Tag: Paul Brooke

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In The Media News

Swift Literary Festival | Sunday, Sept 22nd | 10 to 4

Screenshot
Join the us this Sunday, September 22nd from 10 to 4 at the Octagon Art Festival for our 3rd Annual Swift Literary Festival in Ames, Iowa. Meet our authors, and learn about Ames Writers Collective exciting upcoming news. Look for our tent on the corner of Douglas Avenue and Main Street in front of AVEC Design+Build.
Featured Authors & Poets
10 to 11:30
Marilyn J Baszczynski—Poetry
Paul Brooke—Poetry
Charlie R. North—Poetry
Dawn Terpstra—Poetry
Pat Underwood—Poetry
11:30 to 1
Paul Brooke—Poetry
Charlie R. North—Poetry
Dawn Terpstra—Poetry
Pat Underwood—Poetry
Deb Kline—Memoir
1 to 2:30
Stephen L. Brayton—Mystery & horror
Shannon K. Evans—Spiritual nonfiction
Kim Mosiman—Christian nonfiction
Ice Cube Press
2:30 to 4
William Bortz—Poetry
Charles R. Kniker—Nonfiction
Jennifer L. Knox—Poetry
Eva Newcastle—Magical realism
Ice Cube Press
Categories
In The Media News

3rd Annual Swift Literary Festival

On Sunday, September 22nd, the Ames Writers Collective will host the 3rd Annual Swift Literary Festival—a pop-up event held annually at the Octagon Art Festival.

During the festival, festival-goers can visit with and purchase books from local Iowa authors and poets.

 

Current List of 2024 Swift Literary Festival Authors

Marilyn J Baszczynski | Stephen L. Brayton | Paul Brooke
William Bortz | Shannon K. Evans | Deb Kline
Charles R. Kniker | Jennifer L. Knox
Kim Mosiman | Eva Newcastle
Charlie R. North | Dawn Terpstra | Pat Underwood
Ice Cube Press

Thank You
Octagon Art Festival for hosting us at your annual event
Authors and poets, who joined us
Ames Community and visitors to Ames, who purchased books and dropped by to say hello

 

Categories
In The Media News

Author Spotlight | Poets Paul Brooke & Jennifer Knox

Here at the Ames Writers Collective we like to refer to Paul and Jen as the Jen and Paul Show. Together they will entertain you with banter,  conversation and poetry sure to make you laugh and to consider the wild outdoors!

This evening produced by the Ames Writers Collective and KHOI Community Radio Station is teaser for Poetry Palooza!, which is scheduled for April 19 through 20, 2024.

ABOUT THE POETS

Dr. Paul Brooke is a Professor and the Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he teaches Advanced Creative Writing, Environmental Literature, Creative Photography, Experimental Photography, Fiction, Poetry Writing, Introduction to Nonfiction, Editing and Digital Publishing, Contemporary Literature, Diverse Voices, Novel Writing, Major Authors, and Literary Theory. He has won awards for outstanding advising, scholarship, and teaching while at Grand View University, plus granted two sabbaticals. To read more about his, check him out on our Author Spotlight page.

Jennifer L. Knox is the author of five books of poems: Crushing It (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), Days of Shame & Failure (Bloof Books, 2018), The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway (Bloof Books, 2010), Drunk by Noon (Bloof Books, 2007), and A Gringo Like Me (Bloof Books, 2005).

Known for their dark, imaginative humor, her poems have appeared in publications such as the New Yorker, the American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeney’s, five times in the Best American Poetry series, and the 2022 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses anthology. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. To learn more about Jen, check her out on our Author Spotlight page.

ABOUT POETRY PALOOZA?

Inspired by an educational and entertainment event of nearly 20 years ago, this creative experience – Poetry Palooza! – has been a long time in the making.

​In 2023, Poetry& worked in partnership with Humanities Iowa, Mainframe Studios, Franklin Jr. High Event Center, and the Iowa Poetry Association to make Poetry Palooza! a dynamic, interactive, and integrated performing arts experience.

​This three-day festival celebrated Midwestern Poets Laureate, cultivated students and emerging talent, and demonstrated the positive power of poetry.

Author Spotlight | Poets Paul Brooke & Jennifer Knox

Here at the Ames Writers Collective we like to refer to Paul and Jen as the Jen and Paul Show. Together they will entertain you with banter,  conversation and poetry sure to make you laugh and to consider the wild outdoors!

This evening produced by the Ames Writers Collective and KHOI Community Radio Station is teaser for Poetry Palooza!, which is scheduled for April 19 through 20, 2024.

ABOUT THE POETS

Dr. Paul Brooke is a Professor and the Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he teaches Advanced Creative Writing, Environmental Literature, Creative Photography, Experimental Photography, Fiction, Poetry Writing, Introduction to Nonfiction, Editing and Digital Publishing, Contemporary Literature, Diverse Voices, Novel Writing, Major Authors, and Literary Theory. He has won awards for outstanding advising, scholarship, and teaching while at Grand View University, plus granted two sabbaticals. To read more about his, check him out on our Author Spotlight page.

Jennifer L. Knox is the author of five books of poems: Crushing It (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), Days of Shame & Failure (Bloof Books, 2018), The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway (Bloof Books, 2010), Drunk by Noon (Bloof Books, 2007), and A Gringo Like Me (Bloof Books, 2005).

Known for their dark, imaginative humor, her poems have appeared in publications such as the New Yorker, the American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeney’s, five times in the Best American Poetry series, and the 2022 Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses anthology. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. To learn more about Jen, check her out on our Author Spotlight page.

ABOUT POETRY PALOOZA?

Inspired by an educational and entertainment event of nearly 20 years ago, this creative experience – Poetry Palooza! – has been a long time in the making.

​In 2023, Poetry& worked in partnership with Humanities Iowa, Mainframe Studios, Franklin Jr. High Event Center, and the Iowa Poetry Association to make Poetry Palooza! a dynamic, interactive, and integrated performing arts experience.

​This three-day festival celebrated Midwestern Poets Laureate, cultivated students and emerging talent, and demonstrated the positive power of poetry.

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Author

Paul Brooke

What’s your genre?
Poetry

Are you published?
Traditional publisher

What inspired you to become a writer?
Always nature has been at the forefront. My work focuses on the relationship of humans with the wild world. I am deeply interested in understanding why we mistreat the earth and how we can live in harmony with it.

What author do you admire and how have they inspired your writing?
There are so many that it is hard to boil it down. In terms of poetry, Gary Snyder was an inspiration early as he understood the complexities of the natural world and he integrated a Zen philosophy, which I found intriguing. Later, fiction writers like Toni Morrison blew my mind with their historical retellings and incredible imaginations. Her book, Beloved, is my absolute favorite. Today, there are so many talented authors that it is a joy to read and discover new voices.

Name three of your favorite books
As I mentioned earlier, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, then Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridan, and Sylvia Plath’s The Collected Poems.

What’s one thing readers should know about you?
I love to travel and that often fills my writing. Recently, I went to Chile and I just finished a collection that fuses nature photography and form poetry. My newest work explores the often unheard side of Antarctica and I plan to go there very soon. For me, it is necessary to have experiences that show me awe and wonder in order to find inspiration. Those moments are transcendent and illuminating. Always necessary to building the best work I can.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to a budding writer?
Revise. Revise. Revise. Be patient with your work and be patient if you send it out. There will be tons of rejections. And for most young writers those rejections can send them running away. Run into the rejection and then submit again somewhere else.

Author bio
Paul Brooke has five collections of photography and poetry including Light and Matter: Poems and Photographs of Iowa (2008) and Meditations on Egrets: Poems and Photographs of Sanibel Island (2010). Sirens and Seriemas: Photographs and Poems of the Amazon and Pantanal (2015) was published by Brambleby Books of London, England, while Finishing Line Press published Arm Wrestling at the Iowa State Fair (2018). Jaguars of the Northern Pantanal: Panthera onca at the Meeting of the Waters was published by Academic Press (2020), while The Skáld and the Drukkin Tröllaukin: Photographs and Poems of Iceland was released by Gold Wake (2022). Brooke recently was awarded both an Iowa Arts Fellowship and a grant for publishing a diversity of writers. Click here to visit Paul.