The internet is so good for you.

I liked these "Dear Jim" poems by Matthew Langley* so much I looked at his bio to see if I could find out if he had more poems somewhere and I saw that he does indeed, and that some are published by and others are forthcoming from this new-to-me press called Subday.

You can get Matthew Langley's chapbook (...) by exerting some gentle pressure on your mouse and keyboard and not very much pressure on your wallet either. Right here.

And Subday has been added to the sidebar links.

*Dear eds, your fans pine for permalinks or author/date anchors on the archive pages!

Another review of Tony Tost's World Jelly

"[I]f there is a single word I would think of for this book, it would be elegant, a terrific combination of grace & compactness throughout. Tony Tost, of whom I’ve been aware for a few years without ever really reading closely, makes it look effortless. And, in a funny [way], it probably both is and isn’t." --Ron Silliman

Read the rest here.

And git on over to Effing Press to buy yr very own.

Charles Bernstein on small presses & poetry's social environment

Q: You've always worked with small and alternatives presses. Would you say more about what you think about the importance of the alternative presses?

A: The poem itself doesn’t exist outside of who produces it, what magazine it appears in, how the magazine circulates, who reads it, how they respond to it. All of these things are part of what the poem is. A poem isn't just some abstract letters on a page; it exists within its social environment. And not just the given historical world of jobs and states and family, but the ones we make through our writing, our publishing, our exchanges. The value of poetry is also the value of articulating specific, yet contestable, aesthetic values. And this is achieved by poets publishing their own work and the work of poets they believe in, by responding to the work they value, by organizing reading series and web sites and small presses in order to take control of every aspect of the means of production and reproduction.

Read the rest of the conversation (which ranges over many other topics) here.

Thanks to Josh Corey for pointing to this interview.

Three recent chapbooks reviewed

K. Silem Mohammad (poet of the terrific this & also the wonderous this & proprietor of the tart & delicious Limetree blog), posts short takes on three new chaps here.

Silk Flowers by Nada Gordon by Benjamin Friedlander

The Folded Note by David Larsen

World Jelly by Tony Tost

In the process, he introduces me (and maybe you too, eh?) to Slack Buddha Press & reminds me to put Poems for All (which appeared here before) in the links list!

A book, made before your very eyes!

You should definitely go peep the pics Maureen Thorson has posted of her first handbound hardcover, from digital layout to glueing the endpapers!

It's like magic. Hours and hours of fingernumbing, gluesniffing, beautiful booky magic.

New chaps from Horse Less Press. Yeehaw!

Horse Less Press announces the release of Winter Constellations by Nate Pritts, described as "lyric meets process among the wind-tossed grasses." (Click title for an excerpt.)

WINTER CONSTELLATIONS by Nate Pritts
6x6, staple-bound, 30 pp.
Cover print by Kate Schapira.
$5 via PayPal
or write
Horse Less Press
c/o J. Tynes
11 S Angell St. #188
Providence, RI 02906

The first 50 copies are handbound with laser-printed interiors. Subsequent copies are print-on-demand, and the paper and binding technique may vary. Email jen [at] horselesspress [dot] com for more info.

While you're at it, check out the other new Horse Less chapbooks by Mark Kanak, Adam Tobin & Tyler Carter here.