Walk It Out...or Peripatetic Reveries

Fellow AWGOWCers,

The powers that be at our generous meeting place have put a nix on our previously arrived at schedule.  In short, we're back to our normal meeting time, next week (12/10) in the back corner 7 p.m.  This means that the following meeting will fall on Christmas Eve, and we all voted not to meet prior to the day Santa arrives, so it's December 10th and then onto January 2010.  Don't fret though as we have a special project cooking up to knock the curse off the post-Holiday blues. 


That being said, for next meeting, write a poem about walking akin to the last issue of Poetry magazine.  It doesn't have to be anything special: just you walking and seeing.  Be one with the peripatetics.  Kick off your sandals, gaze, philosophize, and repeat.

Happy dreams.

Your faithful,

AWGOWC

Meeting on 11/12 not 11/5

In my zeal for all things writing-related, I mistakenly wrote that the group will meet tomorrow (11/5) when tomorrow is only the first Thursday of the month and we should be meeting on 11/12.  Hopefully you'll get this before you make plans, but have an extra week on me in the meantime.  I fixed the last post so it reflects this date.  Sorry for the confusion.

Your loving,

AWGOWC

November is NANOWRIMO!

We're an abbreviated writing group, which means we don't read long forms simply because it takes a long time to critique and read properly.  However, so no one thinks we don't love the novel at the AWGOWC, I'm attaching this link to National Novel Writing Month or NANOWRIMO, as the kids say.  I'm making a half-hearted attempt at trying it this time with a work in progress, which is probably cheating, but we're not much for rules.  Give it a shot.

Color me...late with this post

This week's assignment will be to write a short piece/poem/proem on a color, using N. Scott Momaday's "The Colors of Night" essayistic prose poem as a guide.  The work itself does not specifically mention a color but tries to evoke the feeling of color.  Here is a link to one of the parts, "White," from Momaday's poem.  See you on Thursday (11/12).

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZZAH9w63zRcC&lpg=PA97&ots=qzMzLwSkE2&dq=%22an%20old%20man's%20son%20was%20killed%20far%20away%20in%20the%20Staked%20Plains%22&pg=PA97#v=onepage&q=%22an%20old%20man's%20son%20was%20killed%20far%20away%20in%20the%20Staked%20Plains%22&f=false

Open Mics & Literary Events

Here are a few open mic events in the area.  Get out there and share your work!

Monday Nights 8:30PM-1:00AM; Recurring
Sacred Grounds
4819 E Busch Blvd # 104
Tampa, FL 33617-6096

Come to this open and encouraging open mic that looks for poets, thesbians, musicians, visual artists, etc! Come Strut Your stuff.

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Doorstop Productions hosts OPEN MIC
Thursdays Nights 7:00PM- 9:00PM; Recurring
CAFE HEY
1540 N. Franklin Avenue
Tampa, FL 33602
 

Come Share w/ Everyone! Poetry/Writing Events

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Black on Black Rhyme
Sundays, 9PM; Recurring
The Kizmet
1101 First Ave. N.
St. Petersburg 

One of the Bay area's longest-running spoken-word groups hosts this weekly open-mic and spoken-word event featuring local and national talents, hosted by LIFE. For more info, visit www.blackonblackrhyme.com or call 813-810-3582.

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Heart and Soul Poets Forum
First & Third Thursday of the month, 6:30-8:30PM; Recurring
Jason's Deli
Cypress Point Shopping Center
25801 U.S. 19 N.
Clearwater

An open mic and workshop hosted by Fran Meyers and Christine Curti; for more info, call (727) 724-8576 or (727) 207-2326.
 

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Times Festival of Reading
Saturday, Oct. 24th 10:00AM - 5:00PM
USF St. Petersburg, Poynter Institute, and FWRI

The free Festival is a celebration of literacy featuring nationally renowned authors, book signings, vendors and food court. Authors confirmed for the event include Andy Borowitz, Taylor Branch, Sen. Bob Graham, Amber Tamblyn, and Jane Velez-Mitchell. For the complete list of authors and other activities, please visit the Festival website: www.festivalofreading.com.

Free and open to the public!
Phone: (727) 873-4842
Contact: Sudsy Tschiderer

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Spoken Word Night
First Friday of the month, 8PM; Recurring

International Bazaar
2010 E. Busch Blvd.
Tampa

A monthly event hosted by writer/poet Candace Defoor.

Free!

Music Events

Here are two recurring music events that are open to the public.  Go out and support the arts in our community!

Open Mic
Friday Nights; Recurring 

Jake's Java Joint

3644 W. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa

All types of performers — musicians, poets, actors, comedians and others — are invited to this weekly open-mic event hosted by Aris of CreativeMetro.com.

http://www.myspace.com/jakesjavajointmusic
Phone:(813) 600-3800

Monday Night Jazz
Monday Nights 8:00PM - 10:00PM
University of South Florida, Tampa
FAH 101 - Music Recital Hall

4202 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL‎
 

One of the best-kept secrets at USF, the Monday Night Jazz Series welcomes acclaimed musicians to perform with the USF Jazz students and faculty on the last Monday of each month. $8 students/seniors, $12 adults (Advance Sales); $10 students/seniors, $15 adults (Day of Performance)

Phone: 974-2323

The King Died and then the Queen Died of...

E.M. Forster's famous delineation between story and plot comes to life in Ron Carlson's flash fiction piece "Grief" linked here:
http://www.mississippireview.com/1996/rcarlson.html.  For next week then (10/22), write a one paragraph short-short piece that makes a revelation by the final sentence.  

Also, here are links to sites where you can find information on publishing poems and short stories.  

http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazines/
http://www.duotrope.com/
http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines?apage=* 

Dust off Your Grecian Urns

For next meeting (10/8), we're writing an ode in the style of Lisa Jarnot's postmodernist prose poem "Ode" in GAPP. Here's a link to her reading the poem. Hope to see you there. http://www.naropa.edu/archive/audio/jarnot_lisa_99p015_clip_ode.mp3

Speculative History

For this week's obstruction/assignment, we're doing a proem that creates a new chapter in history, a moment that should have happened or one that could have happened but thankfully did not. I gave Billy Collins' poem "The History Teacher" as an example. Click here to read it: http://www.billy-collins.com/2005/06/the_history_tea.html.

See you at 7 on 9/24.

Orphee

Here's a link to Orphee by Jean Cocteau courtesy of Google.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3575294617584151007&ei=woSYSsanBKOmrAL7_cGEBA&q=orphee+cocteau&hl=en&client=firefox-a

"At the Quinte Hotel" by Al Purdy

Abbreviated Writers Unite!

Here is the first of possibly several to many posts on this here web log for the Abbreviated Writers' Group of Wesley Chapel. In an effort to get more people involved in the site, I wanted to have a space away from facebook on the web that anyone can access. I'll try to keep both spots up and running with updates for as long as I can or as long as both stay relevant.

Don't forget next week's assignment: a one sentence prose poem. I used the example from Killarney Clary. I found a link here to it from the LA Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1989-07-09/books/bk-5161_1

Kurt mentioned also the great poems from Whitman, one of which (not the one he mentioned, but another fine one) you can find here: http://www1.bartleby.com/142/51.html.

Next meeting: 8/27.