la fovea

What is this strange concept? I love the visceral images included in poetics. Check it out.

Thursday Prompt: I never...

Getting to Know You: Sometimes I have my students play "two truths and a lie." You tell three things about yourself and the class must guess what the lie might be. The key is to tell the lie convincingly enough and select truths so ludicrous that each is disguised as the other.

Drinking Game: I never. I never ate a watermelon whole. I never... The game is to pick things you think everyone else has done. Often this game can get raunchy, such as, "I've never had sex in a public place..." It becomes a confessional game, where others have to take a drink, or a shot, when they themselves have done that never.

Today's prompt: Write your own "I never" or tall tale. See if you can disguise it as the truth.

telling lies

In Nin Andrews' Sleeping With Houdini*, a collection of prose poems, she wrote of an interview with a famous poet, where the poet confesses that he thinks of lies when he writes poems.

"Lie beautifully," she writes. "Lie convincingly. Lie. And then he did tell me his secret. The secret of the beautiful lie."

Writing poetry is a bit like telling lies. Even the confessional poems. We take the truth and bend it a bit, take poetic license, tell lies. It's the only way I can get away with it sometimes.

I've decided to try telling lies here, just for daily practice, for the beauty of art.

* This is my second review. I enjoyed writing the first so much, I thought I would give it another go.

Calendar Advisory/Photo Opportunity
For Immediate Release

Intermedia Arts presents
Emergence: Intimate Evenings of Poetry and Prose
Writer-to-Writer Mentorship Series Readings—January 7th & 9th, 2008

WHAT: Join mentors Anya Achtenburg, Louis Alemayehu and Jude Nutter for two spectacular evenings of poetry and prose, featuring thirteen of the twin cities’ most talented emerging writers. Emergence: Intimate Evenings of Poetry and Prose celebrates the passion and dedication of new and emerging writers, and brings to a close our fall semester of Writer-to-Writer, the adult mentorship program in which intimate relationships are created and nurtured between artists, mentors, and the written word. Writer-to-Writer is made possible thanks to generous support from the Jerome Foundation.

Fall 2007 Writer-to-Writer Mentees:
Gregory Chamberlin
Trisha Collopy
Cynthia French
Kathryn Holmquist
Robert Karimi
Julia Klatt Singer
D. M’Chelle
Debra Stone
Meghan Stotko
Molly Rose Sutton Kiefer
Francine Tolf
Greg Watson
Mary C. Yang

For the most up-to-date information, call Intermedia Arts at (612) 871-4444 or visit www.intermediaarts.org. Intermedia Arts is located at 2822 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408.

WHEN/WHERE:
January 7th & 9th , 2008
7:00 PM at Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis
$5 suggested donation

PHOTO/INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
Digital photos, audio, video, interview and photo opportunities are available upon request.

ABOUT WRITER-TO-WRITER:
Writer-to-Writer is an adult mentorship program that gives emerging and established writers the opportunity to advance to their next level of artistic development. Participants meet regularly throughout the program, with one established writer mentoring four-to-six emerging writers. Writer-to-Writer creates intimate relationships between artists. Mentors act as artistic catalysts and partners, providing each mentee with artistic feedback and professional guidance. This program allows advanced artists to develop their community-based teaching skills while working to support and strengthen our local literary community.

Intermedia Arts is a catalyst that builds understanding among people through art.

CONTACT:
Julie Bates
Phone: 612.874.2815
Email: Julie@Intermediaarts.org
Web: http://www.intermediaarts.org