My Friends or Friends of Friends Wrote Awesome Poetry Books in 2012part 1

Christie Ann Reynolds, Revenge for Revenge (Coconut Books) Angela Veronica Wong, how to survive a hotel fire(Coconut Books) Hannah Andrews, Slope Moves (Coconut Books) Ben Mirov, Hider Roser (Octopus Books) Jenny Zhang, Dear Jenny We're All Find (Octopus Books) Farrah Field, Wolf and Pilot (Four Way Books) Dan Magers, Partykinfe (Birds, LLC) Eric Amling, Legal Pure (Greying Ghost Press) Sampson Starkweather, Like Clouds Never Render (O'Clock Press) Mathias Svalina, The Explosions (Subito Press) Kim Gek Lin Short, China Cowboy (Tarpaulin Sky) Andrea Rexilus, half of what they carried flew away (Letter Machine Editions) Dottie Lasky, Thunderbird (Wave Books) Lily Ladewig, The Silhouettes (Sprig Gun Press) Joe Hall and Chad Hardy, The Container Store (Spring Gun Press)

June News

Happy June. I'm thrilled to say I have a new poem in this print issue which you can purchase here. It's beautiful and probably one of the few journals you'll read cover to cover without a care about "genre" 'casue it's just plain great writing from start to finish! The ever-awesome, Joe Hall, has been doubly kind with his words recently too! Here's a nice thing he wrote about my collab chap with Veronica. Also, here's a rad review he wrote for the double collab written by Julia Cohen & Mathias Svalina (which I guest-edited for Immaculate Disciples Press)! Finally, I have two readings left, which I'm sure I'll blog about as they approach but here are the basics: Southern Writers Reading Series with Angela Veronica Wong Wednesday, June 13, 2012 | 7:30PM | Southern Writers Reading Series | Happy Ending Lounge (302 Broome St.) | New York, NY Fireside Follies, June 15 |7pm|Brooklyn Fire Proof |119 Ingraham Street (at Porter Ave.)| Brooklyn, NY| Subway: L train to Morgan

Making the Chapbook

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.

Some Upcoming Events

I'm reading with tons of awesome people on Feb. 5th for Polestar's The White Album. See flyer in previous post.

On March 3rd I'm chairing a panel at AWP on chapbooks with awesome writers/publishers, Angela Veronica Wong, Mathias Svalina, Farrah Field and Sommer Browning.AWP 2012 | Saturday, March 3, 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM | The Chapbook Beyond Cultural Artifact: Contemporary Poetry and the Economics and Vitality of Chapbook Publishing | Honore Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton | Chicago, IL

I'm guest-editing the next chapbook for Immaculate Disciples Press which will be a double collaborative effort by Julia Cohen & Mathias Svalina. Seriously, it's so damn good! Cover art my Joseph Lappie- HOT DAMN! Come find us at Table Y.

Also, at AWP there will be copies of the collab chapbook by Veronica Wong & myself over at the Lame House table. Veronica's full-length from Coconut will also be for sale (I think).

Shortly, before AWP there will be a new edition of Sink Review. We have a new assistant poetry editor, Stephanie Willis. New things ahead for Sink!

Shortly after AWP, Veronica & I, along with Jackie Clark, B.C. Edwards and Amy Lawless will be reading on March 31st for an off-site reading in conjunction with the CUNY Chapbook Festival- location of the reading TBA.

I believe Veronica, Carter & I will read in Philly in either April or May.
Veronica and I will also read in DC in May. Details forthcoming.

AWP Action

I'll be moderating a panel at AWP along with Angela Veronica Wong, Mathias Svalina, Farrah Field and Sommer Browning. Awesome collection of poets/publishers/book sellers.
Stop by and say hi.

The Chapbook Beyond Cultural Artifact: Contemporary Poetry
and the Economics and Vitality of Chapbook Publishing
Scheduled Day: Saturday, March 3
Scheduled Time: 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM
Scheduled Room and Hotel: Honore Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton

Dear Denver,

Hi Friends,

This is to invite you to Mathias Svalina's book release party coupled with a Bad Shadow Affair reading THIS Saturday, featuring Maureen Owen, Steven Karl, and J. Mae Barizo, and Mathias Svalina. We'd love love love to see you there. Love.

Here is the info:
Saturday August 13th
730pm
Lost Lake Lounge | 3602 East Colfax | Denver, Colorado

Bios:
Maureen Owen (born July 6, 1943 in Graceville, Minnesota ) is an American poet, editor, and biographer. She has served as the Program Coordinator and Acting Director of the Poetry Project at St Mark's-in-the-Bowery, New York City, where she has also taught workshops in writing and magazine production. She has published many books including American Rush: Selected Poems, AE [Amelia Earhart], Hearts in Space, Imaginary Income and Zombie Notes.

Born in Toronto, J. Mae Barizo was shortlisted for Canada's 2008 Robert Kroetsch award for Innovative Poetry and Ahsahta Press's Sawtooth Poetry Prize. She has received an International Publication Award from Atlanta Review, and was an Editor's Prize finalist for Spoon River Poetry Review. As a prize winner in the William Stafford Award, she was published in Rosebud. Her work has also appeared in Baltimore Review, Boxcar Poetry Review, Sink Review, Atlanta Review, among others. She has work forthcoming in Prairie Schooner and Bellingham Review. She is the author of
two chapbooks, "The Concert Review" and "The Marble Palace."


Mathias Svalina is a co-editor of Octopus Books and Octopus Magazine. He is the author of Destruction Myth and the newly released I Am A Very Productive Entrepreneur.

Steven Karl is the author of the chapbooks, emissions/ of (H_NGM_N, 2011), (Ir)Rational Animals (Flying Guillotine Press, 2010) and State(s) of Flux w/ Joseph Lappie (Peptic Robot Press, 2009). He has poems in or forthcoming from EOAGH, With +Stand, pax americana, Taiga, Jellyfish and collaborative poems with Angela Veronica Wong in Super Arrow. In one way or another, he is involved with Sink Review, Cold Front Magazine, Borough Writing Workshops and Stain of Poetry. He sometimes blogs at stevenkarl.blogspot.com.

The Poetry Project Will Never Be The Same

Sommer Browning and Mathias Svalina are reading together at the Poetry Project tomorrow night at 10pm.

Sommer Browning‘s first book of poems, Either Way I’m Celebrating, came out in February 2011 with Birds, LLC. She draws cartoons, writes poems, teaches bookmaking and, with Julia Cohen, curates The Bad Shadow Affair reading series in Denver, Colorado. Visit her at AsthmaChronicles.com.

Mathias Svalina is the author of one collection of poems, Destruction Myth (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009), five chapbooks & five collaborative chapbooks, four of them written with Julia Cohen. He also has a hybrid-novella forthcoming, I Am A Very Productive Entrepreneur (Mud Luscious Press, 2011). With Zachary Schomburg he co-edits the online poetry journal Octopus Magazine & the small press Octopus Books. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

Get Hanked for the both of us, will you?

Abraham Smith is reading tonight. In like 2.5 hours. I just found out about. Most people I know, still don't know about it. I wonder why the invite came so late. So few people can suddenly attend something with 2.5 hours notice. Sucks. Maybe you're not busy. Maybe you can go? He's reading Friday at Earshot too (another reading I won't be able to attend 'cause I'm going to catch up with Mathias & hopefully Sommer before they set the roof of the Poetry Project on fire with their awesomeness!)

Thursday, March 10 · 7:30pm - 10:30pm
Unnameable Books
600 Vanderbilt Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11238

Abraham Smith will be reading from his new book, HANK (Action Books). Jennifer L. Knox will be reading from her new book, THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN DRIVEWAY (Bloof Books). It will be an evening full of that new book smell, and top shelf tequila.

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

EARSHOT!

Join us at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!

Friday, March 11 at 7:30 PM
@ Rose Live Music
Admission: $5 + FREE DRINK!

Guest Host: Peter Bogart Johnson

Featuring:
Traci Brimhall (author of Rookery)
Abraham Smith (author of Hank)
Amy Gall (The New School)
Nicole Dennis (Sarah Lawrence College)
Amy Meng (New York University)

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

I wrote this; Mathias wrote that

I have two poems in the new ish of So and So (and they're short too!) Here's the line-up:
Boehl, Henriksen, Starkweather, Taggart, East, Doxsee, Karl, Stein, Burns, Devereux and Jonas.

Mathias Svalina has an essay up on Pop.

Some of This & Some of That

Flying Guillotine editors, Tony & Sommer, have new poems up at Fawlt Magazine & Typo.

There's an interview with Mathias Svalina here.

Ben Mirov's book which was one of my summer reads picks has been reviewed here, here, & here.

Coldfront Magazine- The Year in Review

coldfront magazine is pleased to announce the publication of Coldfront Yearbook 2009, a book of work published in 2009 -- it also announces the WINNERS of our 2009 Year in Review.

Copies of the book will be available at a discount during the AWP Conference in Denver, CO. They are already available here, and will soon be available at amazon.com.

It is the first in what will be an annual series, and features writing by:

Jason Bredle, Erin Belieu, Stephen Burt, Jackie Clark, John Deming, DJ Dolack, PJ Gallo, Matt Hart, Steven Karl, Rick Marlatt, Mike McDonough, Rachel Mennies, Jason Schneiderman, Matt Soucy, Bryan Stokes II, Mathias Svalina, Ken L. Walker, Melinda Wilson

about work by:

Samuel Amadon, Fred Astaire, Aase Berg, Mark Bibbins, Katie Cappello, Maxine Chernoff, Arda Collins, Mahmoud Darwish, Michael Dickman, Farrah Field, Ellie Ga, Louise Gluck, Geoffrey Hill, Janet Holmes, Fady Joudah, Ellen Kennedy, Noelle Kocot, Melissa Kwasny, Justin Marks, Shane McCrae, Wayne Miller, Keith Newton, Carl Phillips, Cole Porter, DA Powell, Angela Shaw, Laura Sims, GC Waldrep, Charles Wright

Two More For 2009

The Cleveland State University Poetry Center is pleased to announce the publication of two new collections of poetry: Destruction Myth by Mathias Svalina and Sum of Every Lost Ship by Allison Titus.

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

Destruction Myth
poems by Mathias Svalina
7 x 8.5 x .202", 83 pp.
$15.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-880834-87-9

"If I feel physically as if the top of my head is taken off and replaced with a soft serve ice cream machine, I am pretty sure it is poetry. Svalina's book does no less, and also so much more. Read but also believe this book of fantastic lies. It's like how you see a cat sitting there and you think 'that is just a cat' and then you realize that cat is God. Mathias Svalina has reinvented Yahweh as an Animorph. When this book is taught in college classrooms, students will curl up on the air conditioning vents and ask for salt."
- Anne Boyer

"In the beginning, we were children and we had beautiful imaginations, but we had no home for them. Then up sprouted Mathias Svalina's Destruction Myth and we did. It too was beautiful, bloody, silly, haunted. At first we thought it was godly, and then we discovered it was human. We feared it; we loved it; we slept with it under our pillows."
- Eleni Sikelianos

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Sum of Every Lost Ship
poems by Allison Titus
5.5 x 8.5 x .202", 78 pp.
$15.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-880834-88-6

"Sum of Every Lost Ship navigates what is haunting, strange, and unknowable-grief and disappearances, fragments and histories. Reading, we are deftly balanced on the shores of mystery, a mystery fathomed by a keen instinct for metaphor. Allison Titus is a writer exquisitely attuned to compassion, isolation, and the sometimes overlooked details of this sturdy and tenuous world-goats' hearts, schooners, cabinets, arctic realities. This is a startling and moving collection."
- Talvikki Ansel

"The pilgrim heart," as one of Allison Titus's exquisite phrasings has it, requires an unmooring, a letting go, into a world marked by passing journeys, passing architectures, almost-lost motels for intimates to get lost in-a hardscrabble world rich with leavings. An internality emerges, sets out, to congress with the obstinate, the creaturely. This poetry's experiment takes us to the fact that the everyday is also experimental, in that, familiar as it is, it can never, if it is seen intensely enough to be durably writ, be wholly predicted. So fine a lyric sensibility as the reader will find in these poems is all the more compelling for acknowledging the human limits of the lyric, for making hard choices, even refusals, and for never romanticizing omission-i.e., obliteration-but testing it at every step with earthly perceptions. Allison Titus's Sum of Every Lost Ship presents readers with a striking new poetry, and a beautiful and truly original voice."
- William Olsen

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Ordering Information

Destruction Myth and Sum of Every Lost Ship can be ordered through SPD, Small Press Distribution, at 800-869-7553, or spdbooks.org, and is also available through many corporate and independent bookstores, as well as Amazon.com, and BarnesAndNoble.com. Orders can also be placed directly at the phone numbers below.

Please submit requests for media review copies and printed catalogs to Rita Grabowski at poetrycenter@csuohio.edu or call 216-687-3986.

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

For more information on individual books or for submission guidelines for our upcoming First Book (Judge: Rae Armantrout) and Open Book (Jury: Kazim Ali, Mary Biddinger, Michael Dumanis, and Sarah Gridley) contests (Postmark Deadline: February 15th), please visit our website: www.csuohio.edu/poetrycenter
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just got Mathias' book in the mail today & can't wait to read it! Titus has poems up on Real Poetik

No Tell? Oh Do Tell!

I have an incomplete list of 09 Top Ten poetry books up on No Tells Blog.

It's incomplete because I completely forgot to mention two CSU books I loved:

Self Portrait with a Crayon by Allison Benis White

Horse Dance Under Water by Helena Mesa

I'm pretty sure Mathias Svalina's book on CSU will be out before the year is over too.

I also left off Justin Marks' chapbook, Vior Dire because my copy has not arrived yet, although I've heard him read from parts of it & loved it.

I've also heard Farrah Field read extensively from her book, Rising, but actually haven't read the entire book. I hope to buy a copy of it on Sunday though!

I'm sure still forgetting something but off the top of my head those were the glaring errors that should be added to the "list."

Tuesday with Sun

An interview with Jennifer Chang here

*

The new issue of Raleigh Quarterly is up and it has poems by Zach Shomburg, Emily Kendal Frey, and Jim Goar. Check it out here

*

Mathias Svalina here

*

Word for Word Poetry presents readings by Kate Greenstreet, Jan Heller Levi, Janet Kaplan and Molly Peacock at the Bryant Park Reading Room, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 7:30pm.


The Bryant Park Reading Room is located at 6th Avenue @ 42nd Street. Subway: B, D, F, V to 42nd Street.

Bus: M5, M6, M7 to 41st @ 6th Avenue.

*

THE READING AT CHRYSTIE STREET
keeps it on a short leash

http://thereadingseries.blogspot.com/

Jim Behrle & Shafer Hall
Wednesday, August 26. 7 PM sharp.
Home Sweet Home
131 Chrystie Street

Jim lives in Brooklyn. His poems have appeared most recently in Strandzig.

Shafer Hall's first collection of poetry is available from No Tell Press. His poems can be found in the current issue of Open Letters Monthly and in many other journals. Occasional diversions can be found at shaferhall.com.

SPECIAL BONUS ANNOUNCEMENT
Watch this space for info regarding our GIANT SPECTACULAR ANNIVERSARY BLOW-OUT. If you have been a Chrystie Street reader, get in touch...we want you for a special project.

Tuesday with Rain

Last night I sent an email to someone saying that it finally feels like summer, in other words, dry & hot. So much for that, huh?

Here's the alternate location for the Bryant Park reading if it is still raining
Uncalled-for Readings Bryant Park: Ana Božičević, Brown, Susana Gardinier

In case of continued rain, tonight's reading will take place at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 20 W. 44th St between 5th & 6th Aves, just 2 blocks north of Bryant Park.

See you tonight at 7:30!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Washington Square Midsummer Party!
Washington Square is NYU creative writing program’s nationally-distributed literary journal publishing fiction and poetry by emerging and established writers.
Readings by JOHN YAU, TIMOTHY LIU, MIRANDA FIELD, BEN MIROV, KATHERINE BOGDEN, and PORTER FOX, plus a hilarious reading by actor CONRAD WOOLFE reading from Rudolph Delson's story.

Thursday, July 23, 2009
Time:
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location:
Happy Ending
Street:
302 Broome St, between Forsyth & Eldridge
City/Town:
New York, NY
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Julia (Cohen) & Mathias (Svalina) have a new collab chapbook coming out from Cinematheque Press & you can read an excerpt here
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Artist, Printer, Publisher, Joseph Lappie is on the move (again) from Chicago to Iowa so here's your chance to buy some paintings, prints, and drawings at a discounted rate & he's keeping a blog too! Check out his work & words here
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sharon Mesmer is making a run at being the next Poet Laurette of Brooklyn. Matt Rohrer is also in the mix, but haven't heard much about his campaign so I'm assuming Sharon wants it more... read & decide & vote here
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Time to make some food. Tofu stir-fry with garlic, kale, and whatever else is left in the fridge.

So Much Reading You'll Need A New Set Of Eyes

Besides there being new issues of Fence, LIT, & Effing Magazine (which I'll blog about once I read them- I'm still reading the latest Jubilat & Lungfull) here are some online journals to tempt your intellect:

The new issue of CUE is up (first on-line version), guest-edited by Mark Horosky with work from Julia Cohen & Mathias Svalina in it, alongside work by Elizabeth Willis, Richard Siken, Matt Hart, Sarah Manguso, Tony Mancus, Dorothea Lasky, Tim Peterson, Reb Livingston, Chaz McCallahan, and Jason Labbe.

The 11th issue of pax americana is up, with such shining stars as: Paige Taggart, Christie Ann Reynolds, Nicole Santalucia, Sarah Feeley, Lauren Hunter, Jean Hartig, Amy LAwless, Matthew Yeager, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Kiely Sweatt, Patricia Smith, Aria Boutet, Rachel-Herman Gross, Taryn Andrew, Joseph Millar, Dorianne Laux, Teege Braune.

Rabbit Light Movies Episode #9
suzanne buffam | Joshua Beckman | Dorothea Lasky | Srikanth Reddy | Magdalena Zurawski |
Lauren Levin | Graham Foust | CAConrad | Aaron Kunin | brandon shimoda | Catherine Theis

EarActionTime

Action Yes! Goes Weimar

"Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy": A special section devoted to the poetry and art of the scandalous cabarets performed by Anita Berber and Sebastian Droste in Weimar Germany.

Abstract comics!(Including a preview of Andrei Molotiu's upcoming anthology from Fantagraphics Books.)

"Always/Only/A/Plenum": Tim Wood's essay on Robert Grenier and Grenier's response.

Translation of writers Agrafiotis, Dragincescu, Froger, Lamat,
Rubinstein, Sacré.

Per Bäckström's essay " "Crush the Assholetters Between the Teeth": Språkgrotesk in Henri Michaux and Gunnar Ekelöf."

"Dead Can Dance," Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle's ruminations on Decadence.

As well as poetry, visual poetry, collages and prose from Downing,
Lundwall, Yankelevich, Schapira and others.
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EARSHOT!

Season Finale!
Friday, June 26th @ 8 PM
@ Rose Live Music
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg
$5 + one free drink

Featuring:

CAConrad (Advanced Elvis Course, The Book of Frank)
Tim Peterson (Since I Moved In)
Elsbeth Pancrazi (New York University)
Maria DiLorenzo (Hunter College)
Liza Monroy (Mexican High, Columbia University)

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


LILY BROWN
MATHIAS SVALINA
JOSHUA MARIE WILKINSON
+VIDEOS BY BRANDON DOWNING
JUNE 27 8PM
SPACESPACE
390 SENECA AVENUE
http://www.poetrytimeatspacespace.blogspot.com

Play For Today Or MicroReview

I have been reading Mathias Svalina's chapbook slowly for the past week & a half. This has been difficult because this chapbook is so good you'll want to rush through it in one sitting. Luckily for me, NYC is filled with constant interruptions and I have had to grade over 60 papers *sigh*

Svalina's chapbook works so well because he masterfully subverts one of the most common and universal experiences which is to be a child engrossed in a game, but much like novel turned film, Battle Royale, a lot of these poems are tinged in darkness and have deep societal implications. A majority of fairy tales are rooted in violence and suffering and these prose poems explore a similar terrain. Svalina remakes our world by exposing what is often left unsaid or what lurks in the subtext. Svalina's writing ranges from simplistic to absurd and is always filled with wit, intelligence, and most importantly compassion.

Play is a chapbook that will make you smile and remember yourself enjoying the sport of game, but it will also leave you to examine the structures/ideologies which implicitly a/effect our interactions as humans. Play will make you think of innocence, youth, grace and clumsiness as we navigate our interior and exterior worlds.

Lessening The Blow

( for 2 or more players)

One child waits in the waiting room. Another
child sits in the well-lit room & speaks into the
microphone. The speakers in the waiting room dis-
tort the second child's voice into screeches. The first
child holds his head in the parentheses of his hands.
The second child continues speaking into the micro-
phone & in the waiting room the voice is indecipher-
able.

Occasionally the light flickers. Mechanical beds
thrum on the other side of the double-doors & the
first child looks up to see if the door opens.

The second child must continue reading until he
reaches the end of the script. Then he drinks a plas-
tic cup of water & begins the script again.

The script begins: "Have hope. Have hope. Your
waiting is almost done."

Buy Play here

The poem formatting is off 'cause I cant get the spacings to set. Sorry.

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.