederer, Dara Wier, Arthur Sze, Catherine Wagner, Srikanth Reddy, Matthew Rohrer, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Bhanu Kapil and over 100 more.
It's insane, but amazing, and it's sponsored by Wave Books where I have my internship.
I'll be helping out with the Amherst and Northampton stops - shuttling poets around, bringing them food, posting flyers around the valley, and letting creative writing teachers know so they can tell their students.
The Bumbershoot events in Seattle should be awesome, so if you're going to the shoot, definitely check out the Poetry Bus! Here's the Poets & Writers article with more of the scoop. As more juicy details develop, I'll post updates.