Let your voice be heard! It is most important to the republik of poets here…

In this online (Zoom) workshop we will look at protest poetry in translation, and discuss poetry of witness in its context as an historical artifact. Writers will then be given a prompt and asked to generate their own poem of protest/witness for work-shopping.

Since it is the job of writers to bear witness to the truth, and the habit of writers to read widely, think deeply and seek their own counsel rather than adopt the propaganda of their leaders and the self-serving rationalizations of their fellow citizens, it should not be surprising that writers often find themselves in mortal opposition to the state apparatus: Naguib Mahfouz, a Nobel prize winning author, was stabbed for his liberal, secular political religious views. Wole Soyinka, Nigerian, had to flee for his life because of his support for democracy. Taslima Nasrin, a Bagladesh essayist who wrote in favor of women’s rights, was forced to flee to Europe under threat of assassination by religious extremists, and El Salvadoran Roque Dalton who was executed for his writing.  In the United States we have a continuous faction trying to ban books in libraries and state apparati silencing voices.

It is again a perilous time to be a poet. Let your voice be heard!

When? April 12th, 2021

Pacific: 9:00 AM (PST)

Email to request Zoom meeting information at poetrepublik (at) gmail (dot) com

The Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Presents:

Maria Garcia Teutsch
&
Danusha Laméris

Sunday, September 13, 2:00 p.m. via Zoom

Email jfellguth@sbcglobal.net by Sat. September 12 to receive a logon link

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 in: The Best American Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, The American Poetry Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, and Prairie Schooner. She is the 2020 recipient of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award. Her second book is Bonfire Opera (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pitt Poetry Series). She teaches poetry independently, and was the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, California.

Maria Garcia Teutsch is a poet, editor, educator and performance artist. She has published over 25 book/journals of poetry as editor-in-chief of the Homestead Review, published by Hartnell College in Salinas, and Ping-Pong journal of art and literature, published by the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California. She teaches poetry and creative writing at Hartnell College as a member of their faculty. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Ping-Pong Free Press, and publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Poet Republik Ltd. Her collection, The Revolution Will Have its Sky, won the Minerva Rising chapbook competition, judge: Heather McHugh. www.marialoveswords.com

Upcoming Reading: October 11 – Ken Weisner and Nils Peterson

For more information, please contact John Laue: (831) 684-0854

Sponsored by The Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium

This month’s Poet Republik feature is another poem from Jean-Noel Chazelle’s first collection of poetry, Le Sang de L’Étoile / Star-Blood. Poet Republik Ltd. is proud to publish his debut in a bilingual translation. Special thanks to Brooke Petersen for translating. Jean-Noel is already an accomplished artist whose paintings have been exhibited around the globe. Below is a sampling of the outstanding poetry in this collection. You can see the influence of his painterly mind in the lush images in his poetry. Enjoy! Read More >

another’s dream

Read More >

Gemini’s ginned up as if for war—

all that’s missing is a bullet and a poet:
O America give back Jack Spicer!

She pulls her ponytail higher—
give back the unruptured discs of her back,
give back Jack’s liver, and deliver her

from this tired romanticism!
She’ll fight you all with one fist
and a black wolf. She’ll fight you

all in this melancholia of night.
She’ll correct your grammar. She’ll write
words even she can’t pronounce,

soak black cherries in gin,
feverish arm herself with armfuls
of airplanes and soldiers—again,

O Jack, where are you again
tonight?—she’ll soldier into the bright
October sky.

Jennifer Minniti- Shippey is the Managing Editor of Poetry International literary journal, Director of Poetic Youth programs, and a professor at San Diego State University. She is the author of Done Dating DJs, winner of the 2009 Fool for Poetry Chapbook competition, presented by the Munster Literature Centre; Earth’s Horses & Boys, from Finishing Line Press; and After the Tour, from Calypso Editions. Her writing has appeared in Salamander, Spillway, Cider Press Review, Tar River Poetry, and others. Keep up with her news at jennyminnitishippey.com

A Wall in Philadelphia

Yellow stenciled
digits slashed
red with spray
paint, an asemic
text November
sun comprehends
as the limit of
its reach. Deep
green weeds
glow in the rift
where asphalt
meets wall—
arched leaves
wide as any
tire in the lot
drip light, but
the lines lead
the eye:
white oval
remnant
of a name
beneath
a square
cement patch.
The poem, all
that wants
to be said,
is said—there. Read More >

Low Rent

I grew up in a house
built as budget permitted,
one room at a time,
chicken wire poking
through crude plaster,
walls out of plumb. Read More >

Dylan Krieger’s collection, no ledge left to love, is the recipient of the Ping-Pong Free Press poetry prize of 2017, chosen by judge and poetry badass, Brian Henry. It is my extreme pleasure to share with you a sneak peek–one of my favorite poems out of this fascinating and essential collection, release date: December 1, 2017. Read More >

The Life Fact Shines

Eleni, don’t drive so fast

˜˜˜˜˜˜ Read More >

AWP Off-site reading, Dupont Circle!

I will be reading at the Mad Hatter for Minerva Rising Press on February 10th.

My book signing at Minerva Rising Press, AWP 2016

The Mad Hatter Dupont Circle

The last time I was in Dupont Circle it was to march with my friends against the first Iraq War under George H.W. Bush’s regime. We chanted “no blood for oil!”