Is this Control the Monday Joy Division

Come out on Monday and hear Veronica Wong read some poems.

Big-eye George says to "read some reviews"

I have two new reviews published on Sink Review. One for a poet on Action Books, the other a poet on Ugly Duckling Presse.

Dan Magers (one of the Sink editors) has a review of Sam Starkweather's chapbook.

Check them out here: Sink Review

Debbie Yee reviewed Dan Mager's chapbook here: {bee + spool}

Zoland has four new poetry in translation reviews here: zolandpoetry.com

Slight Process by Zhang Er here: CutBank

& how about a mini-interview with Sink Review editor, Richard Scheiwe over on [helix]

I Want To Believe

If haven't seen this yet go see it because it's amazing and it ends tomorrow!

Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe

Sat in the park reading some poems

It's said cranes need lots of room. How
do they exist so far apart and stay together?

I couldn't stand it, to not be able to see
your body, to not be part of you out of

some genetic modesty. I have trouble
staying asleep without you. I belong to

another world.

_______________________

Approached the loitered some around.
Botanied the self and all its horticultures.

Weedily, strewn lands, folds and more.
A body belonging to another body who

uses it carefully to break all kinds of codes.
And to stroll with, about outside on walks.

Snails, small birds, raccoons, argentine ants.

_____________________________

Formal, a sprawlingness, tonal
as in using your tongue, you

could rattle saints, you
could invent new forms of sex, you

could peel me like an orange,
my sticky white pith, my strings,

my sweet wants.

____________________________

I love the looking, to see over, see giraffes,
to pet the giraffe from a platform, the sexuality

of feeding them, their long black tongues.
How enviable! The old one, the oldest one,

these luscious attachments, you are the way
the sweat of your hands taste. Full of salt,

knowing. You are the sugar you carry inside you.

______________________________

Shy Green Fields by Hugh Behm-Steinberg reprinted for his book, Shy Green Fields (No Tell Books, 2007)

Wednesday's Death Match + Ange Mlinko on Thursday

Ugly Duckling Presse presents

Wednesday, May 28, at 8pm [NYC]
6x6 SALON at THE KITCHEN
Release of #15! Readings by 6x6 poets:
Corina Copp, Lawrence Giffin, David Goldstein,
Will Hubbard, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Douglas Rothschild.
& MUSIC by THE QUAVERS and I FEEL TRACTOR.
@ THE KITCHEN
512 W. 19th Street, NYC (free)
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Two Poets + Happy Hour

The Reading at Chrystie St
Curator: Steve Roberts
Featuring: Nathan Austin & Lauren Ireland
Home Sweet Home, 131 Chrystie Street, 7pm
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You Were You Are Elegy by Mary Jo Bang Muckraker by Cate Marvin Sleep by Meghan O'Rourke Conversion Comedy by Ange Mlinko

Poetry Magazine Presents: Two NYC Independent Bookstore Readings Poetry magazine presents two readings at independent NYC bookstores, featuring recent magazine contributors. Admission is free; brief Q&A’s and book signings will follow the readings. Complimentary Poetry magazines and tote bags will be available to attendees! Wednesday, May 28th, 7:00 p.m. Mary Jo Bang, Cate Marvin, Philip Nikolayev, and Meghan O'Rourke. Housing Works Bookstore Café, 126 Crosby St, New York, New York ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thursday, May 29, 7:30 p.m. Lydia Davis, Ange Mlinko, and Lewis Warsh St. Mark’s Bookshop Reading Series, at Solas Bar 232 East Ninth Street New York, New York About Housing Works Bookstore Café Housing Works Bookstore Café is an independent cultural center that offers patrons a unique opportunity to join the fight against AIDS and homelessness. Practicing arts-based philanthropy, Housing Works allows visitors to make a difference simply by buying or donating books; eating at their cafe; coming to concerts, readings, and special events; or volunteering for staff. www.housingworksbookstore.org About St. Mark's Bookshop St. Mark's Bookshop was established in 1977 in New York's East Village, as a community of students, academics, arts professionals and other eclectic readers. The bookshop’s specialties include Cultural Theory, Graphic Design, Poetry & Small Press Publishers, Film Studies and Foreign & Domestic Periodicals & Journals. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Upcoming events to keep an eye out for Veronica Wong@ Control Poetry Series, LIT Issue 14 Launch Party, Fou Launch Party

Equi Aqui

EARSHOT!

Join us for the next installment of EARSHOT at The Lucky Cat, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn! EARSHOT is a bi-monthly reading series, dedicated to featuring new and emerging literary talent in the NYC area.

*Friday, May 23, 2008 at 8 PM*
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg

Featuring:
ELAINE EQUI (author of Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems)
JEROME SALA (author of Look Slimmer Instantly!)
Brynn Saito (Sarah Lawrence College)
Keri Bertino (Columbia University)
Maya Funaro (Hunter College)

Admission is a mere $5 plus one free drink (beer, wine or well drinks only)!
The Lucky Cat is located at 245 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Driggs and Roebling. Visit their website for directions: http://www.theluckycat.com.

Also visit http://www.earshotnyc.com for more information on Earshot or e-mail Nicole Steinberg at earshotnyc@gmail.com.

Be My Pet, Better Yet Get Your Own Pet

I got an email today from a former New Schooler classmate and figured I'd post it on my blog 'cause seriously I like animals and you should too.

Fellow animal lovers, fosters, volunteers…

I am writing to announce that MUTTS & MITTS OF BROOKLYN will be holding its FIRST outdoor adoption & foster event this SATURDAY, MAY 24^th from NOON-6P.

LOCATION: 651 Bergen Street, right behind Barrette Bar, on the corner of Vanderbilt. (Brooklyn, Prospect Heights)

DATE & TIME: Saturday, May 24^th, Noon to 6P

All of Mutts & Mitts cats & dogs are homeless animals from the Brooklyn community. We will have on display several sweet and adorable cats and dogs who are in dire need of foster and adoption. If you do not know what fostering entails, please see details below.

***

We are also seeking VOLUNTEERS, people to TRANSPORT animals and a few extra SUPPLIES for the event. If you are interested in volunteering or can donate or allow us to borrow for the weekend the following, please be in touch right away!

Supplies we need:

Crates—Small dog crates to use for the cats

Leashes & Collars

Blankets & Towels

Bowls

Cat Food

Fostering for MMOB: Fostering a rescue animal is both a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the companionship of an animal without making a lifelong commitment and to provide shelter and love for an animal in dire need. It is FREE to foster although since we are a new rescue organization and not yet eligible for state funding, we greatly appreciate if fosters are able to provide food and litter in the case of cats. All medical care is provided for by MMOB!

Adopting from MMOB: Adopting a rescue animal is a rewarding experience for both the animal and the adopter. You will know you have helped save the life of an animal who might have otherwise been euthanized. There is an adoption fee of $100 for a cat & $200 for a dog. These are necessary fees to cover the expenses of each animal’s care while with MMOB. Most animals cost us above and beyond that amount. Each animal has been provided with vet care which includes spay/neutering, current vaccinations and microchipping.

We hope to see you there! And please pass this along to anyone you know who may be interested in fostering or adopting, volunteering, posting it on their blogs/websites/listservs/etc, or simply passing it along themselves!! Be sure to check out our blog and myspace page too!! http://muttsandmitts.blogspot.com & http://www.myspace.com/muttsandmitts

Can We Talk Suck?

Boarding Gate wasn't really a surprise since Olivier Assayas' other recent films, Clean and Demonlover weren't very good. Actually Clean wasn't bad, but like every Gus Van Sant movie, it was nothing new. Boarding Gate's problems are the same as Demonlover, a poorly written script, slow French pacing which makes the movie crawl (which only works if there is atmosphere, instead in both movies Assayas' uses this pacing as a stand-in for atmosphere) and over-hype for depravity.

Assayas' tries to sell sex, eroticism, and violence but has failed to have a significant voice except for Irma Vep (a movie I love). In this movie the sexiness is exuded through costume, through body language, and a lot less talking. Maybe it's because Maggie Cheung is better actor. It's like in poetry where they say show, don't tell. Assayas spends too much time trying to tell us that Boarding Gate is controversial and sexy. Asia Argento can stand around in a bra and panties holding a gun but it doesn't replace the ability to act or action. This movie is short on both. Sure, Argento can coo, and look helpless, and play with herself on top of a desk-- but she lacks nuance to establish anything outside of a cardboard cut-out character. Kelly Lin is an even worse actor- it's almost laughable.

This is a fairly simple story of drugs and big business take-overs, and there should be a lot more action, or at least mood/tension, but it drags on and on. It's pretty to look at, but boring as hell to watch-- I ate a lot of popcorn and restlessly shifted in my seat.



My oh my.... what to say about this disgusting disaster? People warned me not to see it. Sawko even sent me a bootleg copy from Shanghai so that I wouldn't waste money at the box office. Still it was unfathomable to imagine not seeing WKW latest creation on the big screen. Sure it was a Hollywood affair, a road movie no less, but I imagined it would still be worth watching. I was willing to like, as opposed to, love. Fat chance--- this movie sucks on every damn level.
If I say atrocious am I being too kind? First things first, like Assayas the script is undeniably weak. Who would read such a thing and think this equates movie? Even with the most superb actors this movie would still stink!

But let's talk acting. Norah Jones. What you heard is correct. Girl can't act her way through life's simplest task. Apparently girls do or once did find Jude Law dreamy and Norah Jones is pretty, yet here are two attractive people/actors with zero chemistry. Seriously none. Norah Jones is dressed all frumpy and stumbles her way through the movie, always off beat, always mis-timed, always flat. Since she's a singer I expected that she would have some stage presence some charisma but she's got nothing. Rachel Weisz has a pulse (thankfully 'cause she's definitely an actor I think is amazing) but it seems like over-acting(compared to the rest of the dead-beats) Natalie Portman is neither good nor bad and Chan Marshall seems like Cat Power.

Road movies are hard to do intelligently and very few resonate emotionally. Intelligence, emotion, and mood are all calling cards of WKW genius so I can see how as a director he felt challenged to make this movie. Or maybe he wanted to do something light. Whatever the reasoning is this movie has nothing going for it. Same canned shots of sky and road. Same dullness as anytime Lifetime special. I could go on and on, but all you need to know is that everything you'd expect from a WKW movie this is NOT.

the Warlocks - Come Save Us

Sometimes you just want some rock 'n roll to kick your ass

& They Just Don't Stop

So you already know about the huge reading for tomorrow (Saturday, May 17) but Sunday and Monday have some pretty nice readings going on too!

JOIN US FOR A READING AT PARK SLOPE'S 440 GALLERY!

Kaveh Bassiri, J. Mae Barizo, and Alex Smith

WHEN: Sunday, May 18th from 4:30-6:00 pm

WHERE: 440 Gallery, 440 Sixth Avenue (at 9th St., F to 7th Ave.)

CONTACT: Dan Magers at daniel.magers@gmail.com

Admission Free

Kaveh Bassiri

Kaveh Bassiri was born in Iran and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in his early teens. He has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where he was the Editor of the 2006 issue of its graduate literary journal, Lumina. He is also the co-curator of the poetry series, Reading Between A and B, in the East Village.

J. Mae Barizo

Born in Toronto, J. Mae Barizo was shortlisted for the 2008 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. In 2007 she received an International Publication Award from Atlanta Review, and was an Editor's Prize finalist for Spoon River Poetry Review. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in the Baltimore Review, Sink Review, Nimrod, Atlanta Review, Bellingham Review, Boxcar Poetry Review and the Antietam Review, among others. Her poetry chapbook, "The Concert Review", is forthcoming in 2008.

Alex Smith

Alex Smith was born in Washington, DC. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA from the New School. His stories have appeared in Eleven Bulls, Facsimilation, Black Ink Horror and Pig Iron Malt. Recently he completed a novel titled An American Coward. Alex teaches English at John Jay College and lives near Union Square.

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Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond

This event is scheduled for Monday, May 19th - 7:00 PM

With editor Ravi Shankar
And poets Sarah Gambito, Timothy Liu, and Vijay Seshadri
In a time when so much of the American understanding of Asia and the Middle East is rooted in politics, we need a broader knowledge of the artistic offerings of the region. In Language for a New Century, editors Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar have assembled an exhaustive selection of poems from fifty-nine different countries and territories in this vast and often nebulous region, grouped thematically rather than geographically for a varied, rich and experiential portrait of the so often over-simplified East. Join poets Timothy Liu, Sarah Gambito and Vijay Seshadri along with editor Ravi Shankar for a reading and a discussion on the proliferation of poetics and limitations of identity politics around the world.

McNally Robinson, 52 Prince Street

Last Minute Heater

ROOF Books, United Artists, Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, Granary,
Cuneiform, Bootstrap, The Figures & Ugly Duckling invite you
to a small press party,
May 15, 2008,
at Max Protetch Gallery, 511 W. 22^nd, NYC, from 6-8 PM,
to celebrate the publication of the following books:


Phyllis Wat, The Influence of Paintings Hung in Bedrooms
Barbara Henning, My Autobiography
Gloria Frym, Solution Simulacra

Reed Bye, Join the Planets

Barbara Jane Reyes, Cherry

Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Mental Commitment Robots
Julie Patton, Notes for Some (Nominally) Awake
Jennifer Firestone, Waves

& as of this week, Kimberly Lyons’ Photothérapique published with Katalanché Press

Geoffrey Young, The Riot Act & Pockets of Wheat
Catullus, The Complete Poems (trans. Ryan Gallagher)
John Wieners, A Book of Prophecies
Tom Morgan, On Going
Jen Bervin, The Desert
Lewis Warsh, Inseparable : Poems 1995-2005

Francesco Clemente & Vincent Katz, Alcuni Telefonini
Clark Coolidge, Space & The Book of During
Bill Berkson, Sudden Address
Ted Greenwald, Two Wrongs
Dan Featherston, The Clock Maker’s Memoir
Mimeo Mimeo, edited by Jed Birmingham & Kyle Schlesinger

Nada Gordon, Folly

Craig Dworkin. Poetics, ed. C. st : The Consequences of Innovation

Narc Nasdor, Sonnetalia

Gary Sullivan, PPL in a Depot

Christine Hume, Lullaby
Sam Truitt, Vertical Elegies
Jack Micheline, One of a Kind
Aleksandr Skidan, Red Shifting

Other Than Emailing Everyone I Know About Possible Job Opportunities

spent the morning looking for work

rode my bike

sat in the park

lots of cute girls in pretty dresses

laughter/ some guys talking in german/ more laughter

felt precarious about now/ about tomorrow/ about the days after/

sun broke through branches

biker dude chain-smoking on bench beside

clouds came gunning/ sun obscured

read these words:

This, thus is a portion of the subject of this poem
Which is in the form of falling snow:
That is, the individual flakes are not essential to the
importance of the whole's becoming so much of a truism
That their importance is again called in question, to be
denied further out, and again and again like this.
Hence, neither the importance of the individual flake,
Nor the importance of the whole impression of the storm,
if it has any, is what it is,
But the rhythm of the series of repeated jumps, from
abstracts into positve and back to a slightly less
diluted abstract.

Mild effects are the results.

.................................................................

Who, actually, is going to be fooled one instant by these
phony explanations,
Think them important? So back we go to the old,
imprecise feelings the,
Common knowledge, the importance of duly suffering and
the occasional glimpses
Of some balmy felicity. The world of Schubert's lieder.

..................................................................

As balloons are to the poet, so to the ground
Its varied assortment of trees.

John Ashbery, " The Skaters"

2 More for You

The interview with Paul Violi in this journal is pretty good stuff!

12th Street Reading

Faculty readers Shelley Jackson, Zia Jaffery, Paul Violi and Riggio students read from the magazine

Tuesday, May 13, 7:00 pm

The Union Square Barnes and Noble, 33 East 17th Street

FREE

Please come celebrate with the editors and contributors of 12th Street!

You've waited 58 years for this. . . The New School Writing Program is proud to announce of re-launch of The New School undergraduate literary magazine 12th Street, last published in 1950. The inside cover includes a work of art from the Spring 1949 issue but otherwise everything is new work by students currently enrolled in The Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy. 12th Street is made possible by the Leonard and Louise Riggio Writing and Democracy Initiative at The New School and will be nationally distributed by Barnes and Noble.

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There's no shortage of Matt Hart love in NYC/Brooklyn and I especially love the poem he has in Cutbank Issue 68. This is also a reading series that I don't get to attend nearly enough, but alas I'll be at a job fair tomorrow evening then going to see my friend play a little music so no BK travels for me but you should go and tell me all about it, okay?

Wed. May 14th

Matt Hart, with Amanda Nadelberg and Christopher Martin, 8PM,

Pacific Standard Bar , 82 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11217

Readings, Readings, Readings

KGB Monday Night Poetry Reading Series

Hosted by Laura Cronk and Michael Quattrone

Monday, May 12, 7:30 pm

KGB Bar ● 85 East 4th Street

FREE

Featuring: Star Black, Deborah Landau, David Lehman, Matthew Zapruder

KGB Bar ● 85 East 4th Street ● New York, NY 10003 ● Phone: 212-505-3360 ● KgbBar.com

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Tao invited you to "TAO LIN 'BOOK' 'PARTY' COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY" on Thursday, May 15 at 7:00pm.

Event: TAO LIN 'BOOK' 'PARTY' COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
"FREE ORGANIC FOOD, ALCOHOL, CHAPBOOKS"
What: Reunion
Host: RELIEVE BOREDOM
When: Thursday, May 15 at 7:00pm
Where: MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING (DUMBO)

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Special Free Event at Werkstatte Gallery: May 15th, 6:30, 55 Great Jones Street
Eileen Myles, Kristin Prevallet, Amy Lawless and a performance from Pat Lasch.

It is our pleasure to announce that Werkstatte Gallery will be hosting a reading and performance in conjunction with its current exhibition: A.I.R Gallery Retrospective: 1972 – 1979.

The A.I.R. cooperative gallery was the first all-women's gallery, featuring the best work from prominent artists of the downtown art scene. Our reading, featuring the talented poetry of three leading New York poets and an original A.I.R. Gallery member, offers a selection of fantastic female artists, and speaks to A.I.R.'s "Monday Night" programming: a discursive educational program that utilized a time when galleries are traditionally closed. On select Monday evenings A.I.R. opened its doors to varying speakers, performances, and how-to seminars that covered topics ranging from tax preparation to organizing a cooperative gallery.

Eileen Myles is a prolific poet, memoirist, and essayist. She is also the author of, among others, Skies, School of Fish, Chelsea Girls, and more. Eileen is, by all accounts, a rock star of the poetry world- a gifted writer first but an inspiring teacher as well, and also able to say that she had a well-publicized presidential run. Her most recent book Sorry, Tree, is available from Wave Books and was published to rave reviews.

Pat Lasch was an original member of the A.I.R. co-op from 1972. Her intimate works of sculpture, painting, and prose have been featured and lauded in numerous galleries and journals. Her work incorporates narrative (starting from her childhood in Queens as the daughter of a baker), memoir, and all to create an exploration of the sexual object, the organ, the fertile, and the lonely. Her work was recently exhibited at the Zabriskie Gallery.

Kristin Prevallet's poetry is not shy—it is generous, in fact—in dealing with the devastation of tragedy loss. Her ongoing project, in the Olson school of constant personal investigation and research, deals in the death of her father. Kristin's work has been collected into a book: I, Afterlife: Essay In Mourning Time. Kristin's prose has appeared in Fence, Riding the Meridian, Jacket, and many others, and she edited an anthology of Helen Adam's writing, A Helen Adam Reader, which has just been published.

Amy Lawless is a brazen poet with an eye for the absurd and the darkly comedic. Her work has appeared in The Agriculture Reader and Barrow Street and her work has been noted by The Best American Poetry. Her debut book of poems, Noctis Licentia, will release as the premier launch title for Black Maze Books.

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Saturday, May 17th, 3-8pm
Doors 2:30 pm, $6

Ana Božičević
John Coletti
Kate Greenstreet
Sarah Gridley
Katy Henriksen
Shannon Jonas
Jennifer Kronovet
Mark Lamoureux
Timothy Liu
Chris Martin
Jess Mynes
Cate Peebles
Christopher Rizzo
Matthew Rohrer
Frank Sherlock
Joanna Sondheim
Shanxing Wang
Rebecca Wolff

& music from
The Hadacol

Hosted by Cannibal, Saltgrass, Harp & Altar, & Tight

East Coast Aliens
216 Franklin St
btwn. Green & Huron
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
G to Greenpoint Ave (exit at India St)
B61/B43/B42

Ana Božičević moved to NYC from Croatia in 1997. She’s the author of chapbooks Document (Octopus Books, 2007) and Morning News (Kitchen Press, 2006). Look for her recent work in Denver Quarterly, Saltgrass, Hotel Amerika, absent, The New York Quarterly, Bat City Review, MiPOesias, Octopus Magazine and The Portable Boog Reader 2: An Anthology of NYC Poetry. Ana co-edits RealPoetik.

John Coletti is the author of The New Normalcy (BoogLit 2002), Physical Kind (Yo-Yo-Labs 2005), and Street Debris (Fell Swoop 2005), a collaboration with poet Greg Fuchs with whom he also co-edits Open 24 Hours Press. He currently is the editor of The Poetry Project Newsletter.

Kate Greenstreet is the author of case sensitive (Ahsahta Press, 2006) and three chapbooks, Learning the Language (Etherdome Press, 2005), Rushes (above/ground press, 2007), and This is why I hurt you (Lame House Press, April 2008). Her second book, The Last 4 Things, will be out from Ahsahta in 2009. Her poems can be found in journals like Cannibal, Fascicle, and Handsome. New work is forthcoming in Filling Station, Practice, and The Columbia Review.

Sarah Gridley is Poet in Residence and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Case Western Reserve University. She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Montana in 2000, where she was a Richard Hugo scholar and won the 1999 Merriam Frontier Award for excellence in creative writing. The University of California Press published her book Weather Eye Open in 2005. She has recently completed a new poetry manuscript, whose poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Fourteen Hills, NEO, Harp & Altar, Crazy Horse, jubilat, Denver Quarterly, New American Writing, and Chicago Review.

Katy Henriksen was born and raised in the Arkansas Ozarks. She is the design editor of the poetry journal Cannibal, which she creates with her husband Matt Henriksen in their tiny railroad apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She also helps run the Burning Chair Readings. Her music and culture writing may be found in Venus Zine, The Brooklyn Rail, Paste, Publishers Weekly, Puremusic.com, Rust Buckle, and elsewhere. Four of her poems are forthcoming in Tight.

Shannon Jonas is the author of Compathy (Cannibal Books, 2007) and lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Jennifer Kronovet is the author of Awayward (BOA Editions, 2009), selected by Jean Valentine as the winner of the Poulin Prize. Kronovet is the co-founder and co-editor of CIRCUMFERENCE, a journal of poetry in translation. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Colorado Review, Harp & Altar, Ploughshares, A Public Space, and other journals. She was born and raised in New York City, and has lived in Chicago, St. Louis, and Beijing.

Mark Lamoureux is a poet, critic and translator who lives in Astoria, NY. His work has appeared in numerous publications, both in print and online. He is an associate editor for Fulcrum Annual. He is the author of three chapbooks: City/Temple (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2003), 29 Cheeseburgers (Pressed Wafer, 2004) and Film Poems (Katalanche Press, 2005).

Timothy Liu is the author of six books of poems, most recently For Dust Thou Art. Two new books are forthcoming, Bending the Mind Around the Dream's Blown Fuse (Talisman House, 2008) and Polytheogamy (Saturnalia Press, 2009). His journals and papers are archived in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. Liu is currently an Associate Professor at William Paterson University and on the Core Faculty at Bennington College’s Writing Seminars; he lives in Manhattan.

Chris Martin is the author of American Music. His new book, Becoming Weather, is trying to become published. His newer book, On Song, is an ongoing investigation of song’s ontological use from the Caveman Days until Tonight. He is the editor of Puppy Flowers, an online magazine of the arts, and resides near the Prospect Park Zoo with a beautiful lady and her cat.

Jess Mynes is the author of Birds for Example, Coltsfoot Insularity (a collaboration with Aaron Tieger), In(ex)teriors, and Full on Jabber (a collaboration with Christopher Rizzo). He is the editor of Fewer & Further Press. In 2008, his If and When (Katalanche Press), Sky Brightly Picked (Skysill Press), Recently Clouds, and a second edition of In(ex)teriors (Anchorite Press) will be published. He lives in Wendell, MA where he co curates a reading series, All Small Caps. His poems have appeared in numerous publications.

Cate Peebles lives in Brooklyn and works at the literary agency, Sobel Weber Associates, in Manhattan. Her poems have appeared in, or are forthcoming from, Tin House, Octopus, La Petite Zine, MiPOesias, Capgun, and others. She co-edits the on-line poetry magazine, Fou.

Christopher Rizzo is a writer and publisher who lives in New York. Over the years, his work has appeared in Art New England, The Cultural Society, Cannibal, Dusie, H_NGM_N, and Spell among other magazines. Christopher has also authored several chapbooks, such as Claire Obscure (Katalanche Press, 2005), Zing (Carve Editions, 2006), and The Breaks (Fewer & Further Press, 2006). Full on Jabber, a collaborative work written with poet Jess Mynes, was released by Martian Press in 2007. Christopher also edits Anchorite Press, an independent poetry publisher of innovative work. He is a doctoral candidate in English at the University at Albany.

Matthew Rohrer is the author of five books of poetry, most recently RISE UP, published by Wave Books. He teaches in the creative writing program at NYU and lives in Brooklyn.

Frank Sherlock is the co-author of the newly released Ready-to-Eat Individual with Brett Evans.

Joanna Sondheim’s chapbooks, The Fit and Thaumatrope, were published by Sona Books in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Recent work appears in Unsaid magazine.

Shanxing Wang was born in Jinzhong, Shanxi province, China, in 1965. He moved to the U.S. in 1991 to pursue a PhD in mechanical engineering at University of California at Berkeley. While an assistant professor of engineering at Rutgers University, he began taking writing courses at Rutgers and later the Poetry Project, and subsequently received a Zora Neale Hurston Scholarship to attend the summer writing program at Naropa University in Colorado in 2003. His first book Mad Science in Imperial City (Futurepoem Books, 2005) won the 2006 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry. His current thinking and struggling focuses on intersections of poetry/poetics with physics/mathematics, history, visual arts, and continental philosophy. He is also a competitive table tennis player and a table tennis coach. He lives and writes in Queens and he has a blog: http://shanxingwang.blogspot.com.

Rebecca Wolff is the author of Manderley, Figment, and The King (forthcoming 2009). She is the publisher and editor of Fence, Fence Books, and The Constant Critic, and is a fellow of the New York State Writers Institute, with which Fence is affiliated. She lives in Athens, New York.

Let's Talk Knicks

Over the weekend the New York Knicks hired former Suns' coach, Mike D'Antoni. Hmmm.... While I've been a fan of the system he implemented in Phoenix the Knicks seem like an awful choice for his style of play-- which is run & gun. It's quite exciting to watch if you have proficient shooters and players with smart basketball IQ. The Knicks have neither. Crawford is about the ONLY Knick I can imagine playing well under the new coach's system. Yes I know I like Nate Robinson too(!)but he will turn the ball over a hell of a lot & the team really needs to learn some defense.

Here's an excerpt from an article posted on hoopsworld today:

We are in the middle of May right now, and this is the time of year when the old adage is proven true time and again: defense wins championships. Offensive fireworks may sell more tickets and win regular season games, but the guys that get to wear jewelry are the guys that play defense.

For proof, take a look at the defensive statistics from this season. Of the 10 teams to allow the fewest points per game during the 2007-2008 NBA regular season, nine of them made the playoffs. Four of those five (Pistons, Celtics, Spurs, and Hornets) are still playing.

Of the 10 teams to allow the most points per game during the '07-'08 season, only two of them made the playoffs. None of those teams are still alive, and they combined for only one total playoff win between them. That one win was the Suns sole victory before the Spurs sent them packing in five games. And while D'Antoni's regular season record is outstanding, he is just 26-25 in the postseason.

See a pattern developing here?

And please don't think this year is anomaly. If anything, it is the rule. Going back to 2003, three of the last four NBA champions finished the regular season as the NBA leader in fewest points allowed.

And basketball junkies in New York know this all too well. The great Knick teams of the early 70's were the best defensive team of that era. Both championship teams led the NBA in fewest points allowed in the years they won the title. (In fact '69-'70 squad allowed six fewer points than the next closet team.)

And the beloved Knicks teams of the 90's were also built firmly on the bedrocks of defense, hustle, and toughness. With Patrick Ewing flanked by the likes Charles Oakley, Larry Johnson, Derek Harper, and John Starks; the Knicks may not have been pretty or fun to watch. But they defended, and competed, and gave 110%. They also won a whole bunch of playoff games. And yup, you guessed, when they advanced to the 1994 NBA Finals; they led the NBA in fewest PPG allowed that year.

Thus, it was not only the losing under Isiah Thomas that irked die-hard Knicks fans. It was the manner in which they lost. The complete disregard for defense and lack of intensity was unforgivable.

Read the entire article here

The Jesus And Mary Chain - April Skies

Aly, Walk With Me

Mei-mei recap plus assorted other stuff

Last night I went to the Mei-mei reading (which I forgot to post on my blog) with Mónica de la Torre and Rusty Morrison. There were lots of nice faces in attendance like Nicole Steinberg (who also has a poem in the same upcoming ish of Eleven Eleven as yours (un)truly,) Evie Shockley (whose book, Half-red sea doesn't seem to be in many book stores which is a shame because it's a complete must-read) Kate Greenstreet & her husband- both always a pleasure to converse with, and my roommate, Tara aka Deep Disco (if I can continue to perpetuate a slang name like its a M.I.A. thang).

The crowd was a bit smaller i.e. no Richard Tuttle or Kiki Smith so it gave both Tara and I a lot of face time to chat with Mei-mei, which was a pleasure. Especially hearing about how Mei-mei's daughter is one out of a hundred trying to get an intern job at a graffiti studio.

Mei-mei read some new poems which were inspired by her husband's shoot with W magazine. The mix of fashion & science was of complete interest to Tara as she's a fashion designer who tutors in science and math. When Tara asked Mei-mei what her science background was, Mei-mei said she had none except an interest in making the language less masculine.
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It was a perfectly beautiful evening out so after grabbing food Tara & I walked from Williamsburg (where the reading took place) back to Chinatown.

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This morning is a wet raining one that makes me want to sit in bed and drink endless amounts of French Press Coffee.

It's also exceptional weather to try & make some significant progress in reading this book.

Verse-Itching?

Maybe you want to avoid the madness of Anne Carson or she's not your cup of Canadian? or you somehow you don't want to experience the Misty Foust, but you're still itching for some poesia to go with today's sunshine? Maybe you have some poems that you've been wanting to warm-up in front of an audience? then head over to participate and/or hear Maggie Wells do her thang. Word is she's leaving for France in the fall so perhaps you should get an eyeball full now so you know exactly what you'll be missing. Cool? Cool. 'sides this reading is straight lawless for those of deviance.

Insanity Straight- No Chaser

I've been listening to my old ipod- the one that doesn't stay charged for longer than 30 minutes but plays fine while plugged in a Bose speaker which keeps it on constant charged (don't we all have a friend that could be dubbed "constant charged?") so it's been hood (hence the video on previous post) Beach Boys, and The Warlocks non-stop (has anyone heard the latest Warlocks lp? I haven't).

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Today will be a cold-ass-uninspiring-day to check out the cherry blossom festival. No surprise there, right?

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Even though Anne Carson has been holding it down at NYU for more than a minute now + has done various readings in nyc/bk poetry peeps are still gonna FREAK on Monday's reading + it's with Grahm Foust- that's straight heavy- hitting. Get there early is my only advice my only advice is to get there early early my advice to get getting early there early there get to getting advice only is early

I'm out like Sloop John B
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Join us this Monday (May 5) when we are having the incomparable Anne Carson, author (most recently, of Decreation) and translator (most recently, Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides), the wonderful Graham Foust, author of three book of poems (most recently, of Necessary Stranger), and an exciting young poet Misty Harper, author of Guarding The Violins (winner of 2005 PSA chapbook award). We are going to have the whole bar available for the reading, but we suggest you come early to find a seat.

Monday May 5, 7:30 PM

Anne Carson
Graham Foust
Misty Harper

11th Street Bar,

510 E. 11th Street (Between Avenues A & B)

Closest subway stops are the L at 1st Ave.;

other close stops include the L at 3rd Ave. and the 4/5/6/N/R/Q/W at Union Square.
Detailed directions can be found here: http://www.readab.com/directions.html

*Books will be made available for purchase from Mobile Libris!*

Please see our website for poems and more from our readers!
http://www.readab.com/cal.html

Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living. She is currently working collaboratively with a number of artists in NYC and will present a new play called Uncle Harry

at Housing Works on May 8th.

Graham Foust

Born in Tennessee and raised in Wisconsin, Graham Foust is the author of three books of poems: As in Every Deafness, Leave the Room to Itself, and Necessary Stranger. The former guitar player for Johnny Negative and His Ark of Hate, he directs the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California and lives in Oakland with his wife and son.

Misty Harper

studied writing in the MFA Creative Writing program of Indiana University. In 2005, The Poetry Society of America published her chapbook Guarding The Violins, which was selected by Charles Simic. She currently lives in Atlanta.

HOOD - The lost you