Dear Reader,
If you are reading this you are already doing the thing most desperately needed by artists: supporting them. At the Henry Miller Memorial library we are dedicated to supporting free speech, enhancing our global dialogue through the arts, and maintaining a space where redwoods can continue to suck water from the air and live.
This year we have a number of artists who have bent the notion of what it means to be a writer in the 21st century. Like Henry Miller and Anais Nin, they have stepped to the edge of what is known and then jumped. Brian Henry’s words work with the blank page in a tightrope walk across the reader’s brain. Mark Lamoureux has taken a hammer to form and produced beautiful poem sculptures that still show the mark of the maker.
Katie Farris’ prose poems are a new brand of fairy tale, or perhaps I should say she harkens back to the beginning of the fairy tale form, when they were for adults, and told in salons around Paris by women who’s sexual energy overflowed in the telling of each tale, before the Brothers Grimm began their trek around Deutschland.
Sesshu Foster’s “Half-Baked Reviews” of some of the finest works ever written are enlightening and full of the energy his work is known for.
Ping-Pong has always been a champion of the global arts scene believing as we do that this dialogue between cultures produces great art. We have the whimsical poetry of the French-Canadian poet Guy Jean who re-interprets 17th century tavern songs and legends from the cultural heritage of Acadia, a culture destroyed when the British violently took over the region. His poetry also tips its hat to the French masters Rimbaud and Michaux.
We are also fortunate to have an excerpt from Cheryl Burke’s forthcoming memoir, All the Wrong Pills. We are very sad to report that Cheryl lost her battle with cancer this year. She was an amazing artist and will be missed.
Thank you once again for picking up this journal. The artists herein will astound you with their brilliance.
Hot Frogs,
Maria Garcia Teutsch
Editor-in-Chief
