World Poetry Days

There will be a three day event held at St. John Fisher College, March 20,21, & 22. I believe Kathleen Wakefield will be reading Monday Night and there will be Open Mics. At this point they plan to hold one every night of the event. Many local poets, writers, publishers, & musicians/spoken word artists are going to attend. Many have signed up for fifteen minute time slots and many more will be coming to participate in the Open Mics.

I will know more specific information as the time draws nearer, but for now I just wanted to let you know of the dates. All of the poets/singers appearing this month at Blue Dahlia Open Mic will be at World Poetry Days in March. The man featuring the last Wednesday of the month, Norm Davis, is the founder and editor of Haz Mat Literary Magazine (the lit magazine I passed around at the last meeting). He is an amazing individual and one of my mentors. I would definitely recommend coming to see him. He is also the host of the Wide Open Mic, held at 7pm on the last Monday of every month at Writers & Books and the co-host of the Pure Kona Open Mic held at 7:30pm every Thursday at Daily Perks.

Here are the February Features for Pure Kona

Thursdays 7:30 - 10 pm at Daily Perks Coffee House
389 Gregory Street http://www.dailyperkscoffeehouse.com

Poet: Jonathan McFadden, February 2
Poet: Dwain Wilder, February 9
Poet: Marie Starr, February 16
Poet: Ted Katsampes, February 23

February Features

Blue Dahlia Open Mic

Last week was the first Open Mic at Blue Dahlia Coffee, Tea, & Gifts on Main Street in Canandaigua. It went very well. Everyone seemed to have a good time and there was a lot of good poetry read. We also had a family musical act that was very engaging.

I hope to see this grow as more people in the area become aware of it. Most of the people from last week were friends of mine from Rochester, and while I love having them here - I am hoping this will be something to fill a local need as well.

I was very happy to see Jewel there for our first night. She was the first familiar face to walk in and I can't tell you how much better that made me feel. (thanks jewel)

Here's a listing of Features for the Open Mic - which runs from @ 7:30 til 10 pm. We didn't quite go till 10 the other night, but the opportunity is there.

Wednesday, January 25: Rick Petrie & Mike Rae (a.k.a. Urknee & Bierton)
A dynamic duo of inmprovosational music and spoken word/performace poetry

Wednesday, February 1: Ian Downey
A young singer/guitarist with an offbeat lyrical style reminiscent of the Violent Femmes

Wednesday, February 8: Matt Schackleford (tentative)
A piognant and comedic poet with great insight delivered on a bed of humor

Wednesday, February 15: Ed Downey
Singer/Guitarist/Harmonica player all wrapped into one: a cross between James Taylor & Bob Dylan (I love to see him b/c he's one of those people who loves what they do and it radiates from them)

Wednesday, February 22: Norm Davis
What can I say? It's Norm: Editor of Haz Mat literary Review, Papa Mic. . .
He's everywhere. . . and for good reason.

Hope to see you! The Open Mic follows the feature, starting aroung 8 or 8:15 pm and is open to whatever you want to share. Or if you just want to come and listen and hang out, that's cool too.

Update for February 6th Meeting

Hi everyone! I have finally sat down to update our contact list for the Wood Library Writers' Group. You will find that as an attachment on this email!!!

We are growing, not only in attendees but I do think as a group we are really helping one another to get down to brass tacks and get the writing done. I worked an entire day on the draft of my book this week: 14 pages!

Here are some books that were recommended during our January meeting:

Bird by Bird, Ann Lamott
If You Want to Write, Brenda Euland
Pen on Fire, Barbara DeAmrco-Barrett
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

Also, Marie Starr mentioned a couple of places that offer an opportunity for those who want to read their work. They are the Blue Dahlia 585-394-0280 on Main St. Canandaigua, open mike from 7:30-8:30 p.m. every Wednesday and Daily Perks at 389 Gregory St. in Rochester 585-271-2340 open mike every Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Please make every effort to attend next month's meeting, as Patti Steele-Perkins, literary agent, will be attending and telling us about how to get published. Invite others who may want to hear her. If need be we can move to the large conference room down the hall.

Yours, Cindy

Voice vs. Style

So, here I am reading the latest copy of Writers Digest and what appears in Questions & Quanderies section but the Voice vs. Style question raised at last month's meeting. Serendipity stikes again! Here's what he (Brian A. Klems) had to say on the subject:

Voice is your own. It's a developed way of writing that sets you apart from other writers (hopefully). It's your personality coming through on the page. When you read a Dave Barry column, you know it's his. Why? He's developed a distinct voice.

Style is so much broader than voice. Some writers have a style that's very ornate - long complex and beautiful sentences, packed with mataphors and imagery (think Frank McCourt and John Irving). Others have a more straightforward style - sparse prose, simple sentences, etc.

Here's one way to think about it: WD tries to have all its articles fit a similar style - conversational yet straightforward. But between the covers, each piece is written by a different author whose own voice colors his particular piece. So the continuity of the magazine stays together, but each piece is still different.

Writers Digest Magazine, February 2006, Questions and Quandries, p. 55, Brian A. Klems

Canandaigua Writers Group

Today was the first time I went to the Canandaigua Writers Group and I was certainly glad I did. We talked a little about ways to communicate, so I set this up as a forum for ideas, suggestions, comments, compliments, conundrums and any other forms of communication we can come up with.

Part of the reason I decided to set this up tonight is that I kept thinking about our discussion about the difference between voice and style. I figured I could either write about it in my notebook or write about it here and since I am trying to free up some of the ideas and poems and books and dreams I have kept hidden in computers and notebooks and the dusty corners of my brain - I decided writing it here is a better way to do that.

I liked Cindy's psychological approach to identifying voice - almost as an aspect of personality - but personality on the page. It made me think of all those things we put into our writing that make it distinctly our writing - about how voice and style combine to form a linguistic footprint.

I can think of many people's writing that is so distinctly theirs I would know who had written it whether or not I was told and I think that's part of what makes a writer successful. Not just that they find a subject, write about it, publish it, etc. but that they find a subject that resonates for them, write about it in a way no one else can - bringing all their experiences, expectations, limitations, assumptions, fixations - and this is what makes it - not only publishable but notable, long-lasting, essentail.

It's true that anyone can write about anything and that most things there are to write about have been written about before but I think this is what makes voice and style so important - because even if you and I write about the same thing, we will never produce the same thing. Maybe that's a good way to distinguish voice and style - to think about how your writing would evolve given a specific topic but no boundaries about what to do with the topic and how your end product might differ from someone elses.

Like if I were given a topic, I would gavitate toward a particular genre. When I kept thinking about the question of voice and style, I kept thinking I should write about it. So, I did. This basic freewrite - which contains my voice even being as unedited and unscripted as it is. Even though I am just sitting here spilling my brain onto the page - it is infused with my voice in everything from my choice of words and metaphors to my sentence structure and casual punctuation.

I inherently used words and descriptions that come to me naturally and focused on the aspects of the question that appealed most to me: how can I distinguish between voice and style and how does that help me think, write, and be clearer, stronger, more effective. But I also conciously chose to make it informal, conversational, and in the first person.

Those concious choices seem to reflect my style rather than just my voice. Our decisions about everything from font to format, from genre to point of view, from chapter length to our use of blank space combine to create our own unique style.

The more I think about it, the more I think voice is intrinsic and style is developed. And even though that seems to imply that it voice is unchangable, I do not believe that is true. I do think voice is one of those things we need not develop but find. So, here's to finding our own voice among the din.