Let’s Read and Talk!

By Belinda Gergel, City Council District 3 As Jasper readers well know, Columbia residents love to read! Indeed, this past year we joined cities like Seattle, Cambridge, Portland, and Berkeley on Amazon’s “20 Most Well Read Cities in America” coming in at #16 on the list! In an effort to capitalize on all that this love of reading might hold for our community, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin and City Council, Richland County Council,... Read More

Women Creating / Creating Women

By Kristine Hartvigsen Three women’s creative cycles will sync up for a new art show coming to Vista Studios Gallery 80808 in April. Titled “Women Creating Women,” the show will bring together the works of painters Kirkland Smith and Bonnie Goldberg with the poetry of Cassie Premo Steele. The title concept, the brainchild of Premo Steele, has a double meaning, with “creating” being both a verb and an adjective. There’s... Read More

Candace Wiley

By Ed Madden Candace Wiley is just back from Pencil Shout, a small workshop in Kentucky with National Book Award poet Nikky Finney, and later this summer she leaves for Colombia, South America, as the recipient of a Fulbright creative writing fellowship.  Jasper first noticed Wiley at last fall’s Bookin’ It on Main, a celebration of black writers at the Columbia Museum of Art.  Wiley read poems included in Home Is Where, an anthology of African-American... Read More

Ron Rash – The Great Joy of Reading Southern Writing

By Cynthia Boiter Ron Rash speaks the way he writes, with a voice that is rich with history, low and close to the earth, reflecting the humble wisdom that comes from learning from the past and listening to the lessons of nature and the stories of one’s ancestors. A father, teacher, husband, poet, Rash is, above all, a gifted wordsmith who wraps his words around his readers with tender precision. Born in Chester, South Carolina, Rash’s people,... Read More

A Review of Head off & Split by Ray McManus

Nikki Finney’s latest book of poetry, Head Off & Split, is the winner of the 2011 National Book Award. To anyone who is familiar with Finney’s work, this should not come as a surprise. In addition to Head Off & Split (of which I’ll talk about later), Finney’s books of poetry include The World is Round (2003), Heartwood (1997), Rice (1995), and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985) – all strong collections, with an undeniable voice... Read More

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