This Business Of Music & Poetry Podcast

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei discuss how they plan for each new year. 

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview Jeffery Skinner. 

http://jeffreyskinner.net/

Poet, playwright, and essayist Jeffrey Skinner was awarded a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry. Skinner’s Guggenheim project involves a conflation of contemporary physics, poetry, and theology.  He served as the June, 2015 Artist in Residence at the CERN particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland.  In 2015 he was awarded one of eight American Academy of Arts & Letters Awards, for exceptional accomplishment in writing.

His most recent prose book, The 6.5 Practices of Moderately Successful Poets, was published to wide attention and acclaim, including a full page positive review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review.  His most recent collection of poems, Glaciology, was chosen in 2012 as winner in the Crab Orchard Open Poetry Competition, and published by Southern Illinois University press in Fall, 2013.

Skinner has published five previous collections: Late Stars (Wesleyan University Press), A Guide to Forgetting (a winner in the 1987 National Poetry series, chosen by Tess Gallagher, published by Graywolf Press), The Company of Heaven (Pitt Poetry Series), Gender Studies, (Miami University Press), and Salt Water Amnesia (Ausable Press).  He has edited two anthologies, Last Call: Poems of Alcoholism, Addiction, and Deliverance; and Passing the Word: Poets and Their Mentors.  His numerous chapbooks include Salt Mother, Animal Dad, which was chosen by C.K. Williams for the New York City Center for Book Arts Poetry Competition in 2005.  Over the years Skinner’s poems have appeared in most of the country’s premier literary magazines, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, FENCE, Bomb, DoubleTake, and The Georgia, Iowa, and Paris Reviews.

Also a playwright, Skinner’s play Down Range had a successful run at Theatre 3 in New York City in the Spring of 2009, and another in Chicago in 2014.  His play Dream On had its premier production in February of 2007, by the Cardboard Box Collaborative Theatre in Philadelphia.  Other of Skinner’s plays have been finalists in the Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference competition, and winners in various play contests.

Skinner’s writing has gathered grants, fellowships, and awards from such sources as the National Endowment for the Arts (1986, & 2006), the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Howard Foundation, and the state arts agencies of Connecticut, Delaware, and Kentucky.  He has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, McDowell, Vermont Studios, and the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown.  His work has been featured numerous times on National Public Radio.  In 2002 Skinner served as Poet-in-Residence at the James Merrill House in Stonington, Connecticut.

He is President of the Board of Directors, and Editorial Consultant, for Sarabande Books, a literary publishing house he cofounded with his wife, poet Sarah Gorham.  He teaches creative writing and English at The University of Louisville.

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet Jack Bedell. 

Jack B. Bedell (http://www.jackbbedell.com/) is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits ​​Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press.

His latest collections are Elliptic (Yellow Flag Press, 2016), Revenant (Blue Horse Press, 2016), and No Brother, This Storm (Mercer University Press, 2018). His work has appeared in the Southern Review, Radar Poetry, The Fourth River, Terrain.org, Construction, Grist, Sugar House, Shenandoah, Pidgeonholes, Cotton Xenomorph and other journals. Bedell is the recipient of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Individual Achievement in the Humanities Award and the Governor’s Award for Artistic Achievement. He was appointed by Governor John Bel Edwards to serve as Louisiana Poet Laureate, 2017-2019.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview literary agent and editor, Alicia Brooks. 

Alicia Brooks ( http://www.jvnla.com/) began her career over twenty years ago in book publishing as an editorial assistant at Penguin USA. She worked her way up to an assistant editor position at Nan A. Talese/Doubleday where she worked with noteworthy authors, including Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, and Ian McEwan. Alicia then became an editor at Picador/St. Martin's Press where she edited over 39 hardcover titles and several trade paper original titles, including Noelle Howey's Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods--My Mother's, My Father's, and Mine, Nega Mezlekia's award-winning Notes from the Hyena's Belly, and Ben Brantley's New York Times Book of Broadway. As an agent at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, she is looking for Memoir, Narrative Nonfiction, Self-Help, Pop Culture, Literary Fiction, Commercial Fiction, YA Fiction, Mystery/Crime, and Historical Fiction. Alicia is a graduate of Wellesley College with a B.A. in English and Philosophy and has a Master's Degree in the Teaching of English from Columbia University.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet and author Melissa Studdard.

https://melissastuddard.com/

Melissa Studdard is the author of four books, including the poetry collection I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast and the young adult novel Six Weeks to Yehidah. Her short writings have appeared in a wide variety of journals, magazines, blogs, and anthologies, such as The New York Times, Poetry, Psychology Today, The Guardian, New Ohio Review, Harvard Review, Bettering American Poetry, and Poets & Writers.

A short film of the title poem from Studdard’s I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast (by Dan Sickles of Moxie Pictures for Motionpoems) was an official selection for the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, as well as winner of the REEL Poetry Festival Audience Choice Award. Other poems of hers have been made into car magnets, telepoem booth recordings, and Houston City Banners.

Her awards include the Forward National Literature Award, the International Book Award, the Kathak Literary Award, the Poiesis Award of Honor International, the Readers’ Favorite Award, and two Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards. As well, her books have been listed in Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts’ Best Books of the Year, January Magazine’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bustle’s “8 Feminist Poems To Inspire You When The World Is Just Too Much,” and Amazon’s Most Gifted Books.

As well, she has recently been in residency at the Centrum in Port Townsend, and The Hermitage Artist Retreat in Manasota Key, where she was poet in residence.

In addition to writing, Studdard serves as the executive producer and host of VIDA Voices & Views for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and on the TUPP Advisory Council as a Walt Whitman Project Planning Associate. As well, she is a past president of the Associated Writing Program’s Women’s Caucus. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence college and is a professor for the Lone Star College System.

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview podcaster and real estate guru Chris Lazarus. 

Chris Lazarus's portfolio includes small-scale boutique property management, property listing, and advertising services, buyer assistance, personal coaching and consulting.  In my spare time, I host the re:Think Real Estate Podcast about the real estate space and a new show called Portraits of Atlanta aimed at showcasing local people and their impact on our community.

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview author Robert Gwaltney. 

Robert Gwaltney, a graduate of Florida State University, resides in Atlanta Georgia where he is active in the local literary community and an associate member of the Southern Collective Experience.  His short story, “The Deep Down”, was recently published in The Signal Mountain Review.  A recipient of an Atlanta Writers Club award for flash fiction, he was also selected as a top ten finalist for publication by First Page, an international literary magazine.  Robert just completed writing his first novel THE CICADA TREE.  An excerpt from this novel will be published in the October 2019 issue of The Blue Mountain Review and the December 2019 issue of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.  Alongside his writing, Robert also serves as Vice President with Easterseals North Georgia, Children Services Inc., a non-profit supporting children and families during the most critical time in a child’s development.

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview musician Debbie Hennessey. 

Debbie Hennessey was named AC40 Female Artist of the Year by New Music Weekly as well as charting a Top 20 Hit on NMW’s AC40 Charts. Her songs and music videos have aired on USA and UHD Networks, and TV shows Extra, The Next GAC Star, and The Moment. She has been named a multiple Finalist in the Great American Song Contest and multi-Semi-Finalist in the Song of the Year Contest, as well as multiple Honorable Mentions from the Billboard World Song Contest and West Coast Songwriters Contest. Her songs have been included on compilation CDs including CMT's New Music Collection, GoGirls MusicFest, Songsalive!, Beautiful-Women on the Move, among others and named Best Vocalist of the Month by SingerUniverse. Debbie is a writer for Studio 51 Music, Pacifica Music and others providing original songs for their film and tv music libraries. She is a voting member of the NARAS/GRAMMYS, a writer/publisher member of ASCAP, as well as a member of AIMP, NARIP, and SONA. Debbie's three full-length cds and seven singles are all available through many music outlets including iTunes, CDBaby, and Amazon, or by calling 1-800-BUY-MY-CD.

Mainsite: http://www.debbiehennessey.com

"Whisky Corn" (music video) 

Editorial: https://entertainmenteditorial.com

In this episode, Cliff Brooks and Michael Amidei interview Shawn Crawford, the force behind the publishing company "The Calliope Group" and "Calliope Crashes". 

Shawn Crawford lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, surrounded by the Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan archives, the Cain’s Ballroom, and the spirit of Leon Russell. He left academics to make some real coin in the nonprofit sector. He just launched a publishing joint, The Calliope Group, and edits the site Calliope Crashes. Born in Kansas, his mother is named Dorothy. No he’s not joking, yes he’s seen a tornado, and no people in Kansas do not grow up in a world devoid of color.

The Calliope Group: www.thecalliopegroup.com

Calliope Crashes: www.calliopecrashes.com

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet, playwright, musician, and professor Cornelius Eady. 

Music featured in this episode:

"The Pickle King" by The Cornelius Eady Trio

"Bree" by The Cornelius Eady Trio

Cornelius Eady is the author of several books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed Hardheaded Weather, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, Victims of the Latest Dance Craze,winner of the 1985 Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets, The Gathering of My Name,which was nominated for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize, and his most recent collection The War Against the Obvious. With poet Toi Derricote, Eady is cofounder of Cave Canem, a national organization for African American poetry and poets. He is the recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Literature, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to Bellagio, Italy, and The Prairie Schooner Strousse Award. 

You can find him at:  https://blueflowerarts.com/artist/cornelius-eady/