Last night’s reading at Mac’s was a tide of wonderful poetry. Thanks to all the poets who read and the poetry lovers who made it a party. Sometimes poetry of witness wakes us up. Sometimes it simply gives voice to... Read More

Saturday, April 28, 2012 This evening at 7, Night under Footsteps: Eric Anderson, Nin Andrews, Robert Miltner, and Karen Schubert. Chaps by Andrews, Miltner, and Schubert, Anderson’s handmade full length book; an exaltation of other wompus chapbooks, artist’s books. Refreshments will be... Read More

April 21, 2012 This morning I forced myself out of bed too early. I needed the season’s fruits, and they were worth the effort. Our local farmers’ market meets on Saturdays and you’d best get there early–this week the shiitakes... Read More

Poetry month gives me the heebie-jeebies. Events too jammed together (extroverts must love it), and the implication that the other eleven months are not poetry months. Nevertheless, a lot of good stuff gets out for an airing in April. Here... Read More

A brilliant little comic strip from illustrator and cartoonist, Grant Snider. Happy Poetry Month!... Read More

At AWP David Rigsbee gave me a copy of his 2011 collection, The Pilot House, on the cover of which is Jill Bullitt’s ghostly painting, “War Dead.” No wonder this book took the Black River Chapbook Competition. The poems within... Read More

I went to an off-site reading this evening given by an MFA program and two small presses, New Rivers and White Pine. It was at Blackie’s bar not far from the conference hotel and the readers were wonderful. The crowd... Read More

On a Bed of Gardenias: Jane & Paul Bowles, Karren Alenier’s sixth collection of poetry, unfolds the exotic love story of Jane Auer and Paul Bowles, two American expatriate writers considered to be the precursors of the American Beats. Karren’s... Read More

12/25/11 This is the time of year when everyone’s making Best Of lists from the past year. My list for the year includes We, the Animals by Justin Torres, and Hotel Utopia by Robert Miltner, two books that run many times deeper than long, each... Read More

11/6/11 Novelist Mona Simpson’s eulogy for her brother Steve Jobs is online in the NY Times. His tremendous hunger to live the life he was meant to live may be the most important gift he leaves us. We joke sometimes... Read More