Monday Roundup: let’s talk about me for a minute.
NY’ers don’t forget that the Ag Reader event is tonight.
Here’s a sweet new review of Mathias Svalina’s Destruction Myth, which you might remember I liked a whole lot. I’m not the only one, it seems. Good.
There’s less than a day left to bid on my Metal Flowers at Significant Objects. (What am I talking about?) The price is up to $58, and the prize package (for whoever wins if the bidding goes over $76) is still on offer.
The Rumpus has got Jack Pendarvis on Wuthering Heights.
Coldfront’s Graeme Bezanson pointed out on my facebook page that I spelled the name AND url of his organization wrong on my AWP photo album post. He did not point out that I spelled his over-voweled, maple-syrup-drenched name properly. Anyway, I’ll go fix the other post in a minute, but for now, those of you who are interested in poetry criticism would do better to look for it at Coldfrontmag.com, ie here.
Upcoming for NY’ers: Sunday 5/2 is Nirvana Night at Cakeshop, in which “12 poets read original poems—each inspired by one of the 12 songs on this epic album.”
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April 26th, 2010 / 2:26 pm
April 26th, 2010 / 2:26 pm
Wish You Were There: Audio from the Agriculture Reader @ NYU Now Available Online
On Friday, November 6, Jeremy Schmall and I hosted Jen Hyde, Heather Christle, Joshua Cohen, Diane Williams, and Matthew Rohrer at the Lillian Vernon Writers House at NYU, for a reading in celebration of AGR ’09. The audio of the reading is now available online here (.mp3). After you listen to our event, you should wander over to the Creative Writing Program’s podcast mainpage–it’s a real treasure trove. Charles Simic talking to Alice Quinn. Elaine Equi and Darin Strauss reading together. An evening with Wave Books (Joshua Beckman, Noelle Kocot, Chelsea Minnis–which I was in the audience for; try listen for my clapping). And so on and so forth.
THE END IS NIGH!!!!
REMINDER: Way back on Labor Day I announced that The Agriculture Reader (which I co-edit) would be offering discounted copies of Issue #3 until the end of September. And now the end is nigh. The arts annual, published in a limited edition of 600, usually sells for $14 per copy, but is still available for ten bucks for two more days. Please, if you’re still thinking about supporting us, take advantage of our sale-price. We’ll both be glad you did. For more details about the issue, you can click through to our page or to my original post here about the sale.
THE AGRICULTURE READER’S LABOR DAY SPECIAL—DISCOUNTED COPIES OF ISSUE 3 UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER!
Fellow Workers,
We here at limited-edition arts annual The Agriculture Reader know that times are tough. The paper of record says ’09 was the worst back to school season in years! We’re feeling it, too. No, not because we’re under-employed and lack health insurance (though yes, that too) but because we’re trying to unload the last of our stock of AGR 3 in order to fund the production of AGR 4. To that end, from Labor Day till the end of September, we will be selling AGR 3 for a measly TEN DOLLARS. Your sawbuck gets you the current issue of our annual, which features writers such as Dennis Cooper, Heather Christle, Ariana Reines, Diane Williams, Matthew Zapruder, Christian Hawkey, Eileen Myles, Matvei Yankelevich, and many more. Some of the best work is by people you’ve maybe never even heard of, like Jen Hyde. All this plus a special section celebrating the work of the poet Tony Towle—and that’s just the words. The whole issue is custom-illustrated by the artist Joey Parlett, and all the layout and design work is done by Amy Mees and Mark Wagner—a dynamic duo, if there was one—and there was (is). Every cover is cut, stamped, stickered and colored on by hand, so each copy is unique. There are only 600 total in the world, and more than half of them are already gone. (The first two issues both sold out; we expect that this one will too.)
Uncategorized / 4 Comments
September 7th, 2009 / 10:36 am
September 7th, 2009 / 10:36 am
open letter to the troll on tao lin’s blog
Dear when.parents.flee.the.country,
I don’t usually get involved in blog-related confrontations, for what I assume are obvious (though, perhaps, not to you) reasons. You are hardly the first troll/weirdo that Tao Lin has had to deal with, and I am sure you won’t be the last. That fact of Tao’s life has little–if anything–to do with me, other than that it makes me sad for him sometimes (also exhausted and pissed off on his behalf) but this isn’t why I’m writing today.
Agriculture Reader #2 was edited by my good friend–the magazine’s founder–Jeremy Schmall. I have some poems in it, and soon after that issue came out I moved to my present position as its co-editor. (Our next issue will come out in February 2009.) You probably noticed that the AGR is a handmade journal with a prominent design element. Its entire print run is somewhere in the low to mid three figures. We hope, therefore, that every copy we sell or give away will be cherished.
Your utter lack of civility, displayed repeatedly over the past few days in the comments section of Tao’s blog–including but not limited to stalkerish language and intimations of violence, compounded by the cowardice of your refusing to reveal your identity–makes me doubt your capacity to appreciate art in general, and the AGR in particular.
It grieves me that Agriculture Reader #2 may not be bringing you the joy you had hoped it would, but my greater concern is that you are not the sort of reader we are looking for. The AGR is a finite resource, every copy of it is precious, and I hate to think of even one copy being wasted. I hope you will consider returning your copy of the magazine, so I can give it to someone who can appreciate it. (Note that I do not say “will.” We do not require our readers to provide a guarantee of validation or an echo chamber of praise; but we confess to a bias for those with the capacity for comprehension and, if need be, civil discussion.)
Please contact me in the comments section of this post regarding my offer. We can exchange mailing addresses, or perhaps agree to meet at some neutral location. In exchange for your remittance of the magazine (undamaged, and with the included audio CD), I will bring you several paperbacks from the thrift store near my house. In a best case scenario these will be Tom Clancy’s Op-Center(TM) novels written by someone other than Tom Clancy, or perhaps some entries in the R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series.
Yours,
Justin