a journal of the arts...
HomeWorlds into words into WORLDS
12/10/21 My Life as a Poet
a journal of the arts..
Worlds into words into WORLDS
10/31/21... Test, Test... Welcome to the Blog.
Testing, testing...
It’s Halloween morning 2021 out here on the Navajo Reservation. My wife and I are sleepy from setting up spooky lights and testing out music last night. 2020 trick-or-treating was canceled due to the health concerns, COVID-19. This year trick-or-treating is only permitted in hospital housing where we live. Our roads are closed from cars to allow trick-or-treaters to walk around the neighborhood safely. From 4-8pm there’ll be a long relentless line of children in our driveway.
We have plenty of candy for the kids. The music and lights are for us.
__________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Blog,
The above video is in Fruita CO from Trickster Presents: A Confluence on the Western Slope. The confluence was put on by poet Wendy Videlock in cooperation with Lithic Bookstore in Fruita CO.
She did such an impressive job organizing outdoor readings and workshops! Orlando White reads into a golden Peavey mic. The Yamaha StagePas PA allows his words to be heard beyond the gazebo.
Tonight that Yamaha StagePas will be blasting Halloween hits like Pet Semetary by 'The Ramones' and that theme song from 'The Munsters' tv show.
Thanks for reading.
I have to squeeze into my purple Prince costume. Can’t disappoint the kids.
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney, Guest Poetry Editor
11/5/21 Whole Notes
I’m getting off the Rez for the weekend to hangout at the border town of Flagstaff, AZ. We’re packing up the bikes to do a little riding at Buffalo Park. I want to catch that new James Bond flick at the 16 Plex Harkins Theaters.
I like catching a matinee alone. I like taking inventory of strangers, male to female ratio, age demographics and making up background stories for each of them waiting for the previews to start.
I want to catch the Bond flick but the triage tent across from our housing says it’s not time for that yet. It’s not quite time to sit for hours in an enclosed place that doesn’t require vaccine status at the entrance.
The video above was taken at a bookstore in Flagstaff November 2019, a few months before the first recorded death from Coronavirus.
Pam Uschuk reads while William Pitt Root, Haesong Kwon, my wife, myself and two grad students listen with interest.
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney, Guest Poetry Editor
11/17/2021 Rick DeMarinis Short Story PrizeContest
Judge Jenn Givhan
Dear brilliant writers, this is the final week to enter Cutthroat's terrific writing contests. We are committed to publishing a diversity of writers.
The prize money has gone up to $1500 for first prize and $300 for second prize in each genre. We have the best judges in the world! Patricia Jabbeh Wesley is judge for the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, Jenn Givhan is judge for the Rick DeMarinis Short Story Prize and J. Drew Lanham is judge for the Barry Lopez Nonfiction Contest. Our guest editors are: Nonfiction: J. Drew Lanham, CM Fuhrman, Fiction: Darlin' Neal and Poetry: Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney.
The theme is Climate Change (in all its forms and intersections with racism, homophobia, xenophobia, corporate greed and exploitation of the natural world, etc.). THIS WILL BE A PRINT ISSUE! We will take it to AWP in Philadelphia. We are looking forward to reading your work. The reading fee is only $23. The deadline is extended to midnight November 22nd. Read all the guidelines and submit your work today.
Pam Uschuk, Editor in Chief
11/22 Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century
The above video features Chicanx poets Octavio Quintanilla, Carmen Tafolla, Alberto Rios, Richard Vargas and Jenn Givhan from a reading hosted by Elizabethtown College. These talented writers are featured in Cutthroat’s Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century. This anthology will make a powerful addition to any loved one’s library this Christmas.
The intro and outro of the video above also features music from a punk rock band I was in years ago.
I use my own music in these videos for the same reason big Hollywood studios use public domain music from The Nutcracker in Christmas movies that feature neither sugar plums, fairies nor mouse-kings: it doesn’t cost us anything.
I also use it because these Chicanx poets deserve a punk rock soundtrack with their words.
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney, Guest Poetry Editor
11/25/22 Thanksgiving
The above video with Octavio Quintanilla is about family, the family we love, the family we're losing.
It’s Thanksgiving here on the Navajo Reservation.
Last year I enjoyed frozen TGIFridays alone while my wife was working at her second clinic in Flagstaff. We were on lockdown.
We're not in lockdown this year but there's another spike in COVID19 cases.
I’m going to grab some pumpkin pie and call my parents. And maybe suck whip cream straight from the canister.
Happy Thanksgiving with some extra gravy and cranberry!
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney, Guest Poetry Editor
Hey Cutthroat folks,
Poetry is thriving in the Lower Connecticut River Valley aka the Pioneer Valley. Last night was the annual reading for those who were part of 30 Poems in November, a fundraiser for the Center of New Americans. And tonight is another community reading, this one in celebration of the new issue of Silkworm, a journal published by the Florence Poets Society. And the long-running weekly Forbes Library poetry discussion group is in full swing.
12/15/21 Storytime
In the above video Denise Chavez reads an excerpt from her unpublished novel “Street of Too Many Stories.”
Please pour yourself something warm, listen and reflect.
We all have our reasons for not pursuing those endeavors, for missing those opportunities. We have our reasons for not circling back and visiting people before they’re gone. We have our reasons for being frustrated and angry this year.
We have our reasons.
We have our stories.
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney, Guest Poetry Editor
1/12/22 Welcome to the New Year
Welcome to the New Year. Congratulations to our contest finalists! Full list & links to pages below .
In the above video Richard Vargas offers comfort and nourishment with Tito’s Carnitas from Puro Chicanx writers of the 21st century
Please check in with us regularly for CT events and publications as we navigate this new terrain. Let us take the lessons of these past couple years and move forward with empathy, humility and hope.
Thank you all,
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney, Guest Poetry Editor
2021 Joy Harjo Poetry Finalists
“What the Bees Know” By Catherine Clark-Sayles
“Against Reliability' By Elizabeth Knapp
“Sonnet for Girlhood” By Jordan Bissell Perez
“Even In Oklahoma” By Linda Reisling
“when they see, still they do not see, Part II” Monique Farrell
“Luck,” Barbara Unger
"First Fight," Mark Lupinetti
"What They Saw on Their Weekly River Walk, Taking Turns Pushing His Chair," Ingrid Wendt
"November Stroll," Connie Post
"Season of Grace," Mark Simpson
"Nazi Memorabilia are The Hot Lots," Jen Karentnik
"No Word for Those Who Lose a Child," (Kate Fox SECOND PRIZE Athens, Ohio)
"You Tear Out My Tongue," Heather Johnson
“Delta Variations,” Dottie LeMieux
"August," Paula Brancato (Spence)
"Why the Migrant's Journey is so Hard" ( FIRST PRIZE Jeanne Wagner Berkeley, CA_
Power Switch by Halsey Hyer
"We Don't Bother with the Rose Garden," Candace Kelsey
"The Dead go Swimming," Rick Kearns
"Dear July, Casey Charles
"Ridge of High Pressure," Robin Scofield
"Snowglobe," Marsh Muirhead
"The Approach of Autumn," Bruce Parker
"Last Hour of Twilight," Alice Zheng (HONORABLE MENTION, Los Angeles, CA)
"Funeral," Leroy Sorenson, “Funeral”
"Air Writing," Leroy Sorenson
BARRY LOPEZ NONFICTION CONTEST
2021 Barry Lopez Nonfiction Finalists
“Will the Streams Still Run,” Gary Grossman
“The Interview,” Elisabetta La Cava
“Cooper and Corinna,” Maureen McNeil Second Place
“The Book of Bones,” Hannah Hindley First Place
“Singing With Animals,” Brenda Peterson
“The Robbery,” Sue William Silverman Special Note
“Just Like a Daughter,” by Anne Gudger Honorable Mention
“The Perfect Lamp,” by Ashley Memory
“How I Nearly Got Recruited into Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Traffiking Ring” Angela Mackintosh
“We See Angels” Christy Shick
“Watermelon Whisperer,” Laura Rodley
“Between Hope and Grief,” John Jacobson
2021 RICK DEMARINIS SHORT STORY CONTEST
"Wood-Stacking," George Michelson Foy
"Above It All," Marie Coleman
"North To San Jose," Donald Carreira Ching
"Hamlet," Richard Attree
"Two Wills," Frank Scozarri
"Death on the Beach," Ann Stoney
"Whisper of a Bangkok Ghost," Karima Alavi
"The Story of an Extraordinary Girl," Abdur Razzak
"The Three Sisters," Shelli Rottschafer SECOND PRIZE Ada, Michigan
"Riptides," pierce scranton
"Sisters," Yiru Zhang
"Sign Spinner: The Movie," Robert Morgan Fisher HONORABLE MENTION San Francisco, CA
1/27/22 Not Quite Time Yet
The above video brings us closer to a movie theater experience of a different time.
I'm looking forward to the theater experience, sneaking in snacks via heavy coat with pockets deep enough to stuff a 20oz Coke and two king size bags of peanut m&m's. But not quite yet. We're not there yet.
Enjoy Alebrto Rios's When There Were Ghosts and remember the smell of cigarette smoke over salty popcorn.
Jesse Tsinajinnie Maloney, Guest Poetry Editor
