POETRY FROM PARADISE VALLEY

POETRY FROM PARADISE VALLEY
Click Image to Visit the Pecan Grove Press Web Page for Poetry from Paradise Valley

POETRY FROM PARADISE VALLEY web page

Poetry From Paradise Valley

Pecan Grove Press has released an anthology of poems, a sampling of works published in Valparaiso Poetry Review during its first decade, from the original 1999-2000 volume to the 2009-2010 volume.


Poetry from Paradise Valley includes a stellar roster of 50 poets. Among the contributors are a former Poet Laureate of the United States, a winner of the Griffin International Prize, two Pulitzer Prize winners, two National Book Award winners, two National Book Critics Circle winners, six finalists for the National Book Award, four finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award, two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, and a few dozen recipients of other honors, such as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, etc.

Readers are encouraged to visit the Poetry from Paradise Valley page at the publisher's web site, where ordering information about the book can be found.

Best Books of Indiana 2011: Finalist. Judges' Citation: "Poetry from Paradise Valley is an excellent anthology that features world-class poetry, including the work of many artists from the Midwest, such as Jared Carter, Annie Finch, David Baker, and Allison Joseph. It’s an eclectic and always interesting collection where poems on similar themes flow into each other. It showcases the highest caliber of U. S. poetry."
—Indiana Center for the Book, Indiana State Library

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Allen Ginsberg's "Howl": The Movie

This week, the roster of independent films to be premiered and to contend for prizes at the Sundance Film Festival was announced. More than 100 movies have been chosen for screenings to be held during the festival’s ten days of events, January 21-31. Attendees at Utah’s Park City will have an opportunity to view Howl, one of the more anticipated works, which concerns Allen Ginsberg’s composition of his most famous poem, “Howl,” as well as its publication by City Lights Books and the subsequent trial for charges of obscenity that occurred more than half a century ago.

The film, which presents James Franco’s portrayal of Ginsberg (pictured here), as well as other Hollywood stars—including Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, Alan Alda, and Treat Williams—in supporting roles, is directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, best known for Academy Award-winning documentaries such as Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt and The Times of Harvey Milk.

Allen Ginsberg first introduced his groundbreaking poem in October of 1955 at a poetry reading in San Francisco’s Six Gallery. Ginsberg’s performance of the poem created an immediate response from listeners, who knew the landscape of Modern American poetry had been expanded. Kenneth Rexroth once described the experience of Ginsberg’s reading to be a significant change in the voice of American poetry as oral presentation in opposition to merely words on the printed page. Michael McClure, who attended the reading, wrote about a gathering in which people were left “cheering or wondering, but knowing at the deepest level that a barrier had been broken, that a human voice and body had been hurled against the harsh wall of America.”

Lawrence Ferlinghetti also attended the reading, and he promptly requested from Ginsberg a manuscript of “Howl” for a poetry series published by Ferlinghetti’s fledgling press, City Lights Books. After the poem’s release in Howl and Other Poems, copies were obtained by the government as evidence in an obscenity trial targeting language within “Howl.” The 1957 trial extended for months, with testimony by poets, editors, and professors in support of Ginsberg’s poem as a work of cultural and social significance. The court’s verdict concluded that publication of “Howl” was legal, covered by the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and equal protection, and it proved to be a landmark decision that has influenced content included in all sorts of art forms during the past fifty years.

Readers are invited to listen to Allen Ginsberg’s reading of “Howl.”

1 comment:

Joelle Biele said...

Thanks for this! It'll be interesting to see how they dramatize a writer at work & how Franco handles the part--