JoAnn Balingit

Opportunity for Delaware Writers: 2012 Retreat at Cape Henlopen

jbalingit — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:20:11 +0000

The 2012 Poets and Writers Retreat at Cape Henlopen will be held September 27 – 30, 2012 at the gorgeous Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes.

What are these people so happy about? Can you tell they spent the day writing? After a hot breakfast? Took a break to walk along the shore? Had a gourmet dinner served? Spent the evening talking with fellow writers about poems and stories? Drank all the coffee they wanted? Are looking forward to another day of writing quietly, intensely, happily? APPLY to the 2012 Poets and Writers Retreat at Cape Henlopen.You must be a Delaware resident. The Information flyer and application are at Delaware Division of the Arts homepage. Deadline for materials to be received is June 4. Story-writing workshop led by Alice Elliott Dark. Poetry workshop led by JoAnn Balingit.

(2010 participants with workshop leaders JoAnn Balingit, Tama Baldwin and Frank ...

Poem of the Week at Delaware Division of the Arts

jbalingit — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:46:12 +0000

The Delaware Division of the Arts is hosting a Poem of the Week to celebrate National Poetry Month! Stop by the Division’s homepage each week for to read a poem and learn about the arts in Delaware.

This week features two poems–national award winning works by Delaware middle school students, Kyna Smith and Emma Stovicek. Both writers will be honored at the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards national ceremony in New York June 1st. Congratulations to these students, and to their teachers Steven Mayo of Cab Calloway School of the Arts and David Cavagnino of Ursuline Academy.

Sampler: Poems from “Celebration of Women Poets”

jbalingit — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:16:41 +0000

Big thanks to everyone who came to Newark Library to hear “A Celebration of Women Poets“ on Saturday, March 25th. Great turn-out! Special thanks to all who read. An eclectic & electric reading of poems by women, lovingly performed.

Blessings, Lindsey Warren, Newark Library assistant, for organizing. Here’s a list of readings as requested and thanks, everyone, for sending info.

Linda Blaskey read “Learning How to Pray” by Cathy Smith Bowers from When She Named Fire: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by American Women, ed. by Andrea Hollander Budy (Autumn House Press, 2008). Linda read her own poem “The Rape of an Un-named Artist.”

Ellen Wise read “Amaranth and Moly” by Amy Clampitt from The Kingfisher (Knopf, 1983) and own her poem “Torque Flight (On Looking at a Photo of my Own Unfinished Face).”

Jamie J. Brunson read her poem entitled “Menopause” and “Underground Woman.”

Susan Peiffer read “Mother” from her ...

Sunday March 25 Delmarva Poets SHARE Favorite Poems by Women

jbalingit — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:21:32 +0000

Afternoon of Women’s Poetry–Bring a favorite poem by a poet you love. Share it with us. Delmarva poets will each share a favorite poem, and offer one of their own.

Delaware native Nina Bennett is the author of Forgotten Tears: A Grandmother’s Journey Through Grief. Her poetry appears in numerous online and print journals. Linda Blaskey‘s work, both poetry and short fiction, has appeared in numerous print and online journals and is included in several anthologies such as Daughters of the Land(Texas Tech University Press). Her story “The Haircut” was presented by InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia.
N. Taylor Collins is a visual artist and writer who lives in Dover, DE and is active in the Dover Art League.
Eleanore Morrow writes, paints, and creates fiber art in Arden. Her chapbook, From the Blush-Tinted Room, was published in 2010. She is editor of Cape Henlopen Poets 2010.
Amanda ...

Delaware’s Poetry Out Loud 2012 Winners

jbalingit — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:51:27 +0000

Congratulations! Elizabeth Landon, Idalis Stamas, D’Ajah Grimes–and the semi-finalists in Delaware’s Poetry Out Loud competition. Elizabeth Landon took first place Tuesday night March 13 at the beautiful Smyrna Opera House.
She will head to Washington DC in May for the Poetry Out Loud national finals. The competition, presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. The Delaware contest gets more competitive every year, and I am always amazed by the beauty and depth of the performances. I have to say, however, that last Tuesday’s show was the best I have ever seen. Stunning and moving.
The twelve semi-finalists recited poems in two rounds. Then six finalists performed their third poem. My favorite individual performances were in this third round: D’Ajah Grimes of Concord ...

Afternoon of Women’s Poetry @Newark Free Library March 25 2pm

jbalingit — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:52:00 +0000

      In Celebration of Women’s History Month.       YOU and your friends and family, female and male alike, are invited to join us for a community reading to celebrate women poets. Contemporary or classic, pull that poem off the fridge and bring it to share with us. A roster of local women poets, whose names I will post soon, will be there to share a favorite poem, and share one of their own. The mic is open! Many thanks to Diane Lockward, who has blogged about her annual March gathering in nearby New Jersey, & also to Director Martha Pat Birchenal and Library assistant Lindsey Warren of Newark Free Library for hosting. It’s free & open to the public. Any questions, contact me!         |flyer|                                                    (photo: Brenda Hillman Code Pink, ...

Book review, Forage

jbalingit — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:32:39 +0000

Laura Shovan, editor of The Little Patuxent Review, has posted a book review of Forage at the LPR blog.
Laura featured my poetry last year during her National Poetry Month virtual road trip at the blog Author Amok with a look at my poem, “Winged Vessel.” I’ll get to meet Laura Shovan and other contributors to LPR’s Winter 2012 issue: Social Justice this Saturday, January 28 at the launch reading for this new issue. Especially eager to read offerings from Clarinda Harriss, Emily Severance, Jeff Fearnside and Martín Espada. Thank you to guest editor Truth Thomas for including my poem, “Advisory.”

December Poetry Publications

jbalingit — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 17:46:26 +0000

PoetsArtists and Connotation Press have published my work this month
including “Bank Lobby Poem” in PoetsArtists#30, alongside stunning figurative paintings assembled by mega-editor Dulce Menendez, and a feature by Grace Cavalieri on Charles Bernstein, cover boy.
My poetry feature at Connotation Press includes fun interview questions from Kaite Hillenbrand, CP poetry editor. Happy to offer these and hope you’ll enjoy. Best wishes for the holidays. Now I will go wrestle with my decision to make Christmas cards.

Some poems from The Delmarva Review, Volume 4

jbalingit — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:30:02 +0000

I was beamed up into December, somehow. Back in the world of October, I promised to highlight some poems from The Delmarva Review. (The editors seek submissions for Volume 5 through February 2012.)
The DR is a regional review, although the 33 authors in Volume 4 come from eight states, DC, and the Ukraine. I was charmed by the Eastern Shore flavor of this volume and three poems in particular.
Wendy Ingersoll’s portfolio of poems about her dad, who grew up along an Eastern Shore river, ends with a colorful monologue, “Tell Us About the River, Dad,” his description of crabbing and oystering at low tide, when “a northwest wind/ blew the water clear out of the bay…”
The title of Linda Blaskey’s “Two Days at Shipping Creek” engages my interest in our peninsula’s place names. The poet’s emotional turmoil, from the Adirondack chair overlooking Oyster Cove, is just a ...

The Delmarva Review and Poet Lore

jbalingit — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:04:51 +0000
I just received a copy of Volume 4 of The Delmarva Review, with my review of the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Poet Lore :
Poet Lore: A 2nd Century of New Writing, 106: 1-2 (Spring/Summer 2011) $10.00
The editors of the 122-year-old Poet Lore carry on its tradition: work by little-known and well-known writers side-by-side. Two poems on facing pages I enjoyed are “Dr. Chute’s Secret Journal, 3/22/03” by Robert M. Chute and “Incoming Prayer” by Leonard Gontarek. Both poems, wry and personable in tone, use abstracted landscape and conversation to render a moral dilemma: to determine one’s responsibility for war from a position of minor power. Chute is new to me though little-known here does not mean beginner or emerging. Gontarek’s language is interior, both sharp and suave; I like reading him juxtaposed with others.
The pleasure of a well-edited journal is juxtaposition: the editorial work displayed. The ...

Forage

Josh — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:19:59 +0000

In “leaflight, earthlight,” JoAnn Balingit composes poems that forage beautifully to find what will suffice.        — Arthur Sze, author of The Redshifting Web and The Ginkgo Light
JoAnn Balingit’s Forage is a passionate and heartbreaking collection. Often grounded in the natural world, Balingit’s lush imagery and sure music reverberate throughout these poems. Her prosody is as crisp and unflinching as Sylvia Plath’s in lines like “my mother glints like a polished shield.” I am smitten by this small collection of poems that explodes from a huge heart foraging through a complex family history (Filipino/ Anglo) punctuated by misunderstanding, loss and struggle, and arriving at what we call love, then finally, grace.                                                                       — Pamela Uschuk, author of Crazy Love
...