Literary

Peach Picks: What to Read This Week

by / Jan. 4, 2017 12am EST

 ON PEACH

Two local talents were nominated for the 2016 Pushcart Prize for their features on the Peach Mag website. Comedian and cartoonist Pat Kewley was nominated for his hilarious essay, “My Dream Journal,” in which he recounts and reflects on a series of mediocre dreams. Local poet and master’s candidate in UB’s Innovative Writing program Woogee Bae was nominated for her poem, “You Do Not Communicate,” a meditation on language and loss of language. The final line of Bae’s poem has stuck with me: “You say / You do not communicate / Your hear mother’s mouth.”


 IN PRINT

some planet (poetry) by Jamie Mortara
YesYes Books, 80 pages

Noah Falck once tweeted, “aren’t all poems a choose your own adventure?” Mortara, whose recent feature on Peach Mag’s website, “sober poem,” was also nominated for the Pushcart, writes poems as instructions for the reader. Mortara’s poems are experiments and games, full of graphs and quizzes, and their debut collection of poems, some planet (YesYes Books, 2015), just went into its second printing. In one poem, the reader is asked to tally the amount of deaths mentioned in the 10 o’clock news in a chart divided by “died a natural death” and “died a violent death.” It’s lines like “this one time i saw the sunrise with someone who thought i was a reply to every question” that leave me unable to recommend this poet enough.


 IN TOWN

Local Reading Review

Foundlings Poetry Zine launched their second volume of work last Thursday night at the Sterling Tap and Wurst. I’m always a fan when writers manage to find new ways to sneak their work into the lives of those who may not be expecting it, and choosing to host a poetry reading inside a North Buffalo haunt like the Sterling achieved just that. Featured readers included local talent like Noah Falck, Ben Brindise, and Megan Kemple, among others.

 

“Peach Picks” is a new column of literary news and recommendations written by the editors of  Peach Mag, an online literary magazine based in Buffalo, New York For inquiries, contact Rachelle at peachmgzn@gmail.com. Follow them on twitter, facebook, and instagram

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