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