This week in Media News, An interview with Vermin Supreme, a Dire Reading/interview with Carly Israel, and a reading on Big Table's YouTube Channel

 Jason Wright, editor and host had Vermin Supreme, perennial political candidate and Anarchist.  Vermin is "that guy with the boot on his head" is a character, and extremely smart. He was the Libertarian Candidate in 2016 for President of the United States. I participated as co-host, for the Oddball Magazine Podcast and Joshua Corwin showed up with a few questions.  Go to Vermin's website, do a deep google, and give this a watch. 

Here's Vermin and I at the old Out of the Blue Gallery on Main Street, in Cambridge.

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Virtual Friday's Dire Literary Series is going strong and Carly Israel was my guest. Here is her segment: 

Our fall schedule is rounding out, and so far this is what it looks like:

SEPTMEBER---11 Carly Israel   18 Daphne Kalotay   25 Ryan Ridge

OCTOBER---2 Marge Piercy    9 Kerry Beth Neville   16 tba   23tba   30  tba

NOVEMBER--- 6  tba   13 tba   20 Dewitt Henry   27  tba

With Johnathan Escoffery taking one of the tba dates.

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My publisher Big Table has their own YouTube Channel  I was asked to submit something so I read "If We Don't Think, We Will Sleep." from Every Day There is Something About Elephants. 

How to find my latest published piece, "It's a New Year," in Right Hand Pointing #140

 I've decided to start submitting again, so I picked an old favorite Right Hand Pointing who has gratefully published me ten times in the past. This is the first time I've been included since 2017.  I wish some other old favorites were still around, such as Night Train, The Legendary, In Between Altered States were still around, as they liked my work as well. 

    So RHP started in 2004, and it turned 16. Dale Wisely points out that some of the writers included in this issue were born in that decade, so it makes one think of aging, and journals dying.

    RHP is like an old friend, and through the years they have changed the way to browse the magazine. My new flash piece, "It's a New Year," (written before the pandemic so that phrase has nothing to do with 2020), is at the bottom of their issue, the bottom of their scroll. My advice is to read the whole issue and get to mine, but if I wish to self-promote, and you just wish to read, "It's a New Year," open www.righthandpointing.net  and go to issue #140, themed 'distant dark.' 

Then use the search/find tool, which you can do using your keyboard and hitting Ctrl + F

A little search box will appear on your screen, so type my last name 'Gager' in that box

Then next to my name are 'up' and 'down' arrows. Click the down arrow until the story comes up. Right Hand Pointing is all about arrows, and hands pointing, and directional flow, so this should all be very logical. 

And there you should have it....

Oh, before I forget, the story behind this story is based on staying home (ha! Imagine that) on New Year's Eve, and participating in a midnight phone call with an exe...with bad reception (double meaning intentional)

Snowflakes in a Blizzard features Grand Slams in their "Replay" series.

 ...which is much better than "Where are they now?"

Here is their link, but it looks and reads  like this

First TuesdayAugust 11    Snowflakes in a Blizzard Replay, 

This feature has a two-fold purpose: 1. To allow those recently added to our followers list to discover books they might have missed and 2. To make sure previously featured authors and their work aren’t forgotten. If you’d like to learn more about any of the books revisited here, simply click on the “Authors” page, then on that author’s name.

“GRAND SLAMS,” BY TIMOTHY GAGER

Writes one reviewer: “The first thing one notices in Timothy Gager’s Grand Slam: A Coming of Eggs Story is the Holden Caulfield-like anti-hero protagonist Woody. There is an ensemble of characters in the novel who make up the staff and management at a chain diner, Grand Slams, and Gager deftly weaves their backstories and inner lives into the fast-paced narrative. (Mignon Ariel King).

And another: “Having worked in a restaurant very similar to Grand Slams, I love how Mr. Gager captures the lives of those poor, struggling souls, floundering along in a nothing job yet trying to find some meaning. Mr. Gager gives us characters we come to care about, and he brings them to life with sparkling dialogue that is at once witty, engaging, and even poignant. You will laugh, enjoy, and become absorbed in this story about every day people and the stories that bond them.”

Throughout the novel, the almost-adults keep the momentum going in the midst of the socially odd and borderline tragic, invested adults. How will this trio grow up while surrounded by infantile, base, or simply lost adults? The reader is invested by the third chapter in finding out.

2020 Boston Poetry Marathon, 3 days, 150 poets, 5 minutes at a time

Honored to be asked to read on Thursday night at 8:10 PM. The smarties running this are simulcasting on Facebook, Twitter / Periscope and YouTube! (You don't have to log into Zoom or anywhere, just go to those platforms you have an account)  Below you'll find the list and there are some great poets here, and some I'm looking forward to hearing for the first time. 

Even though I'm listing the poets/schedule below, and the links above, their website at https://bostonpoetrymarathon.wordpress.com/ Also there is a way you can donate or contribute to their fundraiser.

Thursday – START

700 – Kelly DuMar
705 – Joy Ladin
710 – Donald Wellman
715 – Petaluma Vale
720 – Elizabeth Guthrie
725 – Ellen Steinbaum
730 – Catherine Morocco
735 – Abe Ross
740 – Susana Gardner

BREAK

800 – Dick Lourie
805 – MP Carver
810 – Timothy Gager
815 – Gale Batchelder
820 – Jack Miller
825 – Filip Marinovich
830 – Bridget Eileen
835 – Amy Alvarez
840 – Christine Tierney

BREAK

900 – Christina Liu
905 – Olivia Thomes
910 – Shira Dentz
915 – Thom Donovan
925 – Dorothea Lasky
930 – Sumita Chakraborty
935 – Ethel Rackin
940 – Natalie Shapero

End of Thursday

Friday – START

700 – Ruth Lepson
708 – Daniel Bouchard
716 – Jim Behrle
724 – Amanda Cook
732 – James Cook
740 – Carol Weston

BREAK

800 – Lee Ann Brown
808 – Tony Torn
816 – Jim Dunn
824 – Joanna Fuhrman
832 – Tom Daley
840 – David Kirschenbaum

BREAK

900 – Andrew K. Peterson
908 – Jordan Davis
916 – Maria Damon
924 – Mark Lamoureux
932 – Aaron Kiely
940 – Douglas Rothschild

BREAK

1000 – Joseph Lease
1008 – Donna de la Perriere
1016 – Christina Strong
1024 – Mitch Manning
1032 – Sean Cole

End of Friday night

Saturday – START
1200 – Chad Parenteau
1205 – Keith Jones
1210 – Alyssa Mazzarella
1215 – Steven Riel
1220 – Annie Won
1225 – Arielle Guy
1230 – Lisa DeSiro
1235 – Heather Treseler
1240 – Richard Hoffman

BREAK

100 – Darren Black
105 – Shari Caplan
110 – Clay Ventre
115 – Sawako Nakayasu
120 – Melissa Christine Goodrum
125 – Jennifer Martelli
130 – Martha Collins
135 – Cat Dossett
140 – Simeon Berry

BREAK

200 – David Miller
205 – Jessica Bozek
210 – Pam Matz
215 – Erica Kaufman
220 – Jessica de Konick
225 – Cheryl Boyce Taylor
230 – Kenning JP Garcia
235 – Vanesa Pacheco
240 – Corey Howard
245 – Ariella Ruth

BREAK

300 – Amanda Hope
305 – Josette Akresh-Gonzales
310 – Cynthia Bargar
315 – Kythe Heller
320 – Kazim Ali
325 – Mark Pawlak
330 – Fred Marchant
335 – Zachary Bos
340 – Alexis Bhagat
345 – Mairead Byrne

BREAK

400 – James Stotts
405 – Lloyd Schwartz
410 – Amy Lawless
415 – Mary Bonina
420 – Martha McCollough
425 – Dennis Nurkse
430 – Heather Hughes
435 – Christine Jones
440 – January O’Neil
445 – Kimberly Lyons

BREAK

500 – Joey Gould
505 – Sarah Pearlstein
510 – Philip Hasouris
515 – Eileen Cleary
520 – Danielle Legros Georges
525 – Robert Gamble
530 – Heidi Lynn Staples
535 – Lewis Freedman
540 – Nada Gordon

BREAK

600 – Carla Schwartz
605 – Stevie Subrizi
610 – Marianne Shaneen
615 – Oni Buchanan
620 – Elizabeth Marie Young
625 – Serina Gousby
630 – Lori Lubeski
635 – Alifair Skebe
640 – Jean Dany Joachim
645 – Eileen Myles

BREAK

700 – Christie Towers
705 – Adeena Karasick
710 – Valerie Loveland
715 – Eliza Jerrett
720 – Sam Cha
725 – Ben Friedlander
730 – David Blair
735 – Kevin Gallagher
740 – Cheryl Clark Vermeulen
745 – Brenda Iijima

BREAK

800 – Kacy Victoria Fallon
805 – Michael Peters
810 – Joe Elliot
815 – Lauren Russell
820 – Michael Gottlieb
825 – Brendan Lorber
830 – Charlotte Seley
835 – Judson Evans
840 – Marci Mehta Lucia
845 – Suzanne Mercury

BREAK

900 – Marcella Durand
905 – Jose Reyes
910 – Jack Kimball
915 – Kristin Garth
920 – Jenni Grassl
925 – Gilmore Tamny

Interview with Doug Holder, Poet to Poet, Writer to Writer show

     I've been interviewed by the venerable Doug Holder on his show often, and it's always an honor. Doug and I shoot it about the new Virtual Fridays Dire Literary Series, my unsigned novel, Big Table Publishing, writing as a sober person vs. not sober, and then I read a few poems from Spreading Like Wild Flowers and two new ones.

To hear me read more watch for

8.6 Boston Poetry Marathon Reading
8.11 Cervena Barva 25th Anniversary Reading Series



Here is mine, and Doug's new "best of" both published by Big Table Publishing.

Assiduous Dust Podcast Interview by Josh Corwin, where I talk about a whole lot of things.

I met Joshua Corwin at my Virtual Dire Literary Series, and am grateful to be invited on his podcast.  Link on Spotify below. My part of the podcast starts at around the 63 minute mark. I talk about writing, what I was like as a 12 year old, The Dire Series, and my novel, Joe the Salamander where the protagonist, Joe is a neurodiverse individual--- which probably is the reason, Josh Corwin and I connected.  

Some quotes: "12 year old Timmy would not know what the fuck that poem was about"

"Writers need to wear their bruises and their trauma like pride"

"When I"m writing my inner editor is screaming at me, "YOU SUCK" and I need to be like, "screw you." and when I'm done, "Shut up!"


“What I like about the indy bookstore is that it’s a comfortable little meeting place, and each store has a certain character to it. Each indy bookstore is different in different ways. Indies are also friendly to indy writers.”

Below is the show and description, taken directly from joshuacorwin.com. 

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Assiduous Dust #8:
Marc Olmsted + Timothy Gager

July 10, 2020

Host Joshua Corwin interviews award-winning poets Marc Olmsted and Timothy Gager. Olmsted shares about sex with Allen Ginsberg & meditation with Rinpoche Chögyam Trungpa; Gager gives us a sneak peek at his new autism novel. Listen to them share their latest work and create on-the-spot poems with your host.

Listen Now on Spotify

Los Angeles native Joshua Corwin is a neurodiverse, Pushcart-nominated poet with a B.A. in mathematics and a minor in philosophy from Pitzer College ('19). His debut poetry collection, Becoming Vulnerable, details his experience with autism, addiction, sobriety and spirituality (Baxter Daniels Ink Press/International Word Bank). Corwin hosts the poetry podcast “Assiduous Dust,” home of the on-the-spot collaborative poem (OTSCP). He teaches self-exploration through poetry to neurodiverse addicts in recovery at The Miracle Project, an autism nonprofit, held at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California. He writes to honor his grandpa, Mert, whose last words to him were “Don’t ever stop writing.”

Summer's Wilderness House Literary Review is out! Read the fiction I selected.

Here's the list for the July 2020 issue, that I am honored to read, and select as their editor.

How is the Wilderness during the pandemic? I mean, stay the F home. Actually, stay the F home and read these wonderful fiction pieces.

Click the links below for each work of fiction or go to the full issue of Wilderness House Literary Review. 

WHLR 58th issue (Volume 15, no 2) - July 2020

• Zvi A. Sesling - 1950s Horror Movie
• Zach Murphy - Foxes and Coyotes
• Yash Seyedbagheri - Mother’s Not Home
• Sarah M. Prindle - To Bear Witness
• Rekha Valliappan - Battle of Flowers
• Rajiv Ramkhalawan - Curried Shrimp and Dhalpourie
• Phil Temples - DEMON WIND
• Nadeem Zaman - Neighbors
• Leah Browning - NOBODY WANTS YOUR HEIRLOOMS
• Matt Gillick - Glassy
• Kay Bontempo - At Jimmy’s
• Jon Fain - Big Top
• DS Levy - SLOTS
• Amy Probst - fear is a shoe
• Alfredo Arcilesi - PLASTIC BREATH
• Adam Matson - Glory Holes

And, of course, wear masks, because you don't want to miss the beach

Also while you're in there here's the full catalog from 

2008-2010

and

2010 to present

Words about this week, more burning than .Interview posted by Maria Goodson,

This week was difficult. I won't pretend it was difficult for me as I've never had to worry about being in a car and being pulled over because I'm white. I've never feared that a traffic cop might kneel on my neck or, felt that I might find hatred just by leaving my house. I can only acknowledge that others feel that every day.

I'm 100% privileged.

My friends in Baltimore, and around the country are battling, and I am privileged.

I am lucky. I have an interview sent out in the world by the Writers and Words series in Baltimore (Maria Goodson)---where I read a few years ago. It really doesn't seem to matter much about what I am doing for myself these days, compared to what is going on, but I'm going to post----(Maria and Writers and Words are wonderful) and give all I can to be kind and treat others kindly.

Here's the link to find all the interviews---titled Five Burning Questions for Timothy Gager---turns out that they, in the scheme of things, aren't all that burning.

and I'll post it here

5 Burning Questions with Timothy Gager

May 18, 2020Maria C. Goodson

As well as feature our future readers, we also wanted to check in with folks who have read for us over the last 5 years. Timothy Gager read for us in 2017 – read what he has been up to below!

What have you been up to since reading with us at Writers & Words? How has the writing been going?

I retired my Dire Literary Series, but I found it is again needed during the pandemic, so it is back. People need literary outlets, and entertainment. I’d love it if some Writers & Words folks would pop in and say, “hi.”

I’ve had two books published since I read in Baltimore in 2017, one an anthology of Flash Fiction, Every Day There is Something About Elephants, and the other a book of poetry. I’ve also finished a novel called, Joe the Salamander and am seeking representation for it.  I thought I’d be visiting and reading in Baltimore when my daughter announced she’d be attending college there, but that didn’t pan out, but my father has moved to Owings Mills, since my mom passed, so Baltimore is in the cards. It is a very welcoming city, and I always feel at home there. My mother’s illness, and period of hospice placed me with her and my father for about six months. It is time I treasure, and can never be replaced.

What are you working on right now (writing or otherwise (nothing is a valid answer as well))?

I’m picking at the novel, writing poems, and some flash fiction. I’ve also started a non-fiction memoir-esque  manuscript which I need to be fully retired to write. I’m thinking that it, when finished, might be my last book.

What has been your favorite Quarantine Read thus far?

I’ve read the James Brown trilogy which started with a book The Los Angeles Diaries, published in 2003, and the last, one put out in the past year, titled, Apology to the Young Addict.

How would you describe the writing community where you live in just a few words?

Busy, vibrant, selfless, sexy, boundless

What would be a few words of advice you would give someone wanting to get into any writing community?

Whatever you give back to the community, you get back tenfold. Be available, be generous—it’s not a version of social influencing.

Bonus question: what level of quarantine are you at? 1) relaxing with a book,  2) the dog clears her throat too loudly,  3) hot dog fries, 4) THE PRINTER IS BROKEN I DON’T NEED A PRINTER, 5) I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.

I’m at the better safe than sorry level, and checking to see if the home depot has a decontamination shower I can install directly outside my front door. Also all-in on the full body latex intimacy gear.

__

Timothy Gager is the author of fifteen books of fiction and poetry. His latest, Spreading Like Wild Flowers, is his eighth of poetry. He has had over 600 works of fiction and poetry published, of which sixteen have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has been read on National Public Radio, has also been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, and The Best Small Fictions Anthology.

Being of Service for others in recovery in the Age of Corona

   
I have an essay out in WorkIt Health about providing service in recovery to others and what it's like now versus the way it was a few month ago. It also uses "Age of Corona" in the title, plus, according to the page, it's been 'fact checked' and 'peer reviewed'. It's been awhile since I've broken my "anonymity," but it's my own to break, and I've had some great experiences with people/friends approaching me because of it, when they've needed help themselves.


Being of service isn't as large a task as one might think it is, but service is a needed third of the triangle used by my own program of recovery. Sometimes, service is just showing up to a zoom meeting, so that others know it's possible.


















   
Today's essay was for the organization, WorkIt Health. Check them out, as they offer expert addiction care to individuals, employers and health care organizations, and it's just a phone call away. If your life is unmanageable, their service can certainly help you

    

Reading and interview, Poetry In The Bar: A poet virtually walks into a Michigan bar

     A monthly series sponsored by Easton Rapids Poetry Club, in Easton Rapids called Poetry In The Bar and run by Helen and Gavin Broom. Up until recently it was held in an actual bar--over there, to your right.

     This month I was asked to be their feature, which was great, and I didn't have to travel. I was interviewed for about 20 minutes, and then read a set of poetry. It all came out pretty cool, and I spoke about poetry, writing trends, dark humor, talking dogs, going soft, and needing a re-do. (volume wise).

To listen you can go
HERE

or on Spotify
HERE

or on Apple Podcasts
HERE

The poetry of my set starts at 25:30

From the book Spreading Like Wild Flowers, from Big Table Publishing, 2019
1. Concerto
2. This Poem Is Like a Bruise
3. In The Dark Corner Of A Theater
4. The Heart Is A Broken Little Thing
5. College Dining Hall
6. A Certain Warrior
7. Fear, God Bless My Soul
8. Faith
9. At a Cookout for Poets
10. How To Unring a Bell
11. Centralia, Pennsylvania

A new poem
12. Social Distancing of a Town, Population 10

From the book, Chief Jay Strongbow is Real, from Big Table Publishing, 2017
13. Making American History
14. The Filth and the Fury
15. Sobriety
16. When We Talk About Love

From the book, The Shutting Door, from Ibbetson Street Press, 2013
17. reply to someone who said, "you owe me a poem, boy."
18. The Shutting Door
19. Manomet Point
20. The Poems in My House

Some more new poems
20. Ballet of Surrender
21. Seclusion
22, Nine Lives
23. Rosebud Winter
24. Life's Canvas

closing with a true story
25. There's a Fly in My Soup

     The broadcasts ends with poems from Kelsey Hudson, Dennis Hendrickson, Fay Turner Johnson, and new poetry by Helen Broom