Priya Keefe

See the world; read a book: Ellen Welcker's The Botanical Garden

2011-12-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

Does your bank account tell you that travel is not an option right now? Wondering what you'll read on your staycation? Some satisfying armchair travel can be had in Ellen Welcker's The Botanical Garden. Read my review of The Botanical Garden on The Nervous Breakdown: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/pkeefe/2011/12/a-new-way-of-seeing-a-review-of-the-botanical-garden-by-ellen-welker/

"In Ellen Welcker’s The Botanical Garden, a world of people, events, and creatures become seen—not seen the way we see Twitter updates, but the way we see a new land for the first time."

I've heard of hybrid cars, but hybrid literature?

2011-11-23T23:29:00.000-08:00

I'm excited that my book was a finalist in this year's Emergency Press International Book Contest! Read the announcement of the winner and finalists on their website: http://emergencypress.org/contest.html.

Emergency Press is a great destination for hybrid works. They published Aaron Dietz's Super, a book with powers. Take a look at a page of Super on Aaron's website and you'll see what I mean.

The Emergency Press website says they publish "explorative books of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and emergent forms that fall outside traditional categories."

If you write work that isn't easily categorized, check out Emergency Press's contest. The deadline is in July 2012.

Poetry everywhere by everyone

2011-10-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

That's what the C&P Coffee website says. Also, "for the no-capital-p poet in each of us."

I would like to add, "what's up, West Coast?!"

Please join me for what may be my last reading in Seattle.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Featured readers: Rayn Roberts and Priya Keefe, 7 - 8 pm

Open mic, ~ 8 - 9 pm

C&P Coffee

5612 California Avenue SW (West Seattle)

Seattle, WA 98136

206.933.3125

Road Trip!

2011-07-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

Bring your poems, flash fiction, guitar, piccolo trumpet, the jokes your 6-year-old sister loved

Open mic at Everett Poetry Night
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Sign up at 7pm
Cafe Zippy
2811 Wetmore Ave
Everett, WA 98201

I am the featured reader

Our Kids, Our Selves

2011-06-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

A 30 minute spoken word radio program. Airs on KSER 90.7 - you can listen online at kser.org on Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 6:30 PT or 9:30 ET.

PoetsWest #196
OUR KIDS, OUR SELVES
(29.03 minutes)

Another Son—Dick Gibbons
Setting Up House—Ann Spiers
To an Infant—Ann Spiers
Early Childhood Education—Nancy Dahlberg
Childhood—J. Glenn Evans
Just a Bunch—Len Tews
Glow in the Dark—Len Tews
Different Mind-sets—Richard Brugger
Victory Café—J. Glenn Evans
Angel’s Beach—Karen Havnaer
Further Adventures—Dennis Caswell
Masquerades—Ellaraine Lockie
First Car—Marj Hahne
Girls Like Jessica—Priya Keefe
Where Are You Child—Scott Galasso
Punk in Tee Shirt—John Burgess
Note for My Niece—Marj Hahne

Music
Ray Lynch Deep Breakfast Tk5
Jerin Falkner Almost Completely Happy Tk1

National Poetry Month comes every year

2011-04-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

This year I am doing NaPoWriMo: writing {a poem} every day of April. The last two years I was in graduate school. I've run out of excuses to not write. Sometimes, I will take a prompt from this site, http://www.napowrimo.net/; sometimes, from a napowrimo piece or prompt a friend has posted on Facebook.

At first, I thought I would post a few of the better ones on FB, but I find myself posting every day. I may feel chagrined to post a mediocre blurb, but posting every day brings me into this community of writers who are writing every day. And I had been writing every...okay, not every week. I am inspired, seeing my friends posting their writing every day. And I am encouraged to take myself less seriously by posting whatever I come up with. But most importantly, I am writing for 30 days.

Meanwhile, back in the States...

2011-02-22T21:44:00.000-08:00

My next reading is Tuesday, March 15, 2010, 7-8 pm.

Third Tuesdays Poets & Writers
Seattle Mobile Espresso, 13000 Linden Ave N.
Phone 206-420-4719.
Curated by Dobbie Reese Norris.

On the streets of Dublin

2011-02-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

A small part of my thesis is on the streets of Dublin right now, as part of UpStart's project promoting creativity in Ireland!

All the photos are on a searchable map. Search for "questions."

UPDATE: "Index of Questions & Answers" (excerpted and posted on a Dublin lamppost) is now on Upstart's blog: http://upstart.ie/blog/?p=1003.

Just in time for happy hour

2011-01-12T18:08:00.000-08:00

Saturday, February 5th, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
in the basement of the Green Lake Branch Seattle Public Library, 7364 E Greenlake Dr. N, Seattle, WA 98115.

Reader’s Choice features John Burgess, Priya Keefe, Raúl Sanchez. Open mic. MC J. Glenn Evans. The entire program is recorded for possible airplay on KSER 90.7.

On The Nervous Breakdown (not under it)

2010-12-26T13:41:00.000-08:00

I am the featured poet on The Nervous Breakdown this week. There is a poem and a "self-interview." Click the link, read a little, leave a comment, browse a little, get distracted and make a sandwich, but please check it out.

I wanna be dumb, thumbs up, there’s no such thing as luck

2010-11-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

My poem, "Three Cheers for Dumb!" was on a State of the Nation PoetsWest radio program on November 3, 2010. You can catch it in the archive for the next two weeks or so: http://poetswest.com/State%20of%20the%20Union_mono.mp3.

State of the Union #180

(29.08 minutes)

E Pluribus Unum 0.44 Karen Havnaer
I Hope I See It Coming 2.22 Jeff Lair
Czar 0.53 Laine Dexter
Self-Medication Blues 0.59 Chris Jarmick
Moloch Virus 1.16 Jean Musser
Shrinking of Long Green 0.54 Murray Gordon
Conservative Blues (guitar) 2.27 Brandon Cesmat
Three Cheers for Dumb 1.28 Priya Keefe
What a Friend 0.56 Thomas Hubbard
Secret Life of Jesus #694 (0.39) Jim Lutz
Patriotism on Trial 1.03 Ellaraine Lockie
The Big War 1.37 Jeff Lair
Pay the Piper 2.28 Pieter Zilinsky
When Will It Stop 1.28 J. Glenn Evans

Bridge at 16.07
Leonard Cohen More Best of Tks 1, 5
©2010 PoetsWest

Reading on Saturday, October 16 at 4:00 p.m

2010-10-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

I'll be reading some of my writing on Saturday, October 16 at 4:00 p.m. with the good folk Murray Gordon and Roy Seitz.

Green Lake Branch Seattle Public Library, 7364 E Greenlake Dr. N, Seattle. Open mic.

Switched-on Gutenberg

2010-10-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

A piece from my thesis has been published in the new Switched-on Gutenberg!

The theme of the issue is "Assemblage."

Blues & Bluster

2010-10-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

I walked dark, residential streets in the rain to 20th and Union. Waited under an awning until my friend Ronnie got there. We joined two others at the gate; the group admitted inside. Music blared.

When I said yes to Ronnie's invitation to read on the radio, I figured we would be filler in between sets of music. I didn't know I would become part of something, a ritual with a welcoming host, involving moon music word pictures late night callers circumambulating speculations.

Priya Keefe - Westlake Center by tysontalksmusic

Blues & Bluster on Hollow Earth radio

Phone call near 1 am

What is a Milkman's Holiday?

2010-09-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

My poem, "Milkman's Holiday" will be on KSER today (9/8) at 4:30 pm PT/ 7:30 ET. Part of a Labor Day program. You can listen live online.

PoetsWest #173

LABOR DAY
(29.03 minutes)

Michigan—Hilary Peach
WV Miner—Rosemary O’Hara
Milkman’s Holiday—Priya Keefe
What the World Takes—Holly Hughes
To Be—Michael Daley
Men in Trees—Brandon Cesmat
Can’t Be Helped—J. Andrew Rodriguez
Mechanic—Dick Gibbons
Cook’s Heaven—J. Glenn Evans

Bruce Springsteen Working on a Dream Tks 3,8
©2010 PoetsWest

Curating Seattle City Council Poetry Readings

2010-07-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

7/14/2010 Today is my last City Council Meeting as curator. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity. The reading series will continue with the next curator - check it out! Also, you can read text of the poems here: http://www.seattle.gov/council/licata/poetword.htm.

* *

I am excited to be curating the Words' Worth poetry readings at Seattle City Council!

The Housing, Human Services, Health and Culture committee meetings, chaired by Nick Licata, will begin with a poem. You can watch them live by going to the Seattle Channel website and clicking "Watch Live" or catch them in the archives later.

2010
Fri, Jan 29 at 3 pm PT: Priya Keefe
Wed, Feb 10 at 2 pm PT: Drew Dillhunt
Wed, Feb 24 at 2 pm PT: Yvonne Croteau
Wed, Mar 10 at 2 pm PST: Nashira Priester
Fri, Apr 2 at 2 pm PT: Thomas Thomas
Wed, Apr 14 at 2 pm PT: C. Albert
Wed, Apr 28 at 2 pm PT: Ellen Welcker
Wed, May 26 at 2 pm PT: Larry Crist
Wed, Jun 23 at 2 pm PT: Dobbie Norris
Wed, Jul 14 at 2 pm PT: Priya Keefe

Slumberfest: 25 hour, international open mic

2010-06-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

I'm performing at 4:30 pm Pacific Time, Saturday, June 26, 2010 on the interwebs...

Watch live: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/slumberfest

Here’s how it's done: live satellite video chat, projectors rigged to laptops, and an unbroken stream of black coffee. Live performance from all over the world is beamed onto the walls. Musicians and poets from all over the Bay Area grace our stage. Artists can speak any language or reside in any nation. The only rule is that someone has to be performing something every waking second for exactly 24 hours. Join us for a mad marathon of art and community, making the world a little smaller by expanding our horizons. Hosted by World Slam Champion Mike Mcgee and insomniac poet David Perez. Anyone who stays for the full 24 hours earns honorary poet laureate of San Jose status. http://www.artsopolis.com/event/detail/43673

Friday, June 25, 2010 8:00pm to Saturday, June 26, 2010 9:00pm
In the flesh: SOIL Creative Studios / 190 Martha Street, Studio H / San Jose, CA / USA

North American Tour!

2010-04-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Em, actually, I'm just reading in Everett.

Thursday, May 20, 2010, 7 - 9 pm.
Priya Keefe featured reader at Zippy's Java Lounge. Open mic. Hosted by Garrett Rutledge.

1804 Hewitt Ave.
(Rockefeller & Hewitt)
Everett, WA 98201

It's About Time Writers Series #247

2010-03-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

Thurs March 11, 2010 - Michael Daley on The Writer's Craft: "Misdirections, making a new poem by imitating others" + Priya Keefe, Peter Ludwin, and Laura Snyder. Curated by Esther Altshul Helfgott. http://itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com/

Ballard library
5614 22nd Ave. N.W.
Seattle , WA 98107

If I didn't have an entire book to put together, my website never would have gotten updated

2010-03-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

My dishes are clean, too.

Two weeks to put together a book of approximately 50 poems. That is, two weeks left.

Now, time to alphabetize my CDs...

How a writer should set up her/his desk

2009-10-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

The Life of a Poem at Seattle Central Community College

2009-09-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

I am teaching a poetry class at Seattle Central Community College Continuing Education, September 29 - November 17. The Life of a Poem.

The life of a poem begins with the freedom to write and journeys through revision and performance. A poet also breathes life into his or her work by reading a world of poetry and studying craft. In this class, students will develop their own poetic craft and work toward writing the best poems they can write. The class will study a diverse set of poems; analyze craft; perform writing exercises; critique work in a thoughtful and compassionate environment; revise; and learn performance techniques.
8 Tuesdays 9/29/2009 - 11/17/2009 6:30 - 8:30 PM Fee: $45 Call 206.587.5448 or go to http://www.learnatcentral.org/ to enroll.

What Should I Read Next?

2009-05-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

I am just finishing my second semester in the low-residency Creative Writing MFA program at Goddard College. I picked this low-residency program because the focus was on creative writing, not on jumping through unrelated hoops. The program requirements include critical writing, reading 15 books a semester, doing a teaching practicum, and developing a creative manuscript. I liked that teaching was a required aspect, too. And best of all, I get to design my own curriculum that is meaningful to me, with the guidance of my advisor. Here is what I've read so far:

Carson, Anne. The Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse.
Clifton, Lucille. Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems: 1988 - 2000.
Dobyns, Stephen. Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry.
Ginsberg, Alan. Howl.
Hillman, Brenda. Loose Sugar.
Komunyakaa, Yusef. Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems.
Weschler, Lawrence. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Human, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology.
Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America: Stories.
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books.
Olds, Sharon. The Dead and the Living.
Pinsky, Robert. The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966 - 1996.
Rukeyser, Muriel. "The Book of the Dead".
Sexton, Anne. Transformations.
Turpin, Mark. Hammer: Poems.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass.

Berryman, John. 77 Dream Songs.
Carson, Anne. The Beauty of the Husband.
Carson, Anne. Glass, Irony, and God.
Davis, Lydia. Break It Down.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
Hempel, Amy. The Collected Stories.
Hirshfield, Jane. Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry.
Lee, Li-Young. The City in Which I Live.
Lowell, Robert. Life Studies.
Nelson, Maggie. Jane: a Murder.
Notley, Alice. Mysteries of Small Houses.
Rilke, Ranier Maria. Letters to a Young Poet.
Shakespeare, William. Complete Sonnets.
Rankin, Claudia and Spahr, Juliana. American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Language Meets Lyric.
Szymborska, Wislawa. Collected Poems.

Famous... on YouTube

2009-05-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

National Poetry Month 2009 - I read my poem "Immersion" in the Port Townsend Poetry Project. Also check out my classmates' readings on YouTube - Phil, Ellen, and David.

Podium-free poetry

2009-03-02T14:40:00.000-08:00

Friday, March 27, 2009. Untitled [intersection] at the Phinney Neighborhood Center.

Curated by A. K. Mimi Allin, who says: "If the idea of a poetry reading makes you yawn, imagine this - four clusters of chairs, each around a poet in a different corner of the room. Instead of sitting in an audience block, listening to poet after poet, you attend mini-workshops and experience each. The poet is the teacher. The material is their poetry. Seattle poets JEFF ENCKE, PRIYA KEEFE, JACOB JANS and AMANDA LAUGHTLAND will present mini-classes in understanding their poetry. Between classes, you will have the opportunity to sit with performance artist DANAE' CLARK, who will be presenting "Traveling Heartbeats." Danae' will listen to the hearts of willing audience members while making small watercolor paintings. Interior/exterior. Audience/artist. Us/them. All hail podium-free poetry!!"

Web Dream, Swinging Doors

2008-08-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

It's like seeing your face on another's body, selling your soul to the devil so you can play guitar, kissing a stranger before second thoughts... oh, I don't know what it's like. Weird, but kinda cool.

Someone used three lines of my poem "Three Cheers for Dumb" at the beginning of a music mix. Equally strange and cool is that they credited me! Danke, Rara.

http://starfrosch.ch/2008/08/10/rara_dune - click on Miles and More Stars and Stripes

**

Monday's bit-o-cool:

KBCS radio was doing a show with music and poetry. I emailed the DJ, Sean Patrick Donovan, and he read an excerpt of "Three Cheers for Dumb!" on the Lunch With Folks show.
Playlist: http://bellevuecollege.edu/kbcs/Catalog/searchplaylists.aspx

Drash published

2008-05-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Drash was released May 18, 2008 and contains my poem, "Visiting Auschwitz." It is available at Temple Beth Am, Ravenna Third Place Books, Tree of Life Books and Judaica, and other area bookstores. Listen to an interview with editor Wendy Marcus on KUOW (43 minutes into the show).

I readwith other contributers on June 1 at 4pm at the Ravenna Third Place Books, 6504 – 20th NE, Seattle. Drash contributers include: Robin Asher, Michael Bonacci, Linda Clifton, Suzanne E. Edison, Vishwas R. Gaitonde, Pesha Gertler, Murray Gordon, Esther Altshul Helfgott, Donald Kentop, Wendy Marcus, Tree McCurdy, Erica Michael, Jed Myers, Daniel W. Rasmus, Michael Schein, Ken Shiovitz, Mike Siegel, David B. Williams and others.

Quotes on Poetry

2007-11-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.
--William Butler Yeats

Poems are just stories...with the boring parts left out.
--W. H. Auden

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
--T. S. Eliot

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.
--Plato

A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.
--Salman Rushdie

I gave up on new poetry myself thirty years ago, when most of it began to read like coded messages passing between lonely aliens on a hostile world.
--Russell Baker

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.
--Robert Graves

Poetry is to philosophy what the Sabbath is to the rest of the week.
--Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare

Poetry is life distilled.
--Gwendolyn Brooks

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.
--Allen Ginsberg

Poetry is a journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly the air.
--Carl Sandburg

Poetry Gets a Bad Rap, but Both are Spoken Words

2007-11-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

Poetry isn't bad rap, good rap is poetry. I got the rap on poetry; life imprisonment.

Poetry began as an oral tradition, part of the lives of working people and ruling people. It was a part of relating oral history, stories, myths, genealogy, law, and liturgy. Gradually, it became a practice more common in academia than in everyday life. Despite rap and slam poetry (which have done much to popularize spoken word), poetry is now often said to be obsolete. That's just silly. It is as vibrant as ever.

I love poetry for the same reasons I love other art forms: the feelings it evokes; its ability to teach and uplift; the appreciation of human similarities and differences it gives; beauty; the sense of awe and community it fosters; its humor; the transcendence amidst suffering it offers.

I feel passionately that poetry can be as accessible as any other art form. As in music, movies, painting, sculpture, photography, and dance, there is great variety in spoken word; but, perhaps because of the way it is taught, or lack of exposure, many people believe they don’t like poetry and poetry is not relevant to them. I believe many people can appreciate poetry but have not yet found the kind they like.

That's a wrap.

Writers on Writing

2007-09-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

I'm interested in why and how other people write. Check out these resources for ideas on writer's block, allowing yourself to write badly and other struggles in writing and living.

Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury.
Writing the Natural Way by Gabriel Rico (my very first writing book, given to me by my mother).
Starting From Scratch by Rita Mae Brow n.
The Artists Way by Julia Cameron.
"Why I Write", essay by George Orwell, author of 1984.
Jean Craighead George, author of Julie of the Wolves, a young adult book.

Writing Resources & Advice

2007-09-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

Read!
To pick out a book to read that's appropriate to your current mood, try: Forager. Book Browse. All Readers. Bibloiomania. Read the dictionary, or, at least, look up new words: Oxford English Dictionary. Webster's Online Dictionary & Thesaurus.

Research
Use your local library. Use the internet (with salt and pepper); try Wikipedia. Avoid literary scams.

Find Community
Poets and Writer's Magazine. PEN. Poets.org. (See the sidebar for some of my local communities.)

Play with Language
World Wide Words. Translating Dictionaries.

Question Authority
Q & A.

Please Yourself
The Bulwer-Lytton Contest. Exquisite Corpse, the writing game. Poetry for Pleasure. Write erotica.

Arts Community

2007-04-23T17:57:00.000-07:00

Seattle has a vibrant arts scene, and there are many worthy readings and open mics. I like to mix it up sometimes, but I do tend to frequent some venues more than others. For me, it's half about poetry/performance (or music) and half about community.

Last Monday night I hit Bai Pai, a Thai restaurant in Ravenna. The open mic is hosted by Jed Myers and includes music, poetry, and much cross-pollinating improvisation. I saw friends, met new people, and had a lovely late evening. A few of us swapped poems and read each others' work. It can be a little intimidating to read an author's work when she or he is in the audience, but it's also very rewarding. And I got a huge kick out of listening to others perform my work. Aaron did a lovely reading of "Milkman's Holiday" and Jed turned "Three Cheers for Dumb!" into a funny blues song, performed Lou Reed style. They both got me to thinking about my own work in a new way, which was very refreshing.

Rejection...

2007-03-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

is part of every writer's life
isn't personal
is a rite of passage
can contain valuabe feedback
doesn't mean you should give up
means you are sending your work out
is nothing to be ashamed of
has been suffered by many great, published authors

People say all this and more about rejection. But rejection still feels bad.

Here are a couple other looks at rejection:
Interview with Angela J. Fountas... "rejections usually fall into one of three categories: (1) work isn't ready for publication, (2) work is ready for publication but not right for the anthology/magazine, or (3) work is ready for publication and came very close, but the other x number of pieces being considered won out when the editors duked it out in their editorial meeting."

"Rejection Letter from Gertrude Stein" - poem by Marjorie Manwaring (or listen to her read it - 26 minutes into the show

The Rejection Collection website