Bukowski & Women

At the Charles Bukowski tribute on June 30th, actress Rebecca DeMornay revealed that Buk was — and is — a major influence on her as an actress and writer. With wit and enthusiasm, Rebecca read several Bukowski poems, then returned to the stage at the end of the evening to share her thoughts about Bukowski and women.

Around the time Rebecca started her career in Hollywood in the early 1980s, she began to read Bukowski. People asked how she — an avowed feminist — could applaud the work of someone who portrayed women in a less-than-flattering light. To show that Buk loved and respected women, Rebecca read a Bukowski poem that can only be called a paean to females of the species.

From all women who admire Bukowski — including Wendy Rainey who gave a heartfelt reading at the event — thank you, Rebecca!

(Photo by Silver Birch, Los Angeles, June 30, 2012)

Bukowski Tribute, Downtown L.A., June 30, 2012

Silver Birch Press author Joan Jobe Smith will perform at a celeb-filled Bukowski tribute in downtown Los Angeles sponsored by Tongue & Groove on June 30, 2012.  Readers will also include Dan Fante, Harry Dean Stanton, and Rebecca DeMornay. Best of all…it’s FREE. For location, time, and other details, visit: www.grandperformances.org.

Artwork: Origafoundation

Author Spotlight: Joan Jobe Smith

COMING SOON FROM SILVER BIRCH PRESS…

Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis:

His Art & His Women (& me)  by Joan Jobe Smith

Joan Jobe Smith was born in Paris, Texas, then moved to San Francisco and eventually to Southern California. A go-go girl for seven years, she boogaloo’d live with Jim Morrison, the Ike and Tina Turner Review, and Dick Dale. Founding editor of Pearl and Bukowski Review, she received a BA from California State University Long Beach and attended one year of law school before receiving an MFA in writing from University of California Irvine. In 1974, she founded Pearl Magazine.

Since 1973, her poetry, stories, reviews, essays, and memoirs have appeared internationally in more than 500 publications as well as 21 published books of poetry, notably Jehovah Jukebox (Event Horizon, 1993, USA) and Pow Wow Café (Poetry Business, UK, 1998) and anthologies The Outlaw Bible, Literature and Its Writers, New Geography of Poets, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust and The Best of California Women Poets.

Her many honorariums include US and UK arts council grants and a finalist post for the 1999 UK Forward Prize. With her husband, poet Fred Voss, she did five-whistle-stop poetry reading tours (1991-2001) around the UK — debuting at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and ending at the Hull Literature Festival. In 2011, Fred Voss and she headlined the Pittsburgh University Writers Festival and performed at the Long Beach Poetry Festival.

UPCOMING SUMMER READING DATES: 

June 30, 2012: Joan will read at the Grand Perfomance Tongue & Groove Tribute to Charles Bukowski in Los Angeles with actors Rebecca DeMornay and Harry Dean Stanton and poet/writers Dan Fante, Gerald Locklin, Jack Grapes and more. For more information, visit: www.grandperformances.org

July 5, 2012: Joan will appear with Fred Voss at the 2012 Humber Mouth Literature/Arts Festival in Hull, England, at the Hull Truck Theatre. Info available at: www.thisisull.com

July 13: Joan and Fred will read in London at the Betsey Trotwood. Get additional info here: www.thebetsey.com

Photo: Courtesy of Joan Jobe Smith