5-20-09

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.–The 2009 summer edition of “Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature” has been released. Dr. Sascha Feinstein, the journal’s founding editor, is a professor of English at Lycoming College. Feinstein is also the editor of “Ask Me Now: Conversations on Jazz & Literature,” which compiles the first 10 years of interviews that first appeared in “Brilliant Corners.”

This latest issue contains an interview with A.B. Spellman titled “Don’t Give It Up.” Spellman is a renowned African-American poet and critic who worked as Arts Administrator of the National Endowment for the Arts for 30 years. Now in retirement, Spellman continues to write and is a member of the Rockefeller Panel and the Jazz Advisory Group, to name a few.

“Brilliant Corners” features poems by poet and short story writer Michael Gaspeny, an English professor at High Point University; Robert Gibb, National Poetry Series winner and author of “World over Water”; Scott Alexander Jones, co-editor of “CutBank” and co-founder and editor of “Zero Ducats”; Richard Jackson, author of nine books of poems, most recently “Unauthorized Autobiography: New and Selected Poems” and “Half Lives: Petrarchan Poems”; Richard Lyons, professor at Mississippi State University and author of “Fleur Carnivore,” which won the 2005 Washington Prize; Gerald Majer, professor of literature and creative writing at Stevenson University and author of “The Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz”; Maine’s poet laureate Betsy Sholl, author of seven books of poetry, including “Rough Cradle” and “Don’t Explain” (winner of the Felix Pollak Prize); and Barbara Buckman Strasko, a literacy consultant for the school district of Lancaster, Pa., whose work has appeared in such publications as “The Best New Poets of 2006.”

The cover art, “Art Blakey and Ayisha, 1977,” and nine other jazz photographs were taken by photographer and filmmaker Kathy Sloane, who also contributes an essay from a book-in-progress called “Keystone Korner: The Biography of a Jazz Club.” Sloane’s essay tells audiences her life story, how she came to love jazz and photography, and the experiences that lead her to combine the two. Barry Wallenstein also contributes an essay, “James Emanuel: American Jazz Poet,” which discusses the blues- and jazz-related poems by Emanuel, an African American poet and critic who is often overlooked.

“Brilliant Corners” is published biannually and features jazz-related poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. A subscription costs $12 per year ($18 for international orders). Send check or money order to Brilliant Corners, Lycoming College, 700 College Place, Williamsport, PA 17701.

Published at Lycoming College, “Brilliant Corners” is funded in part by Lycoming College, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, and private endowments.

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