comment 0

Book Notes: Christopher Salerno’s Minimum Heroic

Favorite lines:

where stage blood or sunlight

fills the hundreds of clear jellyfish splayed along the beach

(from “In the Golden Age of Counterfeiting)

&

Each night on the terrace where crows pick locks,

I paint my little crow gold, and it sings my new favorite

part and we go for a spin in a a good gear

(from “Whirl”)

&

The dog takes the leash in his mouth. A bottle rocket lay in the snow. A canary lay in the snow. I dreamt my father, uncle, brother were throwing pies at a bear. But there’s no pie in the ivy. No snowball in the sentence. No teeth coming down.

(from “IV. Exit [If the Blind Need Nudging:]”)

The one about the jellyfish is particularly right. I walk by jellyfish every morning on the Potomac. They’re all smudged up on the beach with that weird reddish brain. It looks like they were just tossed there like junk.  I will read more of this when I can.

comment 0

Cheryl’s Gone, March 18: Susan Tichy, Sergio Waisman, Will Schutt

8:00pm – 10:00pm

Big Bear Cafe

1st and R NW

Washington, DC

Susan's New Book

Susan Tichy is the author of four books, including A Smell of Burning Starts the Day (Wesleyan University Press) and The Hands in Exile (Random House), which was selected for the National Poetry Series. Ahsahta Press published the best-selling Bone Pagoda in 2007, and the recently released Gallowglass. Her poems have appeared widely in the US and Britain, and have been recognized by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by numerous other awards. She teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at George Mason University in Virginia, and otherwise makes her home in a ghost town in the Colorado Rockies.

Sergio Waisman is the author of the novel ‘Leaving’ (2004) and of the book of literary criticism ‘Borges and Translation: The Irreverence of the Periphery’ (2005). Waisman has also translated six books of Latin American literature, including ‘The Absent City’ by Ricardo Piglia, for which he received an NEA Translation Fellowship Award in 2000. His latest translation is ‘The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution’ by Mariano Azuela. Sergio Waisman is currently Associate Professor Spanish and International Affairs at The George Washington University.

Will Schutt is a poet and translator from New York City. He earned his BA from Oberlin College and his MFA from Hollins University, where he was a teaching fellow and editorial assistant at The Hollins Critic. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as Faultline, FIELD, Harvard Review and The Southern Review. In 2003, he co-founded Verso, a culture and arts magazine based in Siena, Italy, where he was a contributing editor and translator until 2007. He guest edited the “Focus” section of the summer 2008 issue of A Public Space, which featured a selection of his translations of contemporary Italian fiction. He is also the recipient of the 2008 Gertrude Claytor Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.

This will be one of Susan’s first readings from Gallowglass. She’s a great reader, so I’m incredibly bummed that I’ll be out of town for this one. Do come out and support her, Sergio, and Will (who is an incredible smoker of cigarettes. it’s really just fun to watch).

Cheryl’s Gone, March 18: Susan Tichy, Sergio Waisman, Will Schutt
comments 2

Before I Knew It

my book was conscious, alert, responding to questions, doing nicely.  Black Ocean made it available for pre-sale today.  Click on the link and purchase it.  There. Hopefully that direct command will work.

More Than Digital

Whew. It’s been a long road here. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Now that I’m finished with final edits and etc. I’m going to read some new books over spring break. What I’m looking forward to:

Susan Tichy’s Gallowglass.  War is always on my brain. Susan sorts it out better than anyone I know.

Commuter by James Belflower.

Chris Salerno’s Minimum Heroic. He sent me a beautiful print with the book. Thanks!

Rob Halpern’s Disaster Suites. (If you’re in Book Club and you’re reading this, sorry. I know. I’m behind).

& J. Michael’s Heridities.

Plus whatever else is on the stack.