Something Nifty This Way Comes

Poets know that April is National Poetry Month. This is a time when we all want to do a lot of reading and writing. We also want to attend readings and participate in poetry conversations, but sometimes distance makes that difficult or impossible. Not really! Not any longer! Some of our clever poet bloggers have come up with creative ways to spread the word without leaving home.

Dave Bonta and Kristin Berkey-Abbott have invented the Poetry Month Book Club. Dave had already planned to read and review one book per day (yow), but Kristin suggested that together they agree on four titles, one per week, for mutual reading and blogging. Dave explains the procedure HERE and Kristin explains the procedure HERE. While you're at Kristin's blog, be sure to order her chapbook, I Stand Here Shredding Documents.

But that's not all. Dave and Kristin are also inviting other poets, bloggers, and poet fans to join the discussions by posting comments and questions at the blogs. Using Dave's tech skills, they will do a podcast interview with each of the four poets. The podcasts will be available at Dave's site, Via Negativa, and will be available for download.

Needless to say, I was exquisitely happy to learn that my new book, Temptation by Water, had been selected as one of the four titles. Here's the lineup:

week of April 4: Diane Lockward's Temptation by Water
week of April 11: Luisa Igloria's Trill and Mordent
week of April 18: Ren Powell's Mercy Island
week of April 25: William Trowbridge's Ship of Fool

It would be nice if you could obtain and read each book prior to its discussion. If you can't get the books, perhaps you could google the poets and read a handful of poems by each. To make it easy and enticing for you to order books and become familiar with the titles, Dave has linked to each poet's publisher, the book's Amazon page, and one online review. Find that information HERE.

Please join Dave and Kristin in reading these four titles. Join the fun and send in some questions for the interviews and leave some comments at the blogs.