Crab Creek Review Announces 2011 Pushcart Prize Nominations & 2011 Editors' Prize

Each year Crab Creek Review nominates six poets and writers for the Pushcart Prize--the Pushcart winners are part of the Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published annually by W.W. Norton Co., edited by Bill Henderson.

We have nominated the following poets and writers from Crab Creek Review 2011 v.1 and v.2 for the Pushcart Prize:

Hal Ackerman: "The Dancer Horse" (fiction)
Sarah Cohen: "Summer Was Made of Clicks and Hisses" (poetry)
Katrina Hays: "Peaches" (poetry)
Kelley Henry: "Because I Might Need One, Twelve Definitions of Crown" (poetry)
Sonja James: "Never Ask a Cloud to Marry You" (poetry)
Cindy Stewart-Rinier: "Pre-K Pollock" (poetry)

Congratulations to our Pushcart nominees! Thank you for submitting your outstanding work!

***

The Co-Editors of Crab Creek Review (Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy) are awarding the Crab Creek Review 2011 Editors' Prize to Portland, OR poet and MFA student, Cindy Stewart-Rinier, for her poem, "Pre-K Pollock" (2011 v.2). Our annual Editors' Prize is awarded for the best poem, short story, or creative non-fiction essay published by Crab Creek Review in a given year. Congratulations, Cindy!

We would like to thank all of our 2011 contributors for the fantastic work they submitted to us!

Crab Creek Review 2011 v.2 is now available!

Crab Creek Review 2011 v. 2 features Nin Andrews, Jose Angel Araguz, Anne Barngrover, Scott Blackwell, Karina Borowicz, Erin Byrne, Sarah Cohen, Susan J. Erickson, Lauren Fink, Marie Gauthier, Emily M. Green, Katrina Hays, Sonja James, Kathleen Kirk, Adrian Gibbons Koesters, Michael Lauchlan, Joseph O. Legaspi, Amelia Martens, Lucia Neare, Fernando Perez, Mary Elizabeth Pope, Jenna Rindo, Cindy Stewart-Rinier, Mark Wagenaar, James Valvis, and Maritess Zurbano.

Cover Art: Lullaby Moon VII, April 25, 2009, Green Lake Park, Seattle, WA (performance still) by Lucia Neare. Photographer Credit: Michael Doucett Photography.

Order your copy of Crab Creek Review 2011 v. 2 here. And subscribe!

Crab Creek Review's 2011 Fiction Contest (Sept. 15 - Dec. 15). Contest Judge: Pulitzer Prize nominated, Kim Barnes

Crab Creek Review's Annual Fiction Contest is now open for submissions!

 We are delighted that award winning author, Kim Barnes, has agreed to serve as this year's contest judge.

Kim Barnes is the author of two memoirs and three novels, most recently In the Kingdom of Men, the story of a young American couple living in 1960s Saudi Arabia (Knopf, May, 2012). A Country Called Home, which received the 2009 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Fiction, was named a best book of 2008 by The Washington Post, Kansas City Star, and The Oregonian. She is the recipient of the PEN/Jerard Fund Award for an emerging woman writer of nonfiction, and her first memoir, In the Wilderness, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including the New York Times, MORE Magazine, O Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Fourth Genre, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. Barnes is a professor of English and teaches writing at the University of Idaho. She lives with her husband, the poet Robert Wrigley, on Moscow Mountain.  http://www.uidaho.edu/class/english/kimbarnes

 
Contest Guidelines:

• Original, previously unpublished fiction up to 3,000 words, double spaced
• Entry fee: $10
• Postmark deadline is Dec. 15, 2011
• Winner will receive $150 and publication in Crab Creek Review
• All contest submissions will be considered for publication
• Check back on our website in January 2012 for contest results
• Contest Judge: Kim Barnes

Please visit our Contest page for complete guidelines.

Crab Creek Review @ Northwest Bookfest 2011 (Oct.1 & 2)

Crab Creek Review will have an exhibitor's table at Northwest Bookfest in Kirkland, WA on October 1st and 2nd. Drop by and chat with us--we'll have our current issue available for purchase as well as back issues at a reduced price, submission information (we accept poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction), subscription information, and we're happy to answer any questions about writing and submitting your work.

Crab Creek Review's own Kelli Russell Agodon, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Susan Rich, and good friend and CCR contributor, Elizabeth Austen, will read at 2 p.m. on Sunday (Northwest Women's Voices, Poetry) in the Peter Kirk Community Center Multipurpose Room.

At 12 p.m. on Sunday, Seattle's Jack Straw Writers (Susan Rich, Curator) will give a reading, featuring Robert Lamirande, Larissa Min, Ann Teplick, Nora Wendl, and Maritess Zurbano (Kirkland Teen Union Building).

Northwest Bookfest has a full schedule of fantastic readings and writing workshops. For more information visit: http://www.northwestbookfest2011.com/program/

Northwest Bookfest 2011
October 1st and 2nd, 10am – 6pm
Peter Kirk Park, 202 Third Street, Kirkland, WA
Over fifty author panels, hundreds of authors, writing and publishing workshops, family programs and more!
FREE!
(suggested $5 donation/$10 per family)
Directions: http://www.northwestbookfest2011.com/directions/

Northwest Bookfest is an amazing opportunity for networking and learning more about writing/publishing. See you there!

Enter Crab Creek Review's 2011 Fiction Contest (Sept. 15 - Dec. 15)

Crab Creek Review's Annual Fiction Contest is now open for submissions!

• Original, previously unpublished fiction up to 3,000 words, double spaced
• Entry fee: $10
• Postmark deadline is Dec. 15, 2011
• Winner will receive $150 and publication in Crab Creek Review
• All contest submissions will be considered for publication
• Check back on our website in January 2012 for contest results

Please visit our Contest page for complete guidelines.

Crab Creek Review's 2011 Poetry Contest--The Results!

Thank you to all of the poets who entered Crab Creek Review's 2011 Poetry Contest and special thanks to our wonderful judge, Dorianne Laux and to our poetry editor, Lana Hechtman Ayers.

Winner:

"Widowing" by Laura E. Davis. Dorianne Laux writes, "This poem reminds me of a Ruth Stone poem, both in its subject, and in the simple, precise details that reveal worlds.The irony of "That happy nighttime" the contortion of sadness in "her body a backward question mark", the anti-romantic "stump of a man". I admire the way the poem leaps into a vision of the difficulties of not only writing of grief, but into what could be a definition of grief itself: "curled strings" "bitter taste of an empty hearth", "the foggy hunger of widowing". This poem finishes with a sound image, one that can almost be heard, the subtle, and exquisitely lonely sound of a whiskey glass being lifted and then set back down. Lovely poem."

Honorable Mentions:

"The Contours of the Lake Lost to Cloud" by Jill Osier "is made from careful listening, and such a wonderful unexpected ending." ~Dorianne Laux

"Boundaries" by Claire Zoghb "is a poem that allows the reader access to a large political argument through a domestic and quite personal exchange." ~Dorianne Laux

"Seeing You" by Maya Jewell Zeller "is a visual treat. I loved those 'vertebrae a mouth stacked on a mouth'." ~Dorianne Laux

Finalists:

"Gretel Remembers" by Brent Calderwood
"Fairy Tale" by Rebecca Foust
"Someday My Stomach Will Be a Museum" by Jill Osier
"Love: Sun::" by Ben Purkert
"Relative Identity" by Cindy Steward Rinier
"Elegy/Elk River" by Michael Schmeltzer
"Tautology" by Michael Schmeltzer
"Departure" by John Willson
"Divorce on Mars" by Francine Witte


Congratulations to Laura E. Davis and to all of the Honorable Mentions and Finalists! Look for all of these poems in Crab Creek Review 2012 v. I.

Crab Creek Review is a Media Sponsor for the Seattle Arts & Lectures 2011/2012 Poetry Series

Crab Creek Review is a Media Sponsor for the Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series (2011-2012). We encourage our Seattle area subscribers and contributors to support SAL’s mission of presenting programs that further the arts and invite cultural dialogue. To learn more about SAL and to purchase tickets to the Poetry Series and other events, please visit their website: http://www.lectures.org/. If you attend the Poetry Series, please stop by the Crab Creek Review table, browse our current issue, and chat with us. We have subscription and submission information available, as well as back issues for sale at a reduced price.

The 2011-2012 SAL Poetry Series:

Oct. 5th: Dorianne Laux

Nov. 6th: Peter Cole, Bill Porter, and Nikolai Popov

Dec. 8th: Terrance Hayes

Feb. 9th: Albert Goldbarth

Mar. 15th: Louise Gluck

Apr. 4th: Troy Jollimore and John Koethe

May 15th: Matthew and Michael Dickman

Hope to see you there!

"Nightfall" by Ben Mann (Cover Art for Crab Creek Review 2011 v.1)

Painted by Ben Mann in response to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Nightfall,(the cover art for our current issue, 2011 v.1), is available for purchase as a print, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross.
As Japan's recent news of natural disaster crossed the airwaves, Bellingham, WA Artist Ben Mann joined the legions of Americans sharing one sentiment: "What can I do?" Mann elected to put his feelings down in paint, specifically wanting to depict the spirit of survival in the wake of devastation. "The black stems honor their citizens either killed or missing. Plum Blossoms, to me, are iconic of Spring and therefore renewal," commented Mann from his Fairhaven Art Studio. He wants to make a difference by thinking globally while working at a grassroots level locally. All proceeds from the sale of this print will be forwarded to Red Cross Aid to Sendai.
You can purchase Mann's print here: http://www.localartistprints.com/nightfall.html
Ben Mann works in the Historic Fairhaven District, making artworks that both depict and impact the local landscape. When he isn't painitng, sketching and meeting with clients, he frequents public elmentary school classrooms. Via the Allied Arts Education Project, Mann presents a 2-hour workshop for students K-6, and is funded to do so through a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission. Bridging one's passion and one's livelihood is never a simple task, but Mann has relished the challenge. "I convey to kids that I went into commercial art not to get rich, but because I simply wanted to make art everyday! Consequently I paint all week long, and still reach enthusiastically for my sketchbook on the weekends."


Order a copy of the current issue of Crab Creek Review here: http://www.crabcreekreview.org/subscrb.htm
The poets and writers in 2011 v.1: Hal Ackerman (fiction contest winner), Cameron Aveson (poetry contest winner), Mary Jo Balistreri, Michelle Brittan, Dennis Caswell, Todd Davis (interview), Mark DeCarteret, Deborah H. Doolittle, Mark Doty (interview), Ken Fifer, Matthew Guenette, Kelley Henry, Sky Joiner, Valarie Jonas, Mary Julia Klimenko, Dorianne Laux, Ben Mann (cover artist), Frank Matagrano, Claire McQuerry, Greg Nicholl, Hannah Oberman-Breindel, Doug Ramspeck, Bethany Reid, Susan Sample, Tina Schumann, Linda Strever, Jeanne Wagner, John Whalen, Monica Woelfel, Mabel Yu, and Jody A. Zorgdrager.

Crab Creek Review 2011 Vol.I--out in May

Crab Creek Review 2011 Vol.I will be available at the end of May!  The poets and writers in this issue: Hal Ackerman (fiction contest winner), Cameron Aveson (poetry contest winner), Mary Jo Balistreri, Michelle Brittan, Dennis Caswell, Todd Davis (interview), Mark DeCarteret, Deborah H. Doolittle, Mark Doty (interview), Ken Fifer, Matthew Guenette, Kelley Henry, Sky Joiner, Valarie Jonas, Mary Julia Klimenko, Dorianne Laux, Ben Mann (cover artist), Frank Matagrano, Claire McQuerry, Greg Nicholl, Hannah Oberman-Breindel, Doug Ramspeck, Bethany Reid, Susan Sample, Tina Schumann, Linda Strever, Jeanne Wagner, John Whalen, Monica Woelfel, Mabel Yu, and Jody A. Zorgdrager.

From the Editors' Note:  In this issue, we peek behind the doors of two incredible poets, Mark Doty and Todd Davis, to see what their own writing worlds are made from. We find Martha Silano in a Kelley Henry poem about crowns, Gerald Stern and Leonardo da Vinci in a poem about a parachute, and Emily Dickinson appearing in a couple of places in the issue. We also celebrate the winners and finalists of our fiction and poetry contests... 

Order Crab Creek Review 2011 Vol.I here--http://www.crabcreekreview.org/subscrb.htm

Thank you for supporting our literary journal!

Midge Raymond Discusses the Importance of Putting Some Space & Time Between You & Your Writing

Author Midge Raymond

I am thrilled to introduce our guest blogger (and past contributor) at Crab Creek Review, Midge Raymond.

Her book, Forgetting English is being rereleased today!  Check out the link below for your own copy.  You will not be disappointed.

And now, to her Guest Blogger post below---

 By Midge Raymond, Author of Forgetting English

Absence makes the heart grow fonder … of your own writing

I've always been the type of writer who loves revision. (I know: I’m a little insane.) But think of it this way: As much as most of us dread revision, if you were given the choice between a blank page and a work in progress, which would you choose?

For me, there's no contest; I’ll choose the work in progress over the blank page any day.

Lately, though, as I’ve begun to approach an old project after a long time away, I’ve found myself somewhere in between: I’ve got words on the page (a whole lot of words), but I am realizing that most of them must go. I've literally written hundreds of pages, and very few of them will make it into my next version. It’s a little sad—but at the same time, I’m learning that it’s also pretty great.

Why? Because as I begin to delve into the story again, as I get reacquainted with my characters, I can now see that all this work I'm going to “throw away” is probably the most important work I’ve done. I know my characters inside and out, even though in this next version they may appear on the page more or less often than I envisioned, or from a different point of view. (There’s also a character who now wants to be a bigger part of the story, and who am I to say no?) I’ve always known where the story is going to take place, and so in that sense I’ve already done my research—so the next time I sit down to write, my scenes will flow a little more smoothly, without having to constantly interrupt myself to look something up, or call someone for information, or set up an interview.

Most of us writers can always use a little time away from our work—and yet often we're so eager to finish something that we often neglect to take this precious time. (Or am I the only one?) Fortunately, I’d been forced to take some time away from this project, giving me this new perspective that I needed—it’s almost like getting sick and being forced to get the rest you've needed for a long time, rather than planning that vacation weekend you know you need but can’t give yourself permission to take.

So I've instituted a new policy for my writing self: to file away each first draft and let it spend a little time in its room. So far, this has accomplished not one goal but at least two: 1) I'll get time and space away from the project so I can return to it with fresh eyes; and 2) it forces me to begin something new rather than rewrite, edit, and fret over a piece that needs an objective eye.

Next, I’ll need a strategy for what to do with all those story beginnings. But I’ll save that for another guest post.

Happy writing!

~

You can find Midge Raymond at her website: http://www.midgeraymond.com/

On her blog: http://www.midgeraymond.com/blog/

And info about her book can be found here: http://www.press53.com/BioMidgeRaymond.html

Or buy her book from Amazon here:  Forgetting English

BIO:

Midge Raymond's short-story collection,Forgetting English, received the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared inTriQuarterly, American Literary Review, Indiana Review, North American Review, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, and many other publications. Her work has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and received an Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship.

Midge taught communication writing at Boston University for six years, and she has taught creative writing at Boston's Grub Street Writers and Seattle'sRichard Hugo House. While living in Southern California, she held writing workshops and seminars at San Diego Writers, Ink, where she also served as vice president of the board of directors.

Midge lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest.

Two Beautiful Books Received here at Crab Creek Review

The chapbook-- Only as a Body by Jessica Young (Bateau Press)

and the full collection

Before I Came Home Naked by Christina Olson (Spire Press, Inc)

Both lovely inside and out.  Support your indie presses!  And support your poets!

Congratulations Foreword Book Finalists!

Co-Editor Kelli Russell Agodon's Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room (White Pine Press Poetry Prize), Editorial Board & Guest Editor Susan Rich's The Alchemist's Kitchen and contributor Rebecca Foust's All That Gorgeous Pitiless Song and God, Seed are all finalists in the Foreword Book of the Year Prize for Poetry.

They will find out in June 2011, who the winner will be.  Good luck to all three of them!

Crab Creek Review's Annual Poetry Contest--Judge: Dorianne Laux

Submit now to Crab Creek Review's 2011 Poetry Contest (March 15th-June 30th):
Guest Judge: Dorianne Laux
•Submit up to 5 previously unpublished poems
•Entry fee: $10, check payable to Crab Creek Review
•The winning poet will receive $200 and publication in Crab Creek Review
•All entries will be considered for publication

Please read our complete guidelines here: http://www.crabcreekreview.org/contest.htm

Dorianne Laux’s fourth book of poems, Facts about the Moon, is the recipient of the Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux is also author of Awake, What We Carry, finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award, and Smoke, as well as two fine small press editions, Superman: The Chapbook and Dark Charms, both from Red Dragonfly Press. Co-author of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry, she’s the recipient of two Best American Poetry Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Widely anthologized, her work has appeared in the Best of APR, The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and The Best of the Net. She and her husband, poet Joseph Millar, moved to Raleigh in 2008 where she teaches poetry in the MFA program at North Carolina State University.

Peter Pereira's Poem on Verse Daily (From Crab Creek Review, 2010 Vol.2)

Peter Pereira's poem, "Magnolia Blossom," from Crab Creek Review 2010 Vol.2 is featured on Verse Daily today: http://www.versedaily.org/2011/magnoliablossom.shtml "Magnolia Blossom" is part of 2010 Vol.2's special Ekphrastic Section, guest edited by Susan Rich, who put out a call for poems inspired by other art forms. Peter's poem is inspired by Imogen Cunningham's 1925 photograph, Magnolia Blossom.

About his poem, Peter writes, “Magnolia Blossom” was written for the Seattle Art Museum’s monthly reading series SAM-Word, for which I was asked to respond to an exhibit of Imogen Cunningham’s photography. She was part of a group of photographers called Group f/64. The term f/64 refers to the smallest aperture setting on a large format camera. It allows for maximum depth of field, rendering a photograph evenly sharp from foreground to background. These photographs possess an amazing purity of image, and clarity of detail. In an interview Imogen Cunningham gave before her death, referring to her work she said, “In order to make a good photograph you have to be enthusiastic, that is you have to think about it, like a poet would . . .” I hope Imogen would like what this poet thought about, responding to her images.

Peter Pereira’s most recent books are What’s Written on the Body (Copper Canyon 2007) and Saying the World (Copper Canyon 2003).  Recent poems have appeared in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and the anthology Looking Together: Writers on Art. Peter is also on the Advisory Board of Crab Creek Review.

Crab Creek Review Announces Fiction Contest Winner: Hal Ackerman

Western Washington University professor and author, Kathryn Trueblood, has chosen "The Dancer Horse" by Hal Ackerman as the winner of Crab Creek Review's Annual Fiction Contest.

Hal Ackerman has been on the faculty of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television since 1985 and is currently co-area head of the screenwriting program.  His book, Write Screenplays That Sell…The Ackerman Way, is in its third printing, and is the text of choice in a growing number of screenwriting programs around the country. He has had numerous short stories published in literary journals over the past two years, including North Dakota Review, New Millennium Writings, Southeast Review, The Pinch, Storyglossia, Passages and The Yalobusha Review. His short Story, “Roof Garden” won the Warren Adler 2008 award for fiction and is published by Kindle. “Alfalfa,” was included in the anthology, I Wanna Be Sedated…30 Writers on Parenting Teenagers. Among the twenty-nine “other writers” were Louise Erdrich, Dave Barry, Anna Quindlen, Roz Chast, and Barbara Kingsolver. “Walk Through” is among Southeast Review’s World’s Best Short Shorts of 2010. Ackerman's non-fiction baseball memoir, “Talk To The Stars” appears in the 15th anniversary issue of Sports Literate. His play, TESTOSTERONE: How Prostate Cancer Made A Man of Me, won the William Saroyan Centennial Prize for drama and enjoyed a successful run in Los Angeles and has been performed nationwide for Prostate support groups. Ackerman's first novel, STEIN, STONED (www.tyrusbooks.com) was published in July 2010. STEIN, STUNG is forthcoming in late spring of 2011.

About his winning short story, "The Dancer Horse," Ackerman writes, "The race track is a great place to watch fate unfold. Everyone believes the story and judgment of their lives is playing out in the results of the next race. The best part is watching people watch the TV replay and hoping the result might be different." Fiction Contest Judge, Kathryn Trueblood, writes, "The story ("The Dancer Horse") introduces a richly idiosyncratic voice and the prose is percussive. The rhythm of the race track pervades but there are many kinds of urgency at work here. The story surprises the reader the way our own emotions often do, surfacing suddenly."

Special thanks to our judge, Kathryn Trueblood, Associate Professor of English at Western Washington University and award winning author. And, thank you to Jen Betterley and Nancy Canyon, Crab Creek Review's fiction editors.

Look for "The Dancer Horse" in Crab Creek Review 2011, Vol.1, which will be available at the end of May.

Congratulations, Hal!

Crab Creek Review is a "Fine Arts Sponsor" for Local High School

Crab Creek Review's good friend, Marilyn Liden Bode, (the cover artist for our Fall/Winter '08 issue and local community arts activist) has invited us to become corporate sponsors for the Fine Arts programs at our high school here in Kingston, WA. Because of Washington State's severe budget cuts, funding for these programs will be impacted. Here are two excerpts from FAB's introductory letter:

The fine arts programs at KHS (Kingston High School) have created a Fine Arts Booster group (FAB).  The purpose of this booster group is to advocate and fundraise for all the fine arts at KHS including band, choir, drama, visual and media arts and debate.

FAB is currently fundraising for ongoing band expenses, fees for auditorium use for drama, entrance fees for Debate tournaments and FAB senior scholarships. Your support will also help us to demonstrate to the school district the value our community places on the arts in our school.

It is odd to think of our literary journal as a "corporate sponsor" since we are a non-profit that also struggles for funding through donations/sponsorship, but because we want to be active in our community in support of artists, we are both willing and pleased to donate to keep the fine arts programs afloat at our local high school. Several of us on the Crab Creek Review staff are mothers of past students, current students, and future students of Kingston High School and we highly value the school's music, drama, and visual arts departments.

Thank you for your commitment to the arts and to our students, FAB, and best of luck with your fundraising!

Kingston High School Marching Band performing in Portland, OR

Crab Creek Review on NewPages.com

Crab Creek Review has been reviewed by David Morck for NewPages.com. It's a fantastic review of our journal! Thank you, NewPages! http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazine-reviews/2011-01-15/

Crab Creek Review
Volume 23 Number 2 2010
Biannual  

Review by David Morck

After winning a year’s subscription during last year’s National Poetry Day, I discovered the joy of the Crab Creek Review. What had drawn me into past issues was the range of voices, both from experienced writers and fresh, emerging writers. There has always been a certain charm to the pieces selected, whether their tone leans towards the more serious or whimsical, and this issue is no exception.

The biggest standout in the second issue for 2010 is the section entitled Beyond Ekphrasis: Poems of the Musical, Mathematical, and Visual in which Crab Creek Review’s first guest editor Susan Rich pulled from “over fifteen hundred poems submitted by more than four hundred poets from three different continents,” “work inspired by photography, sculpture, music, film and even a mathematical equation.” One of the exceptional pieces inspired by art in this section is a poem called “The Plague Doctor” by Peter Pereira based on a 1656 engraving entitled “Doktor Schabel von Rom” by Paul Fürst. The engraving is included above the poem and lends itself to the poem’s dark and mystical force. The poem begins:

Brow shadowed by a black
wide-brimmed hat, he swings
his wooden cane to part the swarm
of flies crawling your motionless body,
prods you with the cane’s tip
to measure your response.

The word choice in the poem is exquisitely brutal, offering images of “erupting pustules”, “flea-infested straw”, “pungence repelling pungence,” and the pitch-perfect ending leaves an enduring image of:

Its two oval sockets lensed in red glass
as if to warn you—how scavenger birds
always begin with the eyes.

Other poems that are worthy of mention within the section on ekphrasis are “Prelude” by Valerie Nieman, based on a photograph of Rosa Parks getting her fingerprints taken, and a heart-rending look at youth and strength in “Patrick Swayze” by Casey Fuller, highlighting the promise of Hollywood vigor, about the actor, who unfortunately fell victim to cancer last year.

For those that are animal aficionados, there seems to be a strong motif of animals throughout many of this issue’s poems. One particularly enjoyable poem, although perhaps light in its content, is Anita K. Boyle’s “Time with Cats,” which is a very charming piece, and echoes the epigraph from Colette, “Time with cats is never wasted,” in its ending:

The cats have fallen asleep.
One is upside down.
It begins to purr.
This is a day not wasted.

Another enjoyable piece is “My Pet Chicken” by James Bertolino, in which there is a recall of having a pet chicken killed because of fencing that was:

…high enough
to keep my chicken in, but not
strong enough to keep the neighbor’s
German Shepherd from knocking
them down

The reflection in the ending of this carefully constructed piece is beautifully done:

…Disappointed
I hadn’t built a better pen for my bird,
I didn’t blame that dog, and decided
to try pigeons next. I knew they could fly
away when molested.

There is no lack of truly well-constructed poetry within this issue, and as well the fiction is strong, especially Midge Raymond’s “Two Lies and a Truth,” which plays off of the game of telling someone two lies and one truth, then guessing which is which, and speaks deeply to the nature of friendship and what truth really entails.

Overall, this issue of Crab Creek Review is successful in capturing your attention, interest, and imagination, and is a worthy addition to anyone’s reading schedule.

[www.crabcreekreview.org/]

Crab Creek Review at the Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series

Crab Creek Review is now a Media Sponsor of the Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series at Benaroya Hall. At last night's reading (with Olympia poet and Pulitzer nominee, Lucia Perillo), we sold our journal in the lobby along with fellow SAL sponsors Poetry Northwest, Copper Canyon Press, and Open Books. Look for us at the following 2011 Poetry Series events:

Feb. 15: Patricia Smith
Mar. 15: Marie Howe
Apr. 14: Brian Turner, Major Jackson, and Susan Rich (our own Crab Creek Review Advisory Board Member!)
May 22: Billy Collins

We encourage our Seattle area subscribers and contributors to support SAL’s mission of presenting programs that further the arts and invite cultural dialogue. To learn more about SAL and to purchase tickets to the Poetry Series and other events, please visit their website: http://www.lectures.org./