Poet and photographer Thomas Sayers Ellis spends some time in Houston

March 28, 2013, by

TSE Self PortraitLucky for us, accomplished poet and photographer Thomas Sayers Ellis is spending some time in Houston this spring.

Currently a faculty member of the Lesley University low-residency M.F.A Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Poetry Editor of The Baffler, Thomas’ poetry books include Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems and The Maverick Room. He is working on a book of photographs titled The Go-Go Book: People in the Pocket in Washington, D.C.

Thomas is one of the artists of Project Row Houses’ Round 38 Installations opening this weekend. The Artists’ Talk takes place Saturday, March 30th, at 2:30 pm and the opening reception takes place later that day from 4 -7 pm. For more information, click here.  Thomas will also read tonight, Thursday, March 28th, at 8:30 pm, as part of the Poison Pen Series at Poison Girl Bar, click here for details. Continue reading

Houston’s first Poet Laureate

March 5, 2013, by

HPLlogo4eblastsLast year we were lucky enough to feature former U. S. Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin as part of the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. We’ve had 16 Poet Laureates grace the reading series over the last 32 seasons. Before we featured Merwin, we did some research to understand how these laureates are selected and what the responsibilities include. Click here to see what we found.

But just as important as the national poetry scene, is our local one. Houston is fortunate that it is buzzing with thoughtful, talented, and lively poets and now poetry will be honored on a citywide level. Mayor Annise Parker recently announced the establishment of the Houston Poet Laureate Program. We asked Jennifer Schwartz, Program Manager for the Houston Public Library, to give us more information about this new initiative.

Inprint: Can you tell us how the Houston Poet Laureate will be selected? Is there a selection committee and a nomination process? Continue reading

Celebrating Jack Kerouac

March 1, 2013, by

KerouacFestflyerfrontWe all have favorite books—books that change the way we think, books that expand our sense of the world, and books that help us understand the meaning of life. The authors of those favorite books become our heroes. They become who we look to and revere.

Now, can you imagine organizing a festival to celebrate that author? A few weeks ago we met with the organizers of Kerouac Fest 2013, Stephen Gros and Tanyia Johnson. Yes, you heard me right, a festival celebrating Jack Kerouac.

Kerouac Fest 2013 takes place on Saturday, March 9, from 3 – 10 pm at the Orange Show Monument. For tickets and other details click here. We asked Stephen to answer a few questions for us, and he was kind enough to do so:

Inprint: How did the idea of Kerouac Fest come about?

Stephen: Years ago I tried organizing a marathon reading of On The Road read by local poets and writers. My friend Michael Hoerman had been involved with one in Massachusetts where Jack is from and he gave me the whole thing timed out. That reading never materialized, something about getting poets to commit to an 18-hour event just wasn’t going to stick. It wasn’t the right time.  So I filed that away and moved on to other things. Continue reading