Omnidawn Blog

POETRY FEATURE 4: LIZ WALDNER

2008-07-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

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Lacustrine and Midrash

This is what kind of sweet life I have had:

Someone wrote to me:

what a shame it is your love of life
should be pulled into its best channels by a lady radio

and I wrote it down
and I found it long enough later
that I have no idea who or when or why.
I did love that lady radio.

Also:

Someone sang to me:

up in an airplane
smoking her sweet cigarette
she went way up in an airplane

Then I read, years later, this very thing
in a Walker Percy novel
knew someone else had heard it sung
knew this was marvelous for I was so lone, so solitary
that whatever I heard was rendered
solitary too. Or so I thought but Oh

like Robinson Crusoe, I was not alone.

Now call upon my soul within the house,
go on, please.

I will answer, I am so happy.
Whereas before I knew this had all been so sweet

I would merely have hoped you would love me.

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The ______ Stripped Bare

1. The company of heaven would be my company were it not for
this set of clothes.
2. The fiddle player looked in my eyes the whole way I walked up
to him.
3. The potter was unconcerned and hastened to show me her new
and unspeakable work.
4. Traded miracles over a fake bird’s eye maple tabletop with a
woman I’d seen before.
5. Outside the low blue light silvered the snowy mountain tops and
the unsettled surface of the sea.
6. Somehow the beach at Fort Worden Park eluded me today.
7. Somehow this feeling that scares me found me.
8. “Elvers” an unlikely name for something I might ever eat.
9. If they went to see the movie they never loved the book.
10. ‘Gilthoniel a Elbereth!’ echoes up loved from memory.
11. Terry Gilchrist sunburnt her nose repeatedly in 1980 Santa Fe.
12. All week New Mexico has reasserted itself, even before the sun
above.
13. It is harder to wear out her clothing than one might wish.

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Liz Waldner's most recent poetry collection is Trust, due out from Cleveland State University Poetry Center in Spring 09. Poems current or forthcoming in New American Writing, Poetry, The Journal, Interim, The New Yorker, and Weber.

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REVIEW PAGE: On Spec by Tyrone Williams

2008-07-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

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Review by Steven Lansky at City Beat (also includes a brief interview).

For more on On Spec, visit the book's main page at the Omnidawn website.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS!

2008-07-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

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FOR THOSE IN THE DALLAS, TX AREA

Prick of the Spindle, an online journal of the literary arts, hosts its first poetry/short fiction reading in Dallas, TX Saturday, July 12 at 1 p.m. It's not too late to sign up as a guest reader! Contact Cynthia Reeser at pseditor@prickofthespindle.com or at (337)378-9800 to sign up or
for more information.

The event takes place at Barnes and Noble, 616 Preston Royal (in the Preston Royal Shopping Center), Dallas, Texas. Come show your support for literary arts in the south by attending the event, which is free and open to the public. Join Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Reeser and Fiction Editor Erin McKnight as they read selections from their own work.

Visit Prick of the Spindle here. Hope to see you at the open mic!

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Dear Friends and Followers of Kelsey Street Press,

A note to let you know that you can now order your favorite Kelsey Street Press titles on-line at our site. and always with FREE shipping!

--- Renee Gladman's Newcomer Can't Swim available for you to purchase on-line!

--- Finally, Under Flag by Myung Mi Kim is now back in print!!!

--- A fabulous recording of Bhanu Kapil reading from The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers is now posted on our site here.

--- Kelsey Street Press has a new blog curated by KSP member Amber Di Pietra.

We invite you to participate in our Vertical Interrogation project. Please send us any of your answers to any one of Bhanu Kapil's Vertical queries. Jean Valentine's response is posted here at our blog site here.

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POETRY FEATURE 3: BRENDA IIJIMA

2008-07-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

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SHORN OF ITS HABITAT

as if a final descent                                          HABITUATION RABBIT

the primeval swamp

the common herd

the crowded giant suns                                    HOVERS THE NORM

the many questions posed

the many species written off

the most helpful people

in fact, the several individuals

in fact, their sense of loss                                              ENTREAT TREATY

TREATMENT            SUCKER            QUARREL           THESE CLAWS

in fact, there’s no way to measure

in fact, an international team

in fact, cremation, autopsy reports

in fact, temporalities

in fact, something to do with microeconomics        SUCK UP TO THE FACTS

in fact, the winning lottery ticket

in fact, regurgitation paragons

JUGULAR BONE BREAK                          HETEROTROPIC OSSIFICATION

bipedal apes

with opposable thumbs

without notice

the way tires squeal                         THE ANIMAL SHE FELL OUT OF A TREE

the way the day ends on the trading floor

the way you handle that device

the way advice is given                               WAS MOTHER

because where i live

where they live                          WAS MY MOTHER

where they live—                                SWARM AND FESTER

eternity of continuation

a flea, a parasite, a rat, a worm

a tick, a slug, a mouse                                    FEEDING BY DAY

easter bunny numb

WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA ROYALE BITTER SWEET DARK

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Brenda Iijima is the author of Animate, Inanimate Aims (Litmus, 2007) and Around Sea (O Books, 2004). Her book, If Not Metamorphic was runner up for the Sawtooth Prize and will be published by Ahsahta Press. Chapbooks include Rabbit Lesson (forthcoming from Fewer & Further Press), Color and Its Antecedents (Yen Agat, 2004), Early Linoleum (Furniture Press, 2004), Spacious (Other Publications, 2003), Audible Bio (Longhouse, 2003), In a Glass Box (Pressed Wafer, 2002) and several other artist's books. She is the editor of Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs. Together with Evelyn Reilly she is editing a collection of essays by poets concerning poetry and ecological ethics titled )((eco(lang)(uage(reader). She is the art editor at Boog City as well as a visual artist. She lives in Brooklyn, New York where she designs and constructs homeopathic gardens.

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Video Feature 2: Donald Revell plus A NEW CONTEST!

2008-06-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

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Embedded is a 7-minute video of Donald Revell reading from his translation of Arthur Rimbaud's A Season in Hell. This reading (9/20/07), hosted by Steve Dickison and the San Francisco State Poetry Center in conjunction with Omnidawn, was held at the Unitarian Church on Franklin St in San Francisco, CA. Other readers that night were Christopher Arigo, Bin Ramke, and Laura Moriarty (link to her video here). (We plan to have Video Features of Bin Ramke and Christopher Arigo, as well as other wonderful writers in coming weeks.)

For more information about Don's translation of Arthur Rimbaud's A Season in Hell, published by Omnidawn, click this link.

Just to let you know, Don's new translation of Rimbaud's The Illumninations will be published by Omnidawn in June of 2009.

For more information on Donald Revell's book, Invisible Green: Selected Prose, published by Omnidawn, click this link.

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Congrats to Gabriel Winslow-Yost and Miranda Siemienowicz, winners of the previous Omnidawn Blog contest! Their prize: FREE OMNIDAWN BOOKS OF THEIR CHOICE!!!!

You're probably asking, "when is the next OMNIDAWN BLOG CONTEST?"
The answer: RIGHT NOW!!!!

The first person who tells me what Donald says is "the right thing to say about Republicans" (you have to listen to the reading to find out). After someone leaves a comment with the correct answer, then i will give a prize to the person who comes up with the funniest alternative "bumpersticker."

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POETRY FEATURE 2: NICK MOUDRY

2008-06-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

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Still-life

I think love is not this flower.
You sing at night through our teeth.
Our mouths do not move. If I want
a pumpkin, I will have a pumpkin.

It is raining. You are not wet
because you are inside. Looking up
you notice there is no
ceiling, only poems about ceilings.

If I want a pumpkin, I will
have a mirror to reflect all pumpkins.
It is raining inside the poem.

The poet has no control over this.
The bamboo withers. The poet
has no control over that either.

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Nick Moudry wrote this poem in the fall of 2002. He was in graduate school at the time and lived with the poet Eric Baus in an old house in Northampton, MA. Eric went to Whole Foods every day and bought lots of fresh produce, half of which would rot in a bowl on the kitchen table. Nick did much of his writing at the same kitchen table. He wrote several poems about rotting food that year. Now Nick lives in Philadelphia and works at Temple University. He is contractually obligated to state that he received a 2008 literature fellowship fromthe Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

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READING TONIGHT: AARON SHURIN in BERKELEY

2008-06-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

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Come to Moe's Bookstore in Berkeley tonight at 7:30 to celebrate the release of Aaron Shurin's new book KING OF SHADOWS, just out from City Lights.

From the City Lights Book Page:

King of Shadows is a collection of twenty-one autobiographical essays chronicling the author's gay life and life as a poet in San Francisco since the 1960s. In the title essay, Shurin describes his coming into poetry and gay identity via a high-school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Other essays tell of his deep relationships with poets Denise Levertov and Robert Duncan, and the influence of the sexual politics of the '70s. In “The Bars of Heaven and Hell,” we are given a personal history of venturing into gay bars in pre-Stonewall San Francisco. Written in a lyrical, literary, yet highly personal style, Shurin’s intelligent and insightful essays circle in and around issues of identity and sensibility, and how our interior and public lives are shaped by them.

From the Moe's Events Page:

Aaron Shurin is the author of fifteen books and chapbooks, including the poetry collections Involuntary Lyrics (Omnidawn, 2005), The Paradise of Forms (Talisman House, 1999), a Publishers Weekly Best Book, and the prose collection, Unbound: A Book of AIDS (Sun & Moon, 1997). His work has appeared in over twenty national and international anthologies, most recently Nuova Poesia Americana Contemporana (Italy: Oscar Mondadori, 2006). Shurin's honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Gerbode Foundation. He is Associate Professor and Director of the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco.

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READING TONIGHT!

2008-06-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

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The (New) Reading Series at 21 Grand
Sunday the 15th of June in the year Two
Thousand Eight
www.newyipes.blogspot.com

Brent Cunningham and Gina Myers

LIVE! // 6:30PM

21 Grand
416 25th
St
Oakland CA 94612

$3--$infinity sliding scale

GINA MYERS
currently lives in Saginaw, Michigan where she makes books for Lame House Press and co-edits the tiny with Gabriella Torres. Her new chapbook Behind the R is forthcoming from ypolita press later this year. Recent poems have appeared in Coconut and Cultural Society.

BRENT CUNNINGHAM is a writer, publisher and visual artist currently living in Oakland with his fiancée and new daughter. His first book of poetry, Bird & Forest, was published by Ugly Duckling Presse in 2005. After receiving his MA in English from SUNY Buffalo in 1998, he began working for Small Press Distribution (SPD) in Berkeley, the nation's only not-for-profit distributor of literary books. He currently holds the position of Operations director. A board member of Small Press Traffic since 2001, he was a founding curator of SPT's "Poets Theater Jamboree," an annual ritual of amateur experimental theater. In 2005 he and Neil Alger founded Hooke Press, a chapbook press dedicated to publishing short runs of poetry, criticism, theory, writing and ephemera. In 2008, he became the Assistant Program Coordinator for the Artifact Reading Series (artifactsf.org), which recently relocated from San Francisco to the Oakland Art Gallery in downtown Oakland.

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POETRY FEATURE 1: GILLIAN CONOLEY

2008-06-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

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Welcome to Omnidawn Blog's first Poetry Feature! Rather than be a forum for only Omnidawn authors, we see this as an opportunity to highlight the work of other writers we admire too.

This week you will find work featured by the poet Gillian Conoley.

In coming weeks you will find work by Karen Garthe, Brenda Iijima, Rob Schlegel, Ed Smallfield, Liz Waldner, and that's just the start! We plan to feature new poetry by a different writer every week or two.

Feel free to comment.

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(click images to enlarge)

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Gillian Conoley is the author of five collections of poetry: Profane Halo; Lovers in the Used World; Tall Stranger, a finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle Award; Beckon, and Some Gangster Pain, winner of the Great Lakes Colleges New Writer Award. Her work has been anthologized widely, most recently in Norton's American Hybrid, Counterpath's Postmodern Lyricisms, Mondadori's Nuova Poesia Americana (Italian), and Best American Poetry. A recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Poetry Prize from The American Poetry Review, as well as several Pushcart Prizes, she is Professor and Poet-in-Residence at Sonoma State University, where she is the founder and editor of Volt. Barbara Guest said of her work, "Out of the old beliefs a new language speaks. We said this yesterday, and today the words are stronger. I am taken by surprise by the wit and jeopardy, by the way an ending is avoided on the surface of the book's meaning. I am excited by the triumph of this writing." Rain Taxi says of her poetry: "All the pleasures and dangers of the work achieve a brilliant suspension, like particles of dust in airŠ a time-stopping grace in quantum improvisations of form." Conoley has taught as a Visiting Poet at the University of Iowa Writers'Workshop, the University of Denver, Vermont College and Tulane University. She makes her home in the San Francisco Bay Area. Current projects include a new manuscript called The Plot Genie, from which these erasures are taken, and translations of Henri Michaux.

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OMNIDAWN BLOG LIVES!!!!

2008-06-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

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my apologies for the long delay, but the Omnidawn Blog is back and we have some exciting things planned for this summer!!! hope you will visit often :)

first, congrats to the winners of the previous contest: clockworkquill for correct answers and gabe w-y for funny answers! please email me: cperez [at] omnidawn [dot] com to claim your prizes!!!

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NEW LINK: check out POTLATCH POETRY. I'm already addicted.

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NEWS FROM BURNING DECK PRESS:

1. LINGOS I-IX by Ulf Stolterfoht (trans. R. Waldrop) has received
the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.

2. Now ready: vol. 52 of  “BURNING DECK POETRY BOOKS”

Heather C. Akerberg
DWELLING
Poetry, 64 pages, offset, smyth-sewn
ISBN13: 978-1-886224-89-6, original paperback $14
ISBN13: 978-1-886224-90-2, limited signed edition $20
Publication date: May 15, 2008

The poems of DWELLING investigate, musically and with “bended”
syntax, the issue of form—in body, home, and poem. They ask questions
like: What makes a space a home? Is it shape and architectural
elements, the experiences and interactions that transpire there, the
objects contained in, or the language ascribed to it? Can one
separate recollections from the physical spaces in which they
occurred? Is a “home” just a backdrop for events or is it another
body, inside which is found the tangible and intangible stuff of
self, a body to be read like a text?

Born and raised in the Midwest, Heather C. Akerberg resides in Omaha,
Neb. She has taught English Composition, Creative Writing and
Bookmaking, as well as Cognitive Skills. Heather is a freelance
writer and sustainable agriculture enthusiast. She has an M.F.A. in
Creative Writing from Brown University and a B.A from the Jack
Kerouac School at Naropa University. Her poetry has appeared in
Bombay Gin, Aufgabe, untitled and The Nebraska Review. Dwelling is
her first book.

Copies are available from:
Small Press Distribution, 1-800/869-7553 or www.spdbooks.org
In Europe: www.hpress.no

contest winners & part 2 of the HANK LAZER TOC CONTEST!!!

2008-04-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

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thanks for all those who played our week-long Hank Lazer TOC contest.

first, we are happy to announce that JOSEPH MASSEY guessed all three blanks correctly 1) The Lyric VALUABLES 2) Lyricism of the SWERVE and 3) John Taggart's PASTORELLES, so he gets 3 Omnidawn books of his choice.

for the radical guesses, we are giving MATT a prize for his answer: "Nice work if you can get it: john taggart's HIGH PAID, SECRET GOVERNMENT JOB." Matt wins an Omnidawn book of his choice.

and finally, we chose DEREK's answer: "elephant" for the final winner. He also wins any Omnibook of his choice.

LOTS OF PRIZES. these crazy people at Omnidawn must really love its blog readers!!!

to claim your prize, please email me: cperez [at] omnidawn [dot] com

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YES, i did mention a second contest. rules are the same. correct answers get books, funny answers get books. this will be up till the end of april. SO GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!

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PART TWO of the Table of Contents of Hank Lazer's new Omnidawn book Lyric & Spirit: Selected Essays 1996-2008

Spirit

Returns: Innovative Poetry and Questions of “Spirit” 209

Sacred Forgery and the Grounds of Poetic Archaeology:
Armand Schwerner’s The Tablets 265

The Art and Architecture of Holding Open:
The Radical ____1_____ of Architectural Body 281

Meeting in the Book: Reading Edmond Jabes through
Rosmarie Waldrop’s Lavish ____2____ 297

Poetry & Myth: The Scene of Writing, Thinking As Such 307

Force, Vector, Pressure: The Phenomena of that
Relationship (An Interview with Chris Mansel) 321

Reflections on The Wisdom Anthology
of North American Buddhist Poetry 329

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Lyric & Spirit: Hank Lazer & a CONTEST!!!!

2008-04-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

These pics of Hank Lazer are from the Poetry Flash Reading Series, featuring Hank and Mark Salerno, at the new Cody's in Berkeley, which took place on April 5. Mark Salerno:

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Hank has a new book out from Omnidawn titled Lyric & Spirit: Selected Essays 1996-2008

BIO:

Hank Lazer is both a critic and a poet. His brand new book from Omnidawn Publishing, Lyric and Spirit: Selected Essays, shows new ways of writing spirituality and the lyric, drawing on Language poetry, Buddhist verse, the jazz of Monk and Coltrane, Heidegger, Derrida, and much more. Lazer is also the author of twelve books of poetry perhaps unique in their developmental track from the tradition of William Carlos Williams on into a Language-based tradition. His two most recent books of poetry are The New Spirit and Elegies & Vacations. With Charles Bernstein, Hank Lazer edits the Modern and Contemporary Poetics Series for the University of Alabama.

A little about the reading series, hosted by Richard Silberg (who I just met yesterday -a really cool guy):

"From 1982-2006, Poetry Flash curated one of the West Coast's most exciting, inclusive, and longest running reading series at Cody's Books on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, a leading, historically significant, independent bookstore. (The series began in the late sixties/early seventies.) That store closed on July 10, 2006. However, the Poetry Flash reading series continues, alive and well. Over one-hundred writers---primarily poets---continue to be introduced each year by our host, Poetry Flash Associate Editor Richard Silberg in various locations listed below. Now, as in the past, our series is open to diverse poetics, while providing a forum for poetry's best." (quoted from the poetry flash reading series website)

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I was going to post a copy of the Table of Contents of Hank's new book to give you a sense of the essays, but instead i think i'll have a little 2-part contest. first, i will post half of the table of contents and leave a few words omitted. to win the contest, you have to guess one of the missing words. the first to guess correctly wins. NOT ONLY THAT, we will give prizes to the FUNNIEST responses! so have fun! the prize: any OMNIDAWN book of your choosing!!!! the contest will be open for a week.

Contents

Introduction 21

Lyric

The Lyric ___1___: Soundings, Questions, & Examples 29

“Vatic Scat”: Jazz and the Poetry of Robert Creeley
and Nathaniel Mackey 83

Lyricism of the ___2___: The Poetry of Rae Armantrout 95

The Early 1950s and the Laboratory of the Short Line 129

Nice Work If You Can Get It: John Taggart’s ___3___ 159

Q & A Poetics 171

Thinking/Singing and the Metaphysics of Sound 185

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OMNI-NEWS!!!

2008-04-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

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POETRY READING THIS WEEKEND!

Saturday, April 5, 7pm: Poetry Flash presents

Hank Lazer (Lyric & Spirit, Omnidawn 2008)
and Mark Salerno (Odalisique)

at **New Cody's Location**

CODY's BOOKS, 2201 Shattuck Avenue,
corner of Allston Way, downtown Berkeley
Across the street from Berkeley BART,
near parking garages.

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POETRY READING TODAY!!!!

Reading @ Pegasus Books
Friday, April 4
7:30 pm

Poet/filmmaker/destroyer of dictionaries Chris Vitiello, in a rare west coast
appearance, will read from his new book Irresponsibility (just out from Ahsahta
Press) and provoke and alarm in a multitude of ways.

Writer/landscape-architect-in-training Mary Burger will read poems and essays from
the forthcoming book A Partial Handbook for Navigators (from Interbirth Books), and
attempt to figure out where she is.

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NEW PUBLICATION FROM TRANSMISSION PRESS:
from editor, Logan Ryan Smith:

DOROTHEA LASKY'S, TOURMALINE-- a collection of brilliant,
vibrant, honest, imaginative, and send-yr-ass-into-orbit kinda poems.

for more fun stuff, including very candid pictures of TOURMALINE hanging out
with the reclusive Pink Panther.

As always, trades are welcome, and if ye be too broke all you need to do is
tell me you have (or will have) voted for Obama when you had yr chance, and
you'll get yrself a free copy, lickity split. Seriously. Try me.

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EXCITING NEWS FROM BURNING DECK:

Catherine Imbriglio's book,

PARTS OF THE MASS (Burning Deck 2007),

has received the Norma Farber 1st Book Award of the Poetry Society of
America. It was selected by Thylias Moss.

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OMNIDAWN BOOKS RECEIVE PRAISE:

Our book IN A TOWN CALLED MUNDOMUERTO is on the SFSITE as one of
their top 10 Editors Choice List.

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Tendril, by Bin Ramke (Omnidawn, 2007)
recommended by Reginald Shepherd

Ramke's Tendril is a book of lyric meditations and intellectual musings that mixes personal memory with social and cultural history in a mesh of intertextuality that demonstrates how poems come out of poems and writing comes out of writing, but also out of passion and emotional necessity. This web of literary, scientific, and historical discourses both sustains the voice and is something against which the voice struggles to be heard. Ramke also demonstrates a gift for sustaining his meditations through extended formal, thematic,
intellectual, and musical arcs. - RS

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First Annual Poetry Contest

2008-03-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

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The 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize is Omnidawn Publishing's first annual contest for a first or second full-length collection of poems by a poet writing in English. The contest will be judged by Marjorie Welish, with a cash prize of $2,000 and Fall 2009 publication by Omnidawn Publishing. Manuscripts will remain anonymous until a winner is selected.

Please visit us at: http://www.omnidawn.com/contest.htm

More contest details:

The $25 entry fee entitles entrants to one free Omnidawn title of
their choice, if they enclose SASE with postage. (See our web page
for full list of titles, and see poetry guidelines checklist for SASE
postage).

Book Production, Distribution, Advertising, and Complimentary Copies. The prize winning book will be produced, distributed, and advertised to Omnidawn standards and will also meet the Green Press Initiative standards and have the Green Press Initiative statement on the copyright page. The book will be printed using the same archival quality acid-free paper and full four-color cover used for other Omnidawn books. As with other Omnidawn books, we will encourage the winning poet to participate in the design of the book, including choice of typefaces, cover colors and artwork, with all stages subject to the approval of the winning poet. The book will be distributed worldwide by Omnidawn's distributor, Independent Publishers Group, and will be advertised along with other Omnidawn books in Poets & Writers Magazine, American Poetry Review, American Book Review, Rain Taxi, and other publications. All costs, including production, distribution, and advertising will be fully paid for by Omnidawn. In addition to the $2,000 cash prize, the winning poet will also receive 100 copies of the book free of charge.

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Last AWP photos & A Contest

2008-03-17T21:39:00.001-07:00

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Farewell AWP! See you all at the Omnidawn table next year!

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CONTEST: the first person to name ALL 3 poets in this photo will receive any Omnidawn poetry book of your choice.

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EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS

2008-03-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

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1.  From Letterpress to Hypertext--KELSEY ST PRESS
on the Web!

In 2004, Kelsey St. Press celebrated its 30th  anniversary. Now,
just four years later, we are excited to say that we are growing
and changing in many ways. What started in 1974 with an old
letterpress dressed in leopard print in Patricia Dienstfrey's
basement has extended its arc through pixels and html. With much
thanks to Jerrold Shiroma, who redesigned our web site, we
can offer online ordering for our readers for the first time.
Please try out this new feature and if you don't already have
it, add Renee Gladman's Newcomer Can't Swim (2007) to your
shopping cart!

The internet has become a vital part of today's small press
world and as a long time member of the publishing community,
KSP is thrilled to begin this blog and have a voice in this
forum. Like any good blog, the goal is to keep you up-to-date
on projects, readings and other news related to our authors,
artists and friends in innovative writing. But we also hope
to bring you special features-not only interviews with our
authors and artists but by newer writers, book artists and
designers. Just as with works like Symbiosis and our most
recent, Concordance, we welcome collaboration and we are eager
to see where that can go in the more impromptu and open space
of the blog.

In the next year or two, I hope to revisit and blog about
the KSP oeuvre from start to finish, to better familiarize
myself, as a new member with our history, but also to
revitalize dialogue around these books. This kind of re-imagining
is happening on many levels at KSP. Other members are exploring
possibilities for e-books, re-issuing out-of-print works, and,
any moment now, you will be able to visit our Listen page and
hear readings and other audio from KSP writers. We have been
able to make these recording thanks to Ross Craig's know-how
and generous donation of studio space. Stay tuned for recordings
from Bhanu Kapil, Kathleen Fraser, Laynie Brown, Susan Gevirtz
and more!

And please email me with your questions, comments, or ideas
about blog features, interviews, guest writers, etc. Also,
don't forget to send me links to your personal blog or press
so I can be sure to add them to the side bar. Finally, be sure
to join our brand new e-mail list. Click on the About page 
to sign up.

[or link to them from our sidebar]

2. Press Release, Newcomer Can't Swim

Newcomer Can't Swim, Renee Gladman. Kelsey St. Press, 2007.

Written as seven loosely connected pieces, Renee Gladman's
Newcomer Can't Swim mixes poetry with prose to recreate life
for the twenty-first century flaneur in urban America, where,
amid a confusion of aims, identities, and miscommunication
devices, being attuned to different frequencies also means
being lost. In this contemporary world of signs that crisscross
a global culture, how can one maintain a firm existence and
make human connections? Gladman posits a fluid self and parallel
existence: "The / body moves away from living, from the flesh
and bone of life, / and becomes regions. I take on / water.
I look outward." In languages of elegy and splintered
consciousness, Newcomer holds all frequencies together,
keeping the contradiction of a life that animates the "I" of
this book at the same time that it goes on without her.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.

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EXCITING EVENT FEATURING 32 POEMS MAGAZINE:

32 Poems is having a reading at The Writer's Center in
Bethesda. We're going to mix poetry with indie rock music
from a band named The Caribbean and see if we can blow
the roof off. (Shhhh, don't tell Sunil, the director,
I said that, okay?)

Want to know the cost?  Zero dollars.

Oh, guess what? You can become a 32 Poems "fan" on Facebook
to follow who we're publishing, where poems from the magazine
are appearing (Best American Poetry 2008!)
and see photos of events we hold. CLICK HERE.

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The Sound of Words: A Scheme to Rock the Writers Center
Featuring: The Caribbean (a rock band) and 32 Poems Magazine
(a poetry magazine)
DATE: Friday, May 9
TIME: 8 PM
LOCATION: The Writer's Center,
4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815

DESCRIPTION

32 Poems Magazine, The Caribbean (an indie rock band), and
the Writer's Center join together to bring you outstanding
poetry from Sandra Beasley and Bernadette Geyer
and songs from The Caribbean.

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EXCITING NEWS FROM BURNING DECK:

2 new Burning Deck titles are available from:
Small Press Distribution, or orders@spdbooks.org
In Europe: H Press

1. vol. 51 of the “BURNING DECK POETRY BOOKS”:

CYRUS CONSOLE
Brief Under Water
Poetry, 64 pages, offset, smyth-sewn
ISBN13: 978-1-886224-87-2, original paperback $14
ISBN13: 978-1-886224-88-9, limited signed edition $20
Publication date: March 15, 2008

Brief Under Water is a sequence of 55 short passages that uses prose
narrative as a design element in a larger lyric structure. The title
refers to Kafka’s 1919 Brief an den Vater, reflecting a struggle with
the notion of literary inheritance. So does Console’s sentence,
refined nearly to the point of anachronism, that owes a great deal to
Melville and to Garnett’s translations of  Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and
Turgenev.

The book was written while the author supported himself as a
metalworker, housepainter, and waiter. The clashing of these
professional spheres contributed to the struggle outlined above. The
binary numbering (1, 10, 11, 100, 101…) is meant to express his sense
of movement-in-place.

“[The] manuscript is terrific….The sensory detail of the writing, not
surrealistic, not plot-oriented, is not even with the sense of
'leading anywhere' but accumulating both detail and expansion at
once, opening a floating, fascinating, sometimes apparently violent
yet detached terrain, as if not the author's psyche…but the world
itself… seen from at once extreme and mundane edges.”—Leslie Scalapino


2. volume 20 of SERIE D’ECRITURE:

Caroline Dubois
You Are the Business
translated from the French by Cole Swensen
Poetry, 104 pages, offset, smyth-sewn
ISBN 978-1-886224-86-5 original paperback $14
Publication date: March 15, 2008

C’est toi le business uses an eerie cadence to examine the
construction of identity in a media-saturated world. Focusing on
icons of cult film from Simone Simon to Blade Runner, she develops a
haunting collage of overlay and echo, populated by unsettling twins
(a “sister,” a clone, a verbal stutter), that evokes the doubles with
which a society based on representation invests us.
In “talala” for instance, the terms of identity taken from the
film Blade Runner (human being vs. “fake” or “android”) are used to
raise questions of authorship: do phrases come to us or do we make
them, and if they come to us, then from where?
Always conscious of the role that language plays in the
mediation between self and media, the book is poetry in its
linguistic freedom, film criticism in its thematic aspects, prose in
its physical shape. But it always pushes language toward new sensual
territory.

Caroline Dubois lives in Paris and teaches at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts in Rueil-Malmaison. She has translated American poets like
Norma Cole and Deborah Richards. C'est toi le business is her most
recent book (2005). Earlier books include Je veux être physique [I
want to be physical; P.O.L., 1999], Arrête maintenant [Stop now;
Editions de l’Attente, 2001] and Malécot [Ed. contrat maint, 2003].
Cole Swensen’s recent books include The Book of a Hundred
Hands (2005), The Glass Age (2007), Noon  Try, Oh, and Such Rich
Hour. She has translated Pierre Alferi, Olivier Cadiot, Pascalle
Monnier, Jean Frémon and others. Both her poetry and her translations
have won many prizes.

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OMNIDAWN AUTHOR EVENTS

2008-02-26T22:27:00.000-08:00

Please join us for these three author events:

Saturday, March 8, 2008: WRITERS WITH DRINKS

Fan Wu (February Flowers)
Justin Courter (Skunk)
Declan McCullagh (News.com, Politech)

At The Make-Out Room 3225 22nd. St.,
San Francisco CA,
from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, doors open at 7 PM.
$3-$5 sliding scale, All proceeds benefit
Other Magazine.
Charlie Anders MCs.

see web for announcements about this reading series

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Monday, March 10, 7:30 pm: Omnidawn Press Night
at Moe's

Justin Courter
Mary Mackey
Laura Moriarty

Moe's Books
2476 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley (510) 849-2087
Events begin at 7:30

see web for announcements about this reading series


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Sunday, April 5, 7pm: Poetry Flash presents

Hank Lazer (Lyric & Spirit, Omnidawn 2008)
and Mark Salerno (Odalisique)

at **New Cody's Location**

CODY's BOOKS, 2201 Shattuck Avenue,
corner of Allston Way, downtown Berkeley
Across the street from Berkeley BART,
near parking garages.

See web for announcements about this reading series


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AWP Conspiracy Theory

2008-02-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

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click here to see what all the conspiracy talk is about. feel free to comment as well.

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Ken and Rusty asked me to post their thanks to everyone who visited the Omnidawn table, and to everyone who came and enjoyed hearing the authors at the Omnidawn reception.

Rusty writes: "It's a highlight of the year for us -- to be able to meet some of the people who read our books, and talk to them about what interests them and excites them. We're very grateful to everyone who reads our titles. And this year, we want to also thank the wonderful people who worked with us behind the tables."

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also, CONGRATS to REB LIVINGSTON who won the game in this post. She will receive a free copy of any Omnidawn Book (she recently chose Rosmarie Waldrop's Love, Like Pronouns. An excellent choice).

stay tuned for more giveaways.

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PICS from the Omnidawn Reception at AWP

2008-02-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

AWP PICS: THE TABLE

2008-02-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

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far & away, omnidawn had the best table and the one of the best locations at the book fair. LOOK AT ALL THE PEOPLE:

speaking of people, let's play a little game. if you can guess the identity of the person next to rusty, i will send you a prize:

and, if you can identity the person in the scarf, i will also send you a prize.

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Omnidawn at AWP: Before the Madness

2008-02-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

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Stay tuned, all week I'll be posting pictures from AWP. These first two were taken during construction of the Omnidawn table, before the crazy rush:

ken & rusty deciding where to put the lights.

ken showing off expensive chocolate lures.

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Two Exciting Announcements

2008-02-11T01:18:00.000-08:00

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OCHO 16 is now available

MiPOesias Magazine Print Companion

Guest Edited by Barbara Jane Reyes

Featuring: Tara Betts, Brian Dean Bollman, Ching-In Chen, Sasha Pimentel Chacón, Linh Dinh, Sarah Gambito, Jessica Hagedorn, Jaime Jacinto, Nathaniel Mackey, Craig Santos Perez, Matthew Shenoda, Jennifer K. Sweeney, Truong Tran, Dillon Westbrook, Debbie Yee

Cover Art: “Imperialism, 24″ by Juan Carlos Quintana.

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we mentioned Noelle Sickels' new book in the post below. You can meet Noelle & get a copy of The Medium at:

Local Hero Books
208 E. Ojai Ave.
Ojai, CA
Sat., Feb. 23, 3:00 - 5:00 (signing)

Harmony Grove Psychic Fair
2975 Washington Circle
Escondido, CA
Sat., Mar. 1, 10:00 - 5:00 (signing)

South Kingstown Peace Dale Public Library
1057 Kingstown Rd.
Peace Dale, RI
Thurs., Mar. 6, 7:00 (reading)

Teaneck Public Library
840 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ
Mon., Mar. 10, 7:30 (reading)

Teachers & Writers Collaborative
520 E. 8th Ave., Suite 2020
New York, NY
Thurs., Mar. 13, 7:00 (reading with actors)

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Post AWP News & Announcements

2008-02-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

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We've survived AWP! But before I begin posting pics and news from the conference, there are a few pieces of news:

Starting March 5th, Laura Moriarty and Brent Cunningham will be team-teaching an evening poetry class on Wednesday nights titled "Martian Poetics." Open to writers at all levels of their practice, this is a great class for poets and writers looking to try out new kinds of habits and processes.

Class description and sign ups here

The class will meet on 10 Wednesday evenings, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., at the warehouse of Small Press Distribution. The dates: March 5th through May 14th, with no class on March 26th. Cost: $200, due by the second night of class.

please repost widely

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from K.R. Waldrop at BURNING DECK PRESS

Lisa Jarnot

SOME OTHER KIND OF MISSION
Poems, prose segments and visual pieces, 112 pages, offset, smyth-sewn
ISBN 978-1-886224-12-4, paperback $14
3rd printing, 2008

Lisa Jarnot’s 1st book is a mock-epic of the everyday as it might be discovered through juxtapositions of public and private information.

“Some Other Kind of Mission suggests that Language Poetry may be mutating, back to the modernism of Stein and Joyce, having been permanently inflected (or deflected) by a late twentieth-century sharpness and exasperation.... These are haunting, perplexing narratives of the inenarrable.”—John Ashbery, TLS

“a turbulence-model of language, context-laden and yet future.”— Sherry Brennan, American Book Review

”This impressive newcomer's sudden jumps and quirky mappings may leave some heads spinning. Her visual poems, in particular are resonant and haunting, requiring and rewarding second and third looks.”—Tom Clark, San Francisco Chronicle

“a genre-bender of a book, transcending such limiting terms as experimental writing or prose poetry.”—Joseph Torra, Boston Book Review

“Some Other Kind of Mission is not a misnomer...It is a bit like entering Utah's Canyonlands: the landscape is at first bleak, threatening, otherworldly. But as time is spent...the richness of the land begins to inundate the senses... Like all difficult terrain, it invites active participation, good binoculars and a four-wheel drive.”—John Olson, Sulfur

“Her best effects arrive as you zoom headlong right through her high- energy tangle of dissociation ...in a particle accelerator where connective sense is bombarded by shards of broken grammar...”—Albert Mobilio, Village Voice

Copies available from Small Press Distribution

And, check out Rachel Loden's blogpost on Paul Hoover's poem & Paul's response.

Her entry is:

A couple of years ago I fell hard — first for a single poem called "Poem in Spanish," by Paul Hoover, and then for the collection it names.

I wanted to know how Hoover came to write this book, which I envied for the extravagance of its gestures and its deft feints and parries with the post-avant rules.

So I asked him to say a little something about it here. His comments follow the poem:

Poem in Spanish

I have two coffins but only one wife,
who loves me like a neighbor.
I have one wing and a long flight scheduled.

I have two sons and the time of day,
its late hour dark in a brilliant landscape.

I have a small religion based on silence
and a furious heart beating. I have a map
of the region where the kiss is deepest,
a duplex cathedral for my hells and heavens,
and one oily feather. No matter how I settle,
the world keeps moving at its famous pace.

I have two minds and an eye for seeing
the world's singular problems as my self-portrait.
I have fuzzy lightning and a pair of old glasses.

I have two radios but only one message,
subtle in transmission, arriving like wine.
I have yo tengo and two tambiens.
The world between them creaks
like distance and difference.

I have two fires and a very sleepy fireman,
immortal longings and one life only,
unliving and undying.

Paul Hoover writes:

The poems "Poem in Spanish" and "Corazon" were the last two poems in Winter (Mirror), published by Flood Editions in 2002. I wrote the rest of the sequence in 2003, while going through an excrucriating separation from the Chicago college where I'd taught for 28 years. I had always loved Latin American poetry for its warmth, daring, and sense of humor. The project developed out of this attraction. Why not be Latin American for a few poems? After a while, I realized that I could express certain things through the mask of style that my writing could not directly address: the death of parents, feelings of love, and so on. In discussing Poems in Spanish this summer at a literary conference in Rosario, Argentina, I stated that, as postmodern artifice, the concept of writing in Spanish gave me "permission" to speak forthrightly. As soon as the session ended, Hector Berenguer, the conference organizer, leaped to the stage to ask, "Why do you need permission?" He had invited me to the conference because of the directness and openness of the poems, not for the charm of their postmodern artifice. At the same time, Marjorie Perloff sent an email stating that the sequence is a "breakthrough" work. To some degree, apparently, the poems are like tea leaves; you can see in them whatever you desire to see. But I suspect a stronger force is present. The poems stand on essential ground and address essential matters. When I read them in Argentina, as well as at Omnidawn book events, I could literally hear the attention in the room. I could also feel attention in myself as a speaker. There was no doubt in me or in the audience about what the poem was after; even the poem knew.

We live at a time of crisis in expression, when subjectivity is broadly challenged, constructivism is increasingly triumphant, and the concept of unity of being is considered laughable. Our postmodern psychology is more or less: no artifice, no authenticity. The word "imagination" is no longer used. Poems are "constructed" rather than divined. By this standard, my poems break all the rules established against Romanticism, except for one thing — they appear to have been written in another voice than my own. This minor irony sets the work gently back into the postmodern camp. The reader is allowed to think: "Oh, they're constructed, after all, and stand at a safe distance from sincerity. What a relief!"

Last but not least:

Noelle Sickels, whose story "The Tree" appeared in Omnidawn's anthology Paraspheres, has just had an historical novel released by Five Star Publishing to good reviews. The Medium is the coming-of-age story of a young woman struggling to understand and best use her psychic abilities while also facing the challenges of life on the American home front during World War II.

Here’s what the reviewers are saying:

“This is an exhilarating historical paranormal thriller starring a fascinating lead character. A strong, unique 20th century tale.” --- Harriet Klausner, BookReview.com

“Sickels’ in-depth portrayal of a young woman with an unusual gift sheds light on psychics, a little-understood group, and offers a vivid view of the home front.” --- Patty Englemann, Booklist Review

“A compelling paranormal love story with deft historical detail and timeless characters.” ---Publisher’s Weekly

“THE MEDIUM contains enough mystery, suspense, romance, and paranormal premonitions to keep the reader fascinated, intrigued and breathtakingly waiting to turn the next page.” --- Viviane Crystal, Crystal Reviews

“The story’s conceit (what if psychics weren’t just charlatans preying on the gullible?) is intriguing, and Sickels captures the era in all its innocence and paranoia.” ---Roger Ito, Los Angeles Magazine

“No matter what beliefs one holds about an afterlife, Helen’s story and America’s are realistically done and sure to fascinate. THE MEDIUM is a highly unusual tale set during important moments in our history; it’s also a heartwarming love story that conveys a hopeful message for all. If that sounds a bit stuffy, I assure you it’s not.” Jane Bowers, Romance Reviews Today

“A highly enjoyable, meticulously researched coming-of-age tale with an intriguing twist.” Barbara Samuel, BookPage.com

“This book grabs hold and sticks like a magnet. There were moments that tore into my heart. Exceptionally well-crafted, this highly recommended read shouldn’t be missed.” Linda L., The Romance Studio

"This riveting novel threads the background of war in a storyline filled with well-developed and memorable characters. This is a poignant, well-researched and well-writtten story.” Mary Montague Sikes, Reader to Reader

Omnidawn at AWP & Other Exciting News

2008-01-26T16:35:00.000-08:00

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If you will be in NY this Saturday, please note that the AWP Bookfair will be OPEN to the general public and FREE of charge on Sat, Feb 2, (8:30-5:30).
Come see us at our tables! All books 50% off, plus author signings!

If you are planning to attend the NY AWP conference (Jan 30-Feb 2), we hope you'll come to our table and to our open reception. See information below.

Omnidawn's tables in the Bookfair are #63, 64, 65
(on the main floor of the bookfair, Hilton's 2nd floor Rhinelander Gallery).
All our books will be 50% off for the entire conference.

Omnidawn's Reception, Friday 7pm:
Please also come to Omnidawn's (hosted bar) Reception, Hilton Nassau Suite, 2nd Floor. Brief readings by Chris Arigo, Justin Courter, Paul Hoover, Laura Moriarty, Bin Ramke, Donald Revell, Randall Silvis, and Tyrone Williams.

Author Signings at our tables, Saturday 1-2pm:
Chris Arigo, Justin Courter, Paul Hoover, Laura Moriarty, Bin Ramke, Donald Revell, Randall Silvis, and Tyrone Williams will be signing their Omnidawn books at our Omnidawn tables.

Also, for those of you interested in a panel on non-realist fiction:

Ken Keegan will be moderating
"Reeling Beyond Realism: But to Reel in What?"
The panelists are: Kate Bernheimer, Rikki Ducornet, Brian Evenson, Theodora Goss, Kelly Link.
Friday, Feb 1, 10:30-11:45,
Sheraton, Lower Level, Executive Conference Center, Rm D

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And for those interested in poetry, here are at least some of the many things Omnidawn folks are doing:

Paul Hoover will be participating in
"Newlipo: Proceduralism and Chance-Poetics in the 21st Century,"
Thursday, Jan 30, 10:30-11:45

Bin Ramke will be participating in
"Poetry and the Environment," Thursday, Jan 31, 4:30-6:15
&
"Lyric Postmodernisms," Friday, Feb 1, 1:30-2:45

Don Revell will be participating in
"Alice James Books' 35th Anniversary Reading," 12-1:15
&
"The Art of Writing on Craft," Saturday, Feb 2, 10;30-11:45

Rusty Morrison will be signing for her new book, the true keeps
calm biding its story, at the Ahsahta table in the Bookfair, Sat, Feb
2, 1:30-2:30.

And she'll be reading with the Ahsahta poets at The Bowery Poetry
Club, 308 Bowery (at 1st St.) Thurs, Jan 31, 8pm.

And with the Colorado Prize poets at NYU Lillian Vernon Creative
Writers House, 58W. 10th St., Sat, Feb 2, 4pm

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If you want to see me, please go to Table 499, where Achiote Press and Tinfish Press are sharing a table.

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Hank Lazer will be reading from his brand new collection of poetics:

Lyric & Spirit: Selected Essays 1996-2008 (Omnidawn, 2008).

Here are some upcoming dates in the Northwest:

February 4 - radio show with Leonard Schwartz (Olympia, WA)

February 4 - Evergreen College / w/ Lissa Wolsak / 7pm SEM 2 E1105

February 5 - University of Washington (Bothell) - w/ Lissa Wolsak-3:30-5:00pm, Library, Room 205

February 6 - Subtext Reading Series (Seattle) - with Leonard Schwartz -
Good Shepherd Center Chapel Performance Space: 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N in Wallingford (suggested donation: $5)

February 8 - Portland State University (with Marjorie Perloff, Lyn Hejinian, and Joan Retallack); 2-4 pm, 238 Smith

February 10 - Spare Room Poetry Collective (Portland)7:30 pm / New American Art Union - 922 SE Ankeny (one block south of Burnside, between 9th and 10th)

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