Some News, Some News

Thanks to everyone who came out to either the Chapbook Release Party or the CUNY Chapbook Festival. Also, a super-big thanks to everyone who has bought or pre-ordered the book. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, you can swing over to here. If you're in BK/NYC, Berl's is currently sold-out but will get more copies towards the end of this month/beginning of May.

Speaking of the chapbook, Veronica & I have two more readings lined-up:
Sunday, May 2oth 3pm at the DC Arts Center for the In Your Ear Reading Series. Suggested donation, $5 & we'll be reading with Tony Mancus!!!
Wednesday, June 13th for the Southern Writers Reading Series. 7:30PM@Happy Endings on Broome St, NYC.

I have have two other readings
Saturday, May 12th at Flying Object in Northampton, MA with Dan Magers & Emily Pettit
Friday, June 15th for Fireside Follies in Bushwick, BK.

I leave for Japan on June 28th and come back on July 25th & then move to Miami shortly thereafter. Ah, New York... I hardly know ya.

New Immaculate Disciples Press Chapbook

I'm guest-editing the next title in Dan Magers's chapbook press, Immaculate Disciples, & I'm pleased to say, it's going to be a monster. It's a double chapbook of collaborative poems by Julia Cohen & Mathias Svalina. These are some of the best poems I've read in a long time. They are filled with whimsy and imagination, the dark stuff, the gutted stuff, & the blooming things that go bright in the sky. You can pick it up at AWP (Table Y:J2). After AWP, you'll be able to get it from the Immaculate website, at the CUNY Chapbook Fest, and from Berl's.

The cover was done by Joseph Lappie & screened near the Hudson River by Caitlin Wheeler.

The Bens Are At It Again

Ben Fama aka Supermachine has just released Ben Mirov's new chapbook, Vortexts. If you're in BK/NYC you can pick up a copy at the release party on Saturday or at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop which is where I bought my copy. You can also order it directly from Supermachine.

Here's a poem from it

For the Faint of Heart

When you return from the asylum
be sure to gaze at the trees
covered in snow. When the train

enters the forest, ask the waiter
for tea with milk. In the dark
take seriously the lesson

of fluttering hands. If it is offered
take the class they call Ornithography,
for it will surely teach you something

about love. On the subject of love
I have only a single observation--
if you love a grapefruit you cut it open

and eat its flesh. Take my advice.
Take it home to the ghost you love.
Slip into bed. Snuff out the lights.

Dear Deer

I recently finished reading Sasha Steensen's chapbook, A History of The Human Family which you can purchase from Flying Guillotine Press here, or if you're in NYC/BK/Queens from Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop.

Although Steensen has out a couple of books with Fence, I did not know her work at all. I fell in love with this chapbook so will have to seek out her books. Here are some excerpts that I liked:

Anyone here know
what animation
what anima
what clod
what erring
what worship
what warship
what book is this
what tender plant, root of the dry ground
what reeds & rushes
what lame man leaps as a hart
what avalanche
what footpath into astonishment

I must bear it


-------------

we lived on the brink of a gorge
that was flat all around

like moon landings
&burdens
&massacres

Munich skin of the book
skin of the deer

like many-yeared
like landward
like me now groping
around
like skin of the buck


a great depth of moss

A Weekend in Books

What a last few days! I am exhausted. Thursday/Friday were the Chapbook Festival (highlights include selling Farrah Field's new chapbook to an enthusiastic Sasha Fletcher and the last copy of Dottie Lasky's baby broadside to Joshua Beckman).

Saturday Stain of Poetry (me/Christie Ann Reynolds, Erika Moya) CROWD, SuperMachine, and Poetry Time at Space Space had an off-site reading which was great (pics forthcoming).

Sunday, H & I strolled over (well, actually I limped 'cause for some reason my left foot is a bit swollen) to Berl's Brooklyn Poetry shop.

Here is a list of goods got:

from Berl's:

Ish Klein's Moving Day
Dottie Lasky's Tourmaline

from The Chapbook Festival:

We Are So Happy To Know Something (Vol 2)
Corduroy Mountain Issue 3
Carolyn Zaikowski's Ouch, Humans
Daniel Bailey's The Drunk Sonnets
Mc Hyland's Neveragainland
Lauren Ireland's Sorry It's So Small
Corrine Fitzpatrick's Zamboanguena
Dan Mager's broadside from Rope-a-dope
Zach Schomburg, Paige Ackerson-Kiely & Janaka Stucky broadside from Rope-a-dope

Awesome Is As Awesome Does

Farrah Field has a brand-new chapbook out on Immaculate Disciples Press! The chapbook has a silk-screen cover & the illustration is done by Matt Bollinger. For AWP, I shared a table with Dan Magers (who published this chapbook) & the level of excitement this book generated was intense. I had the chance to read my copy of it on the bus ride home from DC & fell into complete swoon. Pick up your copy of it here & check out the awesome poem by Farrah I snagged for the new ish of Sink Review here. Also check out my new favorite bookstore & Brooklyn's only all poetry bookstore!! ran by Jared White & Farrah Field. It's called Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop.