Celebrating The Book Eaters! * BIWOC Poet Spotlight * Perugia Poet News

PUBLISHING NEW WOMEN POETS SINCE 1997

* Celebrating The Book Eaters *

Our poet Carolina Hotchandani (The Book Eaters, 2023) came to Western Massachusetts to celebrate her book with several events at institutions local to where Perugia Press is based.

On Thursday, March 7, Hotchandani read from, and did a Q & A for, her debut collection at Westfield State University in the Arno Maris Gallery that was attended by students, staff, faculty, and community members. Editor/Director Rebecca Olander, who also teaches in the English Department at WSU, was interviewed about the event ahead of time in an article for their campus publication Newswise, and she was also featured there for her community-building work in teaching and with Perugia in a second profile.

Rebecca Olander and Carolina Hotchandani at Westfield State University

Friday, March 8 was International Women's Day. That morning Carolina and Rebecca were on "Writer's Block," a radio show hosted by Megan Zinn on WHMP. Listen to the podcast here.

Carolina Hotchandani at the WHMP studio in Northampton, MA

Over lunchtime, Hotchandani took part in a poetry salon for students at the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College.

Former intern SJ Waring, Rebecca Olander, Carolina Hotchandani, former intern Adrie Rose, and board member Jen Jabaily-Blackburn at the BDPC at Smith College

That afternoon, a tour of the the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA was in order.

Carolina Hotchandani with board member Yasotha Sriharan

at Emily Dickinson's house

And that evening, Hotchandani read with Perugia poet Gail Thomas and Perugia board members Jen Jabaily-Blackburn and Arya Samuelson at the Northampton Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley in Perugia's "Subverting the Motherhood Ideal" event.

Board member Arya Samuelson, Carolina Hotchandani, Rebecca Olander, Gail Thomas, and board member Jen Jabaily-Blackburn at Noho Center for the Arts

In further celebrations, The Book Eaters was named one of twelve finalists in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards for Poetry! Read the press release on our blog. Congratulations, Carolina!

Listen in to a great conversation between Carolina Hotchandani and Stuart Chittenden on the Lives Radio Show & Podcast on Omaha’s NPR affiliate. Carolina also reads several poems from The Book Eaters:

Gratitude to the indie bookstore Dundee Book Company in Omaha:

Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight

March 2024 Poet: Amanda Gunn

Father at Table

There was what he demanded with one word

and a pointing finger—"chicken," "cornbread,"

"'tatoes"—the delicacies his labor both purchased

and prepared for us, all his long hours ours. Trying

not to interrupt the table talk that had snapped

shut and refused him. Not vain, not white folk,

he asked only one courtesy: no swearing

he could hear. He was a Christian and my father.

That godforsaken finger. How stingy it seemed

then. Now how tender, how pleading. How I bristled

at the soft of his voice, an engine rumbling under

the hood of our attention. And, oh, what kindness

I held back, expecting things he would never ask

of me: wait your turn, say thank you, say please.

From Things I Didn't Do with This Body, Copper Canyon Press, 2023

To read more about this poet and her work, check out our blog.

* Perugia Poet News *

Perugia poet Carolina Hotchandani was selected

as an Individual Arts Foundation recipient for a 2024

Literary Arts Fellowship from the Nebraska Arts Council.

*

Perugia poet Gail Thomas had her poem "Dictionary, 1950" published in ONE ART: a journal of poetry.

*

Perugia poet Abby E. Murray won the 2024 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle for her poem “Supermoon”! 🌟🌕

*

Perugia poet Lynne Thompson’s poem “A Lover, Rejected, Rejects the Myth that Is Billie Holiday—“, first published in Rattle in 2004, is being showcased again on their site this month!

*

Perugia poet L.I. Henley created the cover and interior art for the latest issue of Cholla Needles. Henley also has work on the cover of Marsha de la O's Creature, and they are having a poetry and art show in Los Osos, CA on April 6 to showcase the project.

*

Check out recent Substacks from Joan Kwon Glass (winner

of the 2024 Perugia Press Prize) - one powerful piece with prompts by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach and Perugia poet Carolina Hotchandani and one with prompts by Rachel McKibbens and Perugia poet Abby E. Murray. Also, Joan had a poem published in Tinderbox Poetry Journal that will appear in her forthcoming Perugia book, Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms. Here's the start of the poem, and you can read the whole at Tinderbox.

PERUGIA PRESS

PO Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062