Prairie Schooner NewsletterOctober 23, 2014
Glenna Luschei to read new book The Sky Is Shooting Blue Arrows
 
Poet and literary philanthropist Glenna Luschei will launch her new book of poetry, The Sky Is Shooting Blue Arrows (University of New Mexico Press) at an event hosted by Prairie Schooner. The event will take place on October 27
Glenna Luschei 
at 7:00 p.m. at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is free and open to the public. Luschei will read from her new book and sign copies afterward. 
     "Glenna Luschei is very special to this university and especially to Prairie Schooner and the English department.  Frankly, it is thanks to her generosity and philanthropy that Prairie Schooner has been able to advance with confidence for the past decade," says Kwame Dawes, the magazine's Glenna Luschei Editor-in-Chief.  "On top of all that, she is a brilliant poet, and her new book is one we celebrate for its insight, humanity, and craft."
     In 2001, Luschei endowed Prairie Schooner in perpetuity through the University of Nebraska Foundation. She also supports a number of Prairie Schooner's activities, including the Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Awards, and, in partnership with the African Poetry Book Fund, the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry.
     To RSVP to the event, click here.  
Fall Issue Preview: Alicia Ostriker 
Alicia Ostriker 

Alicia Ostriker is a poet, critic, and activist who has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award. Her poem O Clear Night is a strange parable, one that tells of an ordinary encounter between an old woman and a barking dog that takes on a strange gravity. Ostriker writes:

A dog behind a fence barks at me as I approach, said the
    old woman

 

An angry dog, perhaps someone's been beating him,
Perhaps he's been left alone and he's hungry, said the old  

    woman

 

Remembering the dogs in her life and conscious
That a dog needs to be fed

Click here to read the rest of the poem, and if you'd like to read more from Ostriker, buy the Fall issue today. If you'd like to read more from Ostriker in the future, become a subscriber, and you'll be among the first to receive our Winter 2014 issue, which features a special portfolio on the theme of Women and the Global Imagination guest edited by Ostriker. 
Poetry News in Under 200 Words
Sameeh Al-Qassim
In this week's edition of Poetry News in Review, edited by David Sanders: 

      Damaso Alonso was born this week in 1898 as was Ivan Bunin in 1870 and Georges Brassens in 1921. The Arab Journalists and Intellectuals Forum and the Arab Writers Guild organized a ceremony to commemorate Sameeh Al-Qassim, the late Palestinian poet. Elizabeth Lorang and Leen-Kiat Soh combine their expertise in digital humanities and computer science to develop software to recognize poetry from digitized newspapers. Excavations around the Hecatomnus Mausoleum in western Turkey unearthed a stela, inscribed with 121 lines of poetry, that dates back over two millennia. New books are out by Kimberly Johnson, Joshua Corey, Geoffrey Brock, Timothy Liu, and Jacqueline Osherow. A new collection of James Laughlin's poems, edited by Peter Glassgold, has also been released. Finally, Oklahoma City's poetry scene is lively and growing.

     For all the poetry news that's fit to (digitally) print, visit Poetry News in Review on the Prairie Schooner website. 

Prairie Schooner, a national literary quarterly published with the support of the English Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Press, is home to the best stories, poetry, essays, and reviews being published today by beginning, mid-career, and established writers.
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Featured FUSION Poem
by Nana Akosua Hanson

 

Lost in dreams of fantasy
A solitary walker steals the  

    shadows
Cursed to be alone forever
On the path of no return
Because on this path my  

    ancestors toiled
I am the one
I am Dream's destiny
I am the hope of dreamers  

    past

 

A wayfarer lost in the  

    forest of dreams 

Cursed to bear the scars of  

    reality
The shadows whisper
The soothsayer's doom bells
But the soul yearns for  

    glamorous possibilities
Of magic of life
The star kissed lovechild of  

    fantasy and reality
Because on this path my  

    ancestors wept
I am the one
I am Dream's destiny
I am the hope of dreamers  

    to come

 

So I forge ahead in Hope's  

    sweet embrace
Blind to pain, religiously  

    insane
Stark raving mad
So send me in hell's way to  

    find my heaven
Life will lose her illusion if

    I turn back 

Because on this path my  

    ancestors bled
I am the one
I am Dream's destiny
I am the hope of dreamers  

    today


This poem is part of our FUSION web series. The current installment features poets from Ghana alongside poets from the Prairie Schooner archives writing on the theme of Libations. The author of this poem, Nana Akosua Hanson, is a freelance writer whose continuous love affair with poetry and short stories has seen a few published pieces in Ghanaian newspapers and on her blog.