2007 Round-up Tie a Bow on it

2007 is about to leave us nothing but wet footprints upon the skull- here are some of my favorites:

1) Paul Violi- Overnight, Hanging Loose Press

Unquestionably my favorite book of '07 and here's one of the better reviews I've read about his book in Jacket 33-

2) Sawako Nakayasu- Insect Country B, Chapbook- Dusie Press

fellow Coldfronter dishes the goods

3) Matthew Rohrer- Rise Up, Wave Books
BigCityLit did a fearless and excellent write up on Rohrer

4) Prageeta Sharma- Infamous Landscapes, Fence Books

This eased in just as the year was beginning to ease out- I hope you found it under your Xmas tree! Read some poems from it in the latest ish of Fence

5) Laura Mullen- Murmur, Future Poem Books

Why weren't more people talking about this gem? Here's a wee interview with Mullen

6) Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Book of Days, Sorcery, Chapbook Dusie Press

Read four prose poems

7) CA Conrad, The Frank Poems, Chapbook, ypolita press

Read CA's killer poem in Sink Review

8) Structure & Surprise, edited by Michael Theune, Teachers & Writers Collaborative

9) Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, I Love Artists, University of California Press

Interview in Jacket 27

Okay, okay this was technically 2006, but I read in early 2007 so don't hate!

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Journals that brought it

Conduit

Barrow Street

Denver Quarterly

Vanitas

Sink Review

Real Poetik

Coconut

H_ngm_n

LIT

Crazy Horse

Cold Front Magazine

Poets & Writers

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Journals that didn't bring it:

Open City- poetry almost a non-factor

New Yorker- whateva Mr. Muldoon- same boring insiders' club- so y-a-w-n

Poetry- Okay, I'm feeling the translation section but honestly Calque does it better and 90% of what I read in Poetry is just plain boring esp. the essays.

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Blogs

The Pines

Ron Silliman- Love or hate him it's the most consistent and link-filled blog concerning poetry! & i actually love reading his movie reviews.

Jennifer Lew- 'cause it's mad funny and generally filled with lots o pictures, videos, and writing that pops

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Music

Panda Bear, Radiohead, Aesop Rock, The Roots, MIA, Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Broken Social Scene, Common

Asobi Seksu & Blonde Redhead playing live

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Hopefully 2008 brings new work from Eric Baus, Sarah Gambito, Michele Glazer, Claudia Rankine, Mark Bibbins, and Li-Young Lee.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Americus, Book Two?)

Suji Kwok Kim- where you at?

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'07 Shout-outs:

David Lehman, Chris Stackhouse, Meghan Punschke, Prageeta Sharma, Coldfront, LIT

Joseph Lappie- get some sleep 'cause '08 is going to be a big year for you both as an artist & publisher!

Jared Hohl & Adam Wiedewitsch (Czar, Prime Minister, doctor - patients= pints for PSGS!)

Sandy Choi & Amyjoy Clark where are we eating in 2008?

Mina Cheong, Tara Mei Smith, Bichthu Cao Minh, Elliot Montgomery, Audrey Hawkins, Jason Napoli Brooks, Jared Hohl, Cara Wolinsky- thanks for the parties, get-togethers,hospitality, & assorted etc

Sandy Choi, Julia Li, Mina Cheong, Monica Kapoor, Audrey Hawkins, Shipra Misra, Dan Maegers, Nicole Pajor, Felisa Salvado-Keyes, James Stobie, Peter Moore and Mike thanks for coming out to the T&W readings

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Blog Shout-outs (Keep blogging- don't leave me lonely)

Sandy Choi

Julia Cohen

Angela Veronica Wong

Dime Magazine

Julia, Cara, Audrey

The New School Represents

so i've been reading the lastest ish of H_NGM_N (http://www.h-ngm-n.com/cur_ent-i_sue)
& damn if new school isn't reppin' hard! it has three poems from ns alum, david sewell, as well as poems from 2nd yr, julia cohen, and 1st yr ben mirov- now that's a hot platter served with extra sauce.

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also checking out the lastest ish of Fence which is like Prageeta's party in print. It has poems from her, Sarah Gambito, and Major Jackson. daaaaaaanm, how come I'm not up in that mug? o right, they rejected me a coupla months back- it's cool though like the trail blazer i'm gonna get some comeuppance, you just wait and see... ah the stuff of dreams... sigh

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been waiting for my contributor ish of KNOCK to arrive, as well as, the lastest issue of Claque, but what i wasn't expecting arrived in the form of reb livingston's new book sent courtesy of b.covey for review on coldfrontmag.com dope & good lookin' bruce! the funny thing is that i already own the book 'cause meghan (www.megpunschke.com) did the cover art and gave her second contributor copy so if anyone wants a copy of reb's new book and you'll write a review for say jacket, or cutbank, or litonline, or pretty much anywhere except coldfront holla at your boy.

Poets for Hire

so this is a picture of me and veronica from last saturday's bday party at b2's place. i wasn't going to post it because i think i look pretty goofy, but you know what? who cares?

No Bag or Nothing, you know?

Today I left for work sans bag, sans lunch, sans books, sans magazines (well not really, I checked me mailbox on the way out and found a the latest ish of Poets & Writers so I did bring that along) all because I'm gonna be up outta Eos early today. This will be the first time in ages that I've left work while daylight is still in full-effect!

I mean, damn, I've eaten my bagel and have consumed my cup of crappy coffee so can I go already?

What am I going to do with this new lease of Friday afternoon life you query? E-r-r/ands, but of course. Hustle that chapbook MS to the post-office, drop off laundry, buy a bottle of wine for Xmas dinner- shite like that! But the upswing that is the wind beneath these unflappable wings is that I have drinks scheduled in with none other than Czar Hohl (who's newest story debueted at WoM last Thursday and is pure poetry!)

I'll be watching his cat while he and his wife are Iowa for the Holidays.

Then later in the evening I'll hit up Earshot to watch Dan Maegers do is thing.

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So Susan Choi is in the new ish of P&W (i've never read her, sorry Susan) and in one picture it looks like she's cradling a Powell's coffee mug (damn- Sandy/Joseph how long has it been since we were clocking hours up in that mug?) it seems like decades since I've lived and worked in Pdx.

Ah sweet merciless time you just done run up the game didn't you?

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Speaking of Pdx I wish I was drinking Stumptown right now and going to The Farm for dinner, though I had Dumont's last night and that Skate just doesn't disappoint!

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Okay I'm going to get another bagel 'cause I'm one of like 5 poeple in the office today and also because I can be greedy like that sometimes.

Who's House? Dan's House!

EARSHOT*Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 8 PM*
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg

Featuring:
Daniel Magers
Chloe' Yelena Miller
Adrian Van Young (Columbia University)
Traci Brimhall (Sarah Lawrence College)
Jeanie Gosline (Brooklyn College)

Admission is a mere $5 plus one free drink (beer, wine or well drinks only)!
The Lucky Cat is located at 245 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Driggs and Roebling. Visit their website for directions: http://www.theluckycat.com.

Mad Tired But Still Filled With Holiday Cheer

I'm wondering if anyone went to the Small Press night over at ACA Gallery last night. It looked pretty good. I actually had one of the most stressful and all-around-worse working days so I wasn't really up for much.

Surprisingly, I shook off the laming day and went over to my friend Mina's last-minute "holiday party." This party pretty much consisted of the same crew as the bday party on Saturday minus B2 but add Shipra.

Ship came in as I was leaving and it's the first time I've seen her since before she left for Buenos Aires- we've actually been trying to connect for 2 wks now but you know how it is.

A couple of highlights from the party had to be when Tara sat between Audrey and myself on the couch and went from hyper to sleepy in seconds. But I later found her in the kitchen eating Rice Krispies (courtesy of n.o.t.o.r.i.o.u.s. c.h.o.i.) and girl got her bounce back.

The second thing was Amyjoy not wanting to play Charades and being pressured into playing then pretty much kicking ass- on the serious t.i.p!

I left the party earlies and still managed only 4 hours of sleep- I am goddamn tired right now.

Right before I began to type this I finished eating a cinnamon raisin bagel with butter- that is so NOT like me- I may be losing my mind on top of being mad tired!

Get Art/Give Art

Fa-la-la-la-la I know you're jinglingly right along this time of year heavy-headed in getting and giving gifted & since you, my dear readers, live such poetic-ness lives maybe keep your step fresh and give the gift that keeps on giving i.e. art!

Peptic Robot Press (publishers of my chapbook, Lovers' Last Go Around and forthcoming chapbook poetry/art collaboration) has a nifty little mail-art gift idea.

It's as such:

What better gift then a year subscription to the 12 x 20 x 12 mail art campaign?

Contact Joseph Lappie at pepticrobotpress@hotmail.com and let him know who it is for and in what quantity. Give him the address & send him a check for 20 dollars (now holla if that aint on the real cheap!)

Here's what you get for your twenty bones:

12 months of art- 1 peice of art every month + for every person you sign up you get a "thank you" piece of art sent your way fa free!

PRP will ship via mail until the 20th and if there are any late buyers PRP will FedEx until the 22nd ($5 FedEx fee).

I've been getting his art since forever and I'm constantly impressed so yep I'm signing some peeps up myself!

Get an eyeful of prints, books, illustrations, etc at www.pepticrobotpress.com

Saturday W(rap) & Looking Ahead to Monday

I went to the bday party for Cara and Bichthu as I mentioned in my blog yesterday. It was a quite a bit of fun with some serious I mean SERIOUS dancing going on. The joint was a jumpin' since I don't dance I wallflowered it from the side. I ran into Veronica at the party which is was funny 'cause I never expected her to be in Brooklyn. I think she told me she was working on a 4 page poem and if you've read her work in Barrow Street she's writes tiny sparse little poems so I can't wait to see what her new work looks like.

Speaking of poetry- there's 3 amazing readings tomorrow night:

KGB Bar

Poetry: Great American Prose Poems
Start: Dec 17 2007 - 7:00pm
End: Dec 17 2007 - 9:00pm


Great American Prose Poems evening hosted by David Lehman with Mark Bibbins, Charles Bernstein, Jenny Boully, Billy Collins, Jennifer L. Knox, Mark Strand, Paul Violi, Susan Wheeler, and others.

NYQ is bringing it strong too:

Cornelia Street Cafe- $7

Monday | December 17, 2007, 6 p.m.
Joanna Fuhrman, Eileen Hennessy, Chris Tonelli

& lastly this is the reading I'm going to go to:

Readings Between A & B

Mondays, 7:30 pm

11th Street Bar
510 E. 11th Street
(Between Avenues A & B)
Manhattan, NYC.

All Readings are Free.

DECEMBER 17

Anne Waldman
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Jonathan Thirkield

Been Listening to In Rainbows While Typing This

Although there is sun shining through the streaks of dirt on my bedroom window, my NY experience has become that of a hat. Me and my hat are really getting to know each other these days- perhaps I'll even pen an ode to it.

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Walked to the post office this afternoon to drop off writing related things- i.e. the stuff of dreams- ah... sigh.

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Woke up this morning to find out the Portland Trail Blazers are on a 6 game winning streak and the Knicks.... well, we won't even go there! Also had an email rejection from Pebble Lake Review. Have you ever sent out a submission then have it rejected then look at what you submitted & can't quite rationalize why you sent them "those poems?"

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Okay been in the same damn sweater & jeans for two days now. I'm gonna unlazy me azz & take a shower. I'm going to a bday party tonight and it should be fun stuff.

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When I get out of the shower I'm going to make espresso and rework my PSA chapbook submission. "Those poems" ah... sigh... the thing of dreaming

Last Word of Mouth Reading for 2007

Word of Mouth
December 13th at 7pm
@ Bluestockings Radical Books
172 Allen St. (Between Stanton and Rivington)

Readers will be:

Jill Alexander Essbaum (poetry)
Kate Greenstreet (poetry)
Jared Hohl (fiction)
Evie Shockley (poetry)
Jennifer Bartlett (poetry

Poem/KNOCK/Poem

I have a poem out now in the lastest issue of KNOCK. You can find it on newstands- maybe St. Mark's Bookstore and the place on 6th and 11th or you can purchase it here: http://www.knockjournal.org/

There's a launch party/reading tonight if you happen to find yourself in Seattle!

A Look Back

Well last week was a pretty busy week so I've been laying low ever since. Monday's KGB No Tell Motel was rather a love fest. It was good to see Bruce Covey again although I really didn't have a chance to talk with him and I met with Hugh Behm-Steinberg of whom I'd exchanged emails with but had never met in person so that was nice. He gave me a copy of Eleven Eleven- a journal from Cal Arts that he will be editing.

Meghan designed book covers for his book and Reb Livingston's new book so I also got Meghan's extra copies of those & free books are always swell.

Thursday I had my own joint to take care of hosting Brian Kim Stefans and Eric Baus. It was a great reading- people came out, drank and stuck around for a while after the reading.

Friday Prageeta had her book party at her "place" and it was great to see her again. Dan Magers wasn't too famillar with the neighborhood and seeing as Prageeta's place is about 5 minutes from mine I met Dan at the subway and we walked there together. Chris Stackhouse was there, Cathy Park Hong (who I saw read at Bryant Park and still haven't said hello to yet) was there, I talked with Sarah Gambitto for a minute and met Major Jackson so all and all it was a fun time but I had to keep it brief since I needed to go to my work party. Sometimes parties with "writers" are rather boring but Prageeta's was plenty fun but I feel like everyday I'm going to get fired from Eos so I needed to put in some "face-time" at the holiday party esp. since I knew my boss wasn't going to attend & it was an open bar!

So I got there around 11ish with my friend Sandy and we quickly made our way to the bar- prob stayed for a little over an hour which was just enough time to have a dirty martini (not nearly durty enough) and two maker mark's neat (served in plastic glasses- hmmmm C-H-E-A-P) Overall, I was less than impressed with QT but pleased to be drinking and happy that my work had a function in the city since HQ is all the fuck the way out in Westchester!

Saturday slipped away like yesterday pajamas but I talked to my friend Deepali on the phone and we figured out that we haven't seen each other since August. Crazy. I'm in BK and she's in the West Village. Time gets away from you here in this rotten apple, doesn't it?

Sunday I bought Prageeta's new book and had dinner at Bonita.

Monday I ate mexican again!

Now here we are on Tuesday. I'm off to meet an old classmate at Nolita House for a couple of drinks and a game of catch-up. I'm expecting a rather early night in and an incrediably looooooooooooooong day at work tomorrow.

There's a great reading on Thursday which I'll post maybe tomorrow and a coupla of joint bday parties on Saturday.... and somewhere in there I should be working on my PSA poetry chapbook + reading the 3 new books I aquired. hmmm.... I need a nap just thinking about the rest of this week.

Come To This/ No/Seriously/ Come To This This

The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel- 2nd Floor

The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel – Second Floor
BOOK LAUNCH READING AND RELEASE PARTY!

December 3rd, 2007
7-9 PM
KGB Bar
85 East 4th Street, NYC
FREE!!!

Featuring: Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Ana Bozicevic-Bowling, Bruce Covey, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Kate Greenstreet, Shafer Hall, editor Reb Livingston, Justin Marks, Gina Meyers, Carly Sachs, Allyson Salaza, Evie Shockley, and Nicole Steinberg

Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel – Second Floor contributors:

Eric Abbott * Deborah Ager * Malaika King Albrecht * William Allegrezza * Molly Arden * Cynthia Arrieu-King * Robyn Art * Sandra Beasley * Aaron Belz * Erin M. Bertram * Mary Biddinger * Ana Bozicevic-Bowling * Timothy Bradford * Joseph Bradshaw * Jason Bredle * Jenny Browne * Jenna Cardinale * Bruce Covey * Phil Crippen * Susan Denning * Michelle Detorie * Laurel K. Dodge * Mark DuCharme * Peg Duthie * kari edwards * AnnMarie Eldon * Jill Alexander Essbaum * Julie R. Enszer * Noah Falck * Michael Farrell * Katie Fesuk * Adam Fieled * Alice Fogel * Elisa Gabbert * Eric Gelsinger * Scott Glassman * David B. Goldstein * Dean Gorman * Anne Gorrick * Lea Graham * Kate Greenstreet * Piotr Gwiazda * Shafer Hall * Josh Hanson * Nathan Hoks * Donald Illich * Salwa C. Jabado * Charles Jensen * Jim Kober * Ron Klassnik * Jennifer L. Knox * Dorothee Lang * Sueyeun Juliette Lee * David Lehman * Reb Livingston * Rebecca Loudon * Justin Marks * Clay Matthews * Kristi Maxwell * Gary L. McDowell * Erika Meitner * Didi Menendez * Michael Meyerhofer * Steve Mueske * Gina Myers * Cheryl Pallant * Shann Palmer * Alison Pelegrin * Simon Perchik * Derek Pollard * Andrea Potos * Cati Porter * Laurie Price * Jessy Randall * Kim Roberts * Anthony Robinson * Carly Sachs * John Sakkis * Allyson Salazar * Christine Scanlon * Margot Schilpp * Morgan Lucas Schuldt * Patty Seyburn * Peter Jay Shippy * Evie Shockley * Alex Smith * Hugh Steinberg * Nicole Steinberg * Alison Stine * Mathias Svalina * Erik Sweet * Eileen R. Tabios * Bronwen Tate * Molly Tenenbaum * Chris Tonelli * Letitia Trent * Jen Tynes * Michael Quattrone * Ashley VanDoorn * Fritz Ward * J. Marcus Weekley * Betsy Wheeler * Theodore Worozbyt * Kim Young

Because Today Is Nothing Like I Expected It To Be

LII
by E.E. Cummings


life is more true than reason will deceive
(more secret or than madness did reveal)
deeper is life than lose: higher than have
--but beauty is more each than living's all

multiplied with infinity sans if
the mightiest mediations of mankind
cancelled are by one merely opening leaf
(beyond whose nearness there is no beyond)

or does some littler bird than eyes can learn
look up to silence and completely sing?
futures are obsolete; past are unborn
(here less than nothing's more than everything)

death, as men call him, ends what they call men
--but beauty is more now than dying's when

Beirut - Elephant Gun

Every City's Bird

CALQUE ISSUE 3 OUT NOW!/ Calling all translators

This is a translation-focused magazine looking to expand its readership and its translators. Issue 3 has a translation by none other than Sawako Nakayasu!

Check out Calque here:http://calquezine.blogspot.com/