Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Shadow-Bird by Annie Finch Annie Finch. Annie Finch (born October 31, 1956 in New Rochelle / New York ) is an American poet, translator, librettist, editor and literary critic. Finch graduated from Yale University , earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Houston, and a doctorate from Stanford University . She directs the Stonecast creative writing program at the University of Southern Maine . In addition to essays and literary theoretical writings, Finch published several volumes of poetry and long poems . Dance and music events inspired by their works have been held at the Spoleto Festival , the Lawrence Conservatory , the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art . She also wrote the librettos for the operas Lily Among the Goddesses and Marina , which were composed by Deborah Drattell . She was u. a. was awarded scholarships from the Black Earth Institute and the Wesleyan Writers Conference and received the 2009 Robert Fitzgerald Award . The book of poetry Calendars was shortlisted for the Foreword Poetry Book of the Year Award in 2010 . Annie Finch. Annie Finch (born 1956) is an American poet. She is the author or editor of fifteen books of poetry, translation, and criticism, including five books of poetry and poetry in translation, as well as opera libretti and poetic collaborations with visual art, music, theater, and dance. Finch is known for her use of a variety of poetic forms, sometimes simple, sometimes incantatory, and sometimes intricate, including traditional forms, invented forms, and performance-based chants. Her writings on poetry address topics including meter and prosody, postmodern form, and the place of poetry in contemporary life. She is also known for developing an aesthetic of women's poetic traditions, publishing articles on eighteenth- and nineteenth- century "poetesses" starting with a 1987 article on Lydia Sigourney for Legacy ; editing with Laura Mandell the texts for the original online Poetess Archive at Miami University; and founding and moderating for its first decade the international listserv for discussion of women's poetry, WOM- PO. In the title essay of The Body of Poetry, Finch connects not only her poetry's frequent thematic focus on nature, the body, and spiritual issues, but also its attention to pattern and sound, with her earth-centered spiritual practice. Because of her continual efforts, primarily as a poet but also as an editor and critic, to recast the terms of conversation about the nature and role of form in contemporary poetry, an article in The Dictionary of Literary Biography names her "one of the central figures in contemporary American poetics." [ 1 ] Contents. Biography. Annie Finch was born on October 31, 1956 in New Rochelle, New York. Her family background on both sides included artists, intellectuals, and political activists, a number of whom published poetry. Her maternal great-aunt, Jessie Wallace Hughan, was a founder of the War Resisters League. Her mother, a poet and doll artist, served as president of the National Institute of American Doll Artists. Her father was a Conscientious Objector during World War II before beginning his career as a scholar of pre-Socratic philosophy and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and a professor of philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College and Hunter College. In the introduction to "The Body of Poetry," Finch claims that her parents met at a lecture by Auden, and her essay "Desks" describes the influences of her father's book collection and her mother's example as a poet. [ 2 ] Finch graduated from Oakwood Friends' School, a Quaker boarding school in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1973 and then studied filmmaking, art, and poetry at Bard College at Simon's Rock before earning her B.A. in English Literature at Yale University, magna cum laude, in 1979. Her most influential teachers at Yale included medievalists Marie Borroff and Fred Robinson, poet and prosodist John Hollander, and prosodist Penelope Laurans. In 1983 she earned her M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Houston, writing her Masters thesis — a trilogy of mythic verse dramas in meter — under the supervision of playwright Ntozake Shange. Finch then entered the graduate program in English and American literature at Stanford University, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1990 under the supervision of literary scholar and Anne Sexton biographer Diane Middlebrook. Finch self-published her first book of poetry, The Encyclopedia of Scotland , in 1982. It has since been reissued by Salt Publishing. Her subsequent books of poetry include Eve (1997), Calendars (2003), and the "narrative libretto" Among the Goddesses (2009). In 1997 she founded WOM-PO: Discussion of Women's Poetry. She is married to the environmental organizer Glen Brand and they have two children. In 2004 she moved to Maine, where she is currently Professor of English and Director of Stonecoast MFA Program, the low-residency MFA in creative writing at the University of Southern Maine. Poetic Themes and Strategies. In an article in Contemporary Authors , published two years before her first full-length book of poetry, Finch made a remark that anticipates the focus of her career: "To me, poetic form, with its unverbal, physical power, is radically important in reconnecting us with our human roots and rediscovering our intimacy with nature . . .. rhythmic formal poetry is of great value in celebrating, commemorating, and cementing the bonds of community." [ 3 ] As Claire Keyes notes in the entry on Finch in Scribner's American Writers , "A strong current in her work is the decentering of the self, a theme which stems from her deep connection with the natural world and her perception of the self as part of nature." [ 4 ] While Finch has remained consistently interested in formal poetics since the early 1990s, from the outset much in her work has differentiated her from the movement called "New Formalism." Henry Taylor wrote in a review of Eve, "while much would seem to align her with the so-called new formalists, Finch cheerfully ignores many of their stated principles" by not writing about contemporary life and forgoing a "natural" idiom. [ 5 ] In all her books but especially in Calendars, which was reissued in 2008 with a "Readers Companion" that offers sample scansions of fifteen separate meters used in the book and a long list of formal structures, Finch exemplifies her own invented terms "metrical diversity," "an exaltation of forms," and "multiformalism." In a blog for the Poetry Foundation, "Listening to Poetry,", she writes, "A friend asked me a few months ago, as I was discussing one of the poems I had been writing, “does it ever depress you, thinking that most people won’t know what you are doing with meter?” Maybe it should depress me, but honestly, it doesn’t. Meter just gives me too much joy for me to worry too much about it. . . . Meter is like music; you can enjoy it whether or not you understand why, and you can easily enjoy poems in meter by reading aloud to yourself, even if you are only used to reading free verse. . . . Meanwhile, just in case, my publisher is busy producing an audio version of my book on CD." Such statements, along with Poetry Foundation blog essays on such topics as "Occasioning Occasional Poetry" and "Where Are You, General Audience?," imply that one of Finch's goals is to appeal to a wider audience for poetry. Yet s good part of the critical interest attracted by Finch's poetry has also come from the avant-garde end of the poetic spectrum. Finch's first book, The Encyclopedia of Scotland, was re-published by the innovative British publisher Salt Publishing, whose website describes it as "an early experimental work . . .a performance poem for soul-voice and attendant daemons." The book carries an endorsement by exploratory poet Jennifer Moxley claiming that it anticipates Stacey Dorris, and the book's longest review appears in the avant-garde-leaning journal Jacket. Her third book of poetry, Calendars, was compared in a review by Ron Silliman to the work of Robert Duncan and Bernadette Mayer. [ 6 ] . Seeing Shadows Of Birds In The Dark. S o I've always been scared of the dark to. Why? Because if I keep my eyes open long enough I can see those moving shadows. We have recently moved into a new home and we've been there for a few months. And I've never had such a strong feeling that I am not alone in a home before. Anyway when I go to sleep I've been so curious lately I keep my eyes open and I see this big hovering mass above my bed and its only in the corner because I've moved my bed a few times and it stays in the corner. Also, I see the moving shadows and they're not human figures. They're big birds. Like hawks or owls I'm not sure but they're flying everywhere like vultures. For some reason I get the feeling that they're owls. A couple of years back by husband and I were driving through my dad's neighborhood and there was an owl in broad daylight standing directly in the center of the road just looking our way. We were like what the hell? So after all this time has passed I haven't thought much about it until we have moved into this house. And there is an owl hanging around our home. He perches on the corner of our house, which is a trailer. I want to say its creepy but I'm beginning to become more curious. I've been seeing shadows forever and they have been nothing but blobs until now. Does anyone have any ideas? I remember when I was about 3 or 4. I know likely that I remember this but It was such an odd occurrence that I do. I was walking into the kitchen in our apartment to throw away a banana peel when I saw two men standing in the kitchen facing toward me looking at me directly. One was dressed in black the other in white. I turned around to look for my mom because I was like do we have people over? And I looked back and they were gone. I chose to ignore it and continue on to the trash and threw away my peel. Lovers' Last Go Around. Boog City presents Dusie Press and the Dusie Players! d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press Dusie Press (Switzerland) Tuesday, May 19 6pm sharp free. ACA Galleries 529 W. 20th Street, 5th floor NYC. Event will be hosted by Dusie editor Susana Gardner. Featuring readings from Cara Benson Elizabeth Bryant Annie Finch Susana Gardner Jennifer Karmin Nicole Mauro Marthe Reed Jessica Smith. Noise experiment poetics of the Dusie Players wine, cheese, and crackers, too. Curated and with an introduction by Boog City editor David Kirschenbaum. Directions:C/E to 23rd St., 1/9 to 18th Street Venue is between 10th & 11th avenues. The Dusie Kollektiv is made up of 50 poets who each produce a chapbook for distribution among the kollektiv members. In past years, participants have published their own chapbooks, but for this year, the third of the kollektiv, members published one another's chapbooks from author-editor combinations which were created randomly. Many editors published their chapbook under the name of a small press with which they were already affiliated, and some created small presses just for the kollektiv. The point with the various names of press was to reify ownership and flood the market with 50 new presses. Each year is different for the kollektiv, as every year there are different participants. With that said, there are many loyal kollektiv members who have been with the project since the first year. Change is inevitable, and energy and enthusiasm are necessary, but ultimately it is the group ethos which has kept them together and moving forward. The project focuses more on process and risk, and writers have no inhibition regarding publishing as it is a completely open platform and all works get published. Also, the group exchange gives an extra push in way of timeline and production, which also motivates creation. Cara Benson edits the online journal Sous Rature. Her first full length collection (made) is forthcoming from BookThug. Her chapbook Quantum Chaos and Poems: A Manifest(o)ation (BookThug) co-won the 2008 bpNichol Prize. Other chaps include He Writes (No Press), UP (Dusie Kollectiv), and, with Kai Fierle-Hedrick and Kathrin Schaeppi, Spell/ing ( ) Bound (ellectrique press). Benson edited the interdisciplinary book Prediction (forthcoming from Chain). She lives and writes in the analog world of upstate New York. Elizabeth Bryant is the editor and publisher of the ongoing lit experiment Defeffable, and CR79 Books. Her first full-length serial-poem (nevertheless enjoyment is forthcoming this fall from Quale Press, and her latest chapbook, Fluorescence Buzz, was published this spring via the Dusie Kollektiv. She has new poems and interviews in Dusie #8 and Gerry Mulligan, and a book review in the upcoming issue of Jacket. She is also co-curator of the Bard Roving Reading Series. Annie Finch's books of poetry include The Encyclopedia of Scotland, Eve, Calendars, and Among the Goddesses, as well as Shadow-Bird from Dusie Kollektiv. She has also written or edited books about poetry, most recently Multiformalisms: Postmodern Poetics of Form, A Poet's Ear, and A Poet's Craft. She lives in Maine where she directs the Stonecoast low-residency M.F.A. program in creative writing. Susana Gardner lives in Switzerland where she edits Dusie Press and curates the Dusie Kollektiv. The author of several chapbooks, her first book [lapse insel weary], was published by The Tangent Press. She writes and translates and will soon begin a poetic reading series as well at the DADA Haus--Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich. Jennifer Karmin's text-sound epic, Aaaaaaaaaaalice, will be published by Flim Forum Press this year. She curates the Red Rover Series and is co- founder of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise. Her multidisciplinary projects have been presented nationally at festivals, artist-run spaces, and on city streets. Karmin teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College and works as a Poet-in-Residence for the Chicago Public Schools. New poems are out in Cannot Exist, MoonLit, Otoliths, Come Together: Imagine Peace (Bottom Dog Press), and Not A Muse (Haven Books). Nicole Mauro has published poems and criticism in numerous journals. She is the author of the chapbooks Odes (Sardines), Dispatch (co- authored with Marci Nelligan; Dusie), The Contortions (Dusie), and Tax-Dollar Super-Sonnet (Pendergast/Dusie). She is the co-editor, with Marci Nelligan, of an interdisciplinary book about sidewalks, Intersection: Sidewalks and Public Space (ChainArts). Her first full-length poetry collection, The Contortions, is due out from Dusie this year. She lives in the San Francisco bay area with her husband Patrick, and daughters Nina and Faye. She teaches rhetoric and writing at the University of San Francisco. Marthe Reed’s poetry has appeared in New American Writing, Golden Handcuffs Review, New Orleans Review, and Sulfur, and in numerous e- zines such as HOW2, MiPoesias, Exquisite Corpse, Aught, eratio, and Moria. New work appears in Big Bridge and is forthcoming from Fairy Tale Review. Her book, Tender Box, A Wunderkammer, is published by New Orleans' Lavender Ink, and her chapbook (em)bodied bliss is published by jimmie pennies press and Dusie Kollektiv. Jessica Smith is the editor of Outside Voices Press, an imprint of Bootstrap Productions. She is the author of Organic Furniture Cellar. She also edits Foursquare, a monthly women's poetry magazine. The Dusie Players The noise experiment poetics of the Dusie Players will be strange and experimental, unpredictable and odd. This will be the first performance of its kind for Dusie Kollektiv participants and include works of Dusie past, present, and future. Annie Finch --> Annie Finch (* 31. Oktober 1956 in New Rochelle/New York) ist eine US-amerikanische Lyrikerin, Übersetzerin, Librettistin, Herausgeberin und Literaturkritikerin. Finch studierte an der Yale University, erwarb einen Mastergrad für kreatives Schreiben an der University of Houston und den Doktorgrad an der Stanford University. Sie leitet das Stonecast-Programm für kreatives Schreiben an der University of Southern Maine. Neben Essays und literaturtheoretischen Schriften veröffentlichte Finch mehrere Gedichtbände und Langgedichte. Von ihren Werken angeregte Tanz- und Musikveranstaltungen fanden beim Spoleto Festival , am Lawrence Conservatory , dem Cincinnati Conservatory of Music und dem New Yorker Metropolitan Museum of Art statt. Sie verfasste zudem die Libretti für die Opern Lily Among the Goddesses und Marina , die von Deborah Drattell komponiert wurden. Sie wurde u. a. mit Stipendien des Black Earth Institute und der Wesleyan Writers Conference ausgezeichnet und erhielt 2009 den Robert Fitzgerald Award . Der Gedichtband Calendars gelangte 2010 in die Shortlist für den Foreword Poetry Book of the Year Award .