Student of creative writing

Poets and creative writing courses may not be such a good mix.

In some opinions, a poet needs to sit still and develop an individual voice and viewpoint. How can creative writing as an academic pursuit teach you this?

Academic study can equip with you tools to for example:

• describe your artistic practice
• develop your published portfolio
• make contact with editors who will publish you

But I imagine you could as easily study English or another language - Latin, Arabic, say - to learn about poetic form and voice; law or politics might sharpen your ability to use words to taut effect; and any scientific subject help develop discourse and arguments.

Then you can work outside poetry to earn money rather than teaching it; which seems to be the lot of the creative writing degree-ed. To paraphrase Orhan Pamuk if your paid work is not your art, you will never have to give up your art.

Worth considering before you sign on the dotted line this September or January...

The Scarlet Fever: Marina Tsvetaeva - Henry Parland 19th May at Russian bookstore, NY, USA

Henry Parland, the Swedish poet and novelist of Russian-Scottish ( Family Parland, originally McFarlaine, considered to have originated from Scotland)-Baltic descent who became one of the founders of modernism in the 1920s Finland. He never set foot in Sweden and never fully mastered the language in which he wrote. Parland died in Vilnus in 1930, at the age of only 22. Parland’s biography is strangely intertwined with the tragic life of one of the greatest Russian poets of the century, her family, and her circle.

Irina Mashinski is a bilingual poet and translator, the author of seven books of poetry in English. Free admission 19 May · 19:00 - 20:00 at Russian Bookstore No.21, 174-176 Fifth Avenue (23&22 Str), Manhattan. Presented by Russian-American Cultural Center and Cardinal Points Journal.

Learn more about Parland's book Reduction (if printing Veloxpapper) , often simply called decomposition published in 1932. I am now longing to read this as the following description reminds me of Joyce, Woolf and Tarantino. Henry and his jealous and drama of love with Ami is the book's main subject which begins with Henry deciding to write a novel about the deceased Ami. The book differs from earlier romantic love stories, Ami and Henry drawn together by chance and Henry "have the most boring of the Amis society". I like this; it is translated by google from Swedish but I think you get what it means. They communicate with gestures, clothes, travelling by car and dining. I would like to compare it Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence; in fact I would like Orhan Pamuk to compare it for me.

More information at: http://www.russianamericanculture.com/Current_Exhibitions.php, http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Parland, and
http://www.stosvet.net/index.html

International Istanbul Poetry Festival, Turkey, May 2011

Usually an excellent global line up at this event and if you are lucky you might run into Orhan Pamuk's museum.

International Istanbul Poetry Festival (IIPF) will officially take place on Tuesday, 10th May - Saturday, 14th May 2011 with the participation of 40 poets from 17 countries, and is considered as the biggest international literary event in Turkey. There may still be time left to volunteer - http://www.istanbulsiirfestivali.org/en/gonullu.asp?arsiv=2011.

Poets participating previously (and whose work is celebrated) include • Adonis (Syria) • Ahmet Telli • Alan Jude Moore (Ireland) • Alex Susanna (Catalonia) • Ali Günvar (Turkey) • Anzhelina Polonskaya (Russia) • Arif Ay (Turkey) • Arif Damar • Arjen Duinker (Netherlands) • Astrid Lampe (Hollanda) • Ataol Behramoğlu (Turkey) • Ayşe Sevim (Turkey) • Baki Ayhan T. • Bayırcan Karabeyov • Betül Tarıman (Turkey) • Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa) • Cahit Koytak • Caj Westerberg (Finland) •  Joumana Haddad (Lebanon) • Kemal Eşfak Berki (Turkey) • Kemal Özer • Kerry Shawn Keys (USA) • Kim Haeng-sook (South Korea) • Lasse Söderberg (Sweden) • Leopoldo Castilla (Argentina) • Leyla Şahin • Luis Alberto de Cuenca (Spain) • Luis Garcia Montero (Spain) • Māra Zālīte (Latvia) • Can Bahadır Yüce • Carles Torner (Spain) • Celal Fedai (Turkey) • Egito Gonçalves (Portugal) • Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (Ireland) • Emilio Coco (Italy) • Enver Ercan • Eray Canberk (Turkey) • Eyvaz Borçallı (Azerbaijan) • Fadhil Al-Azzawi (Iraq) • Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca • Ferida Duraković (Bosnia-Herzegovina) • Francisca Aguirre (Spain) • Frans de Haes (Belgium) • Jean Pierre Balpe (France) • Joachim Sartorius (Germany) • Joan Margarit (Catalonia) • Johannes Poethen (Germany) • Jordi Virallonga (Spain) •

More information: http://www.istanbulsiirfestivali.org/en/index.asp?arsiv=2011.