Blog of The Word Works, a DC-based literary organization publishing poetry in collector editions and host of the monthly Cafe Muse literary salon and the eight-week summer poetry series at the historic Joaquin Miller Cabin in Rock Creek Park.
Winner of Hilary Tham Capital Collection award as selected by Gray Jacobik
Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza 1475 Western Avenue Albany, NY 12203 For Directions: (518) 437-0101
Wine! Cheese! Interpretive Dance! (Okay, maybe no interpretive dance)
Can't get to Albany? Marilyn McCabe will read in the Cafe Muse Literary Salon October 1, 2012.
We were so pleased to get a translation grant for Scorched by the Sun from the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature. It's such a vote of confidence in the collaboration between Moshe Dor and myself. We have worked together on many projects over the years, including The Stones Remember: Native Israeli Poetry (recipient of the Witter Bynner Foundation Award), also published by The Word Works. But this book of his own poems is long overdue. Especially now, when it's so important that saner voices from that ancient and troubled area of the world be heard.
Moshe Dor's poems are rich in allusions to the Hebrew Bible. They also revel in puns and word play. Some resonances of the original may be lost on English-speaking readers. But no matter the language, there is always something "lost" in translation.
Translation has been likened to kissing a bride through a veil. They also say that if the bride (the translation) is beautiful, she is not faithful (doesn't stick to the literal), and if she is faithful, she is not beautiful. Are beauty and fidelity really mutually exclusive? The challenge for the translator is to preserve the poem's underlying core, to convey the freshness, spirit and musicality of the original, to make the poem "sing."
[Publisher's Note: Barbara Goldberg is the translator with Moshe Dor of Scorched by the Sun.]
The Word Works is presenting Inspired by Gertrude Stein, a special master class workshop. So what does that mean? Perhaps this video will give you a better idea.
INSPIRED BY GERTRUDE STEIN: A WORKSHOP
February 4, 2012, 10 am to 5 pm
Stanford in Washington Art Gallery
2661 Connecticut Ave NW Washington, DC.
Karren L. Alenier, author of Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On
& Hans Gallas, a San Francisco-based collector of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas memorabilia
Open to writers of all levels & genres
Sponsored by: The Word Works & Stanford in Washington
Of course, Sarah Browning, author of Whiskey in the Garden of Eden, is the founding director of Split This Rock. She knows how to attract the most socially active poets. Among her featured poets is Marilyn Nelson, who gave a master class workshop for us in 2001 on how to work with and write researched-based poems. Kim Roberts, who is also a featured poet, supported Marilyn's Word Works master class by getting us a great venue to hold that class. Of course, Word Works knows anything Kim does will be worth experiencing. Word Works has sponsored a number of her projects including her book Lip Smack: A History of Spoken Word in DC.
Brandon Johnson, author of Love's Skin, is active with Cave Canem, a national organization committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of black poets. He is a founding member of the Modern Urban Griots, a poetry and performance collective in the District of Columbia. And he is a dynamic reader of his own work.
Saturday, February 4, 2012, The Word Works, in cooperation with Stanford in Washington, will sponsor Inspired by Gertrude Stein, a special master class workshop on Gertrude Stein, a unique opportunity to learn about Stein and to be inspired by her work and the work of artists already influenced by this great Modernist.
The 10 am to 5 pm workshop will take place at the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery, 2661 Connecticut Ave NW Washington, DC. The program, which includes an overview of Stein and her work, a curated tour of the exhibition (now extended to March 2012) “Insight & Identity: Contemporary Artists and Gertrude Stein,” writing time, and an opportunity to share newly created work, will be led by Karren Alenier, author of the libretto Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, and Hans Gallas, co-curator of the “Insight & Identity” exhibition.
The program is open to writers of all levels and genres. The cost is $50. Visit http://wordworksbooks.orgfor more information or call 301-581-9439.
KARREN LaLONDE ALENIER, poet, librettist and innovator of educational programs, specializes in creative work related to Gertrude Stein. Since 2003, she has been writing The Steiny Road to Operadom, a monthly column on Gertrude Stein and opera for Scene4.com. She is author of five volumes of poetry, with a sixth — On a Bed of Gardenias: Jane & Paul Bowles — forthcoming January 2012. Her opera Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On premiered in New York in 2005 with a good review from the New York Times.
HANS GALLAS, writer and artist, is a San Francisco-based collector of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas memorabilia. Items from his collection have been included in exhibitions around the world and are featured in the Stanford in Washington gallery show.He is also the author of the recently published picture book, Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom.
The Word Works is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit literary organization publishing contemporary poetry in artistic editions and sponsoring public programs for more than 35 years.
September 19, 2011, at Café Muse, The Word Works had the pleasure of hearing poets Megan Synder Camp and Michele Wolf read from their new books as well as host Greg McBride who gave moving tribute to our recently departed friend Ann Knox.
Here are the opening poems from The Forest of Sure Things by Megan Snyder-Camp:
She recognizes its crest in the way he looks at her.
The wave is as vast as the roiling mass in the Japanese
Print they had paused in front of at the museum,
Capped with ringlets of foam, all surging sinew.
That little village along the shore would be
Totally lost. There is no escaping this.
The wave is flooding his heart,
And he is sending the flood
Her way.It rushes
Over her.
Can you look at one face
For the whole of a life?
Does the moon peer down
At the tides and hunger for home?
Greg McBride read two poems by Ann Knox and in this video, you can hear one of these. Note the photo of Ann that Greg brought to the reading. It was taken at Ann’s last reading on the day of her death. Ann was a great asset to our literary community and we miss her very much.
Word Works had a successful partnership with the National Park Service as we teamed up to present eight programs from June 9 to July 28 in the Rock Creek Nature Center planetarium in Washington DC. We had a great mix of familiar audience and newcomers. Here are some images from the July programs and a poem written by Rhonda Williford who attended every program!
The Word Works presents
Moshe Dor's poems are rich in allusions to the Hebrew Bible. They also revel in puns and word play. Some resonances of the original may be lost on English-speaking readers. But no matter the language, there is always something "lost" in translation. 
Of course, Sarah Browning, author of Whiskey in the Garden of Eden, is the founding director of Split This Rock. She knows how to attract the most socially active poets. Among her featured poets is Marilyn Nelson, who gave a master class workshop for us in 2001 on how to work with and write researched-based poems. Kim Roberts, who is also a featured poet, supported Marilyn's Word Works master class by getting us a great venue to hold that class. Of course, Word Works knows anything Kim does will be worth experiencing. Word Works has sponsored a number of her projects including her book Lip Smack: A History of Spoken Word in DC.
SEA CREATURES OF THE DEEP
and from Immersion by Michele Wolf: 
