Many thanks to Martin Achatz, an editor at Passages North, for this review of Hold Still in his Saint Marty blog. An excerpt:
“These poems are a testament to anger and humor, despair and joy. They are psalms of survival. Breast cancer. Childhood. Motherhood. Hurricanes. Godbey’s insights are razor-sharp, cutting open the reader’s heart and pumping it full of music and hope. … In the middle of a long winter of heartbreak and ruin, her poems push through the impossibly frozen ground, unfolding petal by petal, syllable by syllable, into the promise of spring.”
One of my photographs, “Osprey on a Windy Day,” was accepted for inclusion in Orlando magazine’s 12th annual Paint the Town exhibition at the Gallery at Avalon Island in downtown Orlando. The three-week show opens with a reception Thursday, March 20, from 6 to 9 p.m. and will include paintings, sculptures and other artwork. Entertainment will be provided by local singer and actress Krystal Gillette, and there will be free wine and beer. The opening coincides with downtown’s Third Thursday Gallery Hop. The Avalon gallery is at 39 S. Magnolia Ave., and convenient parking is available at the nearby city-owned garage across from the library on Central Boulevard. If you can’t make the opening, you can see the exhibition during regular gallery hours — 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through April 11.
My Hold Still book party and reading at the Maitland Art Center is tonight! The reading has been moved indoors, so look for me in the Marvel Building next to the outdoor reading room (which looks suspiciously like a carport) where I had planned to read. I’ll be the Literature Out Loud part of the Culture Pop event called “Roll, Repeat,” about printmaking, which will include a loud steamroller creating art prints along Packwood Avenue. I’m moving inside so I won’t have to shout (but I will still shout if I feel like it). And yes, my friends, there will be a band. What more could you want? Alcohol? You got it. We’ll have a cash bar.
The event is from 7 to 11 p.m., and series host Stacy Barton will kick it off with a short reading at 7:30. Then I’ll read twice: at about 8 and 8:45, with a short break about halfway through so you can refresh your drink and stretch your legs. After my second reading, I’ll sign books. Admission to Culture Pop is $5 and includes one free beer, glass of wine or soda. Don’t miss this!
