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L
A T E S T B E A T N E W S
Last amended - May 2 , 2008

Poet Gary Snyder is the winner of the
2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Established in 1986 and presented annually
by the Poetry Foundation, the award is one of the most prestigious given
to American poets, and at $100,000 it is one of the nation’s largest
literary awards.
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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