Hey Writers--Here are some great upcoming opportunities to work with poet Elizabeth Austen!

Ready to try something new? Elizabeth Austen is teaching a couple of poetry writing workshops in February:


Poems from Poems: Call and Response

“Good poems are the best teachers. Perhaps they are the only teachers,” writes Mary Oliver in A Poetry Handbook. This workshop explores ways to let others’ poems not only teach you, but lead to new poems of your own. We’ll experiment with po-jacking, sonic translations, echo translations and other ways to use one poem as a jumping off point for another. Come prepared to write and stretch your craft – participants will leave the workshop with fresh drafts of new poems.

February 4, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Richard Hugo House $96/$86.40 for Hugo House members. Registration is open online or via phone at (206) 322-7030. Here is a link to the class description and registration.

Elizabeth will also teach a shorter, free version of the class on February 26, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Lopez Island Library.

Contact Elizabeth at eaustenpoetry@gmail.com for more information. More information is available on her website as well!

Podcasts, Geospatial Poetry and Vienna Angels

The Cathedral in Pecs, Hungary

  
My colleague here at the University of Pecs, Joseph Horvath, produces a podcast called "Take Off," which features interviews with students and recordings of classic literature. I guess I fall somewhere in between. Joe interviewed me on one of the nicest days of autumn here; we sat outside at a cafe by the cathedral near my apartment. I read a brand new poem, "Dream Map-Vienna" at the end of the podcast. And we are laughing because earlier we had watched two girls walk past us wearing angel's wings.
 
Kathy featured on Horvath Joseph's podcast, Take Off

Here is a video I made inside the Alte Bibliotek in Vienna (the Old Library), which is basically a museum. It's quite a place--if you have 5 minutes (warning) I show the ornate painted ceiling, old globes, statues, huge book stacks, and treasures.

Vienna, Part I: Schlagobers

Two trips to Vienna (one solo in Sept and one with Bob in Oct). The train ride is 6 hours each way via Budapest.


When I visited Vienna alone I hit the last weekend of summer weather. I was able to sit outside with my plum cake and grosser brauner at Cafe Sperl.  I also tried the plum cake at the historic Cafe Hawelka. Better at Sperl.

When it rained on the next visit, Bob and I and everybody else in Vienna had the same idea: to go to Cafe Demel

The nut cake is almost gone but the cup in my hand contained hot chocolate with Bailey's and schlagobers
 one of the best words in the German language. I'm trying really hard not to blink at the flash.

 BUT the best dessert was at the Albertiner Keller:

Poppyseed-honey mousse with sour cherries. In a little glass preserves container. What??? You can see in the top left corner what was left of Bob's sachertorte.

More later on art and buildings!