DREAMING UP AN AVANT-GARDE

A first for Moi while I was sleeping last night. In a dream, I wrote up a panel presentation I'm due to give on December 18. During the light of day, I typed up the outline I remembered from the dream -- and dang if it don't work! So, you're invited to come see me dream in person at Bay Area Asian-Pacific-Islander-Amercan poets and the Avant Garde moderated by Barbara Jane Reyes, to wit

Panel discussion on Bay Area APIA poets and the avant-garde. In this panel, authors, editors, and educators will discuss APIA poetry, and their relationships with avant-garde poetries, the historical contexts for today’s poetries, and challenges or obstacles to writing with consideration to aesthetics and ethnic identity. Participants include Jai Arun Ravine, Margaret Rhee, Eileen Tabios, Truong Tran, and Jean Vengua, and others TBA.

More information HERE.

Should be interesting. If I can pull it off, I'll be able to throw into moi mix the brilliant artist Jenifer K Wofford's transformation of General MacArthur into a Pinay nurse!

"...DUCKS ARE LOOKING / THINNER..."

which is to say, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh with g emil reutter's contribution!

As ever, I welcome more poets' thoughts on the Great Recession...


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BRIGHT FRIDAY ... FOR POETRY REVIEWS!

A reminder that I’m still taking reviews for Galatea Resurrects)! Deadline is Dec. 5 but if you need a couple of extra days that’d probably work by Moi.

Meanwhile, here's moi latest update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. In the Publications section, note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects. Yeah! More info on that HERE.

PUBLICATIONS
* THE WAY WE LIVE, poems by Burt Kimmelman (warm, moving, pleasing, authentic—poetry from a mature, deservedly self-confident poet)

TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE A CONVERSATION, poems by Andrea Rexilius (lovely)

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT PAINTERS SHOULDN’T TALK: A GUSTON BOOK, poems by Patrick James Dunagan (rewards repeated readings of it)

* COEUR DE LION, poems by Ariana Reines (very engaging)

* MERCURY, poems by Ariana Reines

* I WANT TO MAKE YOU SAFE, poems by Amy King

* PIER, poems by Janine Oshiro

* NOTATIONAL, poems by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa

* ADVENTURES OF PI, poems by Tyrone Williams

* MAO’S PEARS, poems by Kenny Tanemura

* ONE PETAL ROW, poems by Jaimie Gusman

* A MAP PREDETERMINED AND CHANCE, poems by Laura Wetherington (hm)

UNABLE TO FULLY CALIFORNIA, poems by Larry Sawyer (hm)

* CONTENT by Marina Temkina and Michel Gerard (vizpo, I suppose, as it relies on a narrative based on a succession of photographs)

PINCHED: HOW THE GREAT RECESSION HAS NARROWED OUR FUTURES & WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT, socio-economic analysis by Don Peck

THE HARVEST GYPSIES: ON THE ROAD TO THE GRAPES OF WRATH, study by John Steinbeck

COWANS + CLARK + DELVECCHIO MODERN CERAMIC ART AND CRAFT AUCTIONS CATALOGUE

ART AND MADNESS: A MEMOIR OF LUST WITHOUT REASON by Anne Roiphe

THE AFFAIR, novel by Lee Child

ZERO DAY, novel by David Baldacci

JUSTICE, novel by Karen Robards

INNOCENCE, novel by David Hosp

THE FIFTH WITNESS, novel by Michael Connelly

CHASING FIRE, novel by Nora Roberts

HOT TARGET, novel by Suzanne Brockman


WINES
2007 Peter Michael chardonnay “La Carriere”
2005 Dutch Henry “Argos” cabernet NV
2009 NoveRoma zinfandel
2007 Black Pearl shiraz
2003 Rauzan Despagne
Cartlidge & Brown Chardonnay
Stone Cellars merlot
2004 Torbreck “Descendant” Barossa Valley (a simply gorgeous Thanksgiving dinner wine!)

A TURKEY OF A DAY

A "LABORER WORTH HIS SALT"!

And, yep, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh! with Jared Schickling. His contribution is illustrated by some kewl photographs by New York visual artist/musician Alec Maslowski, such as


“butterflies”—photograph by Alec Maslowski

As ever, I welcome more poets' thoughts on the Great Recession...



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RE. THE IRISH IMMIGRATION NARRATIVE...

which is to say, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh with Liam Duffy's contribution! As ever, I welcome more poets' participations....

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is FRESH!

with 17-year-old poet Faith Pascua, also the Youth Speaks Hawaii 2010 Grand Slam Champion! Also sharing their thoughts are Adam Fieled and Chris Stroffolino. As Faith's piece is illustrated by one of the more adorable images, I want to repost it here (here, where poets' pets are always welcome to be featured on Moi's Blog)!



Faith and her Mommy, with their two dogs (left) Bruno and (right) Pacman!

And, as always, I welcome more poets' thoughts on the Great Recession...

RESURRECTING THOSE POETRY BOOKS!

I don't know why public libraries deaccession poetry books. It's not like said libraries are for-profit institutions so why treat poetry the same way as out-of-date computer books or unpopular light fiction? Librarians--ye inherently cultural activists!--just make those books available! Anyway, here's another poetry book I plucked from a library's "freebie" section -- they didn't even bother to put it on shelves where they stock books for modest fundraising sales (I guess they, too, know it's difficult to sell poetry ... which is not a reason to deaccession them!)



Yep, Billy Collins didn't fare well at this library. But that's okay, I've placed it on my Community Book Shelf where it can have a second life by being yours for trade! So much for Mr. Poetry Bestseller...!

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Great Recession poetry economics is even worse than the usual moronic oxymoron of poetry economics. For example, for the last fiscal year, I (as a poetry publisher) apparently generated net sales through SPD of $193.37. After covering my annual SPD distributor fee of $160, I net, yep, $33.37. Well, at least I ain’t in the red…

Nor do I want poetry publishers to be in the red! So I did my modest bit with this latest update to my BOUGHT POETRY List:

THE CURVED PLANKS: POEMS, A BILINGUAL EDITION by Yves Bonnefoy, Trans. by Hoyt Rogers

THE ERRANCY by Jorie Graham

THE BOOK OF MIRRORS by Frieda Hughes

STONEPICKER AND THE BOOK OF MIRRORS: POEMS by Frieda Hughes

PRACTICAL WATER by Brenda Hillman

Nevuh mind Black Friday. Give a poetry book or a book by a poet for the Holidays! For instance... As for Moi, I'm personally eye-ing THIS ONE as a Xmas present to moiself...! Because I know My Man! will not disappoint....! Do consider that a recommendation, too!


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"MOMMY, YOU ARE NOT AN ATM..."

I just got my first post-launch submission to POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION. From a poet I don't know. 'Tis from a high school student in Hawai'i who sent a poem about watching her mother laid off from her job cleaning hotel rooms and she responding, "Mommy, you are not an ATM..."

Speechless (though blogging) over it, even as I was moved at picturing this 17-year-old teen writing her poems as she bears witness to what she cannot control as life unfolds. Probably good training for her future career: she wants to be a teacher. And no clearer evidence for me that this project is a good idea.

More later on this young poet ... and, as ever, I welcome your engagements with the topic.

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION

[Feel Free To Forward]

Announcement from POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION

"To bring the poem into the world
is to bring the world into the poem."

We are pleased to share the inauguration of POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION at http://poetsonrecession.blogspot.com. The project features poets presenting the many varied face(t)s of their Great Recession experience, and how such has affected (or not) their poetry. We are looking for more poets to participate (see Call below), but poets launching the project are:

Anonymous November 2011
("Neither of my books accepted for publication in 2008 will be issued....I have more than ten unpublished manuscripts.")

Alan Baker November 2011
("England's lamentable slaverie // the kettle’s boiled")

Michelle Bautista November 2011
("...it's important for me to be present, forgiving, truthful, and loving.")

John Bloomberg-Rissman November 2011
("The lower the level of education, the more likely a voter is to take seriously racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-science, religiously fanatical, etc etc candidates.")

Susan Briante November 2011
("... a new confessional—an economic confessional. What’s in your bank account, Poet? Who paid for your down payment? What do you owe? ...we have to locate our place in an economic continuum before we can honestly define our needs, understand the needs of others, activate our sympathies, act for change.")

Anne Gorrick November 2011
("The Great Recession set up a situation where I can say 'yes' to many, many things that make my own work bigger.")

j/j hastain November 2011
("This is a pledge to ever couple with and to never cripple.")

Karen Llagas November 2011
(""Let no one say / it’s just about the money, / that slender, / grief-stricken thing, / so thirsty for company")

Barbara Jane Reyes November 2011
("...surviving this recession as an artist requires that artists do away with a sense of entitlement...")

Leny M. Strobel November 2011
("Decolonization is not just for the post-colonial subject anymore.")

Eileen R. Tabios November 2011
("Gold for Poetry....I consider Poetry to be priceless.")

Dee Thompson November 2011
("Who is not comforted by eggs and cheese?")

Elizabeth Treadwell November 2011
("male dominance obscures / the true contributions of men.")

Erin Virgil November 2011
("Babies never made me sad before.")

Harriet Zinnes November 2011
("There are no outcasts in history. / We are all in its throes.")

***

We are always looking for more poets to participate. Call for Participation is at http://poetsonrecession.blogspot.com/2011/10/call-for-participation.html. Participating poets are asked simply to answer three questions:

1) What is (part of) your Great Recession experience?

2) How has the Great Recession affected your poetry?

3) Please share a poem(s) addressing your Great Recession experience.

***

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is the second of a planned curated series of POETS ON ____ [insert BIG TOPIC on blank]. The first project was POETS ON ADOPTION, for which we continue to look for participants, at http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com. We invite you to read, participate and please spread the word.

Eileen Tabios,
Poet & Curator of POETS ON ____ series

DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR GALATEA RESURRECTS!

Galatea Resurrects' deadline for reviews has been EXTENDED to Dec. 4, 2011!

That's right -- more time, entonces I look forward to more reviews!

DON'T BUY MY BOOK!

A particular book, anyway, that just came to my attention: EILEEN TABIOS.

After being weirded out by the book's existence, which was mostly "written" by compiling free material about me on the internet, I then took stock of how technology is such that -- but of course! -- aggregators can now deliver results in print book form rather than as websites. Vanity Fair and The New Yorker (among others) come to mind, too, for creating books by simply reprinting in anthology form articles they've already published and gathered under a certain theme.

By the way, I used to seed the internet with false information about moiself. Doesn't that mean this book is not EILEEN TABIOS but AVATAR EILEEN TABIOS? Heh: it wouldn't surprise me if the editor's name is also faux.

Anyway, I looked up the website of the publisher Culp Press and I'm thinking that they need to get together with interior decorators who at times are asked to put books on empty bookshelves for house residents who don't actually read enough to pick out books for themselves. What kind of editorial standard -- besides money -- exists if your "List" is over a million books, comprised mostly of aggregated material?

Blech.

Now, being human, I almost ordered a copy to see how the book formatted/organized its material. But it's $41 and while its existence wouldn't exist without Moi, said Moi ain't getting a single royalty penny. Is that fair?

But, actually, if everyone was a narcissist and ordered one copy of a book entitled by their name, that's hugely profitable, isn't it? A million times $41 is $41 million!

Or if even just half the authors purchased one copy, it'd be $20.5 million!

Wow. The implications continue to boggle the mind!

Yawn. The book ain't dead if it still makes money based on one sale per book. You just gotta figure out the market. Sadly, it ain't Poetry!

THE PACQUIAO POEMS!

Yo, this is the Chatty Blog -- particularly important to discerning sports fans! Welcome Boxing! To wit:

A while back, Manny Pacquiao's singing of that tune came to my attention, and I was struck by the following lyrics of the song he likes to sing (title doesn't come to mind at the moment):

Sometimes
when we touch
the honesty
is too much

Now, the original tune obviously was a love song. But if you think about boxing, isn't that another way of interpretation? I can imagine how a boxed "touch" can be quite honest (Pow! Ow!).

Anyway, I've long thought about a new manuscript of poems related to one of the World's Greatest Boxers, which is a way to raise your attention to this latest must-read article: "Mayweather versus that ‘little fella’ Pacquiao" by Benjamin Pimentel.

Now, if only I can get more freed-up time to devote attention to go commercial in poetry: Emmanuel 'Manny' Dapidran Pacquiao. I just know there are legions of boxing fans just awaiting this particular book:

THE PACQUIAO POEMS

Pow!! Ow!!




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POETS ON ADOPTION IS FRESH!

with Jeffrey Thomas Leong's participation and moving poems HERE.