Seven Towers Agency - George Witte

Newsflash

(shown here without his magnificent beard) will be one of the poets taking part in a four-day reading and book signing event for New Jersey/Bucks County, PA, poets. Participants all have recently published books. It is in Frenchtown, NJ, a beautiful slice of the Garden State on the Delaware River. If you are a Facebook user, please go here for a lot of information.

This excellent event takes place Thursday through Friday at The Open Space Gallery, 36 Bridge Street, in Frenchtown, NJ.

Rick will will be reading from Huncke and signing books beginning at 4:00 pm on Saturday, Sept 11.

Seven Towers Books On Sale HERE

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Latest Events

Chapters And Verse Themed reading
September 9, 2010 (6:00 pm - 7:00 pm)
(Readings) Themed reading about COMING HOME Chapters and Verse Themed Reading 6.30 on Thursday 9th September, Chapters Bookstore, Parnell St, Dublin 1 Listen to Writers read from work on the theme of COMING HOME With: Steve Conway, Jarlath Gr...

Chapters and Verse Lunchtime reading
September 15, 2010 (1:00 pm - 11:59 pm)
(Readings) Anamaría Crowe Serrano is Irish and lives in Dublin with her family. She has worked at Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin, and is currently a freelance translator and teacher of Spanish language. She has published several translations ...

FRIGHTENING NEW FURNITURE BY KEVIN HIGGINS and DREAMS FOR BREAKFAST BY SUSAN MILLAR DU MARS
September 25, 2010 (5:00 pm - 7:30 pm)
(Book Launch) Chaplin’s Bar, Hawkins St Two marvellous collections of poetry Frightening New Furniture by Kevin Higgins and Dreams for Breakfast by Susan Millar Dumars Both published by salmon poetry SEE LINK BELOW FOR FULL DETAILS

Last Wednesday Series reading and open Mic
September 29, 2010 (7:30 pm - 10:30 pm)
(Open Mic Night) Regular Monthly event in the new venue at Chaplins Bar, Hawkins St, Dublin 2

Last Wednesday Series reading and open Mic
September 29, 2010 (7:30 pm - 9:30 pm)
(Open Mic Night) Monthly Transatlantic literary event, Brooklyn event in Rocky Sullivan's Bar, Red Hook Brooklyn

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George Witte

George Witte, the author of the poetry volumes The Apparitioners

(Three Rail Press, 2005) and Deniability (Orchises Press in 2009),

is editor-in-chief of St. Martin’s Press in New York, one of the largest

publishers in the USA.

Here is what he said as he launched Huncke by Rick Mullin at the

Nightingale lounge NYC July 8 at 6 pm 2010 :

"I work in book publishing, and in that capacity have attended many a hopeful, but painful launch event at chain and independent bookstores around New York. If it’s sunny, no one will come: too nice. If it’s raining, no one will come: too gloomy. And if it’s snowing, no one will come: too much fun to be had outside. But I think we’ve discovered the key to a successful book party: if it’s 100 degrees, and there’s beer, and the book being launched is an epic poem, they’ll come.

So I’d like to welcome and thank you for joining the Nightingale Lounge to celebrate the publication of Rick Mullin’s book length poem, Huncke. There are several things to celebrate this evening before Rick gets up to read. First, ambition. I can’t think of the last time I read a book length narrative poem. Most poets just don’t—or can’t—write one, and to summon the power of concentration and create enough drama to sustain a long poem is very difficult. Second, let’s drink to formal writing. Huncke is constructed in 12 cantos, composed in iambic lines of ottava rima, which is stanzas of eight lines each, with the rhyme scheme abababcc—the same form used by Lord Byron to write Don Juan. The advantage of this form is twofold: it accommodates dramatic narrative, because the stanzas are long enough to do the work of storytelling—character, action, plot twists, dialogue, and so on. And, that closing rhyme—the cc at the end of each stanza—lends itself to twists, punch lines, and surprising transitions to whatever comes next. So when Rick reads from the poem, listen for the rhymes. Finally, the subject. Some of you here tonight will know who Herbert Huncke is, and perhaps knew him personally. For those of you who don’t, here’s a quick introduction. Herbert Huncke was many things: a writer, a heroin addict, a drifter, a felon, a celebrated storyteller inconversation, a Merchant Marine, the so called “Mayor of 42^nd Street” when it was a much different place than it is today, a subject featured by Dr. Alfred Kinsey for his landmark Report on the sexual practices of Americans, and a kind of muse, mascot, object of professional interest, acquaintance, friend, and sometimes fall guy for more famous writers, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac, all of whom portrayed him in their most famous works. He is sometimes credited with first using the word “beat” to describe his wayward life, and that word was picked up by Kerouac to define the rootlessness of a generation. Rick Mullin’s poem Huncke is not a biographical account of Herbert Huncke’s life. It’s a much grander, bigger enterprise, a wide-ranging exploration of American history, politics, pop culture, and the influence of the Beats, which uses a 2009 memorial tribute to Herbert Huncke as its organizing structure. Yes, there are walk-ons from Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Kerouac, along with Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie and other musicians that Huncke knew. But we also meet George Washington and other founding fathers at the pivotal point in the Revolutionary War, when all would be lost or, perhaps, won. Mickey Mouse appears throughout the poem as an antic but somewhat menacing prankster, along with his sidekick, Rudy Giuliani, who spends most of the poem in drag, adjusting his garters, tugging on his dress, and tucking money into his bra. And there is a big screen panorama of scenes and allusions, shifting between history, music, movies, cartoons, paintings, and books, from the Midwest to New York’s Bowery to the beach at Normandy, from jazz clubs in the 1930s and 40s to bars like this one, today, where we’ve gathered to listen to an utterly-singular poem. Please join me in welcoming Rick Mullin.

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