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Don’t Forget This Song: Celebrating the Carter Family and Other Roots Musicians

November 26, 2011 By Kory Leave a Comment

"There's a spot on the porch saved just for you." Click for online purchasing info.

You may forget the singer, but don’t forget the song, the Carter Family bade listeners of one particularly mournful tune they recorded more than eighty years ago. The writer of those lyrics needn’t have worried. Today the songs of America’s roots music are not only remembered but thriving – in forms that both recreate the authentic sound and remake it in fresh ways – in the widely diverse Americana music genre.

These old songs continue to spark artists of all types, yours truly among them. I’m delighted that Maggi Vaughn, Tennessee Poet Laureate and owner of Bell Buckle Press, asked me, my daughter Kelsey, and friend Carole Knuth to collaborate with her on the new book Don’t Forget This Song: Four Writers Celebrate the Carter Family and Other Roots Musicians. In its pages, the four of us celebrate the past and present of roots music in styles and for reasons as diverse as the music itself. Here’s a blurb from the introduction: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Americana roots music, Featured, Reading/writing events, Tennessee writers Tagged With: books, Carter Family, Carter Fold, early country music, Janette Carter, Maggi Britton Vaughn, roots music

Poetry Book Giveaway and Talk with Irene Latham, The Color of Lost Rooms

January 30, 2011 By Kory 16 Comments

I’m not sure if it’s a late new year or an early Valentine’s here on my blog, but I’m excited to be celebrating any day with a poetry book giveaway. The book is THE COLOR OF LOST ROOMS, a new collection from Irene Latham.

In The Color of Lost Rooms, author Irene Latham examines themes of love and loss through art, history and nature.

I’m a big fan of Irene’s first full-length poetry collection, WHAT CAME BEFORE, which was named Alabama State Poetry Society’s Book of the Year and earned a 2008 Independent Publisher’s (IPPY) Award. More recently, she’s been attracting a lot of attention with her debut midgrade historical novel LEAVING GEE’S BEND (G.P. Putnam, 2010), a Depression-era story that stole my heart – and, perhaps more significantly, Booklist called “authentic and memorable.”

Imagine how the cup/misses the weight of tea Irene writes in “Blue Still Life,” one of the poems in THE COLOR OF LOST ROOMS. These lines hint at much of what this book is about: love and loss, desire and duty, regret and the return of hope. But if this book is about life and love, it’s of art and history and nature. After I read the book, I was very curious to learn more about the genesis of many of these poems, and Irene graciously answered a few questions. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Poetry, The arts, The writing life Tagged With: book giveaway, ekphrastic poetry, interview, Irene Latham, Leaving Gee's Bend, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Color of Lost Rooms

My Favorite Things of 2010

December 13, 2010 By Kory 5 Comments

For reasons I won’t go into, 2010 has not been my favorite year. But, inspired by the year-end list posted by fellow Tennessee writer Susan Cushman on her Pen and Palette blog, I’ve realized there have been plenty of things I’ve enjoyed, especially in the area of books and music. So here are my personal favorites of 2010, which I share in hopes that you might find something here that will inspire you. Happy reading, happy listening, happy following your muse.

POETRY

Bobby Rogers, another writer from Tennessee, won the 2009 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize with this book.

Favorite new poetry book: We start out with a tie: The Candle I Hold Up to See You by Cathy Smith Bowers and Paper Anniversary by Bobby Rogers.

Favorite new-to-me poetry book: The Door by Margaret Atwood (I especially love one poem in this book, “Owl and Pussycat, Some Years Later.”)

Other must-mentions : Cecilia Woloch (who was just awarded an NEA fellowship); Irene Latham (whose new poetry book The Color of Lost Rooms is out December 21st); The News Inside by Bill Brown; Gary Soto; James Applewhite.

FICTION

Favorite new fiction: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin [Read more...]

Filed Under: Americana roots music, Reading/writing events, The arts Tagged With: Americana music, best books, best poetry, Tennessee writers

MTSU Writer’s Loft Graduate: "Well-Directed Program, Wonderful Mentors"

September 9, 2010 By Kory Leave a Comment

Poets & Writers just published their rankings of both traditional and low-residency MFA programs for creative writing. I confess, I took a peek. The idea that I somehow need an MFA nags at me ever so often, although to date I haven’t quite mustered any full-board justification or enthusiasm for starting to file my applications. But as I scanned the rankings, something unexpected caught my eye.

It was an eight point – disclaimer, if you will – posted in the rankings’ Guide to the Methodology. (Scroll down in the guide to find this section.) It’s worth reading all eight points, but in the interest of brevity I’ll repost only the first one:

(1) MFA programs are not for everyone, and many poets and writers will find their energies better spent elsewhere as they attempt to explore and augment their existing talents;

I’m glad to see P&W acknowledging this truth and making the other recommendations they do, including #5, don’t go into debt for an MFA.

Click the image above to visit The Writer's Loft Facebook page.

P&W‘s comment offers a great segue for me to talk about The Writer’s Loft Program at Middle Tennessee State University. The Writer’s Loft is a low-residency certificate program in creative writing that is built around two main components: orientation/workshop weekends and one-on-one mentoring. (Full disclosure: I am a new mentor in this program, although I’ve been a fan a long time. I am not one of the “wonderful mentors” mentioned below.)

Sandy Coomer is a recent graduate who’s representing the Loft well: [Read more...]

Filed Under: The writing life Tagged With: creative writing education, low-residency writing program, mentoring for writers, mfa alternative, Sandy Coomer, writing mentor, writing workshops

Where Have I Been? Writing More Than I Thought About a Creative Life

September 5, 2010 By Kory Leave a Comment

Kory and Kelsey Wells perform poetry and old-time music.

One excuse I haven't been blogging: Kelsey and I do our best rock star imitation at a recent poetry/old time music performance. Tens of thousands of chanting fans not pictured.

So, when I last posted in late April, I really wasn’t planning to take off from blogging for the entire extended summer! But here we are in September, and I find myself with plenty of ideas to share with you. First, though, I’ve realized I should cross-link to some of my posts on the Risk a Day blog, where I did NOT take a summer vacation. Here are several which relate to writing and/or living a creative life:

A Daily Audacious Goal: Can I Do It? Can You?
Twice in recent months, I’ve heard people mention a commitment to daily goals which struck me as totally audacious. First, my mentor Bill Brown mentioned that he and his friend Jeff Hardin were writing and exchanging a new poem EVERY DAY. That’s my emphasis, not Bill’s. Every day? How in the world? I thought. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Risk a day, The writing life Tagged With: change, daily audacious goal, daily goals for writers and artists, mentoring

Delightful Contemporary Tennessee Poets

April 22, 2010 By Kory Leave a Comment

The folks over at Chapter 16 are doing a great job of promoting both poetry and prose by authors who have connections to Tennessee, but in honor of National Poetry Month, I couldn’t resist making my own list of contemporary Tennessee poets whose work I enjoy. Here are 3, [Read more...]

Filed Under: Tennessee writers Tagged With: bluegrass rap, Darnell Arnoult, hillbilly cool, Jeff Hardin, Minton Sparks, rural South, Tennessee poets

Nothing Trickier, Nothing More Eloquent: Dani Shapiro Questions Personal Faith in Devotion

March 16, 2010 By Kory 2 Comments

“Aren’t we all just waiting for bad news?” advice columnist Carolyn Hax wrote in 2009. She was responding to a reader who had asked for advice about waiting for a loved one’s medical test results. Her question – right there in the morning paper beside the daily TV schedule and across from Arlo and Janis and the Peanuts gang– struck me as profound. I clipped the column and have a poem in the works using that quote.

I know a few folks – like my dear Mama – who are most definitely not waiting on bad news. Mama could have major, risky surgery scheduled tomorrow and still sleep like a baby tonight. She says she asks herself, “Is this (thing I’m worried about) anything I can change?” If it is, then she gets up and does something about it. If it’s not, she puts it in God’s hands.

But if you’re anything like me, even the remote possibility of bad news has kept you awake – or awakened you at two a.m. – on more than one night. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith Tagged With: belief, book review, dani shapiro, devotion, Faith, personal peace, waiting for bad news

The Lesson January Taught Me

February 3, 2010 By Kory 3 Comments

The month of January is finally, blissfully gone, although, like an inconsiderate house guest, she has left messy reminders here in middle Tennessee. Snow still covers our yard; a little slush clings here and there on the more shaded roads; we are still not quite in normal routine (with schools finally going back 2 hours late today); and we are dreading the utility bill when it arrives in another week or so. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith Tagged With: Ecclesiastes, January, redemption, winter doldrums, winter walk

If Our Lady Were in Charge: More Art, Less (and Better?) Politics

December 31, 2009 By Kory Leave a Comment

Make a resolution to get closer to some art this year. Here, Kelsey Wells shares a bit of time and space with Dirty Dan, a Fairhaven, Washington resident.

Our Lady has recently received a couple of pieces of mail that she wishes everyone would read and think about for the new year, right before they take some time to listen to someone else’s point of view, learn something new from another culture, or make some art themselves.

The first is from Arts Tennessee, a quarterly newsletter of the Tennessee Arts Commission. In his “From the Desk of the Executive Director” article, Rich Boyd shares part of a recent address to the Chattanooga Rotarians on the value of public art. Part of what he says is: [Read more...]

Filed Under: The arts Tagged With: art and community, public art, Tennessee Arts Commmission