Pageturners in the Night

Just returned from a jaunt to Minnesota, a joyous journey, but a stark reminder of the difference between large and small city (or country) literary communities.Through my old friend, the poet Zach Barocas, I met several of the twin cities' finest poets, including Amanda Nadelberg (her new book, Isa the Truck Named Isadore, sparkles), and the fine folks who run Coffee House Press.The scene there is small and cohesive but not suffocating; there is a delight in each other's company and earnest efforts to help each other's creative labors to reach fruition.Here in New York, there are myriad literary activities, readings, scenes, yet the spirit of community stretches itself all too thin.Perhaps this is a symptom of magnitude, quite probably it is an intractable condition of the metropolis.But oh, to effect the kind of closeness and kinship of those
little cities and little towns where words and worlds merge warmly beyond the metropolis's gates and horizons....

jon curley