How will you celebrate? [by Shanna Compton]

National Poetry Month begins tomorrow, as readers of this blog surely know. It's also the tenth year of NaPoWriMo, during which millions (OK maybe hundreds) of poets attempt to write a poem every day during the month of April.


Maureen Thorson started NaPoWriMo as a personal challenge, on her blog, back in 2003. (That's how we met: I read along as she posted that first year, and the next year joined her, as did several other folks.) And it's grown from there, unofficially, wildly, rhizomatically. 

I'll be posting my daily drafts at the Bloof blog, along with Bloof poets Danielle Pafunda, Sandra Simonds, Elisabeth Workman, Becca Klaver, Pattie McCarthy, Jared White, Kirsten Kaschock and Peter Davis. Catie Rosemurgy will also be joining the party. Some of us will be disappearing our drafts after 24-hours, so catch 'em while you can!

You'll find hundreds of other participants at the main NaPoWriMo site. And if you're up for this challenge yourself, you can add your site here. 

We'll also be celebrating at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, founded by poet/printer Christopher Fritton. If you're within driving distance of the Karpeles Manuscript Library in Buffalo, start packing, because this year's fair looks amazing: readings and musical performances each night (starting Thursday, April 4), 150+ vendors at the book fair showing off their small press wares, book arts workshops, and more! 

And it's all free. Each of the associated events has its own Facebook page with more details, but here's the handy master schedule. If you spot me at the bookfair or this afterparty reading Saturday night, be sure to come say hi. (I'll be reading poems by Jennifer L. Knox and Peter Davis, as well as a few of my own.) 

To get ready for the bookfair, we're currently finishing up the last 20 copies of Jared White's This Is What It Is Like to Be Loved By Me and making the very first copies of Becca Klaver's Nonstop Pop. We also have a few remaining copies of Hailey Higdon's Packing, the first chapbook in our 2012-2013 handmade series, so we're bringing those too, along with all of our paperback titles.

Also daily in April on the internetz, Sarah Blake Schoenholtz will be hosting the second annual NPM Daily series of mini essays on all things poetic, with pieces promised by Kimiko Hahn, Cornelius Eady, Susan Wheeler, Tracy Brimhall, Oliver de la Paz, Janet Holmes, Noah Eli Gordon, Ada Limón, and many more. So point your browsers there too. 

There are readings everywhere, too many to list, but the Academy of American Poets calendar is a good place to look for them, and certainly if you're in Boston or New York the Best of the Best American Poetry celebrations on April 4th and 11th are not to be missed.

Enjoy!   

Comments

[EmilyLloyd]

For those on Twitter and Vine, I have an additional idea for NaPoWriMo I'd like to see spread--make 6-second films of favorite lines of poems, your own or others', & post to Twitter & Vine with hashtags #vinealine and #npm13. I blogged about it here if folks want to share via Tumblr, etc: http://poesygalore.blogspot.com/2013/03/national-poetry-month-on-vine-twitter.html Thanks for considering!

[Shanna Compton]

Thanks, Emily! I'll have to check out Vine and will follow on Twitter.