Many thanks to everybody who came out to last Friday’s Whisper Session. For those who missed it, it was a very, very well attended reading graced by the presence of Anis Mojgani, Michael Roberts, Carrie Seitzinger, and Iowa’s own viking poet Josh Boyd. The Albina Press cafe in SE Portland OR was packed to the gills, forcing us to shut the doors soon after the reading began. Check back for more information on the next Whisper Sessions. Here are some nice photos, taken by Aaron J. Ward. (Thanks, man.)

Friday, May 7

@albina Press

9:00 p.m.

5012 SE Hawthorne Blvd,
Portland, OR

Josh Boyd comes to Portland on tour to read & promote his new book Catacomb Confetti. Also reading: Michael Roberts, Anis Mojgani & myself.

*

Josh Boyd

Anis Mojgani

Michael Roberts & Me

The Whisper Sessions celebrate poetry and the arts community, with hosted readings* when Write Bloody authors come to town. For readers of fiction & poetry, or those who are investigative. BYO beer & wine. We encourage questions & open dialogue about the presented works, what’s happening in the community, etc.

* Readings hosted by Write Bloody poets & fiction authors, + local writers, & those coming through town on tour.

Whisper Session IV is on! It will be a house reading in Southeast Portland OR, featuring Derrick Brown and fiction writer Matty Byloos. Other poets will be myself, Carrie Seitzinger, and the great southern powerhouse octopus that is Trippe Davis. Contact me via email to get the info.

Whisper Session III, featuring Karen Finneyfrock was a lot of fun, and each poet truly seemed to compliment one another. Karen was so much fun to watch and listen to. I’ve never seen a poet read with such joy coming from within; one can see it plain as day. She smiled while reading. I was also impressed by Carrie Seitzinger, in particular. She seems to have been hiding many powerful poems, perhaps to reveal them through her new full-length manuscript.

Here’s a photo of Carrie, Karen, and I at the aforementioned Whisper Session:

Thanks for reading, come see us on April 9th!

Paul

Sunday, March 28th (tomorrow), I will be reading at the Clinton Street Theater with Write Bloody poet Karen Finneyfrock, coming from Seattle to read from her new book of poems, Ceremony of the Choking Ghost.

Also reading will be Carrie Seitzinger and Trippe Davis. The reading is to happen after the last movie lets out, and is for a limited audience. This is the last of the free Clinton Street Theater readings we’ve set up, so look for a new reading series there, launched by Yours Truly and Miss Seitzinger very soon.

Check out some photos below, from the previous Whisper Sessions

Whisper Sessions Reading #1
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Double Tree Hotel
Private Show, 8pm
Featuring: Derrick Brown, Matty Byloos, Michael Roberts,
Paul G. Maziar, and Carrie Seitzinger

Whisper Sessions Reading #2
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Clinton Street Theatre
Free Show, 11pm- 1am
Featuring: Mike Mcgee, Paul G. Maziar, Michael Roberts
Carrie Seitzinger, and Trippe Davis

It’s been snowing. My land is like a broken pony. It begins to silence itself and stays behind the fences with huge whiteness. When the sun breaks in through the silken black  trees, the snow from the past three days hits one with a huge blinding Pacific Northwest explosion of gorgeousness and rebirth.

And when one gathers all resolve and layer of cloth, to step out into the new sun and onto the white ground, the legs tremble like that little colt before the taming: though the sun is warm and melts the snow, the soft suffering knees are yet frozen and the feet do not want to get wet.

Before I did go outside in the snow-padded silence, with which the earth gains the acoustics of a sound-proof room, I sat in my little room thinking of the beautiful ones. I looked out the window and watched steam rise from behind the backyard fence: coming from nowhere, meaning nothing except: something is still, quite warm in the cold. I stepped out onto the front porch, from within a house one hundred and fifty years old. I saw the deep footprints left behind by a pretty girl who’d come and gone soundlessly. I heard the vagueness of a train whistle in the clear, and became ready to go out into the day and through the night.

WEDS, APRIL 8, 2009
The Good Things About America NYC Release.
@ Bowery Poetry Club. 8PM.
308 Bowery
New York, NY 10012

Featuring: Paul G. Maziar, Derrick Brown, Sparrow Hall, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Shappy and more!

Hello New York,

I am back in Brooklyn, after having spent the past four months in Portland, OR.

Please come out & help me celebrate NYC with the Write Bloody man Derrick Brown. He’s got a new book coming out, SCANDALABRA, and he’ll be reading that with me alongside twice in BKLYN next week. All the info is below.

xox
P

THURSDAY, JAN 15
8:30pm - 8:45pm
Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers
218 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY

INFO:
Derrick Brown will read selections from SCANDALABRA.
Paul G. Maziar will read bits from WHAT IT IS: WHAT IT IS.
Come by and ask Derrick about his weatherman days!

–

SATURDAY, JAN 17
8:00pm - 10:00pm
Sound Fix Lounge
110 Bedford Ave (at N. 11th)
Brooklyn, NY

SCANDALABRA Book Release Party!

DERRICK BROWN
and the Navy Gravy
performing from his new book, SCANDALABRA

PAUL G. MAZIAR
and Chase Pagan

Musical performances by

MOTEL MOTEL
Chase Pagan
+ The Beau Jennings Band

This is a FREE Event, come get nasty.

Hello world,

I’m reading this month in Portland, on December 13– and in Seattle, on the 14th. The readings are with Drew Grow & Katrina Skalland with The Pastors’ Wives. They’ll accompany me, and hell, you never know– Black Flag might be there. 

Love,
Paul

Greetings, Portland friends.

 Come out and see me this Friday (November 7) at The Funky Church. I’m reading with the fantastic folksinger from Philly, Denison Witmer. The show also will have performances by Day of Lions and Kelli Schaefer