SUMMER READING LIST

Like Son- Felicia Luna Lemus

Dahlia Season- Myriam Gurba

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers

The History of Love- Nicole Krauss

Happy Baby- Stephen Elliott

Jesus' Son- Denis Johnson

Like a Hole in the Head- Jen Banbury

Geek Love- Katherine Dunn

Cruising for inspiration as I work on writing a new piece for the Beat reading next week, I have fallen back in love with Ferlinghetti. I have decided to read two pieces that pay homage to the two cities that were the prime literary backdrops for The Beat writers, San Francisco and New York. I'm loving working on this new stuff, the second piece about a magical Coney Island... so I've got Ferlinghetti's jazzy rythmns on the mind.


From Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The poet's eye obscenely seeing
sees the surface of the round world
with its drunk rooftops
and wooden oiseaux on clotheslines
and its clay males and females
with hot legs and rosebud breasts
in rollaway beds
and its trees full of mysteries
and its Sundays parks and speechless statues
and its America
with its ghost towns and empty Ellis Islands
and its surrealist landscape of
mindless prairies
supermarket suburbs
steamheated cemeteries
and prostering cathedrals
a kissproof world of plastic and toiletseats tapax and taxis
drugged store cowboys and las vegas virgins
disowned indians and cinemad matrons
unroman sentors and conscientious non-objectors
and all the other fatal shorn-up fragments
of the immigrant's dream come too true
and mislaid
among the sunbathers

Mad to Live

if you would be entertained by hearing me read from my novel in progress, or by hearing a variety of awesome writers read on three different Wednesdays in June, then come to this:

Mad to Live: Queers Under the Influence of the Beats
Presented by RADAR, The SF Public Library & Qcc
June 13, 20, 27 at 6:00pm
Readings
San Francisco Public Library/ Koret Auditorium
Free

A three-part series featuring contemporary queer poets, writers and performers whose underground voices, outlaw stance and wild talent have made them heirs to the Beats' literary legacy. Curated and hosted by Michelle Tea, each event pairs a non-fiction beat historian to contextualize these performers in history, and give a a clear picture on the beats' impact on our culture at large.

June 13th: Ali Liebegott, Justin Chin, Kirk Read. Marcus Ewert, and Miranda Mellis

June 20th: Lynn Breedlove, Keith Hennessy, Kirya Traber, Red Jordan Arobateau and Eileen Myles

June 27th: Rhiannon Argo, Meliza Banales, Sara Seinberg, Buttafly Soul and Diane di Prima