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An Interview with "Roughnecks" Author, James J. Patterson "You can change the dimensional make-up in someone’s mind with a single chord of musical phrase, or excite their imagination, invoke any of the mindful emotions. You can do the same thing with images in words, of course. But music can find a direct path to a person’s core that he or she may have thought was well defended." In this interview from Branka Cubrilo, James J. Patterson talks "Roughnecks," The Pheromones, and artistic inspiration. Recently, James J. Patterson sat down with fellow author, Branka Cubrilo, for … [Read more...]

Grace Cavalieri among 13 Poets Laureate to Receive over $1 million in Grant Money Recently Grace Cavalieri was one of thirteen Poets Laureate to receive (divided) over $1 million in grant money. Big news for Maryland's Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri. The American Academy of poets announced on Wednesday that an appropriation of $1,050,000 (made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation) would be made available for thirteen of America's most distinguished Poets Laureate including Grace herself. The funds are, according to AP, for the support of civic programs in the poet's communities which … [Read more...]

Off the Cuff: The Writing Philosophy of Reuben Jackson "Part of what I try to do [is this]: you know how you go down to the mall and you see monuments to this war and this war, and that’s fine. But, a lot of my friends I think about constantly. Maybe, they’re forgotten in a way; but [what I try] to do, and maybe this is what you do as writers, is to capture people who had an impact on you." -Reuben Jackson Poet and jazz scholar, Reuben Jackson gave a talk in Rockville, MD on April 6th where he went into detail on his writing philosophy and read a few poems from his upcoming collection … [Read more...]

Earth Day Reflections: To See for the First Time (from a speech first delivered at an award ceremony for Bay Nature Magazine) By Linda Watanabe McFerrin There is a writer whose work I greatly admire, an ethnobotanist. His name is Wade Davis and if you haven't read any of his work, you are missing something wonderful. In One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest Davis follows in the footsteps of Harvard biologist Richard Evans Schultes who spent years in the Amazon cataloging thousands of plant species and discovering hundreds more while … [Read more...]

Joanna Biggar's Picks for NPM Week 3 Week three of National Poetry Month is here and we are still celebrating! So as the champagne continues relentlessly foaming for party-goers catching their tipsy mid-air, we asked author, Joanna Biggar, to select three poems she thinks are worthy of applause between wassails. Her first, featured above, is Dickinson's "I'm Nobody! Who are You?" For her second an excellent poem by Carolyn Forche called "The Testimony Of Light" And last but not least an absolute banger from Salvadoran-American poet Javier Zamora entitled "Let Me Try Again" Joanna Biggar … [Read more...]