A'dub & Stuff

(photo thanks to Bianca Stone)

Seems like everyone is blogging about DC's AWP. I was a lot busier at this one in comparison to Denver, so my thoughts are the thoughts of someone working the table, as opposed to, a wander- which is all I did last year. The only panel I attended was Monsters, Mongrels, Writing Across Identity or something to that effect. It was 9am & I was tired, almost too tired to understand smart people talking about smart things. I just wanted a coffee. On Friday night, I read for H_NGM_N on the Lincoln Memorial stairs (pics forthcoming) & that was pretty awesome.

On Saturday night, Dan & I hosted a reading for Sink Review along with a ton of other super-cool presses & the readers, turn-out, & reading itself was great. Dan & I arrived an hour early to maximize the event space, inadvertently ordered the two most expensive beers on the menu, rearranged the entire room, set-up an amp (borrowed from Christie Ann's bf) then ate some damn good Mac & Cheese. Not wanting to lug an amp around, our night ended as many nights did- not on a dance floor or jammed into another reading &/or reading after-party but relaxing at our hotel bar.

I got to see lots of Jared & Farrah, Dan, Sommer, Tony Mancus & Sawako!!, as well as, J.Mae Barizo & Rich Scheiwe. I also got to meet Katherine Sullivan & Jen Hyde. I saw some of Mathias & Julia which was nice. Surprising I saw little of Vee, Carter Edwards, Ben Mirov, Christie Ann Reynolds, & Amy Lawless (all of whom I spent a ton of time with at Denver). I expected to but didn't, not even once see Molly Gaudry.

I'm pretty happy with the books I picked up:

Sommer Browning & Dan Boehl's books on Birds, LLC, Matt Henriksen's book on Black Ocean, Jessica Baran's book on Apostrophe, Jeremy Schmall's book on Xing, & Claire Becker's book on Octopus. Thomas Fink gave me a copy of his new book (which to my surprise has a blurb by me on the back cover-AWESOME!!) & I picked up my contributor copy of the Coldfront Yearbook. My friend Nicole gave me a copy of Rose Hunter's book on adp. I also got a copy of No, Dear.

I picked up the dbl-chapbook by Paige Taggart & Justin Marks on Poor Claudia, Chris Martin & Jennifer Denrow's chapbooks from BMP, Sasha Steensen & Mark Horosky's chapbooks from Flying Guillotine Press, Heather Christle's chapbook, The Seaside, an advance printing of an Eric Baus chapbook from minutes BOOKS,, Genya Turovskaya's chapbook by Octopus & an Amy Wright's chapbook from Apostrophe.

The Last Book I Loved

My review of this book is here.

Tricked-Out Baushouse

Trickhouse Vol. 5 is up!... Josh Friedman, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Thalia Field, Joanna Howard, Verbobala, Caroline Bergvall, Anne Waldman, Lisa Jarnot, Conversations with Gordon Massman, Lisa Birman, and a questionnaire from Brandon Shimoda and Lisa Schumaier.
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Here's a couple of Eric Baus related links that I found on Dottie's blog

Eric Baus interviewed by Cynthia Arrieu-King in Jacket 37

12 or 20 questions with Baus on Rob Mclennan's blog

Both interviews are good & discuss Baus' process/editing, as well as, inspirations.

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.