"Shelling the Pecans" Wins Pushcart Prize for Best Poem - Read It At MiPoesias Magazine - Lorna Dee in Denver Cinco de Mayo

You can read my poem now at MiPOesias Magazine, it's on the cover of the new issue. And there's links to the audio at MiPO Radio where it first was aired, read by Julie Carter, then by me, and, I think, the version read by me over the Mana song, Bendita Tu Luz where it does something that I think is really cool. Tres cool, eh? The first time I won a Pushcart it was still called the "Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses and Little Magazines" - it's returned to its roots. I'm stoked. Thank you, Didi Menendez! Thank you, OCHO Magazine, Mi Poesias, MiPORadio and MiPoesias Magazine. Thank you, CafeCafe poetry blog, my old hangout (see old link on side) and the new Facebook site where the cool poets go.

And, help me celebrate po' bloggers everywhere and come on down or up to Denver tomorrow night where I'll be celebrating my Pushcart Prize for Best Poem as well as the fact that my publisher just informed me that DRIVE: The First Quartet has been nominated for every book award it's qualified for receiving. Makes for an interesting spring. But, as I said, I thought it was cool that I came in third for Po' Blogger Laureate or as Billy the Blogging Poet says, "Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere," and the Poet Laureate, Amy King, edits MiPoesias Magazine. How cool a loop is that? So, come on down and complete the hoop, get there early, before 6 pm opening readers from some great local poets. Then hear what I hope becomes our traveling act, three of my favorite local transplants, Tim Z. Hernandez and Sheryl Luna. I think we make a great trio of voces. There's bound to be music. Then, stay after me for an open mike, come recite, throw down, come read and perform your recent best. It's like with love, you can't have too much poetry.
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from Bryan at Colorado Poets Association:

Come and celebrate Cinco de Mayo with us! This Saturday evening at 6:00, we are going to have a virtual mini-poetry festival, with three (MAJOR) featured poets, some more poets who teach at CCD, and also an open mic! The featured readers will be Lorna Dee Cervantes, who won a National Book Award [American Book Award, NBA nomination] while still in her 20s for her first book, Emplumada, Sheryl Luna, who won the inaugural Andres Montoya Prize from Notre Dame University for her first book, Pity the Drowned Horses (which was also a finalist for the Colorado Book Award last year), and Tim Hernandez, who recently won an American Book Award for his first book, Skin Tax. Any of these poets would be good to hear even if they were the only poet reading, but all three will be reading Saturday night--and it's FREE! But wait--there's more! We'll also have a few guest poets from the Community College of Denver, as faculty poets join in to present their work as well. And that's not all...there will also be an open mic, so we will hear from new poets, too (and maybe you?!).

The reading will begin at 6:00 p.m. at Hooked on Colfax, a coffee shop on the north side of Colfax, between Steele and Adams, at 3215 East Colfax Avenue. There's plenty of parking near the venue, on the side streets either north or south of Colfax.

I hope you'll join us. Afterwards some of us will go grab a bite to eat as well. It should be a fun evening. Lorna doesn't read very often in Colorado, so this is a really good chance to hear her read if you haven't already, and you definitely owe it to yourself to hear her read! A map to Hooked on Colfax is below.

Bryan Roth
Executive Director
Colorado Poets Association