Vagabond Song Neo-Haibun from the Peregrine Journals
“A poet’s song to the rewards of wandering and the joy of the highway. A bracing tonic this sorry, sad-assed, gadget-obsessed nation needs to hear again and again.”
–William Hjortsberg, author of Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan
Blending travel memoir with poetry to recount the author’s days of hitchhiking and road trip adventures, Vagabond Song: Neo-Haibun from the Peregrine Journals, will be the latest offering from poet Marc Beaudin, whose previous works include The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds and Other Poems and the play Frankenstein, Inc.
The bus descends through the night
into the bloodstained antiquity of the Southwest
I sleep fitfully, waking in the predawn glow
over red stone & cactus mesas
With excursions to Central America, Britain, and throughout the American West and Midwest, the book follows in the tradition of Bashō’s haibun classics such as Narrow Road to the Deep North and Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton. Amid stories that are often humorous and sometimes harrowing, lies a strong foundation of desire for wild spaces, freedom and the transformative power of poetry.
One thousand trucks pass
as a steel claw cloud
scrapes sparks across the sky
But the one that stops:
Sunlight dancing willow
The book, which will include artwork by Edd Enders, will be published in a limited hardcover as well as paperback and e-book editions this summer by Elk River Books of Livingston, Montana.
Trout Fishing in Livingston: A Theatrical Homage to the Writings of Richard Brautigan
adapted & directed by Marc Beaudin The Caldera Theatre Company, September 2014
at Elk River Books in conjunction with The Last Best Fest
featuring
Bret Kinslow, Sherry Pikul, Gabriel Clark & William Hjortsberg
Choreographed by Sabrina Lee
The Caldera Theatre Company presented Trout Fishing in Livingston: A Theatrical Homage to the Writings of Richard Brautigan as part of the Last Best Fest arts festival, Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7, at Elk River Books/Wheatgrass Saloon, 120 N. Main Street in downtown Livingston.
Culled from the fiction and poetry of one of Livingston’s most legendary writers, the play presents excerpts adapted into a satiric and wild journey through Brautigan’s world. The production was adapted and directed by Marc Beaudin, artistic director of the Caldera Theatre Company (CTC), and features performances by Gabriel Clark, Bret Kinslow and Sherry Pikul. Interspersed throughout the play’s nine scenes will be short readings by Brautigan’s close friend and biographer William Hjortsberg, author of Jubilee Hitchiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan.
The text for the production was adapted from Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, Revenge of the Lawn and The Edna Webster Collection of Undiscovered Writings.
Brautigan lived and wrote off and on in the Livingston area from the beginning of the 1970s until his death in 1984. His writings, which are darkly comical, highly imaginative and often bordering on the surreal, found form in numerous novels, short stories and poems, the most famous being Trout Fishing in America.
The CTC is a local, independent theatre company that seeks to create an environment for the exploration and development of the art of theatre, and to produce theatrical and other creative events that show a commitment to artistic quality and ingenuity. More information can be found at CalderaTheatre.com.
