WHAT? THE KISS OFF SALE! 30% OFF SPD's BEST-SELLERS OF 2010

SPD's BEST-SELLERS 2010

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The Fast by Hannah Weiner

The Fast Hannah Weiner $6 | paper | 43 pp. United Artists Books ISBN: 9780935992243 Literary Nonfiction. This is the first of four early journals, written in 1970 (THE FAST); in 1971, (COUNTRY GIRL); in 1972, (PICTURES AND EARLY WORDS); in 1973, (BIG WORDS). These journals depict the development of the clairvoyance from feeling and seeing auras, to seeing pictures, and finally the slow development of seeing words which first appeared singly, then later in short phrases. The culmination of this seeing of words resulted in the CLAIRVOYANT JOURNAL, written in 1974, and published by Angel Hair Books, now known as United Artists Books, in 1978, and in many books that followed. REVIEWS, PURCHASE »

(If you don't want to buy it from SPD, click here.)

Huffington Post on Poets

It's still not every day that poetry shows up on the Huffington Post (although, pleasantly enough, they're paying it increasing attention over there).  Recently HuffPo asked 22 contemporary poets a simple yet ridiculously contentious question: who is the single most important contemporary poet?   While nearly all the respondents expressed some resistance and/or amusement toward the question, nevertheless SPD authors were picked outright in at least five cases, and mentioned often in other responses.  A number of SPD authors were also among the respondents.  

SPD Authors Selected as Most Important Contemporary Poet:

Larry Eigner (chosen by Charles Bernstein)
CA Conrad (chosen by Eileen Myles)
Ron Padgett (chosen by Bill Zavatsky)
Benjamin Alire Saenz (chosen by Rigoberto Gonzales)
Charles Simic (chosen by Jay Parini)


Respondents With SPD Titles:

Bill Zavatsky
Jean Valentine
Clayton Eshleman
Rigoberto Gonzales
H.L. Hix
Charles Bernstein
Juan Felipe Herrera
Forrest Gander
Kevin Prufer
Michael McClure
Eileen Myles

SPD's YEAR-END OPEN HOUSE  ALL PHOTOS BY MARC LECARD

19 Poets Recommend 19+ Titles

Given the extreme volume of new books we receive at SPD, we try to keep an ear out for smart, relatively objective recommendations that can help our customers find new treasures.  Ron Slate, on his blog, recently posted recommendations from 19 different poets that are detailed, passionate, and richly-argued.  Even though the majority are not SPD titles, there are many SPD books among them.  Check it out!

(credit to Ron Silliman's blog for linking to this first)

Open House Photos (Dec 6, 2010)

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who attended the SPD holiday Open House on December 6th!  The place was packed, the hunts were awesome, and the spirit of poetry & fiction was spread throughout the land...

 

 (The signage beckoned...)

 

(...the books sang their siren song...)

 (...& the people came...)

(above, Rick D'Elia reads)

(...musical interlude from the A.P. Carter of our time, Julian Brolaski...)

(The superstar readers, l to r: Julian Brolaski, Erik Schneider, Miranda Mellis, Dora Malech, Rick D'Elia, Meg Day)

 (...braving the cold, a capacity-number of shoppers hunted for deals...)

(...headquarters for the highly successful SPD scavenger hunts...)

More photos to come, thank you beautiful east bay literati!!!

(All photos by Marc Lecard)

SPD's Poetry Best-Sellers: Week of November 7, 2010

On the damp gray walk to work this morning from the train, I got the tweet from Poetry Foundation that they'd posted their best-sellers for the week of November 7-14, 2010.

So I thought it would be interesting and fun and very Friday to pull and publish SPD's poetry best-sellers for the same week. So here they are:

1. Greensward by Cole Swensen (Ugly Duckling Presse)
2. Pink Elephant by Rachel McKibbens (Cypher Books)
3. obedience by kari edwards (Factory School)
4. Cop Kisser by Steven Zultanski (Book Thug)
5. In the Eyes of a Dog by Kevin Pilkington (NYQ Books)
6. Dirty August by Edip Cansever (Talisman House)
7. Slaughtering the Buddha by Gordon Osing (Spuyten Duyvil)
8. Questions/Places/Voices/Seasons by Norman Fischer (Singing Horse Press)
9. Ocean Avenue by Malena Mörling (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
10. The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers by Bhanu Kapil (Kelsey Street Press)
11. Hughson's Tavern by Fred Moten (Leon Works)
12. Tourist at a Miracle by Mark Statman (Hanging Loose Press)
13. Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg (Black Ocean)
14. Figures for a Darkroom Voice by Noah E. Gordon and Joshua Marie Wilkinson (Tarpaulin Sky Press)
15. Gone Away by Mervyn Taylor (Junction Press)
16. In Flagrante Delicto by Jerry Mirskin (MAMMOTH books)
17. Chora by Sandra Doller (Ahsahta Press)
18. Sky Booths in the Breath Somewhere: The Ashbery Erasure Poems by David Dodd Lee (BlazeVOX Books)
19. FAQ: by Ben Doller (Ahsahta Press)
20. Brief Under Water by Cyrus Console (Burning Deck)
21. Like Wind Loves a Window by Andrea Baker (Slope Editions)
22. The Tangled Line by Tod Marshall (Canarium Books)
23. The New Life by Richard Tillinghast (Copper Beech Press)
24. The French Exit by Elisa Gabbert (Birds, LLC)
25. Felonies of Illusion by Mark Wallace (Edge Books)
26. Pad by Steven Zultanski (Make Now Press)
27. As It Turned Out by Dmitri Golynko (Ugly Duckling Presse)
28. Debts and Obligations by Alicia Cohen (O Books)
29. Dubious Angels: Poems After Paul Klee by Keith Ratzlaff (Anhinga Press)
30. Oriflamme by Sandra Miller (Ahsahta Press)

Circumspections from an Equestrian Statue by Jaimy Gordon

Congratulations to 2010 National Book Award Winner for Fiction Jaimy Gordon

Circumspections from an Equestrian Statue Jaimy Gordon $14 | paper | 76 pp. Burning Deck June 1979 ISBN: 9780930900786 LAST COPIES! SORRY, THIS ITEM IS SOLD OUT! Fiction. Early novella by National Book Award winner Jaimy Gordon. Frontispiece and five ornamental initials by Dennis Hlynski. “CIRCUMSPECTIONS FROM AN EQUESTRIAN STATUE in length between a story and a novel, is one of her most delightful works. It has a precise historical setting: General Burnside has returned from the American Civil War (he was the North's worst general, by some margin) to build his house, be elected governor of Rhode Island, and become famous for the cut of his whiskers (‘sideburns’). Having, after four years of marriage, no child, he engages P. Mariam Wishey, ‘pioneer of gynecology,’ to examine his wife. (I would like to think Wishey is historical, but I’ve yet to find a reference to him.) This situation is complicated by the ghost of Burnside’s nephew, who disappeared during the battle of Fredericksburg—the General’s great fiasco—and by the fact that Mrs. Burnside is not (as everyone in the story seems to assume) asexual. It is a tightly constructed and very funny story in limpid prose”—Keith Waldrop.

SPD's POETRY BEST-SELLERS OCTOBER 2010

1. Humanimal: A Project for Future Children by Bhanu Kapil (Kelsey Street Press)
2. Pleasure by Brian Teare (Ahsahta Press)
3. Iteration Nets by Karla Kelsey (Ahsahta Press)
4. God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World by Rebecca Foust and Lorna Stevens (Tebot Bach)
5. Poems of the Black Object by Ronaldo V. Wilson (Futurepoem Books)
6. Striking Surface by Jason Schneiderman (Ashland Poetry Press)
7. The Cloud Corporation by Timothy Donnelly (Wave Books)
8. Ten Walks/Two Talks by Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch (Ugly Duckling Presse)
9. Dogged Hearts by Ellen Doré Watson (Tupelo Press)
10. Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden by Charles Goodrich (Silverfish Review Press)
11. The Burden of Speech by Travis Wayne Denton (C&R Press)
12. One for None by m.g. martin (Ink.)
13. Up Jump the Boogie by John Murillo (Cypher Books)
14. Chinese Notebook by Demosthenes Agrafiotis (Ugly Duckling Presse)
15. Handmade Love by Julie R. Enszer (A Midsummer Night's Press)
16. Man on Extremely Small Island by Jason Koo (C&R Press)
17. Selected Poems by Mary Ruefle (Wave Books)
18. Hughson's Tavern by Fred Moten (Leon Works)
19. Come on All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder (Copper Canyon Press)
20. From Threshold to Threshold by Paul Celan (Marick Press)
21. The Redcoats by Ryan Murphy (Krupskaya)
22. Stranger in Town by Cedar Sigo (City Lights Publishers)
23. The Act of Providence by Clark Coolidge Combo Books)
24. Vertical Elegies: Three Works by Sam Truitt (Ugly Duckling Presse)
25. The Irrationalist by Suzanne Buffam (Canarium Books)
26. The New Tourism by Harry Mathews (Sand Paper Press)
27. Cities and Memory by Barbara Henning (Chax Press)
28. So Quick Bright Things by Gail Wronsky (What Books Press)
29. Other Clues by Grace Marie Grafton (RAW ArT PRESS)
30. Miracle Arrhythmia by Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Aquarius Press/Willow Books)