L A T E S T  B E A T  N E W S

 Last amended - May 2 , 2008

Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine and chair of the selection committee, made the announcement today. The prize will be presented at an evening ceremony at the Arts Club of Chicago on Thursday, May 29.

In announcing the award, Wiman said: "Gary Snyder is in essence a contemporary devotional poet, though he is not devoted to any one god or way of being so much as to Being itself. His poetry is a testament to the sacredness of the natural world and our relation to it, and a prophecy of what we stand to lose if we forget that relation."

In the past couple of weeks David Meltzer has suffered a serious fall and is in hospital. Knowledgeable observers of the beat scene will know David's work through the years. We wish David well and a speedy recovery. Go to http://www.meltzerville.com/ to find out more about him. Dig those crazy threads David.

  There is a very new site dedicated to the work of Wallace Berman and all his friends and associates at http://www.ferusgallery.com/

   The new prospectus for Naropa University Summer Writing Program June 16-July 13, 2008, plopped on the mat today. Founded as the 'Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics,' by Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg in the 1970s, the school seems to go from strength to strength. Some of the more familiar teachers on the course include Anne Waldman, Maureen Owen, Margaret Randall, Jack Collom, Anselm Hollo, Daniel Kane, Alice Notley, Amiri Baraka, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Lewis MacAdams and more. see www.naropa.edu/swp

Arthur Knight, well known to Beat readers with his series of Beat anthologies, (The Beat Vision, The Beat Road etc) has a new novel just published. MISFITS COUNTRY. Centering around the last film Marilyn Monroe made, along with Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable, the book is available through Tres Picos Press, PO Box 932, Freedom, CA 95019, USA. At $14.95. see http://trespicospress.com/ for more. 

Everett Rand has just sent a new issue of his MINESHAFT magazine in. Number 21 will be of particular interest to Beat readers with the life of Diane di Prima included in the issue as a cartoon strip. Really impressive. & of course lots of Robert Crumb artwork alongside very eclectic material. A fascinating independent little magazine. see www.mineshaftmagazine.com for more.

Brand new movie about Gregory Corso, go to - www.corsothefilm.com

  The impressive publisher STORIE in Italy have sent a box of recent titles. Among them are RAYMOND CARVER: TELL IT ALL, as the publisher describes it, "...an unexpected selection of Raymond Carver's unpublished writings..." - A lovely dual language paperback, Italian/English.

  Also from this publisher is CHARLES BUKOWSKI: A BOTTA SICURA by Gerald Locklin, a collection of poems and essays by Locklin, a longtime friend of Bukowski. The poems are in English and Italian. The essays are in Italian only. See www.storie.it

  SOME NATURAL THINGS by Glenn W. Cooper is the very first chapbook in Henry Denander's little Kamini Press chapbook series. One hundred signed copies, cover illustrated by Henry. This little thing arrived the other day and everything about it is pleasing. Gerald Locklin said it reminded him of the glory days of The Wormwood Review. For myself, Cooper lets his intuitive thoughts rise to the surface, I like him. Beautifully designed chapbook. The next in the series is a Sam Charters chapbook. Contact The Kamini Press at www.kaminipress.com

    TWO CRACKING jazz titles just arrived. LET'S GET TO THE NITTY GRITTY: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HORACE SILVER and MONK'S MUSIC: THELONIUS MONK AND JAZZ HISTORY IN THE MAKING by Gabriel Solis. Both books are published by The University of California Press. see www.ucpress.edu for more information.

                                                     Major new Kerouac exhibit on until March at the New York Public Library - see http://www.nypl.org/news/kerouac.cfm

An article by Walter Salles, who, it is reported, is working on a film adaptation of ON THE ROAD.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/magazine/11roadtrip-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Featured in Jack Kerouac's DR SAX, the university bridge in Lowell is scheduled for demolition, there is a campaign to save it. For news on it go to http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/911/index.htm

   The indomitable Ron Whitehead will be in England anytime now. He is part of a later day Beat family tree line. THE WANDERER is his latest book -with I REFUSE his new recording. See www.tappingmyownphone.com for more information.

For news on a very new film NEAL CASSADY, directed by Noah Buschel, go to http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/festival2005/details.php?id=17904

KEROUAC: ROAD NOVELS 1957-1960 edited by Douglas Brinkley is published in hardcover by The Library of America. www.loa.org

 You have possibly read in Beat Scene about Mary Kerr's SWINGING IN THE SHADOWS film, tracing the Beat Scene from another perspective. See her www.beatera.org site for more on that & other fascinating material.

  Have a read here and see a thoughtful review in the English daily newspaper THE GUARDIAN by AM. Homes of the new UK paperback edition of Jack Kerouac's recently published play BEAT GENERATION. I'm relieved Homes hasn't fallen for the myth of the 'lost play.' The reality is Jack Kerouac dearly wanted the play to be produced and also published. Nobody was interested and he put it away, deflated by the rejection. The play was never lost. See  http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2103960,00.html

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Click on the link below to download a 30-min programme celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Kerouac's "On the Road."  With Carolyn Cassady, Al Hinkle, Joyce Johnson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gore Vidal, Michael McClure, and others:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/f41nbe

We carried news of the Michael McClure play THE BEARD www.thebeardplay.com - in 2006 and director Nic Saunders has kindly allowed us to show some photos from the run in July/August of 2006. That's Nic just below with Michael.

Photos above right, director Nic Saunders with playwright Michael McClure outside the Old Red Lion Theatre in London. Bottom left...THE BEARD, a scene being filmed by Colin Still. Right, Billy The Kid (Christopher Daley) and Jean Harlow (Victoria Yeates) in a scene from the play. All photos copyright Nic Saunders.

above, Michael McClure at a book signing in London during his visit to London in July 2006. Photo by Nic Saunders, director of Michael's play THE BEARD.                 photo copyright Nic Saunders

Above a photo of Gary Snyder and Anne Waldman that Anne sent in recently. It was taken at Naropa in Colorado at the school that Anne co-founded with Allen Ginsberg in the 1970s. The photo was taken in 1994.

BEAT SCENE subscriber Giuseppe Moretti has sent in this photograph of Gary Snyder in Italy in September 2005. He was there for readings in Rome and Florence. The photo is taken up in the Dolomites.

If anyone is interested there is an interview with yours truly at www.dogmatika.com where I talk about Beat Scene magazine. Throughout the interview there are many informative links to the people mentioned. An excellent site regardless of my inclusion. 

Check out Dan Fante's own site www.danfante.net the Beat Scene Press in collaboration with Sean Lynch's Ten Point Press, has published Dan Fante's SUPERMARKET in a limited edition of just 100 numbered and signed copies.

Have a look at a fairly new internet site run by the Cassady family, all about Neal Cassady at www.nealcassadyestate.com lots of really personal entries.

There is a wonderful article/interview with photographer Gordon Ball on John Tranter's excellent Jacket site. Photos of Huncke, Ginsberg, Corso and others. Go to www.jacketmagazine.com/33/index.shtml

  A film about the late West Coast poet Jack Micheline is in the pipeline. The film is a long running project by Jesse Block. Originally commissioned and started when Jack was alive. It has turned into a full-length documentary on him. Hopefully it will have been completed by end of the year. Find out more about Jack Micheline at www.jack-micheline.com

Thank you David Knowles for reminding me to include this link to the Naropa Archives of Beat Recordings at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Colorado. They are in the never ending process of transferring the cassette tapes onto discs to better preserve them. People like Gregory Corso, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Ken Kesey and many others. You might know about this already, but just in case – some interesting audio here: http://www.archive.org/details/naropa

   Revised and expanded editions of PASSAGE THROUGH INDIA and HE WHO HUNTED BIRDS IN HIS FATHER'S HOUSE, a very early book by Gary Snyder are available about now. Both in paperback from Shoemaker & Hoard. See www.shoemakerhoard.com

Check out The Jack and Stella Kerouac Center For American Studies in Lowell at http://www.uml.edu/college/arts_sciences/kerouac_center/default.html the center is at 61 Wilder Street, Lowell, Massachusetts 01854, USA. Tel 978-934-4195

  POLIS IS THIS: CHARLES OLSON AND THE PERSISTENCE OF PLACE is a new film by Henry Ferrini. You might recall that wonderful film he made about Jack Kerouac? See information about this new film regarding Charles Olson at http://www.polisisthis.com/Polis/Home.html

To read about Jeff Weddle's new book on Jon and Lou Webb and their Loujon Press go to  http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1183269741194370.xml&coll=1 the press is famous for early publishing of an unknown Charles Bukowski, amongst much else besides.

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