[Brooklyn]

The Poetry Deal: a film with Diane di Prima
October 19, 2011, 7:00 pm
at Unnameable Books

Three poets read with a screening of THE POETRY DEAL in one of Brooklyn's finest bookstores. Poets: Ammiel Alcalay, neither wit nor gold (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011) is a poet, translator, critic, scholar and activist who teaches at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. His books include Scrapmetal (Factory School, 2006); from the warring factions (Beyond Baroque, 2002), a book length poem dedicated to the Bosnian town of Srebrenica; Memories of Our Future: Selected Essays, 1982-1999 (City Lights, 1999); After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 1993), and the cairo noteboooks (Singing Horse Press, 1993). His translations include Sarajevo Blues (City Lights, 1998) and Nine Alexandrias (City Lights 2003) by the Bosnian poet Semezdin Mehmedinovic, Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing (City Lights, 1996), and a co-translation (with Oz Shelach), of Outcast by Shimon Ballas (City Lights, 2007). A new book of essays, A Little History, and a collective translation of the Syrian poet Faraj Bayraqdar are due out from Beyond Baroque. Islanders, a novel, came out with City Lights in March 2010. Along with Anne Waldman and others, he was one of the initiators of the Poetry Is News Coalition, and he organized, with Mike Kelleher, the OlsonNow project. Most recently, through the PhD Program in English and the Center for the Humanities, he initiated Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, a series of student and guest edited archival texts emerging from the New American Poetry. Ana Bozicevic, translator for 6 x 6 #10 (Ugly Duckling Presse 2005). Rachel Levitsky (founder, Belladona) is the author of Neighbor (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Under the Sun (Futurepoem Books, 2002), and DEARLY, (A+Bend Press, 1999). Her book The Story of My Accident Is Ours is forthcoming from Future Poem Books. Unnameable Books is a treasure of used and new books in the heart of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. This will be a special evening for poetry lovers and film fans. More info.