Birds, LLC in Poets & Writers

Here

Mini Tour w/ Salerno & Gabbert

It's always great to go back to Boston. Especially the Pierre Menard Gallery. Great to hear Joe Hall read again. Thanks to Chris Marstall for some badass hosting.

Yardmeter was steamy! Thanks for the great intros from Jared and Farrah...from afar! And to Shelton (Sheldon?) for the great space. I think I ruined Ben Mirov's life. Nice to meet you Sy and Teddy! Thanks for the lift Cotter!

Philly was the dark horse of the tour. Due to a change of venue, the reading was in Mt. Airy, a little ways outside the city. But the crowd was terrific. And the fooseball dance party after was magic. Thanks especially to Cori and Jon (Lily and Tate). And Luke for the space. And to Dan, Sam, and Paige for being awesome groupies. Nice to meet you...Anthony, Sarah, Levy(i), Hannah, and especially Zach and Andy.

DC was great, thanks to Joe and Wade. Chris, Elisa, and Julie killed. Thanks Abby and Jay! Great to see you Caryn!

For People Who Like Gravity and Other People

New chappy out from Rope-A-Dope!

Photograph by Clay Banes

"My photo-post this morning, taken on my knee, waiting for the train."

Birds, LLC announces the release of Elisa Gabbert's THE FRENCH EXIT and my THE TREES AROUND

Birds, LLC is a new independent poetry press specializing in close author relationships in order to make the most awesome books in the world.

The first two books published by Birds, LLC are The French Exit by Elisa Gabbert and The Trees Around by Chris Tonelli.

SPECIAL PRE-SALE OFFER: Buy the first two Birds, LLC releases for just $20. Pre-Sale offer lasts until March 31st. Books ship the first week in April.

About The French Exit:
It’s a pleasure to listen to the opinions of the narrator of The French Exit. Clear-eyed imagery and wit control the anxiety: “[A] boy at the counter disappears / or I can see through him.” Likewise, in a fine prose poem: “Do not be afraid of angering the birds. What angers the birds is fear.” The energy throughout Gabbert’s collection has the clip of the French exit itself – allons-y! – self-aware, self-sufficient, in control, in touch.
- Caroline Knox


About The Trees Around:
Full of the will and the weather, that great skeptic Wallace Stevens walked to work and wrote his poems, poems you may well already love and believe. (Good, as they say, for you.) And as for Chris Tonelli, he walks in that integrity: read him, and be merciful unto yourself. His foot standeth in an even place. This book’ll make you bloom.
- Graham Foust

Buy them HERE! One for $12 or both for $20!!!

TOWN

Kate Schapira asked about a hundred people to describe an imaginary town. She built the contributions of those who responded into poems that explore how we live differently in the same world, who we mean when we say we, what we mean when we say here.

To see: http://www.factoryschool.com/pubs/heretical/vol5/schapira/index.html
To buy: http://www.spdbooks.org/Search/Default.aspx?AuthorName=Schapira

The New England Art Awards

The nominees are up. Vote for Andi and I here in the "Public exposure" category.

Allison swallowed the other pumpkin!!!

Uh oh.

Allison, this is what pumpkins turn into!

Turns out she knew what pumpkins turn into and made me practice giving CPR to this creepy fake one.

I guess Allison isn't giving birth to our personal savior...looks like Paul already filled the job. Guess we'll have to get a bigger manger.

SO AND SO #34

Poetry by Farrah Field * John Gallaher * Kate Greenstreet

Broadsides by Christopher Salerno

Saturday * November 21st * 8pm * Morning Times * 10 E. Hargett Street * Raleigh, NC



Farrah Field's poems have appeared in many publications including the Mississippi Review, Typo, Harp & Altar, La Petite Zine, Eklesographia, Effing Magazine, and are forthcoming in Ploughshares. Rising, her first book of poems won Four Way Books’ 2007 Levis Prize. She lives in Brooklyn and blogs at adultish.blogspot.com.





John Gallaher is the author of the books of poetry, Gentlemen in Turbans, Ladies in Cauls (Spuyten Duyvil, 2001), The Little Book of Guesses, winner of the Levis Poetry Prize, from Four Way Books, and Map of the Folded World, from The University of Akron Press, as well as the free online chapbook, Guidebook from Blue Hour Press. Other than that, he's co-editor of The Laurel Review and GreenTower Press. Currently he's working on a co-authored manuscript with the poet G.C. Waldrep, titled Your Father on the Train of Ghosts, due out in Spring 2011 from BOA Editions.





Kate Greenstreet's second book, The Last 4 Things, is new from Ahsahta Press and includes a DVD containing two short films based on the two sections of the book. Ahsahta published Greenstreet's case sensitive in 2006. She is also the author of three chapbooks, most recently This is why I hurt you (Lame House Press, 2008). Find her poems in current or forthcoming issues of jubilat, VOLT, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Court Green, and other journals. Visit her online at kickingwind.com.

The Split-Decision Anthology from Rope-A-Dope

Here!

Mini-Tour

11/7 Yes, Reading! in Albany, NY w/ Janaka Stucky

11/8 Somewhere in Vermont w/ Janaka Stucky

11/9 Slope Editions Reading Series in Turners Falls, MA w/ Janaka Stucky & Brian Foley

A Review of NO THEATER

Thanks, Chris!

ZERO LBS.

Gravitron reviewed at the BIG RED & SHINY

AFFECTS OF GRAVITY: Gravitron at the Topsfield Fair Oct. 2-4

Experience anti-gravity art at the Topsfield Fair in October 2009!

Affects of Gravity

October 2-4th

Topsfield Agriculture Fair, Topsfield, MA

Join artist Andi Sutton and poet Chris Tonelli for Affects of Gravity a sound installation that will take place on a Gravitron amusement park ride at the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, MA, on Oct. 2 – 4th.

When: Friday, October 2 (4-10 PM)

Saturday, October 3 & Sunday, October 4th, 2009 (10 AM - 10 PM)

In this collaborative intervention, Sutton and Tonelli present a sound installation of poetry and gravity experienced while riding the centripetal-force-induced anti-gravity amusement park ride, the Gravitron. This project, sponsored by the Council for the Arts at MIT, brings riders into the metaphoric world of the Gravitron through a soundscape of amusement park field recordings and poems narrated by the Gravitron itself – stories of the Midway, its riders, and seasonal cyclical labor. The poems, selections from Tonelli’s forthcoming chapbook For People Who Like Gravity And Other People (Rope-a-Dope Press 2010), draw upon this age-old symbol of American entertainment and consumer distraction. The Gravitron asserts the trapped cycle of its existence and the isolation that occurs when the ride, the amusement, and the distraction, finally stops.

Get on… Lean against the wall…

Ticket information and transportation

RSVP to reserve a free ticket for the Gravitron and discounted entry to the Topsfield Fair ($8) on October 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.

A free, round-trip bus ride, departing from Kendall Square, Cambridge, is available on Saturday, Oct. 3rd along with the Gravitron and discounted Topsfield Fair tickets. Space is limited – RSVP soon to reserve a spot. The last day to RSVP is September 25th.

For tickets and/or a spot on the bus, contact Andi Sutton (andi.sutton@gmail.com)


Collaborative team:

Andi Sutton is an artist whose work explores the ways performance art methodology can be used to create alternative models for community and social engagement. She pursues an interdisciplinary collaborative art practice and is involved in the National Bitter Melon Council (www.bittermelon.org), Platform2: Art and Social Engagmeent (http://www.janemarsching.com/platform2/), among others. Her work has appeared locally and internationally at art centers, museums, public venues, in art and street contexts, on curious tongues and inside hungry bellies.

Chris Tonelli is the author of four chapbooks, most recently No Theater (Brave Men Press, 2009). His first full-length collection, The Trees Around, will be out in April from BIRDS, LLC. He teaches at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC where he lives with his wife Allison.


Special thanks to the Topsfield Fair (http://www.topsfieldfair.org/), running from October 2 – 12th, 2009, and Midway ride distribution company Fiesta Shows (http://www.fiestashows.com/), and Rope-a-Dope press (http://rope-a-dope-press.blogspot.com/) for their collaboration.

Funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT.

Rope-A-Dope at the Boog City Festival

Join us on Thursday, September 10th at 7PM for the 7th Season Kickoff of d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press

ACA Galleries
529 W. 20th St., 5th Floor
NYC

Readings from Mary Walker Graham, Justin Marks, Kate Schapira, Kim Gek Lin Short, Sampson Starkweather, and Chris Tonelli

Music from Erik Schoster of He Can Jog

Please note that there's been a time change. The reading is now at 7PM, not 6.

The complete Welcome to Boog City Festival schedule is available for download here.

A review of Ellen Kennedy's SOMETIMES MY HEART PUSHES MY RIBS

Here.

A Couple of Tidbits

Here.

Here.

So and So #33

Poetry from Emily Kendal Frey * Jim Goar * Zachary Schomburg

Designs by Ryan Cook

Saturday * August 15th * 8pm * Morning Times * 8 E. Hargett Street * Raleigh, NC



Emily Kendal Frey lives in Portland, Oregon and teaches at Portland Community College. She is the author of AIRPORT (Blue Hour Press, 2009) and, with Zachary Schomburg, TEAM SAD (Cinematheque, forthcoming).





Jim Goar has spent the past few years in Brevard, Bangkok, Seoul, and Norwich. His poetry has been published by Harvard Review, English, LIT, Jacket, Octopus, Typo, Cimarron Review, and others. His chapbook, Whole Milk, is out from Effing Press. A manuscript, Seoul Bus Poems, will be published by Reality Street Editions in 2010. He edits the journal, past simple.





Zachary Schomburg is the author of The Man Suit (Black Ocean 2007) and Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean 2009). He co-edits Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. He lives in Portland, OR, where he secretly murders people with his bare werewolf hands.





Ryan Cook is a graphic designer and letterpress printer living in Raleigh, NC. He graduated with a Bachelor of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University (BGD '06). Along with working extensively with letterpress in school he also studied letterpress abroad at the London College of Communication and interned at YeeHaw Industries in Knoxville, TN. He recently opened SomethingPressed (www.somethingpressed.com), a letterpress shop in downtown Raleigh. Recent projects include posters for The Bain Project (www.bainproject.com) and The Rock & Shop Market
(www.rockandshopmarket.com).

NO THEATER

Now available.

THIS is ALSO happening.

Allison is 13 1/2 weeks preggers and is feeling great. We're not good at grand announcements, so don't be all mad if we haven't told you. We only told people who directly asked us so as not to lie.

THIS is happening.

And by "this" I mean this.

CAROLINA WREN PRESS & COCKEYED PRESS present an evening with four poets
7pm, Friday, May 29th, 2009
Sound Pure, 808 Washington Street Durham, NC 27701

Shirlette Ammons
Karen Leona Anderson
Andrea Selch
Chris Tonelli

Shirlette Ammons is the author of Stumphole Aunthology of Bakwoods Blood (Big Drum Press, 2002) and Matching Skin, featuring the John Anonymous EP (Carolina Wren Press, 2008). Her work recently appeared in The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South and What Your Momma Never Told You: True Stories about Love and Sex. She has received a John Hope Franklin Grant for Documentary Studies, the Ebony-Harlem Award for Literary Talent, as well as Emerging Artist Grants from the Durham Arts Council and the United Arts Council. She was a Cave Canem Fellow in 2008. She is also vocalist and co-bassist for the hip-hop rock band Mosadi Music, whose debut album,
The Window, was released in 2006.

Chris Tonelli co-curates The So and So Series and is the author of No Theater (Brave Men Press, forthcoming), For People Who Like Gravity and Other People (Rope-A-Dope Press, forthcoming), A Mule-Shaped Cloud (with Sarah Bartlett, horse less press, 2008), and WIDE TREE: Short Poems (Kitchen Press, 2006). He edits the Golden Gloves Chapbook Series for Rope-A-Dope Press and is the On-Line Editor for Blcak Ocean. He teaches at N.C. State in Raleigh.

Andrea Selch has an MFA from the UNC-Greensboro, and a PhD from Duke University. Her poetry has appeared in Calyx, The Greensboro Review, The Asheville Poetry Review, Luna, The MacGuffin, Oyster Boy Review, and Prairie Schooner, among others, as well as on the Best American Poetry Website. She received a 2008 “Hippo” Award from The Monti for her spoken story, "Replacement Child.” Her three collections of poetry are Succory (Carolina Wren Press, 2000), Startling (Turning Point, 2004) and Boy Returning Water to the Sea: Koans for Kelly Fearing (Cockeyed Press, 2009). She has directed the Carolina Wren Press since 2002.

Karen Leona Anderson, author of Punish honey (Carolina Wren Press, 2009), has an MFA from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, an MA from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and a PhD from Cornell University. Her poems have appeared in jubilat, Verse, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, The New Republic, Fence, Sycamore Review, Pleiades, Third Coast, Columbia, Volt, Colorado Review, Sonora Review, and Poetry Ireland Review. She is an assistant professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

So and So #32

Justin Marks * kathryn l. pringle * Chris Vitiello

Saturday * May 16th * 8pm * Morning Times * 8 E. Hargett Street * Raleigh, NC




Justin Marks' first book is A Million in Prizes (New Issues Press). He is also the author of several chapbooks, the most recent being Voir Dire (Rope-a-Dope Press). New work can be found in Harp & Altar, Sink Review and Tusculum Review. He is the founder and editor of Kitchen Press Chapsbooks and lives in New York City with his wife and their twin son and daughter.





kathryn l. pringle is an American poet living in Durham, NC. she wrote a book called Right New Biology.





Chris Vitiello’s Irresponsibility came out last year on Ahsahta Press. He is concerned with, among other things: clarification, light, stars, the sky, clouds, wind, trees, birds, deduction, eyes, leaves, people and their observable behaviors, grasses, the soil, flowers and their growth, description and representation, vegetables, skins and peels, seeds, nuts, cross-sections, dictionary definitions, synonyms and antonyms but especially synonyms, utility, analysis, skepticism, kindness, goodness, quantity, measurement, direct commands, questions, and fact statements. He lives in Durham, NC, is dad to 2 terrific daughters, and works on literacy issues in the public schools.




The event will also feature limited edition collaborative artwork designed by AdAm Peele. Email rqpoetry@gmail.com for more information, or visit thesoandsoseries.blogspot.com.

JUSTIN'S BOOK IS OUT, Y'ALL!!!

A Million in Prizes was selected by Carl Phillips as winner of the 2008 New Issues Poetry Prize, an award for a first book of poetry. Phillips, in his judge's citation, writes, "A Million in Prizes seduces in the best possible way: subtly, with a poignant wit, and a sly charm." Marks is the founder and editor of Kitchen Press Chapbooks in New York City and author of the chapbook Voir Dire (Rope-a-Dope Press). BUY IT BITCHES!!!