Author Archives: Katherine Hastings

In the early 2000s, I attended a benefit reading for Sixteen Rivers Press held at a private home in Sausalito, California. The two readers that evening were Philip Levine, who would later become poet laureate of the United States, and Gerald Fleming. Fleming’s first collection, Swimmer Climbing Onto Shore, was forthcoming from Sixteen Rivers. ThisContinue reading “GERALD FLEMING”

The Poetry of Synesthesia Recently, I led an abbreviated workshop on synesthesia at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY. Since then, I’ve been asked by a number of people for any notes from that day for reference. One of the poetic devices I’ve always loved in the written word, whether in prose orContinue reading “Poetry Notes”

June 28, 2020 Chang’s latest collection, Obit (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), has received a number of very positive reviews. You can find one such review by going to Carol Muske-Dukes’ article in the Los Angeles Review of Books, available on-line. Or you can just read what I have to say in just three words: BuyContinue reading “Victoria Chang”

June 10, 2020 “In Halebsky’s third poetry collection Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged), published in2020 by University of Arkansas Press, the Tang Dynasty poets Li Bai and Du Fu encounter everydaylife in Oakland, California. In his introduction to this collection, Billy Collins writes, ‘Halebsky’sstylistic range is on full display when she switches from pureContinue reading “Judy Halebsky”

May 26, 2020 . In Eliot Schain’s latest collection, The Distant Sound (Sixteen Rivers Press 2020), we enter a type of concert where the poet conducts his many memories. From a truck stop men’s room to the Chez Paree, from Gallery 41 of the Uffizi Museum to a Mexican town, each memory brings a newContinue reading “Eliot Schain”

May 14, 2020 “I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?” This quote by Emily Dickinson topped the short bio Maureen O’Connor provided me for this posting. Why is she “nobody?” Well, she just isn’t. There are so many good poets in the world whose work rarely or never sees the light of day.Continue reading “Maureen O’Connor”

April 30, 2020 I’ve always enjoyed the poetry of Kathleen Winter, author of three collections. You can get a taste of her tremendous wit and daring just by looking at the book titles: Nostalgia for the Criminal Past (Elixir Press, 2012); I will not kick my friends (Elixir Press, 2018) and, most recently Transformer (TheContinue reading “Kathleen Winter”

April 16, 2020 I’m pleased to introduce a few poems by Joseph Zaccardi today. The author of five collections of poetry, including his recently published The Weight of Bodily Touches (Kelsay Books), Zaccardi served as Marin County, CA’s poet laureate from 2013 to 2015. During his tenure he edited and published the anthology Changing HarmContinue reading “Joseph Zaccardi”

April 6, 2020 One of the many poets I had the privilege of hearing read at the WordTemple Poetry Series was San Francisco poet Thomas Centolella. I remember sitting in the front row thinking “He’s one of the magicians.” What did I mean by that? He wasn’t pulling a rabbit out of a hat orContinue reading “Thomas Centolella”

March 27, 2020 Olga Karman was born in Havana, Cuba and lived there until she was twenty years and two months old. Her teenage years coincided with Fidel Castro’s armed struggle and eventual rise to power. “How exciting it was listening to Radio Rebelde every night over our short wave radio. I was in theContinue reading “Olga Karman”