Organizing your writing life

JAVA MONKEY SPEAKS ANTHOLOGY: After two years of false-starts, hurry-up-and-wait and other drama, the release of the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol. 1 is set for this Sunday, June 19, at 8 p.m. at the Java Monkey Coffee House in Decatur, GA. Cleo Creech came up with the idea to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the city's best reading series and open mic. Because of cost and disagreements, the project was shelved until being rescued by Poetry Atlanta and some grant money. This Sunday marks Java's fourth anniversary, so better late than never is my motto. Kodac Harrison and I picked up the reigns and co-edited the edition that will be released this weekend. It's only $10 and will be available at the coffee house and very soon from the Poetry Atlanta website. With a print run of only 500, we expect the anthology to sell out quickly and become a collector's item. Despite the bizarre "review " in today's Creative Loafing (which erroneously states that the contributors featured in the anthology are all "performance poets"), there is some beautiful work in this book. The work of Nathan Deen (who also did the cover art), Cherryl Floyd-Miller (who provided editorial assistance), Lady Hardin, Stephen Bluestone (a multiple-award winning poet), David Schuster, Megan Sexton (an editor at Five Points) and many other wonderful poems grace these pages. Do come and join us on Sunday. Many of the poets will be reading their work from the book. It's going to be another hot night at Java Monkey Speaks.