Winner of the Josephine Miles 2025
About the event
36th Annual PEN Oakland Awards
Oakland, CA—Called by The New York Times, "The Blue Collar PEN," PEN Oakland announces the Winners of the 36th Annual PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Awards. The 2025 PEN Oakland Award winners will be formally recognized on Saturday, December 6th, from 2:00-5:00 P.M. PST. The event will be held at the Black Repertory Group Theater: 3201 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA, 94703. A reception will follow.
PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Awards, named for the late poet and Professor at the University of California at Berkeley, were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America's diverse literary community. In addition there is an Adelle Foley Award, a Reginald Martin Award for Excellence in Criticism, a Gary Webb Anti-Censorship Award and a Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Plains of Po lyrics by George Wallace and music by Ana Spasic and Franceso Paolo Paladino. (DonemusRecords, 2024).
It's a beautiful production featuring poetry/lyrics by the distinguished American poet George Wallace, music by Francesco Paolo Paladino and soprano Ana Spasic (who is both the CD's vocalist and the composer of its "scritture vocali") and some gorgeous paintings by the Italian artist, Alberto Bertoldi, who writes, "Baroque Clouds. They fan in multicolored layers – blue, purple, gray, gold – where we can effortlessly imagine that fantastic worlds inhabited by ethereal entities can hide."
It's an international production tending musically toward the avant garde. Wallace's wonderful words—included, in English—soar as they are interpreted by the imaginative vocalizations of Spasic and the richly powerful sounds of Paladino's music.
Something for the eyes, something for the ears: "fantastic worlds inhabited by ethereal"—and sometimes not so ethereal—"entities." Poetry reaching across national boundaries and entering the welcoming worlds of music, art, performance.
Jack Foley (July 2025)
"The Plains of Po", testo di George Wallace e musica di Ana Spasic e Francesco Paolo Paladino (DonemusRecords, 2024). È una splendida produzione che presenta testi e poesie del celebre poeta americano George Wallace, musiche di Francesco Paolo Paladino e del soprano Ana Spasic (che è sia la voce solista del CD che la compositrice della "scrittura vocale") e alcuni magnifici dipinti dell'artista italiano Alberto Bertoldi, che scrive: "Nuvole barocche. Si dispiegano in strati multicolori – blu, viola, grigio, oro – dove possiamo facilmente immaginare che mondi fantastici abitati da entità eteree possano nascondersi". È una produzione internazionale con una propensione musicale all'avanguardia. Le meravigliose parole di Wallace – incluse, in inglese – si librano in alto grazie all'interpretazione immaginifica della voce di Spasic e ai suoni ricchi e potenti della musica di Paladino. Qualcosa per gli occhi, qualcosa per le orecchie: "mondi fantastici abitati da entità eteree" e, a volte, non così eteree. Poesia che trascende i confini nazionali ed entra negli accoglienti mondi della musica, dell'arte e della performance.
Jack Foley (luglio 2025)