Friday, February 27, 2009

Orr floating in a river without an oar

I've been reading comments about Orr's article on "greatness" since Saturday. Greatness is a difficult one because Orr's idea of what is "great" is different than my idea or your idea of what is "great," however, I think ambition is a bit more palatable. I'm not sure which contemporary poets Orr is reading-- but I can think of a ton of poets that Orr is NOT reading if he thinks that greatness & ambition will pass away with Ashbery.

Y-A-W-N.

Ken Kesey once said that he believes a man should be as big as he has it in him to be. Now let's remove the gendering of that comment and simply say a human should be as big as a human desires to be. I strive for "bigness," yeah I like to get my B.I.G. on-- often times it fails, but the inner-tune remains the same. The biggest problem with Orr's essay is that "greatness" seems to be engendered as "male." While not surprising, it does explain why he thinks greatness will die with Ashbery- we're surrounded with astounding works of "greatness," "ambition," and poems that live large aka "B.I.G." but Orr is not reading any of it-- which is his lost. I suggest he spends less time looking for "greatness" in Barnes & Nobles and supports small presses. Who knows, he just might stumble upon some inspiration.

Here's a list of other bloggers' thoughts:

Amy King
Barbara Jane Reyes
Justin Taylor
J.Mae Barizo
Cooper Renner
John Emil Vincent
Niina Polari
Reb Livingston

I think ultimately that the Orr article is worthy because it has generated some serious dialogue and many poets have taken up the challenge to not let him define us or our ambition.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

What's Good

Host:
Type:
Network:
Global
Date:
Friday, February 27, 2009
Time:
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
stain bar
Street:
766 grand street
City/Town:
Brooklyn, NY






Jason Gray is the author of Photographing Eden (Ohio Univ. Press, 2008), winner of the Hollis Summers Prize, and two chapbooks, How to Paint the Savior Dead (Kent State Univ. Press, 2007) and Adam & Eve Go to the Zoo (Dream Horse, 2003). His poems and reviews have appeared in Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. He coedits the online magazine, Unsplendid (www.unsplendid.com). Web site: jason-gray.net.

~~~
Tony Mancus’ poems have appeared or will be appearing in cream city review, Handsome, Forklift, Ohio, Memorious and elsewhere. He teaches writing at Montclair State University and Hunter College. He co-founded Flying Guillotine Press (flyingguillotinepress.blogspot.com) and makes books in Brooklyn and Queens.
~~~
Deborah Poe is the author of the poetry collection Our Parenthetical Ontology (CustomWords 2008) as well as chapbooks from Furniture_Press and Stockport Flats Press. Poe has received several literary awards including the Thayer Fellowship of the Arts (2008) and three Pushcart Prize nominations. Her writing is forthcoming or has appeared in journals such as Coconut, Diode, Ploughshares, Filter Literary Magazine, Denver Quarterly, Copper Nickel, and FOURSQUARE Editions as well as in the anthologies In Our Own Words (MW Enterprises 2009), Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS From the Black Diaspora (Third World Press 2007) and A Sing Economy (Flim Forum 2008). Her current projects include “Elements” (her poetry collection based on the periodic table), a short fiction collection entitled “Event Landmarks,” and an anthology of short fiction. Assistant Professor of English at Pace University, Pleasantville, Poe teaches creative writing, contemporary fiction and theory. Visit her Web site, www.deborahpoe.com, for more.
~~~
Ric Royer is a writer, performer, writer of performances and performer of writings. Other works of literature include Hystery of Heat (Publishing Genius), There Were One and It Was Two (Narrow House Records), and Anthesteria (Bark Art Press). The Weather Not The Weather is forthcoming from Outside Voices Press. He is also a founding editor of Ferrum Wheel.

An imprint of Bootstrap Productions (Cambridge, Mass.), Buffalo N.Y.-based Outside Voices publishes poetry & experimental text-based art.

http://www.ricroyer.com
http://www.looktouch.com/press
~~~
A witness and survivor of the war in Bosnia, Mario Susko moved to the US in 1993 where he lived in the 70s and got his M.A. and Ph.D. from SUNY Stony Brook. He has published 77 books, 28 of which are his poetry collections. His most recent work includes an integral edition/translation of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, as well as an anthology of modern Jewish-American short stories A Declaration of Being which he co-edited with M. Schwartzman and translated into Croatian. His 6th poetry collection in English, Closing Time, was released in 2008 by Harbor Mountain Press. This January his Croatian publisher Meandarmedia put out a Croatian edition of Closing Time and the erbacce-press from Liverpool, UK, released his chapbook Rules of Engagement.
~~~
Jessica Reed’s poetry has appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, LIT, The Huffington Post, Zeek: A Journal of Jewish Thought and Culture, as well as various online journals, and has been anthologized in Satellite Convulsions: Poems from Tin House. She is the 2007 recipient of the Marie Ponsot Poetry Prize and the Jerome Lowell Dejur Award. Originally from Asheville, North Carolina, she lives in New York City, where she works as a technical editor and where she received her MFA from the the City College of the City University of New York.
~~~~
Hosted by Amy King and Ana Božičević
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Saturday night, February 28th, @ Unnameable Books, Flim Forum Press presents, in coordination w/ Peace Events, a multivocal performance of Jennifer Karmin's aaaaaaaaaaalice. w/ Tisa Bryant, Jennifer Firestone, and a few surprise guests.


There will also be readings by Flim Forum Press editors Matthew Klane and Adam Golaski.

---
Jennifer Karmin curates the Red Rover Series and is a founding member of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise. Her multidisciplinary projects have been presented nationally at festivals, artist-run spaces, community centers, and on city streets. She teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College and works as a Poet-in-Residence for the Chicago Public Schools. Recent poems are published in Cannot Exist, MoonLit, Otoliths, and the anthologies Come Together: Imagine Peace (Bottom Dog Press), Not A Muse (Haven Books), and The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century (Cracked Slab Books).

Adam Golaski has some new work in Little Red Leaves, Torpedo, The Lifted Brow, and an anthology of horror stories called Exotic Gothic II. His story "They Look Like Little Girls" won the Supernatural Tales readers' poll--$35! Some of his translation of Sir Gawain & the Green Knight--called "Green"--will be reprinted in the next Drunken Boat "Mistranslation" feature. He edits Flim Forum Press books with Matthew Klane. Adam's review of There Are Birds, by John Taggart, appeared in the January issue of Open Letters Monthly, and has been receiving some very nice attention. His daughter Elizabeth can recite most of the alphabet, loves the letter "W," and is learning how to jump.

Matthew Klane is co-editor/founder of Flim Forum Press, publisher of the anthologies Oh One Arrow (2007) and A Sing Economy (2008). His book is B_____ Meditations from Stockport Flats Press (2008). His latest chapbooks include Friend Delighting the Eloquent, Sorrow Songs, and The- Associated Press. Also see: The Meister-Reich Experiments, a sprawling hypertext, online at www.housepress.org. He currently lives and writes in Albany, NY.

Date:
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Time:
8:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Unnameable Books
Street:
456 Bergen Street
City/Town:
Brooklyn, NY
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hi friends,

You've probably already received an email blast fro the Enclave Reading Series that I curate, but I wanted to give some of you a more personal invitation to this Saturday's Enclave reading with Wayne Koestenbaum, Christopher Stackhouse, and the incomparable Eileen Myles.

I couldn't be happier with this eclectic powerhouse line-up. So if you're free late Saturday afternoon, come by our wonderful new venue at the Cake Shop, have a drink (or several) and hear readings from three of my favorite poets and authors living in NY.

Here are the details...hope you can drop by!

The Enclave Reading Series
Saturday
Feb. 28
4 - 6pm
Cake Shop
152 Lulow St.
Lower East Side
www.myspace.com/enclavianmatter

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Just a reminder to come out for some Japanesey-Jazz this Saturday!
There is also a Brazilian party after us in the same venue if anyone
is interested!

Thanks! Nobuko

Diaspora Crossings presents:
THE TOKYO ZAGAN QUINTET
Saturday Feb. 28, 2009, 7.30pm (doors open 7pm)
at DROM
85 Avenue A, between 5th & 6th Streets
$10 general admission www.dromnyc.com / 212-777-1157

Nobuko Miyazaki - flute & shinobue
Bartosz Smoragiewicz - sax & clarinet
Izabela Buchowska - cello
Emi Inaba - piano
Laiyo Nakahashi - taiko & drums
With special guest Kaoru Watanabe (formerly of KODO)

www.nobuflute.com(click on "Projects"),www.myspace.com/
diasporacrossings
for more info contact me: nobuflute@gmail.com / 917-318-6915

You can get tickets online:http://dromnyc.com/home/index.php?
option=com_gigcal&task=details&gigc.
..

Map:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=85+Avenue+A,+New
+yor...

Thanks for your support!

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


Monday, February 23, 2009

Something Twisted In Them There Fields


Farrah Field's first book is out and you can read a review for it here.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Them Hawks Are Loose Again

Marsh Hawk logo Marsh Hawk Review #2
The New Issue of the Marsh Hawk Review Now Online
Marsh Hawk Review is an online poetry journal sponsored by the Marsh Hawk Press collective. Marsh Hawk Review will appear twice each year under the revolving editorship of collective members. Each issue will offer a selection of poems solicited by the editor, in addition to new work
posted by poets in the collective.


Contributors Include:
William Allegrezza, Tom Beckett, Sigman Byrd, Patricia Carlin,
Jennifer Kwon Dobbs,
Denise Duhamel, Kristen Gallagher, Noah Eli Gordon, Carlos Hiraldo, Amy King, Basil King, Mary Mackey, Sandy McIntosh,
Stephen Paul Miller, Sheila E. Murphy, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, Akilah Oliver, Tim Peterson, Sean Singer, Juanita Torrence-Thompson,
Geoffrey Young and Mark Young


We invite you to read the issue here.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Spooky Boyfriend! Issue three features work by Maya Pindyck, Ryan Daley, Maurice Burford, Melissa Culbertson, Lacey Hunter, Nava Fader, Donald Dunbar, and James Iredell. Check it out here: http://spookyboyfriend3.weebly.com/.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Event: KGB Poetry Season Opener
"Featuring Jill Alexander Essbaum & Robert Polito"
What: Listening Party
Host: KGB Poetry
Start Time: Monday, February 23 at 7:30pm
End Time: Monday, February 23 at 9:30pm
Where: KGB Bar
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tues., Feb. 24, 6:00 p.m. sharp, free
ACA Galleries
529 W. 20th St., 5th Flr.
NYC

Event will be hosted by
Atelos Publishing Project directors and editors
Lyn Hejinian and Travis Ortiz

Featuring readings from
Ted Greenwald
Jennifer Scappettone
Lytle Shaw
Edwin Torres
Rodrigo Toscano

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Steve (Roberts) invited you to "Noelle Kocot and Dottie Lasky" on Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm.

Steve (Roberts) says, "Please come the Reading! It's this Wednesday at Home Sweet Home!".

Event: Noelle Kocot and Dottie Lasky
"Triumphant return of the Reading"
What: Performance
Host: The Reading at Chrystie St.
Start Time: Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm
End Time: Wednesday, February 25 at 8:00pm
Where: Home Sweet Home

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

Examined Life NYC premiere

Philosophy in the Streets in the Cinema
Event Info
Host:
Type:
Network:
Global
Time and Place
Start Time:
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 1:00pm
End Time:
Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 11:00pm
Location:
IFC Center
Street:
323 6th Ave at West 3rd St
City/Town:
New York, NY
Contact Info
Phone:
2129247771
Email:

Description

Examined Life will have it's NYC theatrical premiere this Wednesday at the IFC Center before rolling out across the US and Canada -- reaching San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Miami, Portland, Winnipeg, Vancouver, New Orleans and many other cities in the coming months.

NEW YORK CITY: FEBRUARY 25 – MARCH 5 at the IFC CENTER
323 6th Ave at West 3rd St
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

There will be appearances by the director and some of the subjects for the evening screenings on the following nights (exact playtimes yet to be announced)

AVITAL RONELL on opening night, Wednesday February 25th, and Tuesday March 2nd.
KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH on Thursday February 26th.
CORNEL WEST on Thursday March 5th.

Please come out and support the film!

Released in the US by Zeitgeist Films and in Canada by FilmsWeLike

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Keep the modest flows for practice


My Intro to Lit class is over on Monday. Sigh. This was actually an awesome class. We read Barbara Jane Reyes' West Oakland Sutra for the AK-47 Shooter at 3:00am and other Oakland poems, as well as, Claudia Rankine's, Don't Let Me Be Lonely. There were a lot of good discussion in regards to Rankine, but the Reyes seem a little bit more difficult- or so I thought. To my surprise & delight a lot of their last papers & answers for the finals all talk about Reyes' poems. I think it took longer for them to digest the complexity of her work, but I feel good knowing that this beautiful chapbook has imprinted itself upon so many of their brains.

While they working on their finals, I finished reading Eric Baus' newest book. It's better than you think! Buy it.

Letterman - 2009 Slam Dunk Champ, Nate Robinson

Thursday, February 19, 2009

I Should Be Grading Papers or Working On My Manuscript But

here I am... still drinking coffee in bed & blogging to you. Before I started typing this, I felt like this posting had Tao Lin potential-- now I know I was misguided in my imagination.

There are at least two presses I need to send my manuscript to but I don't have a printer- so printing is a problem (or at least requires me leaving my apartment & going somewhere else. I used the public library last week to print up a chapbook & that super-sucked!) which made me miss the Litmus submission deadline. I don't think that my stuff is really Litmus-y, but I love the press and to have them read my manuscript and maybe like a few poems would have made me happy. Ho-hum. I did send out my chapbook.

Speaking of submitting, you know who's blog I been reading recently? Molly Gaudry. It's full of pictures and lots of press/journal submission information.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There's a lot going this week. This is from my friend Geoffrey Olsen:

Hello,

C. Spencer Yeh, cosmic noisy violin force, is playing with Michael Johnsen tonight at 8pm in the Issue Project Room.
It is only $10! Here is info.

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

FRIDAY, February 20, @ 7pm
@ Pete's Candy Store, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
http://www.petescandystore.com

Pete's Reading Series with CAConrad, BEN MALKIN & JENNIFER KNOX
RELEASE of CAConrad's THE FRANK POEMS http://BOOKOFFRANK.blogspot.com


(there's no chance that I get out of Staten Island in time to see this but it looks like a damn good time!)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
EARSHOT'S 4TH ANNIVERSARY!

Join us for the merrymaking and festivities at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg, Bklyn!

Friday, February 20th @ 8 PM
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg


Featuring:
~*The Live Nude Girl in the Devil's Territory Tour*~
Kathleen Rooney (Live Nude Girl)
Kyle Minor (In the Devil's Territory)
Jillian Brall (The New School)
James Yeh (Columbia University)
Laren McClung (New York University)

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.com


(I like that title, but Friday will likely be another nudity-free evening for me)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Speaking of Tao Lin:

Saturday, February 21, 2009
Time:
7:30pm - 10:30pm
Location:
erika's loft
Street:
williamsburg
City/Town:
Brooklyn, NY


Contact Info
Phone:
9178654875
Email:

Description

Tao Lin
He is the author of a novel, Eeeee Eee Eeee, and a story collection, Bed, which were published simultaneously by Melville House Publishing May, 2007. He is also the author of two poetry collections, you are a little bit happier than i am, which won Action Books' December Prize in 2005 and was published November, 2006; and cognitive-behavioral therapy, which was published May, 2008 by Melville House Publishing. A chapbook of poetry, this emotion was a little e-book, and one of stories, Today the Sky is Blue and White with Bright Blue Spots and a Small Pale Moon and I Will Destroy Our Relationship Today, were published by the Internet press Bear Parade in 2006..

His forthcoming books include a novella, Shoplifting from American Apparel, to be published September, 2009, and his second novel, Richard Yates, to be published early in 2010. Both books will be published by Melville House Publishing.

His writing has appeared in Noon, Nerve, Vice, Esquire, The Stranger, 3:AM Magazine, The Mississippi Review, Bear Parade, The Cincinnati Review, Other Voices, Fourteen Hills, and other magazines.

He is the editor of the literary press Muumuu House, founded in October 2008, which will publish poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and gmail chats online and in print and co-edits with Ellen Kennedy a literary press called Ass Hi Books.


Todd Colby

Colby's poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Aloud!: Voices from the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe and Verses that Hurt. He is the author of Ripsnort, Cush and Riot in the Charm Factory, all published by Soft Skull Press. He teaches at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Ben Arthur
If you’re going to take some time off after two years of relentless touring, you might as well stay busy. Or at least that’s what Ben Arthur thinks. But recording a follow-up to 2004’s Sony/Red-distributed Edible Darling wasn’t enough for Arthur.

“Writing a novel was something I had always wanted to try, so I just sat down and gave it a shot,” Arthur says.

Meanwhile Arthur finished his new album, Mouthfeel, at Dubway, the same studio where he recorded Edible Darling. He had some great help on the songs, with guest vocals provided by RCA’s Rachael Yamagata, and bass playing by Ollabelle’s own Byron Isaacs. Arthur also had production help from DJ Big Wiz, the beat master who adds so much to the music of Def Jux recording artists Aesop Rock and Lif.

National Public Radio says of the new record, "The quirky optimism that marked Ben Arthur's album Edible Darling has aged and darkened on his long-awaited second disc [sic] Mouthfeel. A slippery disc in sound and meaning...which burrows intimately into love, pain and loss."

To get the word out about the new album, Arthur toured internationally, playing in clubs, high schools, house concerts, bookstores, colleges, and on radio and television. He did interviews and live performances on Sirius, WMMM, WCBE, WMRA, WNRN, WCNR, WBSD, and SACC TV, and songs from Mouthfeel have been airing on WXRT, KCUV, KVRB, WDST, CIDR, KTHX, WQKL, WRLT, WXRV, WZEW, and others.

One of the high points of the Mouthfeel tours was being featured on the internationally syndicated radio program Acoustic Café, which airs on 75-plus stations in the States alone, and on Voice of America worldwide. He also recorded his third half-hour special for XM Satellite Radio and Ben’s song On a Sunday was NPR’s “Song of the Day.”

For the first time in his career, Ben’s music was also featured on internationally broadcasted television. He licensed five songs to ABC, four to Showtime, and is now a regular contributing composer for the soap opera, Guiding Light on CBS.

“Like everything good that has happened with my work, writing for Guiding Light was a result of hard work,” Arthur jokes. “Well, that and the fact my daughter plays with the children of the Music Director!”

That humility and clear-eyed honesty extends to Arthur’s lyrics. Often brooding and dark-laced, images of betrayal, sex, humiliation, faith, yearning and death float behind a super-melodic pop facade. “Tattoo” an upbeat acoustic number, is about sex, love…and suicide. Like much of Arthur’s work, it looks mortality square in the face: “Like Abraham, one day I awoke and realized/That along with the will, the hand, and the knife/The throat was also mine.” “Exit Wound” shares similar themes, though in a more dark-toned bed. Yet, listening to “The Sun Also Rises”—Arthur’s impassioned duet with Rachael Yamagata—you hear an uplifting message of hope and deliverance underneath the distorted electric guitars and driving rhythm.

Rolling Stone says, “Ben Arthur has the looks and hooks of John Mayer.”

Maybe the critics like the duality in Ben’s music. “There’s nothing in my work that doesn’t smack of some pretty grim, difficult stuff,” he says matter-of-factly. “Most of my songs are a marriage of contradictions: bleak and difficult sentiments lurking under upbeat, melodies.”

Arthur first picked up a guitar when he was 14 and immediately began writing songs. In Charlottesville, where he attended the University of Virginia, he developed a local following, and eventually shared the stage with Tori Amos, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Hornsby and fellow townsman Dave Matthews. In fact, Matthews’s collaborators Boyd Tinsley and Tim Reynolds played on Arthur’s first album, Curses and Rapture.

“I prefer lush images,” he says. “I don’t like songs that are too specific, too literal. What interests me is ambiguity and mystery, the spaces between the sentences. Like in ‘Strawberry Fields’: ‘I mean, er, yes, well, no, that is, I think I disagree….’ that’s the way people talk. I’m most fascinated by the underlying contradictions in people’s motivations, the way they deal with one another.”

In fact, the melodic element of his music is so strong, the hooks so catchy, that it’s possible to miss the underlying lyrical complexity and contradiction in his words. All of which is fine by Arthur.

“People can hear what they want in my music,” he says. “Like in Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’, some people hear a patriotic anthem and others hear a protest song. If that happens with my music, I’m fine with that.”

“Actually,” he laughs, “that sounds perfect.”

Ben will be releasing his first novel, (The Lure of the Distant Sound), and fifth album (a live collection called Roadkill) in March at Joe’s Pub in New York City, and will follow this with another international tour.

Live performances, interviews, fan-made videos and covers of Ben’s songs by other musicians can be found online at MySpace (where his songs have logged 28,000 plays), Facebook, iLike, LastFM, and linked to his YouTube channel. The list of Ben Arthur stations set up by his fans on Pandora internet radio currently totals 50 pages.

come dressed in glitter, silk, velvet, latex no cover, otherwise the usual 4 bucks...just to continue last years anti valentines day theme...the more outrageous the better!!!

(i might make it to this)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I think there are readings happening on Sunday too, but I'll try and post again on Saturday as this posting is getting too long.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Secret School Comes To Philly

This looks pretty damn good. I went to the first Secret School & left feeling impressed & inspired. If you're in Philly you should definitely check this out.

Secret School 02: Statelessness at Basekamp, Philadelphia

February 20, 2009 from 7-10PM
Basekamp
723 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

This Is Not Me. courtesy of Lin + Lam.

This Is Not Me. courtesy of Lin + Lam.

Secret School invites you to a collaborative event with Lin + Lam to examine the geopolitical implications of statelessness. Reflecting on tightened US immigration policy and the closing of Guantanamo Bay in the next year, Lin + Lam explore the inability or refusal to claim belonging to a recognized state. Lin + Lam will lead a discussion arising from their recent projects “Even the Trees Would Leave” and “This Is Not Me.”

Secret School will respond to the issues raised through Lin + Lam’s projects, and the concurrent exhibit at Basekamp: An Atlas, an examination of radical cartography organized by artists Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Today is Patti Smith's sister's birthday

It's also my birthday.

Last night some friend's came out for bday drinks. I kept it tame & feel pretty good today, except I'm tired but can't seem to sleep. Tonight I'm going over some friends' apartment, but you should think about checking this out:

Please join us next Monday, February 16, for a rare and exciting reading by Stephen Dobyns, author of twelve collections of poetry including Velocities; Lee Briccetti, Executive Director of Poets House and author of Day Mark; and Ted Mathys, author of Forge and The Spoils, forthcoming in April 2009.

Monday February 16, 7 PM

Stephen Dobyns
Lee Briccetti
Ted Mathys


11th Street Bar (510 E. 11th Street, between Avenues A & B)
Closest subway: L to 1st Avenue. Also walkable: F/V at 2nd Ave, L at 3rd Ave or 14th Street / Union Square 4/5/6/N/Q/R/W/L.

For poems & more about our readers, please visit our website: www.triptychreading.com

Stephen Dobyns has published twelve poetry collections, including Velocities: New and Selected Poems, 1966-1992 and Mystery, So Long; ten novels; a collection of short stories; ten mysteries in his Charlie Bradshaw detective series; and the highly acclaimed nonfiction book Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry. His awards and fellowships include a Lamont Poetry Selection, the National Poetry Series, a Melville Cane Award, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Lee Briccetti is the long-time Executive Director of Poets House. Under her leadership, Poets House developed the Poets House Showcase, an annual exhibit of new poetry books, as well as Poetry in The Branches, a national outreach program that assists public libraries throughout the country in providing poetry services. Lee has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Award for Poetry and has been a Poetry Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her first book of poetry, Day Mark, was published in 2005 by Four Way Books.

Ted Mathys
is the author of The Spoils, forthcoming from Coffee House Press, and Forge, from the same publisher. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, his poems have appeared in such venues as American Poetry Review, BOMB, Conjunctions, and Jubilat. His work has been anthologized in A Best of Fence: the First Nine Years, and Verse, 1994 - 2004: The Second Decade, as well as translated into Italian for La nuova poesia Americana: New York. Originally from Ohio, he has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Berlin, and New York and currently studies international affairs at Tufts University in Boston.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

the crystal stilts - converging in the quiet

thxs to captain s for introducing this band to me.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hi from Patricia sitting at the Internet Cafe

Oh Patty, you keep changing your name. I named you SPAM, yet you uname yourself then rename yourself something sleek that slips through my filters & then there you are... awaiting me in my inbox. Patty please leave me alone as I am feeling humorless heading into Valentine's Weekend.

Am I the only one that receives these internet cafe girls' spam mail? Of course, I get plenty of spam to for ejaculation, erection, and pills, pills, pills. I think Claudia Rankine needs to do a follow-up to her Don't Let Me Be Lonely.

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

I finished reading the novel, The End. I also finished Sarah Gambito's poetry collection, Deliverance- I'll have to reread it though because I consumed most of it on the train, which means I missed a lot, as I'm easily distracted & tend to have a short attention span on trains.

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I'm going to check out the Boog City reading tonight. Tomorrow night is my friend's birthday party. I thought I was going to go to a Takashi Miike lecture on Saturday, but it looks like it was last Saturday. I was sick last Saturday. Well there's always the Bushwick reading on Saturday:

Spend the afternoon before date-night or hate-night with poets, prose-ists, and nonfictionaries! The reading will feature the multifarious talents of the following fabulous readers:

Rohin Guha
Matt Carney
Aaron Short
Marc Jaffee

Also, there will be some special commemorative quarters, and we will act out the pieces silently. Actually, those things might not happen -- but you can bet on the literary antics, baked goods, and cheer that you've already come to expect from us. So be there.

Also, be sure to check out the website to follow our ever-growing list of books. http://bushwickreadingseries.org.

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The lastest edition of Action Yes is up.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

If You're (not) Going To Be At AWP

Here's a brand-new chapbook by Mathias Svalina from Small Anchor Press. You can purchase it here. I suspect that you might be able to find it at AWP as well. At least, I know you can find Mathias at AWP sitting at the Octopus table, where you should purchase a copy of Eric Baus' new book, Tuned Droves, which doesn't officially come out until next month. There's a new issue of Cannibal which you should pick up too
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you happen to be NOT going to AWP then you can come to this with me:

Boog City presents

Portable Boog Reader 3 Launch
&
Urban Folk Relaunch

Thurs., Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m.
$5 suggested donation with a two-drink minimum

Sidewalk Café
94 Ave. A (at E. 6th St.)
East Village

WITH READINGS FROM PBR3 CONTRIBUTORS

Shafer Hall * Adeena Karasick

Jeff Laughlin * Amy Lawless

Geoffrey Olsen * Jeremy James Thompson

AND MUSICAL PERFORMANCES BY URBAN FOLK ACTS

Justin Remer * Joe Crow Ryan * Brian Speaker

Hosted and curated by Urban Folk editor Jonathan Berger and
Boog City editor and publisher David Kirschenbaum

Directions: F/V to 2nd Ave., L to 1st Ave.

For further information:
212-842-BOOG (2664), editor@boogcity.com

PBR3 (BC53) features the work of 72 New York City poets. The online pdf is available at:
http://welcometoboogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc53.pbr3.pdf

Bios:

**Boog City**
http://www.welcometoboogcity.com/

Monday, February 9, 2009

Cold Front Gets all Glitzed for the Grammys

John Deming drops dimes about both Radiohead and Lil Wayne. Check it out.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Original House Occupants Unknown


Brooklyn Copeland's new chapbook, Borrowed House, is out and just waiting for your hot hands to touch it. Order it from Greying Ghost Press.

A bit ago I blogged about Julia Cohen's lastest chapbook & Kristi Maxwell has a review of it here & HTML Giant gave Cohen some love here.

If you haven't been reading HTML Giant, you should check it out. I must admit I check the site frequently throughout the day. In fact, that & Dimemag are the two sites I look at almost obsessively, I know I'd be much cooler if I said it was the Huffington Post or New York Times, but there you have it.


Today I'm going to meet some friends for brunch at Freeman's & then spend the rest of the afternoon grading papers. If the papers don't completely ruin my taste for the written word I hope to finish reading the novel, The End, and check out Eleven Eleven's first full online edition featuring:

Cheyanne Ramos
Elaine Romero
Alain de Botton
Barry Dempster
Diego Molina
Gerald Nicosia
Alison Doernberg
Cara Benson
Emily Huffman
Dale Kushner
Carl Auerbach
Jason Hanasik
Ron Burch
Carolyn Smart
Gamaliel Rodriguez
Seana Graham
Christopher Arigo
Ted Morrissey
Chris Pusateri
Christine Hamm
CM Burroughs
Craig Santos-Perez
Dan Gutstein
Francine J. Harris
James Sanders
Joseph Noble
Laynie Brown
LS Klatt
Oliver Abrahim Khan
Paige Taggart
Rauan Klassnik
Richard Silberg
Travis Cebula
Valerie Witte

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Winter Winners

If you're in NYC/BK/Queens/Harlem/Bronx & you enjoy "winter sports" you might want to check this out Saturday:

You're invited to Winter Jam NYC!

Looking for some fun in the snow but can't get out of the city?
Join the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation on
Saturday, February 7 for Winter Jam NYC 2009!

Taking place at historic East River Park at Houston Street and FDR
Drive, Winter Jam NYC will feature a 70-foot long Snow Flume for
sledding, a professional snowboarding competition on a 90-foot
tall "Snowscraper," a winter snowfield with snowshoeing and cross-
country skiing, a snowman-making contest, a synthetic ice climbing
wall, a Warming Hut with free samples from NY State farmers,
trampoline performances by the acrobatic Skyriders, live music
from artists such as Apollo Run and Dujeous, and plenty of fun
activities for all ages. With so much entertainment in one spot,
this year's Winter Jam NYC is gearing up to be the best yet!

This event is FREE, and winter sports equipment will be provided,
including tubes for sledding, snow shoes, and cross-country skis.

We look forward to seeing you at Winter Jam NYC!

Winter Jam NYC
East River Park, Enter at Houston Street
Saturday, February 7, 2009
11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
FREE and open to the public

For directions and more information, visit the Parks website

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/events/winterjam/index.html

Suit, Button, Pop

Oregon-live has a breif interview with Zachary Schomburg here

*

Matthew Yeager is NOT a fan of Ben Buttons.

*

Mark Bibbins misses Slowdive & recaps the best of music in '08 here

Monday, February 2, 2009

As if you were there

I didn't do so well with my planned to-do list this weekend. I did work on a poem series from a newish chapbook, but I missed out on a party Friday night, and two poets' readings on Sunday. But, I did help a good friend move & hoping to catch Zapruder's second NYC reading tomorrow night. The information is posted in the previous blog.

I didn't drink coffee today. I don't feel well. In fact, I'm kinda sick but I will attempt to not submit to this illness.

Remember State of the Union? You can click on the link on the right and read my review. You can also listen to a reading from it at CUNY:

Subject: State of the Union audio on Penn Sound

Dear listeners + voters, the audio of this reading is now available at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://writing.upenn.edu%2Fpennsound%2F. Go listen to Rachel Zucker, Mathias Svalina, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Willis, Dan Chelotti, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Eileen Myles, Caroline Knox, Nick Flynn and Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi -- presto! Warm thanks to you all for attending -- we hope to see you at the Center for the Humanities events this semester.

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

Did you miss the Stain reading on Friday just like me? Well, here's our lucky break:

You missed it? You're not in NY (and why should you be?) No problem! Bill Berkson, Cindy Cruz, Aaron Fagan, Jennifer Fortin, Jean-Paul Pecqueur and Bill Rasmovicz talking and shining in little boxes:

http://stainofpoetry.wordpress.com/video/

xo!

Ana and Amy

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

& there you have it. I'm going back to bed and hope to wake again in another hour, then I'm going to try some eating and reading and then go back to bed again. Maybe tomorrow I'll be a healthier feeling of today.