Events

Five poets from the nationally acclaimed American Poetry Alliance (APA) imprint will conduct a joint reading at 7 pm on April 20 at Flyleaf. The APA marks this spring with the simultaneous publication of five new works by some of America’s most celebrated poets.  “We are drunking with the spring nectar of joy,” says Nadine Sobolevitch, the APA’s editor-in-chief. “My quintet are five bottles of wine which I uncork at you. Please to be sip.” The poets appearing will be: Emily Norcross: A professor of woman studies at Clisterford College in Holyroyd, Mass., Norcross will declaim selections from her book “The Golden Hour: Poems about Death and Other Vital Matters.” It recently received the Satin Orchid Award from the Womyn’s Literary Society of Key West, Florida. Lester Scoggin: Scoggin’s meditations on deKooning, Rothko, Henry Moore, John Currin, and Bob Dole have astonished critics. His new volume “I Clean the Chicken” recently received a full-page review in the New York Times Book Review. “These are good poems,” raved critic Michiko Kakutani. Zanzibar McFate. Known to friend and foe alike as “Buck Buck,” McFate recently returned from the Congo. Though recovering from an attempted disembowelment by the child soldiers of the Army of the Elephant, McFate will manfully read from his trilogy “Ram It In” “Push Bush” and “Power Through.” Anomie T. Strange. A moose warden from Isle Royale National Park, Strange has delighted tourists for years with his light verse about animals.  So far, A. Tad has written about owls, skinks, and ticks. He has also penned some doozies about vultures, whales (all APA poets are required to write at least one poem about whales), dolphins, and dachshunds. Dalmatian toadflax. Recently uprooted from his native western Nebraska, toadflax is a noxious weed. His first book “Dusted” contains arational non-linear thought patterns. As it is the mating season, it is recommended that audience members maintain a respectful distance from toadflax. Nantucket whaling captain Nathaniel Peleg founded the American Poetry Alliance (APA) in 1827 using the proceeds from a particularly rich harvest of sperm whales in the Antarctic Ocean. When an uncooperative whale swallowed his sole book of poems, he vowed that never again would any whaling man be without verse during the long months at sea when no women were around and the first mate started looking better all the time. Thanks to his efforts, books of APA poetry have been provided free of charge to the men and ladies of all whaling vessels, no matter what flag they fly. The APA’s authors are presently on a marathon nationwide 60 day tour. They are traveling in a 2008 lime green Prius whose brakes have been recently inspected. Their tour takes them to 60 great independent booksellers, including City Lights in San Francisco, Powell’s in Portland, The Tattered Brassiere in New Orleans, MIT’s Fibonacci Prime in Cambridge, Mass., and Kroger #2015 in Memphis, Tennessee. Selected works by Peter, Paul, and Mary and John Denver will be performed by Will & Asia on acoustic guitar and mandolin. For more visit, www.americanpoetryalliance.com