Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Are You a Dom or Sub or Both?
I recently read Nick Courtright's blog Tier 3 and his thoughts on submissions sent my own mind wandering. I think it's a good post- gets one to think about ego, the role of poems kept or shared, and the intrinsic vs extrinsic nature of writing/creating. The comments are definitely worth checking out as well.
One of the things Courtright touched on was the "act of submission or submitting" and the fact that he feels dread-- you know that feeling like he's doing something wrong. I think this is because of the nature of the word itself. Submission is to put yourself or poems to the will of another in hopes of approval/reward. This is why Subs and Doms consist of a subsection of sexual deviance (deviance here conveys a good thing as the act of deviance is compared to the moralistic right). There are those that have a burning need to be dominated and this domination, in turn, results in pleasure, and there are those who get off on the dominating i.e. control every emotion/physical action/reaction. My assumption is that Courtright prolly doesn't visit or desire to spend much time with Doms and to take it out of the sexual realm-- he prolly doesn't even surround himself with a bunch of bossy, demanding friends which is why he feels such dread when it comes time to submit. He toys with the thought of hoarding all of his poems so that they are discovered and published only after his death ala Dickinson. This, appears to me my friends, as the ultimate form of control- the easiest way to keep him-- which the creative process is a manifestation of. Once he's dead then something greater than life has taken over and his hands are clean.
Yet, like a lot of us, Courtright does submit. He gives in to the unpleasantness of it all and fills out those SASE, folds those poems, writes those cover letters, attaches his document and hits send. Why? Simple because he reads and respects the journals and wants to be included (no matter how painful the process) in the ongoing conversation that each journal puts forth. Most of us not only find an ego-pleasing thrill to see our names in print or on screen, but an even greater thrill when we recognize and respect the company we are included in. Certainly when Sink Review published my poems I was even more excited when I realized that I was included with J. Mae Barizo, CA Conrad, Julia Cohen/ Mathias Svalinas, and Nicole Steinberg (who edits LIT, which is a journal I once read for).
So this leaves me with a few questions:
What if journals came up with another name? Something other than submission? A name not so easily rooted in binaries of Master/Slave context? Would those that dread submitting feel better? (& you have to dread submitting- not getting rejected- there is a huge distinction between the two)
For the poets that also edit journals does this give you a chance of ultimately evening out your Dom/Sub tendencies, therefore keeping a harmonious ying/yang effect?
Should I be doing something better with my Saturday morning like drinking coffee and eating breakfast and having real-life interactions?
One of the things Courtright touched on was the "act of submission or submitting" and the fact that he feels dread-- you know that feeling like he's doing something wrong. I think this is because of the nature of the word itself. Submission is to put yourself or poems to the will of another in hopes of approval/reward. This is why Subs and Doms consist of a subsection of sexual deviance (deviance here conveys a good thing as the act of deviance is compared to the moralistic right). There are those that have a burning need to be dominated and this domination, in turn, results in pleasure, and there are those who get off on the dominating i.e. control every emotion/physical action/reaction. My assumption is that Courtright prolly doesn't visit or desire to spend much time with Doms and to take it out of the sexual realm-- he prolly doesn't even surround himself with a bunch of bossy, demanding friends which is why he feels such dread when it comes time to submit. He toys with the thought of hoarding all of his poems so that they are discovered and published only after his death ala Dickinson. This, appears to me my friends, as the ultimate form of control- the easiest way to keep him-- which the creative process is a manifestation of. Once he's dead then something greater than life has taken over and his hands are clean.
Yet, like a lot of us, Courtright does submit. He gives in to the unpleasantness of it all and fills out those SASE, folds those poems, writes those cover letters, attaches his document and hits send. Why? Simple because he reads and respects the journals and wants to be included (no matter how painful the process) in the ongoing conversation that each journal puts forth. Most of us not only find an ego-pleasing thrill to see our names in print or on screen, but an even greater thrill when we recognize and respect the company we are included in. Certainly when Sink Review published my poems I was even more excited when I realized that I was included with J. Mae Barizo, CA Conrad, Julia Cohen/ Mathias Svalinas, and Nicole Steinberg (who edits LIT, which is a journal I once read for).
So this leaves me with a few questions:
What if journals came up with another name? Something other than submission? A name not so easily rooted in binaries of Master/Slave context? Would those that dread submitting feel better? (& you have to dread submitting- not getting rejected- there is a huge distinction between the two)
For the poets that also edit journals does this give you a chance of ultimately evening out your Dom/Sub tendencies, therefore keeping a harmonious ying/yang effect?
Should I be doing something better with my Saturday morning like drinking coffee and eating breakfast and having real-life interactions?
Friday, August 29, 2008
STAINED
Friday, August 29th 7pm Stain Bar
I'm definitely interested in this reading esp. to actually hear Valzhyna Mort's poems. The few I've read did not ignite fires in my mind, but she has received a ton of press. Poets hate to think that marketing plays a part in our little writing worlds but the fact that Franz Wright is listed as a translator is suspect. He has admitted to basically suggesting her to change one word for another (after that original word had already been translated into English). Could it be linking an up & comer to a "bigger name?" Wright read with her a while back and brought her to Copper Canyon's attention. She's also young, and cute, can be marketed as an "exotic other" and runs a black metal record label... yet her poems have won all these awards (as if that matters) and as easily as some people loathe her writing (read the Cold Front review) others absolutely adore it (see cover and feature ish of Poets & Writers). This reading will give me a good chance to hear her text coming from her mouth. That's assuming I can do Staten Island to Manhattan, eat, and then head into Brooklyn by 7. That my friends is a very big IF.
valzhyna mort born in minsk, belarus. second book of poetry “factory of tears” came out in april 2008 from copper canyon press, usa. (the first one was published in minsk in 2005 and called “i’m as thin as your eyelashes”). previously was a writer-in-residence at several international locations, also received two international poetry prizes. besides the united states, “factory of tears” was published in sweden and will come out in 2009 in germany. apart from poetry, valzhyna mort runs a black metal music label.
Anna Moschovakis is the author of a book of poems,_I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone_, and of several chapbooks, including most recently _No Medea_ , a Tinyside from Big Game Books. She is also a translator of French poetry and prose and an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse.
Ryan Murphy is the author of Down With the Ship from Otis Books/Seismicity Editions. He has received awards from Chelsea magazine and the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as a grant from the Fund for Poetry. He lives in New York.
Matvei Yankelevich edited and translated TODAY I WROTE NOTHING: THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF DANIIL KHARMS (Overlook, 2007). He is a co-translator of OBERIU: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN ABSURDISM (2006). His translation of the Vladimir Mayakovsky’s poem “Cloud in Pants” appears in NIGHT WRAPS THE SKY: WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT MAYAKOVSKY (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2008). He is the author of a long poem, THE PRESENT WORK (Palm Press, 2006) and his writing has appeared in Fence, Open City, and many other literary journals. He teaches Russian Literature at Hunter College in New York City and edits the Eastern European Poets Series at Ugly Duckling Presse in Brooklyn.
Michael Ball grew up in North Carolina & spent most of his adult life in Brooklyn. He currently lives in Baltimore where he curates & hosts the i.e. reading series.
Joel Chace has published poetry and prose poetry in print and electronic magazines such as 6ix, Tomorrow, Lost and Found Times, Coracle, xStream, Three Candles, 2River View, Joey & the Black Boots, Recursive Angel, and Veer. He has published more than a dozen print and electronic collections. New from BlazeVox Books is CLEANING THE MIRROR: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, and from Paper Kite Press, MATTER NO MATTER, another full-length collection. For many years, Chace has been Poetry Editor for the experimental electronic magazine 5_Trope. Amphibian Productions theater company did a staged reading of his play TRIPTYCH, at the Arclight Theatre, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Spring, 2005.
stain
766 grand street
brooklyn, ny 11211
(L train to Grand Street,
1 block west)
718/387-7840
7pm reading
I'm definitely interested in this reading esp. to actually hear Valzhyna Mort's poems. The few I've read did not ignite fires in my mind, but she has received a ton of press. Poets hate to think that marketing plays a part in our little writing worlds but the fact that Franz Wright is listed as a translator is suspect. He has admitted to basically suggesting her to change one word for another (after that original word had already been translated into English). Could it be linking an up & comer to a "bigger name?" Wright read with her a while back and brought her to Copper Canyon's attention. She's also young, and cute, can be marketed as an "exotic other" and runs a black metal record label... yet her poems have won all these awards (as if that matters) and as easily as some people loathe her writing (read the Cold Front review) others absolutely adore it (see cover and feature ish of Poets & Writers). This reading will give me a good chance to hear her text coming from her mouth. That's assuming I can do Staten Island to Manhattan, eat, and then head into Brooklyn by 7. That my friends is a very big IF.
valzhyna mort born in minsk, belarus. second book of poetry “factory of tears” came out in april 2008 from copper canyon press, usa. (the first one was published in minsk in 2005 and called “i’m as thin as your eyelashes”). previously was a writer-in-residence at several international locations, also received two international poetry prizes. besides the united states, “factory of tears” was published in sweden and will come out in 2009 in germany. apart from poetry, valzhyna mort runs a black metal music label.
Anna Moschovakis is the author of a book of poems,_I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone_, and of several chapbooks, including most recently _No Medea_ , a Tinyside from Big Game Books. She is also a translator of French poetry and prose and an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse.
Ryan Murphy is the author of Down With the Ship from Otis Books/Seismicity Editions. He has received awards from Chelsea magazine and the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as a grant from the Fund for Poetry. He lives in New York.
Matvei Yankelevich edited and translated TODAY I WROTE NOTHING: THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF DANIIL KHARMS (Overlook, 2007). He is a co-translator of OBERIU: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN ABSURDISM (2006). His translation of the Vladimir Mayakovsky’s poem “Cloud in Pants” appears in NIGHT WRAPS THE SKY: WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT MAYAKOVSKY (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2008). He is the author of a long poem, THE PRESENT WORK (Palm Press, 2006) and his writing has appeared in Fence, Open City, and many other literary journals. He teaches Russian Literature at Hunter College in New York City and edits the Eastern European Poets Series at Ugly Duckling Presse in Brooklyn.
Michael Ball grew up in North Carolina & spent most of his adult life in Brooklyn. He currently lives in Baltimore where he curates & hosts the i.e. reading series.
Joel Chace has published poetry and prose poetry in print and electronic magazines such as 6ix, Tomorrow, Lost and Found Times, Coracle, xStream, Three Candles, 2River View, Joey & the Black Boots, Recursive Angel, and Veer. He has published more than a dozen print and electronic collections. New from BlazeVox Books is CLEANING THE MIRROR: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, and from Paper Kite Press, MATTER NO MATTER, another full-length collection. For many years, Chace has been Poetry Editor for the experimental electronic magazine 5_Trope. Amphibian Productions theater company did a staged reading of his play TRIPTYCH, at the Arclight Theatre, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Spring, 2005.
stain
766 grand street
brooklyn, ny 11211
(L train to Grand Street,
1 block west)
718/387-7840
7pm reading
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Two More Tossed Coins Spinning Mid-air (The Poetry Contest continues)
I'm glad that the Cider House Review has opened up some serious discussion in regards to poetry contests. I appreciate all the comments I received on here or in person and especially the ones that clicked and read what Reb, Brooklyn, and Bill had to say on their blogs. Here are two more links. I have a bias. You read my bias. I also adore the poetry of Babara Jane Reyes so add that to my bias(es) too.
Barbara Jane Reyes
LJS
Barbara Jane Reyes
LJS
Coldfront Magazine Goes POP
The fine people behind Coldfront (for whom I've written a review or two) have given the magazine's look a face-lift and added a new section: POP. Jackie Clark (the editor of this section) refers to it as poets off poetry. Well sorta- its more like a poet writing an essay/review whose primary focus is music, but in the debut article Mr. Frank O'hara makes a guest appearance and the article ends with a poem. I think this is an excellent and exciting expansion and can't wait to read more of them.
Check out the first one here!
Check out the first one here!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Crazy Poets Getting Down
Deep Disco (aka roommate) left for California today which means I have a fridge full of amazing CSA produce to eat all by my lonesome. She suggested that I find myself a "dinner friend." Damn. Do you want to be my dinner friend?
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Tonight's reading looks like this:
Steve Caratzas and Mike Donough read at Home Sweet Home hosted by Steve Roberts
7pm 151 Chrystie Street
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I'm cutting and pasting tomorrow's reading straight from Julia Cohen's blog 'cause I feel exactly like she feels,
I'm going to this on Thursday. I really can't imagine how this is all going to play out:
Join Drunken Boat, international online journal of the arts , in an exhibition of literary and multimedia arts. Join Guggenheim fellow Meena Alexander, vocalist and sound artist LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Hertog Fellow and fiction writer Geronimo Madrid, sound sculptor Sawako, poet Jerry Williams, Sarah Lawrence professor and installation artist Robin Starbuck, and Tribeca and LA film festival featured musician Jonathan Zalben in a performance to promote the forthcoming tenth anniversary issue (Winter 08/09).
Sponsored by Singha Beer and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Suggested donation $5.
Thursday, August 28th, 2008. 7:00 pm.
At
The Asian American Writers' Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A
New York, NY 10001
(p) 212.494.0061
http://www.aaww.org/
FEATURING:
Meena Alexander's six books of poetry include *Illiterate Heart* , which won the PEN Open Book Award, *Raw Silk* and *Quickly Changing River* (2008). She has written a memoir *Fault Lines*; a book of essays and poems Shock of Arrival: Reflections on PostColonial Experience and edited *Indian Love Poems* She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. She is Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Currently she is working on a new volume of poems as well as essays on poetry, migration and memory.
Writer, vocalist and sound artist, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, is the author of three chapbooks which include Ichi-Ban and Ni-Ban (MOH Press), and Manuel is destroying my bathroom (Belladonna Press), as well as the album, TelevisÃon. Her work has been published in Nocturnes, Rattapallax, Spoken Word Revolution Redux, drumvoices review, and Tea Party Magazine. LaTasha has recieved scholarships, residencies, and fellowships from Cave Canem, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, Naropa Institute, Caldera Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Eban Demarest Trust. LaTasha is the poetry curator for, www.exittheapple.com. She is a Harlem Elohi Aniyunwiya Native.
Geronimo Madrid's fiction has appeared in The Literary Review, Bomb! Magazine, storySouth.com, and at www.drunkenboat.com . In 2007, the New York State Writers Institute at Skidmore College awarded him the Mimi Bresler Smith & Patricia Robertson Amusa-Shonubi Minority Scholarship. And in April 2008, he was invited to read at the New York Public Library in its regular series, "Periodically Speaking: Literary-Magazine Editors Introduce Emerging Writers at The New York Public Library." He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Hunter College, where he was a Hertog Fellow.
Sawako is a sound sculptor who understands the value of dynamics and the power of silence. Once through the processor named Sawako, subtle fragments in everyday life float in space vividly with a digital yet organic texture. Her unique sonic world has been called "post romantic sound" by Boston's Weekly Dig. Sawako released 4 solo albums from 12k and Anticipate. She has performed internationally in MUTEK (Canada); Warm Up at P.S.1, Tonic, Roulette, Issue Project Room, Starbucks Salon (NYC); Corcoran Gallery (Washington DC); UCLA Hammer Museum (LA); Glade Festival, ICA (UK); OFFF (Lisbon); Apple Store (Japan) etc. Born in Nagoya, Japan, Sawako obtained a Master's degree at ITP, NYU. www.troncolon.com
Robin Starbuck, Assistant Professor at Sarah Lawrence, Associate Degree Programs, is a multmedia/installation artist who holds her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Installation & Performance Art. She exhibits her work in installation, video, and experimental drawing nationally & internationally. Before relocating to New York City in 2002, she taught as a full time Assistant Professor of Art in sculpture & new media for Wesleyan College in Georgia and as an Adjunct Professor in critical writing for the Atlanta College of Art.
Jerry Williams lives in the Bronx and teaches at Marymount Manhattan College. His poetry and nonfiction have appeared in such magazines as American Poetry Review, Pleiades, Tin House, Witness and many others. In 2003, Carnegie Mellon University Press published his collection of poems, Casino of the Sun, which was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A new collection of poems, Admission, is due out from Carnegie Mellon in 2009.
Jonathan Zalben's music for film, theater, and television has been shown at Slamdance, SXSW, Tribeca, LA Film Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, and Chicago SketchFest. His orchestral works have been performed by the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra and the New York University Orchestra. Zalben holds a U.S. patent for a muffler design.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tonight's reading looks like this:
Steve Caratzas and Mike Donough read at Home Sweet Home hosted by Steve Roberts
7pm 151 Chrystie Street
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I'm cutting and pasting tomorrow's reading straight from Julia Cohen's blog 'cause I feel exactly like she feels,
I'm going to this on Thursday. I really can't imagine how this is all going to play out:
Join Drunken Boat, international online journal of the arts , in an exhibition of literary and multimedia arts. Join Guggenheim fellow Meena Alexander, vocalist and sound artist LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Hertog Fellow and fiction writer Geronimo Madrid, sound sculptor Sawako, poet Jerry Williams, Sarah Lawrence professor and installation artist Robin Starbuck, and Tribeca and LA film festival featured musician Jonathan Zalben in a performance to promote the forthcoming tenth anniversary issue (Winter 08/09).
Sponsored by Singha Beer and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Suggested donation $5.
Thursday, August 28th, 2008. 7:00 pm.
At
The Asian American Writers' Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A
New York, NY 10001
(p) 212.494.0061
http://www.aaww.org/
FEATURING:
Meena Alexander's six books of poetry include *Illiterate Heart* , which won the PEN Open Book Award, *Raw Silk* and *Quickly Changing River* (2008). She has written a memoir *Fault Lines*; a book of essays and poems Shock of Arrival: Reflections on PostColonial Experience and edited *Indian Love Poems* She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. She is Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Currently she is working on a new volume of poems as well as essays on poetry, migration and memory.
Writer, vocalist and sound artist, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, is the author of three chapbooks which include Ichi-Ban and Ni-Ban (MOH Press), and Manuel is destroying my bathroom (Belladonna Press), as well as the album, TelevisÃon. Her work has been published in Nocturnes, Rattapallax, Spoken Word Revolution Redux, drumvoices review, and Tea Party Magazine. LaTasha has recieved scholarships, residencies, and fellowships from Cave Canem, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, Naropa Institute, Caldera Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Eban Demarest Trust. LaTasha is the poetry curator for, www.exittheapple.com. She is a Harlem Elohi Aniyunwiya Native.
Geronimo Madrid's fiction has appeared in The Literary Review, Bomb! Magazine, storySouth.com, and at www.drunkenboat.com . In 2007, the New York State Writers Institute at Skidmore College awarded him the Mimi Bresler Smith & Patricia Robertson Amusa-Shonubi Minority Scholarship. And in April 2008, he was invited to read at the New York Public Library in its regular series, "Periodically Speaking: Literary-Magazine Editors Introduce Emerging Writers at The New York Public Library." He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Hunter College, where he was a Hertog Fellow.
Sawako is a sound sculptor who understands the value of dynamics and the power of silence. Once through the processor named Sawako, subtle fragments in everyday life float in space vividly with a digital yet organic texture. Her unique sonic world has been called "post romantic sound" by Boston's Weekly Dig. Sawako released 4 solo albums from 12k and Anticipate. She has performed internationally in MUTEK (Canada); Warm Up at P.S.1, Tonic, Roulette, Issue Project Room, Starbucks Salon (NYC); Corcoran Gallery (Washington DC); UCLA Hammer Museum (LA); Glade Festival, ICA (UK); OFFF (Lisbon); Apple Store (Japan) etc. Born in Nagoya, Japan, Sawako obtained a Master's degree at ITP, NYU. www.troncolon.com
Robin Starbuck, Assistant Professor at Sarah Lawrence, Associate Degree Programs, is a multmedia/installation artist who holds her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Installation & Performance Art. She exhibits her work in installation, video, and experimental drawing nationally & internationally. Before relocating to New York City in 2002, she taught as a full time Assistant Professor of Art in sculpture & new media for Wesleyan College in Georgia and as an Adjunct Professor in critical writing for the Atlanta College of Art.
Jerry Williams lives in the Bronx and teaches at Marymount Manhattan College. His poetry and nonfiction have appeared in such magazines as American Poetry Review, Pleiades, Tin House, Witness and many others. In 2003, Carnegie Mellon University Press published his collection of poems, Casino of the Sun, which was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A new collection of poems, Admission, is due out from Carnegie Mellon in 2009.
Jonathan Zalben's music for film, theater, and television has been shown at Slamdance, SXSW, Tribeca, LA Film Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, and Chicago SketchFest. His orchestral works have been performed by the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra and the New York University Orchestra. Zalben holds a U.S. patent for a muffler design.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
What Say You?
It's close to that time of the year again- the manuscript contest crave. Where poets go nutso polishing, revising, and sending out their little children hoping to find lovely homes between two soft covers, but before you send out endless checks maybe read the flip side of the coin. Good stuff on Reb's blog and a first hand account of Cider Press Review's on-going bad reputation here.
This isn't to say that I'm NOT going to send out my MS and eschew contest entirely, however, I will be extremely selective and limit it to only a few. Honestly, I don't have the time, money, or desire to send it out to a bunch of presses I just haven't heard of and who have published poets I've never read. (Which is to say when I have money, I 'd rather spend it on books and keep reading!)
A while back I entered a contest because I liked the journal, but Billy Collins was the judge. Was I crazy? Not that I have an intimate knowledge of Mr. Collins' taste, but I feel pretty comfortable in making the assumption that my poems are not exactly up his alley.
Why did I enter?
I had time on my hands (at my previous job) to work on the submission and money in my bank account. Billy Collins and Tony Hoagland both are judging what (to me, at least) appears to be A LOT of contests. I actually like some of Hoagland's poems, but what does his association with Cider Press Review do for his reputation. They already had problems with their "contest" even before he agreed the judge for them....
What do you think? Do you send out your MS because you think you can get Billy to chuckle, how do you feel about Tony? Do you even look to see who the judges are or check out the press? Or blindly send away to every contest listed in Poets & Writers?
What say y'all?
This isn't to say that I'm NOT going to send out my MS and eschew contest entirely, however, I will be extremely selective and limit it to only a few. Honestly, I don't have the time, money, or desire to send it out to a bunch of presses I just haven't heard of and who have published poets I've never read. (Which is to say when I have money, I 'd rather spend it on books and keep reading!)
A while back I entered a contest because I liked the journal, but Billy Collins was the judge. Was I crazy? Not that I have an intimate knowledge of Mr. Collins' taste, but I feel pretty comfortable in making the assumption that my poems are not exactly up his alley.
Why did I enter?
I had time on my hands (at my previous job) to work on the submission and money in my bank account. Billy Collins and Tony Hoagland both are judging what (to me, at least) appears to be A LOT of contests. I actually like some of Hoagland's poems, but what does his association with Cider Press Review do for his reputation. They already had problems with their "contest" even before he agreed the judge for them....
What do you think? Do you send out your MS because you think you can get Billy to chuckle, how do you feel about Tony? Do you even look to see who the judges are or check out the press? Or blindly send away to every contest listed in Poets & Writers?
What say y'all?
Monday, August 25, 2008
Cracked Pot Rhythms For Bear Dance
Emma was like any other mistress; and the charm of novelty gradually fell away like a garment, revealing in all its nakedness the eternal monotony of passion, which always has the same form and speaks the same language. He, this man of great experience, could not distinguish dissimilarities of feeling beneath similarities of expression. Because lascivious or venal lips had murmured the same words to him, he now had little belief in their sincerity when he heard them from Emma; they should be taken with a grain of salt, he thought, because the most exaggerated speeches usually hid the weakest feelings--as though the fullness of the soul did not sometimes overflow into the emptiest phrases, since no one can ever express the exact measure of his needs, his conceptions or his sorrows, and human speech is like a cracked pot on which we beat out rhythms for bears to dance to when we are striving to make music that will wring tears from the stars.
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Get 'em up- Saloon style
friday august 22nd 7:30 pm
85-101 N. 3rd St. #508
between wythe and berry
347-563-2060
take the L to bedford
open mike, three minutes--pls bring something to read!
Dan Magers has poems published in the tiny and Red China Magazine, and his chapbook Exploitation Poems published in 2007. He is a co-founder and editor of the online literary magazine Sink Review, and works in publishing. He lives in Brooklyn.
Eileen Kelly recently appeared on the "Today" show and headlined the L.A. Comedy festival. She was a semi-finalist in Nick at Nite's "Search for the Funniest Mom in America," was one of Toyota Comedy festival's "NY's Funniest Women." Her solo show, My Pony's in the Garage, premiered at the NY Fringe Festival where reviewers called it, "One of the best-written and best-performed shows in the festival" and likened it to "a middle-class version of `The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'Arrested Development.'" Her writing is featured in several joke books, including She's So Funny – 1,001 Jokes from the Best Female Comics.
So & So lives in New York City.
The lovely Chel O'Reilly will be our resident musician.
pls pls try to be here before eight pm because the doorman will not let you in without buzzing erika's apt
and as a courtesy to the readers, we would like to have the ringing be kept to a minimum thank you!!!
also, in sept, looks like the salon will be the 12th so mark your calendars now!
as always, 4 dollar donation, food and drink, and wonderful readers, plus music no shoes in the apt pls...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
85-101 N. 3rd St. #508
between wythe and berry
347-563-2060
take the L to bedford
open mike, three minutes--pls bring something to read!
Dan Magers has poems published in the tiny and Red China Magazine, and his chapbook Exploitation Poems published in 2007. He is a co-founder and editor of the online literary magazine Sink Review, and works in publishing. He lives in Brooklyn.
Eileen Kelly recently appeared on the "Today" show and headlined the L.A. Comedy festival. She was a semi-finalist in Nick at Nite's "Search for the Funniest Mom in America," was one of Toyota Comedy festival's "NY's Funniest Women." Her solo show, My Pony's in the Garage, premiered at the NY Fringe Festival where reviewers called it, "One of the best-written and best-performed shows in the festival" and likened it to "a middle-class version of `The Royal Tenenbaums' and 'Arrested Development.'" Her writing is featured in several joke books, including She's So Funny – 1,001 Jokes from the Best Female Comics.
So & So lives in New York City.
The lovely Chel O'Reilly will be our resident musician.
pls pls try to be here before eight pm because the doorman will not let you in without buzzing erika's apt
and as a courtesy to the readers, we would like to have the ringing be kept to a minimum thank you!!!
also, in sept, looks like the salon will be the 12th so mark your calendars now!
as always, 4 dollar donation, food and drink, and wonderful readers, plus music no shoes in the apt pls...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Made In Hong Kong To Here Have Some Poetry
Unless, I'm expecting a Netflix, checking the mail tends to be a dreaded exercise especially since it always contains credit card or student loan bills so yesterday provided a nice surprise to what was shaping up to be a lackluster day. My friend, Nicole Wong, sent me a copy of Hong Kong's Muse, which contains her story written in English (& translated into the Chinese by Chor Koon Fai.) Nicole emailed me the story a while back, but nothing compares to having a copy of your friend in print, don't you agree? I guess that's not a very green thing to say, but blame it on Whitman 'cause ever since reading him I've wanted a shelf lined with publications of my friends and of course, myself.
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But to up my greeness check out these links for poetry. A new ish of diode, a new online journal, and an older one that I don't think I've mentioned before.
http://diodepoetry.com/
Sous Rature
Critiphoria
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Slowed Down
I went to my parents' house last week and saw Dark Knight with my sister, two nieces, and nephew. The movie was good but definitely not great or maybe it really needs to be seen on IMAX.
Other than that I haven't been up to too much. I saw Battles & Black Dice play at Central Park's Summer Stage on Saturday, but didn't make it to Aesop Rock on Sunday, instead I lounged around the park enjoying the weather and avoided cleaning my room. I met up with some friends in Fort Greene at night & we all hung out on a stoop watching the rats run from the park to the garden. My one friend S is terrified of rats, my other friend S is only a little less terrified of rats.
I finished reading Canarium and Cutbank 69- both are good. I read some of The Saint Ann's Review Winter 2008 and had mixed feelings so I put it on hold to read Crazyhorse Number 73 and redivider spring 2008. Sadly both crazyhorse and redivider have poems by Billy Collins. As a rule, I don't read anything written by a Billy. Just the way I roll these days.
My colleague and friend Dan Magers is reading on Friday. I'll post the details later this week. Now I need to make coffee and seriously write out a syllabus. The plan is to do one today & do the other one on Thursday. I talked with my friend, Melissa & she hasn't written hers out either. I feel better. What about the rest of you adjunct junkies?
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
TooSoonTooSoon
Looks like I posted the Staten Island Ferry image a little too soon. The class I was offered was pulled due to low registration & with me being in Queens 3 days a week it was too difficult to find another class to fit my schedule.
Time for Plan B... remind me, what was Plan B again?
I'll be in jersey (not my favorite place) visiting my parents for a few days so I'll be without internet. In other words lots of reading, dvd & Olympic watching. Speaking of which I thought China was going to beat Spain in basketball... I have the feeling that if Yi could play consistent mediocre defense China would have gotten a huge upset win.
Damn underdogs I was pulling for you!
Since it's unlikely I'll post again until next week, I figured I'd leave y'all with a poem. I just finished reading Alex Lemon's Hallelujah Blackout.
And No More May I Be
So this is calamity: calendula-
oiled hands cupping a mouth
that sings through the caving-
away thunderlight as the weeks
keep swinging by--house finches
shivering groundward in the catgut
blight. Black boughs absent of any
living weights. In the rain a man
ducks into his coat to light a smoke.
The park bitter with echoing space.
The park freezing. In the rain a man
ducks into his coat like the split-
ribbed chest of a dead horse
swallowing a wet-cheeked boy.
Benches slick red. Benches freezing.
In the rain a soaked man
watching the rain. In the rain
my hands pink hands numb
in the rain. Beneath the skin
a humming is. Geese wreathed
in their own winter-coming
breath. Skinhulled. Taut
skin bustling. Bottle caps old
buttons half-buried in the dirt.
Time for Plan B... remind me, what was Plan B again?
I'll be in jersey (not my favorite place) visiting my parents for a few days so I'll be without internet. In other words lots of reading, dvd & Olympic watching. Speaking of which I thought China was going to beat Spain in basketball... I have the feeling that if Yi could play consistent mediocre defense China would have gotten a huge upset win.
Damn underdogs I was pulling for you!
Since it's unlikely I'll post again until next week, I figured I'd leave y'all with a poem. I just finished reading Alex Lemon's Hallelujah Blackout.
And No More May I Be
So this is calamity: calendula-
oiled hands cupping a mouth
that sings through the caving-
away thunderlight as the weeks
keep swinging by--house finches
shivering groundward in the catgut
blight. Black boughs absent of any
living weights. In the rain a man
ducks into his coat to light a smoke.
The park bitter with echoing space.
The park freezing. In the rain a man
ducks into his coat like the split-
ribbed chest of a dead horse
swallowing a wet-cheeked boy.
Benches slick red. Benches freezing.
In the rain a soaked man
watching the rain. In the rain
my hands pink hands numb
in the rain. Beneath the skin
a humming is. Geese wreathed
in their own winter-coming
breath. Skinhulled. Taut
skin bustling. Bottle caps old
buttons half-buried in the dirt.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Present Prescence Presents Past Flashed
Friday I eased on up out of bed and met Veronica at the Grand Central Terminal then we departed on a quick train trip to PS.1. There were many many highlights (some of which can be read on Veronica's blog) so I just suggest you go check it out yourself. It's definitely one of the better exhibits in the New York Metro area. One of the exhibits consisted of Complaint Choirs. I sent this link to my friend, Nicole, in HK and she said Hong Kong doesn't have one 'cause no one complains there- she's funny. I replied yeah no complains in the US either.
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Friday night I met Deep Disco and we took in the Olympic ceremonies. Pretty awesome stuff.
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I missed a picnic & a bike ride on Saturday (I still haven't fixed my bike) but went the poetry reading at Melville House which was quite good. Then I met up with my friend Ship and we went to O.C. to hear our astrologies... but the reader did them in groups of 6 to 8 so nothing too specific was obtained... although she mentioned that Aquarius are pretty much fucked for money culminating in a large-scale disaster on September 15th. Hmmm.... Should all Aquarius play the lotto on the 15th just to give the stars a cosmic chuckle??
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Sunday I streamed the USA vs China basketball game. The result of this is that I didn't make it to CA's BPC play/reading performance, but I maintained a shred of Philly cred by attending Juliette's Corollary Press reading. Juliette is super-sweet and just oozes warmth- writers must feel lucky to have her as their editor/publisher. Tisa Bryant read and we both know that we know each other but couldn't figure out how....Do you know how Tisa and I know each other?
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Now here we are Monday. Tonight's reading looks like this:
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Friday night I met Deep Disco and we took in the Olympic ceremonies. Pretty awesome stuff.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I missed a picnic & a bike ride on Saturday (I still haven't fixed my bike) but went the poetry reading at Melville House which was quite good. Then I met up with my friend Ship and we went to O.C. to hear our astrologies... but the reader did them in groups of 6 to 8 so nothing too specific was obtained... although she mentioned that Aquarius are pretty much fucked for money culminating in a large-scale disaster on September 15th. Hmmm.... Should all Aquarius play the lotto on the 15th just to give the stars a cosmic chuckle??
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sunday I streamed the USA vs China basketball game. The result of this is that I didn't make it to CA's BPC play/reading performance, but I maintained a shred of Philly cred by attending Juliette's Corollary Press reading. Juliette is super-sweet and just oozes warmth- writers must feel lucky to have her as their editor/publisher. Tisa Bryant read and we both know that we know each other but couldn't figure out how....Do you know how Tisa and I know each other?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now here we are Monday. Tonight's reading looks like this:
7x7
7 poets at
7 min at
7pm at
7th St.
& First Ave
The International Bar
back patio
120 1/2 1st Ave
Monday August 11
Gary Parrish
Lydia Cortes
Brenda Iijima
Greg Fuchs
Marcella Durand
Phyllis Wat
Jonas Mekas
hosted by stephanie gray
Friday, August 8, 2008
Links & 8 Corollary Arms 2 Hold You With
Post No Ills: An American Review... of Reviews
Coconut
Cortland Review
Sixth Finch
Oranges & Sardines
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Octopus & Xing press reading in DUMBO
Saturday, August 9th at 6PM Melville House celebrates the independent small press with a poetry reading featuring three new books: Undersleep by Julie Doxsee (Octopus), The Senator Letters by Jeremy Schmall (X-ing) and More Perfect Depictions of Noise by Justin Taylor (X-ing). The authors are joined by Matvei Yankelevich, author of The Present Work (Palm Press) and editor and translator of Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms (Overlook). Melville House is located at 145 Plymouth Street in DUMBO. F to York Street.
Hope to see you there!
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Matvei Yankelevich edited and translated TODAY I WROTE NOTHING: THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF DANIIL KHARMS (Overlook, 2007). He is a co-translator of OBERIU: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN ABSURDISM (2006). His translation of the Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem "Cloud in Pants" appears in NIGHT WRAPS THE SKY: WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT MAYAKOVSKY (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2008). He is the author of a long poem, THE PRESENT WORK (Palm Press, 2006) and his writing has appeared in Fence, Open City, and many other literary journals. He teaches Russian Literature at Hunter College in New York City and edits the Eastern European Poets Series at Ugly Duckling Presse in Brooklyn.
Jeremy Schmall is the editor and founder of The Agriculture Reader, a small-run, handmade arts annual. He is the author of The Senator Letters, Underneath an Obnoxious Moon, and an artist book, The Slapdown. He's been published in Hotel St. George, Pilot, Juked, and Forklift, Ohio. He lives in Brooklyn.
Julie Doxsee's poems have appeared recently in over thirty-five national and international journals, including Aufgabe, Fourteen Hills, and Tarpaulin Sky. Forthcoming publications include two books: Objects for a Fog Death (Black Ocean, 2008/2009) and Undersleep (Octopus Books 2007/2008), and two chapbooks: You Will Build a City Out of Rags (Whole Coconut 2007) and New Body a Seafloor Body (Seeing Eye Books 2008). The Knife-Grasses (Octopus Books), and Fog Quartets (horse less press) are now available. Beginning Fall 2007, she will join the full-time faculty at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey.
Justin Taylor is the author of More Perfect Depictions of Noise. He is also the editor of two books: The Apocalypse Reader (Thunder's Mouth) and Come Back, Donald Barthelme (McSweeney's). He is the co-editor of The Agriculture Reader. His writing has appeared in numerous online and print publications, and he has been honored by Best American Essays (2007) and Best of the Web (2008). http://www.justindtaylor.net/
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Dear Lovely Friends,
I've organized a reading for one of my stellar Corollary authors, Summi Kaipa, on Sunday August 10th in Brooklyn. It is a rare treat to have her on the East Coast, and I'm thrilled at the opportunity to introduce her work to new audiences as well as invite those already familiar with her writing to have the pleasure of hearing her read. She'll be reading with the equally talented Tisa Bryant, whose recent book Unexplained Presence ought to be on everyone's reading list. Their bios are located below.
Sunday, August 10th
5pm
Corollary Press Presents Summi Kaipa and Tisa Bryant
Unnameable Books (Previously Adam's Books)
456 Bergen Street, Brooklyn
www.corollarypress.blogspot.
Tisa Bryant is the author of Unexplained Presence (Leon Works, 2007), a collection of original, hybrid essays that remix narratives from eurocentric film, literature and visual arts and zoom in on the black presences operating within them. She is currently working on [the curator], a fiction that meditates on identity, visual culture and the lost films of auteur Justine Cable, co-editing an anthology for AIDS Project Los Angeles, and is madly working to get Vol. 2 F-K of the Encyclopedia Project in the hopper.
Summi Kaipa has authored several chapbooks, including "The Epics" (Leroy Press), "One: I Beg You Be Still" (Belladonna), and most recently "The Language Parable" (Corollary Press). For eight years, she was the editor of Interlope, a magazine publishing innovative writing by Asian Americans, and in 2002, she received a Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize to write and produce her first play. Once a resident of SF's bustling Mission District, Kaipa now resides in a quiet neighborhood in North Berkeley, where she has been earning a degree in clinical psychology and making excruciatingly slow progress on her first full-length manuscript.
Corollary Press is a small chapbook series devoted to new work by writers of color. Published out of Philadelphia, all books are hand-sewn in small editions of 150. Sueyeun Juliette Lee, the editor, specifically seeks out work by authors that challenge notions of difference, aesthetics, and genre
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Thursday, August 7, 2008
7:32 Thursday Evening
On Tuesday I met Dan, Julia, & Mathias for the rooftop reading in Central Park. There was talk of dinner afterwards but I was tired & preoccupied. I hadn't really talked to anyone that day & felt my conversational skills were still taking a nap. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I missed the official 20 Years of the Pig- A Dick Pig Review Anthology party. I heard it was a good time. I had an interview scheduled for the morning which would require me getting up early, taking a train, taking the Staten Island Ferry, then taking a bus, & finally taking the College Loop Shuttle. You can understand why someone would need to get a good night's sleep for that couldn't you? I interviewed with Timothy Gray who is just putting the finishing touches on his ms about the New York School of poetry and urban pastoral. He's been working on it for about 10 years. Yup can't wait to queqe that one up on my goodreads' list.
So come September instead of trekking out to the plush suburbs of Westchester I'll now be traveling to Queens & Staten Island, but at least its not 5 days a week for 8hr shifts!!
My friend Meghan (curator of WoM) is auctioning herself off tonight for a good cause at Alibi. She's cute so you should come and bid on her so she doesn't get stuck with some cheap-ass bum & buy us both beers- yeah we'd like that very much thank you.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Brooklyn Pigs & Manhattan Roofies
I'm not reading at this// this is more of a hangout and paaaarty sorta affair.... I will TRY to make it into BK for this at some point in the evening++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Academy of American Poets Presents:
Poetry From the Rooftops. Join us for our final reading of the summer. Step out of the flow of traffic and hear these three poets "bare their brains to heaven":
Oni Buchanan, Darcie Dennigan, and Abraham Smith
Tuesday, August 5
6:30 p.m.
FREE
Email rsvp@parks.nyc.gov to reserve your free ticket.
Location: Rooftop of The Arsenal Building, Central Park, 64th Street at 5th Avenue.
Rain Venue: In case of rain, readings will be moved inside The Arsenal Building.
Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and Poets & Writers
About the Readers:
Oni Buchanan's second poetry collection, Spring, was selected by Mark Doty as a winner of the 2007 National Poetry Series, and is forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press. Her first collection, What Animal, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2003. Buchanan is an accomplished concert pianist and maintains a private piano studio in Boston.
Darcie Dennigan's first collection, Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse, was selected by Alice Fulton for the Poets Out Loud Prize published by Fordham University Press in 2008. She is a recipient of the 2007 Discovery /The Nation poetry prize. Dennigan lives in Rhode Island.
Abraham Smith is the author of Whim Man Mammon, recently published by Action Books. A 2004 Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, he is originally from Ladysmith, Wisconsin.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Apparently they are already saying this is full so if you haven't rsvp'd come at your own risk...
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I had a mad fun night with deep disco yesterday & got a super-AWESOME (that capitalization is for David Lehman-peep his poem in Coconut) acceptance letter from No Tell Motel, which is super exciting 'cause it 's one of my regular reads and I was just telling J.Mae that recently I have only gotten rejection letters/emails.
Speaking of J.Mae she'll have poem(s) forthcoming in Prairie Schooner. J.Mae and Veronica Wong workshopped at least two of the poems that I just got accepted. These two poets are LEGIT and speaking of V. super excited/envious that she'll have poems in Denver Quarterly. Big ups to J & V.
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