Leonard Stern 1922-2011
I’m sad to hear that Leonard Stern, co-creator of Mad Libs, has died (via Flavorwire).
Chris Toll, The Disinformation Phase
Video by Stephanie Barber
Book by Chris Toll
Pre-orders close this weekend. Order now for advance discount and a chance to win books by CAConrad, Heather Christle and M. Magnus. Chances of winning are high right now.
“I do believe Hell could be driven from the heart with Chris Toll’s amazing new book.”
CAConrad, author of The Book of Frank
“…these poems are tenderly repossessing the ineffable and the commonplace.”
Heather Christle, author of The Trees The Trees
“The Disinformation Phase is conspiracy theory in poetic practice.”
M. Magnus, author of Verb Sap
Twitter MFA
In which we do a close-reading of a Tweeter’s Tweet draft and assess its tone, theme, synecdoche and narrative arc, among other things. Today’s Tweet draft was written by Drew Kalbach. This is the final installment of Twitter MFA. Thank you for reading.
The Tweet draft:
my face is continually jealous of my face
Drew Kalbach’s Tweet draft utilizes a heavily deconstructed sonnet sequence to describe the dissolution of a romantic relationship between his face and his face. With its ABBA rhyme scheme–the pairing of ‘face’ and ‘face’ and the softly assonant ‘continually’ and ‘jealous’–Kalbach alludes to a Miltonic sonnet in 140 characters or less.
Take two for wanting
1. Beecher’s Magazine is now available. Look at the list of contributors. I like how they show what’s poetry and what’s fiction.
2. Feast your eyes on the cover of Heather Christle’s new book, which will be available July 1:
Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch on Food Network!
Not really, but close. In this new episode of Emily Gould’s “Cooking the Books,” Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch make green juice and read from their collaboration Ten Walks/Two Talks. Along the way we learn that Cotner and Fitch met as 19-year-olds in Boston. They were both crashing on someone’s roof, and started talking. They’ve kept talking. We also hear some thoughts about Basho and zits.
Timothy Donnelly, who selected Ten Walks/Two Talks as a Best Book of 2010 for The Week, included an excerpt from Cotner and Fitch’s new project Conversations over Stolen Food in Boston Review‘s National Poetry Month celebration. The short piece is called “Spiritual Laws.” It takes place in a grocery store they call “W.F.” This excerpt moves from Emerson, to a kid who soils his shorts, back to Emerson, then ends with a discussion of anxiety and bicycles.
Mailer’s Apartment
Norman Mailer’s apartment is for sale and I will confess that I just drooled a little while looking at these photos. Anyone have 2.5 Million?
Lotsa Action
HEY, there’s a new jubilat website! Heather Christle tricked it out with all kinds of good, including stuff from the archives, an A/V closet, and a wack index.
Excellent Dark Sky Magazine is doing a give for the excellent Brian Allen Carr’s excellent Short Bus. Yarta goget tha buk. On the now.
At Full Stop, David Backer points to Buzz Mauro’s Everyday Genius story and says that “dressed up with a few offhand observations, whimsical musings and flourishes of free association, ‘Delicious Noodles’ asserts itself as a convincing self-contained whole.” Then Backer points to a story by Matt Bell, from Conjunctions, that I overheard Matt talking about in a bar in DC on Saturday. “You’re supposed to do whatever you want with it,” he said (paraphrase).
Gabe Durham’s Fun Camp book will be out from Mud Luscious in 2013. If you’re an online literature reader, you’ve probably seen a piece from this here or there cuz they been everywhere man.
Also in new books: Publishers Weekly announces Melissa Broder’s Meat Heart, forthcoming from PGP in February. Also in PGP: Chris Toll’s The Disinformation Phase is now available for pre-order.
Also also: congratulations to Stephanie Barber, announced yesterday as a finalist for the Sondheim Prize.
At Tyrant Books, pre-orders are open for Michael Kimball’s renewed novel, Us, too.
And Dzanc just nabbed three by Stephen Graham Jones.
I feel like these roundups are of limited value. Is anyone still with me? There’s more goodness.
Like life. Ariana Reines remembers Paul Violi in a personal post that really blew me away.
If you’re not reading Bill Knott’s cranky blog, you don’t know what the Internet is.
What is the poetic equivalent of this throw from SS (Alexi Casilla, 4/18/11)? In what journal would it appear?
Paul Violi, 1944-2011
The poet and beloved teacher Paul Violi died early this month, and I’ve just found out that the Best American Poetry blog has a section devoted to thoughts and memories shared by friends and associates; anyone who has something to share may contribute. It is here.
Coldfront did a nice tribute w/ poem here.
I hadn’t the pleasure of studying with Mr. Violi at the New School, but I was lucky enough to have a conversation or two with him and to hear him read a few times, which was always a great treat. For someone like me, who didn’t really know him, he was nevertheless a fixture at my school in the best possible way, and it’s hard to imagine the place without him. It is surely a keen loss to those who knew him. If you didn’t know him, it will be your gain to discover or rediscover his work now. Here is a list of what you can find online.
TODAY THERE IS NO YEAR
So happy for Blake and this book, as its presences will be felt. I love this book and I love Blake, so get your hands on this now.
Fools Gold
The best collection of poetry I’ve read this year to date is Becoming Weather by Chris Martin. Its confident, bold, excavating and it all feels natural. This Friday in NYC is the release party for that book. There’ll be original music from Oneida & I Feel Tractor, an original film from Stephanie Gray, and a sermon on becoming weather by Evangelist J.B. Best (Anticon’s Pedestrian). Its a serious event. Happening 8:00 P.M. at Secret Project Robot in Brooklyn.
See the Facebook invite for detailed info.