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Chet'la Sebree in Conversation with Dantiel W. Moniz Oct 29, 2021

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Chet'la Sebree in conversation with Dantiel W. Moniz, celebrating the release of Chet'la Sebree's new book, "Field Study," published by FSG Originals. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete. You can purchase copies of "Field Study" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/general-poetry/field-study/ Chet'la Sebree is the director of the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts at Bucknell University and the author of "Mistress," winner of the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize and nominated for a 2020 NAACP Image Award. She earned an MFA in creative writing, with a focus in poetry, from American University, and has received fellowships from the Delaware Division of the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Yaddo, Vermont Studio Center, and Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. Her poetry has appeared in the Kenyon Review, Guernica, Pleiades, and elsewhere. Dantiel W. Moniz is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction, the Cecelia Joyce Johnson Emerging Writer Award by the Key West Literary Seminar, a Tin House Scholarship, and has been named a "Writer to Watch" by Publishers Weekly and Apple Books. Her debut collection, "Milk Blood Heat," is an Indie Next Pick, an Amazon "Best Book of the Month" selection, a Roxane Gay Audacious Book Club pick, and has been hailed as "must-read" by TIME, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzefeed, Elle, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others. Her work has appeared in the Paris Review, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, One Story, American Short Fiction, Ploughshares, The Yale Review, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and elsewhere. She lives in Northeast Florida and currently teaches fiction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

New Directions at 85: The Anniversary Celebration Oct 22, 2021

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New Directions at 85: The Anniversary Celebration with Forrest Gander as MC and Rosmarie Waldrop, Susan Howe, Nathaniel Tarn, Nathaniel Mackey, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Sylvia Legris, Michael Palmer, Will Alexander, Eliot Weinberger, and other surprise guests. This event was originally broadcast live via zoom on Thursday, June 3, 2021 and was introduced by City Lights' Peter Maravelis and hosted by Forrest Gander. New Directions was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin, then a Harvard University sophomore, via advice from Ezra Pound to "do something useful" after finishing his studies at Harvard. The first projects to come out of New Directions were anthologies of new writing, each titled "New Directions in Poetry and Prose" (until 1966's NDPP 19). Early writers incorporated in these anthologies include Dylan Thomas, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Thomas Merton, Denise Levertov, James Agee, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. New Directions publishing program includes writing of all genres, representing not only American writing, but also a considerable amount of literature in translation from modernist authors around the world. Among some of the writers they have published are Nobel Prize Winners: Andre Gide, Pablo Neruda, Boris Pasternak, Octavio Paz, Pulitzer Prize Winners: Hilton Als, George Oppen, Gary Snyder, Williams Carlos Williams, National Book Award Winners: Yoko Tawada, Nathaniel Mackey, Man Booker Prize Winner László Krasznahorkai, as well as many others. The current focus of New Directions is threefold: discovering and introducing to the US contemporary international writers; publishing new and experimental American poetry and prose; and reissuing New Directions' classic titles in new editions. Drawing from the tradition of the early anthologies and series, New Directions launched the Pearl series, which presents short works by New Directions writers in slim, minimalist volumes designed by Rodrigo Corral. You can learn more about New Directions by visiting their website: https://www.ndbooks.com/

Nathaniel Mackey with Fred Moten Oct 15, 2021

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Nathaniel Mackey in conversation with Fred Moten, celebrating the launch of his new poetry collection, "Double Trio," published by New Directions. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete. You can purchase copies of "Double Trio" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/staff-picks/double-trio-tej-bet-sos-notice-nerv/ Nathaniel Mackey was born in Miami, Florida, in 1947. He is the author of several books of fiction of "exquisite rhythmic lyricism" (Bookforum), poetry, and criticism and has received many awards for his work, including the National Book Award in poetry for Splay Anthem, the Stephen Henderson Award from the African American Literature and Culture Society, the Bollingen Prize, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Mackey is the Reynolds Price Professor of English at Duke University. Fred Moten is an American cultural theorist, poet, and scholar whose work explores critical studies, black studies, and performance studies. Moten is Professor of Performance Studies at New York University and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at University of California, Riverside and the University of Iowa. His scholarly texts include "The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study" which was co-authored with Stefano Harney, "In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition," and "The Universal Machine" (Duke University Press, 2018). He has published numerous poetry collections, including The Little Edges, The Feel Trio, B Jenkins, and Hughson's Tavern. In 2020, Moten was awarded a for "[c]reating new conceptual spaces to accommodate emerging forms of Black aesthetics, cultural production, and social life." This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Cynthia Kaufman in Conversation with Francesca Caparas Oct 01, 2021

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Cynthia Kaufman in conversation with Francesca Caparas, discussing her new book, "The Sea is Rising and So Are We: A Climate Justice Handbook," published by PM Press. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "The Sea is Rising and So Are We: A Climate Justice Handbook" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/staff-picks-archive/sea-is-rising-so-are-we/ Cynthia Kaufman is the director of the Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action, where she also teaches community organizing and philosophy. The author of "Getting Past Capitalism: History, Vision, Hope" (Lexington Books, 2012), she is a lifelong social change activist, having worked on issues such as tenants' rights, police abuse, union organizing, international politics, and most recently climate change. Francesca Caparas teaches English and Asian American Studies at De Anza College and she is the Faculty Coordinator of the Jean Miller Resource Room for Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is the 2020-21 Fulbright Scholar to the Philippines where she will be researching discourses of digital literacy. Her interests and community work include international human rights, intersectional feminism, digital culture, and decolonization. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Aminatta Forna in Conversation with Eula Biss Aug 26, 2021

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Aminatta Forna in conversation with Eula Biss, discussing her new book, “The Window Seat: Notes From a Life in Motion,” published by Grove Press. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete. You can purchase copies of "The Window Seat: Notes From a Life in Motion" in hardcover or paperback directly from City Lights here: Hardcover - https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/window-seat-notes-from-a-life-in-motio/ Paperback - https://citylights.com/belles-lettres-essays/window-seat-notes-from-a-life-in-motio-2/ Aminatta Forna is the author of the novels “Ancestor Stones,” “The Memory of Love,” and “The Hired Man,” as well as the memoir “The Devil That Danced on the Water.” Forna's books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her essays have appeared in Granta, The Guardian, The Observer, and Vogue. She is currently the Lannan Visiting Chair of Poetics at Georgetown University. Eula Biss is the author of four books, most recently “Having and Being Had.” Her book “On Immunity” was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review, and “Notes from No Man's Land” won the National Book Critics Circle award for criticism in 2009. Her essays and prose poems have recently appeared in the Guardian, the New York Review of Books, The Believer, Freeman’s, Jubilat, the Baffler, Harper’s, and the New York Times Magazine. She teaches nonfiction writing at Northwestern University. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Francisco Goldman in Conversation with Valeria Luiselli Aug 20, 2021

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Francisco Goldman in conversation with Valeria Luiselli, discussing his new novel, "Monkey Boy," published by Grove Atlantic Press. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Monkey Boy" in hardcover or paperback directly from City Lights here: Hardcover - https://citylights.com/new-fiction-in-hardcover/monkey-boy/ Paperback - https://citylights.com/general-fiction/monkey-boy-3/ Francisco Goldman has published four novels and two books of non-fiction. "The Long Night of White Chickens" was awarded the American Academy's Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. His novels have been finalists for several prizes, including, twice, The Pen/Faulkner Prize. "The Ordinary Seaman" was a finalist for The International IMPAC Dublin literary award. "The Divine Husband" was a finalist for The Believer Book Award. "The Art of Political Murder" won The Index on Censorship T.R. Fyvel Book Award and The WOLA/Duke Human Rights Book Award. "The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle," published in 2013, was named by the LA Times one of 10 best books of the year and received The Blue Metropolis "Premio Azul" 2017. His most recent novel, "Say Her Name," won the 2011 Prix Femina Etranger. His books have been published in 16 languages. Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City and grew up in South Korea, South Africa and India. An acclaimed writer of both fiction and nonfiction, she is the author of the essay collection "Sidewalks;" the novels "Faces in the Crowd" and "The Story of My Teeth;" "Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions" and "Lost Children Archive." She is the recipient of a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship and the winner of two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, The Carnegie Medal, an American Book Award, and has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize, and the Booker Prize. She has been a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree and the recipient of a Bearing Witness Fellowship from the Art for Justice Fund. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, and McSweeney's, among other publications, and has been translated into more than twenty languages. She is a Writer in Residence at Bard College and lives in New York City. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Michael McClure Memorial Tribute Aug 13, 2021

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A memorial tribute to Michael McClure with readings and remembrances by Russ Tamblyn, CAConrad, Margaret Randall, Forrest Gander, George Herms, Henry Kaiser, Jerome Rothenberg, Cedar Sigo, Garrett Caples, Paul Nelson, Lyn Hejinian, Andrew Schelling, Amy McClure, Jane McClure, and Joanna McClure. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. Michael McClure (1932-2020) was an award-winning American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he was one of the five poets who participated in the Six Gallery reading that featured the public debut of Allen Ginsberg's landmark poem "Howl." A key figure of the Beat Generation, McClure is immortalized as Pat McLear in Jack Kerouac's novels The Dharma Bums and Big Sur. He also participated in the 60s counterculture alongside musicians like Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. He taught for many years at California College of the Arts and lived with his wife, Amy, in the San Francisco Bay Area. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Mule Kick Blues Release Party with Anne Waldman, Eileen Myles, and Garrett Caples Jul 30, 2021

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City Lights celebrates the final book by the late Beat Generation legend Michael McClure. Anne Waldman, Eileen Myles, and Garrett Caples read from and discuss the work of the late poet in this book launch for "Mule Kick Blues: And Last Poems" published by City Lights. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Mule Kick Blues: And Last Poems" directly from City Lights at a 30% discount here: https://citylights.com/beat-literature-poetry-history/mule-kick-blues/ Anne Waldman co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, where she still teaches. Her poetry collections include Iovis I, Iovis II, Fast Speaking Woman, Helping the Dreamer, Kill or Cure, and Trickster Feminism. She is a recipient of the Shelley Memorial Award. Eileen Myles is an acclaimed poet and writer who has published over twenty works of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and libretto. Their prizes and awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Warhol/Creative Capital grant, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a poetry award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Garrett Caples is a poet and freelance writer who lives in San Francisco and is an editor for City Lights, where he curates the Spotlight Poetry Series. He is the author of three full-length poetry collections and a book of essays. He is the co-editor of The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia (California, 2013), Particulars of Place (Omnidawn, 2015) by Richard O. Moore, Incidents of Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems by Frank Lima (City Lights, 2016), and Arcana: A Stephen Jonas Reader (City Lights, 2019) He has a Ph.D. in English from UC Berkeley. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Erica Hunt and Michael Palmer Jul 16, 2021

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Erica Hunt and Michael Palmer, reading from their new works: Hunt reading from her new collection "Jump The Clock," published by Nightboat, and Palmer reading from "Little Elegies for Sister Satan," published by New Directions. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete. You can purchase copies of "Jump the Clock" and "Little Elegies for Sister Satan" directly from City Lights here: "Jump the Clock" - https://citylights.com/general-poetry/jump-the-clock-new-sel-poems/ "Little Elegies for Sister Satan" - https://citylights.com/general-poetry/little-elegies-for-sister-satan/ Erica Hunt is a poet and essayist, author of Local History, Arcade, Piece Logic, Veronica: A Suite in X Parts, and Jump the Clock: New and Selected Poems, published by Nightboat Books in November 2020. Her poems and essays have appeared in BOMB, Boundary 2, Brooklyn Rail, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetics Journal, Tripwire, Recluse, In the American Tree, and Conjunctions. With Dawn Lundy Martin, Hunt is the editor of an anthology of new writing by Black women, Letters to the Future. Hunt has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Art, the Fund for Poetry, and the Djerassi Foundation and is a past fellow of Duke University/University of Capetown Program in Public Policy. She teaches at Brown University. Michael Palmer is an American born in New York City in 1943 and long resident in San Francisco, nearly all of Palmer's poetry is published by New Directions: At Passages (1995); The Lion Bridge: Selected Poems 1972–1995 (1998); The Promises of Glass (2000); Codes Appearing: Poems 1979–1988 (2001); Company of Moths (2005); and most recently, Thread (2011). He is the translator of works by Emmanuel Hocquard, Vicente Huidobro, and Alexei Parshchikov, among others, and the editor of "Code of Signals: Recent Writings in Poetics." For over thirty years he has collaborated with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Mary Beth Meehan with Fred Turner Jul 09, 2021

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Mary Beth Meehan with Fred Turner, celebrating the launch of their book "Seeing Silicon Valley: Life Inside a Fraying America" published by University of Chicago Press. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Seeing Silicon Valley: Life Inside a Fraying America" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/topographies/seeing-silicone-valley/ Mary Beth Meehan is a photographer known for her large-scale, community-based portraiture centered around questions of representation, visibility, and social equity in the United States. She lives in New England, where she has lectured at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Fred Turner is Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication at Stanford University. He is the author of the books "The Democratic Surround" and "From Counterculture to Cyberculture" both published by the University of Chicago Press. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

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