Les Figues Press Book Wins Award

Voix de Glace / Voice of Ice by Alta Ifland = Winner of 2008 Louis Guillaume Prize for Prose Poems

SPD BOOK LINK HERE.

Congratulations to Alta Ifland, whose bilingual collection of prose poems, Voice of Ice / Voix de Glace, has been selected as the 2008 winner of the Louis Guillaume Prize for Prose Poems (Prix Louis Guillaume du Poème en Prose 2008).

The Louis Guillaume Prize for Prose Poems is awarded each year for a collection of prose poems written in French. Selected by an eleven-member jury, it is a French prize awarded to a Francophone writer of any nationality. The prize is named after Louis Guillaume (1907-1971) who defined the prose poem as “an organic whole, a crystallized structure whose end is neither that of a narrative nor of a morality tale [and which] must concentrate all the qualities of the modern poem: condensation and speed of imagery [… ].” Voice of Ice / Voix de Glace will be added to the collection of previous award-winning titles, housed at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris. (Info: http://www.louis-guillaume.com/)

Voix de Glace / Voice of Ice was published by Les Figues as part of our TrenchArt Parapet series. Of the book, poet Wanda Coleman says Ifland "creates and redreams the hauntingly surreal emotional landscapes of dislocation, desolate distances, and Redonesque disjuncture." Poet Terry Ehret says "Ifland’s poems take us into 'the depths of all things rhymed,' where the known world becomes unknowable."

About Alta Ifland:
Originally from Eastern Europe, Alta Ifland immigrated to the States in 1991. Between 1995 and 1996 she studied philosophy in France, then returned to the States where she received a PhD in French language and literature, and taught for several years at several universities. After her return from France she began to write in French (her second language), but published little. In 2004 she left academia and became a full-time writer and literary translator. The same year, she wrote Voix de Glace / Voice of Ice, a bilingual collection of prose poems, whose original is in French and whose translation into English (her third language) was done in parallel with the original. Since then she has been writing mostly in English; she has recently finished a book of short stories, Death-in-a-Box, and another collection of prose poems, The Snail’s Song.

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SPD has great books. But you knew that.

save the date!

Please Forward Widely!

Mills College Department of English Announces Its Annual Professional Survival Day

Date: November 23rd (Sunday)
Time: 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Mills College Campus

Each year, the English Department's Place for Writers presents a Professional Survival Day, free and open to the public. Writers, editors, publishers, teachers, and alumnae discuss a variety of publishing opportunities, careers in teaching and academia, and other information useful to emerging writers and scholars. Professional Survival Day encourages networking opportunities among students from Mills and other Bay Area writing programs, professors, publishers, and publishing writers.

Panels will include information on publishing fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry, teaching in and out of academia, a chance to speak with agents about pitching your book, how to go d.i.y. - self-publishing, starting a reading series, and many more exciting and useful topics!

This year's speakers include Elmaz Abinader, Chad Arnold, Mary Burger, Joshua Clover, Emma Shaw Crane, Steve Dickison, Felicia Eth from Felicia Eth Literary Representation, Tomás Galguera, David Horton, Scott Inguito, Kevin Killian, Aya de Leon, Jennifer Mattson from Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Edissa Nichols, Cornelia Nixon, Elise Proulx from Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Agency, Carolina de Robertis, John Sakkis, Juliana Spahr, Aimee Suzara, Michelle Tea, Kara Wittman,

Professional Survival Day is free and open to the public. For more information or to view a full schedule, please contact: kbeler@mills.edu.

Just In!

As It Turned Out by Dmitry Golynko (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Adorno's Noise by Carla Harryman (Essay Press)
Refrains / Unworkings by Paul Foster Johnson (Apostrophe Books)
At Alberta by Nathalie Stephens (Book Thug)
Circumnavigation by Tara Shoemaker Holdren (Paper Kite Press)
Points of Departures by Paul Hogan (White Pine Press)
The Lost Country of Sight by Neil Aitken (Anhinga Press)
Arrows in Hand by Derek McKown (Greenhouse Review Press)
Freud and the Invention of Jewishness by Betty Bernardo Fuks (Agincourt Press)
The Dirty Goat 19 by Elzbieta Szoka and Joe W. Bratcher, III, Eds. (Host Publications)
Burning Bridges by Aeronwy Thomas (Cross Cultural Communications)
Words & Flesh by Carmen Firan (Talisman House)
From the Bottom of the Heap by Robert Hillary King (PM Press)
Oblivion, Tyrants, Crumbs by John Levy (First Intensity Press)
Public Domain by Mónica de la Torre (Roof Books)
The Grand Piano, Part 7 by Bob Perelman, Barrett Watten, Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Tom Mandel, Ron Silliman, Kit Robinson, Lyn Hejinian, Rae Armantrout, Ted Pearson (Mode A/This Press)

news from the book world...

A message from Roy Blount Jr.:

A couple months after I became Authors Guild president in 2006, we met with Google to propose a settlement to our class-action lawsuit. The Guild had sued Google in September 2005, after Google struck deals with major university libraries to scan and copy millions of books in their collections. Many of these were older books in the public domain, but millions of others were still under copyright protection. Nick Taylor, then the president of the Guild, saw Google’s scanning as “a plain and brazen violation of copyright law.” Google countered that its digitizing of these books represented a “fair use” of the material. Our position was: The hell you say. Of such disagreements, lawsuits are made.

Our proposal to Google back in May 2006 was simple: while we don’t approve of your unauthorized scanning of our books and displaying snippets for profit, if you’re willing to do something far more ambitious and useful, and you’re willing to cut authors in for their fair share, then it would be our pleasure to work with you.

We’re happy to report that our proposal found a receptive audience at Google and at Association of American Publishers and the several publishing houses that had filed a separate lawsuit in October 2005 against Google. Reaching final agreement turned out to be not so simple, but today, after nearly two and a half years of negotiations, we’re joining with Google and the AAP and those publishers to announce the settlement of Authors Guild v. Google.

The settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge before it takes effect, includes money for now and the prospect of money for later. There’ll be at least $45 million for authors and publishers whose in-copyright books and other copyrighted texts have been scanned without permission. If your book was scanned and you own all the rights, you’ll get a small share of this, at least $60, depending on how many rightsholders file claims.

Far more interesting for most of us –- and the ambitious part of our proposal -- is the prospect for future revenues. Rightsholders will receive a share of revenues from institutional subscriptions to the collection of books made available through Google Book Search under the settlement, as well as from sales of online consumer access to the books. They will also be paid for printouts at public libraries, as well as for other uses.

The payments will flow through the Book Rights Registry, a new independent entity that can be thought of as the writers’ equivalent of ASCAP. Much as ASCAP tracks the uses of songs and collects royalties for songwriters and musicians, the Registry will serve the interests of authors and others who own the rights to books appearing online as a result of this settlement. The Registry will be controlled by a board of authors and publishers; as part of the settlement, Google will pay $34.5 million to get the Registry up and running, notify rightsholders of the settlement, and process claims.

Readers are also big winners under the settlement of Authors Guild v. Google. Readers will be able to browse from their own computers an enormous collection of books. We hope this will encourage some readers to buy full online access to some of the books. Readers wanting to view books online in their entirety for free need only reacquaint themselves with their participating local public library: every public library building is entitled to a free, view-only license to the collection. College students working on term papers will be able to point their computers to resources other than Wikipedia, if they’re so inclined: students at subscribing institutions will be able to read and print out any books in the collection.

We expect that millions of out-of-print books (and many in-print books) will be available through Google Book Search to readers, but we don’t know how many, since that depends partly on you. Participating rightsholders can choose to pull their books from this service with reasonable notice at any time and will retain substantial control over Google’s presentation and pricing of their books.

As with any class action, individual class members remain free to opt out of the settlement.

There are many, many more details, but I’ll leave those to the official notice. There’s also an official press release, edited to within an inch of its life and the settlement agreement itself. They’re linked below; be my guest.

Roy Blount Jr.
President
Authors Guild

October 28, 2008

Press Release
Class Notice
Settlement Agreement

Copyright 2008 Roy Blount Jr. Mr. Blount authorizes any recipient to forward and post this message in its entirety.

SPD'S "MAKE US FAMOUS" CONTEST!

"but then Rob hooked me up with supper and small press distribution"
—Sharon Mesmer
from "Fine Hormoney Bitch," Annoying Diabetic Bitch

John Sakkis and Tetra Balestri saying it loud and saying it proud!

SUBMIT YOUR POEM THAT SOMEHOW, SOMEWHERE INCLUDES OUR NAME (SMALL PRESS DISTRIBUTION) AND GET A CHANCE TO WIN A FREE SPD BOOK OF YOUR CHOICE!

Guidelines:

• Poem must be 20 lines or less and must include the words "Small Press Distribution" somewhere, somehow (creativity encouraged)


• Send poem and contact info to SPD [at] SPDBOOKS [dot] ORG. Please include the poem in the body of the email


• Selected poems will be posted on our blog


• Top three poems will receive a free SPD book of their choice (under $40) (free shipping within the US)


• Contest ends November 20th, winners will be announced at that time

ALL POETIC FORMS WELCOME: haiku, acrostic, ballad, free verse, acronym, pastoral, sonnet, rap, Flarf, lyric, "i do this i do that," hybrid, hexameter, dirge, cento, comedy-jam, beat, prose, translation, whatever/however and whenever you write the poem, we'd love to see it!

Walt Martin writes SPD a letter...

"If I were to read A Helen Adam Reader a thousand times, I'd experience a thousand joys and an equal number of revelations. I chanced ("chanced" ?) to read Krirstin's wondrously perceptive introduction (which was pen-painted with a most refreshing artistic elegance - and in critique challenging academic acumen as well) while researching Nurse Cora Millay. The content of the authors compilation is an obvious labor of love, if not a sort of spiritual obligation (perhaps both); it's brilliantly presented, ever so readable, opens so very many doors, and is some far distance beyond being a simply thrilling and captivating read. Were it not for Kristin Prevallet's sterling effort, I would never have come to know the insightful magic of the incomparable Helen Adam... I'm thankful beyond words for being afforded the opportunity to "discover" the enchanted universe of Helen Adam, whom I'd have completely missed were it not for Kristin Prevallet's wonderful gift to the literary world...Thanks are certainly due from so very many diverse quarters!

--satisfied customer and friend of SPD, Walt Martin

you can order your copy of A Helen Adam Reader HERE

Suheir Hammad

GRITtv's Laura Flanders interviews Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad, whose new collection, Breaking Poems, has just been published by Cypher Books.

Brenda Shaughnessy

Brenda Shaughnessy's
recent second book,
Human Dark with Sugar
(Copper Canyon Press),
reviewed in this Sunday's
New York Times.

SEXY NEW BOOKS

Yup.

One of a Kind by Jack Micheline
(Ugly Duckling Presse)
reviewed by Patrick Dunagan
in
the San Francisco Chronicle.

SPD gets love...

SPD's own Tetra Balestri hard at work as Joseph Mosconi (far left) Matthew Timmons and Ara Shirinyan hold court



Ara gestures and Matthew laughs

MAGAZINES | BLOG | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | FROM THE VAULT | DONATE TO SPD Try Electronic Ordering! SPD is on Pubnet: SAN 1066617 Questions? Contact Mr. Banes at clay@spdbooks.org orders@spdbooks.org | www.spdbooks.org 1.800.869.7553 | fax: 1.510.524.0852

New Poetry from Pleiades Press

Dunstan Thompson: On the Life and Work of a Lost American Master D. A. Powell and Kevin Prufer, Editors $12.99 | paper | 190 pp. Pleiades Press ISBN: 9780964145412 Nonfiction. Poetry. LGBT Studies. Literary Criticism. In the 1940s, Dunstan Thompson, a gay WWII veteran, was a darling of the Modernist poetry communities in New York and London and widely considered one of the most talented poets of his generation. In 1950, he all but disappeared. This book (which includes his poems and essays by various critics—among them Katie Ford, Dana Gioia, Edward Field, Jerry Harp, Jim Elledge, and Heather Treseler) examines his legacy, his poetry, and his eventual abandonment of his earlier gay identity in favor of a reinvigorated Catholicism. It's the first volume in Pleiades Press's "Unsung Masters Series." LINK→

New Poetry from Canarium Books

The Irrationalist Suzanne Buffam $14 | paper | 104 pp. Canarium Books ISBN: 9780982237632 Poetry. In acclaimed poet Suzanne Buffam's second collection, her unusual range, formal rigor, and imaginative force are on full display as we are introduced to the wry meditations of a literary "irrationalist" who pursues her own poetic logic beyond the bounds of reason. Throughout the collection, in resolutely modern, rueful and eccentric lyrics, Buffam investigates the shifting grounds of knowledge while refusing to take any philosophical authority too seriously. Together, these poems compose a swift, durable, protean argument for the necessity of interior maps in a world that may be on the eve of extinction, but whose darkness is continually illuminated by a pyrotechnics of curiosity, candor, and wit. LINK→

New Poetry from Marsh Hawk Press

Almost Dorothy Neil de la Flor $15 | paper | 72 pp. Marsh Hawk Press ISBN: 9780984117734 Poetry. Winner of the 2009 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. Praise from Forrest Gander, Contest Judge: "With a scenery-chewing imagination, deft linguistic cuts, slippery line breaks and disjointed or dehiscent narrative elements, Neil de la Flor abandons genre rules to explore gender roles, religion, domestic relations, science and history. The poems of ALMOST DOROTHY take place in spectacular leaps away from conventional patterns of development. They suggest a kind of super symmetry that links saints, elementary particles, two boys dressed for Halloween as Dorothy, and a butch Brazilian barman. Revisionary and anachronistic in its referencing and formally restless with its lyrics, lists, prose poems, definitions, and dramatic dialogues, ALMOST DOROTHY is the red-headed stepchild of Antony (without the Johnsons) and Jean Cocteau. Infusing poetry with theater, Neil de la Flor is at once bitingly original, funny, and uncompromising." LINK→

New Fiction from Ampersand Books

We Are Never As Beautiful As We Are Now Adam Gallari $15.95 | paper | 168 pp. Ampersand Books ISBN: 9780984102532 Fiction. At times both funny and heartbreaking, these nine emotionally rich and incisive stories follow characters grappling with the unanswerable question What next? A sudden encounter conjures a failed relationship. A minor league pitcher, in the twilight of a career that never was, tries to divine his future. A young man accompanies his veteran neighbor and father to a V.F.W. a few years after refusing to attend Annapolis. Stoicism and grit belie the vulnerability of people ultimately searching for someone or something to trust in. Though his literary forbearers may be Richard Ford and Ernest Hemingway, Adam Gallari reexamines the masculine with a deftness and a grace entirely his own. LINK→

New Literary Criticism from Book Thug

Unleashed Sina Queyras $20 | paper | 165 pp. Book Thug ISBN: 9781897388457 Literary Nonfiction. Afterword by Vanessa Place. 05/09/04 "Now she is blogging. Now she is sitting on the black couch listening to the sirens wail and the rain fall. Now she is thinking of oysters. Now she is wondering why this is worth sharing. Now she is thinking, how decipher what is worth reading? Who is to say? Sifters. She thinks we have become a nation of sifters." So began a three-year experiment in blogging. An experiment begun for many reasons-a way for an expat to keep in touch with fellow Canadian writers and artists, a way to come to terms with the increasing relevance of the internet in literary lives, and a way to figure out why, after decades of gains, women writers are still grossly underrepresented in critical dialogues. 11/27/05 "Where, one might ask, are the women? I have my theories. Look to the deletions, the hesitations, the reflective responses...the women are still out there thinking, their voices not quite up for the often bombastic and instantaneous responses." Taking up a public space and voice does something to one's brain. There is no getting away from the space one creates "out there"—unleashed. LINK→

New Fiction from Otis Books/Seismicity Editions

The Capricious Critic Ari Martin Samsky $12.95 | paper | 234 pp. Otis Books/Seismicity Editions ISBN: 9780979617768 Fiction. THE CAPRICIOUS CRITIC is a satirical look at our society through the distorted lens of the absurd. Chronicling the author's forays into bizarre worlds, Samsky is part cultural anthropologist, part reluctant wayfarer. Originally under assignment for the web museum Smyles & Fish, Samsky rates and reviews fantastic places, products, and activities that reflect upon current society. He spares no detail. With wit and humor, Samsky leaves no exhortatory stone unturned, from reviewing fountain pens to describing the various subsets of Hell. Iris Smyles's provocative afterword concludes this collection of critical essays. THE CAPRICIOUS CRITIC is the newest addition to the canon of cult literature. LINK→

New Poetry from The Word Works

Mayweed Frannie Lindsay $15 | paper | 96 pp. The Word Works ISBN: 9780915380732 Poetry. Winner of the 2009 Word Works Washington Prize. With seamless craft and lyricism, Frannie Lindsay elevates personal grief to a universal level. Through the natural world, she invites "mayweed, earnest as milkmaids" to flood the valley of death. Lindsay offers the reader light, often surprisingly warm, in the chill darkness of death. Cover art by Deborah Mayhall. LINK→

New Poetry from The Post-Apollo Press

The New Make Believe Denise Newman $13 | paper | 62 pp. The Post-Apollo Press ISBN: 9780942996715 Poetry. "A strange intelligence guides the works in THE NEW MAKE BELIEVE toward insistent, yet nearly ineffable, redefinitions of commonplace words, as if everything were, in being named, strange. 'Accident,' 'law,' 'memorial,' 'wolf,' 'pants,' 'sex' and other such terms participate in intense proto-symbolic musicalities to reveal (or cover) what seem to be crucial yet cheerily personal insights into what it is to be alive as or in a person surrounded by a baffling world of dark beauty—and mysterious others. Denise Newman's work is here more haunting than ever, and as needful of contemplation"—Norman Fischer. LINK→

New Memoir from Faux Press & Other Publications

Memoir and Essay Michael Gottlieb $16 | paper | 170 pp. Faux Press & Other Publications ISBN: 9780982549506 Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Critical Writing. Responding to MEMOIR AND ESSAY Ron Silliman writes, "Michael Gottlieb saw it all, did it all & appears to have taken notes. MEMOIR AND ESSAY is a personal history of the evolution of Language poetry in New York City in the 1970s as viewed by one of its key innovators. Gottlieb's attention to detail & sensitivity to the interpersonal dynamics of the scene make this a crucial document for understanding progressive poetics in the late 20th century. Gottlieb's prose makes it a pleasure." K. Silem Mohammed adds, "A life in, of, and for poetry: Michael Gottlieb generously lays bare the one he has led, putting in plain terms the measures by which the discipline asserts itself as a constitutive force, a shaping regime of identity and counter-identity, community action and individual reflection. In his recounting of his own experience coming into poetry in 1970s New York, as well as his meditations on poet's work (the work of poetry itself and the work that poets do in the world), Gottlieb gives us an immensely valuable document in the annals of Language writing and contemporary literary autobiography generally." LINK→

New Poetics in Translation from Nightboat Books

Poetic Intention Édouard Glissant $16.95 | paper | 248 pp. Nightboat Books ISBN: 9780982264539 Literary Nonfiction. Poetics. African American Studies. Translated from the French by Nathalie Stephens. This marks the publication of the first English-language translation of POETIC INTENTION, Glissant's classic meditation on poetry and art. In this wide-ranging book, Glissant discusses poets, including Stéphane Mallarmé and Saint-John Perse, and visual artists, such as the Surrealist painters Matta and Wilfredo Lam, arguing for the importance of the global position of art. He states that a poem, in its intention, must never deny the "way of the world." Capacious, inventive, and unique, Glissant's POETIC INTENTION creates a new landscape for understanding the relationship between aesthetics and politics. LINK→

New Fiction from Les Figues Press

Not Blessed Harold Abramowitz $15 | paper | 86 pp. Les Figues Press ISBN: 9781934254134 Fiction. Poetry. In NOT BLESSED, a story is told not once, but twenty-eight times in twenty-eight shifting versions. Here, a story acts as a chosen narrative constraint, a constraint which, once chosen, becomes a compulsion within the text, a landing point the narrator must reach again and again. NOT BLESSED: a brilliant twist of a tale, where narrative is spun like politics in the nightly news, deployed in a language that delights and distorts as it winds toward the trauma of non-truth and multiple non-originals. NOT BLESSED asks: what is the what that makes who? LINK→

New Poetry from Tinfish Press

The Dandelion Clock Daniel Tiffany $16 | paper | 64 pp. Tinfish Press ISBN: 9780978992996 Poetry. "Daniel Tiffany's 'pocket rhapsodies' are gorgeously spring-loaded, micro-tuned, and aching with time, time lost, syllabic time, dreamtime, time the conqueror. THE DANDELION CLOCK is a burning fuse and a wonderful book"—Peter Gizzi. LINK→

New Poetry from Rust Buckle Books

Mum Halo John Coletti $15 | paper | 104 pp. Rust Buckle Books ISBN: 9780984346806 Poetry. "I moved to New York City, was handed Physical Kind and was in love in seven lines. I have been waiting for this collection ever since. I like poets who let me get in their heads. It's about being with them more than understanding every synapse that fires. Everything that happens in a Coletti poem is treated with equal emphasis, is experienced with equal weight. It's not easy to wake up with a shell sewn inside your ear but Coletti takes the potential burden of hyper-perception and cycles it out to us with 'fighting charm'"—Stacy Szymaszek. LINK→

New Poetry from Ahadada Books

Coördinates of Yes Janée J. Baugher $16.50 | paper | 92 pp. Ahadada Books ISBN: 9780981274430 Poetry. Written during a six-week trip through Europe, COÖRDINATES OF YES marries nuances of travel (loneliness, restlessness, adventure, reverie, risk, discovery) with ekphrasis (poems inspired by the visual arts). This collection of poems addresses different ways of seeing: The experience of travel and art-viewing can enlighten as well as confuse, while the literal eye that travels is undifferentiated from the eye of the imagination. At the core of COÖRDINATES OF YES lies dualism: "Coördinates" refers to place and transience of travel, and "Yes" suggests the mind-set required of both traveler and viewer of art. LINK→

New Poetry from Coach House Books

Rhapsodomancy kevin mcpherson eckhoff $14.95 | paper | 80 pp. Coach House Books ISBN: 9781552452318 Poetry. Reading is slow, and writing is slower. Words are old-fashioned. Why not consider the communication of the future? In 1837, Sir Isaac Pitman began a sixty-year obsession with producing a system of Shorthand that accurately and swiftly captures voice as evidence of the mind's movements. In the 1950s, John Malone developed Unifon, a forty-character phonetic alphabet intended for international communication by the airline industry. Both projects reached for artful utility, and both have largely been forgotten. In RHAPSODOMANCY, kevin mcpherson eckhoff remembers them. Exploring these two phonic alphabets as image, these poems playfully interrogate the relationship between voice and visual poetry. Can pictures represent voice? Can unutterable writing express thought? RHAPSODOMANCY offers an imaginative response to such questions via empty suits reciting onomatopoeia, letters defying the laws of reality, and drawings divining the future. LINK→

New Fiction from Bronx River Press

The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores: A Novel of Sex and Murder Corey Mesler $15.95 | paper | 197 pp. Bronx River Press ISBN: 9780978984717 Fiction. THE BALLAD OF THE TWO TOM MORES is set in the fictional Queneau, Arkansas. Restaurant reviewer Tom More is living the good life, small town style. He is a cad, a rural Romeo. But his sense of self is abruptly shaken when another man with the same name moves into town. Meanwhile, as the inhabitants of this countrified Peyton Place are lustily carrying on, there is another darker energy at work. Somebody is bumping off the male inhabitants of Queneau. Someone, it would seem, is on a self-appointed mission of extermination. THE BALLAD OF THE TWO TOM MORES is dark comedy at its most outrageous—imagine a three-way between Carson McCullers, Henry Miller and Peter DeVries. Cover image is by celebrated photographer William Eggleston. LINK→

New Anthology from Ellipsis Press

The Harp & Altar Anthology Keith Newton and Eugene Lim, Editors $17 | paper | 336 pp. Ellipsis Press ISBN: 9780963753649 Poetry. Fiction. In its short tenure, the Brooklyn-based online literary magazine Harp & Altar has defined itself by publishing innovative, risk-taking literature, establishing a home for serious readers attracted to its groundbreaking writing and original design. The energy and talent on display have been widely recognized—and now the best of this online magazine has been collected in THE HARP & ALTAR ANTHOLOGY, which features a selection from the fantastic poetry and fiction published in the first three years. LINK→

New Anthology from Oyster Moon Press

Hydrolith: Surrealist Research & Investigations Hydrolith Editorial Collective $16 | paper | 240 pp. Oyster Moon Press ISBN: 9780578050393 Poetry. Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. Art. Music. This book brings together in one volume some of the most exciting recent work from the international surrealist movement. With over 80 contributors from 17 countries around the world, the book contains drawings, paintings, games, comics, photographs, poetry, prose, theoretical and political writings on a huge variety of subjects, including special in-depth investigations of music, space and myth. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in the surrealist movement today. LINK→

New Poetry Anthology from Paper Kite Press

Poem, Home: An Anthology of Ars Poetica Jennifer Hill and Dan Waber, Editors $20 | paper | 212 pp. Paper Kite Press ISBN: 9780979847073 Poetry. The title says it all. Includes poems by: Kelli Russell Agodon, Flor Aguilera, Karren L. Alenier, Sandra Alland, C. J. Allen, Ivan Arguelles, Anny Ballardini, Gary Barwin, Annette Basalyga, Rick Benjamin, John M. Bennett, Maxianne Berger, F .J. Bergmann, Cliff Bernier, Gregory Betts, Celia Bland, Dean Blehert, Helen Boettcher, Peter Boyle, Allen Braden, Therese L. Broderick, Mary Buchinger, Ana Buigues, Mike Burwell, Mairead Byrne, Nick Carbo, Cathy Carlisi, Wendy Taylor Carlisle, James Cervantes, Joel Chace, Ellen Cole, Ed Coletti, Jennifer Compton, Anne Coray, Alison Croggon, Del Ray Cross, Craig Czury, Yoko Danno, Lucille Lang Day, Denise Duhamel, Patrick Dunagan, Riccardo Duranti, Paul Dutton, Susanne Dyckman, Lynnell Edwards, Dan Featherston, Annie Finch, Thomas Fink, Alan Halsey, Sharon Harris, Lola Haskins, Nellie Hill, Nathan Hoks, Paul Hoover, Mikhail Horowitz, Ray Hsu, Halvard Johnson, Jill Jones, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Bhanu Kapil, W. B. Keckler, Karl Kempton, Kit Kennedy, Tracy Koretsky, Greg Kosmicki, Gary Leising, Amy Lemmon, Lyn Lifshin, Diane Lockward, Rupert Mallin, Dr. Pamela McClure, Dr. D. H. Melhem, Hillary Mellon, Paul Mitchell, Carley Moore, Daniel Thomas Moran, Maggie Morley, Richard Newman, Angela O'Donnell, Shin Yu Pai, Helen Pavlin, Jonathan Penton, Alice Pero, Patrick Phillips, Paul Pines, Kevin Prufer, Chelsea Rathburn, Susan Rich, Cynthia Ris, Kim Roberts, Jay Rogoff, Kate Schapira, Barry Schwabsky, Derek Sheffield, Shoshauna Shy, Sue Stanford, Lucien Suel, Rod Summers, Eileen Tabios, Elaine Terranova, Heather Thomas, David Tipton, Juanita Torrence-Thompson, William Trowbridge, Priscilla Uppal, Katherine Varnes, Jeanne Wagner, Amy Watkins, Scott Watson, Melissa Weinstein, Carol Clark Williams, Jacquie Williams, Ernie Wormwood, Mark Young, and Andrena Zawinski. LINK→

New Fiction from Interactive Publications

A Beginner's Guide to Dying in India Josh Donellan $22.95 | paper | 256 pp. Interactive Publications ISBN: 9781921479304 Fiction. Winner of the 2009 Interactive Publications Picks Best Fiction Award. Part comedy, part tragedy, part henna-drawn thriller peppered with romance and intrigue, A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO DYING IN INDIA is a spiritual journey across the continents of the soul. Commencing in Australia and traversing toward the climactic scene in the snowy mountains of Northern India, this novel crosses exotic external and internal terrains with humor, sharp wit and a resonance that expands with each chapter. While confronted with mounting grief and loss in Australia, Levi is suddenly called to India by his brother and delves, though somewhat reluctantly, into the shifting sands of his own spirituality. In fulfilling his dying brother's wishes, Levi embarks on a path intersecting with adventure, new-found friends, a treasure trove of riches (and not just the material kind). LINK→

New Poetry from El León Literary Arts

Some, like elephants Laura Glen Louis $15 | paper | 48 pp. El León Literary Arts ISBN: 9780979528545 Poetry. She was the golden girl and twenty. A year later she was dead, and by her own hand. The young woman's father called Louis with the news, he, a college boyfriend. The next day she could not get out of bed, could not get dressed. Over the next months a tetraptych emerged. She came skittering across the road like a water bird.... The sun behind her the paler star. Like being thrown off axis by a quake, Louis was derailed. She set aside her novel and turned to poetry. A daughter must tell her mother she will die; a man at the height of his creative powers is killed in a freak accident; an American icon is painted in a chiaroscuro as uncompromising as a Rembrandt. The title poem steps back to explore the many ways in which we grieve, while Louis's meditation on her own mortality gives apt and inevitable conclusion. Candid, annealed with precision, these poems haunt and invite revisitation. LINK→

New Poetry from Shearsman Books

Sonnets Camille Martin $16 | paper | 108 pp. Shearsman Books ISBN: 9781848610705 Poetry. In her second book of poetry, Camille Martin breathes fresh life into the sonnet in a collection that is at once edgy and lyrical. The word "sonnet" comes from "song," and the musicality of SONNETS is not surprising, given Martin's background as a classical musician. These poems demonstrate a virtuosic range of approaches and themes; some are inspired by texts as disparate as nursery rhymes, theories of cognitive science, a history of street names, and her own dream journals. The chorus of voices in this collection sing confidently and fluently, proving the sonnet to be an ideal vehicle for Martin's love affair with language. LINK→

New Poetry in Translation from Tupelo Press

This Lamentable City Polina Barskova $11.95 | paper | 48 pp. Tupelo Press ISBN: 9781932195835 Poetry. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the Russian by Ilya Kaminsky. Polina Barskova's poems are a zesty paradoxical concoction: bawdy and erudite, elegant and raw, subtle and brazen. As Ilya Kaminsky attests in his introduction to THIS LAMENTABLE CITY, "Barskova is an elegiac poet who brings to her American readers a language formally inventive, worldly and humorous. One of her strengths is her ability to bring together strikingly erotic, sensual images...with a deep sense of history and culture.... In Russian, Barskova is a master of meter, rhyme, and alliteration, and...(w)hat comes across in English is the tonality of the poems, the clarity of her vocal play and images, her intricacy of address." Though her prize-winning books of poetry in Russian have earned an international reputation, and individual poems have appeared in prestigious journals and anthologies—for instance, in Contemporary Russian Poetry (Dalkey Archive, 2008) and An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets (University of Iowa Press, 2005)—this is the first book of Barskova's poems to be published in translation, in a handsome dual-language edition. LINK→

New Poetry from Ahsahta Press

Gallowglass Susan Tichy $19 | paper | 96 pp. Ahsahta Press ISBN: 9781934103135 Poetry. Susan Tichy is a poet embedded: with U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, twined together through history; in the landscape disrupted by war, perseverating on a deer killed by a mountain lion, or hearing direction in birdsong; and in the language of war: "gallowglass" is a corruption of a Gaelic word for "mercenary soldier," and dark, ancient ballads appear like forensic evidence. Surrounded by cultural touchstones from Pythagoras to the Grateful Dead, Tichy refuses to let the reader's gaze, or her own, turn from the violence of modern living. LINK→

New Fiction from Cleveland State University Poetry Center

Snaketown Kathleen Wakefield $9.95 | paper | 159 pp. Cleveland State University Poetry Center ISBN: 9781880834855 Fiction. Winner of the 2007 Ruthanne Wiley Memorial Novella Contest Selected by Steve Lattimore. SNAKETOWN tells of a place that captivates and holds hostage, a place hermitic and congenital like the families that populate it. It tells the story of heredity and tragedy; how evil can magnetize as mightily as beauty, how a family, nostalgic for past times—devastating times—can revise damaging, damning memory; how the familiar should never be trusted. LINK→

New Folklore in Translation from Quale Press

Zarma Folktales of Niger Amanda Cushman $14 | paper | 120 pp. Quale Press ISBN: 9780979299988 Fiction. Folklore. African and African American Studies. Young Adult Fiction. Translated by Amanda Cushion. ZARMA FOLKTALES OF NIGER presents for the first time in English the folklore of the Zarma, a lesser-known tribe of West Africa. These tales run the gamut from teaching ethical and moral lessons to portraying tricksters to naming animals to farting contests to having fun. Humor and an emphasis on living justly bind the stories together. So far there have been few mentions of the Zarma people in Western texts, and no sign of their folklore, until now. While many English translations of African folklore exist already, they are mainly restricted to better-known cultures. ZARMA FOLKTALES OF NIGER captures the reality of the culture that created the tales, preserving what might otherwise have been lost from the oral tradition. Unlike similar collections of African folklore, ZARMA FOLKTALES OF NIGER provides the cultural and historical context necessary to truly appreciate and understand these tales. The introduction outlines Niger's history and describes the relationships of the Zarma to neighboring tribes, and the glossary explains common terms and expressions found in the stories. These tales will be of interest to children, general readers of folklore, and those interested in African culture, as well as to cultural anthropologists and ethnographers. LINK→

New Memoir from Sun Dog Press

Charles Bukowski's Scarlet Pamela "Cupcakes" Wood $15.95 | paper | 234 pp. Sun Dog Press ISBN: 9780941543583 Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. "It began as a whim"—an impulsive meeting between the iconic Charles Bukowski and his famed muse, Pamela "Cupcakes" Wood—that leads to a two-year relationship Wood chronicles in this memoir. Her story is refreshingly blunt as she details their often ridiculous, yet charming relationship. This is a Bukowski enthusiast's dream—an immersion into his life with the independent and spirited "Scarlet," the woman he wrote about in the book of the same name. She appears as "Tammie" in Bukowski's book Women. What was the powerful chemistry between Bukowski and the woman whose identity intrigued so many? Written with engaging wit, this is an insightful recollection of their life together. We see Buk as a gifted, flawed man, yet we appreciate him for his deeply sensitive and compassionate nature. LINK→

New Poetry from Pleasure Boat Studio

Moonlight in the Redemptive Forest Michael Daley $16 | paper | 112 pp. Pleasure Boat Studio ISBN: 9781929355624 Poetry. Book with accompanying CD. Michael Daley's MOONLIGHT IN THE REDEMPTIVE FOREST drives a stake into the heart of complacency. Its theme is war, though not warfare. From spoken and unspoken minefields in drug addled families of America, from final solutions at Auschwitz and Eastern Europe, the savage firebombing of Tokyo, the poems depict survivors and victims with compassion and, ultimately, hope. Its longest poem evokes in narrative form a legend from Daley's South Boston Irish heritage, where poverty and suspicion overshadowed innocence. These poems should be heard—a CD, with music by Brad Killion, comes with the book—and savored for their crisp and daring language; not paeans to the virtuous triumphant, these are songs of the wounded who sing in their chains. LINK→

New Poetry from Sidebrow Books

Selenography Joshua Marie Wilkinson $20 | paper | 103 pp. Sidebrow Books ISBN: 9780981497525 Poetry. Joshua Marie Wilkinson's SELENOGRAPHY finds words in want of their own life to chart an adumbrated landscape, "a good song played // too patchily / to keep / in your lungs." Side by side with full-color Polaroids by Califone's Tim Rutili, these poems traverse thought and image, object and vestige, contingency and intention, likening the haunted drift through this sounding of words to a river, "easy incomplete but it / took us / like twigs." LINK→

New Poetry from BlazeVOX Books

From Old Notebooks Evan Lavender-Smith $16 | paper | 178 pp. BlazeVOX Books ISBN: 9781935402855 Poetry. Cross-Genre. FROM OLD NOTEBOOKS is a memoir, a novel, a poem, an essay—a self-styled "memoivel"—which exemplifies how love of language and literature enriches our lives, and explores, often with great humor, the many pitfalls confronting a young writer and father on his journey to maturity. Each entry in FROM OLD NOTEBOOKS is literally that—an idea written in a writer's draftbook. Within this unconventional format, Lavender-Smith is able to tell us the story of his life while ruminating on subjects ranging from fatherhood to philosophy, art, football, music, politics, TV, teaching, fear of death, and everything in between. In the process, Lavender-Smith lays bare the day-to-day trials and tribulations of an artist confronted by the pressures of culture, family, writing, and, simply, being. Witty, original, poignant and deeply insightful, FROM OLD NOTEBOOKS is a coming-of-age story, an ode to writing and reading, to living and loving—a celebration of "human thought in all its glory, all its mundanity." LINK→

JUST IN!

Books Just In! (So new they may not have a description or cover scan.)
BEN CASEY DAYS by Rochelle Ratner (Marsh Hawk Press)
FOG & CAR by Eugene Lim (Ellipsis Press)
HUMMING THE BLUES by Cass Dalglish (Calyx Books)
BLUE WINNETKA SKIES by Ron Maclean (Swank Books)

THE DREAM WE CARRY by Olav H. Hauge (Copper Canyon Press)
TWIGS & KNUCKLEBONES by Sarah Lindsey (Copper Canyon Press)
QUARTERLY WEST #66 SUMMER 2008
WASTE by Eugene Marten (Ellipsis Press)
TERRIBLE WOODS by Paul Bray (Dos Madres)

JULIET AS HERSELF by Nancy Taylor Everett (Slapering Hol Press)
PEREGRINARY by Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki (Zephyr Press)
BREAKER by Sue Sinclair (Brick Books)
DICHTEN = NO. 10 (Burning Deck)
BEING HUMAN (Marsilio Publishers)
DOOR LANGUAGES by Zafer Senocak (Zephyr Press)

Owen Hill

Moe's Books bookseller, curator, poet

Beloved former SPD worker Emily Abendroth

dropped in last Friday to say hello

news from Telos Press

Annual Telos Conference: The 2009 Telos conference will take place in New York City on Saturday, January 17, on the topic “New Administration: War, Class, and Critical Theory.” The outcome of the election will (we expect) be clear by then; this will be an opportunity to give thought to the looming issues of financial crisis and foreign conflicts in the light of Telos traditions.

I would be grateful if those of you associated with colleges and universities could be sure that your institution subscribes, especially now that we are available online through Highwire Press. Otherwise please make sure that your own individual subscription is up-to-date and consider giving gift subscriptions to your friends and colleagues.

Finally, let me remind you to check out our website from time to time, at www.telospress.com, where you will find updates about the journal and the book line as well as short essays on current affairs—from the Wall Street meltdown to the politics of Zimbabwe.

I hope to see many of you at the conference, and I would be happy to receive feedback on our work.

With best wishes,

Russell Berman
Editor, Telos

Angelos Sakkis and I...

work on translation on my lunch break...

EARLIER

EARLIER

Hugh Behm-Steinberg's Eleven Eleven with Eleven Eleven's Hugh Behm-Steinberg

Zyzzyva's Howard Junker taking my picture (and me his) at last weekend's Northern California Independent Booksellers Association 2008 Trade Show

JUST IN

Books Just In! (So new they may not have a description or cover scan.)
Beloved of My Twenty-seven Senses by Karen Fastrup (BookThug)
Torch River by Elizabeth Philips (Brick Books)
Noble Gas, Penny Black by David O'Meara (Brick Books)
Cypress by Barbara Klar (Brick Books)
Village Limits by Greg Joly (Adastra Press)
Oblivion, Tyrants, Crumbs by John Levy (First Intensity Press)
The Obeah Man by Ismith Khan (A Tsar Book)
A Fight in the Doctor's Office by Cary Holladay (Miami Oxford Press)

Khirbet Khizeh reviewed in the new issue of The New Republic!

READ IT HERE!

available now from Ibis Editions

JUST IN

JUST IN

Clearing Without Reversal by Cathy Eisenhower (Edge Books)
Paper & Carriage No.3 edited by Picard, Reetz-Laiolo, Stratton (The Green Lantern Press)
What Stirs by Margaret Christakos (Coach House Books)
No: A Journal of the Arts, Issue 7 edited by Deb Klowden & Ben Lerner (No Journal)
The Real Cost of Prisons Comix by Lois Ahrens (PM Press)
Wobblies & Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History by Staughton Lynd and Andrej Grubacic (PM Press)

HAYDEN CARRUTH
1921-2008