Chnia Williams of Greater Egleston High school contributed to “We Turned Back to See Where We Came From.’’
(Daniel Johnson)
Shelf Life
Young guns of poetry
Chnia Williams of Greater Egleston High school contributed to “We Turned Back to See Where We Came From.’’
(Daniel Johnson)
Poets of a certain age — as in, eligible to collect Social Security — dominate the literary scene around town. Now a younger generation is demanding to be heard.
The leader of the pack, Daniel E. Pritchard, 27, founder of the online literary review Critical Flame, explained in a recent e-mail: “A number of young poets, myself included, sitting in a reading at a big Boston University lecture hall, were put off by a comment about 35 being ‘like 17 in poet years.’ Well, none of us were even 30 yet (just the age of, say, [John] Keats and [Percy Bysshe] Shelley). We hardly felt ourselves to be children. Over drinks later, we joked about being tired of listening to our elders, and a reading series for young poets was proposed.”
The inaugural reading of U35 (for under 35) Poetry @ The Marliave will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 10 Bosworth St. in Downtown Crossing. James Stotts, whose work recently appeared in the journal Little Star alongside poems by Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney, will be a featured reader, as will Janaka Stucky, who was voted Boston’s Best Poet of 2010 by Boston Phoenix readers. Pritchard launched a write-in campaign for Stucky after he recoiled at elder domination of the nominations, which included Robert Pinsky, Louise Glück, Frank Bidart, and Sam Cornish.
Writing by Boston teens
Boston teens express sobering and inspiring sentiments about their present, past, and future in two new books. Mayor Thomas M. Menino and big-name authors will congratulate the young writers at a fund-raiser Tuesday for 826 Boston, the nonprofit writing and tutoring center in Roxbury that published the books.The essays by English High School students in “Small Things Can Grow Tall: Words from the Underestimated” were inspired by Sherman Alexie’s short story “Indian Education.” In the introduction to “Small Things,” Alexie writes, “I most especially love how the story of a reservation Indian boy can resonate with the urban kids of Boston, and how the stories of those urban kids resonate with the Indian man I have become.”
The other new 826 Boston book is “We Turned Back to See Where We Came From,” an anthology of writing and photography by students at Greater Egleston High School. At 19, Joshua Santos longs for the carefree days of his childhood “because I was just too young and new for the world’s troubles.” Michaye West savors the view from the top floor of the John Hancock Building: UMass “looks as if it’s floating on the Boston harbor that circles it.” Yasiba Colon returns to school after dropping out: “Everything in my life is what I make it. I want to succeed. And I will.”
The celebration starts at 6:30 p.m. at WilmerHale law offices on the 26th floor at 60 State St. Details at 826boston.org.
Coming out
■ “The Frozen Rabbi” by Steve Stern (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)■ “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” by Jonathan Alter (Simon & Schuster)
■ “What I Know Now About Success: Letters from Extraordinary Women to Their Younger Selves” edited by Ellyn Spragins (Da Capo)
Pick of the week
Anne Adare of the Toadstool Bookshop in Keene, N.H., recommends “Chef” by Jaspreet Singh (Bloomsbury): “Set in war-torn Kashmir, this hauntingly atmospheric novel follows a young Sikh’s training to become an army chef. It weaves together themes of conflict, duty, and allegiance to self, friends, and country. The current of food runs throughout: as art, as love, as teacher, and even as weapon.’’Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com. 
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