Good News

here

Camera Obscura - "French Navy" official video

Scottish pop for a rainy Friday.

Saturday's Hit List

6-6-09: STEINBERG, PICCINNINI, MAGERS AND MORE @ THE BUSHWICK READING SERIES
340 Bushwick Avenue @ Siegel Street
3 to 5 PM
& it's freeeeeeee

From the lovely hostesses, Niina Pollari & Parker Phillips:

June 6th, 2009 marks the end of a glorious season of the BUSHWICK
READING SERIES -- we're an official Bushwick Open Studios Site! Join
us for these festive festivities, which include readings from poetic
moguls Nicole Steinberg, Douglas Piccinnini, and Dan Magers, as well
as an extraordinary interdisciplinary panel about the topic of
WILD/LIFE. What does that mean, exactly? You'll have to come find out
what they have to say. The cast of characters will remain unrevealed,
for now...

Bushwick Library is located on 340 Bushwick Avenue at Siegel Street, a
stone's throw from the Montrose Avenue stop off the L train and just a
little way from the Central Avenue M stop. As always, the reading
takes place from 3-5PM. Don't be late! We have too much planned for
you to be late, folks. If you're confused about the location, you can
find an incredibly helpful map here. Then, stay in town for a drink or
two and check out other Open Studios/Arts Festival events going on in
Bushwick -- http://artsinbushwick.org will give you a detailed
schedule.

Check out the Bushwick Reading Series website for audio of previous
readings -- including last month's, with a gorgeous operatic aria from
Pat Phillips -- as well as previous readers' book recommendations.
http://bushwickreadingseries.org.

Questions? Comments? Love notes? E-mail bushwickbunker@gmail.com.
We're humbly yours.

Around the world via the web

Nicole Wong has flash fiction here

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summer 2009 issue of sawbuck is out featuring corey mesler, david sewell, erik anderson, gina abelkop, jennifer h. fortin, joseph p. wood, kate schapira, kristina marie darling,nick demske, & paul hostovsky

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New reviews up at Gently Read Literature

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Brand new Chapbook only review site featuring two reviews of Mathias Svalina's Play which I reviewed on this blog.

I'm pretty excited about this site so if you're a publisher and/or reviewer you should send them chapbooks or offer to do some reviews. Tarpaulin Sky and CutBank also have a ton of books that need reviewers too!

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New E-chapbooks are alive at Scantily Clad Press:

At night: by Lisa Ciccarello

You Are So Pretty by Donald Dunbar

Theater by Drew Kalbach

Prairies by Natalie Knight

Mandolintries by Philip Nikolayev

Taco Truck to Awesometown by Cate Peebles

I've already mentioned this but I'll say it again. I LOVE Cate Peebles' chapbook, but don't take my word for it, take Ben Mirov's

Lux, Mr. Smith Style

Hello friends,



Please join me tomorrow evening, June 2nd at Revival in the Union Sq. area to belatedly celebrate the release of my book of poems, LUX. I’ll be reading from the book. I have some new poems to read, too.


Famous poet Amy Lawless will be introducing me, and she is also providing free Hawaiian leis for all in attendance. I will have books for sale, including my dangerously rare The Glass Dick: A Prinny Matteere, of which there are about seven copies in existence.


I look forward to seeing you.

Revival Bar NYC – LUX Opening Party
129 E 15th St
New York, NY 10003
7:00-9:00 (We’ll start around 8).

Heat Seeker

Borrowed House: 15 poems by Brooklyn Copeland (Greying Ghost Press, 2009)
Buy it here


I have to admit I'm embarrassed I haven't written a review for this chapbook yet. I've had it since February and have read it a few times already.

In Brooklyn Copeland's Scantily Clad Press chapbook, Northernmost, her poems are cold and spacious like wandering the tundra and having your sight captivated by lichen hue. Her poems are sparse and can send a chill up your spine. Borrowed House finds Copeland operating in a different degree of weather. These poems, while still sparse in language, feel insulated like attic-trapped heat. Copeland's poem are not excessively chatty- every line is measured and necessary. Here's the first three lines of "Weeds," "Under a musty quilt,/ your eyes turn misty,/ your voice creams./"

Another thing to love about this chapbook is the way the poems go from interior to exterior. Here's a three lines from "They Remain Where Breath Left Them,"

These people were packrats. Really, we're the ones

haunting the house, traipsing half-naked, drink-handed,

every warped floorboard announcing our belligerence.

And here is one of my favorite poems, "Eleven O'clock,"

Meanwhile, a sense of needing
to rehabilitate:
the field is there, the trough full
of rainwater, puffed-up bees.
Eleven o'clock I send you
back up that old nag tree
for some more of those
tiny mottled apples. In the branches,
the ghost of tom waits for you
to fail me.

These poems are wrought with expectation, the simplicity of youth, the complexity of adulthood, and each place mentioned is a space for beauty and also a space for hurt. There are failures both large and small and then there are people isolated, a bit broken, but ultimately bandaged and breathing. This chapbook is blood before it boils and shortly after it cools. You should read it and love it like I do.

Dan Magers sends out an email about his June 6th reading and this picture is part of Sampson Starkweather's reply