Getting Ready

I leave for AWP in less then 2 weeks. We're (Virginia Mix will be assisting me) at table 477 in the Americas Hall II. Make sure to drop by and say hello if you're going to be there. The current and past issues will be on sale at a reduced price. Shipping prices are freaking ridiculous, so I'm cramming my suitcases full of issues and trudging them through the New York winter. Our table will be about as bare boned as possible. I'll have to wear extra eye make-up to pretty things up.

We just took poems from Christopher Buckley and Tony Barnstone for the L.A issue. I just heard from Martha Ronk and she promised some work.

Alice Fulton...

...just read tonight at the Hammer Museum. The space the reading was in was a lot better than when I saw Terrance Hayes read there. Instead of a movie theater type setting, the it was held in this large, somewhat industrial room (exposed beams and concrete).

The reading seemed rehearsed to me. She had very long introductions to every poem and each one seemed rehearsed, formal, anything but conversational. Three of the poems had musical accompaniment. She's been working with the electronic musician Joseph Klein on a number of collaborations (he wasn't there, the recording played as she read). I was very skeptical as she was describing them, but they actually ended up being my favorite pieces. While most of the poems she read were about personal experience and were written in the first person, I found the poems to be impersonal (I need at least a smidgen of sentiment in my poems). I don't know her poetry well and am not commenting on her work in total, just what I heard tonight. She does however have a wonderful reading voice. I asked to come over later and read to me before bed, but she politely declined.

California Eating

Claire treated me to dinner last night at Lucques. On Sunday they do a 3 course dinner. The restaurant is beautiful (it was the Harold Lloyd's carriage house) and the food and wine were great.

Claire flew out to Oakland with two other lady cooks from Lucques today, to go to dinner tonight at Alice Water's Chez Panisse. It's been a long time dream of Claire's to eat there and Alice will be there tonight and Claire will very likely have the opportunity to meet with her.

The Wanda Coleman Interview

I met Wanda Coleman and her husband, poet Austin Strauss, today at Jerry's Deli in Marina Del Rey. We sat down and did the interview over a rueben and a cup of coffee. She was terrific, open and honest, full of insight in regards to L.A., it's history, the world of poetry here over the last 40 years, etc. I haven't sat down and listened to the recording, but I my sense is that it will translate well to paper. I stayed away from the obvious questions (the Maya Angelou interview) and focused on L.A. She's sending some new poems and a short piece of fiction this week.

Irresponsible Blogger

It's been a busy couple of weeks, between Christmas and New Years, lots of family and friends in town. Regular posting should return within the next couple of days.

Daphne and Jim

Slow in the world L.A. poetry.

In other news...we'll be doing a third printing of Laurel Snyder's Daphne and Jim next week. We just sold out...again. She's going to be signing copies for us at AWP on Saturday from 1-2. This will likely be the last run. There's been talk about possibly doing a limited edition version, something super high quality. Purely speculative at this point. She's been amazing to work with over the last couple of years. Her full length collection The Myth of Simple Machines came out a couple of months ago from No Tell Books. You should by it.

Misc.

I went to Skylight Books for the first time yesterday. Nice bookstore, with a good amount of journals and magazines. I picked up the new Conjunctions. The thing is beast, coming in at over 450 pages. About half of is dedicated to an aviary theme (birds are very in right now), the other half being a John Ashbery tribute. I've got through about 50 pages so far, mostly fiction, and am impressed with the work (although the long Anne Waldman poem is a struggle). I can't come close to imagining putting together an issue that large. We struggle with 70 pages.

Yesterday was also cause for minor celebration, I wrote the first draft of the last of the Dot-to-Dot, Oregon poems (John Day Fossil Beds). That makes 50 poems. Currently 31 are complete, 4 or so are really close, and the others are the others. 7 have been either been published or are pending (here are 2). I'm hoping to everything done by June. The most exciting part is knowing that I finally get to write about something other than Oregon.