Read Zachary Schomburg

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.

Read Kathleen Bonanno's "Slamming Open the Door"

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.

Mirov's "Ghost" Wins Caketrain Competition

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.

Kalamazoo: Best American Poetry City

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.