As some of you already know, I took a letterpress course this past weekend at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, and I've come away thoroughly enamored. I've even begun the frustrating and arduous search for my own platen press (oh, if only a Vandercook were even remotely realistic...) I thought it would be lovely, once I get one, once I get the swing of it, if we put together broadsides of our own poems, maybe had them at those readings we talk about having one day...

I look forward to Friday's field trip to Crystal Caves. Don't forget to bring a cave poem! I have to remember which one of those poetry books I found mine in... this one book a day thing has been a bit interesting, mostly ridiculous as I try to keep up with everything else, but good for me in that I've discovered new voices, and now I have a stack of books I'd like to pass along to you all--books I know I won't re-read or revisit, and you can then feel free to pass them along also.

xo

Collaborative Projects

I've recently finished reading Nice Hat. Thanks. as well as Exquisite Politics, both books published by two poets in collaboration. It's interesting to "hear" the ways the collaboration might be obvious or not. I think Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton were more successful in creating something of a singular voice in their exercises--I don't feel a shift as I move from line to line as much (though I do, at times) as I did with the other collaboration.

I've decided to spend a little time this may learning more about collaborative projects, and I started before Maria even had us "staring something," but mainly in reaction to that first AWP panel on 7 Poets, 4 Days, 1 Book. The panel itself felt fairly flat, but the project intrigues me. And I know so many professors (and others) keep insisting that this is the time for us to make contacts, that we will eventually promote one another's careers in editing together, publishing for one another, buying each other's work, attending readings, and on. I wonder if this isn't also the best time to experiment in more formal collaboration? I'd be interested to hear what you all think.

One last thing: I posted a few pictures over on my solo blog from MD's last class and the last Dislocate reading. You know, if you're curious.

xo

Rachel Zucker on the "I" in Poetry

Just read this essay to procrastinate further on end-of-semester work. But it was worth it! Funny and insightful. Rachel Zucker invents these "ality" and "istic" terms to cover a diverse range of orientations around selfhood in poetry. Here's a piece:

There needs to be risk. Confessionalistic poetry is more risky than Autobiographicality. Autobiographicality, no matter how disturbing in content, is always the story of a life, of what happened, of circumstance and event. Confessionalistic poetry is the splitting open of self, a minor chord before and without resolution. A shopping list read aloud, even with gusto, with style, is not Confessionalistic, even if you intend to buy parmesan, pull-ups, and heroin. The risk in a poem that relies heavily on Autobiographicality is usually a risk of content. Privacy, reputation, and decency, may all be risked by the Autobiographicalistic poet. But the Confessionalistic poet risks more; she is willing to undermine the boundaries of self. Often, she is writing at the frayed edge of the genre in the busy interstitial space between neurons.

Molly and I heard Rachel Zucker speak at AWP with D. A. Powell, Carl Phillips and others on "Beyond the Song of Oneself: The Intersection of the Personal and the Public in Poetry." It was my favorite panel!

Check it out: PotLatch Poetry

From the website:

PotLatch Poetry promotes a gift and exchange economy surrounding poetry books, chapbooks, journals and ephemera: a revolving bookshelf, moving material through the hands of writers across the world.

PotLatch is concerned with the inherent limitations of a regionalized, institutionalized, capitalized or otherwise constrained exchange of literature. It exists to enliven and expand a spirit of trading and gifting.

Every item on PotLatch is either for free or trade.

We hope you find what you're looking for, and share what you have!

First Books 3/26/09

A reading and panel discussion regarding one's first literary publication, with Salvatore Scibona, novel, The End (Graywolf Press) nominated for the National Book Award; Nicole Johns, memoir, Purge: Rehab Diaries (Seal Press); and Kao Kalia Yang, memoir, The Latehomecomer (Coffee House Press) nominated for a Minnesota Book Award.



It was a nice evening, well-attended by prospective students and the local literary community. I was the only program poet there... and tired and stressed and generally not in good form. When it came time for Q & A I slurred a question about poetry publishing that included the phrase "Gray House." Oh dear.



The readings were fantastic. I've heard parts of The Latehomecomer before, and this different excerpt did not disappoint. Kao Kalia Yang has a high-pitched voice that contributes to her memoir's urgent tone. It's always nice to get more exposure to the work of recent program grads, and Nicole Johns' work was excellent. Salvatore Scibona's novel was lively and inventive, his demeanor charming and funny.



The panel discussion wasn't too relevant to poetry publishing, about literary agents and decisions on the numbers of copies to print. The response to my question was basically that since poetry is "protected" from the marketplace there are generally less unknown factors: print-runs will always be small. But the comments about author-promotion apply to poets very much. The panelists emphasized forming relationships with people in the literary community: your fellow students will one day be running journals and reading series... keep in touch for your book tour! "Web-Presence" is also important, and they seemed to think we should be cultivating that nebulous entity now... which probably means I should stop avoiding those social networking sites, ugh! Author websites were also mentioned, but that's a step I personally don't feel the need to take until one has a book to sell. Unless of course you have a super-dope project like CAM!!!

Edit: on the subject of author websites, I've added links to the three readers. They certainly represent a diverse range of styles/approaches.

Just a quick question: Anyone interested in the Bly Conference? It's $25 for students until the end of this month.

power politics

Plath: me too, me too. When I first read The Bell Jar, I felt intimate with Sylvia. It was something about the body, merging with an(other) abject current, and there finding a voice. Now I sometimes wonder if I read Plath's death into her writing - and feel guilty that my reader's tooth/claw might have preyed upon her actual turmoil. But in whatever scorched earth, the ecstasy of Plath's language - its own carnival - disarms. So: maybe violence doesn't thrive here after all, even that which I fear in myself-as-reader. Plath's generous tumult seems to generate more of itself, with or without me.

Which is why I have to share this section of a four part poem by Adrienne Rich, "For Ethel Rosenberg," which features in an anthology I'm reading for my nuclear study, Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age.

But first, a slightly sheepish plug for Fission Kitchen, where I'm studying nuclear power, from bombs to bulbs, from light to might: Visit http://fissionkitchen.tumblr.com to learn more and take a short, anonymous nuclear survey.


iv.
Why do I even want to call her up
to console my pain (she feels no pain at all)
why do I wish to put such questions

to ease myself (she feels no pain at all
she finally burned to death like so many)
why all this exercise of hindsight?

since if I imagine her at all
I have to imagine first
the pain inflicted on her by women

her mother testifies against her
her sister-in-law testifies against her
and how she sees it

not the impersonal forces
not the historical reasons
why they might have hated her strength

If I have held her at arm's length till now
if I have believed it was
my loyalty, my punishment at stake

if I dare imagine her surviving
I must be fair to what she must have lived through
I must allow her to be at last

political in her ways not in mine...

(1980)