I'm Hungry! Press

Issue 5 of Saltgrass is being shipped from the printer. Let's all get excited, so excited that when it arrives I can tell you about it and you will order it with glee. Oh yes.

***

The new issue of Word For / Word is out. Includes these superb poets:
Scott Abels
Elizabeth Winder
Donald Dunbar
Naomi Beth Tarle
Josef Kaplan
Cherise Bacalski
Emily Kendal Frey
Carlyle Baker
Crane Giamo
Steve Roggenbuck
erica lewis
Reed Altemus
Alexandra Mattraw
Stephanie Martz
Ashley VanDoorn
Karl Kempton
Breonna Krafft
James Capozzi
Sasha Steensen
Derek Pollard
Jackie Clark

***

What else? I biked to my Shakespeare class today. Biking in the morning I sort of dread, but I know it will be refreshing. It's always refreshing. It's a small class so some graduate students I haven't heard talk yet this year will be forced, by the small discussion circle, to speak up! Also, there is one little undergraduate boy in my class who looks like he's 15 and slumps over like a floppy doll. Slumpy doll.

Tonight I need to read a few articles by Levinas for my interpretation theory class.

Now let's turn away from what seems to be my very mundane day and see what's happening in pop cultures: M just told me Ricky Martin officially announced he's gay today. I thought that happened years ago.

Sometimes You Can Forget You Left Your Dog In The Back Yard Because You're Too Excited About Turning The Oven On For (Fake) Chicken Nuggets Press

Rob Seward is an incredibly talented engineer and media artist:


This is a fun one, called My Rejected iPhone Application:

my rejected iPhone App from Rob Seward on Vimeo.

This one is called Four Letter Words, and you have to click here to watch it. Click it.

Here is an explanation of the project:
Four Letter Words consists of four units, each capable of displaying all 26 letters of the alphabet with an arrangement of fluorescent lights.

The piece displays an algorithmically generated word sequence derived from a word association database developed by the University of South Florida between 1976 and 1998. The algorithms take into account word meaning, rhyme, letter sequencing, and association.

The algorithm's tendency towards scatological or "dark" subject matter is influenced by a variety of language and perception studies, especially Elliot McGinnies' 1949 study "Emotionality and Perceptual Defense."

While the piece was conceived with idea of displaying algorithmically generated lists, it was designed with flexibility and expandability in mind. The individual units can be connected ad-infinitum, and are theoretically capable of displaying any length of text. While Four Letter Words deals with a specific range of content, the technology can be easily expanded for future textual experiments.

***

As you probably already know, Octopus #13 is up and awesome. Please check out the special song-reviews:

Featuring poetry by

Sawako Nakayasu
Daniel Lin
Julie Carr
José Díaz
Chanel Clarke
Cherise Bacalski
Tim Van Dyke
Ayane Kawata
translated by Sawako Nakayasu

Kristin Sanders
Jenny Zhang
Cathy Linh Che
Justin Marks
Jon Leon
Christopher DeWeese
Natalie Lyalin
Alejandra Pizarnik
translated by Jason Stumpf

Bin Ramke
Bhanu Kapil
Lesley Yalen
Jonah Winter
Geoffrey Nutter
Claire Donato
Caroline Knox
Takako Arai
translated by Jeffrey Angles

Recovery Projects

Patrick Dunagan on John Clarke’s From Feathers to Iron: A Concourse of World Poetic
Harry Thorne on Carl Rakosi’s Ex-Cranium, Night
Nate Pritts on Larry Eigner’s Air the Trees
Jesse Lichtenstein on William Dickey’s Rivers of the Pacific Northwest
Nicholas Benson on Aldo Palazzeschi’s Arsonist
Robert Miltner on Haniel Long’s Pittsburgh Memoranda
Carlos Soto Román on George Perec
Joel Bettridge on Robert Service

Reviews

Seth Landman on Natalie Lyalin’s Pink and Hot Pink Habitat
Joshua Butts on Michael Rerick’s In Ways Impossible to Fold
Shane McCrae on Ish Klein’s Union!
Rebecca Farivar on Lisa Robertson’s Magenta Soul Whip

Song-Reviews

Teal Gardner on Rene Char’s The Brittle Age & Returning Upland
Daniela Gesundheit on Lisa Robertson’s Magenta Soul Whip
Anderson Reinkordt on Bhanu Kapil’s Humanimal

The issue will make you feel like this:

Should I buy this dress without trying it on? Probably not- but I'm looking for dresses that can handle biking.

Man Lands On Land Press

Seth Landman is reading tonight (Saturday) in Denver. You should come.

**
This is how you rip open a pomelo:

A Toaster for my Toaster Press

My blog ate my blog. This is my re-blog.

Snow Day. No joke, classes were cancelled on this fine, blustery Wednesday. There are heaps of snow.

People have been debating what constitutes a "heap."

Snow does.

***

M and I have been reading outloud Alice Notely's Grave of Light. It's been my secret shame that I've never read Notely before. She blows my mind. Now I need to take a bath and decide what to bring tub-side with me. You have to consider what you don't mind giving wrinkly pages to. Then I will play poker.

I will lose.

I mean, maybe I will win this time.

***
The new issue of Noo is up: wild, erratic, cottoncandy hanging from weeping willow trees:

PRESENTS
Pink & Hot Pink Habitat by Natalie Lyalin
Presented by Erin McNellis

The Difficult Farm by Heather Christle
Presented by Erin McNellis

A Mouth in California by Graham Foust
Presented by Ben Kopel

The Book of Frank by CAConrad
Presented by Mike Young

Put Your Head In My Lap by Claudia Smith
Presented by Christine Crutchfield

Easter Rabbit by Joseph Young
Presented by Mike Young

The Failure Six by Shane Jones
Presented by Ryan Call

Prose. Poems. A Novel. by Jamie Iredell
Presented by Ryan Call

PROSE
God in Frogs, Davin Malasarn
Baby Love, Meakin Armstrong
Everyone the Same, But Not At Once,
Cami Park
Griffin, Donna D. Vittuci
Giddy-Up Little Baby, Charles Hale
Indian Jones, AD Jameson
Burning the Air Between Here and There,
Sasha Fletcher
You're Dust, Steven Trull
The Only Thing Good Is the Moon,
Craig Greenman
Case History #3: Catie,
Carolyn Zaikowski
Gelatin, Kate Wyer

POETRY

Big Accident, Jeannie Hoag
Space Junk, D.A. Powell
Note to a Young Friend, K.M.A. Sullivan
When I Think of Sorrow I Think of Sparrows, Erin Elizabeth Smith
Two Prose Poems, Danika Stegeman
Four Questions, Thomas Patrick Levy
from Synesthesia: Of Moving Water, Eriosion, And Other Alterations,
Jordaan Mason
The Snow Globe, Dennis Cooper
My Endless, Terrifying Apprenticeship,
Dobby Gibson & Matt Hart
Microwave, Death Of, Stefi Weisburd
4.5: Nativity, Joe Hall
Tonight's Headlines, Kevin Sampsell

The Mustard Misunderstanding Press

Fresh snow, fresh poetry:

1) nailheartsclip.blogspot.com :Volume 2 of a collaborative project between Feliz Molina and Sabrina Calle. An exercise on gesture.

2) Interview between Dan Hoy and Jon Leon regarding their recent split publication put out by Mal-O-Mar:
GLORY HOLE | THE HOT TUB, if you want to take a look: http://thefanzine.com/articles/poetry/423/glory_holes_and_hot_tubs-_dan_hoy_and_jon_leon_in_conversation

3) If you're in NY, tomorrow:
Join us MARCH 22 for a great reading by Henri Cole, David Gewanter, and Eduardo C. Corral. We are also celebrating the highly anticipated selected poems, Pierce the Skin, by Henri Cole, and the new book, War Bird, by David Gewanter.

Monday, March 22, 2010 7:00 PM
Triptych Readings
(pairing established and emerging writers)

Henri Cole
David Gewanter
Eduardo C. Corral

11th Street Bar
510 East 11th Street (between Avenues A & B)
Closest subway: L to 1st Avenue.

***
I have never seen so many stars, never so many mountains. This weekend M and I (and D'Count) spend a night in the cutest cabin, atop a mountain. It had an outdoor hot tub, a porch, a dizzying view:










I like to throw snowballs into the snow as far as I can and then watch D'Count nose around for them.

$100 Dollar Ticket for $900 Dollars, Eff You JetBlue & Southwest Press

Farrah Field generously reviews my chapbooks in the new issue of Harp & Altar. So, I am very grateful.

I hope you enjoy the whole issue of Harp & Altar, starring:

Cynthia Arrieu-King, Ana Božičević, Matthew Klane, Michael O’Brien, Alejandra Pizarnik translated by Jason Stumpf, Brett Price, Jared White, Edmond Caldwell, Susan Daitch, Luca Dipierro, Craig Foltz, A.D. Jameson, Matthew Kirkpatrick, and Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi. Also: Farrah Field on Julia Cohen; Patrick Morrissey on Joshua Harmon and Rob Schlegel; Michael Newton’s gallery reviews; and art by Brandon Downing.

***

I have been missing new york a lot recently. Partly because it's just been a really long time since I hung out with all my friends there. Partly because I looked into buying tickets too late, and now I can't get there for the few days of my spring break, which is now. And it makes me sadder because it seems like I won't get there until the summer. God, I hope that isn't true.
So I listened to this;


and I listened to this:


and also this:


Over spring break, I am asking myself this question: Can pop music fix the crushing pain of existence?:

I think the answer is No. But it can add to your own secret shame.

Don't give up! There is this!:


Or:

Kick A Buck Press

Hi. Please consider sending your ms to Black Lawrence Press. Then our books could come from the same press and we could go on a California Bike-Reading Tour, I just need to get a better bike. But you could buy me one with your prize money. Right?

Black Lawrence Press
Hudson Prize
Deadline:
March 31, 2010
Entry Fee:
$25
Web site:
www.blacklawrence.com
E-mail address:
editors@blacklawrencepress.com
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Black Lawrence Press will be given annually for a collection of poetry or short stories. All entries will be considered for publication. The editors will judge. Submit a manuscript of any length, via e-mail only, with a $25 entry fee by March 31. Visit the Web site for complete guidelines.
Black Lawrence Press, Hudson Prize, 115 Center Avenue, Aspinwall, PA 15215.

Puppy Rub Down Press

I sort of like this video by Fiona Apple. If you can survive the 5 second ad from google before it begins. I like it:

At Night Babies Are Being Delivered Press

More awesome poems by my 4th and 5th graders. We talked about and wrote nocturnes:


My Dreams
Perry

I was in a mousetrap and I ate the cheese.

I flew over my garden and around my house.

I turned bones into apples.

I was a pencil and I snapped.

I was in a car and a robot put me in the front seat.

I was searching for a baby’s rattle.

***

Before Bed
By Berenice

At night before I go to bed
I put my hair into a ponytail
so that it doesn’t get tangled
in the morning.

Before night, I give my mom
a good-night kiss.

Before I go to bed, I brush my teeth
with sparkly blue toothpaste.

When I am sleeping, there is a skunk
outside my door. When I am in bed,
people are waking up on the other side
of the world.

When I am in bed, kids are sneaking
candy from the kitchen.

***

Nocturne
By James

I read past midnight entering and leaving adventures.
I pretend I am a movie star as I lie in bed.
The camera of night clashes everywhere.
around the world people are up awake, doing and seeing new things.
Nocturnal animals wake up and start the day or night, if you will.
The moon reflecting on the stars making them purple.
I imagine them as purple eyes staring down at me.

***

Nocturne
By Katariya

I go on a walk.
I eat my dinner.
I take a shower.
I brush my teeth.
I read a book.
I go to bed.
I fly across the mountains
avoiding trees as I fly.
I fight vicious monsters
and gain victory for America.
I wake in my room,
time for breakfast.

Modernity Paradox Press

Random Things:

Thank you to all the kind people I didn't know, but who attended the 4x4 reading in Boulder at which I read last night. And thank you to the kind people I did know, who came. That was fun.

If I ever get another dog, I will name him Donkey.

I've been watching old episodes of Northern Exposure.

I'm trying to finish my paper on Cortazar. I just turned in my other paper so only one left. Fact: I am a slow writer. I think I have to write sentences in fragments first, so that I can write them down without getting too judgemental. And then I organize them into interrelating areas on the page. And then I turn them into full sentences. And then I obsessively change the sentences until they sound fluid, cogent, and not repetitive in terms of vocabulary. I hate it when people use the same words over and over. Anyways, so, my papers are all about baby steps. Little steps taken by babies.

***

I have collaborative work with the visual artist Karni Dorell in the new issue of Trickhouse. You can ONLY view all the poems if you use Safari (no Firefox).


Mathias also has collaborative work on Trickhouse. His poem, "Metal" blows my mind. Click here and keep turning the pages. This is a stanza from section 4:

Certain of field, put the chemical instrument to the metal. Pretend to see cordially the you. Weeks, quiet, vex the fields of lavender, fields of chemical. Morning arrives through a cable or through the walls, new-born each day, sloughed into developer then fixer. There are certain promises I made, when there was nothing else I could do. Where you go, I go. Kiss me. Kiss me.

Dungeon Skylight Press

I've spent the last 2 days in Boulder for the small press fest at UC Boulder. I met a lot of awesome poets. I own some new books now. I'll tell you about them later, when my brain unfogs.

After returning from Boulder, we ordered food last night at 1am from Sexy Pizza. We were forced to go there because everything else was closed. Sexy Pizza is the worst place in the world. Let me tell you.

1. I ordered a veggie pizza with no cheese and an eggplant sandwich without cheese over the phone and then waited the requested 25 mins before going over.
2. When I got there, the woman behind the counter was like "Oh, did you not want cheese on your sandwich as well?" And I said, "I ordered it without cheese." And she looked really angry and said, "Well, that's going to be another 10 minutes while I make another one."
3. Then she proceeded to glare at me for 10 minutes while the veggie pizza got cold as she heated up a new sandwich.
4. After waiting an extra 10 min in the pizza place, I walked the two blocks home. We immediately tried the pizza and the sandwich. The sandwich was freezing cold. I'm not entirely sure what the woman was doing for the 10 minutes she claimed to be heating up the eggplant sandwich, but clearly that time was not spend unfreezing it.

I hate Sexy Pizza.

The pizza was also gross.

***

Moving on...


HORSE LESS REVIEW #7 IS HERE! Including heart-stopping work by Drew Kunz, Jess Wigent, Kate Schapira, Bruce Covey, Mairead Byrne, Thomas Cook & Tyler Flynn Dorholt, Ana Bozicevic, David Wirthlin, Amy King, Jack Boettcher, C.S. Carrier, Leigh Stein, Bronwen Tate, Nate Slawson, Susan Scarlata, Erik Anderson, Jennifer Denrow, Sandra Simonds, Justin Marks, Nate Pritts, Danielle Vogel, Matthew Henriksen, Allison Carter, Broc Rossell, Shawn Huelle, Adam Clay, Cynthia Arrieu-King, Tony Mancus, Karyna McGlynn, Shelly Taylor, Jeremy Czerw, Michael Rerick, Gary Sloboda, and Michael Robins.
http://www.horselesspress.com
The poems might sound like this:

Vertigo in the Pleats of the Sly Girl's Skirt Press

I tried soy yogurt. I'm reading Sebald's Vertigo. My dog is napping with his head on my leg and he makes it very hard to get up, to disturb the cuteness. I've been mixing concord grape juice with bubbly water and it's delicious. Yesterday was warm and beautiful and I biked to school for the first time in a while. Hello, March.

A few questions for you:

Do you take calcium supplements?

Do you think if you rest your laptop on your lap often, and it gets real hot, it will give you cancer?

How many towels do you own?

What was the title of the last poem you wrote?

***
On Friday I am teaching one of Chopin's Nocturnes and this Ted Hughes poem to my 4th and 5th graders:

Full Moon and Little Frieda

A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket –

And you listening.
A spider’s web, tense for the dew’s touch.
A pail lifted, still and brimming – mirror
To tempt a first star to a tremor.

Cows are going home in the lane there, looping the hedges with their warm wreaths of breath –
A dark river of blood, many boulders,
Balancing unspilled milk.

“Moon!” you cry suddenly, “Moon! Moon!”

The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work
That points at him amazed.

***

I forget if I mentioned it, but I have a few poems in issue #19 of 6x6 along with incredibly rad poets such as: Emily Carr, Natalie Lyalin, Lee Norton, Dan Rosenberg, and G.C. Waldrep

Please grab a copy!

***

People and books are coming to Boulder this weekend. I plan to go to UC Boulder for most of these activities:

Friday:

9:30-11:00 Publisher's Round Table: Making Culture/Transforming Culture
With publisher's of Verse, Counterpath, Ponzipo, Rain Taxi, The Poetry Foundation
OLD MAIN AUDITORIUM

11:30-1 Restraint/Freedom: The History and Present of Procedural Writing
Warren F. Motte, Carol Snow, Gillian Conoley, Janet Holmes
OLD MAIN AUDITORIUM

2:30-4 Niche Publishing: Why we do what we do
Ugly Duckling, Underland Press, and Dalkey Archive
ATLAS 100

4:30-6 Publishers read from their lists
Tim Roberts (Counterpath), Victoria Blake (Underland), Eric Baus (for Octopus)
ATLAS 100

8-10 READING
Gillian Conoley (poetry), Jeremy M. Davies (fiction), Andrew Zawacki (poetry)


Saturday

10:15-1 Publishing Beyond the Book: Street and Screen
With Christine Hume, Lori Emerson, Mathias Svalina and
Eric Lorberer on John Ashbery
BRITISH AND IRISH STUDIES ROOM NORLIN LIBRARY FIFTH FLOOR

BOOK FAIR!!!! and CATERED LUNCH
1-2:30 (Bring money for books!)
BRITISH AND IRISH STUDIES ROOM NORLIN LIBRARY FIFTH FLOOR

3-4:30 Subito Press Contest Winners
Tracy DiBrincat (fiction), Stan Mir (poetry)
ATLAS 100

5-6:30 READING (poetry and sound)
Christine Hume, Eric Lorberer, Carol Snow, Anna Moschovakis
ATLAS 100

8-10 READING
Janet Holmes (poetry), Brian Henry (poetry), Travis Nichols (poetry and fiction)

***

Look, Brave Men Press is having an open reading and they're not even charging money. You should definitely send them a 20-30 page manuscript:

OPEN READING PERIOD IN MARCH

BRAVE MEN PRESS is pleased to announce its first OPEN READING PERIOD for CHAPBOOK MANUSCRIPTS. We are primarily interested in POETRY, will most likely choose POETRY, but are also possibly interested in ESSAYS & OTHER MULTIFARIOUS WORKS OF NON FICTION. Sorry though, NO FICTION. Manuscripts may range between 12-30 pages. Multiple submissions okay. Please send electronic submissions in a WORD document to bravemenpress@gmail.com

A Question About Babbys Press

Resolved Question:

So my babby brothers gettin borned soon, what happens if it wants to know where it came from?!?!?!?!?
whatta i tell it???? my mas got a babby comin soon, but what bout if it wants to no bout how it got made???
idk even, what if thinks i stupid?!?!
my ma never t old me bout babbys getting formed and stuff, i had to found out from sexual videos
idunt wont my babby uneducated bout babby formation so whatta i tell it??? also whens it ready. what if i tell it when its litle and it dosnt understand dos that still count?
4 months ago