Read Kevin Killian at the SF MOMA blog Open Space on the recent SPD Bee-In and Bee-Ins past!

JUST IN!

THE GINKGO LIGHT by Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon Press)
KONG AND OTHER WORKS by Pamela Sneed (Vintage Entity Press)
CIRCULATION by Tim Horvath (sunnyoutside)
ABECEDARIOS: MEXICAN FOLK ART ABCS IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH by Cynthia Weill (Cinco Puntos Press)
THE ART OF EXILE by William Archila (Bilingual Review Press)
IN CHAMBERS: THE BODHISATTVA OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER'S OFFICE by Richard Krech (sunnyoutside)
SOFT CHAOS by Alma Luz Villanueva (Bilingual Review Press)
I HAVE MY MOTHER'S EYES: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR ACROSS GENERATIONS by Barbara Ruth Bluman (Ronsdale Press)
THE REAL LIFE OF SHADOWS by Jean Frémon (The Post-Apollo Press)
THE CLOCK OF THE LONG NOW by Marion Boyer (Mayapple Press)
THE ANSWER/LA RESPUESTA: EXPANDED EDITION INCLUDING SOR FILOTEA'S LETTER AND NEW by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (The Feminist Press at CUNY)
BETWEEN BARACK AND A HARD PLACE: RACISIM AND WHITE DENIAL IN THE AGE OF OBAMA by Tim Wise (City Lights Publishers)
FALLING FORWARD by Rebecca Schumejda (sunnyoutside)
SHELL GAMES by Noel Sloboda (sunnyoutside)
WILL WORK FOR DRUGS by Lydia Lunch (Akashic Books)
THE DATE FRUIT ELEGIES by John Olivares Espinoza (Bilingual Review Press)
THE HAYFLICK LIMIT by Matthew Tierney (Coach House Books)

JUST IN!

Critical Mappings of Arturo Isla's Fictions by Frederick Luis Aldama (Bilingual Review Press)
The Captain of All These Men of Death by Alejandro Morales (Bilingual Review Press)
Gathering Words/Recogiendo Palabras by Maria Luisa Arroyo (Bilingual Review Press)
Uñas Pintadas de Azul/Blue Fingernails by Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes (Bilingual Review Press)
A Progressive Traditionalist: John M. Lyle, Architect by Glenn McArthur (Coach House Books)
A Daughter's a Daughter by Nash Candelaria (Bilingual Review Press)
Amphibian by Carla Gunn (Coach House Books)
Getting Lost in a City Like This by Jack Anderson (Hanging Loose Press)
The Pigs Drink from Infinity: Poems 1995-2001 by Mark Spitzer (Spuyten Duyvil)

AND THE WINNER IS ...


Things have been a bit hectic around here what with the Bee-In and all, but we have finally made a decision in our Poem-In-Which-Every-Word-Is-Spelled-Wrong Bee. It is a tie! In a hotly contested fight to the finish, Bhanu Kapil and Dan Thomas-Glass came in together in a dead heat of votes! We are therefore awarding not one but two $100 gift certificates -- one to Bhanu and one to Dan!

Congradualations ta yu bothe!!

Kudos should also be given to our other contestants. We will include a selection of the best wrongly spelled poems soon. There were several excellent ones. Well done poet spellers!










(Bhanu Kapil by Andrew Kenower)


POME PER MEE DORG, PORQI

by Bhanu Kapil


Porqi, cimmere yeh Bashtard: azs wi sey een der YOOKAY.
End hee Gellops farard azs hee shood.
Shame canni bee sed fer deh uver Bashtard een mee LIF:
Mee "Marn," mi "Louvre wid norbs on."*

*Thash** "gnobs," ashkually.

**Ay shound DRENK! Ay shound tertelly orf mee trimble!











(Dan Thomas-Glass by Clay Banes)


Hw th nght brks

by Dan Thomas-Glass

Hw th nght brks
nt lk dgs brk bt lk brcks,
th rd knd,
th knd Y Mng thrws p
(bfr h brk hs ft)
n th frth qrtr,
whn hs trd frm
bng mssvly lrg,
lk hs cntry hs twnty-frst cntry lrg
(Chn mthrfckrs wht),
yh the nght brks lk Y Ming brcks whn hs trd,
r lk glbl cptlsm r
Chrstn Bk’s bk n,
knd f hrd t pctr—th vwls—
r lk drvg wth Bb Crly
slmmng n th brks fr Chrsts sk!
Thts th nght brkng. Th drknss.

SPD's Bee-In at Crown Point Gallery 5/18

Sylvia Brownrigg, SPD's 2009 Ms Spell, with fellow speller and proud husband Sedge Thomson	The Crowning Moment!

 ► See Oscar Bermeo's full photo set here.
 ► Watch Oscar Bermeo's video playlist here.

Mario Benedetti 1920-2009

Preparing for the Bee-In &

SPD/CLMP Publisher Day

Jeffrey and Brent working hard



















Jeffrey, Brent & Laura in front of Hangar One sign (thanks to Craft Distillers for donation of delicious vodka for the Bee's Knees cocktail!) They really are in a hangar.



















Jeffrey and Mary Bisbee-Beek talk during Publisher Day at SPD

















Happy publishers, authors, students, publishing enthusiasts

ROBIN BLASER
1925-2009

JUST IN!

The Shunt by David Buuck (Palm Press)
The Book of Practical Pussies by Michelle Rollman (Krupskaya)
A Plate of Chicken by Matthew Rohrer (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Verb Sap by Magus Magnus (Narrow House)
:ab ovo: by Jenn McCreary (Dusie Press)
Van Gogh's Ear 6: The Love Edition edited by Dawn-Michelle Baude (French Connection Press)
Fences in Breathing by Nicole Brossard (Coach House Books)
American Prophet by Robert Fanning (Marick Press)
Inri by Raul Zurita (Marick Press)
Every Way Oakly by Steve McCaffery (Book Thug)
Mal Arme: Letter Drop 3 Victor Coleman (Book Thug)
Catalytic Exteriorization Phenomenon by Mel Nichols (Edge Books)
Love Outlandish by Barry Dempster (Brick Books)
Hooked by Carolyn Smart (Brick Books)
Botero's Beautiful Horses by Jan Conn (Brick Books)
Winter, the Unwelcome Visitor by Shaista Justin (TSAR Publications)

SPD at the LA Festival of Books

At the end of April, SPD took a giant white van full of our wares down to Starsville for the LA Times Book Festival.


Well, it turns out it's called Hollywood for a reason: your humble reporter stumbled across the premier of what is surely the next Citizen Cane (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past). I had to be informed I was looking at Michael Douglas and Jennifer Garner (distance = 200 yards), and that I had just missed the star of the night, our own Orson Wells of the aughts, Matthew McConaughey.


However, the real stars were up on the UCLA campus: the writers, the poets, the books, the children's show icons, and the people, the people, the people. Our booth almost never had less than three or four browsers in it on both days of the festival, and we sold a great many books and received a great many interested inquiries into what, exactly, SPD is ("not a publisher," as we let many saddened prospective authors know).


Photos of all the books we took are below. Judging by the reviews, I'd attest that ALL of them are better than a certain new film...

SPD $100 GIFT CERTIFICATE

A reminder that a cool $100 in SPD books will be awarded to the writer of the best poem in which every word is spelled wrong. So far we have only gotten entries from Great Britain. While we had heard the rumo(u)rs about Americans being dumber than Brits, we hardly credited them until now. The contest is in hono(u)r of the Bee-In, A Spelling Bee to Benefit SPD which is coming up soon on May 18th.

Come on non-British poets! Show us what you're made of!

Contest details are here.

SPD Poetry Best-sellers March/April 09

1. FACE by Sherman Alexie (Hanging Loose Press)
2. BREAKING POEMS by Suheir Hammad (Cypher Books)
3. ZAATARDIVA by Suheir Hammad (Cypher Books)
4. THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS by J. Kitchen and T. Kooser, Eds. (Anhinga Press)
5. THE SUMMER OF BLACK WIDOWS by Sherman Alexie (Hanging Loose Press)
6. LOBSTER WITH OL' DIRTY BASTARD by Michael Cirelli (Hanging Loose Press)
7. LISA ROBERTSON'S MAGENTA SOUL WHIP by Lisa Robertson (Coach House Books)
8. THE BATTLEFIELD WHERE THE MOON SAYS I LOVE YOU by Frank Stanford (Lost Roads Publishers)
9. FALLING ANGELS: CUENTOS Y POEMAS by Olga Garcia Echeverria (Calaca Press/Chibcha Press)
10. NATURAL LIGHT by Norma Cole (Libellum)
11. UNDER FLAG [THIRD PRINTING] by Myung Mi Kim (Kelsey Street Press)
12. NEW DEPTHS OF DEADPAN by Michael Gizzi (Burning Deck)
13. DISASTER SUITES by Rob Halpern (Palm Press)
14. IF THE DELTA WAS THE SEA by Dick Lourie (Hanging Loose Press)
15. NOW & THEN: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Robert Phillips (Ashland Poetry Press)
16. COMPLETE MINIMAL POEMS by Aram Saroyan (Ugly Duckling Presse)
17. SOME NOTES ON MY PROGRAMMING by Anselm Berrigan (Edge Books)
18. AVERSIONS by Alfredo De Palchi (Xenos Books)
19. BY MYSELF: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by D.A. Powell and David Trinidad (Turtle Point Press)
20. EUNOIA by Christian Bök (Coach House Books)
21. OLD SHIRTS & NEW SKINS by Sherman Alexie (American Indian Studies Center, UCLA)
22. PUBLIC DOMAIN by Mónica de la Torre (Roof Books)
23. THE ALL-PURPOSE MAGICAL TENT by Lytton Smith (Nightboat Books)
24. CLAMPDOWN by Jennifer Moxley (Flood Editions)
25. PLUMMET by Christopher Nealon (Edge Books)
26. THE NEW LIFE by Wally Swist (Plinth Books)
27. THE SECRET OF WHITE by Barbara Tomash (Spuyten Duyvil)
28. YOU ARE A LITTLE BIT HAPPIER THAN I AM by Tao Lin (Action Books)
29. SCAPE by Joshua Harmon (Black Ocean)
30. PORTRAIT AND DREAM: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Bill Berkson (Coffee House Press)