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)

Norma Cole, poet, Giants fan, author of To Be at Music: Essays & Talks, just out from Omnidawn.

Two New Titles by Merrill Gilfillan from Flood Editions

Moussey

Attention Span 2010

Each year since 2003, Steve Evans has been asking readers of his Third Factory site to contribute lists and commentaries charting their current interests in poetry and related fields.

He calls the feature "Attention Span" and the lists are always filled with SPD titles.

Evans also provides a helpful list ranking the frequently-mentioned books here.  The list for Attention Span 2010 was released this week.

Along with SPD's bestseller and staff picks lists, Attention Span is an excellent way to explore SPD titles that other passionate readers of small press poetry are excited about.

Cash Prizes for Translators & Authors

In great news for translators of poetry and fiction, today it was announced that Amazon will begin funding the Best Translated Book Award given each year by Three Percent at the University of Rochester.  Both the translators and the authors will receive $5,000.

Publisher's Weekly article can be found here.

In past years, SPD-distributed books have been well-represented on both the long and the short list for the Best Translated Book Award, so with luck one of the many wonderful translators connected to SPD publishers may take home a substantial prize soon!

The Orchard by Harry Matthews

The Orchard: A Remembrance of Georges Perec Harry Mathews $7 | paper | 34 pp. Bamberger Books ISBN: 9780912449401 LAST COPIES! Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. THE ORCHARD is a record of the friendship of Harry Matthews and Georges Perec, one an American, the other French, both writers. These memories were set down by Matthews in the wake of Perec's premature death. "I remember" is complete and irreducible in itself—I remember Georges Perec getting off the bus at Trocadéro and ostentatiously dropping his ticket on the middle of the sidewalk, smiling as he did so. I still cannot see his point.—but most meaningful when set among the others, like the moments of friendship itself.

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

Park by Cole Swensen

Park Cole Swensen $10 | paper | 64 pp. Floating Island Publications ISBN: 9780912449401 LAST COPIES! Poetry. Cole Swensen's PARK is a book of poetry devoted to the discoveries and happenings in an unspecified park. Swensen, who was recently awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, takes an aesthetic interest in the phenomena of park-ness and an interest in seeing as a way of knowing what makes a place a generator of experience. The poem is organized numerically and gestures at its own fluidity as in the park "every time I've been back...I've had the distinct impression that everything is moving."

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

Michael Gizzi (1949-2010)

We were saddened and distressed this morning to hear of the passing of Michael Gizzi. Michael was a truly wonderful poet whose works will be appreciated for a long time, as well as a longtime friend and supporter of both SPD and a small army of younger writers who attribute much of their passion for the art to Michael. At different times in his life Michael was deeply involved with not one but two exemplary SPD publishers, Hard Press and Qua Books. It is inadequate to say he will be missed.

—the SPD Staff