WEALTH OF IDEAS

The Sacramento Poetry Center is known for its Monday poetry readings, but sometimes we host special events on others days. One such event, a rapidly growing one, is Stories on Stage, which takes place on the last Friday of each month, hosted by poet Dorine Jennette. The event presents at least two fiction writers per session, but the stories are read by professional actors. The writers get to be part of the audience, listening to their stories being read. That has to feel good. I look forward to this Friday's event. Stories on Stage presents Zoe Keithley and Naomi Williams Read by Cynthia Speakman and Bonnie Antonini Friday, June 25 at 7:30 PM 1719 25th Street at Crossroads for the Arts Guest Host: Dorine Jennette Naomi Williams was born in Japan and spoke no English until she was 6 years old. A recent graduate of the MA program in Creative Writing at UC Davis, Naomi's short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Southern Review, A Public Space, American Sh...

I finally got Laila Lalami's short story collection, "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits", and reading each story is like a challenge to write. Often, as I write my stories, the issue I face repeatedly is that of appealing to a wide audience while presenting a realistic picture of my story's context. Having been out of Zimbabwe for over fourteen years, I often challenge myself to make the stories capture that setting as I remember and imagine it, but I also work hard to infuse that universal appeal which makes the stories deeply felt, etc. The excitement for a writer is usually that of finding how other writers treat matters of particularity and universality, and Laila Lalami is an expert is this kind of delivery. She is Moroccan writer based in California, and her works are published in the United States, which, from a writer's point of view, is a milestone. So then it is natural that in reading her, I seek to see how she breaks those barriers that would exclude s...

Tonight I hosted a group reading at the Sacramento Poetry Center. The group, formed seven years ago in Sacramento, calls itself the Zen Marxist Launderettes. Seven of the group's nine members came to the reading and they treated us to come great craft, gentle but jolting. The launderette sisters who read tonight are Margaret Burns, Cecile Martin, Ellen Johnson, Mira Kores, Sandra Senne, Emily Wright, and Laura Ann Walton. They read mostly from their new book Wring , which is scheduled to be reviewed soon right here on WOI. In her introduction to Wring , Julia Connor, former Sacramento Poet Laureate, said, " The only real essential of a gift economy is that its goods be passed along from hand to hand. For only when the works of the imagination are carried over into the real--the poem on the page--can imagination create the future." And indeed, ZML, which started as a workshop, has "co-conspired" to launder words with which to convey truth. As one of the poets, Em...

Irene Sabatini has won the 2010 Orange Award for New Writers (£10,000)with her novel The Boy Next Door. Di Speirs, Chair of Judges said: “Immediately engaging, vivid and buzzing with energy, The Boy Next Door is the work of a true storyteller. At heart a love story, it is also so much more as, through the experiences of its charismatic protagonist, it charts the first two decades of the emerging Zimbabwe with honesty, humour and humanity.” This award was launched in 2005 as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations for the Orange Prize for Fiction. It focus is on "emerging talent and the evidence of future potential". All first works of fiction - including novels, short story collections and novellas, written in English by a woman of any age or nationality and published as a book in the UK - are eligible. Congratulations, Irene.

Cosmas Mairosi is one of the performers in the Speak the Mind Poetry event at Artscape Theatre - Cape Town, Western Cape. Date: Thu 10 Jun 2010 8:00 pm (less than 3 hours from now). Speak the Mind Poetry (Cape Town)- Is a hip, classy and cultured annual beat poetry/spoken word showcase. The Cape Town edition of the event sees its 3rd edition taking place on 10 and 11 June 2010. This year, Speak The Mind will be hosting some of the most renowned poets, from Africa and the Diaspora: Samantha Thornhill (Trinidad/USA) and Tumi Molekane (of Tumi and the Volume), Cosmas Mairosi (Zimbabwe), Nomsa Mazwai, and Iain "the Ewok" Robinson, plus many more. `Musos` such as Dave Ferguson and `Sugah` Mbuthuma will add melodious shots of jazzy, Afro, funky flavour to both evenings. Cosmasi Mairosi is one of the most vibrant performance poets from Zimbabwe. He has published poetry in different journals and anthologies. Cosmasi Mairosi, performing on First Street, Harare.

...especially if they roar: some of my favorite books this week: ...the two new African anthologies are demanding attention:

I just receieved my contributor's copy of this new collection of short stories by African writers. Published in the United States by Africa World Press (Trenton, NJ), the collection contains works by writers from 15 African countries. Going down the Contents pages, I see three writers from Zimbabwe, three from Cameroon, thirteen from Nigeria, four from South Africa, five from Morocco, and so on. I recognize some of the names, and a few are my friends: Eresina Hwede (Zimbabwe), Prince Mensah (Ghana), and Temitayo Olofinlua (Nigeria). In all, there are forty-eight (48) writers in the anthology. Basically, this a collection of African flash fiction since the stories are around 800-900 words long. The book was edited by Dike Okoro, professor of English and World Literature at Olive-Harvey College, Chicago. My story is an excerpt from one of my Mukoma stories entitled "A Long Night". The range of issues covered by the stories is wide, but what's more impressive is how th...

Title: Five Prayers of Apples by Margaret Hoehn Publisher: Spire Press, 2009 ISBN: 978-1-934828-07-6 Reviewed by Emmanuel Sigauke Five Prayers of Apples is an inspiring collection of beautifully crafted poems. The poet encourages us to see hope in the least expected places, even in broken glass. The collection starts with the poem “What Softly Calls Back”, which reminds us that “the world reaches out / to comfort itself”. This search for comfort, the need to register a presence, is not a passive one. The poet tells us that “even the parts we thought / were mute are more poem / than we could have imagined.” It’s the complexity of life often disguised by plainness and unpredictability. All things around us, trees, grass, rocks, birds, are full of this richness of life; they sing it, whether we pay attention or not, but in not paying attention we lose out on a lot that would enrich us. Important messages about life are everywhere, even in the language of our wounds or in “those long / s...