Wednesday, April 29, 2009

10, 20, 30, 40, tell me that you want to hold me


Book Party to Celebrate the Release of Eric Baus' Tuned Droves

featuring readings from
Eric Baus
Cathy Park Hong
Karla Kelsey
& Keith Newton

music from Snowblink

Sunday May 3, 5:30-8pm
location: 267 douglass st, brooklyn, ny

from Union St (R / M trains): walk north three blocks on 4th Ave &
turn left on Douglass
from Atlantic / Pacific: walk south on 4th Ave for seven blocks & turn
right on Douglass

Eric Baus' Tuned Droves can also be ordered at
http://www.octopusbooks.net
Read reviews here & here

This is a Yardmeter Editions Event: http://yardmeter.blogspot.com/
Yardmeter Editions is an events series that brings together artists,
writers, playwrights & other creative types in an informal setting in
the Gowanaus neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY.

Eric Baus was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1975. His publications
include Tuned Droves (Octopus Books, 2009), The To Sound (Verse Press,
2004; Winner of the 2002 Verse Press, selected by Forrest Gander), and
the chapbooks The Space Between Magnets (Diaeresis), A Swarm In The
Aperture (Margin to Margin), and Something Else The Music Was
(Braincase Press). He edits Minus House chapbooks, and currently lives
in Denver.

More information about Eric Baus can be found in http://baustralia.wordpress.com

Cathy Park Hong's first book, Translating Mo'um was published in 2002
by Hanging Loose Press. Her second collection, Dance Dance Revolution,
was chosen for the Barnard Women Poets Prize & was published in 2007
by WW Norton. Hong is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship & a Village Voice
Fellowship for Minority Reporters. Her poems have been published in A
Public Space, Paris Review, Poetry, American Letters & Commentary,
Denver Quarterly, Jubilat, & other journals. She now lives in New York
City & is an Assistant Professor at Sarah Lawrence College.

For more information about her explore http://www.cathyparkhong.com

Karla is the author of Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary, which was
selected by Carolyn Forche for the 2005 Sawtooth Poetry Prize. Little
Dividing Doors in the Mind, a chapbook, was published by Noemi Press
in 2005. Her recently completed manuscript, Iteration Nets, is
forthcoming from Ahsahta Press. Work from this book can be found in
journals such as Denver Quarterly, the New Review of Literature, and
Bird Dog. In addition, poems from this manuscript are included in the
anthology Joyful Noise: An Anthology of American Spiritual Poetry.
Karla was born and raised in Southern California & is now on the
creative writing faculty at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania.

To learn more about Karla go to http://www.karlakelsey.wordpress.com

Keith Newton edits the online magazine Harp & Altar. His poems &
essays have recently appeared in Harvard Review, Cannibal & Octopus,
among other journals. His chapbook Sent Forth to Die in a Happy City
was published this year from Cannibal Books. He lives in Brooklyn.

To peruse the wonderful Harp & Altar click here: http://www.harpandaltar.com

Snowblink is Daniela Gesundheit and a rotating roster of accompanying
musicians. Daniela was conceived in Las Vegas in July 1981. Snowblink
was conceived in Los Angeles, twenty-three years later. This is what
the musical belly brought: songs featuring a rotating roster of
four-to-seven boy back-up singers, fiddle, harp, banjo, pedal steel,
and party trumpets.

Learn more about them & order cds at http://www.snowblink.org
Listen to their music at http://www.myspace.com/snowblink

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

2 for You

Issue 5 of Parcel is up & so is the new issue of At-Large. Enjoy.

& what to do with these found hours?

My room is hot. I think it is putting me in a particular mood. When I say "particular" something negative is implicit. Surprisingly, my classroom was neither hot nor cold. I stood with sleeves rolled up & didn't feel a shiver nor a sweat. I didn't feel that class was a particularly good class. I think I'm too stressed about the classes I don't have (for summer/fall) that is is beginning to effect the class I do have. Sometimes don't you get a little tired of life?

Just a little?

After class I went to a book release party for Nathan Austin's book Survey Says! You can go here to check out the book.

After the book release party I graded papers and graded papers. I feel at a lost. Or I feel a loss. Sometimes the papers are amazing, but this wasn't one of those batches.

Here are some foods I have not eaten recently: grapefruit, oranges, bananas, yogurt, granola, trail mix, plantains, & Chinese broccoli.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Ups & Downs & Them Arounds

Saturday was rather stunning. I went to Roosevelt Island for the first time. Lila & I had a picnic. Here's what we ate: olives, olive tapenade, a baguette, brie, mozzarella, crackers, and beer. We also flew a kite. It was my first time flying a kite. I did not grow up flying kites.

Saturday night was fun time at Farrah & Jared's apartment in DUMBO. People read poetry, drank drinks, and mingled. You can see pictures (the ones with pirate hats) here.

Sunday my sister, two nieces, and nephew came into the city via South Jersey. We walked a lot. They got tired & probably slept really well last night.

I fell asleep around 9:30 while watching Sonic Youth videos. I woke up around 9:30 this morning & looked for work. I have received a lot of emails today, but none of them have been about work or poetry or even from friends. This makes me feel weighted & a bit sweaty. I am going to rinse my face, drink some water, and try to feel as light as light.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

They Come & Go Like That

Hey how was your weekend? I had the gnocci at Dumonts on Friday & then went to a going away party. If you were in New York then you know Saturday was beautiful so I spent it walking around the city, sitting, reading, etc then went to the Lungful release party then watched the Blazers play crappy basketball. Sunday I meant to attend the Alice Notely reading, but missed it. Did you go? How was it? Matthew Rohrer read last night with Laura Sims but I didn't go to that either. But I did email in a review. Now only three to go before the April 30th deadline. & there's that thing of a manuscript & there's that thing of a chapbook. I'm tired just thinking about it. I might go make dinner. I might download music. I might go over a lesson plan for tomorrow. But you should check your calendars & consider going to some of these:

Readings and music at KGB Bar with various past and current New School
MFA talent! Next Wednesday April 22!
Including:
Poets Ben Mirov and Brandon Johnson
Fiction Writer Minju Pak
Musician (and writer) Matt Everett with his duo Cloud Chamber,
featuring pianist Anne Damassa

All free!! And in the civilized time-slot of 7-9 PM.
KGB Bar is at 85 East 4th St. btw 2nd & 3rd Ave.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A CELEBRATION OF THE CHAPBOOK

A Celebration of the Chapbook festival calls attention to the rich history of the chapbook and highlights its essential place in poetry publishing today as a vehicle for alternative poetry projects and for emerging authors and editors to gain entry into the literary marketplace. The festival will forge a new platform for the study of the chapbook inside and outside the academy and celebrate the importance of chapbooks to America’s cultural heritage and future.

***Thursday, April 23***
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue & 34th St

***
Chapbook Fair
10:00am-6:00pm, The Elebash Recital Hall Lobby

***
Brief History of Chapbooks
3:00-4:30pm, The Elebash Recital Hall

With Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of the New York Public Library’s Berg Collection; Eric Lorberer, Editor of Rain Taxi; and Michael Ryan, Director of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia University. Moderated by Richard Kaye, Hunter College, CUNY

***
Chapbooks in the 20th and 21st Centuries
4:30-6:00pm, The Elebash Recital Hall

With Michael Basinski, Assistant Curator of the Poetry/Rare Books Collection of the University Libraries, SUNY at Buffalo; Anne Waldman, Chair and Artistic Director of Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program; and Kevin Young, Emory University. Moderated by Ammiel Alcalay, Queens College, CUNY.

***
Keynote Reading
6:00pm, The Elebash Recital Hall

Readings by Lytton Smith, Gerald Stern, Judith Vollmer, Kevin Young and others, with an introduction by Kimiko Hahn.

***Friday, April 24***
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue & 34th St

***
Chapbook Fair
10:00am-4:00pm, Rooms 8301/8304

***
Chapbook Now: Producing Chapbooks
A Workshop for Poets
10:00-11:30am, Room 8400

With Rachel Levitsky (Belladonna*); Sharon Dolin (The Center for Book Arts); and Ryan Murphy (North Beach Yacht Club). Moderated by Alice Quinn (Poetry Society of America).

***
Chapbook Now: Producing Chapbooks
A Workshop for Publishers
11:30am-1:00pm, Room 8402

With Jen Benka (Booklyn); Matvei Yankelevich (Ugly Duckling Presse); and Brenda Iijima
(Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs). Moderated by Rob Casper (Poetry Society of America).

To register, call (212) 817-2005 or e-mail abozicevic@gc.cuny.edu – registration is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.

***Friday, April 24***
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor

***
Bookmaking for Writers: A Studio Workshop
With Susan Mills and Karen Randall
2:00-5:00pm

Bookmaking for Publishers: A Studio Workshop
With Susan Mills and Karen Randall
2:00-5:00pm

To register, call (212) 481-0295 or e-mail info@centerforbookarts.org – registration is
offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. There's a $20 materials fee for each workshop.

***
RECEPTION
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
6:00 pm

All are welcome!

***Saturday, April 25***
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A

***
Collector’s Show-and-Tell:
The Secret History of Asian American Literature
Patricia Wakida
2:00-3:00pm

***
Publishing from the Margins
4:30-6:00pm

With Tan Lin; Dawn Lundy Martin (Third Wave Foundation, Black Took Collective); and Bushra Rehman. Moderated by Ken Chen (The Asian American Writers’ Workshop). Followed by a brief reading from the Workshop's Postcard Poetry Project.

***
RECEPTION
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A
6:00 pm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Poetry at A Public Space

A Public Space is hosting a poetry reading series this month here in our offices to celebrate National Poetry Month.

Thursday, April 23rd @ 7 pm featuring: Heather Christle, Idra Novey, Mathias Svalina

Venue: A Public Space

323 Dean Street (between 3rd and 4th Ave.)

Boerum Hill, Brooklyn 11217

718-858-8067

www.apublicspace.org

The readings are free, and they'll be followed by receptions.

Heather Christle grew up in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. She is the author of The Difficult Farm, a poetry collection forthcoming from Octopus Books.

Idra Novey’s first book of poems, The Next Country, was published by Alice James Books in fall 2008. She teaches in the School of the Arts at Columbia University and in the Bard College Prison Initiative.

Mathias Svalina is a co-editor of Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. He is the author of nine chapbooks and collaboratively written chapbooks. His first book, Destruction Myth, is forthcoming from the CSU Poetry Center in October.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Stain of Poetry: A Reading Series

April 24th @ 7 PM - Stain Bar - Williamsburg, Brooklyn featuring: Jennifer Burch, Heather Green, Chris Hosea, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Daniel Lin, Barry Schwabsky. Hosted by Amy King and Ana Božičević.

stain bar

766 grand street

brooklyn, ny 11211

(L train to Grand Street, 1 block west)

Jennifer Burch’s first book, No Matter, was released by The Winged Way (September 2008). Jennifer has published work in Article, Free Verse, Guernica, Left Facing Bird, Sal Mimeo, and Verse, and is included in Green Integer's forthcoming anthology, The Gertrude Stein Awards.

Heather Green's work has appeared in Barrow Street, DIAGRAM, The Hat, Lungfull!, Pebble Lake Review, Tarpaulin Sky, and other journals. She's the author of the chapbook The Match Array (Dancing Girl Press, 2008).

Chris Hosea's poems appear in VOLT, Swerve, Denver Quarterly, Article, Harvard Review, Iowa Review, and The Literary Review. With Cecily Iddings, he edits The Blue Letter, a free direct-mail poetry newsletter.

Sueyeun Juliette Lee edits Corollary Press, a chapbook series devoted to new work by writers of color. Recent work has appeared in Effing, One Less, and online at critiphoria.org. Her chapbooks include Mental Commitment Robots (yo yo labs), Perfect Villagers (Octopus Books) and Trespass Slightly In (Coconut). Her first full-length collection, That Gorgeous Feeling, is out from Coconut Books.

Daniel Lin has a chapbook, Tinder, from Nightboat Books (2004), and has recently published poems in Unsplendid and The Jewish Quarterly. He was a N.Y. Times Fellow at NYU and a Tennessee Williams Scholar at Sewanee Writers' Conference.

Barry Schwabsky is an American poet and art critic living in London. His new collection of poems, Book Left Open in the Rain, is published imminently by Black Square Editions and is available from SmallPpress Distribution. He writes regularly for The Nation and Artforum, among others. He is the author of Opera: Poems 1981-2002 (Meritage Press) and The Widening Circle: Consequences of Modernism in Contemporary Art (Cambridge University Press) as well as several chapbooks of poetry and contributions to dozens of books and exhibition catalogues on contemporary and modern art.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

EARSHOT!

Join us at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!

Friday, April 24th at 8 PM
@ Rose Live Music
Admission: $5 + FREE DRINK!

Hosted by Nicole Steinberg

Featuring:
Christine Leclerc (Counterfeit)
Chris Tonelli
(Wide Tree)
Stephen Weiss (New York University)
Lauren Hunter (The New School)
Selena Anderson (Columbia University)

ROSE LIVE MUSIC is located at 345 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Havemeyer and Marcy. Visit their website for directions: http://liveatrose.com.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Friday April 24th--Pete's Candy Store, 7 p.m.
with Jen Currin, Christine Leclerc, Farrah Field, and G.E. Patterson
709 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn
http://www.petescandystore.com/bigpoetry/index.html

Wednesday April 29th--Home Sweet Home, 7 p.m.
with Jared White & Farrah Field
131 Chrystie Street
http://thereadingseries.blogspot.com/


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


It's "poetrytime"

NADA GORDON
SHARON MESMER
GARY SULLIVAN


READ THIS SATURDAY
APRIL 25th @ 8pm
390 SENECA AVE.
CORNER OF SENECA & STANHOPE
RIDGEWOOD, QUEENS
BEER
POETRY
BEER
FLARF
BEER

Monday, April 20, 2009

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Lungfull of Notley

LUNGFULL GALA READING & RELEASE SPECTACULAR
SATURDAY 18 APRIL 2009 at 6:45PM
..................CELEBRATE A YEAR OF HORRIBLE MISTAKES
pow!

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER...MADE OF MOMENTS BEST LEFT FOROTTEN

ZINC
82 West 3rd Street NYC
Between Sullivan & Thompson
Subways: ACEBDQF to West 4th Street, or NR to Prince Street
MAP

ADMISSISON: $5-15 SLIDING SCALE / $20 GETS YOU IN PLUS A FREE COPY OF THE NEW ISSUE

IN PAST YEARS, THE EDITOR HAS DESTROYED OTHER LITERARY JOURNALS BY POURING ACID, DOG SLOBBER AND $300 SHOTS OF WHISKEY ON THEIR UNLAMINATED NON-WATERPROOF COVERS. HE'S USED LASERS AND POWER DRILLS. BRING YOUR SAFETY GOGGLES AND WITNESS THIS YEAR'S GRULING QUALITY ASSURANCE TESTS... TESTS FAILED BY EVERY OTHER MAGAZINE.

Writing by: Matt Hart, Jessea Perry, Sam Magavern, Nathan Hoks, Nick Antosca, David Berrigan, Bradford Gray Telford, Sean Kilpatrick, Stephanie Cleveland, Rebecca Loudon, Anthony Farrington, Elizabeth Hughey, Craig Cotter, Duane Vorhees, Todd Colby, Jeni Olin, Chris Martin, Scott Abels, Eugene Ostashevsky, Fred Schmalz, Lee Ranaldo, Noelle Kocot, Will Morris, Marianne Vitale, Mike Topp, Clnt Frakes, Kevin McWha Steele, Suejin Suh

World News Reports From:
Sawako Nakayasu in Japan
Dmitry Golynko in Russia
Eugene Ostashevsky in Florence, Italy
Bernadette Mayer & Phil Good in Upstate New York
Sparrow on Long Island, NY
Edmund Berrigan in Brooklyn, NY
Thomas Devaney in Philadelphia, PA
Michael Kelleher in Buffalo, NY
John Most in Virginia
Chuck Stebelton in Milwaukee, WI
Eric Lorberer in Minneapolis, MN
J.S. Makkos in New Orleans, LA
Shafer Hall in Austin, TX
Julie Reid in Petaluma, CA
C.E. Putnam in Seattle, WA

Vusual art by: Marci Washington, Deth P Sun, Tracey McTague, Jeff Benjamin

Puzzle by Jen Robinson

Essay by Brendan Lorber on how the collapse will save us.

Letters to the Editor: if you sent us an email this year there's a good chance it's in there!

Plus: Lungfull Cultural Attache Stickers by Sparrow

What's going to happen at the event?
100 photos of last year's release


At LUNGFULL! magazine, the stakes are big...and the mistakes are bigger.
But the only mistake you can make is... not to come!

==============================================

440 Gallery Reading & Artist Talk
"Sara Michas-Martin, Lulu Sylbert, Suzanne Frischkorn, & Nancy Lunsford"
Host: Brooke Shaffner
Start Time: Sunday, April 19 at 4:40pm
End Time: Sunday, April 19 at 6:00pm
Where: 440 Gallery, Park Slope, Brooklyn

===========================================

Alice Notely at Zinc Bar


Sunday, April 19, 2009

6:35pm - 9:00pm

82 West 3rd Street

t

Thursday, April 16, 2009

"Change is slow and hope is violent"

Song Years

For years I lived in a kind
Of wistful song world where
One foot was always out

The door, almost like a sailor
Ready, anxious even, to decamp
Once more for the sea,

And always the American highway
And its great story calling, built by
The American restless and all

Its subsequent moving. Loosely
Around the seasons I moved
Looking for what I thought of

As a natural life, and looked back
At anyone who stayed put as if
They had given up,

Given up something
That should never be
Given up,
Ever.
No sooner
Would I get some place

Than I'd begin
To check train schedules
And other venues of departure.

I hated the notion
Of insurance and never
Had any. I gave

Myself no place to fall.
I thought of all this as keeping
Myself clean, keeping

Myself honest. It really
Wasn't a variant
Of the old high school

Locker-room chant of find 'em,
Feel 'em, fuck 'em,
And forget 'em, I told myself,

But sometimes,
Especially when I was packing,
It surely felt that way.

I was always leaving one
For the next one. I wished them
Well and remained friends

With most of them. I hoped
A right one one would come along
For them, and they would be

More ready for their lasting lover
Given the lessons, good and bad,
We'd taught each other.

Fall would come
And I'd head north
For apple-picking, winter

Would find me holed up
In Vermont for a moment,
Working on some chilly construction,

And spring was always
A sure-fired scamper south.
Summer mostly meant

Going out west for, I suppose, hope.
Change is slow and hope is violent.
I wanted the speed and handling

Of a good sports car; I wanted
Things not as they should be
But things as they are.

Most songs are sad and most people
Do not want to live in song world,
Except when some loved one leaves

Or maybe over a drink, alone, at home,
Or perhaps in a car, ever more alone.
Someone is always falling or being thrown.

Most songs say
But one thing:
"My heart aches,"

And if you doubt this
Listen to the songs.
And tonight

Let us all together send out
Our love to the songwriters
For moving us.

I moved this way
Until the cruelty of it
Overwhelmed me.

-Liam Rector, from
{The Executive Director of the Fallen World}

If We Could Collect All The Missing Hours

If I could just leave my body for a night
"
In the Flowers," Animal Collective

What haunts you? When & how? Funny how some things long removed or unthought have their odd resurgences. The other day I was feeling fatigue & an unexplainable empty-headedness. I arrived to work around 5 then took a deep breath before inserting myself into a chair. The day was like most days. I can't tell you about the weather or the temperature, or even share with you some funny remedy seen from inside a train. My eyes recorded & my brain erased or deposited the images for later use.

Sometimes, you step in & just do a job. Other times the reality of the responsibility that you have--the lessens that need to be conveyed, lessons that are applicable not just to grammar but to life- the daily interaction of communication with ourselves & others seems daunting. Sometimes you are left speechless.

For some reason when I stepped into the classroom I had a flashback of sitting in Liam Rector's classroom. Somehow, he was looming around inside me- 'though I haven't read or thought about him for quite some time. I remembered the way he challenged my classroom (first year MFA students) & most didn't respond. & then his look of disappointment. Maybe it's because I've been thinking a lot of my responsibility to others, especially my students that brought on this memory. Maybe not. I also thought about the time I passed him sloshed & sitting outside of a bar in his purple tweed suit. (When I think of Liam- he is always in this suit). I sat down and had a drink with him. We both felt like romanticized male characters from a Hemmingway or Ftizgerald story. We laughed. I left; he remained.

Now I remain & he has left. & he left behind family, students, friends-- many that were much closer to him than I ever attempted to be. This is old news. The tuxedo, the dance, the sleeping wife, the gun. Yet it has been haunting me for some reason. Something fragmented & floating in my psyche. Who knows. Today was beautiful. The student that asked if I was okay earlier in the week said I looked happy today. I said today we're going to talk about honesty & responsibility-- the ability to communicate as individuals to individuals & as individuals to communities. Cosmopolitans vs Neo-formalists.

Or what's on your mind?

You talk; I'll listen.

I've been told I'm good at that.



Wednesday, April 15, 2009

THE CURE - Pornography München 84

Taxes. 8am work. 100% chance of rain? The Cure. Yes.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sea Creatures & Chapbooks

Ben Mirov has posted micro reviews of chapbooks by Julia Cohen, Sampson Starkweather, Justin Taylor, and Zachory Schomburg. Check it out.

It's sunny today. I'm going to make a garden burger. Then I will eat it. Then I will go outside and sit on a park bench and read a book. When I come back I will begin to write a review, or I'll get distracted and do something else.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

& what to do with these found hours?

Today it is all rain. A week ago & a day before it was also all rain. & thunder. & lightning. I decided to take a short-cut across the lawn at CSI. I slipped in the mud. While teaching I realised that I smelled like dirt. The students didn't notice. The students rarely notice anything that doesn't have to do with them. Youth & all its fins. That day I had a glass of grapefruit juice. It was my last glass. That night I gave a reading. The rain stopped. People came. People left. I had a good time. I didn't stumble too much, nor did I mention grapefruit or oranges. After the reading/Before the morning Lila & I went to an Italian bakery then had garden burgers & sweet potato fries.

I had sweet potato fries on Monday as well. They were not as good, but the Tar Heels won the championship. I high-fived and hugged a table full of Carolinas. I am wearing a baby blue sweater & thinking of the Tar Heels & North Carolina right now. I am thinking that it is still raining. That I bought grapefruit juice yesterday. That I had yogurt & granola with honey & bananas for breakfast. That I spent Thursday wandering through the Central Park. That Lila has pictures. Has proof. That there was sun. On rainy days like today it's easy to forget about sun.

I should be on a Brooklyn-bound train but sometimes I just want to sit. You know, to just sit here with you is kinda nice. Sometimes it is nice to feel nice, don't you think?

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Is It Possible To Be At Two Brooklyn Libraries Simultaneously?

4th Annual African American - Asian American Poetry Reading

April 10, 7 pm

16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A

Cave Canem and The Asian American Writers' Workshop invite you to join program curators Tracy K. Smith and Tina Chang for an evening of exceptional poetry and music with Sapphire, Jessica Hagedorn, Wayne Koestenbaum, Brenda Shaughnessy and Thomas Sayers Ellis. Co-sponsored by Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.

http://www.cavecanempoets.org/pages/pdfs/CC%20at%20AAWW.pdf

The Asian American Writer's Workshop

New York City

$5 suggested donation


EARSHOT! A Special National Poetry Month Event!

Friday, April 10th @ 8 PM

@ Rose Live Music

Hosted by Nicole Steinberg

$5 + ONE FREE DRINK!

Featuring:

Kenneth Hart (*Uh Oh Time*)

Noah Falck (*Measuring Tape for the Midwest*)

Thalia Aurinko-Mostow (The New School)

Sarah Feeley (Brooklyn College)

Jenna Hymes (Queens College)

Rose Live Music is located at 345 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Havemeyer and Marcy. Visit their website for directions: http://liveatrose.com/.

EARSHOT is a bi-monthly reading series, dedicated to featuring new and emerging literary talent in the NYC area. Visit

http://www.earshotnyc.comfor more information or e-mail Nicole Steinberg at earshotnyc@gmail.com.


UPCOMING: The 17th Annual Poets House Showcase
Saturday, April 4 – Saturday, April 11
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 4, 1:00 - 4:00PM

Catch an eyeful of what's happening in poetry today with this inspiring display of all the new poetry and poetry-related books published in the United States in 2008 and the first few months of 2009. From micro-press chapbooks to masterworks from major commercial publishers to DVDS and CDs, over 2,000 titles are gathered together for one week in the landmark Jefferson Market Branch Library.

@ The New York Public Library, Jefferson Market Branch, 425 Sixth Avenue (at West 10th Street). For library hours, call (212) 243-4334. Admission free. For more information, call Poets House at (212) 431-7920 or visit our web site at www.poetshouse.org


The Segue Reading Series Presents: JENA OSMAN & TAN LIN

Saturday, April 11, 2009 4PM SHARP

The Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery, just north of Houston)

Jena Osman’s books include *An Essay in Asterisks* (Roof) and *The Character* (Beacon). Her book *The Network* is forthcoming from Essay Press. She co-edits the ChainLinks book series with Juliana Spahr and teaches in the graduate Creative Writing program at Temple University.

Tan Lin is a writer, artist, and critic. His most recent book is *Heath: Plagiarism/Outsource* from Zasterle, and his new work *Seven Controlled Vocabularies* is forthcoming from WesleyanUniversity Press. His visual and video work has been exhibited at the Yale Art Museum (New Haven), the Sophienholm (Copenhagen), and the Marianne Boesky Gallery (NYC).

$6 admission goes to support the readers

hosted by Kristen Gallagher & Tim Peterson


“Poets Gone Wilde” at the Brooklyn Library

Saturday, April 11 @ 2:30 – 4:00 PM

Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 4th Floor

200 Eastern Parkway

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/calendar/index.php?show=day&month=4&day=11&year=2009

Contemporary poets Mark Bibbins and Richard Howard read from their work – as well as the work of Oscar Wilde and Rimbaud – the in exhibition Hernan Bas: Works from the Rubell Family Collection, celebrating Bas’s lyrical romanticism and his literary influences.


Bushwick Reading Series - Installment #5

At the library as always y'all.
Host:
Type:
Network:
Global
Date:
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Time:
3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location:
Bushwick Library
Street:
Bushwick Avenue @ Seigel Street
City/Town:
Brooklyn, NY




Description

Our fifth reading is around the corner, and it's a multimedia affair featuring work by Chloe Bass, Paul Tunis, Nicolle Elizabeth, and Jordan Scott. Come to the library on Saturday the 11th from 3 to 5PM, and expect a random grab bag of video, audio, and other elements you may be unused to encountering in a library... as well as (more traditionally) poetry, prose, and FULL USE of the chalkboard. HOW CAN YOU AFFORD TO MISS IT? The answer is you cannot.

Also, check out http://www.bushwickreadingseries.org for audio of past readings -- and email us at bushwickbunker@gmail.com if you're interested in reading on future dates.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Viva Vive Violi

Tuesday, April 7th

Poetry Forum: Paul Violi

David Lehman, Moderator

6:30pm, 66 W 12th St, Rm 510, $5 (Free to NS Students and Alumni)


Paul Violi has taught in the New School's Writing Program since 2003. He has written eleven books of poetry, including Overnight, his most recent book. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in the U.S. and abroad, including The Oxford Book of American Poetry and The Best American Poetry series. Violi has received prizes including the Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.


Praise for Paul Violi’s Overnight:

“Violi's poems are fearless--humor courts failure at every turn--and beautifully constructed. He is one of a handful of American poets worth making a detour to hear read aloud.”

--Boston Phoenix

Friday, April 3, 2009

If We Could Collect All The Missing Hours, Mathias Svalina Remix

It has always felt to me a perfect politician

On the street I saw people in coats
still wearing hoods. The air is not filled
in bird song. I twirled my tongue.
I ignored the question. Today in the shower
I noticed my thighs are getting bigger.
That I need to shave. That I need to
address the idea of happiness.

I was raised in a religious household.
It had its "cultish tendencies."
There was a lot of talk about Jesus.
Ultimate teacher, etc. My father and his boys
were always hawking on the point
where J.C. is asked a question and replies
with a question. Yesterday
while having dinner with a friend
I was informed that no one would
describe me as "happy-go-lucky."

This would be perfect with
an accompaniment of birds.
Perfect with grapefruit juice and clean light.
For a moment I was seduced. There are no birds
in the sky but a plenitude of sun,
which shines on branches which contain buds.
The buds will be leaves. These leaves
will be green. Music will
come. Music will go.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Have Y'all Heard?


Octopus Books will hold an open reading period for full-length poetry manuscripts in April of 2009. Manuscripts must be submitted between April Fools day and April 30, 2009.

We prefer you submit your manuscripts electronically.

To submit, 1) purchase the $10 reading fee through paypal from the button on the Octopus Books website on the "Submit" page (http://octopusbooks.net/submit.html);
2) attach your manuscript in an email to octopusbooks@gmail.com;
3) in the subject line of the email write your name and "Manuscript Submission."

There is no need to introduce yourself in the body of the email. Your email will be handled anonymously by an intern. Your manuscript will be forwarded in a different file without any identifying markers and read blindly by the editors and other readers. Do not include your name on the manuscript at all.

If you choose to submit by mail, send manuscript to:

Octopus Books
1031 SE 21st
Portland, OR 97214

Include a $10 check made to Octopus Books and your email address. We will still notify you by email. Also, include your name on the packaging, but not on the manuscript itself.
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I know it's a drag to pay a reading fee, but at least with Octopus I can assure you the money goes straight to publishing so you should feel good about submitting your MS and supporting poetry.
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Speaking of poetry, it's no surprise that it at times feels to be an insular world filled with complaint and controversy. Not that long ago everyone was blogging about presses filled with ego and mis-intent. Then there was the Issue One debacle. Recently, people seem to be hating on Zapruder for his essay on criticism (which I linked on this blog) and of course, with a feature story in the New Yorker and two less than riveting books, now it's the Dickmans. Michael and Mathew. When I lived in Portland I met both of them. I remember very little about either. One of them drove a truck. His gf (at the time?) asked (commanded) him to help me move a sofa. One of them was "infamous" for stealing kitchen appliances from Kitchen Kaboodle. Bla, bla, bla. I've got nothing for you. But Coldfront reviews both of their books this week so you should head over there and check it out.