SNORTLE CHORTLE

So I'm busily receiving, editing and formatting reviews or engagements for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects. And now I'ma sitting here snorting over a line from a review received today that no doubt will be one of my favorite phrases in the issue:

Surely you've heard that the masochists are stronger than the sadists.

Gotta tell ya, Peeps, Galatea Resurrects makes reviewing fun.

GLOBALIZING POETRY!

Woot! I just received my first order from Belgium for any of my books (that I write or publish), and it's for two from the Tiny Books program! Yes, dears, I live to cover the world with poetry!

Which is to say, here's a reminder that, carpal tunnel syndrome notwithstanding, the Tiny Books series is still available for your pleasure ... all the while feeding the World literally with all proceeds going to the marvelous organization combatting global hunger, Heifer International! So what if Heifer just received $42.8 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation! That's a drop when it comes to combatting the need around the world. So, do consider ordering a Tiny Book -- have I mentioned that in your own lifetime, that book will become worth in the thousands?! It's a great nod to your retirement fund!

I'll stop pitching now before it becomes ugly...

CACKLE POETIX

Reb made moi day with this post; click on excerpt for entire thingie:

While I do not profit off others' desire to be published, I find that I am not profiting off of others' (non-existent) desire to buy my press' books.

The excerpt above though should help explain why I don't mind releasing my Poet's Income Statement. I don't think people realize just how IMPRESSIVE total annual revenues of $7,721.88 is. That's pure revenues, Peeps -- no grants, no subsidies....just hard-earned poetry sales. So consider this a *)(*&)(*&Bnn$#%$@^%$# PREEN!

Or as femmeow (vs fellow) poet-publisher Reb elucidates:

$50. Do you know how many books I have to sell to make that in royalties? Like a thousand. Well, actually somewhere between 10 and 20, depending on how and where they're sold.

A thousand, though, feels more accurate....

MAUVE SEA-ORCHIDS BY LILA ZEMBORAIN

Okay, I know -- a poet out there attempts statistical analysis and in the process misrepresents Meritage Press as well as what I do (thanks y'all for bringing it to my attention but I'm not bothered by it). I could write a tome tearing it apart but, as an economist-turned-poet, I only have compassion for poets who so falter at ... numbers-crunching.

Relatedly, what's been happening recently with me is that whenever pressure sources heat up, I've been turning to poetry books -- without intention, I've done three reviews in two days for Galatea Resurrects. It's a healthy antidote: unmediated lovely poems remind me the fulmination (even when well-intentioned, there's agenda, right?) of poets ain't the point. The point is the poems themselves, such as this excerpt from one of the most fabulous poetry collections I have read in at least the past three years (probably longer but my memory only goes that far): Mauve Sea-Orchids by Lila Zemborain, translated from the Spanish by Rosa Alcala and Monica de la Torre. This first (and about time!) full-length English poetry collection by the Argentine writer is published by Belladonna Books. Kudos to all who made this possible; here's an excerpt:

like the orchid patiently waiting for the bumble-
bee that will pollinate it, an unexpected wind
causes the flower of scents to burst open and
glands begin to secrete their effluvia so the
bumble-bee at celestial distances may perceive,
amid the night's fragrances, the intoxicating
substance; at the call of instinct it will fly
unaware of the destination of its random journey
until arriving at the site of the encounter; there,
beyond essences and circumstances, wrapped
in the scented sphere, they mate unknowingly,
because it is not their bodies that embrace and
touch, but the ethereal substance that overflows
and contains them....

You can open the book at random and every single page contains sinuous, luminous passages, which also often contain deeper meanings. In the above passage, for example, I glean an ars poetica of sorts, that is, just as one may begin a poem without knowing where the poem will go, "at the call of instinct, it will fly / unaware of the destination of its random journey / until arriving at the site of encounter."

Beautiful. THAT's not just what I'm talking about! THAT's what I choose to talk about!

Here's one more excerpt from this book I do suggest you run out to get:

cellular foundations, open your eyes, look at
the species, touch the thickness, amplify sense
of touch at the ends of your body; it is not in
the water where sound dissolves; it is in the
thicket, where serpents are growing

Moi poetics: no need to deny the serpents the luminous flowers, for those blooms' fragrances are ferocious...!

GALATEA RESURRECTS WOULD LOVE TO ENGAGE TOI!

I'm working on the forthcoming March issue of Galatea Resurrects. Deadline for reviews is March 5 for those of you reviewers who need reminding.

Meanwhile, I've also set the review deadline for the subsequent issue, Galatea Resurrects #10, to be July 5, 2008. Do go check HERE for available review copies -- lotsa lovely work looking for your engagement!

ECONOMICS AS A POET-PUBLISHER

Poetry Economics -- it doesn’t get any easier. I just did my taxes and here’s my 2007 Income Statement as a Poet (by which I include my roles as author and publisher):

2007 SUMMARY:
TOTAL REVENUES: $7,721.88
TOTAL COSTS: $14,027.17
NET LOSS ($6,305.28)

On one level, this is a good result in that the net loss figure is less than the prior year’s, per the 2006 summary:

2006 SUMMARY:
TOTAL REVENUES: $3,607.47
TOTAL EXPENSES: $10,068.83
PROFIT/(LOSS): ($6,461.36)

In comparison with 2006, I earned more last year in order to help finance higher costs which ramped up due primarily to book production costs. My earnings had to do with not just book sales (by me or by authors I publish) but also my paltry reading fees, a factor likely to decrease further in the future as I plan to downscale moi gigs.

Fortunately, I may not be able to live without poetry, but I most certainly don’t live on it. Six grand or so a year -- my contribution to high kultchah...

ON POLITICAL ABSTRACTIONS

Stephen Vincent's Haptics series -- including the poetics prose about such -- is as good an example of what is meant when we/certainly-I say that the act of creativity makes its author a better human being. Better in terms of being a more engaged person.

I remember when I came out with my first U.S.-published book, Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole. And I had claimed that these 'abstract" poems are political (for part of its political impetus, check HERE, per linkie from Jean). This claim bemused some. But now I point you to Stephen saying about his haptics which, to me, are abstract in the sense of being non-figurative:

The consciousness becomes awakened, refreshed, alert to the present. A haptic does not decide anything for anyone, or make any kind of claim on the representation of objects in either formal or an historic sense. These are not ‘things’ as such.

However, it would be disingenuous for me to suggest that the work is made oblivious to historical and/or personal and social content. Again, to the contrary. In the pressure of making a haptic, one’s consciousness it quite open and alert to the currents of public, domestic and other ‘orders’ of current knowledge.

Thank you for creating these, Stephen!

HEADS UP #5

Okay -- looks like I'll leave for South America on about March 15, and will stay there for about a month. So, before my departure, the goals (insofar as goals relevant to blogworld) are to put out the next issue of Galatea Resurrects, finalize production on The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. II, among other things. And if you have bidness with Moi, contact me now or soon before I go away to spotty internet access.

This is all part of making this Conjuration come true, which entails this in-progress list-as-autobiography poem:

Conjuration List Poem

St. Helena
San Francisco
Stanford
Los Angeles
Atlanta
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Manila
Santo Tomas
Vigan
Galimuyod
Vigan
Santo Tomas
Manila
San Francisco
St. Helena
Calistoga
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
Napa City
St. Helena
New York
San Francisco
Internet for "20 Hour Course"
St. Helena
Manila
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Napa City
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Los Angeles
SOUTH AMERICA
Los Angeles
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
===> March departure

Yep--this relates to the most important thing I'll ever do in my life.

EXCLAMATION POINT POETICS!!!

So one of my favorite parts about The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I, (or favorite facet from any of my books), is the up-ending of the back cover blurb system into a performance field for readers. Punctuations has no blurbs but has a series of blank lines that invites the reader to respond to the poems and then create his/her/hir own blurb. And any blurb sent to Moi (viz GalateaTen@aol.com gets a comp copy of my earlier xPress(ed) book, Menage a Trois...). Well, last night I was blessed to receive a blurb from -- and this makes it only better -- someone I've never met -- Stephen Hong Son, a prof at Stanford and apparently someone investigating what he calls "punctuational poetics"; because it makes me look good, of course Moi must inflict, I mean, share, his blurb with you:

"The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I" dramatically unmoors the paratextual markers that structure the English language, pushing the reader into a labyrinthine lyrical landscape of infinite reading possibilities.

That'd be

!!!!!

from Moi!!!!!

Always happy to see those poems find a hospitable ear (I first typed hear)...

BUT OF COURSE ROBERT PARKER'S WINE ADVOCATE WOULD BE ON MY POETS' BOOKSHELF!

And what I also love about the POETS BOOKSHELF series is its positive energy -- poets writing about books they loved and/or that influenced them. I'm honored to be in the just-released Volume II featuring 101 poets on their recommended books.

An interesting Nota Bene is the tally of the most mentioned influence in both Volume II and the earlier Volume I, which leads with Emily Dickinson, followed closely by William Carlos Williams. Needless to say, none of the poets/artists/lawyers I cited apeared on this list ... which of course is logical given the type of po-work Moi does (wink).

Anyway, I do recommend the volumes, two so far, in this series -- check it out! As I said in my review of Volume I, it's not just for poetry lovers but also for those who have not been following poetry but might be just curious now to ... follow poetry!

And here's latest list of moi Relished W(h)ines, with the wines logically indicating ye Spanish influence....

PUBLICATIONS:
PELICAN DREAMING: POEMS 1959-2008 (in manuscript form) by Mark Young

POETS BOOKSHELF II: CONTEMPORARY POETS ON BOOKS THAT SHAPED THEIR ART, Eds. Peter Davis and Tom Koontz

FAMOUS LAST WORDS, poems by Catherine Pierce

DAYS OF GRACE: SELECTED POEMS AND NEW (1984-2002) by R. Torres Pandan

THE TRUE KEEPS CALM BIDING ITS STORY, poems by Rusty Morrison

REALM SIXTY-FOUR, poems by Kristi Maxwell

GIFT FROM JULIA, poems by Boyd Spahr

TOO MANY CHAIRS ON THE GRASS GREEN HILL, poems by Christopher William Purdom

SACKING THE HENWIFE, poems by Jane Sprague

IDENTITY THEFT, poems by Catherine Daly

BIRD DOG, Issue Nine, Ed. by Sarah Mangold

OTOLITHS Issue Seven, Part Two, Ed. by Mark Young

HOLY HIP-HOP! NEW PAINTINGS BY ALEX MELAMID, art monograph with catalogue essay by Francine Prose

CROSSING THE YARD: THIRTY YEARS AS A PRISON VOLUNTEER, memoir by Richard Shelton

DIONISIO MORALES: A LIFE IN 2 CULTURES, autobiography

MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING: TWENTY-TWO WRITERS BREAK THE FINAL TABOO -- HOW MONEY TRANSFORMS FAMILIES, TESTS MARRIAGES, DESTROYS FRIENDSHIPS, AND SOMETIMES MANAGES TO MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY, Eds. Jenny Offill and Elissa Schappell

THE LOST DAUGHTERS OF CHINA: ABANDONED GIRLS, THEIR JOURNEY TO AMERICA, AND THE SEARCH FOR A MISSING PAST, memoir and study by Karin Evans

"NO ONE TO CALL ME HOME": THE HEARTBREAKING STORIES OF AMERICA'S NEW ORPHANS by Rev. James J. Close

HOPE MEADOWS: REAL-LIFE STORIES OF HEALING AND CARING FROM AN INSPIRING COMMUNITY by Wes Smith

RACHEL AND HER CHILDREN: HOMELESS FAMILIES IN AMERICA by Jonathan Kozol

THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF, novel by D.E. Stevenson

WALKERS OF THE WIND, novel by William Sarabande


WINES:
1989 Val Sotillo Gran Reserva Ribera Del Duero Bodegas Ismael Arroyo
1990 Ch. Haut-Marbuzet
2002 Marques de Riscal Rioja Reserva
2005 Montus Alpha cabernet
2005 Luigi Bosca Lujan de Cuyo
2003 Condada de Haza
1994 Artadi Pagos Viejos Reserva

LANGUAGE FOR A NEW CENTURY

From the heap in my In-Box through which I am slowly but surely plowing, is this Heads' Up Alert to invite you to the New York Book Launch for LANGUAGE FOR A NEW CENTURY: CONTEMPORARY POETRY FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, ASIA & BEYOND, Eds. Tina Chang, Ravi Shankar and Nathalie Handal with a Foreword by Carolyn Forche (W.W. Norton, New York, 2008). To wit, the "book party will take place at the 70,000 square foot Rubin Museum of Art in the heart of Chelsea between approximately 6pm and 9pm on Friday, April 25th, 2008. The event is free and open to the public."

So there you go -- hope you enjoy the event even as I won't be there to toast my first appearance in a Norton anthology. I anticipate that come April I'll be dealing instead -- and happily so -- with the ramifications of moi Latin American trip. Indeedy, looks like I'll have to return South in 2 weeks (deets to come).

"NEVER ENOUGH!"

Back and exhausted. Back from a trip that had me, among other things, having to sit through two pig races. Each pig -- or perhaps piglet since they were small -- were clad in the colors of a different country. England was always a loser. The winners in the two races I witnessed -- slack-jawed at the surreality of the experience -- wore red and blue as colors and, of course, are colors in many countries' flags.

Geezus. I am discussing pigs.

Anyway, catching up and, among other things, am thankful to Geof Huth for his engagement with Tom Beckett's Tiny Book and the significance of the Hows of its publication form. Click on excerpt below for whole thing -- Geof aptly has great things to say about Tom's poems but I focus on this excerpt that focuses on me not just because it's about Moi but because there have been less reactions to the Tiny Books series, to date, that addresses the publication format:

What is interesting in this book is how Eileen Tabios, the transcriber, has ostensibly taken on the role of co-writer of the book. My interpretation—possibly inaccurate—is that Eileen is the one who has visualized this writing, who has not just handwritten these words, but who has added the visual character of words presented as shapes, colored text, and varying sizes of text. When “a map” starts sloping down the page, taking text and giving it shape, I see Eileen’s hand and mind involved. She is not simply a transcriber; she is a writer. And she does more than just visualize the text intentionally; she does it unintentionally as well. Every book is in Eileen’s loose hand, one that doesn’t go for prettiness, but instead depends on speed and a kind of demotic script, generic, loose, easygoing—just about the opposite of what a book handwritten by me would look like. And this visual presence gives the book a different feel, a different message and meaning, than a typed book, even than a book written in a careful calligraphic hand. This visual presence of the text becomes an essential characteristic of the text—a source of its meaning.

And thanks, too, to Krip Yuson for his column in The Philippine Star reviewing Dredging for Atlantis as well as The Light Sang... Click on excerpt below for whole thing:

...a prose rendering on a lower, right-hand column. It's too long to quote in full, so let's skip to its arc of closure, which could well be read as Tabios' ars poetica: "... you will conclude, no matter how many poets have labored, are laboring, will labor, there are never enough poems. Never enough poems. And as you read me now, you feel me sitting before a small desk, buried in a man's plaid bathrobe, unkempt hair falling over bloodshot eyes, ink smudging all fingers, munching on 'a cookie chock full of mountainous chunks of rich milk chocolate and munchable macadamia nuts,' as I write, as I write, as I write: Never enough."

Damn right that's Moi arse poetica: chocolate and Never Enough!

"DOG IS MOI CO-PILOT"

I submitted to bird dog, edited by wonderful poet Sarah Mangold, in part because its title references ... dog, which made the pups Achilles and Gabriela hound me until I submitted. Well, I got Issue Nine today and, wow, what a lovely fabulous magazine with contributors such as John Olson (love his work!), Matthias Svalina (author of one of my favorite recent reads, the chap CREATION MYTHS), Michelle Detorie, Stephanie Strickland, Brian Henry, Judith Roitman, among others. So happy to be in it, and glad I listened to the dawgs.

Do check out bird dog, which is also currently open to submissions.

And now, off to Latin South for a week. Of course, I was seen off by ...

EVER HOSPITABLE TO POETRY

The St. Helena Public Library has a generous section of free books, mostly culled from donations. Yesterday, I picked up these works by poets. I'm not anymore interested in these poets than in others -- but sections of my poetry library do operate as, ahem, retirement homes for discarded poetry books. Which is interesting in that my poetry library, then, is not necessarily an accurate reflection of my own interests. Well, except insofar as that I believe a poetry book deserves a hospitable shelf as its home. Come to think of it, that's an important insofar...for someone who approaches poetry deliberately as a non-critic. Anyways, here are the ex-homeless books now relaxing at home with hospitable Moi:

EYE OF THE WOMB by Susan Suntree

MYTHS & TEXTS by Gary Snyder

THE KABIR BOOK: FORTY-FOUR OF THE ECSTATIC POEMS OF KABIR, versions by Robert Bly

A CONTINUOUS HARMONY: ESSAYS CULTURAL AND AGRICULTURAL by Wendell Berry

SOLITUDES CROWDED WITH LONELINESS by Bob Kaufman

OSIP MANDELSTAM: SELECTED POEMS, a bilingual edition translated by David McDuff

GIANT NIGHT by Anne Waldman

SHADOWING MAN by William Cody

EARTH HOUSE HOLD by Gary Snyder

BLACK LIGHTNING CONTINUES TO BLOSSOM...!

Actress Laura Huggins reviews a Meritage Press release, STAGE PRESENCE for OOV. I'm really pleased that in the first paragraph -- excerpted below -- the reviewer got it! Click on it for whole review:

How often have history books told the story of another's culture, as a construct and not necessarily the way it actually happened? When the opportunity presents for members of non-dominant culture to speak to dominant society about their actual experiences-the others' point-of-view prompts dialogue that can enrich the lives of both.

It's the same impetus underlying PINOY POETICS which Meritage Press also released....and, actually, the seed of these particular approaches is my VERY FIRST BOOK!

CRITIPHORIA IS ... CRITICAL!

I'm delighted to be part of the inaugural issue of CRITIPHORIA, whose "About" section explains its mission:

Critiphoria seeks to build a community to nourish individuals invested in the potential of language to structure experience, facilitate social interaction, advance critical understanding, and enhance the availability of institutional resources. We consider the evolving relationship between an ethics of experience and an aesthetics of representation and encourage cross-genre pollination, intermedia experimentation, and interdisciplinary dialogue. We serve as a repository for linguistic and poetic explorations, forum for contemporary cultural concerns, and pedagogical tool for promoting intellectual awareness and educational opportunity. Critiphoria publishes a bi-annual on-line journal, and is partially funded by the St. John's University Center for Teaching and Learning.

My contribution is a poem-review (oh make that poem-engagement!)of Paul Auster's Collected Poems....and am delighted to see it in the company of the stellar works by these other participants:

Karen Alkalay-Gut
Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers
Stan Apps
Allen Bramhall & Tim Peterson
Derek Beaulieu
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Charles Borkhuis
Abigail Child
Ewa Chrusciel
Ewa Chrusciel & Kate Dusenbery
Peter Ciccariello
Wystan Curnow
Jackie Clark
Thomas Cook
Maria Damon
Alan Davies
Kenneth Deifik
Holly Delaney-Wade
Thom Donovan
Denise Duhamel
Thomas Fink
Norman Fischer
Cliff Fyman
Drew Gardner
Jenny Grassl
Jeff Harrison
Carla Harryman
Niels Hav
Jamey Hecht
Mitch Highfill
Jen Hofer & Dan Machlin
Bob Holman
Brenda Iijima
Adeena Karasick
Robert Kocik
Matthew Landis
Sueyeun Juliette Lee
Kimberly Lyons
Mary Mackey
Jill Magi
Scott Malby
Filip Marinovich
Stephen Paul Miller
Stephen Paul Miller & David Shapiro
Daniel Morris
Glenn Mott
Marty Northrop
JoAnna Novak
Maurice Oliver
Nick Piombino
Evelyn Reilly
Joan Retallack
Christie Ann Reynolds
Eric Rzepka
Leslie Scalapino
Jennifer Scappettone
David Shapiro
Frank Sherlock
James Sherry
Sean Singer
Stephanie Strickland
Eileen Tabios
Paige Taggart
Anne Tardos
Sam Truitt
Chris Tysh
Nico Vassilakis
Tyrone Williams

Especially as it's a new issue, one should thank those responsible for CRITIPHORIA! To wit, Tim Peterson and the site's named angels:

EDITORS:
Stephen Paul Miller
Cecilia Wu

ADVISORY BOARD:
Karen Alkaly-Gut
Maria Damon
Kenneth Deifik
Denise Duhamel
Peter Frank
Bob Holman
Carolee Schneemann
David Shapiro

DOWNTOWN SF BARGAINS

Was in San Francisco today to lunch (first typed "launch") with the lawyer, which is why I was in the midst of the Financial District. And so whilst there stopped off in Stacey's, a bookstore that of course I don't get to visit that often -- nor is it a bookstore that comes to mind when one thinks of recommended poetry bookstores. So this is to say, I hadn't realized until today that their basement contains one of the better bargain book sections involving poetry titles!

For a buck each, I saw books by Ai, Basil King, John Yau, Wanda Coleman, Gerald Stern, among many others...as well as that absolutely FABULOUS anthology SONGS OF LOVE AND WAR: AFGHAN WOMEN'S POETRY. Also marvelous bargains in history, biography and many other categories -- I left the store with two huge bags of books. Y'all in SF area should check it out.

As for Moi, here are the bargains I got that involve poetry or poets' writings:

A BUCK EACH:
IN PURSUIT OF A VANISHING STAR, novel by Gustaf Sobin
NOTES FROM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY, poems by Suji Kwock Kim
OSTINATO VAMPS, poems by Wanda Coleman
AMERICAN SONNETS, poems by Gerald Stern (hardback)
BLUE SUBURBIA, memoir viz poems by Laurie Lico Albanese

FOR $1.99 EACH
A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT, novel by Cynthia Thayer (hardback)

FOR $2.99 EACH
ROCK HARBOR by Carl Phillips (hardback)
THE LATE GREAT ALLEN GINSBERG: A PHOTO BIOGRAPHY by Christopher Felver

All in excellent condition, Peeps. Hightail it down there and give those poems a home!

And now I'm better stocked for airplane reading for my out of town trip next week!

DUSIE 7, YEAR TWO OF THE KOLLEKTIV

I have to say -- Susana Gardner did a magnificent job with one of the best poetry ideas in cyberspace:

               DUSIE 7 -- a kollektiv of chaps

Honored that moi chappie, THE SINGER AND OTHERS: FLAMENCO HAY(NAKU, is part of this project!

THE DEEPLY MUSICAL ... SEMBLANCE!

A SEMBLANCE: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS 1975-2007 by Laura Moriarty (Omnidawn) is a revelation -- I'd had no clue just how fabuloso Laura's poems were, in part because much of her work has not been accessible to me. Well, her SELECTED addresses the needed compilation. Check it out -- it is one of the most lush, gaw-geous, lyrical, musical poetry collections I have ever read!

And here's my latest Relished W(h)ine list:

PUBLICATIONS:
A SEMBLANCE: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS 1975-2007 by Laura Moriarty

CLARITY AND OTHER POEMS by Thomas Fink

ERASURE AND ILLUMINATION (in manuscript form), poems by Amy Levine

LIST'N, poems/pwoermds by Karri Kokko

SNITCH CULTURE, poems by Wade Fletcher

A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO MOUNTAIN CLIMBING, poems by Jane Augustine

EITHER SHE WAS, poems by Karin Randolph (fabulous debut collection -- all prose poems)

A DIFFERENT PRACTICE, poems by Fredrik Nyberg, Trans. by Jennifer Hayashida

GUESTBOOK, poems by Rick Snyder

GLACIER ADVANCES, poem by Cheryl Quimba

DEAR REGIME: LETTERS TO THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC, poems by Roger Sedarat

ORIGAMI SHIPWRECK, poems by Craig Perez and Katy Acheson

DREAMING IN LIBRO: HOW A GOOD DOG TAMED A BAD WOMAN, memoir by Louise Bernikow

MY MOTHER WEARS COMBAT BOOTS: A PARENTING GUIDE FOR THE REST OF US by Jessica Mills

THE EXACT SAME MOON: FIFTY ACRES AND A FAMILY, memoir by Jeanne Marie Laskas

GROWING GIRLS: THE MOTHER OF ALL ADVENTURES, memoir by Jeanne Marie Laskas

MIRACLES FOR MARLEE, memoir by Shannon G. Turner

A PAINTED HOUSE, novel by John Grisham

THE APPEAL, novel by John Grisham


WINES:
2001 Behrens & Hitchcock merlot NV
1993 St. Francis zinfandel Old Vines Sonoma
2004 Whitehall Lane merlot NV
Drappier "Val Des Demoiselles" Rose Brut
2006 Hexamer "Meddersheimer Rheingraffenberg" Riesling, Kabinett
2001 Turkey petite syrah Library Vineyard
2000 Turley Atlas Peak zinfandel Mead Ranch
2004 Black Kite pinor noir
1992 Judds Hill cabernet NV

HEADS UP (#4)

Okay. Rather than go to South America for a month or so right away, it looks like I'll first go for a week, and then return there later for the longer stay. Don't know when the latter will occur, but I now have plans to meet with our Latin brethren from Feb. 9-16.

So those of you with bidness with Moi, talk to me through all of next week. Then I'm away/offline for a week. Then I return back to Bay Area to continue being on pins-and-needles for the longer trip that'll seal the deal down South.

Geezus I'm tired...

THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY -- VOLUME 2!

Yay! I'm proofing The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. II, Eds. Mark Young and Jean Vengua, that's due out in a matter of months. Which means I also can share who will be in the book -- 51 poets and artists! Here are their names below -- though also now up at the hay(na)ku blog -- including a group of Elizabeth Robinson's creative writing students at the University of Colorado in Boulder:

John Bloomberg-Rissman
Allan Aguilar
David-Baptiste Chirot
David Giannini
Christian Jensen
Ray Craig
Bill Freind
Thomas Fink
Dion Farquhar
Alex Gildzen
Jeff Harrison
Geof Huth
M. J. Iuppa
Jill Jones
Scott Keeney
Leigh Knight
William Allegrezza
Karri Kokko
Rebeka Lembo
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
nick-e melville
Crag Hill
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen
Derek Motion
Sheila E. Murphy
Tom Beckett
Lars Palm
Chad Parenteau
Ernesto Priego
Christopher Rieder
Michael Steven
Ernesto Acosta Sandoval
harry k stammer
Jordan Stempleman
Eileen Tabios
Harriet Zinnes
C. St. Perez
Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
Michael A. Fink

Elizabeth Robinson's Poetry Class
Elizabeth Robinson
Adam Baker
Spencer VanBuskirk
Elan Benami
Chris Caruso
Audrey Knowling
R. Noelle Clason
Jessica Kirkbride Miller
Carnyta Lewis
Eric Schrader

What a stellar list! THANKS to all for participating -- for your love and enthusiasm for the hay(na)ku!

Not surprisingly, we've also received absolutely fabulous submissions for THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU project! But one thing at a time -- first, Volume II!