An epic poetic/musical journey into the world of a female New York City ambulance driver.

14 MP3 Songs
SPOKEN WORD: With Music, CLASSICAL: Contemporary



Details:
Review of the book, WillieWorld (Cuz Editions, 1998)

"in this stunning debut, Maggie Dubris creates a fabric in which words are tied to the world, to the elusive fate of people exposed to misery, evil, and tenderness of their own and others' making. This worldÂand the eerie and eloquent poetry, prose, and prose-poetry generating itÂcorresponds more to writing emerging from situations of enormous urgency (the Beirut of Etel Adnan . . .the Istanbul shanties of Latife Tekin . .) than anything American that comes to mind. . . In addition to exhilarating flights of lyric that achieve the redemptive noise of great rock songs, there is an ever-present sense of vulnerability, fragility, and mortality in WillieWorld, sorely lacking in too much of what passes for work that should be paid attention to. There are many reasons why WillieWorld is an important book; suffice it to say that it is a work of fierce resistance and its author, Maggie Dubris, a writer of profound integrity whose new work we can only await with eagerness and trepidation at the bittersweet encounters and myriad challenges it will be sure to offer."'
Ammiel Alcalay, PPN 6/99


Composer Andy Teirstein's music has been called "rythmically hypnotic, richly melodic," by Burt Supree (Village Voice) "magically atmospheric," by Anna Kisselgoff (New York Times), and "tumultuously exhuberant," by Jennifer Dunning (New York Times)

MAGGIE DUBRIS
Maggie Dubris, the recipient of a 2001 National Endowment for the Arts Literature fellowship in poetry, is the author of WillieWorld (Cuz Editions 1998), a book-length poem drawn from her experiences as a New York City paramedic. The book is currently out of print, but will be included in a book of poems and stories, Weep Not, My Wanton, to be published by Black Sparrow Press in 2002. The poem WillieWorld served as the basis for the short film, Welcome to WillieWorld, directed by Scott Saunders, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2001.

For ten years Maggie was the guitarist/songwriter for the now defunct New York band Homer Erotic (Homerica the Beautiful, Depth of Field records, 1999) She received the Richard Margolis Award in 1994 for the poem WillieWorld, and the 1999 Bronx Writer's Center Chapter One Award for a section of the novel A Season in Hell's Kitchen, as well as being awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony (2001) and the Blue Mountain Center (1999, 1997).

She is presently revising the novel A Season in Hell's Kitchen, and has just completed a full length screenplay, The First Strange Adventure of the Bird, with writing partner Felicity Seidel. Maggie has worked as a 911 paramedic in New York City's Hell's Kitchen district since 1983.

ANDY TEIRSTEIN
Andy Teirstein, writer, composer, and performer, has written scores for choreographers, theater , film, and the concert hall. His musical theater works include "Winter Man', which received two NEA Awards, and "The Wild". Teirstein has contributed music to several BBC and PBS films, including "The West". He has worked with numerous choreographers including Liz Lerman/The Dance Exchange, Donald Byrd/The Group, and Stephen Petronio. Teirstein is currently Director of Music at the Marymount Manhattan College Dance Department, and also teaches at New York University.