Café Muse: Success!

The turnout for Café Muse last night was excellent! Thanks to everyone who came! Our featured readers, while very different in style, were both incredibly entertaining, and an abundance of readers came forward to read their own diverse pieces. Please enjoy some pictures from the event!

Miller Cabin Kickoff!

Returning for its 35th year, the 2010 Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series kicks off tomorrow night! Amble on in around 7:30 to listen to the poetic talents of Jericho Brown and Julie Enszer, as well as our Jacklyn Potter Young Poet Will Frazier, or if you prefer, nip in at 7:15 to sign up for the opening reading!

A warm welcome also to Laura Fletcher, who won the Young Poet competition in 2005, who will be returning to read a poem in the opening tomorrow!

Join us at the Café!

Tonight at the Friendship Heights Village Center, Mark Bibbins and Jehanne Dubrow will kick off the first Café Muse event of the summer! At 7:00 pm, Michael Davis will open things up with some classical guitar, followed by the poetry readings. There will be an open reading time following the scheduled poets, so be sure to bring along your own poems! Be sure to check the Word Works website for more information about the event and the poets. Hope to see you there!

2009 Washington Prize Winner - Mayweed, by Frannie Lindsay

The Word Works proudly announces that Mayweed, by Frannie Lindsay, of Belmont, MA, is the winner of the 2009 Washington Prize.

Lindsay’s two previous books are also prize winners: Lamb won the 2006 Perugia Press Intro Award and was runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. Where She Always Was (Utah State University Press) was selected for the 2004 May Swenson Award.

The Word Works thanks all participants who entered the prize competition. Purchase Mayweed now. All contestants will receive a copy of this book. For more information about this year's prize, visit the Washington Prize page.

Word Works Author Rosemary Winslow Interviewed in The Examiner

Rosemary Winslow, author of Green Bodies, a Hilary Tham Capitol Collection title, is interviewed in the July 28, 2009, issue of The Examiner.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-14902-DC-Literature-Examiner~y2009m7d28-Rosemary-Winslow-talks-about-her-book-Green-Bodies

The Faces at Miller Cabin Programs

There are only two more programs in the 2009 Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series. Because life is uncertain, I urge you not to procrastinate about attending. Miller Cabin is a huge challenge even with the best possible circumstances. This is an historic literary happening and after 34 years who is to say there will be a 35th?

Here are highlights from

June 16 ---Tyler Caroline Mills with Jacklyn Potter Young Poets: Katherine Casey & Baobao Zhang







June 23 ---Chris Goodrich & Nancy Krygowski













June 30 ---Melanie Henderson & Luke Johnson


July 7 --- April Linder & Bonnie Naradzay




July 14 --- George Drew & W. Luther Jett

Miller Cabin's Moveable Feast

While Joaquin Miller had to deal with the “perils of civilization,” the volunteers and audience of the June 9, 2009, opening night program had to deal with the perils of Mother Nature. Thunder, lightning, and rain sent participants directly to the Sixth Presbyterian Church where we typically have our receptions and our programs when inclement weather occurs. However, the church was dark and locked despite assurances from our contact Mr. White that he was primed to be there for us.

Karren Alenier suggested that we drive to Connecticut Avenue and try the new café attached to the Avalon Theatre. One of the assembled audience members called ahead and asked for permission and voila—a moveable feast (Marcela Sulak, one of the readers, had brought her birthday cake)!

The gracious manager and staff of the Avalon Café welcomed the dozen people with carrot cake and were happy to serve us coffee, tea, and spirits. Marcela had poems fitting the occasion—sonnets about food and coffee that got the staff chuckling and nodding their heads.

Deborah Bernhardt who had driven all the way from Massachusetts with a friend presented a lush landscape of language in the tradition of Gertrude Stein.

It was definitely a family affair. Lead co-host Kathi Morrison-Taylor invoked the spirits of Jacklyn Potter (the former director of the Cabin Series) and the late Word Works Board Members Robert Sargent and Hilary Tham. Mel Belin gave an inspired reading of Joaquin Miller’s poem “Columbus.” Paul Hopper in the open reading hosted by co-host Deborah Ager read a trio of poems honoring Jacklyn, his mother, and a late NIH doctor who had visited the Cabin. Marcela’s daughter wander on and off “stage” as her mom read.


We apologize to anyone who came either to picnic grove 6 where the Cabin sits or to the church and couldn’t find us. Nonetheless, we had an inspired reading in an unexpected and wonderful venue. Thank you to Henry Passman and his staff at the Avalon. Join us next week on Tuesday June 16 to hear Tyler Caroline Mills with the Jacklyn Potter Young Poets Katherine Casey and Baobao Zhang.