Poetic Desperation

Shannon Hamann's 'Deathdoubledactyl' is available from Pavement Saw Press

2011-12-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

Shannon Hamann's "Deathdoubledactyl" -- that's the cover above -- is now available from Pavement Saw Press. It's the press' eighth and final title for 2011, according to an email I received from them today.

The book has been printed in a limited edition of 1,031 copies. It's 88 pages long and costs $14. Click through the above link for more information and some sample poems, which include lines like the following:

Aground, a skeleton hand clutches a former cocktail.
A complimentary peppermint melts in a burning mouth.

I haven't read the book, so this post is neither a review nor an endorsement. I just like the cover. That said, I've read a handful of Pavement Saw books in the past and haven't been disappointed yet.

My short story "The Northwest Corner" is now available

2011-11-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

My short story "The Northwest Corner" is now available for Amazon's Kindle as an ebook download for 99 cents. It's short and sweet, about 20 pages in the Kindle Previewer. Click here to check it out.

Here's the blurb describing the plot:

Ryan desperately needs a book about gargoyles for his history project, and the only thing standing in his way is Ms. Maple, the cranky old librarian. As Ryan finds out, help can come from the most unlikely, and terrifying, of places.

Like my book "The Barrens House," the story is targeted to the young-adult market but would be good scary fun for just about anyone. Also like my book, it includes a gargoyle and a library. I wrote them both around the same time a few years ago, so I must have been on a gargoyle/library kick at the time.

As always, I'd love to hear what you think. Send me an email at simon.a.thalmann [at] gmail.com with your thoughts.

My book "The Barrens House" is now available

2011-11-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

My young-adult horror novella "The Barrens House" -- which first appeared free, chapter by chapter, in an early version on this blog -- is available for purchase as an ebook and in good old print format as well. I don't know about you, but personally I still prefer the latter for anything longer than an average news story.

Here's the back-cover blurb describing the plot:

Danny has reservations about moving the minute he finds out his dad took a job as caretaker of an old estate hours away, in the middle of nowhere. Yet his fears about starting out at a new school and having to make all new friends fade into the background as strange things begin happening in the guest room of his new home. Who is the mysterious young girl appearing in his dreams? And why does he get such frightening chills from the lifelike stone gargoyle that sits on the arch above the gates to the graveyard behind the house? As his family settles in at the ominously named Barrens House, Danny begins to realize not all is as it seems.

Ooo, spooky! It's a short -- something like 88 pages -- but fun read, equally inspired by R.L. Stine's beloved "Goosebumps" series and "Mr. Boogedy," the scariest horror movie for kids of all time. I saw it when I was so young I can't remember my first viewing, and I've never gotten over it.

I've gotten a lot of positive comments relating to the cover of the book, which I crafted from a photo available under a free-to-use license on morguefile.com. Click here to see the original, uploaded by morgueFile user driscoll.

Click here to purchase "The Barrens House" in print from Lulu.com for $7 or as an ebook for $1.50.

Click here to purchase the Kindle Edition of "The Barrens House" from Amazon.com for $2.99.

If you do check it out I'd love to hear what you think. Send me an email at simon.a.thalmann [at] gmail.com with your thoughts.

Newsweek's mediocre Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe article

2011-11-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

God forbid an article about Michelle Williams taking on the role of Marilyn Monroe -- one of the greatest actresses of her time, who died of a drug overdose -- should mention the fact that Williams' former husband -- Heath Ledger, one of the greatest actors of his time -- also died of a drug overdose.

I'd blame the journalist who wrote the article, but as a journalist myself who knows the piece you submit to your editors isn't always the piece that sees print, I'll reserve my judgement.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Williams' people set Ledger's death as a no-no to cover as a condition to allowing Newsweek access to the actress for the piece, but as it seems to me the most interesting bit about the topic it's strange that a publication would agree to ignore it.

It is what it is, which is to say not much.

(The article, that is, not the movie. If anyone sees it and cares to chime in, let me know how it is in a comment.)

Conor Oberst and Occupy Wall Street: Where is the next Bob Dylan when his generation needs him most?

2011-11-15T16:31:00.000-08:00

Where is the "next Bob Dylan" when his generation needs him most? Well, if you subscribe to the theory that Conor Oberst is the next Bob Dylan, the answer is he's in Australia.

Oberst is no stranger to taking on politics -- his anti George W. Bush ballad "When the President Talks to God," released in 2005, is still available free to download on iTunes -- and the Occupy Wall Street movement seems like it'd be right in line with his Peoples' Champion aesthetic -- in the past he's been an outspoken critic of media conglomerate Clear Channel, for instance, and a voice of support for independent artists.

Yet while the 99 percent are busy scuffling with police in Zuccotti Park -- where a judge ruled today that the city can keep them from bringing back their tents -- Oberst is currently out for the count.

Not that it's Oberst's job, necessarily, to give the movement a voice. But for a generation that could be defined by a movement currently on the brink of a long winter and possible collapse, right now Conor Oberst may be the best hope for a voice -- and after today, some much needed motivation -- that Occupy Wall Street has.

Police attack peaceful U.C. Berkeley protesters

2011-11-11T10:29:00.000-08:00

A video uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday showing U.C. Berkeley police and Alameda County sheriff's deputies apparently attacking peaceful protesters on the college's campus Wednesday has gone viral on the Internet and has created questions over whether or not the police used excessive force in attempting to disperse the protesters.

In the video (see above), students are shown attempting to keep the police from disbanding a campus "Occupy" encampment when the police, in riot gear and carrying batons, begin beating the protesters with their batons.

The San Francisco Chronicle quotes U.C. police as saying the human fence the protesters tried to build around the encampment amounted to a violent stance against police, and quotes Capt. Margo Bennett as saying "The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence. I understand that many students may not think that, but linking arms in a human chain when ordered to step aside is not a nonviolent protest."

Other authorities — including the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild — are raising questions over the officers' conduct.

The Chronicle reports that 39 people were arrested at the protests Wednesday, including 22 students and a professor.

Ruth Ishbel Munro's "Jacuzzi"

2010-11-21T19:08:00.001-08:00

Few things are more thrilling than having a piece of your writing illustrated by a capable artist, and while the story I had published a few years back by Suspense Magazine -- "The Problem with Men" -- never got that treatment, I can think of few more appropriate images than the one above by UK illustrator Ruth Ishbel Munro.

Titled "Jacuzzi," I found the illustration while browsing at Laconic Oration, which never seems to disappoint.

Check out all three -- my story, Munro's art and Laconic Orations vast library of images -- through their respective links. It's certainly my hope that my story will entertain you, but I know for sure that the latter will.

MLive interview with poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson

2010-11-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

For the first of what I hope will be many Q&A pieces with writers, artists, actors and musicians for mlive.com, I sent a handful of questions by e-mail last week to poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson (that's him above) to preview an upcoming reading in the Kalamazoo area.

Among his responses:

"I write about desire, death, the imagined world of children, wilderness, violence, loss and pleasure."

Awesome.

For more, see the full interview on mlive.com: "Poet and filmmaker Joshua Marie Wilkinson discusses his influences, writing and poets he loves."

"Demons in the Spring" Review Up at Verbicide

2010-06-29T19:00:00.001-07:00

My review of Joe Meno's excellent story collection "Demons in the Spring" (Akashic, 2008) is up now at Verbicide. The collection is awesome, check it out. It's definitely one worth buying.

Recommendations, Skips and Hmm's

2010-06-08T06:23:00.001-07:00

I started a new job recently and haven't had as much time as I'd like to read, let alone write, or blog about either one. That said, most of what I have read has been pretty good, as I haven't had the patience of late to stick with things that don't grab my attention right off. Even the skips here have sections that are commendable.

Recommendations:

1) "A Better Angel: Stories," by Chris Adrian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008). One of the standout story collections of the past few years, Adrian's collection also has to be one of the most underrated artistic responses to the events of 9/11 currently in book form. It's interesting to note that the protagonists of these stories are nearly always observers, and that the emotional climax often comes late, when the protagonists finally decide to actually do something. I couldn't recommend this book more.

2) "No Doors, No Windows," a novel by Joe Schreiber (Del Rey, 2009). I interviewed Schrieber shortly before "No Doors" came out in advance of a local book signing. However, the interview focused on his other novel, released the same day as this one, which is a "Star Wars" horror novel titled "Death Troopers," (the bulk of the interview, incidentally, was published in the Fall 2009 issue of Weird Tales). My editor was primarily interested in hearing about the latter, and so Schreiber and I spoke about "No Doors" only in passing. It's a shame, as the book is fantastic. It's one of the few horror novels in the past few years that I've stuck with to the end.

3) "Ghost Machine," poems by Ben Mirov (Caketrain, 2010). Winner of Caketrain's 2009 Chapbook Competition, Mirov's collection is like an expanded version of his previous chapbook, "Collected Ghost," available free online from H_NGM_N and discussed at length in a previous post. "Machine" is worth checking out whether you've read the previous chapbook or not. The "petal in a glass of vodka" line always kills me.

4) "Stitches," a poem by Lucas Farrell (La Petite Zine). The poem first appeared in La Petite Zine, but it's been collected in Farrell's "Bird Any Damn Kind" (Caketrain, 2010), which was the runner-up to Mirov's collection in Caketrain's 2009 Chapbook Competition. The poem introduces the collection, which I'm only about 60 percent through reading but can't help feeling has gone downhill since the beginning. The collection will probably end up in a "Hmm's" section in the future, but the poem in question is too good not to check out. You can read the poem (the collected -- and much improved -- version actually starts at the line "The bird fell from the sky") through the link in the title.

Skips:

1) Star*Line 33.1 and Star*Line 33.2, by various writers (SFPA, 2010). Star*Line is the official journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and is distributed free to all members. A newly christened member myself, I received my first two issues a few weeks ago, the January/February and March/April editions, respectively. There are perhaps a couple of gems in these collections, but I have to say that nothing great has stayed with me enough to mention here.

2) "My Heart Said No, But the Camera Crew Said Yes," stories by Bradley Sands (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2010). I reviewed this collection recently for Verbicide and basically wrote that I felt these stories -- written in the "bizarro" genre -- would appeal to those familiar with the genre but would be less accessible to those not terribly interested in bizarro literature. I am among the latter.

Hmm's:

I haven't been on the fence about much of my reading lately -- I either dug it or wasn't too excited to keep reading. Recent lackluster issues of Wired and Esquire likely fall into this category, however, as well as a number of movies I've seen of late ("Iron Man 2," I'm looking at you).

Soon I hope to be fully settled into my new job and up for posting more regularly.

President Obama Speaks in Kalamazoo

2010-06-08T06:08:00.000-07:00

President Obama gave a commencement speech to graduates of Kalamazoo Central High School last night, right here in my native Kalamazoo, Mich.

I caught the bulk of the speech, which I thought was a breath of fresh air relative to the talks Obama usually has to give, doing his best to put out fires everywhere. He seemed laid back and casual, though I suppose he seems that way a lot.

The photo above was taken at the event by Kalamazoo Gazette photographer Mark Bugnaski, who just happens to be stationed in the newsroom just down the hall from my cube. You can view the commencement speech here on the Kalamazoo Gazette's website.

Ben Mirov's "Taco Wolf"

2010-05-27T14:48:00.001-07:00

Says poet and small-press darling Ben Mirov in a recent blog post, regarding the image above: "This is probably going to be the cover of my next book."

Incidentally, you can get a copy of Mirov's most recent book, "Ghost Machine" -- the winner of the latest Caketrain chapbook competition and the book I'm currently reading between bouts of chasing my seven-month-old away from the television cords -- here.

Dan Walsh's "Odds of Annoyance"

2010-05-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

While doing research recently for a Genre Whore blog post on the existentialist genius that is the website Garfield Minus Garfield, I stumbled upon the blog of the site's creator, Dublin-based artist, musician and writer Dan Walsh.

Among other gems, the blog -- travors.com -- includes the following keen and wonderfully depressing observation, posted Feb. 22 and reprinted here with permission in its entirety. The post is titled, "The odds of annoyance."

"At the age of 34, with some good luck and modern medicine, you could say I'm less than half way through my life. Taking that as a given, let's make a few assumptions:

> I started interacting with other people, through speech and actions, around the age of four.

> That gives me 30 years of interaction with other humans.

> During that time I've met many people and been in many situations. Sometimes these people have been annoying, and annoying things have happened.

> Let's be optimistic and say I'll live to 100. That means I've had, roughly, a third of all the interactions with other humans, that I’ll ever have.

> If that is the case, and we take into account some basic laws of probability, then that means I probably haven't met the most annoying person I'll ever meet.

> In other words, the most annoying thing that will ever happen to me, probably hasn't happened yet.

This is pretty distressing.

I've met some huge assholes in my time. HUGE.

Casting my mind back on the scale of all the annoying things that have happened to me, inevitably leads me to this conclusion:

Sometime in my future, I'm going to be kicked in the balls by George Bush, while he sings 'I Gotta Feeling' by the Black Eyed Peas."

Puts things in perspective, no?

Bryan Charles to Release a Memoir in October

2010-05-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Former local and fellow Gull Lake High School alumni Bryan Charles announced on his Facebook page today that his forthcoming memoir, "There's a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From," will be released in October.

The book -- which Charles has described on his website as a memoir of his first few years in New York City (after leaving the area surrounding our native Kalamazoo, Michigan) -- follows his stellar novel "Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way" (Harper Perennial, 2006) and the recently released "Wowee Zowee" (Continuum, 2010), a contribution to the 33 1/3 series of books focused on classic music albums.

Charles was working in one of the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11 -- he wrote a great short story about it, published here -- and it will be interesting to see how he addresses that in the forthcoming book, if at all.

Swartwood Reloads "Hint Fiction" Contest

2010-04-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

There's still a day left to enter Robert Swartwood's "Hint Fiction Contest Reloaded," commemorating the one-year anniversary of Swartwood's "hint fiction" concept of creating "a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story."

The judge of the contest is the notorious James Frey, and the lucky winner he chooses will receive a plethora of literary goodies, including:

> $100

> A copy of "The Best of Every Day Fiction: Two"
> A copy of The Los Angeles Review
> A copy of Sententia
> A copy of Space and Time
> A copy of "[first year]: an mlp anthology"

> A copy of PANK
> A copy of Fox Force 5

In addition, the second-place winner will receive $50, the third-place winner will receive $25, and one of 10 copies of "Sudden Fiction Latino" will be awarded to each of the winners and finalists, as well as to some "random contestants."

To enter the contest, simply submit up to two entries in the comments section of the contest post. At the time of this writing there are 154 posts, many of which contain multiple entries. A personal early favorite is John Jodzio's "#2":

"Someone had written the word 'Shite' on our baby's forehead in permanent marker. Someone broke in, I said. No one broke in, my wife said."

The contest ends at midnight (EST) on April 30. Swartwood's "Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer" (that's the cover image above) is set for release from W.W. Norton & Company on Nov. 1.

Recommendations, Skips and Hmm's

2010-03-31T09:53:00.000-07:00

I assume like most people, my time spent blogging is "extra" time, that fortuitous time that sometimes falls within the tiny spaces flanking the every day responsibilities of work and family and which more often than not is consumed with catching up on "Lost." That said, I have very little time for full-fledged reviews of books I'd recommend, recommend you skip or fall somewhere in between on. Thus the new, occasional Poetic Desperation abbreviated review feature, "Recommendations, Skips and Hmm's." Enjoy.

Recommendations:

1) "Dolls," prose poems by Tom Whalen (Caketrain Press, 2007). Whalen's "Dolls" is at once both infinitely creepy and saturated with a strange kind of sadness. The dolls that inhabit these prose poems terrify you at the same time they make you want to pick them up and hold them.

2) "Shutter Island," a novel by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow, 2003). The basis for a feature film of the same name released in February, I picked this one up as research for an interview I'm conducting in a week or so with Lehane in preview of a reading he's giving in my area. The book goes pretty much exactly where you think it's going to, but Lehane's great talent is in keeping you reading regardless. The dream sequences are fantastic.

Skips:

1) "during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present ," poems by Brandon Scott Gorrell (Muumuu House, 2009). There are some interesting lines here, but the only thing I really liked about this book was the lack of page numbers. Seriously: I tend to be slightly OCD when it comes to making sure the page numbers are truly consecutive every time I turn a page, and Gorrell's book at least took that out of the equation.

2) "Just Before the Black," a short story by actor James Franco (in the current issue of Esquire). This short is presumably from Franco's first story collection, "Palo Alto," which will be released in hardcover by Scribner in October. I like Franco as an actor. He's great. But if this story is any indication of his capacity for writing, I'll pass on his written work in the future.

I can forgive Franco, for instance, for calling the building the narrator is sitting outside "tan" in paragraph two, then calling it "beige" in paragraph six, but in graph six when he writes, "The building is beige, but the shadows make it shadow-color," he loses me altogether. "Shadow-color"? That's just lazy writing. Was the sky sky-color? Was the car car-color?

Actually, we find that out in the trainwreck that is paragraph five, where he describes the car using the phrases "Grandpa's old blue boat" and "Grandpa's blue machine" within a handful of words of each other. We get it: It's Grandpa's car and it's blue.

Then we have graph seven, where Franco writes, "Joe smokes. His window is all the way down, and he breathes his smoke out the black gaping gap." A "gaping gap"? Maybe it's just me, but I usually assume a gap is gaping without having to be told. The phrase reads like a Dr. Seuss lyric.

Hmm's:

1) "How to Take Yourself Apart / How to Make Yourself Anew," prose poems by Aaron Burch (PANK Press, 2010). I say prose poems, but they could be flash fiction. Whatever. Unfortunately, this collection had two strikes against it before I even started reading: 1) It's a perfect-bound square, a structure that for me is always aesthetically annoying and always makes me feel like I'm reading a "Mr. Men" book; and 2) Why does the title say "Anew"? Why not just "New"? I realize "Anew" hearkens back to the "Apart," but it sounds clunky. Anyway, I liked the middle section of the three, but the other two did nothing for me. I'm mixed on this one.

2) "Wolf Parts," short fictions by Matt Bell (Keyhole Press, 2010). I usually dig Bell's work (what I've read of it), but not this one. I pre-ordered it through Bell's site and received an instant audio download, which I couldn't even get halfway through listening to before canceling my order for the book. It's not the writing; the writing is fine. It's the subject matter. It's billed as a "dark, fragmentary retelling" of "Little Red Riding Hood," and it is that, but it also touches on what to me sounds like child sexual abuse, which I don't really want on my bookshelf. If you can get past said issues with the subject matter, however, it's probably a decent read.

1,000 Words from Laconic Oration

2010-03-30T05:56:00.001-07:00

That egg is a puppy! Just another one of the who knows how many awesome images up at the image blog Laconic Oration. I just wish they'd post more often (says the pot calling the kettle black).

Read Zachary Schomburg

2010-03-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Do yourself a favor and read Zachary Schomburg's "The Man Suit" (Black Ocean, 2007). Preferably now. This second.

Then read Schomburg's "Scary, No Scary" (Black Ocean, 2009) or, like me, browse through it constantly while letting it sit unfinished on a shelf because you don't want to face the prospect of waking up tomorrow with no new Schomburg to read.

Black Ocean offers free shipping on all retail orders of the books through their Web site, and as an added bonus orders of $25 or more come with a free book.

"The Man Suit," incidentally, was No. 4 on Small Press Distribution's Best-Selling Poetry list for 2009 ("Scary" was No. 9), and was No. 27 for the decade.

"The elephant has a point"

2010-03-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

Everyone concerned about the health care "debate" needs to read the March 9, 2009, opinion article from Joe Conason, writing for Salon.com on "The questions our health care debate ignores." I would argue that the questions -- Why does every developed nation except the U.S. have universal health care? Why do they pay half as much in medical costs? Why are their infant mortality and longevity statistics superior? -- are ignored because there is no debate, just a bunch of fear peddlers engaging in disgusting and misleading news conduct.

According to Conason:

"Among the OECD's 30 members -- which include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom -- there are only three lacking universal health coverage. The other two happen to be Mexico and Turkey, which have the excuse of being poorer than the rest (and until the onset of the world economic crisis, Mexico was on the way to providing health care to all of its citizens). The third, of course, is us."

This is pathetic. If Mike Cox, Michigan's attorney general, goes through with his plans to sue the federal government in response to the current health care bill -- which is way weaker than it should have been -- I'm afraid there's little hope for the future of my already unfortunate home state.

If you think it'll make a difference -- though really, what is there to lose? -- contact Cox's people through one of the numbers listed here and stand up for those in our government who are actually trying to do the right thing by supporting health care reform.

(The comic above is by the New Jersey Star-Ledger's Drew Sheneman, who gave it the headline, "The elephant has a point.")

i have thoughts and feelings about tao lin

2010-03-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

And those thoughts and feelings are mixed.

Tao Lin is known as much for his eccentricities as he is for his writing, maybe more. He notoriously financed the writing of his forthcoming novel "Richard Yates" (Melville House, 2010) by selling $12,000 worth of shares to investors. Last year, he may or may not (see the comments) have sold his MySpace page to an investment banker for $8,100 on eBay.

I don't remember when I first ran across Lin's writing, but my personal experience with his perhaps more singular personality began last fall, when I ordered a complete set of his art prints (images above) in October during a special Halloween sale.

It took more than a month and a half for the prints to arrive, and when they finally came Lin had written, on a small, square piece of cardboard included in the package:

"I'm sorry for the very massive delay. To compensate I've included some 'bonus' items. I hope you find this satisfactory overall. Thank you for your order."

The "bonus" items included a blank, pocket-sized Moleskine notebook, two narrow bumper stickers that read "fuck america" and five random photographs: four taken of other pieces of Tao Lin artwork and one of a random white poodle standing on a grassy beach. Also included was a copy of Brandon Scott Gorrell's poetry collection, "during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present," published by Lin's small press, Muumuu House, in 2009.

An incredibly detailed account of the book's publication can be found here, in which Lin writes:

"I feel it may take ~1 to ~5+ years to sell ~1400 copies. I feel strongly that Brandon's book will become 'a kind of classic' (as I feel with Ellen's book), that it will be referred to by people in the future and remain 'known' for 10+ years or something, and that Brandon's second poetry book, blog, first novel, etc. will continue to generate interest in Brandon as he remains alive, and doing things, in the world; and so I felt secure, and other things, printing 2500 copies. I anticipate 2nd, 3rd, etc., printings of any book published by Muumuu House."

I read Gorrell's book rather quickly, and can see why Lin likes it, as it's basically like Tao Lin Lite. The book is rife with experiences of being an adolescent in the digital age: The only major player aside from extreme bouts of self-consciousness is the Internet. It's a book that -- and I mean no creative disrespect to Gorrell when I write this -- feels like it was written by someone inspired by and emulating Lin's poetry.

That in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, though it is, I think, why I've started becoming disillusioned with Lin's poetry. While I don't remember how I first came across Lin's work, I do know it was the originality of his poetry that first drew me in. I remember posting the link to "a poem written by a bear" on my Facebook page with a caption that read something like, "Sometimes you discover certain writers who make you feel bad for not being a genious. This is one of them."

And of course, there's the clever-upon-first-reading "i went fishing with my family when i was five," which I've heard he reads in its entirety at open mic nights (follow the link and you'll see why that's notable, if not necessarily necessary).

I still enjoy Lin's poetry to an extent -- this entire post began as a way to say that since the end of February Lin has had 12 poems up at The Lifted Brow, and for the most part I enjoy them immensely -- but the more I read work in the vein of he and Gorrell the more it feels unnaturally forced.

I appreciate the formation of what to me seems like a new school of poetic expression, fueled by those up-and-coming poets who may have grown up with current technological innovations as the norm, but I can only read so much poetry that seems like such a hybrid of high school vanity poetry ("i think," "i feel," etc.) and text and instant messaging.

That said, Lin has a knack for narrative poetry, which despite its possible flaws keeps me coming back for more. And with titles like "i feel weird, like my favorite book is a novelisation of 'metroid'" I'm afraid it's impossible for me not to keep reading, even when the opening line is "i feel like giving my penis papercuts."

ABC News: "Checkbook Journalism"

2010-03-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

In which ABC News waits two years to admit a $200,000 payment to accused child-killer Casey Anthony. Great piece.

A highlight:

"Some argue the money doesn't distort coverage, but that seems a fantasy. If a news outlet pays $200,000 for access to a source, will they report information which limits or ends that source's value as a news source? Will they report stories which anger the source and make them uncooperative?

"In Anthony's case, ABC News had the answer to a question which had been bugging observers of her case for a while: How does a woman who was unemployed for a year before her arrest pay a "dream team" of defense attorneys? But viewers never learned that information from ABC News, because it was already ethically compromised."

Read the whole article at The Feed, a blog on TV, media and modern life by St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans. Then send Deggans a complimentary e-mail at deggans@sptimes.com.

(Link via Super Punch. The image above is from Common Sense Journal.)

Holden McGroin Steps Up for Writers

2010-03-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Author Robert Swartwood continues his campaign against journals taking advantage of aspiring writers in his latest blog post, "Reminder Redux: Money STILL Flows To The Writer," a follow-up of sorts to a previous post taking the journal Narrative to task for charging $20 to submit a prose manuscript.

In response to the journal's recent call for interns, Swartwood set up a Gmail account under the name "Holden McGroin" and began a correspondence with the editors. A highlight: When the editors respond that "Holden" failed to attach a resume to his previous e-mail, Swartwood replies:

"Dear The Editors,

"I am very sorry about that. I was not aware I had already started something. What would you like me to resume?"

Wonderful.

I agree Narrative has it coming. Yet, unfortunately, even Swartwood must agree it's a person's own fault if they shell out $20 to submit to a journal.

P.S. If anyone wants to pay me $20 to consider their work, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I, like Narrative, will accept multiple submissions, since I, like Narrative, feel that "it's unreasonable to expect writers to give a magazine an exclusive look at a work unless the magazine can respond within two to three weeks."

I mean the last thing I want -- and I'm sure Narrative must feel the same -- is to be unreasonable.

(The image above is from The Writers' Police Academy, whose motto appears to be "Sweat Now, So Your Manuscript Doesn't Bleed Red Ink Later." Nice.)

Reality Check, Courtesy of John Klima

2010-03-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Electric Velocipede editor John Klima posted the above graphic on his blog this past Monday, showing his journal's submission and acceptance numbers from 2009.

Klima writes that he received 967 submissions last year from August through December, and of those submissions only 33 pieces were accepted for publication. That's an acceptance rate of about 3 percent.

It's a kind of reality check for writers, as it shows why it's so important that you're work be at its best when you send it out. Editors are deluged with submissions, and if your pieces aren't up to par it isn't hard for an editor to scrap them and find work that is.

Thanks to Klima for the blog post. I wish more editors would publish the numbers for their publications in a similar way.

Incidentally, Electric Velocipede's sale celebrating their 2009 win of the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine is still going, and as those who read the review on my genre blog know, it doesn't disappoint.

Brave Men Press Reading Manuscripts in March

2010-03-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Massachusetts-based Brave Men Press has announced the details of their first open reading period for chapbook manuscripts, which continues through this month.

According to their e-mail on the topic:

"We are primarily interested in POETRY, will most likely choose POETRY, but are also possibly interested in ESSAYS and OTHER MULTIFARIOUS WORKS OF NONFICTION. 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."

I like Brave Men Press and I will be submitting work to the fine people there this month, possibly in the form of multifarious works of nonfiction. Won't you join me?

Alternate Covers for Mirov's "Ghost Machine"

2010-03-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

Ben Mirov has revealed two alternate covers for "Ghost Machine," his soon-to-be-released winner of Caketrain's 2009 Chapbook Competition, on his blog. The post covers his writing process for the collection, as well as for the related "Collected Ghost," another of his chapbooks I reviewed on this site in November.

Among the revelations:

"The poems are all collage poems made up of sentences I wrote after a breakup. I was also unemployed and sleeping on my brother's couch. I wrote most of the sentences as a method of passing time and dealing with my fucked emotional state. I would describe my overriding emotion during that time as a feeling of emptiness. I wrote so many sentences during that period. I wrote down things I heard people say. I wrote down things I thought or dreamt. I wrote down things that happened on TV or in books I was reading. I wrote down sentences I made up. I wrote down anything. The majority of the sentences were short and used simple grammar. They weren't really poems."

Most of the poems were written in San Francisco in 2006, Mirov writes, and he didn't revise the manuscript until later when he moved to New York. It took him three years to do it.

"It was like sampling myself," he writes.

"Ghost Machine" will be published by Caketrain sometime in May. One of the alternate covers -- the other is much more colorful -- is pictured above, designed by Caketrain's Joseph Reed.

Brave Men Press: Open Reading, New Coinsides

2010-02-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

Details are forthcoming, but Brave Men Press will be holding an open reading period for poetry manuscripts during the month of March.

In an e-mail, BMP editors Brian Foley and E.B. Goodale write, "If you feel ready, send your chaps to bravemenpress@gmail.com. And please help spread the word."

Additionally, BMP is offering Series #8 of their coveted Coinsides, featuring poets Julie Carr, Elizabeth Marie Young and Jessica Bozek. Each one is hand-painted in a limited edition of 20.

Read Kathleen Bonanno's "Slamming Open the Door"

2010-02-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

Art based entirely on a singular event, situation or concept for it's emotional impact often runs the risk of being at best gimmicky and at worst exploitative, so it was with some apprehension that I initially approached Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno's debut poetry collection "Slamming Open the Door" (Alice James Books, 2009), which chronicles the murder of her daughter Leidy (pronouced "Lady") and the trial that followed.

Yet the concept of utter loss that creates the narrative arc of the book -- an arc as tightly executed as any collection I've read -- is what gives this collection its power, the sheer emotional force of which rivals that of any contemporary literature now available.

Bonanno lives in Oreland, Penn., and teaches English at a nearby high school. She also is a contributing editor of The American Poetry Review, of which her husband David also is an editor. I spoke to Bonanno recently by phone for a newspaper article I was writing in advance of a reading she will be giving at a local college late this month. I was particularly interested in asking her about “Poem About Light,” which is the last poem in the collection but was the first she wrote, just days after her 21-year-old daughter was strangled by an ex-boyfriend.

The poem seems more optimistic, more hopeful than the rest of the collection, and I asked her if there was anything telling about the fact that it was written so soon after the event.

"I think that it's telling about the grief process, which is not simply a solitary walk in the deepest darkness," Bonanno said. "At least for me it wasn't. It was partly that, it was partly about the comfort of the people who surrounded us. It was partly the joy of the memory of her. And somehow, through it all, even the hardest times, I knew that there is always still light in the face of shade. That one doesn't exist without the other."

The poem was read at Leidy's memorial service, and Bonanno read it aloud to Leidy's murderer during his sentencing (he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole).

"The other thing is that was sort of an empowerment poem in the sense that it's basic purpose was to suggest to Joseph Eaddy, Leidy's murderer, that he didn't have the last word," Bonanno said of the poem. "That Leidy by her nature had the last word. That his attempt to make her nonexistent was an impossible feat. The sun will rise tomorrow like it did yesterday."

It may be because my wife and I had our first child -- a daughter -- this past October, and thus I'm more susceptible to the tragic possibility of losing a child, but Bonanno's acutely honest collection had my heart in a Vise-Grip from start to finish. Im fact, I can't remember being so emotionally affected by a collection of poetry.

When toward the end of our interview I asked Bonanno if she found herself continually pulled back to writing about Leidy's murder, she said she doesn't feel pulled to write a "sequel" to the story or another collection about the event, but she does think Leidy will figure into her future poems "in the same way that my most important relationships will figure into my poems in the future. But I'm not called to keep writing that story that way."

Instead she's working on another collection -- the working title is "Oh, Suburbia" -- that's "sort of a consideration of the suburbs and what really goes on here. Sort of the beauty and the horror and the fascination that is the suburbs."

"My intention was to write a book of love poems, sort of love poems to the universe, some of them romantic poems, some of them just poems that were celebratory of life," Bonanno said, laughing. "Turns out, I don't have enough love for the universe to write a full collection, so that’s quickly becoming a chapbook."

Bonanno was interviewed by Terry Gross for Gross' "Fresh Air" program on National Public Radio, and the segment aired on July 29, 2009. Listen to the interview here or read the trascript. You can read poet David Kirby's favorable New York Times review of Bonanno's collection here.

1,000 Words from Laconic Oration

2010-02-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

The above is one of who knows how many great images posted on the images blog Laconic Oration. Check it out.

Matt Bell's "Collectors" Love Trash

2010-02-15T08:25:00.000-08:00

Matt Bell -- who I commented on late last year for his fantastic short "Mario's Three Lives" -- has been offering "The Collectors," his runner-up manuscript in Caketrain's 2008 Chapbook Competition, as a free download on his Web site. Caketrain published the book in May 2009 but it's since gone out of print, which is good for Bell and the publisher (selling out of books is always good for authors and their publishers) but is even better for those of us who can now read it at no charge.

The book is the tale of compulsive hoarders Homer and Langley Collyer in 1940s Manhattan, whose home has become like a pool where all the tainted waters of their material lives have been collected and frozen in a kind of interior structure of decay. It's an interesting, creepy read, and holds the honored distinction of being the first (and currently only) publication I enjoyed enough to read it in it's entirety on my iPod touch.

It also reminded me of the above "Sesame Street" video, featuring Oscar the Grouch, who, after making the inadvertent connection, I can't think of Bell's story without picturing as the protagonist.

Incidentally, it was recently announced that Bell's short story "Dredge" -- originally published in Hayden's Ferry Review 45, which coincidentally has a cover image that could have come straight from the Collyer's home -- has been selected for "The Best American Mystery Stories 2010," to be published this fall. Obviously Bell is an author to keep an eye on.

Read "The Best American Crime Reporting 2009"

2010-02-10T06:39:00.000-08:00

A journalist by trade, I'm always interested in quality reporting of the kind that's not newspaper-stiff and that actually makes me want to read past the lead. Guest editor Jeffrey Toobin's "The Best American Crime Reporting 2009" ( Ecco, 2009) is that kind of reporting: in-depth, solid journalism that reads like an actual story as opposed to a police report. If I ever wind up teaching college courses in creative nonfiction writing, this is the stuff you can expect to find on my required reading list.

Standouts in this year's edition -- the ongoing series is co-edited by Otto Penzler and Thomas H. Cook -- include Mark Boal's "Everyone Will Remember Me as Some Sort of Monster" (from Rolling Stone) and David Grann's "True Crime" (from The New Yorker). You may recognize Boal as the writer of what was, in my opinion, the best film last year, "The Hurt Locker," for which he is rightly nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Original Screenplay. Grann is probably best know of late for his bestselling book "The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon" (Doubleday, 2009).

Boal's piece in the book is a haunting profile of a teenager who shot up a mall in Nebraska, and Grann's piece documents a stranger-than-fiction case of a man who got away with murder in Poland only to get caught years later after writing a "fictional" book about it. These pieces are great, but so are the rest featured in the book. Check it out.

Another Reason to Buy Literary Journals

2010-02-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Late last month I received the following e-mail from an annual literary journal that accepted one of my poems for publication more than a year ago (the issue it was to be printed in had been pushed back, at last query, to November, and it still hasn't come out). It's a pertinent reminder how important it is to support the arts, especially in trying economic times such as these. This journal is making things work for now -- albeit somewhat behind schedule -- but many publications aren't so lucky.

Here's the e-mail:

"Dearest XXXXXXX Poets,

"Thank you so much for your patience in waiting for the issue to be released. The state of the economy has driven funding down in all areas, including support to XXXXXXX from contributors who appeared in prior issues. Independent publishers are particularly hard hit, as well as journals affiliated with colleges and universities. These journals are losing financial support from their own schools. Many have already announced that their current issue is the final issue.

"For several reasons, securing funding for collections with multiple contributors is more difficult than for collections by individual poets. We at XXXXXXX are working furiously to secure the additional funding that you and your poems deserve, and are looking toward a spring publication date.

"It is a dangerous time for independent publishers and the writers we publish. The following statistics are staggering. The loss of funding for many of us drives the statistics down even further. According to the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses:

> Less than 4 percent of publishing (that would mean all publishing) is literary (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction).

> Independent literary publishers produce over 98 percent of poetry being published each year, and the majority of literature in translation and works of fiction by emerging writers.

"Because independent and not-for-profit publishers are mission driven, and not profit driven, we publish writers whom the large publishing houses pass over. The delay in XXXXXXX is not the scenario we had hoped for, and all of us appreciate your patience while we work diligently to present your poems in as professional a manner as we have always done.

"With admiration for you and your work,

"Xxxxxxx Xxxxxx, Executive Director"

One of the things I'm thankful for in these times is the openness which many of those in charge of publications like this one have shown to those who do support the arts and think they are important. This particular director, for instance, could have just ignored those poets whose work her journal accepted and could have scrapped their plans for the upcoming issue indefinitely.

But she hasn't abandoned her writers, serving as a positive example to the rest of us on both sides of the publishing spectrum: Publications should stick with their writers -- and readers -- and writers and readers should stick with their publications. Which means if you enjoy good literature, take some time this week to actually purchase a literary journal (Electric Velocipede is a good place to start).

After all, we don't want our colleagues to end up like the poor guy above (image via here).

J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010

2010-01-28T17:47:00.000-08:00

J.D. Salinger died Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., of natural causes. He was 91 years old.

Sadly, it's an occurrence I've been passively anticipating since I first read "The Catcher in the Rye" in high school (on my own -- by the time I swung through high school it was no longer required reading). I've been half dreading the loss of such a literary icon and half excited at the prospect of a potential posthumous release of the cache of new material rumored to have been written by Salinger in the last however many decades since he went into seclusion.

It's hard to imagine a more influential contemporary author than Salinger, and I feel I owe a lot to him personally. His short stories -- particularly "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" -- helped germinate the seed planted by Ernest Hemingway's that would eventually grow into a dedicated love for the written word. Would I have kept reading -- or pursued writing at all -- had I not read Salinger's works when I did? I don't know. What I do know is that Salinger's words kept me company at a time in my life when I really needed company, and for that I am thankful.

Salinger's New York Times obituary can be found online here.

JACKET+BOOKMARK = "Vivid and Funny"

2010-01-24T08:52:00.000-08:00

The above image shows just four of the clever JACKET+BOOKMARK concept designs created by graphic designer and illustrator Igor "Rogix" Udushlivy to -- as he states on icoeye, his online portfolio -- "use dust jackets and bookmarks together to create a unique image of a paper book."

"I love to create icons, illustrations, logos, animation and more," he writes. "I always try to combine graphics and sense, because design is a thought made in a graphic way. My ideas are always vivid and funny."

Very cool. I wish my ideas were always vivid and funny. For more cool stuff, not necessarily related to literature, check out Udushlivy's blog.

(Link via Super Punch.)

Interview with Michael Robins

2010-01-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

I caught up with poet Michael Robins late last September, shortly before the release of his latest chapbook, "Circus" (Flying Guillotine Press), which is made up of a section from "Ladies & Gentlemen," a completed manuscript he's been sending around for just over a year and which has been a finalist for a number of book prizes.

"It's an assortment of circus imagery," Robins, 33, said of his chapbook from his home in Chicago. "But circus seemed to be a good metaphor for the events in Iraq and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of September 11."

Robins, a native of Portland, Ore., is the author of "The Next Settlement" (UNT Press, 2007) -- which was selected for the Vassar Miller Prize -- is a contributing editor at Born Magazine and is an adjunct instructor at Columbia College in Chicago, where he teaches literature and creative writing. In an interview by phone, Robins spoke about Allen Ginsberg, the structure of poetry and the influence of September 11 on form.

Poetic Desperation: How long have you been writing poetry?

Michael Robins: "I started writing earnestly my senior year of high school, although I wrote my first poem when I was in fourth grade as part of an art project. But I really didn't have any interest in poetry much after that. During my senior year of high school, however, I began reading the Beat writers. I read the work of Jack Kerouac at the suggestion of a substitute teacher, which led me to other Beat writers and Allen Ginsberg, who ultimately led me to writing my own poetry."

PD: So Ginsberg was the key?

MR: "I think I would have come to poetry without Allen Ginsberg, but he was definitely an important poet as my interest in poetry developed. A week or two before my high school graduation, Ginsberg gave a book signing in Portland, so I took my books down there and got those signed, and I passed him a note with the naïve expectation that maybe we would develop a correspondence. There was a huge turnout for that event and people gave him all kinds of things. It was really amazing to see that kind of response. Even more amazing for me was when, four or five days later, I received from Ginsberg a postcard he had written that same night from his hotel room. It was simply a postcard of the hotel where he was staying, just a few sentences, but that was very encouraging to me as a young poet. I came to understand later that Ginsberg was one of those poets who was very generous with his time and did that sort of thing on a regular basis. I still have that postcard, and come back to it every so often."

PD: Is there anything about your poetry structurally that you feel sets your work apart? Does the structure of Ginsberg's work inform your own?

MR: "Although I was a big reader of Ginsberg early on, I didn't use his work as a model for very long. In the poems I'm writing now I use a lot of couplets, but for the last little while I've worked exclusively using 10-syllable lines, with the exception of a few prose poems here and there. That might not be reflected so much in 'The Next Settlement,' but the next manuscript is almost entirely couplets and 10-syllable lines. My attraction for couplets stems from wanting the poem to be accessible to the reader when he or she comes to that work on the page. As a poet who isn't working strictly in narrative -- telling a story and offering an epiphany by the end of that story -- I feel that couplets help ease the reader into the poem. If I see a poem that has some white space on the page, then that poem is 'broken' nicely into small, digestible pieces.

"I got interested in form, oddly enough, after September 11. That might sound strange initially but I was in graduate school at UMass Amherst on September 11, 2001, so the epicenter of that morning wasn't very far away. I know there were a lot of poets who were able to respond immediately after those events. For me, the feelings that I experienced were so overwhelming that I had, I don't want to call it writer's block, but there was definitely an inability to put meaningful language on the page. The first two poems I eventually wrote after those events were the first sonnets that I'd ever written, and having that structure was something to ground myself back in the world, to create order out of what felt at the time like a chaotic series of events, a chaotic feeling in the air, my own chaotic emotions. After those first sonnets I've continued to be very interested in form and structure.

"I don't know if I can offer a real good reason behind why I'm stuck on the 10-syllable line. I don't want to call it a puzzle -- as a teacher it gets frustrating when my students persistently feel that poems are puzzles with a single answer or meaning -- but focusing on the poetic line challenges and almost strong-arms me into revising a piece of writing and creating acts of discovery. Instead of being able to dash off a sentence and leave that sentence as it is, or a line of poetry as that line of poetry is, a syllable count gives me the opportunity to go back to each line and look closer. And most of the time, as a result, I'm making that language more concise."

PD: So you don't feel a need to necessarily force yourself into the form? You see it as more freeing than constricting?

MR: "Yeah, I think that's well put. There are discoveries to be made when you are working within a form. Implementing some constraints forces you to reevaluate your writing and look for possibility. If you have an 11-syllable line and you're looking to make that a 10-syllable line, and if you're not looking to end that line weakly or make your line breaks something less than satisfying, then you're forced to restructure the diction, syntax and sometimes the meaning itself."

PD: Are there any particular themes, words or images that you find yourself returning to in your work?

MR: "When you put a manuscript together -- whether that's in a single Word document or you have those poems laid out on your floor -- and you have the chance to see how those poems speak to each other side by side, most poets will find recurring language. Horses, for some reason, have appeared in my poems of late, and in the last two or three years I've written a number of poems that have imagery resulting from the U.S. military's presence in the Middle East. When the events of war permeate the news, inevitably my thoughts return to the individual lives of those taking part and those whose daily lives have been changed dramatically."

PD: Are you the kind of poet who can kind of spontaneously write, or do you work more slowly, waiting for something to come that sparks the process?

MR: "I carry a pen and paper with me wherever I go, and that's something I've been doing for years. In fact I feel a little bit unarmed -- naked, if you will -- if I leave the house and realize that I do not have a pen. You can always find something on which to write, but you can't always depend on finding the instrument. In terms of working on individual poems, yes, I carry that pen and paper, but I might not use them for several days at a stretch. Then again, I might hear or see something that I want to take down immediately for future use.

"When writing my best it's for me, first of all, making and taking advantage of time and space, whether it's an hour at home or even a 30-minute train ride into downtown Chicago. When I do give myself that time and space I'm nearly always able to create and shape something satisfying. That's not to say that I can sit down and within an hour crank out a poem. Some of my poems might take six weeks or longer, they might take three weeks. I think my process has gotten a little bit slower since I left college and began surviving in the real world with a job and all of the other responsibilities of life."

David Foster Wallace Profile

2010-01-22T08:57:00.001-08:00

I came across a profile of the late author David Foster Wallace this morning, written n 1987 by Bill Katovsky for that year's April issue of Katovsky's now-defunct national literary magazine, Arrival, and later reprinted at McSweeney's with his permission.

Says Wallace in the article, commenting on his academic upbringing:

"It was an exceptional academic household. I remember my parents reading Ulysses out loud to each other when they went to bed. My father read Moby-Dick to my younger sister and me when we were 6 and 8. There was a near rebellion halfway through the novel. Here we were -- still picking our noses -- and learning the etymology of whale names."

It's billed as one of the first Wallace profiles -- he was 25 years old at the time -- and it's done fairly well. Check it out here.

(Link via Super Punch.)

PANK to Donate Proceeds to Haiti Relief

2010-01-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

The folks in charge of nonprofit literary magazine PANK announced today on their blog that all direct sales of their magazines and chapbook (purchased here) between Jan. 13 and Feb. 13 will be divided between the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders to support relief efforts in Haiti following the recent earthquake there. So you can help someone and get your read on at the same time. What else could you ask for?

(Link via Robert Swartwood.)

R.I.P. Slush Pile

2010-01-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Journalist Katherine Rosman has an interesting article up on The Wall Street Journal's Web site today, titled "The Death of the Slush Pile."

The piece is a nice wake-up call for fledgling writers with unrealistic expectations. Included among the quotes:

David Granger, editor in chief of Esquire, says slush-pile finds are extremely rare: "If we found one writer a year that sent things in randomly, that would be a lot."

The article states that literary mainstay The Paris Review publishes just one piece from the slush pile each year, which after factoring in submission numbers and the vagaries of the submissions process gives unsolicited submissions a .008 percent chance of rising to the top of the pile.

The above illustration, used in the original WSJ post, is by illustrator Lisa Haney.

Mirov's "Ghost" Wins Caketrain Competition

2010-01-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Caketrain announced the results of their 2009 poetry chapbook competition this morning, and taking home top honors is "Ghost Machine," by poet Ben Mirov, whose "Collected Ghost" was reviewed by Poetic Desperation in November.

Mirov's manuscript will see publication this summer as the seventh title in Caketrain's ongoing chapbook series, along with runner-up Lucas Farrell's "Bird Any Damn Kind" as the eighth.

The chapbook competition will return this May, with the genre focus shifting back to fiction and with a new guest serving as final judge. The judge for 2009 was poet Michael Burkard.

You can get a copy of Mirov's latest, "I is to Vorticisim," the cover of which is illustrated above, through his blog, Amazon or its publisher, New Michigan Press.

"Mario's Three Lives," by Matt Bell

2009-12-30T06:47:00.000-08:00

Recently I came across the short story "Mario's Three Lives," by Matt Bell, published in Barrelhouse, and while I'm pretty sure it was published at least a year ago I'd put it on my Top 10 list of shorts I read this year.

It's a poignant meditation on God as seen from Nintendo's Mario, the kind so often done in fine form by artists (the above piece is by Ted McClung). It's nice to see a writer up to the task.

On a maybe unrelated note, happy New Year to all. Let's hope in the coming year we can avoid, as Matt Bell might phrase it, "the Place Where One Waits Between Continues" as much as possible.

From the Stacks: Elliot Richman's "Franz Kafka's Daughter Meets the Evil Nazi Empire!!!"

2009-12-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

It wasn't difficult to find Elliot Richman's "Holocaust-tainted" poetry collection "Franz Kafka's Daughter Meets the Evil Nazi Empire!!!" (Asylum Arts, 1999) in the stacks on a recent trip to the Kalamazoo Public Library. For one, it was the only spine with three exclamation marks in the title, and also it sounded like something from a 1950s sci-fi flick. In short, it was impossible not to pick it up.

While I can't say necessarily say the same about putting it down, that doesn't mean the collection isn't worth your time. At times it can be outright disgusting, sometime gratuitously so -- "I come on your breasts and press / my palm into my semen," for instance, from "The Orgasm of Blood" -- but these moments are for the most part few and far between, and taking the collection as a whole, such disgust seems almost necessary to further the emotions one would expect to come away with by reading a collection subtitled "The Heroism of Roaches: Holocaust-tainted Poems."

While the collection opens with the 10-page epic title poem -- in which Franz Kafka's daughter is imagined transforming into a giant black beetle while imprisoned in German concentration camp, and like a "Jewish cockroach Godzilla" goes "tramblin' o'er guard towers, / chompin' on Jerries like they was spareribs" -- the collection's strongest points are its shorter works and those where the speaker is imagining himself trapped in the days of the Holocaust, as in "The Scream":

"Brooklyn instead of Poland, / but I could have been there, / a matter of genes and geography, / that's all, the double helix of DNA / bent into a twisted cross / on the ramp in Birkenau."

Or as in "I Dream Again of My Daughter in a Cattle Car" (especially poignant to me, as my wife and I recently had our first baby):

"The train lurches forward, / the sound of a mounstrous Big Wheel, / Zuzu snared in a trap of strangers, / she who even now is afraid of elevators. / Too terrified to call out for her mother, / in the cattle car on the way to Birkenau."

The collection is best taken as a whole -- it bites harder and penetrates further into the psyche that way. I studied the Holocaust nearly every year of my elementary and secondary education, and barring a Holocaust-centered episode of HBO's "Band of Brothers" I have never felt the ache of the events of those years as sorely as I did -- and still do -- after reading Richman's collection. It's a feeling not even of loss, but of loss you know is yet to come, which may be worse.

The collection seems to be summed up nicely in the second to last poem, "The Old Horse," where the speaker appears to be attending a poetry reading by what is assumably a Jewish poet reading assumably Holocaust poetry. The speaker feels slightly guilty about being Jewish and yet not being moved by the reading, imagining himself "an old gelding / in Poland" who is passed by "Belorussian volunteers, too old for combat" who "stroll alongside a file of Jews."

"It seems like nothing is happening," Richman writes. "I'm pretty thirsty. I dip my head in the trough. / The water's terrific. It is right there.

"When I look up, the Jews are gone."

Breaking Bryan Charles News

2009-11-30T13:56:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention that author Bryan Charles's "Wowee Zowee," his entry in Continuum's 33 1/3 series of books based on seminal music albums, is slated for release in April. The book focuses on the 1995 album of the same name recorded by the alternative rock band Pavement.

According to Charles's MySpace blog, the book will feature "extensive interviews with all five members of the band about the WZ period, before and after etc. Also interviews with assorted label honchos, various engineers -- including the first-ever interview with Mark Venezia who recorded Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and some Wowee Zowee songs -- and cover artist Steve Keene."

Adds Charles: "Wowee Zowee is my all-time favorite record by my all-time favorite band Pavement."

Charles grew up in the same city I did. He went to the same high school and the same college. His first novel, the wonderful "Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way" (which incidentally takes its name from the Pavement song "Angel Carver Blues") reads like a semi-biographical account of my own life, set in our hometown and including episodes of restaurant dishwashing that could have come straight from my past.

All biases aside, Charles is a good writer. Read his books. Buy his books. Send him a note to say you appreciate how he acknowledges the places he's come from.

If you want a preview of what's next from Charles, an excerpt from his yet-to-be released memoir focusing on his first few years in New York City, where he now lives, was published in a recent issue of Open City.

You Say You Want a Revolution

2009-11-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

This week I received my contributor's copy of the literary journal Struggle, or more accurately as to the journal's subtitle, I received my contributor's copy of the "Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature" called Struggle. It's a saddle-stapled, summer/fall 2009 double issue of 72 pages and it includes my prose poem/flash fiction piece "The Bear," which was accepted for publication about three years ago and which, until I received my contributor's copy this week, I thought would never actually make it to print.

The journal/magazine is a collection of poetry and short fiction ardently opposed to capitalism, war and The Man in general, and while I don't necessarily agree with all of editor Tim Hall's politics (I don't necessarily disagree with all of them either), it's a decent read and it fills that void of militant socialist dogma in print we've all been secretly pining for since the Religious Right began questioning the birthplace of our president however many months ago.

Unfortunately the publication -- "an anti-establishment, revolutionary literary journal oriented to the working-class struggle," according to its Web page -- like so many other arts institutions of late has fallen on hard times. According to a handwritten, personalized note from Hall included with my copy of the journal, the publication must raise $700 to survive.

If the inclusion of a handwritten, personalized note from the editor of a literary journal isn't enough to make you want to send him a couple bucks to carry on in a floundering economy (one that's only serving to make the focus of his publication more relevant), what is? If you feel so inclined, shoot him some support at P.O. Box 13261, Detroit, MI. 48213 or e-mail him at timhall11@yahoo.com to see how you can help.

Hall also is involved with Communist Voice, which according to its Web page "deals with the world crisis of revolutionary theory, analyzes what happened to the revolutionary movements of the past, and opposes Stalinism, Trotskyism, anarchism and reformism." Another version of the Struggle site can be found here.

Free Poetry: Ben Mirov's "Collected Ghost"

2009-11-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

Print purists can say what they want, but the information-dissemination possibilities offered by the digital age can't be denied. One of the great opportuities offered by the medium of the Internet is free poetry, not only in the form of individual poems, but entire chapbooks and collections as well.

The latest free PDF chapbook I took a liking to is Ben Mirov's "Collected Ghost," recently released by H_NGM_N Books. "Ghost" is an apt term to describe the collection, which consists of 27 poems separated into three fairly distinct sections. The first section is the strongest of the three, with the following sections dissolving into a kind of indifferent ambiguity by the end like a ghost which, as you proceed toward the floor, dissolves into the ether.

Each of the nine poems in the first section reads like a summarization of the poet's day, as in this selection from "Fillmore Ghost": "She arrives and I can't remember her name and / she kisses me. The last three songs are dim. I can't find an ATM. I / throw the poster in the trash. My pants are covered in beer."

The poems are conversational in tone, mostly caught somewhere between free verse poetry and the prose poem, and are full of potent and telling imagery, as in "Same Ghost": "I act like myself at a coffee shop and try not / to shake. My day is a petal of in a glass of vodka."

Elsewhere in the section, the lines are inexplicable yet somehow entirely accessible at the same time, as in "Empty Set": "I can't eat anything that begins with C. I can't run faster than that guy / in my brain. I don't feel like emailing V in Morocco. He's scoring weed / and not eating lamb."

The second section of the collection is titled "Eye, Ghost," and is a series of 10 numbered poems that each consecutively weave into the next. Dominant in this section are form (each poem is 10 lines long and has similar line length) and the replacement of the personal pronoun "I" with the word "Eye," which sadly ends up seeming too much like a gimmick, being little more than a distraction from the rest of the poetry.

The strength of the second section is the various references to lines from the first section, which by the end of the second section ultimately makes one feel at least satisfied that it ties in to the collection somehow. If each poem from the first section seems like a snapshot of the poet's day, the second section is like a photo album that brings them all together.

Yet by the end of the second section one can't help but relate to the poet, who in the first line of the first poem of the series writes, "Eye woke up in a construct."

The eight poems in the third and final section seem like outtakes from the first. They follow the same sort of thematic curve, but are less effective in their execution, the collected impressions seeming more randomly thrown together, as in "Ghost Chapter": "I eat too many eggs at work. / I put too much ketchup on my hash browns. / R gets mad and throws a computer. / He can't brush his teeth."

Ultimately it's a rewarding collection. It's a quick read, and again, it's free.

As far as the poet goes, Mirov is a New York-based, widely published writer who, according to his chapbook bio, won the Diagram/New Michigan Press 2009 Chapbook Contest for his chapbook "I is to Vorticism." He edits the online journal pax americana and is poetry editor of LIT Magazine. He also keeps an interesting blog.

Nisi Shawl

2009-11-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

In my last post I listed off a number of authors with ties to my native city of Kalamazoo, Mich., concluding that despite the number of authors with impressive resumes already listed I was sure I had forgotten some. Sure enough, it's a day later and I've already realized I left a glaring hole in the list: Nisi Shawl.

Shawl is a fantasy and science-fiction writer who now lives in Seattle but lived in Kalamazoo through her high-school years. Earlier this year Shawl became the first African-American woman to win the prestigious James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award, for her 2008 short-story collection "Filter House." The award is an annual $1,000 literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that explore the understanding of gender.

Additionally, "Filter House" and another of Shawl's works, a novella titled "Good Boy," both were nominated for 2009 World Fantasy Awards.

For more information on Shawl, follow her on her blog.

Kalamazoo: Best American Poetry City

2009-11-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in July 2008 Kalamazoo County, Mich., had a population of 245,912, roughly 8 million less than New York City, the cultural capital of the east, and more than 9.5 million less than Los Angeles to the west. Yet two -- two! -- poets from the area in or surrounding Kalamazoo County have had their work selected for "The Best American Poetry 2009" anthology, guest edited by David Wagoner.

The poets are John Rybicki, of Delton, who appears for his poem "This Tape Measure of Light," originally published in "Third Coast," and Kalamazoo's own Susan Blackwell Ramsey, who appears for her poem "Pickled Heads: St. Petersburg," originally published in "Prairie Schooner." This is the second consecutive appearance in the series for Rybicki, whose poem "Three Lanterns" appeared in the 2008 edition, guest edited by Charles Wright.

This poetry news comes on the heels of news that Kalamazoo resident and poet Jennifer Sweeney's second book of poetry, "How to Live on Bread and Music," won both the 2009 Perugia Press Prize and the prestigious 2009 James Laughlin Award, which is sponsored by the American Academy of Poets and is awarded each year for the most outstanding second book from an American poet, the only second-book award for poetry in the United States. Her husband, Chad Sweeney, appeared in the 2008 edition of "The Best American Poetry" for his poem "The Sentence."

Had enough proof that Kalamazoo has an abnormally high concentration of the literary elite? No? Read on.

The area also has two finalists -- two! -- for this year's National Book Award. Bonnie Jo Campbell, of Kalamazoo, is a finalist for her collection of short stories, "American Salvage," and David Small, of Mendon, is a finalist for his graphic memoir "Stitches."

And we have no shortage of area natives who are now producing quality work elsewhere. Horror writer Joe Schreiber, a former Portage resident who now resides in Hershey, Pa., released an original horror novel and a standalone "Star Wars" horror novel on the same day in October, the latter of which, "Death Troopers," reached as high as #13 on the New York Times Bests-Sellers list for Hardcover fiction (it's currenly #28). Richelle Mead, formerly of Comstock, is another New York Times best-selling author of "urban fantasy" books for both adults and teens. She's currenly based in Seattle, where she's working on three original book series at the same time. And "Wowee Zowee," Kalamazoo native turned New Yorker Bryan Charles's Pavement-based contribution to Continuum's "33 1/3" series, is due out next year. He also will be following up his 2006 novel "Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way" with a memoir of his first few years in New York City, an exerpt of which appears in the current edition of "Open City."

I'm sure I've unknowingly left some prominent names off this list, and for that I apologize, but the fact that the list runs even this long is an indication of what we're dealing with here in Kalamazoo: A total domination of the national literary landscape by native Kalamazooans. Which sounds good to me.

But, of course, I live here.

Can Poetry Be Profitable?

2009-11-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

According to publisher Dominique Raccah (at left), yes.

Raccah's Sourcebooks MediaFusion, an imprint of her independent publishing company Sourcebooks, Inc., has become the nation's leading publisher of books with integrated mixed-media. MediaFusion is responsible for the release of, among other titles, the popular "Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath," a book and three-CD combination featuring noted poets from Tennyson to Plath reading their own work.

Now Raccah's Sourcebooks has launched PoetrySpeaks.com, a Web site with the mission to "create a place where people can discover and experience a poem that touches, moves, or inspires them and to make that experience visceral," according to the press release announcing the site's going live Nov. 4.

"We believe that PoetrySpeaks.com can solve some of the challenges the poets themselves face in getting their work, their message, and themselves in front of readers," Raccah says in the press release. "We wanted a site that helps connect poetry readers (and potential poetry readers) and poets. And we wanted to begin developing a new business model for poetry."

Also according to the release:

"On PoetrySpeaks.com, poets will be able to manage their own information, blog if they wish, explain and display their body of work to their own choosing, and even post their speaking or performance schedules. In essence, it's a social network for poets and poetry lovers. Both interactive and educational, visitors will be able to create their own 'favorites,' plus connect to the poets via Twitter and other social networking sites.

"PoetrySpeaks.com will also be a business and marketing engine for poets and poetry presses. There are already three revenue streams, with several others identified and being developed. PoetrySpeaks.com sells individual poems in different formats (audio, video or text), as well as books, ebooks, DVDs and CDs, and tickets to online performances, slams or readings."

A cursory look at the site shows there are three main areas: "PS Voices," featuring classic and contemporary poetry, where you can "Hear Great Poets Read Their Own Work"; "SpokenWord," showcasing slam and spoken-word poetry, where you can "Hear the Poetry Revolution"; and "YourMic," where you can upload your own poetry performances and videos.

I have yet to take an in-depth look at the site, but my initial impression is that it's nice to finally see someone doing something productive concerning the current state of poetry -- especially on such an intense scale -- instead of just complaining about how you can't make a living writing it.

Visit the PoetrySpeaks Web site or read the Nov. 3 Wall Street Journal article about the site for more information.

Interview with John Gallaher

2009-11-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

John Gallaher is the author of the poetry books "Gentlemen in Turbans, Ladies in Cauls" (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001), "The Little Book of Guesses" (Four Way, 2007), winner of the Levis Poetry Prize, and "Map of the Folded World" (University of Akron Press, 2009), as well as the free online chapbook, "Guidebook" (Blue Hour Press, 2009). He won the Boston Review's 2009 Poetry Contest for his series of "Guidebook" poems, and is currently working on a co-authored manuscript with the poet G.C. Waldrep, titled "Your Father on the Train of Ghosts," due out in spring 2011 from BOA Editions. Gallaher also is co-editor of The Laurel Review and GreenTower Press.

I interviewed Gallaher, 44, in August for a newspaper article in advance of a reading he gave in Kalamazoo with poets Wayne Miller and Michael Robins. While he has lived in Maryville, Mo., for the past seven years, I spoke to him by phone while he was staying with family in Texas. Originally from Portland, Ore., Gallaher's family moved around a lot when he was young, and he has lived around the country, from Long Island, N.Y., to Orange County, Calif. He currently teaches in the English department at Northwest Missouri State University.

During the course of our conversation he told me how his collaboration with Waldrep on "Train of Ghosts" is the result of a project where the two e-mailed poems back and forth to each other throughout the last year, each poem based somehow on the one that came before. On some days, he said, they'd write as many as five each, and they continued until they had nearly 300 poems between them. Gallaher actually received the contract from BOA the day before our interview – the first two-author contract BOA had ever offered.

A segment of my talk with Gallaher follows below.

Poetic Desperation: Is there anything about the structure of your poetry that your feel sets it apart from the work of others?

John Gallaher: "I'm restless with that sort of thing. I don't use received forms when I write, so I don't have anything that one would look at and automatically see the historic structure of it or that sort of a thing.

"There are two ways to think of structure. A lot of people when they're thinking about structure they're thinking about the words, like how words rhyme or how words feel going across the page or something. They're very interested in the words making structure, and so when they're doing things like rhyme and such they like to play with that side of the equation, the word side. And I'm great with that in other people's work, but when I'm thinking about my own work I'm just not interested enough in that way of playing with words on a page. And so I would rather think on the other side of that, which is the things to which the words refer. Perhaps one could play with those in the same way that one plays with the words."

PD: What about thematically? Are there certain themes or words you find yourself returning to in your poetry?

JG: "I do have things that I tend to write about. The idea of the house I think about a lot. I think about family a lot, and children, what it was being a child now that I have children that are growing up (Gallaher has a 7-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son). The things they're learning and what they’re going through take me back to my own childhood, and then larger questions of how we all come into language and experience and the world. And so I'm really kind of restlessly interested in that sort of thing."

PD: Do you consider yourself a fast writer or slow writer when it comes to working out your poetry?

JG: "I would consider myself the inverse of my good friend, Wayne Miller. I'm very fast. I don’t know if I'm spontaneous, but I'm fast.

"I can write very quickly, but the reason I can write very quickly is I carry a notebook with me at all times, and all during the day I'm writing things in it. And so by the time I get home at night I have several pages that are full, and so often what I'll do is actually just sit down and just transcribe out those pages, oftentimes in pretty close to the order that I wrote things down in."

You can read more from Gallaher on his blog.

The Sweeneys Poetic

2009-11-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

Probably the best part of my job as a freelance writer, aside from actually getting paid to write, is that I get to interview people I likely wouldn't have much contact with outside of a professional context. Lately this has included a number of writers, including Audrey Niffenegger ("The Time Traveler's Wife," "Her Fearful Symmetry") and horror novelist Joe Schreiber ("No Doors, No Windows," "Death Troopers"), both of whom are currently on the New York Times Best Sellers list for Hardcover Fiction at spots 18 and 20, respectively.

At the end of October I also had the opportunity to interview Jennifer and Chad Sweeney, two Kalamazoo-based, award-winning poets who will be giving a reading here at the Kalamazoo Public Library at 7 p.m. Nov. 10. Jennifer's latest collection, "How to Live on Bread and Music" (Perugia Press, 2009) won both the 2009 Perugia Press Prize and the Academy of American Poets' 2009 James Laughlin Award, the only second-book award for poetry in the United States. Chad's work appeared in "The Best American Poetry 2008," and his latest collection, "Arranging the Blaze" (Anhinga Press, 2009), clocks in at 106 pages and took him nearly 15 years to write.

The two are currently on a reading tour together down in Florida. Check them out on their Wikipedia pages, here for Jennifer and here for Chad.