Tag: IN THE PACE OF THE PATH

Update from Alan Bern

Published on by DiannelpearceLeave a comment

Hello Friends,

If you’re in the Berkely (California) area please join us at Pegasus Books Downtown on Thursday, June 27th for an evening of music, text, and storytelling with me, Alan Bern, Berkeley-based storyteller, performer, author of IN THE PACE OF THE PATH. Bern’s reading will be accompanied by music from cellist Gael Alcock. Recently released by UnCollected Press, IN THE PACE OF THE PATH is a hybrid work of poetry, prose, and photos that charts my life in my hometown of Berkeley and my career at the Berkeley Public Library.

From 6:30-7pm, browse books and enjoy Bach’s Cello Suite #4 performed by Alcock, in memory of Larry Bensky, host of KPFA’s ‘Sunday Salon’ and ‘Piano’.” Reading and conversation with me will follow, at 7pm. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the reading.

Alan Bern’s IN THE PACE OF THE PATH walks the border between poetry and prose, between the surreal and the realism where surrealism spawns, between the past and future which is the pace of the moment by moment of a life. I have learned from Bern’s clarity in poetry and prose to walk the edges of my homeland and step out into the unknown, while carrying the life I have lived within me. This is such an important work to read now and reread as we move through our lives.

—Rusty Morrison, Co-Publisher of Omnidawn—

Enjoy a video by L. Scott Jones of Wrapped in Ruins, a gallery piece and the most recent performance of PACES: dance & poetry fit to the space, a collaboration with other artists of dancer/choreographer Lucinda Weaver and me:

I will also present an art piece near the end of:

FREE LIVE EVENT: INSTANT NOODLES LAUNCH AND LIVE AUTHOR READING.

DATE: June 20, 2024
TIME: 4:30 PM PT  | 7:30 PM ET
Join us in celebrating the release of the newest issue of INSTANT NOODLES, the online literary magazine that features original poetry, art, and short fiction. Meet the authors and listen in as they perform their work live. This online event is open to the public. Click below to register.

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlfumprTgsE93vS-zfSLwlM-Mf-Vvyy-KU#/registration

There is wonderful writing in this issue of Instant Noodles, and I hope you can attend!

Thanks so much for your interest in the work of the authors of Old Scratch Press!

—Alan

Introducing Collective Member Alan Bern

Published on by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

For writer, poet, photographer and performer Alan Bern, pairing of images and words, what are termed photo-poems is a daily practice. As he states in his introduction to his work “next S-s-startle” published in Mercurious : “Creating photo-haiga is a central part of my daily art practice: I find it both invigorating and meditative, an often odd, but for me, happy combination. I have found that my photo-haiga can bring some readers closer to the poems. And please note that sometimes I find the photos to match poems sitting in waiting.”

One of the ten founding writer poets comprising the Old Scratch Short Form Collective, this week we introduce Alan Bern.

Alan Bern is the author of three books of poetry: : No no the saddest and Waterwalking in Berkeley, Fithian Press; greater distance and other poems, Lines & Faces press. Alan launched broadside press  linesandfaces.com, with artist Robert Woods. Robert and Alan grew up together in Berkeley in the 1960s. Both men became commercial printers, but also continued to produce works that combined Woods’s prints and Bern’s writing as well as the writing of other poets, such as Robert Hass and John Anson.  

Alan has been short-listed for several poetry and prose awards and has published in a wide variety of online and print publications. Alan’s story, “The alleyway in the downtown library,” was a runner-up for The Raw Art Review’s The John H. Kim Memorial Prize for Short Fiction

A photographer and a performer with dancer/choreographer Lucinda Weaver as PACES and with musicians from Composing Together, Alan also had a career as a children’s librarian. Drawing inspiration from his work as a librarian, he has a book forthcoming from UnCollected Press, titled IN THE PACE OF THE PATH. which is a fictionalized memoir, a hybrid of prose, poetry, and photo-images. As Alan describes it, “It is a book about homelessness as seen and understood by a librarian — I worked as a public librarian for over 25 years before retiring three years ago — and also about the town where the librarian grew up and where he still lives. “

The draft title for Alan Bern’s chapbook, to be published by Old Scratch Press is sway. The theme/content of the chapbook, says Alan, “is (loosely) my responses as an American to the Festa di Sant’Agata in Catania, Sicilia. This chap is the intertwining of my words and photo-images, a vital part of my daily art practice. ”

Members of the Old Scratch Short Form Collective work together with the Devil’s Party Press, a small independent publisher, to bring to fruition the concept of publishing chapbooks of poetry and short form prose under the imprint Old Scratch Press.

Don’t forget to visit our Old Scratch Press Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter to find out what our contributors are up to and the latest poetry news. Thank You as always for your support.