MORE NEWS: The east coast tour was a smashing success, including three gigs that were as good as any I've ever done (if you were there, you know who you are).

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WEST COAST TOUR: I'll be in California from 7/3 to at least 7/23. Check out the gigs below. If you have other suggestions and/or invitations, it's not too late to submit your bid for one of the open dates.

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MY NEW CD is available: "By Gift Unearned," from EM Press. Whereas "Breaking Down Outside a Gas Station" was live, rowdy, and rough around the edges, "By Gift unearned" is smooth, studio produced, and not without humor, but not quite so in-your-face. I think of it as a voice to keep you company on those long rides home late at night. Includes Epithalamion, Drunks, Magnum Iter, and Odysseus Responds to Kalypso, among other favorites. $10 from me.

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MY NEW CHAPBOOK is available: disGrace Notes, Confessions of a Relapsing/Remitting Catholic, from Pudding House, $10—see below

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ANY GIVEN THURSDAY: When I'm home, you'll find me at Wired and Unplugged, 717 1st St, Snohomish, 7:30. Friends of mine have bought a coffeehouse, and I'm helping them get a weekly poetry venue started. We need a strong weekly venue between Seattle and Bellingham. Open mike, feature, and, probably starting 5/29, a monthly slam. I am frankly thrilled by the quality of the features I've been able to bring in. We've had some great nights there, but attendance has been inconsistent. If you're in the area, we could use some support.

Upcoming dynamite! features so far confirmed for Wired and Unplugged are as follows:

5/22 Jack McCarthy and Ron Hardesty

5/29 Jeff Lair (who stole the show at Burning Word)

6/5 Thomas Hubbard

6/12 Jeremy Richards

ANY GIVEN WEDNESDAY—well, maybe not so much any more. I’ve had to cut back on late nights and long drives. Instead of every Monday at Bellingham and Wednesday in Seattle, it’s more like Monday one week, Wednesday the next. I’m generally flexible. If you’re hoping to catch me at the Slam in Seattle or the open mike in Bellingham, email me and I’ll try to arrange my schedule.

If I don't have a feature somewhere else, you have a 50-50 chance of finding me competing at the Seattle Slam, 8:30, ToST, 513 N. 36th St. in Fremont, Seattle. Sometimes I try stuff out; sometimes I go all out to win. I almost always try to make the third round, in order to do three poems in front of this wonderful audience.

Every other Monday night (or so) I’m at Poetry Night (8:30 at Fantasia, 1322 Cornwell Avenue, Bellingham, Washington) or, occasionally, at the Vancouver Slam (9pm odd Mondays, Cafe Deux Soleil, 2096 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C.).

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UPCOMING FEATURES & OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS

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5/22, Thursday, 7:30: Wired and Unplugged, 717 1st St., Snohomish, WA: I'm giving myself a feature. Ron Hardesty will accompany. Open mike.

7/3-7/6: I'll be facilitating a workshop in performance poetry in the summer arts program at Fresno State U. Other facilitators: Kimberly Dark, Taylor Mali, Sonya Renee, Alix Olson, and Violet Juno. This is a fabulous opportunity for anyone looking for a crash course in full frontal poetry. See csusummerarts.org for details.

7/9, Wednesday, 8:30: the Berkeley Poetry Slam, The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, California

7/15, Tuesday, 8pm: Redondo Poets, Coffee Cartel, 1820 Catalina Ave., Redondo Bch; 310.316-6554.

7/16, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Poetry & Art, The Museum of the Living Artist (MOLA), 439 El Prado, Balboa Park. $8, free for members.

7/17, Thursday, 8pm, SHOUT! Ambrose Pizzeria, 6717 Greenleaf Ave. Whittier, CA. Open mike.

7/18, Friday, 8:30pm: the Rapp Saloon, 1436 2nd. St., Santa Monica; 310.326-4246. Open mike.

7/19, Saturday, 7:30: Down Home, Café Bolivar, 1741 Ocean Park Blvd, Santa Monica. Open mike.

7/21, Monday, 7pm, Barnes and Noble, Mission Valley, Hazard Center, 7610 Hazard Center Drive #315, San Diego, CA. Open mike.

7/23, Wednesday, 8pm: the Ugly Mug, 261 N. Glassel, Orange. Open mike.

8/10, Sunday, 10am-5pm: Auburn Good Ol' Days. I'll be the good ol' boy conducting a workshop and doing a feature. Open mike, some kind of reading contest. More details later.

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"…when Jack McCarthy took the stage in the first half he completely wowed the packed-to-the-nuts audience. Every now and then, a poet, performer, comes along and puts on this kind of show for an audience (this audience was mainly poets, and lovers of poetry) and by being exposed to the work of a master craftsman, the entire community is raised up. The bar is raised a notch. We, as a poetry community, grow by being exposed to this kind of incredible performance…. I expect to see evidence of growth in the coming months and years, the residual effects of Jack McCarthy's incredibly moving performance. If you ever doubted the power of words…this performance was emphatic proof!!"                                                                                             ----Thomas Trofimuk, www.theroar.ca, Edmonton, Alberta

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Head-to-Head Haiku Champion, Individual World Poetry Slam 2007

1996 Boston National Slam Team

2000 Worcester National Slam Team

2000 National Slam Individual Semi-finals
HippoPress: "stooped, grizzled old... veteran poetry machine."

The Boston Phoenix: "Best Standup Poet"

Boston Poetry Awards "Best Love Poet,"

Cambridge Chronicle: "…sort of grumpy-looking older guy…"

Cambridge Poetry Awards: "Best Spoken Word (Male)" and "Best Humorous Poet (Male)"

"In the poetry world, he's a rock star." —The Boston Globe

"Jack McCarthy is one of the wonders of contemporary poetry…" — Stephen Dobyns

"If you're looking for one of those nights at a poetry reading that makes you want to go out and write, or reminds you why you began writing in the first place, then you want to book Jack. Really. Trust me on this.".—Steve Ramirez of Two Idiots Peddling Poetry, Orange, CA

"He reminds me of a drunken man in a bar full of snobs, who for some inexplicable reason is always right."—Sam Szabo, grade 7, Rupert A. Nock Middle School, Newburyport, MA


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IN STOCK: and also available online at www.poetryslam.com or at www.thewordsmithpress.com is “Actual Grace Notes,” mostly poems written 1996-2000.

My CD, "Breaking Down Outside a Gas Station," is always available for $10 + shipping at www.thewordsmithpress.com.

BOOKS OUT!
"THE SPOKEN WORD REVOLUTION REDUX" came out early this year. I have a poem and an essay in it, and YES! IT'S AVAILABLE IN EVERY BORDERS AND BARNES AND NOBLE IN THE COUNTRY! DEFINITIVE ANTHOLOGY.

"SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACE NOTES," JACK McCARTHY'S NEW AND CORRECTED POEMS IS !YES! NOW AVAILABLE FROM BARNES & NOBLE! BUT YOU CAN STILL GET IT FROM www.em-press.com. That website includes a glowing review from the American Library Association Booklist. There's another wonderful review at http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/03/51/art-infante.php and an awfully nice article at http://www.hippopress.com/books/030403_spokenword.html.

NEW CHAPBOOK: “disGrace Notes, Confessions of a Relapsing/Remitting Catholic,” was a winner in Pudding House’s annual competition. It’s a poetic documentation of my lifelong love-hate relationship with the Church, and our ultimate estrangement. Available now! From me for $10; I’ll eat the postage.

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