You Are Hear: Rhymes and/or Reasons (April 2013)
In honor of National Poetry Month, we're featuring three of the scene's notables: Louis Jenkins, Connie Wanek and Freya Manfred, recorded live at Common Good Books.
ABOUT THE PODCAST: You Are Hear is a literary podcast production of mnartists.org. Each monthly edition will feature new, original work by a Minnesota writer or two. The show is available on our site, of course, but also mnartists.org’s Audioboo page (for ease of sharing and downloading). Stories, poems, humor pieces, spoken word performances and whatever else talented folks can do with nouns and verbs – all presented in downloadable audio form for you to enjoy when and where you choose. It’s like a dozen free little books to put in your ears.
ABOUT THE HOST: Brian Beatty has published his jokes, poems and short stories in a variety of print and online publications. He’s performed comedy all over the Twin Cities. Brian’s humor chapbook DUCK! was published in 2009.
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FEATURED WRITERS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Freya Manfred’s sixth collection of poetry, Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle, www.reddragonflypress.com., won the 2009 Midwest Bookseller’s Choice Award for Poetry. Her seventh collection is The Blue Dress, 2012. A longtime Midwesterner who has also lived on both coasts, her poetry has appeared in over 100 reviews and magazines and over 40 anthologies. Her memoir, Frederick Manfred: A Daughter Remembers, was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award and an Iowa Historical Society Award. Freya lives half an hour west of the Twin Cities with the screenwriter, Thomas Pope. Their sons, Nicholas Bly Pope and Ethan Rowan Pope have illustrated some of her poetry.
Connie Wanek lives just north of Duluth where civilization thins out and the snow is even deeper. She has published three books of poems, most recently On Speaking Terms, from Copper Canyon Press. Her second book, Hartley Field, is named for the Duluth wild park where she is never lost.
Louis Jenkins’ poems have been published in a number of literary magazines and anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 1999 and Great American Prose Poems. His collections include An Almost Human Gesture, All Tangled Up With the Living, Nice Fish: New and Selected Prose Poems, Just Above Water, The Winter Road and Sea Smoke. His most recent books are North of the Cities, European Shoes and Before You Know It: Prose Poems 1970-2005, all published by Will o’ the Wisp Books.
Our thanks to Common Good Books for allowing us to record these poets on site at a recent reading. For information on upcoming events at this independent bookstore, visit www.commongoodbooks.com.
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