Jen Ashburn's poem "Anxiety on The Writer's Almanac

http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20170305/

Singapore Unbound/Second Saturday Reading Series

SINGAPORE UNBOUND Freedom of Expression. Equal Rights for All.

SECOND SATURDAYS READING SERIES On March 11, 7-9 pm, Second Saturdays features a pair of poets from Pittsburgh, Jason Irwin and Jen Ashburn, who look at life with an unflinching yet compassionate gaze. They will read from their new books A Blister of Stars and The Light on the Wall. Potluck and open-mic as usual. Please RSVP Jee at jkoh@singaporeunbound.org for directions.   Jason Irwin was born with a litany of birth defects. A Blister of Stars (Low Ghost Press, 2016) is Irwin's interrogation of his own biography. His poems reveal the terror felt by a child confused about what is happening to his body; the endless surgeries and difficult recoveries, the strain it all puts on his parents both emotionally and financially. Irwin's luminous, reflective poems strive for solace in the face of horror, hold fast to faith while staring into the void.  Jason is also the author of Watering the Dead (Pavement Saw Press, 2008), winner of the Transcontinental Poetry Award, and the chapbooks Where You Are (Night Ballet Press, 2014), & Some Days It's A Love Story (Slipstream Press, 2005). He grew up in Dunkirk, NY, and received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College in 2004.    "In The Light on the Wall, Jen Ashburn powerfully depicts the fragility and complexities of childhood alongside the wonder of exploring and observing the world around us. This is a poetry of memory but also of awakening—written with great musicality, a precise eye for image, and a spirited tenderness. “I need the dark to see the starlight,” Ashburn says. She captures both darkness and light elegantly in this stunning debut collection of poems." -Scott Silsbe. Jen holds an MFA in creative writing from Chatham University, where she taught creative writing to inmates in the Allegheny County Jail through Chatham’s Words Without Walls program. Originally from southern Indiana, she spent four years in Japan and greater Asia.   Date and Time: Saturday, March 11, 7 pm Venue: Private home in Lower East Side, NY, NY RSVP: Jee at jkoh@singaporeunbound.org About Second Saturdays Reading Series The Second Saturdays Reading Series is a monthly literary gathering in New York City for the reading of Singaporean and American literatures. Typically we have 20 - 30 people assembling in a private home. The two-hour event begins with a potluck, followed by an open reading and the featured author. For our fourth season (October 2016 - June 2017), we have a terrific line-up, including Naomi Novik, Chinelo Okparanta, Jason Irwin, Sohrab Homi Fracis, George Kalogeris, and a recital-talk by Singaporean singer and conductor Phillip Cheah. If you'd like to be added to the mailing list or to host an event, please contact Jee at jkoh@singaporeunbound.org. Follow us on Facebook.

Jen Ashburn's Book Launch Reading 1/28/17

http://irmafreeman.org/events/light-on-the-wall/

On the evening of January 28th, alumna Jennifer Ashburn released her new poetry book, The Light on the Wall. At Irma Freeman Center, Ashburn read with special guests Daniela Buccilli, Brittany Hailer, and Scott Silsbe. Emcee Paula Levin led the book launch.

First, Ashburn read multiple pieces from the new publication. Buccilli and Silsbe read poetry, while Hailer shared nonfiction.

“I had it in mind to write about my travels, but the family poems kept creeping in. For a while it seemed like I was writing two different collections. In the end, the family and travel poems worked together to essentially tell the story of my life thus far,” Ashburn said.

With themes of family dysfunction, mental illness, and the “uncomfortableness, escapism, and wonder of travel,” The Light on the Wall is her first full-length poetry book.

At the event, Ashburn also started a collection for a local community organization, Bethlehem Haven, which supports women who are homeless or mentally ill. “By the time it’s finally out, you’re ready to move on creatively. I was really pleased we were able to raise some money for Bethlehem Haven. Also, it felt really good to have my friends and colleagues there.”

Attendees enjoyed a book signing, wine, lemonade, and light hors d'oeuvres. An after party occurred at Mixtape for writers and readers to converse more and celebrate the book’s release.

“I think it went well. I’m grateful to my fellow readers, the emcee Paula Levin, and everyone who attended,” said Ashburn.

For more information about Ashburn, The Light on the Wall, and her other work, please visit http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15589998.Jen_Ashburn

THIS WEEK IN BOOKS: THE LIGHT ON THE WALL

A review of Jen Ashburn's poetry collection from The Rumpus.

http://therumpus.net/2017/01/this-week-in-books-the-light-on-the-wall/

This week, we’ll look at The Light on the Wall (Main Street Rag, January 2017) by poet Jen Ashburn. This collection, her first, opens and closes with poems about her schizophrenic mother and dysfunctional family, a frame around the author’s life and travels.

In the titular poem, Ashburn uses description (“the evening light soaked everything/in the color of plums—not the skin of plums, or the flesh,/but that deep orange-red that bleeds in between”) to build tension until she arrives at the moment of describing her mother tucking her sheets in around her, restraining her. The poem ends simply, in the same way earthquake mechanics are simple, but devastating: “My mother/was breaking. Even the light on the wall knew.”

The poems that follow offer similar earthquake-like simplicity, whether about family or the time she spent traveling in Asia. She explores the discomfort of being a tourist in a poor country; the environmental effects of development; different ways of not only living, but being; and the complex web of emotions—tenderness, anxiety, love, fear—that bind all families together, functional or dysfunctional.

Originally from Indiana, Ashburn spent four years living in Japan and exploring Asia. She earned her MFA in poetry from Chatham University (also my own alma mater, though we attended the program at different times) and has made her home in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Her poems paint the landscape of the American Midwest as vividly and freshly as they paint the Mekong River in Vietnam.

About the collection, poet Nancy Krygowski writes:

These poems of displacement, of a woman navigating the strange territories of a dismantled family and travels in foreign lands, will wake up your eyes, and Ashburn’s voice—sure, steady, and surprising—will leave you praising and echoing her words: “Let me remember even when I’m hunched with work, when I’m old and crumpled with life: This life. Thank you. Please.”

Each poem rings out its own clear note like a temple bell, lingering even after the reader turns the page. Ashburn shows us that even in the face of darkness, the unknown, or terror, there is room for human kindness and connection. The kindness, the connection, may not always be perfect or pure, but neither, comes these poems’ gentle reminder, are we. And that is perfectly okay.

Pick up a copy of The Light on the Wall from the Main Street Rag shop and follow Ashburn on Twitter.

Review of Blister of Stars from www.birth-defect.org

http://www.birth-defect.org/tef-tof-vacterl-charge-paper-books/

Jason Irwin was born with a litany of birth defects. A Blister of Stars is Irwin’s interrogation of his own biography. His poems reveal the terror felt by a child confused about what is happening to his body; the endless surgeries and difficult recoveries, the strain it all puts on his parents both emotionally and financially. Irwin’s luminous, reflective poems strive for solace in the face of horror, hold fast to faith while staring into the void. 

Jennifer Ashburn, Dakota Garilli, Alison Taverna, Marc Nieson

https://www.facebook.com/events/1131790486912651/

The Chatham University MFA in Creative Writing Program presents:

Chatham alum and faculty reading 
celebrating the publication of new books

Featuring:
Jennifer Ashburn, Dakota Garilli, Alison Taverna, 
& Marc Nieson

****Rea Coffeehouse is located in the basement of Rea House on Chatham campus: http://www.chatham.edu/about/campusmap.cfm

Interview on Prosody, 90.5 WESA, with Jan Beatty

http://prosodyradio.com/episodes/161008_Jason_Irwin.mp3

Saturday poem in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2016/10/01/Mozart-amp-Chorizo/stories/201610010007

Red Dog Reading Series with Jon Fantin

POETRY READING CRINNIN, COLLINS, IRWIN

7pm October 29th @ The White Whale (formerly East End Book Exchange)
4754 Liberty Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15224.

Poetry reading by Gerry Crinnin, Kris Collins, & Jason Irwin. Mad Scientist Scott Silsbe will MC. Party to follow at 131 Edgewood Avevue Apt S4.

Winner of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for creative & scholarly activity, Gerry Crinnin’s most recent collection Haiku to the Chief, was published earlier this year by Ghost City Press. Other publications include Neighbors North & False Shuffles & the Disappearing Ace. When not busy teaching at Jamestown Community College’s North County Campus in Dunkirk, NY, this former jazz singer and US Navy DJ in Antarctica, spends his time communing with the wild life in his back yard and visiting thrift shops, in search of overlooked treasures. 

After a successful career as an international playboy & saboteur, poet, critic, and bookseller Kris Collins, Pittsburgh’s own Renaissance man, founded Low Ghost Press & Coleridge Street Books. He is the author of six collections of poetry including Pittsburgh Welcomes You, and Local Conditions, as well as the forthcoming Salsa Night at the Hilo Town Tavern (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2017). When he isn’t writing he enjoys eating glue, robbing banks, and the occasional quiet night at home with his wife and cats.

Jason Irwin enjoys a moderate amount of celebrity as a Dustin Hoffman look-a-like. When he is not holed up in his apartment drunk calling politians and friends, he writes the occasional poem. He is the author of A Blister of Stars (Low Ghost, 2016), Watering the Dead and the chapbooks Where You Are & Some Days It's A Love Story.

Jazz

https://www.facebook.com/jason.irwin.54/videos/10208858573673928/