Busy Buzz

The last few days have been quite busy for me. I attended the Chapbook festival at CUNY on both Monday & Tuesday (coming & going throughout the day) & then attended a panel/conversation on alternative education last night.

The chapbook festival was good. I heard someone refer to it as a "low-key" AWP. Rather accurate as there was a book-fair- but this one was much much smaller & more manageable & there were readings. I don't think there were any off-site readings or any drunkeness or "hooking-up" so that is prolly the biggest difference between the two. People didn't come to the chapbook looking crazed or with a desire to live some cheesy Vegas B-film life.

That being said, I think the festival being on Monday & Tuesday really limited or fractured the attendance, which isn't to imply that it was poorly attended- I was quite impressed on both days at the amount of the people, but if it had been on the weekend the room would have been packed which would make perusing chapbooks a pain, but reading attendance little better, as the audience for the readings tended to be small. But then again, who can attend a reading on a Tuesday afternoon at 2, which is when I read. Luckily there were about 10-15 people in the room & I thank everyone who came out, who said nice things about my chapbook, &/or the super-new poem I read. It's always a pleasure to read with label mate, Veronica, & to spend time with Tony (the other half of Flying Guillotine Press who recently moved to DC).

Here's what I left the festival with:

Bowling by Sommer Browning and Brandon Shimoda (Greying Ghost Press)
Poems by Dan Boehl (Greying Ghost Press)
Agriculture Reader
Unrequited Sonnets: bird to a feather by Nate Pritts
Descriptive Sketches by Nate Pritts (printed by J. Johnson in London)
Last Ride by Abraham Smith (Forklift, Ink.)
Is This January by Jai Arun Ravine (Corollary Press)
Lake M by Brandon Shimoda (Corollary Press)

Overall, the festival was a great time & you should look out for it next year! I'll write about the alternative education panel later.