Hot Air Quarterly Spring Issue No. 18
The latest issue of The Hot Air Quarterly, the Spring issue, has hit the stands. Electronic copies will be distributed via email next week. The cover features the stunning work of artist Alonzo Davis, an image of an installation, “Sky Ladders,” (below, © Alonzo Davis) that has appeared at The Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C. and the Katzen Art Center Sculpture Garden at American University. (Visit his website for more images of his beautiful and imaginative work: www.alonzodavis.com.) 
I first met Alonzo when we were both artists-in-residence at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony outside of Temecula, California, which at that time was a dusty, two-block-long straggly string of old-fashioned Western frontier storefronts. The colony was located on a large piece of land that was originally homesteaded and owned by Robert and Ellen Dorland. Ellen was a concert pianist and Robert, twenty years her junior, was a mathematician and professor. They built a beautiful adobe that had been turned into the main center for the colony while Alonzo and I were there in 1983. Also while we were there, the colony and land were under the stewardship of The Nature Conservancy. (It has since been turned over to the Dorland Colony Board of Directors.)
I’ll write more about my time at The Dorland Mountain Arts Colony later, but it was a really amazing experience. Ellen Dorland was still alive at this time, in her nineties. And there was no electricity (we used gas lamps, water heaters and fridges, and had wood stoves for heat) and only one shared phone for all the residents. It was in gorgeous desert and I was there during wildflower season. Utterly enchanting. At any rate, it was clear back then, twenty-eight years ago, that Alonzo was an artist to watch. His work has since been exhibited at the Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Nashville International Airports, the Revere Beach subway station in Boston, MA, and he was one of the artists selected to create a mural for the 1984 Olympic Mural Series for the LA freeway system. His work has been commissioned all over the world and shown in galleries and museums all over the country (and world). We’re honored to have his image gracing our cover.
We are also honored to have the following authors and poets gracing our pages:
Jim Dowling: When not immersed in the reading of stories and poems submitted to Hot Air, you may find Jim Dowling hunkered down at the keyboard, working on his own short stories and their innumerable revisions. The great American novel is on hold for now.
Daniel Williams has lived and written in the Sierra Nevada of Northern California for the last 30 years. His Yosemite poems have been published in many literary journals and anthologies, and he has read his work at such venues as Cody’s Books, Barnes & Noble, and the Oakland Public Library. A member of PoetsWest, he is a regular reader on their weekly radio program at KSER 91.7 FM Seattle.
Peter Branson has been published or accepted for publication by journals in Britain, USA, Canada, EIRE, Australia and New Zealand, including Acumen, Ambit, Envoi, Magma, The London Magazine, Iota, Frogmore Papers, The Interpreter’s House, Poetry Nottingham, Pulsar, Red Ink, The Recusant, South, The New Writer, Crannog, Raintown Review, The Huston Poetry Review, Barnwood, The Able Muse and Other Poetry. His first collection, “The Accidental Tourist”, was published in May 2008, a second collection at the beginning of this year by Caparison Press for ‘The Recusant’. More recently a pamphlet has been issued (May 7th) by ‘Silkworms Ink’ and a third collection has been accepted for publication by Salmon Press, EIRE.
Bill Siemer: “Becoming Cardinals” originally appeared in the anthology, Portfolio North, edited by Melinda Brown. Bound copies of this story, in addition to other titles by Bill Siemer, are available for sale at the Shasta County Arts Council and the offices of Enjoy magazine.
Henfield Prize winner Wistar Watts Murray is an MFA candidate at Columbia University, which is conveniently located next to several decent bars. Her website is www.onestarwatt.com.
Clinton Inman: I graduated from San Diego State University, am 65, and teach high school in Tampa Bay, FL. I have had a number of poems published throughout the years; I have written a few plays as well and some science publications. I am married and live in Sun City Center, Florida as I plan on retiring next year.
Doug Bolling’s poetry has appeared in many literary magazines in recent years. He received a Pushcart nomination and resides in Flossmoor, Illinois, a SW suburb of Chicago.
From a young age, Ellen Mains aspired to write and create books, but found herself doing other things for the next 45 years. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, travels often to Poland and is completing the first draft of a memoir. Her work has appeared recently in Pilgrimage Magazine and online in The Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.
And you’ll also find the latest installment of my novel, The Listener. I’ve recently completed the first draft and am currently rewriting the book. When it’s in proper shape, I’ll be sending it around to see if it will find a publishing home. (Co-founder Bill Siemer persuaded me to serialize the novel while I was writing it; so the final version will no doubt vary to a certain extent from the version HAQ readers are currently reading. It’s also possible that later chapters may contain inconsistencies with early chapters that were published in Hot Air.)
If anyone would like to be added to our free electronic subscriber list, please drop us a line at keswickhouse@earthlink.net or hotairquarterly@yahoo.com. Free hard copies may be found around town at Pacific West Graphics, The Shasta County Arts Council, Sue’s Java Café, and The Enjoy Store. If anyone in town would like to be on our list of hard copy distributors, please contact us via email.
Above, top: Our glorious dogwood in our front yard.
Friday, April 29, 2011