New Chapbook

Adam Robinson at Publishing Genius Press released Before I Moved to Nevada today. That just leaves the official release of When I Moved to Nevada from Greying Ghost. A few people do have copies of WIMtN, because Carl from The Greying Ghost got me advance copies for AWP. So, as soon as that last chap comes out officially, this whole novel (Prose: Poems, a Novel) will have been published as chapbooks. I have the book as a whole out at I don't know how many presses. I'm waiting--some days patiently, some days not so much--to hear that hopefully someone will want to publish the book. Until then, please check out this "prequel" to Atlanta and to When I Moved to Nevada. You can purchase a hard copy from Publishing Genius's blog, if you're a tactile kind of person, or you can read the book online.

I've been meaning to talk briefly about a bunch of books that I've read and loved lately.

With Deer by Aase Berg, Translated by Johannes Goransson

Great imagery in this one. Nice use of animals throughout, especially memorable are the guinea pigs. "I look down into you, as if deep into a lake." I love that. Black Ocean books are pretty much universally awesome. Everyone should support this press and its authors.


Malcolm and Jack and Other Famous American Criminals by Ted Pelton

This book hit me, as one of my literary heroes (I'm not ashamed to say), Jack Kerouac, is a main character. Other prominent characters are Billie Holiday, Malcolm X, Lucien Carr, and, indirectly Alfred Kinsey (although he's not the "criminal" in that section). The book follows these characters by sometimes seamlessly--yet surprisingly--changing point of view, and slipping at one point into a Melvillean play (a la "Midnight, Forecastle"), as these characters go from being common criminals to the beginnings of when they become leaders who change American culture. We see Jack and Neal on the road, and Malcolm first hearing about Islam. This was a very fun read.

Hit Wave & Right Now the Music and the Life Rule by Jon Leon

I had ordered Hit Wave a while back on Rauan Klassnik's recommendation, but hadn't yet gotten around to reading it. Then Jon contacted me, wanting to read Atlanta, which had sold out. I just sent him the Word doc of the whole novel. I had already read poems by Jon at Shampoo and Word/for Word and other places and I really liked his style. So I read Hit Wave in like thirty minutes, then Jon sent me Right Now the Music and the Life Rule, which is mostly focussed on female fashion, and wierdness. Hit Wave is a relentless ride through hyperbolic art-fag debauchery.

The Pond by Zachary Schomburg

Here's another Greying Ghost chapbook that rules. Schomburg's full collection will be coming out from Black Ocean, and (read above), it's sure to kick ass like all their books do. This is a poem divided into sections, which are both surreal and very realistically attached to the natural world. "If I could invent a town / I'd invent a town on a pond / with boats scattered everywhere / in a dark fog." It's also often infused with sexiness. Yum.

Heron/Girlfriend by Jen Tynes

Here's a book full of poems in each of which I'm never quite sure what's going on, but damn if I feel something when I'm done reading. These really create a mood. They're composed of sets of what seem like non sequitur images, but when put together, they give you the sudden smiths. Here are a few lines from "Grizzly Man": "We watch another man's baby / climb a tree, turn / into old liquor / acorns. Describe it / like its cross- / hatched el- / bow fends, untroubled / forehead like / ear hearing early / under fog."

Elapsing Speedway Organism by Bruce Covey

I think my favorite poem from this collection is "14 Kung Fu Climaxes." It's funny--the whole book, not just this poem--and weird, but so apt. As this representative poem shows: "And that's when, as I realized all battles / Were really only spiritual and metaphysical, / I felt the need to pee and ran out / Of the room."

Bob, or Man on Boat by Peter Markus

I was a little late getting to this one, as I'd had it for a while (damn PhD I have to finish!). But when I dove in (pun intended) I found the river was a river, and the river was cold. In the river were fish that Markus's Bob fished. Markus's Bob is a fisherman. His son, also a Bob, fancies himself also a fisherman. They fish on the river where fish live. The book is like this. It takes about an hour to read. Perhaps gimmicky, but damn a lot of fun.

What Men Want by Laura McCullough

From the poem "What Men Really Want": "It's not a mystery. Blow jobs." Let's say that Laura McCullough knows men. Who knew we were so uncomplicated? These poems are so structurally sound I wish skyscrapers were built from McCullough poems. When you read the book you surf through the poems, as the image from one swells in the next, and the wave never ends.

There are more, but I don't have time to write about them all, yet.

Great Reading

last night. Rauan Klassnik and Justin Taylor tore it up. Justin read a story about a guy who's hired by his uncle to kill his cat, and there's some cousin-love underneath this all, along with college-age ennui. Good stuff. Rauan laid in with his prose poems about Ron Silliman, Ron Silliman taking a shit, fucking, then dream sequences, and last some truly sweet love poem-like moments. Afterwards we had dinner at Amy McDaniel's house, and Amy had cooked up some tasty pork tinga with beans, tortillas, kick-ass margaritas that got the buzz on fast-like, and last, Amy's mom had made the greatest mini key lime pies I've ever tasted. We talked about writing till 2 AM.

The s.a. readings keep getting better, not that we've had a bad one. But so far--with Chris Bundy, Johannes Goransson, Bruce Covey, Matt Debenedictis, Man Martin, and Mike Dockins--the readings have gathered some decent crowds, the readers have put on good shows, and we've had an all around good time.

In April we're having a big reading: and Action Books kind of night. We'll have three readers as opposed tot he usual two. Keep reading to find out who they'll be.

I also got Rauan a copy of Atlanta. He has a copy of the advance run of When I Moved to Nevada (from The Greying Ghost Press) and he wrote a nice blog post about that a while back. So, he asked for Atlanta, and read it on the plane, and has some more nice things to say here. That's nice.

Cover art for Before I Moved to Nevada recently got wrapped up. It's sweet.

Christy Call did all this work for me and Adam Robinson at Publishing Genius to make this happen, all while she's got a billion other art projects going.

Reading

This Friday the 13th--spooky spooky--The Beep Beep Gallery will be flush with writers and people of writerly persuasion. Come to Atlanta, and if you're in Atlanta, come to Atlanta and hear Rauan Klassnik

and Justin Taylor

read from their work.

Be sure to check out Klassnik's Ringing. This, I think is the book for me:

That night I first went down on you I knew we were doomed. But you tasted so good, and we watched Titanic, and we poured champagne straight down each other’s throats. Making love I described us walking into church together. Soldiers tipped up their swords. Dogs started barking and wouldn’t stop. The sand on our hands so hot the blood boiled off in us.

What the fuck. Anyone who mentions Titanic in anything better do it right, like this. Rauan makes me laugh lots. All the songs rest inside you. Yes.

Also, check out my buddy Man Martin's blog. He writes goofy things on it.

I've been out

of the loop for a while--cliche intended. My cat died. I am very very sad. It's weird how attached a human can get to an animal, or how remarkable a human might find an animal to be--no matter how biased he might be. In short, there's a new view of my view on god. "god" is not capitalized on purpose.

Scott Young had some kick ass things to say about Atlanta here.


Solar Anus will feature Justin Taylor and Rauan Klassnik soon (Friday, March 13th). More on that as it comes. I will also have things to say about Rauan's ebook. That will all happen when I have my shit back together.

That's it.