WordFest 2019 — Up the RiverLaunch , April 17

Since 2013 AlbanyPoets has been putting out the annual journal of poetry, art & photography, Up the River. This year the launch party was held as part of WordFest 2019 at Restaurant Navona in Albany, NY. The reading by selected authors from the journal was noteworthy both by the invited poets who did not show up & by the stellar work of the writers who did show up. Mary Panza was the host, asking a few questions of each reader.

The first of the 4 readers who did show up was Matt Galletta who began with a piece that had been published in Up the River One, “Mixed Tape.” Other poems included “These Are the Miracles,” the very short “Dear Diary” (in the current UTR), “Election Night,” “Litter Box,” “Jessica Christ” (with, he said, paragraphs & stigmata), & learning how not to fly “8 Years Old.”

Robert A. Miller read poems on a variety topics, “Speaking with Turtles,” “Meditations in New Hampshire” (both in the current UTR), a poem about waking up “Go Figure,” “The Good Guys Must Win,” “My View of Medicine,” & “My Superficial View.” He said he had his first publication of a poem only 5 years ago, & is inspired by the work of Stanley Kunitz.

Mary Cuffe Perez was once a featured poet in the Third Thursday series I run back in 2000 when it was at Café Web on Madison Ave. Tonight she read from a chapbook in-progress titled “Why Meringue Fails” pieces of memoir about using her mother’s cookbook “Fannie Farmer,” her aunt’s young male companions “Greenwood,” & “Surprising Grace.” In answer to the question “what inspires you?” she answered “every little thing.”

Tom Bonville who was a much-more recent feature at the Third Thursday Poetry Night back in March had planned for 3 more readers here & only brought the poem that is in UTR 7, “What If Everybody Got Gold Stars” a marvelous piece of memoir, of stealing colored stars from the desks of nuns. He said his work springs from his working class background growing up in Troy.

You can find Up The River, Issue 7 on the AlbanyPoets website.