A public memorial pot luck and open mic night for poet Dorothea “Dottie” Grossman, whose final collection The Fun of Speaking English was recently published by Coffeetown Press, will take place at the Glendale Moose Lodge on Sunday, July 29, 2012, at 7 p.m. The event will celebrate the poet’s life, words and music. She died on May 6, 2012 at the age of 74.An open mic segment will begin at 7:30 p.m., with signups for the ten-minute sets at 7 p.m. A donation of $5 for the hall fee is requested, and contributions to the pot luck dinner are encouraged. Affordable drinks will be available. The Lodge is located at 357 Arden Avenue, Glendale, CA 91203.
For more information, please contact Bonnie Barnett (fmz1@aol.com) or Ellen Burr (ellen@ellenburr.com).
The event will also serve as a book release party for Grossman’s final poetry collection, The Fun of Speaking English: Selected Poems ($11.95, 120 pages, ISBN: 978-1-60381-149-1).
Before her death, Grossman had approved nearly every aspect of her book’s design and content. The process was completed with the generous help of Dottie’s friends, organized by Benjamin Marcus, who designed the front cover.
Teacher, critic and writer Russell Astley called Dottie, “an essentially American poet.”
Fellow poet Elaine Terranova said of her work: “Funny, wild, and incredibly beautiful …. How does she do it?”
A native of Philadelphia, PA, Dorothea “Dottie” Grossman lived in Los Angeles for thirty-plus years. Her work was featured in the March, 2010, edition of Poetry Magazine and was awarded that magazine’s J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize. The 2007 opera, Five, by flutist/producer Ellen Burr, is based on a selection of her poems. The late Allen Ginsberg called her poetry, “clear, odd, personal, funny or wild-weird, curious and lucid.” Her work has appeared in numerous poetry journals and magazines.
Grossman had two poetry collections, Cuttings and Poems From Cave 17, self published. A third book, Museum of Rain, was published by Take Out Press in Portland, OR. Her two CDs, Call & Response and Call & Response & Friends, represent the poet in live performance mode with improvising musicians.
Said Grossman of her work, “I like to think my poems are honest and that they connect me with my fellow mammals in a way that is both aesthetically pleasing and comforting. If they retain an air of mystery/humor, so much the better.”
The Fun of Speaking English is available in 5x8 trade paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com, the European Amazons, and Amazon Japan. It is also available at BN.com and in other digital editions from Smashwords and most major e-book retailers.
ABOUT Coffeetown Press—Based in Seattle, Washington, Coffeetown Press has been publishing the finest fiction and nonfiction since 2005.