Bio   ·   Poetry   ·   Books   ·   Contact Jim Natal: Jim Natal's third full-length poetry collection, Memory and Rain, will be published by Red Hen Press in Fall, 2008. His first collection, In the Bee Trees (Archer Books, 2000) was a finalist for the Pen Center USA and Publisher's Marketing Association Ben Franklin Awards. A second collection, Talking Back to the Rocks, was published by Archer Books in 2003. His poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been published, reviewed, or is forthcoming in Bellingham Review, Runes, Pool, Reed, The Paterson Literary Review, Poetry International, and The Los Angeles Review among other journals. Natal's work also has appeared in many anthologies: Chance of a Ghost; Mischief, Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies; Blue Arc; Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose About Alzheimer's Disease; Open Windows; What Have You Lost?; So Luminous the Wildflowers; and Fresh Water. He has been a featured poet at dozens of colleges, bookstores, literary series, and festivals, including Long Island University, Washington College, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Writers in Focus series, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and the Santa Barbara, Long Beach, and San Luis Obispo Poetry Festivals. Natal curated and co-hosted the Poem.X and Rose Café poetry series in Santa Monica for more than 10 years and helped establish and coordinate Antioch University's multi-genre L.A. Writers Series. He also runs and teaches poetry workshops, one of which, the annual Plein Air Poetry outdoor writing workshop, is coordinated through the Desert Institute and Joshua Tree National Park. Natal was an executive for the National Football League's Creative Services Group in Los Angeles for 25 years. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2005. He teaches creative writing at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona, where he has lived since July of 2007. With his wife, graphic designer and book artist Tania Baban, he founded Conflux Press in 2004, which specializes in custom trade books and handmade chapbooks, art books, and broadsides. They also teach poetry and book arts workshops individually and together. To contact Jim Natal about readings and workshops: Jim Natal P.O. Box 12218 Prescott, AZ 86304 (928) 778-1083 info@confluxpress.com www.confluxpress.com BLUR Out east on the desert freeway, after the rain blowing in from the coast had been blocked by the mountains doing their work, the sky was fearless and the sun, half arisen now, cast shadows of slow-whirling wind turbine blades across all eight lanes, passing over each car like the shadow of a hunting hawk. A man in front of a prefab church changed letters on the sidewalk marquee. "God is waiting..." it began but I went by too fast to see if He was waiting for me. from Memory and Rain (Red Hen Press, Fall, 2008)    POETRY COLLECTIONS BY JIM NATAL "...This is a book of wisdom, its poems the sculpted stones of a life deeply lived and beautifully told." B.H. Fairchild "...Rich in lovely detail; true to the affairs of the heart." John Balaban $16 including shipping. To order, email Jim Natal. "In the Bee Trees is a remarkable and powerful collection..." David St. John "...Marvelously elegant, essential poems--melodious, deep, and true." Naomi Shihab Nye $16 including shipping. To order, email Jim Natal.