Kate Greenstreet's interview with Victoria Chang

Has your life been different since your book was published?

In truth, things do change, but the bigger question is--do those changes matter? People do email you or contact you telling you they liked a poem they saw of yours or they liked your book. In essence, you join an ongoing conversation about poetry and instead of being an observer, you become one of the observed. People start talking about your book if you're lucky. And I have made so many friends--really good people--who also have first books out. We can all, to some extent, relate to each other and it's a very human and lovely experience.

Read the rest here.

32 Poems is new, woohoo.

Get your copy (or subscription) here, pausing first to feast on the lovely "Cherry Tomatoes" by Sandra Beasley, since PayPalling works up an appetite.

Joe Massey notes Hazel McClure's Nothing Moving . . .

. . . with an excerpt, over here.

Reminder: you can get it from Gina at Lame House.

In the guise of a review of Kira Henehan's Seven Palms . . .

. . . Jordan Davis also takes the opportunity to articulate the scarcity economy of the poetry chapbook, & offer his opinion about why they're often where "it" is "at."

For the ambitious perfectionist poet--that is, every one you will ever meet -- the chapbook's the paradox of thrift: Although more likely than a book-book aka full-length collection to come through a perfect living text object, the chapbook does not, cannot exist in the open market of bookstores, prizes, and tenure track teaching positions. Try getting a copy-shop box of stapled items past TSA sometime--in these metal-detecting times, staples = suspicion. And on the converse, read a recent vintage book-book a day for a month and let me know what ratio of greatest hits to filler you come up with. (I'm seeing one-to-five on average. Higher than that ought to make anyone's list.)

Chapbook distribution comes down to mailing lists and event sales. Friendliness, and calculation. As with anything else in poetry, reviews and press may somehow miraculously light on a chapbook, but until someone builds a real paypal portal for micropresses, good luck tracking down that promising beta. Here's where the paradox comes in. Exasperation saved me from too much undergraduate study of economics, but I seem to remember something about scarcity . . . it's impossible to read let alone judge what it's impossible to find. The odds are always long and the circumstances often murky, but a perfect little chapbook nevertheless has a chance at generating some spark of mystique, buzz, quiddity. That which thrills readers with the illusion that time spent reading poetry is a wise use of the present moment.

Read the rest here.*

Then click on over to Ugly Ducking, Effing, Chuckwagon Editions (no site: hit Sean Casey's blog to get in touch), & Ryan Murphy (where does one find Ryan Murphy's one-off chaps, or is that mystery, like, the point?) for the chaps singled out for special CC love.

UPDATE: Ryan Murphy says McNally Robinson bookstore carries the chaps, so get thee to Soho, New Yorkers.

*Yo Constant Critic, why no permalinks on new reviews till they go to archive? I deduced from the archives what it's gonna be, but a link would be terrific.

A technological breakthough!

(OK, I just snipped and pasted the script.) Yesterday I added the option to open links in a new window, so's you don't get lost if you wanna come back here to finish browsing. Just uncheck the box in the sidebar if you don't wanna play this way.

ASSEMBLY + CRAFT = ARTIFACT

"Assembly + Craft = Artifact," an article by Stacy Elaine Dacheux featuring the Artifact Reading Series/Press and the "two San Francisco women [who] are keeping the DIY literary spirit alive with their monthly reading series and publishing project" appears in the current issue of Venus Magazine.

Issue #28 Summer 2006
106 pgs $4.50
on newstands or order online at Last Gasp

For more info about the Artifact Series and Artifact Press, run by Melissa R. Benham & Chana Morgenstern, check out their blog.

Artifact Press recently published Sara Larsen's Doubly Circulatory, (which features cover art by Stacy Elaine Dacheux, shown above) in a split edition of 150 copies, some handbound and signed, some saddle stapled. Order info is here.

& while you're at it, check out Stacy's main site for other published work, as well as her paintings & small press covers. (She might be a good person to contact if your press or journal is looking for visual art. Hint, hint.)

Speaking of Jeff Clark . . .

. . . (which I did, in the post re: Jesse Seldess's Who Opens below), he and Geoffrey G. O'Brien have just released a collaborative book, 2A.

Smythe-sewn paperback
96 pp.
$7.00 (+ $2.00 shipping)

Order via check or money order directly from the authors
Info here.

Roundup: New DIY books, chaps & zines

Foursquare 1.1 is now available!
From editor/publisher Jessica Smith:

FOURSQUARE 1.1 will begin mailing Monday. You can buy a subscription here, or if you're not sure you want to invest the $12, you can buy a single copy of issue 1.1 at Etsy for $4. 1.1 includes work by Elizabeth Treadwell, Shanna Compton [ahem], K. Lorraine Graham, and Linda V. Russo. Cover collage by Elena Siff. FOURSQUARE will feature 4 different female poets every month. The broadzine comes enclosed in an embroidered fabric envelope; my mom and dad helped with this part. I hope to feature female artists who make and design their own fabrics by using their work for the envelopes instead of mass-produced fabrics, but for that to happen I'll need more subscriptions.

Forthcoming FOURSQUAREs will feature work by Juliana Spahr, Maureen Thorson, Brenda Iijima, Jenny Boully, Michelle Detorie, Chris Turnbull, Claire Webb, & T.A. Noonan, with covers handpainted by Chelsea Warren and silkscreened fabrics by other women artists.


Free poetry--for FREE!--from Bill Allegrezza & Dusie

William Allegrezza's Ishmael Among the Bushes is available from Dusie as a free PDF, or you can write to Bill to see if he has any printed copies left. Bill's also got a new book called In the Weaver's Valley, just out from Blue Lion Books. It's POD and available via Cafe Press here. (Blue Lion Books is new to me, & it seems they specialize in poetry weighing in at 200 pp. plus. Check out the rest of their chunky offerings here.)


Kenning Editions recently released their first perfect-bound book!

Jesse Seldess's Who Opens was designed by Jeff Clark (a.k.a. Quemadura) & is now available from SPD. Editor/publisher Patrick Durgin has put his Kenning poetry newsletter aside to make way for more books, chapbooks, broadsides & other poetikal ephemera. Here's a review of Who Opens at the A Tonalist blog, & Chicago Postmodern Poetry offers this interview with the author.


The fruits of NaPoWriMo are juicy & variously colored!

Maureen Thorson (our fearless NaPoWriMo leader) collected one poem each from several April participants for this handbound chapbook, which was distributed gratis to the poets as a keepsake for our strenuous poetic strivings in Spring 2006. Rock. (Not sure if extras are available, but you might try Reen at Big Game Books to see.)


Joshua Corey's Compostition Marble from Pavement Saw Press

Originally titled Composition Marble, a felicitous error redubbed this new book to the author's liking. Though the chap's not yet available through the Pavement Saw online store, it should show up there any day now, so keep yer peepers peeled.


Am I missing something?

I don't doubt it. You energetic kids are a challenge to keep up with. Shoot me an email, & as always, I'm happy to post links to reviews, interviews, articles, site, catalogs, etc., or hey, why not send me an original review of something you've read lately?

Hooke Press makes books you like . . .

. . . including chapbooks by Norma Cole, Lauren Shufran, & Kevin Killian's Selected Amazon Reviews. The press was founded in late 2005 by Neil Alger & Brent Cunningham.

Check out their website here.