RECOMMENDED NEW BOOKS

Barry Schwabsky, Sandy McIntosh and Denise Duhamel have released fabulous new books.

First, Barry's latest is BOOK LEFT OPEN IN THE RAIN (fabuloso title, dontcha agree?!) from John Yau's Black Square Editions. And what's good is you don't need to take my word for compliments to it. Here's what discerning mind Rodney Koeneke says about it on Goodreads:

Schwabsky’s adept and thoughtful lyrics twin the vagaries of love with the complexities of art, treating both as part of the same tangled interplay of surface, perspective, “self-portrayal,” and the erotically charged balance of power between observer and observed: “Notice the way I notice you.” The “you” that moves through the poems never quite resolves into an object, but gives occasion for the poet’s “crossing over into myself/in breath stained with images”: stars to blank pages, skies to “a child’s tooth.” If “the object of any and every couple

Second, Sandy's and Denise's collaboration is 237 MORE REASONS TO HAVE SEX from Mark Young's Otoliths Books. That's right, not 236 or 238 but specifically 237 more reasons to have hoo-haa. As the authors themselves point out, it'd be the "perfect Valentine's gift". Okey. Here's book info about it:

The inspiration for this chapbook was a story published in The New York Times about a study conducted at University of Texas, Austin by Professor Cindy Meston. She determined that there were exactly 237 reasons to have sex. However, as a postscript to her article in the Archives of Sexual Behavior Professor Meston admitted that "there should be some added."

As a result of deep consultation between Denise Duhamel and Sandy McIntosh, they decided to add the missing 237 reasons.

The work was accomplished after two weeks of fevered collaboration via email that left Sandy, at least in the words of his wife Barbara, "demented."

Their self-sacrificing work will be available at AWP in Chicago from February 11-14, and right now on the Otoliths and LuLu web sites.

Speaking of AWP, I've had to cancel my presence there....but do please check out my latest NOTA BENE EISWEIN at the Ahadada Books table...and then you can also get a copy of Sandy's/Denise's latest viz Sandy at the Marsh Hawk Press table (please check to make sure that Sandy hasn't buried my Marsh Hawk Press books behind his, you know what I mean?). Cheers!