Apr 9, 2018

Looking Back To Look Forward With Van Hartmann

Dr. Van Hartmann, tomorrow night’s featured poet at Curley’s, has placed work in numerous literary journals and has released two books through Texture Press: the redemption-themed collection Shiva Dancing (2007) and Riptide, as well as Between What Is and What Is Not, a chapbook published in 2010 by The Last Automat Press. 

In his most recent title, Riptide (released in 2016), Van uses natural imagery to explore the ambiguity embodied in human affairs both on the intimate and the global scale, typified, according to Sheila Squillante (Editor-in-Chief, The Fourth River literary journal), in Van’s contrast between “a batch of succulent fiddleheads plucked from the forest and offered to a lover” and “an atom bomb test that blooms like a chrysanthemum against a childhood sky”. Click here for a preview of two pieces from this collection.

John Hoppenthaler’s (Domestic Garden) praise of Van’s sensually adroit and often elegiac work in its ability to “look back to look forward” is echoed in Van’s own observations in the 2016 interview on Life Edge 030 in affirmation of reading and literature as enduring guides to truth and what it means to be human in a time warped as much by competing political solipsistic outlooks as by a fast-paced culture with little patience for introspection: 


Originally interested in studying medicine (where he found the art of storytelling was considered part of an engaged physician's repertoire), Van gravitated toward English at the University of North Carolina, where he received his Ph.D., following an A.B in History from Stanford. Currently, he teaches literature, film studies and conducts poetry workshops at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York.

He resides in Norwalk, Connecticut with his wife, Laurel Peterson, Poet Laureate of Norwalk (who has organized readings at Norwalk Community College, where she is Professor of English) and their yellow lab, Calder, who revels in whimsy, patience, and persistence. Van can be contacted at Van.Hartmann@mville.edu or at van.hartmann@gmail.com.

Apr 8, 2018

John F. McMullen at Barnes & Noble: An Evening With the Bard Of Cyberspace

Open Mic’s featured reader tomorrow night at the Stamford Town Center Barnes & Noble, John F. McMullen, is a poet/writer, teacher and radio host who makes enthusiastic use of his background in telecommunications and new media to promote his work and that of others comprehensively across print, e-books, video/audio and other assorted online platforms--you can listen to John in conversation just last week with our own Ralph Nazareth on the “Johnmac Radio Show” found on blogtalkradio.com.
While www.johnmac13.com serves as the hub for other radio broadcasts, podcasts and assorted writings, John favors the pen name Johnmac the Bard for his collections, which can be found at his Amazon’s author page here. He has also developed social networks for community and religious organizations and can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn and Skype under the handle johnmac13; he blogs on Medium (https://medium.com/) and, along with Thom Hartmann, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, novelists John D. MacDonald and Ray Bradbury, was an early contributor to the ground-breaking Digital Deli website, which, three decades on, continues to serve as a solutions resource for digital creatives, systematic thinkers and technologists.

Yorktown, New York’s Poet Laureate as of 2017, John released his first collection, Cashing A Check, in 2008 (the title poem earning him third place in the 2009 Writer's Place National Poetry Contest), with the following year seeing the publication of The Inwood Book: Poems, Short Stories, & A Novel and New & Collected Poems: 100 Poems + 15 More (both Johnmac Press); besides Cashing, other Kindle-exclusive work includes 2009’s Writing In My Head and With A Chip On My Shoulder (a Chapbook) (also via Johnmac).   

Responsible for more than 1,500 news articles, columns, and academic papers, John is also a member of the American Academy of Poets, ACLU, NAACP, and the Freelancers Union, and has taught at NYU, The New School for Social Research, Westchester Community College, and Marist College, where he earned two Master’s degrees.
John is a native of the Inwood section of Manhattan Island and resides in Jefferson Valley, New York. Contact him directly on Twitter or at johnmac13@gmail.com.

Organized by Frank Chambers, Open Mic meets the second Monday of each month, beginning at 7:15, in the CD/DVD section of the Stamford Barnes & Noble bookstore.

Please come and listen to local poets, bring a favorite poem, read your own poems too.


Barnes & Noble Booksellers 
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009
Stamford, CT 06901
203-323-1248