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"Stones with Poems,"
Zinta's Art Exhibit at Transformations Spirituality
Center
February 2012
Zinta Aistars is a bilingual writer and editor with three
books published in the Latvian language. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of an online literary magazine called, The Smoking Poet. It is her father, Viestarts Aistars, she says, that is the painter in the family. Yet Zinta grew up around her father's paintings-watercolors, oils, portraits
and landscapes-and considers the highest compliment she has received for her work in literature that she "paints with words."
And still, now and then, she finds herself with a paintbrush
in hand rather than on a keyboard. For years, she brought stones home from her travels, mostly from the shores of Lake Superior
and the Baltic Sea along the coastline of Latvia. The smooth surface of stones tumbled by the waves drew her interest, and
she began painting stones-flora and fauna, animals and insects, even tiny landscapes.
Another form of her art combines her love for words with
her love for visual art in broadsides. Broadsides are short pieces of writing, either poetry or prose, decorated with visual
art.
"Poems with Stones" will be on exhibit at Transformations
Spirituality Center art gallery for the month of February 2012. Transformations is at 3724 Gull Road, Kalamazoo, at the former
Nazareth College, now property of the congregation of St. Joseph. Hours are Mondays to Fridays, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., and weekends,
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Enter by ringing the bell at the main entrance of the Nazareth Center; you will be let in by one of the Sisters
and shown to the gallery.
More information at Transformations Spirituality Center, or see the newsletter.
Please sign the guestbook!
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| Nazareth Center (main entrance) |
Zinta Aistars Talks to Maryann Lesert on “Base Ten” on WMUK 102.1 FM Radio
Author Maryann Lesert talks with Zinta Aistars, editor of The Smoking Poet online literary magazine. Lesert’s novel Base Ten was a hard sell for some publishers, in part because it
explores themes of women in science, which some publishers were afraid wouldn’t sell. At its core, the author says,
Base Ten is about someone who is held back from their passion.
Hear the interview as it aired on WMUK on December 2, 2011 (4:04).
Hear the extended interview (35:13).
Zinta Aistars Talks to Michael Loyd Gray, Author of Not Famous Anymore
Author Michael Loyd Gray grew up in east Arkansas in the shadow of Elvis and Graceland. He now makes his home in Kalamazoo,
where he spoke recently with Zinta Aistars - the editor of the online literary magazine The Smoking Poet. Gray has written six novels, including Fast Eddie. He spoke about his latest book, called Not Famous Anymore.
Kalamazoo author Michael Loyd Gray can be reached with questions about his proposed reading and art group at (269) 270-4194.
Hear the interview as it aired on November 14, 2011 on WMUK (3:39).
Hear the extended interview (22:27).
Poet t. kilgore splake Talks to The Smoking Poet Editor Zinta Aistars on WMUK Arts and More Program
The online literary magazine “The Smoking Poet” marked its fifth year of publication earlier this year. Kalamazoo resident Zinta Aistars is founder and editor-in-chief
. While she receives and publishes manuscripts from authors around the world, in the upcoming issue she’ll feature art
from the northernmost tip of Michigan: the Keweenaw Peninsula. For WMUK, via Skype, she talked with poet and writer t. kilgore splake of Calumet. His ties to southwest Michigan include a long teaching career at Kellogg Community College back when he was still
known by his birth name of Tom Smith. He read his poem titled “90-Proof Angels,” talked about his move to the
Upper Peninsula, where he first settled in Munising, and explained how he decided on his pen name.
t. kilgore splake’s work will be featured in the December 2011 issue of the online literary magazine The
Smoking Poet.
Radio Interview (8:56)
Radio Interview on The Lori Moore Show at WKZO
Zinta talks to Lori Moore on Tuesday, April 5, 2011, at 9:15 a.m. in honor of National Poetry Month, but also about The Smoking Poet’s “Putting on the Dog: TSP Celebrates 5.” The literary magazine is having a fifth anniversary celebration on Thursday,
April 28, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at The Wine Loft in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Fifteen authors will be reading, including Zinta. The
event is sponsored by Friends of Poetry, Inc.
Lori and Zinta discuss the future of poetry, print or digital,
just how smart do you have to be to get poetry, and are there rules to writing it.
Tune in on 96.5 FM or 560 AM or listen live at www.wkzo.com.
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| Transformations Spirituality Center and Art Gallery |
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| Painted stones by Zinta Aistars |
Transformations Spirituality Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan, set on the grounds of the former Nazareth
College, is a peaceful place away from the harried pace of everyday life--a place where people from varied faith traditions
and walks of life come to be in the solitude of a retreat or in the company of others.
Transformations includes an art gallery—and Zinta
Aistars will be showing her artwork at the gallery February through March 2012. On exhibit will be a collection of broadsides
(poetry or prose combined with visual art) and painted stones.
Visit Transformations Spirituality Center for more information.
3427 Gull Road
Kalamazoo,
MI 49048-1281
(269) 381-6290
Putting on the Dog: The Smoking Poet Celebrates 5
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Thursday,
April 28 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm |
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Location |
The Wine Loft
161
E. Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo,
MI |
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Created By |
Wine Loft Kalamazoo |
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More Info |
The
Smoking Poet (an online literary magazine) will be celebrating their fifth anniversary in 2011. What better way to celebrate
but to gather together some of their best, brightest and smokiest!
Come join us!
The first part of the evening
will be a line-up of writers from the past five years of The Smoking Poet issues. After an intermission, the second half is
a step-up-to-the-mic with yours. If you have ever had your work published in The Smoking Poet, you're invited. We want to
hear you!
If you simply want to witness The Smoking Poet come to life off the page, come sit with us, sip a little,
nibble a bit, relax and enjoy the good words and music.
For more information on The Smoking Poet, visit their website http://www.thesmokingpoet.com/ |
Posted by litchat in poetry, weekly topics.
 Topic of the Week: April 12-16, 2010
LitChat is delighted to participate in National Poetry Month with a week of poetry discussion. Although an American tradition inaugurated
by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, LitChat would like to see this important element of literature receive international
spotlight.
Zinta Aistars Joining us for a special evening edition of #litchat on Wednesday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET, is Zinta Aistars. A bilingual, published author of three books (in Latvian) and working on a fourth (in English), Zinta is founder
and editor of The Smoking Poet, a literary ezine established in 2006. Her work (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, book reviews and blogs) has been extensively published online and in print publications and appears in several anthologies. She is a writer
and editor for a large health care organization and resides in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Diane Seuss In addition to her visit on Wednesday evening, Zinta Aistars has prepared a round of questions for our regular Monday and
Wednesday afternoon chats (4 p.m. ET) that are sure to stimulate lively discussion between to poets and non-poets alike.
 On Friday, April 16 at our regular 4 p.m. ET time, poet Diane Seuss joins us as guest host. Diane Seuss’s
new collection of poems, Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open, won the 2009 Juniper Prize for Poetry and will be published
at the end of April 2010 by the University of Massachusetts Press. New Issues Press published her first book, It Blows
You Hollow, in 1998. Recent poems have appeared in The Georgia Review, Poetry, New Orleans Review, and
Brevity. Seuss is Writer in Residence at Kalamazoo College, where she won the Florence J. Lucasse Award for Excellence
in Teaching.
See what is happening throughout the remaining days of National Poetry Month at Poets.org.
Follow Zinta Aistars on Twitter at @ZintaAistars and @TheSmoking Poet.
Follow Diane Seuss on Twitter at @DlSeuss.
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| Shirley Wyllys and granddaughter Madison on Patch & Pasture Farm |
March 2010
Author’s
Reading: Eggs and Books
Zinta will be reading an
excerpt from her novel-in-progress, Closed Doors Open, at a women’s book
club. The gathering will include a brunch of organic foods, the reading, followed by discussion.
Place: Shirley Wyllys’s home and organic farm, “Patch & Pasture”
20975
Pine Lake Rd
Battle
Creek, Michigan
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010
Time: 11 a.m.
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November 2009
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