Occultations Release Party--Just Part of the Story!

Hey, hey, hey!  Please join us in NYC on April 13th for the final  Belladonna Year of New Releases reading.  Again, huge thanks to Rachel Levitsky, Thom Donovan, and everyone at  Belladonna for inviting me/working to make this series happen.   See you there!

Closing Event!

Belladonna's Year of New Releases

Come join us for a reading and celebration of four great poets and their new work! We will be toasting: 

Brenda Iijima (revv. you’ll—ution, Displaced Press; If Not Metamorphic, Ahsahta Press; eco language reader, Nightboat Books)

Dorothea Lasky  (Black Life, Wave Books)

Eleni Stecopoulos (Armies of Compassion, Palm Press)

and David Wolach, (Occultations, Black Radish Books)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 @ 7:30 pm

Dixon Place

161 Christie Street; New York 

$6.00

 

 

 

Brenda Iijima’s recent titles include revv. you’ll—ution (Displaced Press) and If Not Metamorphic (Ahsahta Press). She is the editor of the eco language reader (Nightboat Books and PPAYYL)—a collection of essays by poets responding to environmental issues.  At present, she is writing an informal encyclopedia on animals used as surrogates by humans—the snake and the mouse are recent entries.  As well she is researching the women who were murdered in her hometown of North Adams, Massachusetts and choreographing site specific dances that relate to these crimes. She runs Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs (http://e2ma.net/go/8099297438/2659409/92635267/27410/goto:http://yoyolabs.com ) from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.  

 

 

Dorothea Lasky is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Black Life (Wave Books, 2010) and AWE (Wave Books, 2007). She is also the author of Poetry is Not A Project (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010) and several chapbooks. Born in St. Louis in 1978, her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Boston Review, American Poetry Review, The Laurel Review, and Columbia Poetry Review, among other places. She is a graduate of the MFA program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and also has been educated at Harvard University and Washington University. Currently, she lives in New York City and researches creativity and education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Eleni Stecopoulos was born on Fort Washington Avenue, raised on the Upper West Side and on Long Island, and now lives in Berkeley, CA. Armies of Compassion is her first full-length collection. She has published a chapbook, Autoimmunity (Taxt, 2006), and poems and essays in publications including Chain, Ecopoetics, Xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics, The Capilano Review, the SFMOMA blog, and NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards. In 2008 she received a grant from the Creative Work Fund to curate a program series around art, healing, and somatic practice for the San Francisco State University Poetry Center, and write a related book. She is at work as well on a book-length poem, "Earth Also is a Private Language," which deals with things like rift zones and dream incubation and the history of her grandfather’s hometown on the island of Euboea, renowned since antiquity for curative springs once associated with cults of Apollo and Heracles. She teaches in the Language and Thinking program at Bard College and sometimes co-directs the Paros Translation Symposium in Greece. 

David Wolach is founding editor of Wheelhouse Magazine & Press, & curator of the series devoted to the intersection of experiments in texts & radical politics, PRESS. Wolach’s most recent books are Occultations (Black Radish Books, forth. 2010), Prefab Eulogies Vol 1: Nothings Houses (BlazeVox, forth. 2010), Hospitalogy (Scantily Clad Press, forth. 2010) and book alter(ed) (Ungovernable Press, 2009). His work has most recently appeared in or is forthcoming from 5_Trope, Aufgabe, Jacket, No Tell Motel, & Little Red Leaves. Often making use of multiple media and site-specific, Wolach's work has been commissioned for performance at such venues as The American Cybernetics Conference 2009, The EconVergence Conference 2009, and Tacoma Contemporary Series.  Wolach is professor of text arts, & poetics The Evergreen State College & visiting professor in Bard College’s Workshop In Language & Thinking.

Belladonna Release Party & Upcoming Readings

Thanks to Rachel Levitsky, Thom Donovan, and all the awesome folks at Belladonna Books, I'll be reading as part of the final Belladonna New Books/New Releases series, April 13.  This is the launch for my forthcoming book, Occultations (Black Radish Books).  I'm extremely lucky to have had the support of the Belladonna folks, as well as others who have written for the book in some way or another thus far--Joan Retallack, Thom, David Buuck, CA Conrad, Kate Robinson, and Laura Elrick.  It's been a really loving experience, both working with the aforementioned people on this project, as well as those in Black Radish Books, especially Susana Gardner, Kathrin Schaeppi, and Nicole Mauro, who have been and are still editing the work.  Plus, thru this experience I got to learn how to use Skype--which is my new favorite thing.

More exciting yet, I get to read alongside, thus hear new work from Eleni Stecopolous, Dottie Lasky, and Brenda Iijima.  Three people whose poetry has deeply influenced mine.  Three of the the loveliest people I know.  As I've written elsewhere, I've read bits and pieces of Eleni's and Brenda's new books, and am enamored.  And Dottie's  new work will come new to my ears, and so I'm pretty stoked about hearing what all have to contribute to the evening.  Trip home will be a heavy one: books, books, books.  

Anyway, info for the Belladonna reading is on their website and below.  Do visit their site, as not only are some of the most stunning books available there to purchase, but there is a complete reading series list, which includes events at AWP.  

Meantime, I'll be reading/giving a talk with Reg Johanson at Pilot Books this weekend (see post below) as part of the Poetry at Pilot events, and Big Pelt Talkie series.   

Hope to see you someplace soon.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010; 7:30 pm
Closing Event for Belladonna's
Year of New Releases

Dorothea Lasky (Black Life)
Brenda Iijima (revv. you’ll—ution & 
If Not Metamorphic )
Eleni Stecopoulos (Armies of Compassion) 
David Wolach (Occultations ) 
Dixon Place
161 Christie Street; New York City
$6.00

Occultations Book Release / Belladonna Series

Occultations, the full-length book of poems that I've been working on for the past 3 years, is entering the home stretch, now being edited and typeset.  Here's a mock-up of the cover, courtesy of Black Radish Books, with obviously some things not yet finished--blurbs not done, etc.  I'm not sure whether I'll be sticking with the cover, either.  So, maybe the thing will be bright pink and yellow with lots of pictures of dancing farm animals?  You never know.

Meantime, many thanks to Rachel Levitsky (whose incredible book Neighbor I've been writing on in relation to a poetics of spatial practice) and all the folks at Belladonna Books, as well as Thom Donovan, who has been tremendously supportive of Occultations, and of me, for putting myself and Eleni Stecopolous on the docket for a Belladonna New Books/New Presses Series reading at Dixon in NYC on April 13.  Eleni's new book is Armies of Compassion, out from Palm Press, and is--I can attest, as I've heard/read a good chunk of it--extraordinarily good.  So the reading, even if you hate my poetry, will be good. 

Official announcement coming soon, both here, at Belladonna, and elsewhere, but for now, if you're in the NYC area April 13, please join us.   I'll have not just my book, but another title from Black Radish Books, Marthe Reed's Gaze, with me. Gaze, as I posted before, is a beautiful book.  It should be a fun evening.  I'm happy to have learned that I'll be catching up with a lot of old friends, as well as new friends, various poets and editors out of Black Radish and other presses who have recently contacted.  So, a huge thanks again to Belladonna, Thom, and everyone who works on this series.   

Some Mediations for Untangling,

--Belladonna has a new web page on facebook (the blog is down now, but probably--guessing here--just for remodelling).  Anyhow, go here for news & notes (you need to log in to facebook), such as: 

--New from Belladonna is Carla Harryman's Open Box (Improvisations).  Laura Elrick's write-up:

From one of our most mind- and genre-bending of writers comes a poem. Don’t expect the poem however: “The page will not inflate / lungs do.” Carla Harryman’s startling new improvisations sound the edges between life and word, text and body, presence and a future (“in the hands of a shovel”). Notes that do not sing open the transfiguring “clink between / Thud and shine”… “Between us and a thing / Not yours, not mine / That owns us.” Thus an intense sort of music arises from the “wasting” gratitude of this Open Box. Syntactically figured through doubles and negatives, its “window window” beckons while it cloaks, reveals as it extends, as intimately as that rack of garments (the plush and the frayed) hanging from our mirrored backs.

--Laura Elrick

--From friend & political economy professor (one of the planners of EconVergence) Pete Bohmer regarding the sort of death that seems like a nail in the collective coffin, Howard Zinn (he was due to speak here later this week, for my class as well as others):

Howard Zinn contributed in so many important ways to creating an understanding of  U.S. history that put at the center the struggles of oppressed people for dignity, and for economic and social justice. His classic, A People’s History of the United States, has had a profound effect in this regard. It is my favorite book.   I have probably given away  30 copies as gifts over the last 25 years and used it in countless classes. Howard was a very wise and humane person who relentlessly criticized our unjust capitalist system while believing in and giving us historical examples of individuals and movements who in ways big and small worked and struggled against all injustice and for a just society.   In language and analysis that was simple but not simplistic, radical but accessible, Howard Zinn’s  anti-racism and anti-imperialism and his strong identification with working people stood out. So did his strong anti-war commitment and perspective.  He listened to and respected the non-elites, those usually omitted in the official histories.

While motivated in his writing by his values of the right to self-determination, of the centrality of ending poverty and all forms of oppression such as sexism and racism, and for peace and justice, Howard told the truth and did not exaggerate and omit facts that were uncomfortable to his beliefs. He also acted on them by participating in countless demonstrations and other forms of activism from the 1930’s until the present.

Based on Howard’s  profound  historical understanding of the U.S. history and his respect for people and his understanding of the obscene  inequality and militarism that marks the United States today, Howard Zinn continued to have hope and believed that we, the people, of the United States, could and would transform this society into some form of democratic socialism that lived in harmony with the rest of the world.    We can all learn from this truly outstanding thinker, historian and human being. Howard Zinn presente!

Sadly, Peter Bohmer

--And yet, there are those whose hope & tireless organizing / creative lather causes various little futures to open up here & there.  Such as Jules Boykoff.  And Kaia Sand.  They're reading tonight, discussing where to go from here tonight, so please do come if you are a STUDENT, FACULTY MEMBER, STAFF MEMBER, or OTHER PERSON LIVING IN OR AROUND OLYMPIA.  Both are always on.  

Born in large part out of Elizabeth Williamson's hard work: 

Winter's first  PRESS EVENT:

Join poet/activists Jules Boykoff and Kaia Sand for a tour of their latest work

The Evergreen State College

        Where: Sem II C1105

    When: January 28,7:30pm 

Boykoff and Sand helped organize the recent Econvergence conference in Portland(http://www.econvergence.org/). They are the founders of the Tangent Press and reading series in Portland (http://www.thetangentpress.org/readings.html) and co-authored a new book on guerrilla poetry entitled Landscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry and Public Space (Palm Press 2008). 

 

Boykoff is the author, most recently, of Hegemonic Love Potion (Factory School, 2009) and Once Upon a Neoliberal Rocket Badge (Edge Books, 2006). He has also published and lectured widely on the suppression of dissent in the United States. He is a contributor to scholarly journals like Antipode, Social Movement Studies, andNew Political Science as well as popular publications like the Guardian, Common Dreams, and XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics. He was an  invited speaker at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya (2006), where he presented research he carried out on U.S. media coverage of global warming.  

Sand is the author most recently of Remember to Wave, forthcoming this winter with Tinfish Press. This collection investigates political geography in Portland, Oregon, and contains a poetry walk she guides. Her  collection, interval (Edge Books 2004), was selected as a Small Press Traffic Book of the Year and she is also the author/designer of several chapbooks through the Dusie Kollektiv. She is a contributor to Jim Dine’s Hot Dreams series (Steidl Editions 2008) and recently performed poetry collaged entirely from the North American Free Trade Agreement at the Positions Colloquium of the Kootenay School of Writing in Vancouver, British Columbia. At present, she is at work on The Happy Valley Project, multi-media collaborations investigating housing foreclosures and finance.

Sponsored by: Performing Meaning, Translating Thought; Music and the Environment; The Writing Center; The Office of the Budget Dean 

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--Last, on Feb 3 poet Yan Li will be at our Tacoma Campus, hosted by amazing poet (and person) Zhang Er.  From an email invite she sent (more later on this blog regarding the event):

You are Invited to Chinese Poet Yan Li's reading at

The Evergreen State College – Tacoma

1210 – 6<sup>th</sup> Ave, Tacoma WA 98405, Room 218

February 3, 2010, 2:00-4:00 pm

Yan Li is a well-known poet and painter based in Shanghai. He belonged to the loose organized young poets group active in China in the late 1970s to mid-1980s, which was labeled as the "misty" school. He is the founding editor in chief of the unofficial, yet influential poetry journal First Line since 1987. He exhibited his art works in a 1979 show by a group of avant-garde artists later known as The Stars. His one man show in 1984 at People’s Park in Shanghai was the first one-man Avant-garde art exhibition after 1949 in mainland China . He has held many exhibitions and published numerous books since the 1980s. In his poetry and fiction work, Yan Li pushes the boundary between vernacular and written, capricious and philosophical, transient and historical, private and public, realistic and imaginary, humorous and solemn, contemporary and canonical. He has maintained his intellectual and artistic integrity under the not so subtle inducement of commercialization or propaganda for the party. He has also been an unfailing supporter and magnet for generations of younger poets and artists who seek his advice and help. His poetry has been translated into many languages including English.

 

The reading is supported in part by the Cycle Makers and Cycle Breakers Program.

 

ANNUAL FUCK THE HOLIDAYS SMALL PRESS GIVEAWAY SPECIAL OFFER EXTRAVAGANZA

             image of limited edition artist book, PRESSING, by Wheelhouse Chapbook Designer, Kate Robinson, available thru Wheelhouse Press

From now until the end of the year I, on behalf of Wheelhouse Magazine & Press, will be listing small presses in need of YOUR help.  Of course all presses all the time are in need of your help, including the most successful presses, i.e., those small hubs that continually make books that we love and about which you're liable to say: how do they do it?  Well, almost always by the seat of their pants.  That's how.  

Since Wheelhouse is predominantly an online venture--with our first letterpressed chapbooks about to be published this upcoming summer--we don't have anything physical to offer as a holiday special, or gift for the holidays, etc.  Not that you shouldn't give yourself the gift of our current, past, and upcoming issues and online chapbooks.  So, we figured we'd alert you to holiday offers that other small presses we love are offering.  These books are usually inexpensive, and now they are really inexpensive.  So, see below.  Take advantage of the b-shit holiday season, tell it to fuck off by getting something from each of the below presses.  We did, and we're f-ing poor--and seasonally depressed.   

I'll add a few more presses in separate posts, including (since they did not fit in the taglines below), Taup. Sky, Cuneiform Press, BlazeVox, and the new artist book poetry collective BLACK RADISH BOOKS, which, among the first titles will be yours truly's Occultations, and books by Susana Gardner, Nicole Mauro, Jill Stengel, Cara Benson, and several others.  For now:

WHEELHOUSE PRESS FUND:  

If you live in or around Seattle, do think about donating to the Wheelhouse PRESS fund. PRESS is a literary series of events, performances, conferences, devoted to the intersection of socially engaged text arts and radical politics.  We regularly have guests read, perform, and collaborate, and of course this costs money.  

If interested in donating--come to one of our events!  They are all announced here and thru Facebook.  Next up is CA Conrad, beginning March 4th, ending March 7th, at The Evergreen State College.  You can also contact me by email for token donations.

BELLADONNA BOOKS:

HOLIDAY SALE

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Belladonna Book announces BIG HOLIDAY SALE

Buy 4 chaplets, get 1 free!

FREE SHIPPING for orders of $100.00 or more.

Hurry... there are only 6 complete Elders Series left!

Chapbooks are extremely limited (editions of 125) and sell out quickly, never to be seen again in this form.

Also, please consider donating to Belladonna Series and toward the beautiful publication of brilliant avant-garde and multidimensional feminist writing.

PALM PRESS:

Amazing titles, including the recently published Disaster Suites by Rob Halpern, Landscapes of Dissent by Kaia Sand and Jules Boykoff, The Shunt by David Buuck, and the forthcoming Armies of Compassion by Eleni Steccoplous.  Get them here.

ESSAY PRESS:

Essay Press is offering the following end-of-year specials for our Facebook friends: 1) Buy 2 (two) titles on-line via PayPal & we will chose a third book from our catalogue for you at no extra charge. -OR- 2) Mail order only: '6 for 56.' Receive all SIX Essay Press titles for $56.00 (includes all shipping & handling).  Website: http://www.facebook.com/l/28aff;www.essaypress.org Mail orders (check or money order):  Essay Press 208 utica Street Ithaca, NY 14850

E-mail: essaypress@gmail.com

CHAX PRESS:

From Charles: 

"Thanks to all who have supported Chax Press. Facebook Friends helped us get through to this point, and I hope you will help us now! All contributions welcome and tax deductible. Visithttp://www.facebook.com/l/28aff;chax.org/donate.htm, or send to 411 N 7th Ave Ste 103, Tucson AZ 85705.". Event: Chax Press Annual Fund: HELP! What: Fundraiser Start Time: Today, December 16 at 10:00pm End Time: Monday, February 1 at 12:00am Where: 411 N 7th Ave Ste 103, Tucson, AZ 85705 To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=220722659680&mid=193c257G23e5f212G45083c3G7

FROM PORTABLE PRESS AT YO-YO LABS, FORTHCOMING:

)((eco (lang)(uage(reader)) 
Edited by Brenda Iijima

Published by Portable Press at Yo Yo Labs (www.yoyolabs.com)

Forthcoming August 2009

How can poetic language engage a global ecosystem under duress? How do poetic forms, structures, syntaxes and grammars contend or comply with the forces of environmental disaster? Can language innovation proactively forward the cause of living sustainably in a world of radical interconnectedness? How do issues of geography, race, gender and class intersect with the development of individual or collective ecopoetic projects?

In this collection of essays, poets offer responses to these and other questions concerning poetry and ecological ethics.

Contributors include: Tyrone Williams, Leslie Scalapino, Laura Elrick, Julie Patton, Jonathan Skinner, Peter Larkin, Marcella Durand, Tracie Morris, Karen Anderson, Jill Magi, Tina Darragh, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, Jed Rasula, James Sherry, Jack Collom, Evelyn Reilly and Brenda Iijima.

LITMUS PRESS:

BHARAT JIVA kari edwards 2009 • 132 pp. • $15.00 ISBN: 978-0-9819310-0-5 Original cover art by Frances Blau Transdada Blog CAConrad reflects on kari edward's Bharat jiva on PhillySound. Mortified before kari's Bharat jiva; November 27, 2009 Tim Peterson reports on the book launch for Bharat jiva and  NO GENDER on Mappemunde Blog; October 14, 2009 Bharat jiva is named an SPD Best-Seller for  September/October 2009.

UGLY DUCKING PRESSE

AWESOME New Books Here:

BLOOD PUDDING PRESS:

Holiday sale on many titles here.

CY PRESS:

Many incredible chapbooks here

NO TELL BOOKS:

Get them while you can here.

DELETE PRESS:

Beautiful artist books by wonderful poets here