*or not—free, formal, blank, rap, hip-hop, it’s all good

In celebration of National Poetry Month and in anticipation of the 2013 Alabama Book Festival, the second annual 24-hour poetry marathon will be held April 18-19 in downtown Montgomery. Any interested poets may participate by reading their own work or that of another poet, or both. Get on the list to read by calling 334-834-3556 or by sending an email to deric.sallas (at) newsouthbooks.com.

At the 2012 event, author and poet Joseph Trimble reads at Court Square at sunrise; AUM student Matt Johnson reads in the NewSouth Bookstore.

The event is co-sponsored by NewSouth Books, the Village Gallery, and Smoothies ‘n Things, at 105–109 South Court Street, at the corner of Court and Washington, just one block south of Court Square Fountain, and by Cool Beans at the Cafe d’Art, a block west of the fountain at 115 Montgomery Street.

The event will begin Thursday, April 18th, at 6 p.m. at the NewSouth Bookstore. At 7:30 p.m. it will move next door to the Village Gallery. Around daybreak on Friday morning the reader for that time slot will move to Court Square Fountain for reading as the sun rises over the Alabama Capitol. At 7 a.m. the event will move to Cool Beans for a caffeine jolt, then to Smoothies n’ Things from 9–10:30 A.M., then back to the NewSouth Bookstore, and the last reader will end at 6 p.m.

On Friday evening, April 19th, the Alabama Book Festival will have its opening reception for the writers who will be on the program Saturday, April 20th. A full poetry track will be featured at the Festival, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (gates open at 9 a.m.), at Old Alabama Town (Hull and Jefferson streets, six blocks northeast of the fountain).

Download the official Rhyme Around the Clock informational flyer.

The NewSouth Bookstore
105 S. Court St.
334-834-3556

The Village Gallery
107 S. Court St.
334-538-0680

Smoothies ‘n Things
109 S. Court St.
334-241-0770

Cool Beans
115 Montgomery St.
334-269-3302

— all at Montgomery, AL 36104 —

*or not—free, formal, blank, rap, hip-hop, it’s all good

In celebration of National Poetry Month and in anticipation of the 2012 Alabama Book Festival, a 24-hour poetry marathon will be held April 19–20 in downtown Montgomery. Any interested poet may participate by reading her/his own work or that of another poet, or both. Get on the list to read by calling 334-834-3556 or by sending an email to noelle@newsouthbooks.com.

The event is co-sponsored by NewSouth Books and the Village Gallery, at 105 and 107 South Court Street, respectively, at the corner of Court and Washington, just one block south of Court Square Fountain, and by Cool Beans at the Cafe d’Art, a block west of the fountain at 115 Montgomery Street.

The event will begin Thursday, April 19th, at 6 p.m. at the NewSouth Bookstore. At 8 p.m. it will move next door to the Village Gallery. Around daybreak on Friday morning the reader for that time slot will move to Court Square Fountain for reading as the sun rises over the Alabama Capitol. At 6:30 a.m. the event will move to Cool Beans for a caffeine jolt, then back to the NewSouth Bookstore, and the last reader will end at 6 p.m.

On Friday evening, April 20th, the Alabama Book Festival will have its opening reception for the writers who will be on the program Saturday, April 21st. A full poetry track will be featured at the Festival, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (gates open at 9 a.m.), at Old Alabama Town (Hull and Jefferson streets, six blocks northeast of the fountain).

The NewSouth Bookstore
105 S. Court St.
334-834-3556

The Village Gallery
107 S. Court St.
334-538-0680

Cool Beans
115 Montgomery St.
334-269-3302

— all at Montgomery, AL 36104 —

In 2011, Poetry Council of North Carolina received more entries than ever for the Oscar Arnold Young Award. David Rigsbee’s collection The Red Tower: New and Selected Poems won “outstanding book of poems published by a North Carolina poet in 2010.”

Final judge Paul Nelson, former Director of the Ohio University Creative Writing Program and award-winning author of six collections of poetry, selected Rigsbee’s book. Nelson said that it was the most “unique and fully realized” of the candidates. Rigsbee will be the featured reader on Poetry Day, and his work will appear in the Council‚Äôs annual awards anthology Bay Leaves.

Rigsbee edits for The Cortland Review and has received fellowships and prizes from the National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, the Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. Amongst his 18 books and chapbooks, Rigsbee’s collection The Pilot House won the 2009 Black River Poetry Prize. School of the Americas is due out from Black Lawrence Press in 2012.

Recently Rigsbee and his wife Jill Bullitt, the painter, discovered “Jill’s Toes,” a poem about Jill by her mother Carolyn Kizer. In 1985, Kizer won the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry volume Yin.

Constantly struggling against the patriarchy, Kizer taught poetry at the University of Iowa, Washington University, and Stanford University and translated Japanese, Chinese, and Urdu poetry. She also acted as first director of literature programs at the National Endowment for the Arts.

“Jill’s Toes” was published for the first time in the spring/summer 2011 issue of the journal Poetry Northwest, which Kizer co-founded in 1959. After being moved and suspended, Poetry Northwest has been revived and now has offices at Everett Community College in the Puget Sound area.

Bullitt’s passion for art and Rigsbee’s dedication to poetry carry on Kizer’s legacy.

David Rigsbee’s The Red Tower is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite retail or online bookseller.