Humberto Akabal (Humberto Ak'abal) was born in Momostenango, Guatemala in 1952. He was  a poet of the Maya K'iche ethnic group. He wrote his poems in the Maya K'iche language and translated them into Spanish. He is currently one of the best-known Guatemalan poets in Europe and South America. His works have already been translated into French, English, German and Italian. We are deeply saddened to hear that Humberto Akabal died at 8:40 pm on January 28, 2019 in the hospital after complications arising from intestinal surgery. He will be greatly missed.


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Poet Thomas R.Smith is offering a one-day only class at The Loft  Literary Center in Minneapolis on October 10th, 2015. It is called Reading for Writers: Fiery Genius: The Poetry of Robert Bly, on Saturday at 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Minnesota's Robert Bly is one of the most influential living figures in world literature. Besides his many ground-breaking volumes of poetry, his contributions include incisive, provocative criticism and epochal translations of foreign poets, not least the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, as well as Spanish and Mideastern poets. This class traces Bly's dynamic career from his beginnings on a family farm through his days of early fame as poet and editor of the revolutionary poetry magazine The Fifties/The Sixties to international renown as proponent of "Deep Image" poetry.  

While illuminating the many facets and intellectual currents of Bly's fertile opus, we'll stay focused on his work as a poet, watching his development from book to book in a constant process of self-reinvention. Among the many stages of Bly's work, we'll pay special attention to his early explosive free verse period, his venture into the controversial prose poem, the sound experiments of his invented form the "ramage," and his later work with an American version of the Mideastern ghazal form.  

Along the way we'll learn from writing exercises adapted from Bly's own techniques for breaking free of expected patterns into fertile new territory, bringing us closer to the fiery genius of Bly's stellar achievement. More information on links below.

website link: Loft.org
website link: ThomasRSmithPoet.com
website link: RobertBly.com
We are now in the process of updating the Poetry Art Music web portal featuring artists, poets, musicians and writers that are collected together here as a creative community. Please stop back as this collection of recommended websites grows. 
Please visit the new blog for the work of Allen Downs, who was a professor at the University of Minnesota, and also the founder of the Winter Quarter in Mexico arts program in Tlaxiaco, Mexico. His daughter Lila Downs witll also give a special concert at 4 pm on March 10th, 2013 before  the 6:00pm exhibition opening at the Katherine Nash Gallery.

This is a creative community website that is being put togther by a variety of Artists in various media. There will also be links to puchasing their creative works: in Book form, as CD's and DVD's,  and as downloads. We hope this becomes a place worth visiting often-- to get a glimpse of the incredible creativity out there!