The running theme when WNBA awarded Kathi Kamen Goldmark was the one Amy Tan recounted in her congratulatory speech. “The key to Kathi’s success in fundraising and generally getting things going was a sweet : “Do You Wanna.” It was a request by a fabulous person and one to which most were hard pressed to [...]
Listen to the interview on Living Room on KPFA with Joan and Rebecca Foust, starting at 44:00
Living Room – On-going turmoil in Iran; new climate report; local poets. – June 18, 2009 at 12:00pm
Click to listen (or download)
I believe in magic. How could I not? Poetry (ok, all art) is an amalgamation of skill, craft, magic and alchemy – we don’t know exactly why a poem/art work but when it does you feel it in your body. I believe in the ‘planets aligning’ – in moments that make some experiences unique, new. [...]
“A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities” San Francisco Bay Press, Virginia/San Francisco: 2009
In her second full-length poetry collection, Joan Gelfand explores the poignancy of living in a world that is war-torn and environmentally damaged. With a nod to the humorous paradox of modern life, Gelfand writes from the vantage point of a mother, an artist, and a Zen meditator. “A Dreamer’s Guide…” looks beyond the surface of our lives at the connections that make live worth living, and the sensual details that color it. Read More
Seeking Center: A Collection of Poems by Joan Gelfand, Two Bridges Press, Richmond CA: 2006
In Seeking Center, Joan Gelfand joins the reader in a free-wheeling discussion, beyond the poems themselves, regarding what is poetry today, here at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Read More