Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this event was via Zoom. 

Annie Bloom’s Books  host Laura LeHew and Christopher & Angelo Luna via ZOOM

Tues, Jan 8, 2022
at 7:00 pm (waiting room opens at 6:45)

Enjoy a video from the show!

You’ll find yourself deeply moved and inspired by its bold honesty.

Dear John— is a collection of poems that investigate and explore the multi-facets of love by using diverse points of view to reveal romantic love, loving friendships, and love that is complicated. The namesake poem for which this book was conceived, the final poem, “Dear John—,” is an epistolary poem in multiple stanzas ultimately on which the theme of this book is derived. “what happens between the notes // is the living.”

A collaboration and celebration of life.

Exchanging Wisdom features poems for and about Christopher’s son Angelo Luna, as well as a few pieces Angelo wrote for Christopher. The earliest poem was written when Angelo was three, and the most recent at age 21. Christopher endeavored to encourage his son to be an autonomous, freethinking individual. Angelo grew to become that and so much more. Taken as a whole, the poems in this collection track the development of Angelo’s personality and the strong bond between father and son.

The post Luna & LeHew @ Annie Bloom’s (Jan 11, 2022) appeared first on The Poetry Box.

Annie Bloom’s welcomes local poets Margaret Chula, Melanie Green, and Carolyn Martin

Thurs, Nov 14, 2019
at 7:00 pm
Annie Bloom’s

7834 SW Capitol Hwy
(Multnomah Village)
Portland, OR 97219
503-246-0053

The poems in Melanie Green‘s A Long, Wide Stretch of Calm (The Poetry Box) are an invitation to slow down, to rest deep into quiet and the contemplative. Melanie Green’s poetry explores the connection with the numinous—as well as speaking to the difficulty of living with a chronic illness.  https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/long-wide-stretch-of-calm

In Shadow Man (The Poetry Box), Margaret Chula brings her father out of the shadows where he had been since 1957, the day her mother packed their five children—all under the age of ten—into the car and drove away. Over the years, Margaret comes to accept the differences between a mother who wants China cups with saucers and a father who’s content with a Budweiser. Through writing about these awkward, often heartbreaking, interactions with her estranged father, she discovers that there’s more than one truth and that each of us must find our own.  https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/shadow-man

From the universal to the personal, the formal to the experimental, Carolyn Martin’s fourth poetry collection, A Penchant for Masquerades (Unsolicited Press), takes an unflinching look at the fluidity of truth, time, identity, history, death, and relationships. A lover of all things poetic, Martin has created an eclectic collection for readers who have a penchant for words and who are open to believing in everything and nothing. Carolyn will also be sharing poems from her 2^nd poetry collection, The Way A Woman Knows (The Poetry Box). https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/the-way-a-woman-knows

Free to Attend. All are welcome to share the love of poetry by these phenomenal women.

Books will be available at the event or you can also order copies of the book in our Bookstore.

The post Melanie, Maggie and Martin @ Annie Bloom’s appeared first on The Poetry Box.

Cathy Cain, like a bee to flower, gathers thought from one encounter with nature to another. She speaks from many perspectives—as herself, as tree, as mushroom, or as goddess-hero. Sometimes playful, even mystical, Cain is deeply honest as she confronts the state of our relationship with the natural environment, with technology, and with what it means to be human.

“A roadmap to abundance, Cathy Cain’s poetry expresses the impulse to reinvent ourselves outside of cyber noise and instead define ourselves within the boundaries of sentiencies around us.” —Tricia Knoll, author of How I Learned to be White and Broadfork Farm

“Thrumming with a wise and generous curiosity, the poems in Cathy Cain’s Bee Dance are bright signposts pointing a way forward through a difficult age.” —Annie Lighthart, author of Lantern and Iron String

Cardboard Wings is the debut poetry collection by Piper Bringman, a 14-year-old poet who is coming of age. And, although her writing originally grew from a child’s grief for her beloved pet, it has blossomed into a rich voice of aspiration and charm. Join her as she explores the natural world, and shares her experience as a young curious heart navigating these modern times.

Bringman is a poet and lifelong Waldorf student in Portland, Oregon. She is in 8th grade and spends her days playing soccer, practicing violin, woodworking and learning different kinds of handwork. Outside of school, when she isn’t writing poetry, Pi can be found playing piano, snuggling in a beanbag chair with her cats and a fantasy novel, as well as in the ballet studio preparing to perform en pointe in annual renditions of The Nutcracker.

Books will be available at the event or you can also order copies of the book in our Bookstore.

The post Book Launch at Annie Bloom’s appeared first on The Poetry Box.

SHERRI LEVINE

In These Voices  More details here

About the Author:  Sherri Levine lives in Portland, Oregon where she teaches English as a Second Language to adult immigrants and refugees at Portland Community College and Portland State University. Her work has been published in The Timberline Review, Hartskill Review, VoiceCatcher: A Journal of Women’s Voices & Visions, Verseweavers, Perspectives Magazine, The Poeming Pigeon, and The Sun Magazine. She won First Prize (Poet’s Choice) in the Oregon Poetry Association’s Biannual Contest (2017). Sherri recently served as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher. She escaped the long harsh winters of upstate New York and has ever since been happily soaking in the Oregon rain.

LIZ NAKAZAWA

Painting the Heart Open  More details here

About the Author: Liz Nakazawa is the editor of Deer Drink the Moon: Poems of Oregon (Ooligan Press), a collection of nature poems by 33 Oregon poets. It was designated as one of the Best 100 Books about Oregon in the last 100 Years by the Oregon State Librarian. It was also a Best Picks of Powell’s.  She also edited The Knotted Bond: Oregon Poets Speak of Their Sisters (Uttered Chaos Press), a collection of poems by 32 Oregon poets. Her own poems have appeared in Turn, The Timberline Review and The Poeming Pigeon journals and haiku has appeared in ahundredgourds. In her free time Liz enjoys bird watching, dancing (both folk and ballroom), calligraphy, reading, hiking and walking, identifying trees and flowers, writing snail mail letters to her son and friends, and collecting old books, vintage writing paper and stamps. She feels incredibly grateful for the love and nurturing, as well as friendships and community, from the pulsating Oregon poetry community. Words bloom easily here in Oregon.

REBECCA SMOLEN

Womanhood & Other Scars  More details here

About the Author:  Rebecca Smolen is a writer based in Portland, Oregon transplanted from New Hampshire in 2014. She has a deep love for short story, poetry, hugs and animals. She grew up on a dead end road exploring drainage pipes and pond life. Since settling here, she works as a veterinary technician, volunteers with the Pacific Pug Rescue, chaperones class field trips occasionally for her two small children, promotes ‘feminism is for everyone,’ attempts to stay connected with friends, goes to as many writing workshops and retreats as her budget and time constraints allow, and pet sits on the side to earn funds for the aforementioned. Rebecca enjoys writing darker than most would assume of her, diving deep into forgotten memories and her weird dreams which fuel her creativity. She loves twisting the normal route of thinking and creating new metaphors. She is a true believer that once put down in print, words are no longer for the writer, but instead are meant to help, heal or console others. You can find her writing recently published in the Unchaste Anthology, Vol. 2, Mutha Magazine, and VoiceCatcher: a journal of women’s voices & visions.

Everyone welcome to attend and share the love of poetry.

Books will be available at the event or you can also order copies of the book in our Bookstore.

The post Chapbook Launch Trifecta – Sept 26 appeared first on The Poetry Box.