Lorcaloca

Better Late Than Never

2012-01-27T02:45:00.019-05:00

11/08/11: Harvard Reading with Rosa Alcalá, and Aracelis Girmay (Guest appearances by Francisco Aragón, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, and Martha Collins)

Borrowing Your Enemy’s Arrows: Wooden boat, 3000 arrows, electric fan, Chinese flag: Cai Guo-Qiang: 1998

2012-01-25T00:46:00.005-05:00

More work here.

Rigoberto González: Interview and Poem

2012-01-23T23:03:00.003-05:00

A writer is an activist and a citizen, and has a responsibility beyond the poem, story or novel to participate in the political arena. For some of us that means picketing and organizing protests, others take to the pen or the computer and articulate positions through essays and editorials, and some perform that activism through the classroom as teachers. Activism is defined by the individual. I understand not everyone is willing to accept the challenge, but I sure as hell know that everyone can. In any case, this is an old argument and usually the only ones who speak up are the ones who want to negate that premise for selfish reasons. At the very least, people who do not want to participate in these conversations should please cease from making such comments as “I don’t want to be known as a Chicano writer” or “I don’t want to be known as a gay writer.” We need role models, not cowards.
*
*
*
I think fossil, I think watermark...

Attention Chicano/Latino Writers

2012-01-23T22:43:00.007-05:00

PALABRA invites Chicano/Latino writers to submit short stories, flash fiction,
poetry, standalone novel excerpts and short plays that explore new avenues of Chicano & Latino writing. Innovative/cross-genre/hybrid work is welcome. Especially interested in work that is fresh, engaged and takes literary risks.

Full guidelines HERE.

Freaking great news!

2012-01-22T23:27:00.009-05:00

News like this makes me so happy. Heck, it makes me want to cry with joy.

The National Book Critics Circle finalists were announced yesterday.

Aracelis Girmay is a finalist in poetry.

Luis J. Rodriguez is a finalist in autobiography.

!!!!!!
!!!!!!
!!!!!!

Complete list of finalists here.

boxcar

2012-01-21T04:03:00.002-05:00

The new installment of boxcar poetry review is up and running.

It features three e-talks:

Millicent Borges Acardi & ire'ne lara silva

Marie-Elizabeth Mali & Melissa Stein

Kevin Simmonds & Craig Moreau

Luis J. Rodriguez

2012-01-21T03:23:00.002-05:00

I can categorically state that Chicano Studies, like any ethnic studies curriculum in the country, is not exclusionist or anti-white. I know because for at least thirty years I've visited hundreds of classrooms in public and private schools as one of the leading Chicano writers and activists in the United States. I know because some forty years ago, I was one of the Chicano students who helped fight for Chicano Studies, for more Chicano teachers, and for other vital segments of the population--be they women, African American, Native American, Asian, Disabled, Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender, the poor and working class--to be understood and accepted in our schools.

bit

2012-01-21T03:21:00.001-05:00

thanks for all the feedback on the photographs! :)

do i look like a poet?

2012-01-19T07:10:00.011-05:00

dear readers, i need help picking an author photo for my website, which should launch in early february. i've narrowed it down to three photographs. which one do you like best?

#1

#2

#3

Photographs taken by JW Stovall

Interview: Carmen Giménez Smith

2012-01-19T02:30:00.002-05:00

I really resisted the fragment, but now I’m going with it because I can remember that the fragment was a great drafting strategy. I’m writing shorter passages or sections that may or may not become longer because this can be generative. And I’m trying not to worry about structure or redundancy at earlier stages, which helps me just generate, something I really struggle with.

bits

2012-01-18T03:55:00.007-05:00

late next month i'm going to spend five nights in paris. did i really just type that sentence? i did!
*
i'm staying in the heart of paris. close to the palais garnier and the louvre.
*
i can't wait for shara lessley's first book. it comes out this march.
*
i'm sure i'm going to get lost walking around in paris or while using the métro. but who cares! i will be lost in paris.
*
Wander to the studios at 1:30 PM for an intentionally late lunch, because I can't handle the hum & scrum of the conversation.
*
i want to thank my little poems for sending me to paris. oh my little poems!
*
i'm a big fan of david welch's poems; spork press just published four new ones. i wish i'd written these lines: I told him I remember my father/asked me once to strangle/a still alive and wounded quail.
*
what am i going to do in paris? walk around. eat. walk around. eat. eat. eat. basically, the same things i do in nyc. ha.

Interview: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

2012-01-15T01:03:00.002-05:00

I couldn’t imagine not taking risks in my writing or work as a visual artist. I never want to be comfortable. Even as a young girl I was terrified to write but I couldn’t consider a life that wouldn’t hold a writerly space for me. My imagination is audacious...

*

I love her P.O.P (Poets on Poetry) videos. Check them out!

poems that i love

2012-01-14T05:06:00.001-05:00

The Possibilities

After a wife’s death a man may talk
to his horse with a great tenderness
as if, just this morning, he had tried on
her pink slipper. And if he has no horse
he may crack his window a little
wider when it lightly rains to confirm
the roofs and trees are made
of paper. If there is no rain
he may make himself a meal at midnight,
sweet artichokes and Danish cheese,
a glass of red wine. If there is
no red, then white. He may suck the knife
clean with his tongue. Later

lying awake he may hear the wild lung
of a motorcycle far off on a far road.
If there is no motorcycle, a dog
trying for any syllable in any known
language. Something falling suddenly in
the closet, according to some law.

Nearness in the dark is a kind of beauty
though it is only a lampshade, a shoulder
of the walnut chair. If there is no chair,
then a shelf. A shelf of books with the devil’s
violet fedora tossed on top. Or something
exotic from the sea, manta ray

like the pulse in the ball of his foot.
A man may walk ten steps behind
his life. It may be sorrow of fear.
He may see her back like two doves rushing
up where a boy has flung a handful
of pebbles. If no pebbles, leaves
where a masked prowler hunches, his belt of
lockpicks, his bag of velvet like the one
from which memory snatches. These are

the possibilities, the immaculate
like miracles which are nothing
in themselves, but in this world a sign
of angels, ghosts, supernatural beings
who watch us. Who listen. Who sometimes
helplessly let us stumble on
their pyramids, their crude observatories
or let us, generation after
generation, speak to the broken horse
of the human heart.

Beckian Fritz Goldberg

bits

2012-01-12T23:30:00.003-05:00

new york city is the city of great food. yesterday, i had ropa vieja. so good.
*
if you live in japan, you can order my book!
*
i ate caldo de mariscos tonight. the broth was so freaking good. lordy.
*
some good news: to the angelbeast will appear in best american poetry 2012, edited this year by mark doty. my thanks to mark doty and to the editors of poetry.
*
a few days ago i had some amazing nakji bokum.
*
i'm hungry!

The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart

2012-01-10T10:54:00.001-05:00

this is one of my favorite poems. click this link to hear the poem read.

thank you, jack gilbert.

This makes me so happy!!

2012-01-09T18:07:00.002-05:00

from the American Poetry Review

Tomás Q. Morín has been awarded the 2012 APR/Honickman First Book Prize for his manuscript A Larger Country. His book was chosen by this year’s guest judge, esteemed poet Tom Sleigh, who will also write an introduction for it.

Morín is a Texas native. He received his MFA from Texas State University, and MA from Johns Hopkins University. He is the recipient of scholarships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and was a fellow at the Idyllwild Summer Arts Program. He is a Senior Lecturer at Texas State University.

anti-

2012-01-08T23:36:00.001-05:00

Ray Gonzalez is the featured poet over at anti-.

2012 Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize

2012-01-08T18:32:00.002-05:00

from Knockout:

We're pleased to announce that the International Reginald Shepherd Prize is back in action! The contest, which seeks to honor the memory and work of Reginald Shepherd, who passed away on September 10, 2008, was first held in 2009, and then went on hiatus. Now, however, the contest is back. Here are the details:

The 2012 contest will be judged by C. Dale Young.

The submission deadline is April 30, 2012.

The entry fee is $15.

Full guidelines here.

3 bits

2012-01-05T20:39:00.006-05:00

Jane Hirshfield: How to keep a poem alive.
*

"Bees see your face as a strange flower."
*

We cannot underestimate the impact of community on aesthetic breakthrough.

beltway poetry quarterly: FLORICANTO ISSUE

2012-01-03T18:23:00.004-05:00

Francisco Aragón, Guest Editor

from the introduction:

Guest editors of Beltway Poetry are asked to hone in on a local angle. Mine is the AWP Conference & Bookfair held in Washington. Or rather: the “off-site” event at the True Reformer Building on U Street that unfolded on February 4, 2011, an event called “Floricanto in DC: A Multicultural Response to SB1070” — in reference to Arizona’s anti-immigrant law.

But my duties as the AWP Conference Chair kept me from attending what, by all accounts, was a moving and stunning evening of poetry. Had I been able to participate, I would have shared this:

POEM WITH A PHRASE OF ISHERWOOD
to Jan Brewer

Cruelty is sensual and stirs you
Governor, your name echoing the sludge
beneath your cities’ streets. It spurs

the pleasure you take
whenever your mouth nears
a mic, defending your law…your wall.

Cruelty is sensual and stirs you
Governor; we’ve noticed your face
its contortions and delicate sneer

times you’re asked to cut
certain ribbons—visit a dusty place
you’d rather avoid, out of the heat.

Cruelty is sensual and stirs you
Governor, the vision of your state
something you treasure in secret

though we’ve caught a glimpse
in the jowls of your sheriff:
bulldog who doubles as your heart.

*

Read more poems HERE.

cold bits

2012-01-03T17:42:00.004-05:00

it's 25 degrees right now. let me repeat that: it's 25 degrees today.
*
i just came back from the stores. i bought leather gloves and a furry hat, which makes me look like a fool. but who cares! my head needs to stay warm. i also bought some bottles of Snapple. love that stuff.
*
i'm staying in tonight!
*
jonterri gadson interviews saeed jones.
*
silly me: i walked out into the cold with my hair still wet. it froze quickly.
*
The magazine now has an inviting edge of criticism that does not spare established poets — and lively complaints from some loyalists that its 100-year-old mission is being compromised in a populist vs. elitist squeeze
*
hi, james!

Happy New Year!!

2011-12-31T02:39:00.005-05:00

*
I'm staying away from all the craziness today. No Times Square, no parties, no drinking. I'm so boring!
*
I'm close to finishing a new poem.
*
Do you live in dallas? You do!! Well, I'm one of the featured writers of the 2012
LitFest at SMU. The other writers are Dean Bakopoulos, Shannon Cain, Amina Gautier, Tyehimba Jess, Krys Lee, Corey Marks, and Martha Rhodes.
*
I miss my family in Arizona. Each and every day.
*
Love watching videos of poets reading. Here is David St. John. The first poem he reads is one of my favorite poems.
*
There is a train inside this iris...
*
Carl Phillips on Randall Jarrell.
*
Can I tell you something? I cried a bit yesterday. I cried because I'm so happy and grateful.
*
I can't wait for all the amazing readings coming up this spring in NYC.
*
2012, I'm ready for you. Bring on the fireworks.
*

rain bits

2011-12-28T01:38:00.004-05:00

rain all day. thank goodness i bought a good umbrella when i got here. i needed it today.
*
i finally found a good diner!
*
i just found this on youtube. robert hayden reading middle passage. i can't wait to use this when i teach again.
*
The Mystery of Vachel Lindsay
*
i will be reading at the tucson poetry festival this april. i can't wait to hear the other readers: karyna mcglynn, ander monson, and patricia smith.
*
good day writing-wise. i wrote a new stanza, and revised a few lines. oh the pleasure of taking out a comma, then putting it back in.
*
lemons!

blackbird strikes again

2011-12-26T04:34:00.003-05:00

blackbird is one of my favorite journals, print or online. the latest installment doesn't disappoint.

Rigoberto González on Luis J. Rodríguez

2011-12-26T04:22:00.002-05:00

In 1993, Luis J. Rodríguez released "Always Running: La Vida Loca," a best-selling memoir that's been celebrated for its honest portrayal of a youth on drugs and involved with gangs in Los Angeles. The impetus for the book was an attempt by the author to save his son Ramiro from succumbing to the temptations that compelled Rodriguez to join a gang by age 11 and end up in jail as a teenager.

bits

2011-12-25T02:29:00.004-05:00

gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling, emotion or attitude in acknowledgment...
*
i get very emotional when i think about this year. i have a book coming out in april. i'm living in nyc. dreams do come true.
*
thank you, my little poems.
thank you, carl phillips.
thank you, the whiting foundation.
*
i can't wait to attend awp chicago. i want to thank many of you in person. you, my fellow poets. you, my fellow bloggers. your support has meant the world to me. i didn't get here on my own. i know that.
*
today i wrote three lines that i'm very happy with. three lines!! that's a lot for me.
*
thank you, robert hayden.
thank you, cd wright.
thank you, luis omar salinas.
thank you, josé montoya.
thank you, henri cole.
thank you, lorna dee cervantes.
thank you, bei dao.
thank you, jean valentine.
thank you, rita dove.
thank you, robert vasquez.
thank you, donald justice.
*
why am i thanking these poets? their poems have influenced my work; my first book is an homage to their work.
*
okay, i'm starting to get teary eyed! ha.
*

bits

2011-12-23T23:01:00.004-05:00

what a beautiful day!
*
i woke up late. then dressed and headed off to the village.
*
i had a tres leches latte at my favorite coffee shop. i sat by the window and watched people come and go...talking of michelangelo.
*
i can't tell you how much i love living in nyc. the diversity is thrilling, good food is everywhere, and everyone is a poet.
*
thank you, phyllis, for the gifts!
*
currently reading: the free world by david bezmozgis.
*
i found the perfect gift for a friend at the holiday market at union square.
*
purple rain

My neighborhood: Rego Park, Queens

2011-12-22T02:56:00.015-05:00

one of my favorite poems (the spacing is off, damn blogger)

2011-12-20T05:12:00.002-05:00

Key Episodes From An Earthly Life

As surely as there are crumbs on the lips

of the blind I came for a reason

I remember when the fields were no taller

than a pencil do you remember that

I told him I’ve got socks older than her

but he would not listen

You will starve out girl they told her

but she did not listen

As surely as there is rice in the cuffs

of the priest sex is a factor not a fact

Everything I do is leaning toward

what we came for is that perfectly clear

I like your shoes your uncut hair

I like your use of space too

I wanted to knock her lights out

the air cut in and did us some good

One thing about my television set it has

a knob on it enabling me to switch channels

Now it is your turn to shake or

provoke or heal me I won’t say it again

Do you like your beets well-cooked and chilled

even if they make your gums itch

Those dark Arkansas roads that is the sound

I am after the choiring of crickets

Around this time of year especially evening

I love everything I sold enough eggs

To buy a new dress I watched him drink the juice

of our beets And render the light liquid

I came to talk you into physical splendor

I do not wish to speak to your machine

C.D. Wright

from The Seattle Times: Don Mee Choi finds freedom in poetry

2011-12-19T01:18:00.001-05:00

Few of her students are aware that she is not just their patient, quiet teacher — Choi is also a noted, award-winning poet.

bits

2011-12-19T00:47:00.003-05:00

i have a poem in the new installment of devil's lake. this is one of my favorite poems in my forthcoming book. i had a hard time finding a home for it. many thanks to the editors of devil's lake for taking it!
*
took those photographs of my new neighborhood. just need to upload.
*
it was freaking cold today. i stayed in.
*
Black Blossoms is named one of the best poetry books of the year by the Boston Globe.
*

Michael Klein reviews Henri Cole

2011-12-17T21:32:00.002-05:00

These are somber, autobiographical formal-like lyrics that encounter dread and occasional joy the way a jeweler enters a watch and they are – most of them – beautifully rendered as most of Cole’s poetry has been these last few years. He has, I think, become a master.

Rita Dove on PBS

2011-12-16T19:30:00.004-05:00

The very handsome Jeffrey Brown speaks to Rita Dove about editing the Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry.

There's even a clip of Rita dancing with her husband. Very cool.

you want this!

2011-12-15T18:02:00.005-05:00

I'm giving away a free subscription to Huizache, a new lit magazine put out by the CentroVictoria of the University of Houston-Victoria.

The magazine seeks to publish "works that challenge ethnic, gender, or social stereotypes, and though the magazine’s focus is Latino, it is not limited to it."

I'm very proud to be in the inaugural issue along with Sherman Alexie, Sasha Pimentel-Chacon, Sandra Cisneros, Alex Espinoza, Diana Garcia, Tonantzín Canestaro-García, David Garza, Aracelis Girmay, Estella Gonzalez, Tim Z. Hernandez, Juan Felipe Herrera, Hettie Jones, Lorraine López, Sheryl Luna, José Montoya, Willie Perdomo, Emmy Pérez, Rene Perez, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Tim Seibles, Gary Soto, and Maria Venegas.

Impressive line-up, no?

If you want to toss your name into the hat, leave your name in the comment box!

small press spotlight highlights 2011

2011-12-15T12:29:00.001-05:00

here are some small press books recommended by rigoberto gonzález.

how many have you read?

bits

2011-12-15T00:10:00.004-05:00

good day today.
*
hung out with a friend, ate some good food, bought a great coat, and finished the evening having a drink (or two) at a bar.
*
gosh, i love my new coat. it's gorgeous: espresso-colored wool, vented back, and it looks great on me.
*
i need to start cooking at home! what kind of stuff can i make? well, i know a few simple but yummy pasta dishes, and i learned how to bake a whole chicken when i lived in lewisburg, pa.
*
i'm launching my website soon.
*
The best thing someone ever told me about websites is to view yours as a billboard not pamphlet.
*
simple is best, i say.
*

Attention Latino poets: CantoMundo is now accepting applications

2011-12-15T00:03:00.002-05:00

Inspired by the culturally-rooted visions of Cave Canem and Kundiman, CantoMundo seeks to create a space where Latina/o poets can:

1. nurture and enhance their poetics;
2. lecture and learn about aspects of Latina/o poetics currently not being discussed by the mainstream poetry publishers and critics; and
3. network with peer poets to enrich and further disseminate Latina/o poetry.

Deadline December 31, 2011

Full guidelines here.

Kundiman!!

2011-12-13T13:17:00.001-05:00

Fordham University, Rose Hill · New York City · June 20 - 24, 2012

Application Period: December 15 - February 1

In order to help mentor the next generation of Asian American poets, Kundiman is sponsoring an annual Poetry Retreat in parternship with Fordham University. During the Retreat, nationally renowned Asian American poets will conduct workshops with fellows. Readings, writing circles and informal social gatherings will also be scheduled. Through this Retreat, Kundiman hopes to provide a safe and instructive environment that identifies and addresses the unique challenges faced by emerging Asian American poets. This 5-day Retreat will take place from Wednesday to Sunday. Workshops will not exceed eight students.

Full guidelines here.

bits

2011-12-12T00:46:00.002-05:00

coming this week: photos of my new neighborhood.
*
I’m not crazy about the first line, but I enjoyed Eduardo C. Corral’s To the Angelbeast
*
everybody is a critic. ha.
*
you can pre-order my book in germany!
*
henri cole: ...I don’t want my poems to be confined to the banal facts of my life. The imagination is god...
*
i'm a little behind on email. my apologies! i will catch up this week.
*
there are a lot of russian restaurants here. i've never eaten russian food. have you? i can't wait to try it.
*

bits

2011-12-08T01:46:00.003-05:00

i'm spending my first night at my new place. thrilling, no?
*
it's raining like crazy.
*
i went shopping today for a few things. a blue rug, an orange throw, and orange bath towels.
*
for the first time in my life, i'm fearing tax season! ha.
*
I am very familiar with David Welch's poetry, as I have been following him for the last five years or so.
*
i wish i had fans like david welch. sigh.
*
i need to spend my time on the subway more productively. all i do is listen to music. that's getting old. maybe i should juggle? i'm sure the other passengers would love that!
*
pecans!
*

poems!

2011-12-08T01:38:00.004-05:00

i have two poems in the december issue of poetry:

to the angelbeast
to robert hayden

i also have a poem in the new issue of jubilat.

the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

2011-12-07T21:31:00.003-05:00

No entrance fee

Latino/a poets who have not had a book professionally published can enter the contest.

The winner will receive $1000 and publication at the University of Notre Dame Press under a standard contract, as well as an invitation from the Institute for Latino Studies to read from his/her work, along with the judge, upon publication of the book, with all expenses paid.

Judge: Francisco X. Alarcon

Full guidelines here

bit

2011-12-07T12:36:00.003-05:00

i found a place!! finally.

a room with kitchenette in rego park.

close to tons of stores and the subway.

love.

Bits

2011-12-04T14:24:00.002-05:00

hola, readers!! long time no blog. I've been busy exploring NYC, looking for a room in a good place, and attending readings. I've been here for a week and i've already been to four lit events.
*
i'm blogging using my iPhone. i love it. I haven't gotten lost once and when i'm out and about, I can google what's nearby, etc. i know this is old news to most of you but i'm late to the party.
*
sending a shout out to the lovely NYU mfa student who recognized me and said hello!! Please, forgive me. i'm terrible with names. but she knows who she is.
*
i'm walking around like crazy. i love stumbling upon a cool coffee shop or small bookstore.
*
this is a city of beautiful people. i feel out of place. ha.
*
i don't know how to link with this new toy, but i have two poems in the december issue of Poetry, which you can read online. i also have a poem in the new issue of jubilat.
*
off to central park to read.

Hey Seattle peeps!

2011-12-01T14:03:00.002-05:00

Rigoberto Gonzalez is reading at Open Books tomorrow at 7:30pm.

He will be reading from BLACK BLOSSOMS.

i'm in today's newspaper!

2011-11-27T17:14:00.001-05:00

To Corral, the surrealism and strangeness are that he has been able to forge a career, a life, from the words he struggles to scratch on yellow legal pads and type into his laptop. He sometimes finds himself on a flight, or being feted at a hotel before a reading, and considers the fact that it was his poetry that got him there.

you can pre-order the book here.

moving bits

2011-11-22T16:38:00.004-05:00

this friday i'm getting on a plane and flying to nyc. i won't be coming back to the desert for a bit. i'm hoping to stay in nyc til august.
*
winter, xmas, spring, and summer.
*
why am i going? well, it's been one of my lifelong dreams to live and to write in the big apple.
*
i'm going to explore the city, attend poetry readings like crazy, and draft new poems.
*
nyc
nyc
nyc
nyc
*
oh i just can't wait to walk around. that's my favorite thing. walking til i find a nice cafe. sitting down with a coffee. reading. writing.
*
oh my little poems, how can i ever thank you for this gift?
*
are you in the city? let's have coffee!
*
pinch me.

and the black blossoms are...

2011-11-15T12:51:00.002-05:00

Ocean Vuong
Allyson from Boston
RJ Gibson

(I wrote all the names on pieces of paper. Put the pieces in a hat and pulled out three)

Ocean, RJ, and Allyson,

Send me an email and I'll send you a book.

black blossoms give-a-away!!

2011-11-06T15:01:00.003-05:00

Black Blossoms, Rigoberto González's third collection of poems, came out last month. The book has already garnered some stellar reviews.

Wanna win a copy? You sure do! Well, you are in luck because I'm giving away three copies of the book.

How do you win a copy? Well, are you cute....Ha, just kidding. I'm not a wilde boy.

Just leave a comment here or on my facebook wall. Say: I am a black blossom and you will be entered in the give-a-away.

Buena suerte!

Manuel Munoz: Interview

2011-11-04T14:37:00.003-04:00

Manuel was reared in the small town of Dinuba in California’s Central Valley. He is bold in his writing, shy in manner, a film aficionado. His body cuts a lean muscular form on the sofa. He wears dark jeans and a collared t-shirt. A chiseled jaw, thick raven black hair gelled into spikes, but his eyes are the thing. Large and tapering attractively at the corners, they lure with all the possibilities of the moment. One feels the charm in it.
*

Next time I see Manuel I'm going to stare into his eyes and get lost.
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.

R/R

2011-11-01T22:00:00.010-04:00

Reading

Rosa Alcalá, Eduardo C. Corral & Aracelis Girmay

Tuesday, Nov 8, 6:00pm
Cambridge, MA
Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street.
Harvard Universiy

&

Roundtable

Poetry Society of America: Latino/a Poetry Now: Rosa Alcalá, Eduardo C. Corral & Aracelis Girmay:

I enjoyed the roundtable talk with Rosa and Aracelis. I stress and stress about my prose. I pour all I have into my poems; there's not enough mind-matter leftover for interviews. But Rosa and Aracelis write amazing prose. Yeah!

Steve Fellner on Rigoberto Gonzalez

2011-10-30T23:19:00.001-04:00

One of Gonzalez's recurring trademarks is his obsession with similes. Due to spiritual reasons, I've always been suspicious of them. Why not accept the fact that everything in this universe is on some level uniquely its own? To imply that something is "like" something else is to ungenerously take away from the thing's specialness. But in Black Blossoms, Gonzalez's book, which consists largely of persona poems, the figurative language is used less to compare but to show a different side, a nuance, or a shocking oddity of and within the same thing.

dear whiting foundation,

2011-10-30T15:18:00.001-04:00

thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you

NYC: Whiting Writers' Award Ceremony/Reception/Reading

2011-10-28T20:40:00.024-04:00

oh my

2011-10-26T22:59:00.001-04:00

Ten emerging writers including a novelist in New York City and a poet in Casa Grande, Ariz., are among this year's winners of the Whiting Writers' Awards.

chicago bits

2011-10-23T15:53:00.006-04:00

if i wasn't moving to nyc later this fall, i would consider moving to chicago.
*
thanks to carlos cumpián for inviting me, and thanks to kimberly dixon being such a wonderful host.
*
i got a tour of the poetry foundation buidling. it's beautiful. and i got a sneak peek at the TOC of the december issue, which includes two of my poems.
*
david love your cap
sara oh your smile
erika you are a tiger
kyle nice beard
jacob we got your back
luis thanks for the pics
*
i
got
a
secret
!

Rigoberto González on Dagoberto Gilb

2011-10-23T15:40:00.002-04:00

Gilb explores fresh territory with "Before the End, After the Beginning": for the middle-aged, middle-class Chicano (neither young or old, rich or poor, Mexican or American), upward mobility is more of a zigzag. The dust never settles, and the man exists in a state of perpetual discomfort because -- like burly Texan Ramiro, who rents a low-ceilinged room in the story "Hacia Teotitlán -- "he didn't fit" completely into a single box.

chicago pix

2011-10-22T10:51:00.020-04:00

Slow Lightning (Click on pic to enlarge it!)

2011-10-21T09:03:00.008-04:00

I now have a page over at the Yale University website!

I love the cover. But hey, I'm biased.

This is really happening. I'm going to have a book out in the world. Somebody pinch me.

Crazy.

bits

2011-10-17T13:39:00.003-04:00

back home. up next: chicago. then...
*
today i have to respond to some student poems, comment on proofs, and kiss a fool. ha.
*
there seems to be way more creative writing jobs opening up this year, no?
*
the world was on fire and nobody could save but you.
*
thank you, my little poems. your devotion keeps surprising me. i often say that i'm your father. but sometimes i feel like a child, and you, my little poems, are my father-figure, always taking care of me, making sure i eat, making sure i'm happy in the world. how can i ever repay you?
*
From high above, I might be said to ripple.

2012 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award

2011-10-16T06:42:00.002-04:00

Each year, Yale University Press seeks one book-length poetry manuscript to be published in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. The competition is open to any American citizen under forty years of age who has not published a book of poetry (contestants must be under the age of forty at the time they submit the manuscript to the competition). The winner receives royalties when the book is published.

Submissions for the 2012 Competition must be postmarked no earlier than October 1, 2011 and no later than November 15, 2011.

Full guidelines here.

2011 National Book Award Finalists in Poetry

2011-10-12T16:38:00.003-04:00

Poetry: Nikky Finney, Head Off & Split (TriQuarterly); Yusef Komunyakaa, The Chameleon Couch (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Carl Phillips, Double Shadow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Adrienne Rich, Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010 (W.W. Norton & Company); Bruce Smith, Devotions (University of Chicago Press).

!!!!

i love this poet. i love this poem.

2011-10-12T10:54:00.003-04:00

HENS

It's good for the ego, when I call and they come

running, squawking, and clucking, because it's feed time,

and once again I can't resist picking up little Lazarus,

an orange-and-white pullet I adore. "Yes, yes, everything will be

okay," I say to her glaring mongrel face. Come September,

she'll begin to lay the blue-green eggs I love poached.

God dooms the snake to taste nothing but the dust

and the hen to 4,000 or so ovulations. Poor Lazarus,

last spring an intruder murdered her sisters and left her

garroted in the coop. There's a way the wounded

light up a dark rectangular space. Suffering becomes

the universal theme. Too soft, and you'll be squeezed;

too hard, and you'll be broken. Even a hen knows this,

posing on a manure pile, her body a stab of gold.

Henri Cole

poet on poet fun!

2011-10-12T09:52:00.009-04:00

The PSA invited some poets to talk about their favorite recent first books. I know most of the poets/books selected, but there are some names/titles that are new to me, like Dilruba Ahmed and Joshua Edwards. I love discovering a new voice. Thanks, Poetry Society of America!!

Kazam Ali on Orlando White
Thomas Sayers Ellis on Shane Book
Arda Collins on Jonathan Thirkield
Carmen Giménez Smith on J. Michael Martinez

Full list here.

*
I have a new crush. Farid Matuk! Check out his pic. I'm so buying his book now.

coldfront review: henri cole

2011-10-10T23:34:00.002-04:00

Beauty is always tempered by brutality in Cole’s work. And a dynamic tension runs throughout, like a dangerous undertow. The comprehensiveness of his view is reflected in his unselfconscious melding of East and West, of Japanese and Chinese culture and classical Greek and Roman mythology. Childhood and adulthood alternate...

blue mountain pics

2011-10-10T15:46:00.007-04:00

bits

2011-10-09T20:46:00.002-04:00

i made it. i'm here.
*
it's so beautiful here. i went on a hike today. the ground was a bit muddy, but it was worth it. the birch trees are stunning. the leaves are changing color and falling.
*
javier o. huerta: “Jokes are similar to poems in their structure, in the surprise factor,” he said. “A joke ends with laughter or an ‘I get it’. A joke closes at the end. There’s a start in a poem’s end. A good poem should open to other interpretations.”
*
yesterday, i went canoeing. man, that word looks odd, no? it's that "e." anyways, i took a two-person canoe out, which made it hard to steer.
*
will post pics this week.
*
cristian flores garcia: an invitation to lunch
*
after the hike, a couple of residents went swimming in the lake. i also wanted to swim, but the water was so freaking cold. i just dipped my feet in; quickly, they turned blue.
*
i have two words for you: dock spiders! big big big spiders. yikes.
*
many thanks to the poetry editors of devil's lake for taking a poem.
*
RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ on Justin Torres
*
chickens!

this should be fun!!

2011-10-06T15:42:00.004-04:00

Ask Carl Phillips a question!

bits

2011-10-06T14:12:00.005-04:00

Tomas Tranströmer wins the big enchilada!
*
Tomorrow I leave for a nine-day residency at the Blue Mountain Center. I'm so blessed. Thank you. Thank you.
*
Too funny: Men-Ups: Manly Men In Classic Pin-Up Poses. Don't worry, the pics are safe for work.
*
Hi, Diana Park! It was great talking with you the other day.
*
It's a rainy day today.
*
New author pic coming soon.
*
NYC.

one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite poets

2011-10-06T13:44:00.001-04:00

April and Silence

Spring lies deserted.
The dark velvet ditch
creeps by my side
not reflecting anything.

All that shines
are yellow flowers.

I am carried in my shadow
like a violin
in its black case.

All I want to say
gleams out of reach
like the silver
in a pawnshop

Tomas Tranströmer

[translated by Malena Mörling]

Carnegie Mellon University Press: Open Reading Period

2011-10-03T16:23:00.001-04:00

We will be reading unsolicited poetry manuscripts in October, 2011. This reading period is only for poets who have not previously been published by Carnegie Mellon University Press.
We are often asked if we are conducting a "first book" contest. We view this reading period as neither a contest nor as being exclusively for first books. Rather, it is a time for us to review manuscripts by writers whose work we might not otherwise be familiar with, or by writers who no longer have an affiliation with another press. Of the six books we publish each year, at least two are selected from this reading period. Some of the poets whose books have been published through the "October" readings are: Rita Dove, Franz Wright, John Skoyles, Lawrence Raab, Thomas Rabbitt, Jerry Williams, Cornelius Eady, James Harms, Mary Ruefle, Margot Schilpp, Kevin Prufer, Amy Beeder, Hayan Charara, Nancy Eimers, Robert Thomas, K.A. Hays, Nicky Beer, and Rachel Richardson.

bits

2011-10-01T15:30:00.007-04:00

chickens!
*
would you hate me if i told you that i'm starbucking?
*
henri cole: I think when you write you can't have all these guns pointed at your head saying, "you must be a good homosexual"—or a good southern boy, or a good catholic boy, or a good white boy. You have to be free.
*
i'm moving! to a big city. really big city. big. big. big. big. more details later.
*
poems are beginning to form in my head. i can feel it. i usually write during the fall and winter. i'm ready to write again.
*
ladies and lady-like gentlemen, here's aracelis girmay.
*
last night i dreamt i read some unpublished poems by brigit pegeen kelly. if only. love her poems. love love love love.

bolivia pics

2011-09-27T14:03:00.015-04:00

bit after bit

2011-09-23T13:13:00.002-04:00

up next: pics of bolivia!
*
i'm starbucking. why can't i get paid to do this? tell me!!
*
i went to best buy yesterday to check out the ipad. man, i'm in love. i'm getting one next month.
*
a lot of lines and images are coming to me. but i can't shape these lines/images into poems. i'm not worried. i know poems are brewing inside of me. when they are ready, they will let me know.
*
data plans. sigh.
*

review of weather by dave lucas

2011-09-23T13:09:00.001-04:00

...Weather, for all of its pyrotechnics, is a tender book, artfully charting the landscapes these poems inhabit. Set primarily in Cleveland, Ohio and the waterways around it, Lucas balances a formalist’s restraint with the naturalist’s barely-contained fervor for discovery.

Montevideo, Uruguay

2011-09-21T20:13:00.020-04:00

Starred Review: Black Blossoms: Rigoberto González

2011-09-19T14:19:00.003-04:00

from Publishers Weekly:

The poems in Gonzalez’s third collection are rooted in the female body. Death and decay also thread through the collection, manifesting in lush and sensuous imagery. In the title poem, Gonzalez addresses barren women in dark, graphic language that borders on the grotesque: “when the sun sets next it will// blossom with the blackest mushrooms and the moths/ will lay their eggs on your leathery smiles.” Gonzalez’s poems depict the body as a space that carries burden and loss, the site of a fleeting life: “this is the part where the woman enters./ This is the part where she leaves. Her life/ so quick it could have been missed had she left no evidence of the blackbird to construct/ its nest.” Each of us is insignificant and replaceable, Gonzalez seems to say: “borrowed body, in the time you must vacate,// let another take your space./ Don’t worry about whom or when since the girl/ who comes after is already here.” The last section (of four) is told through the voices of the female characters surrounding a mortician. Lust and marriage, birth and death, weave together in their observations and confessions. The mortician’s wife observes, “sound is death because it’s/ irretrievable and every time I speak I die a little more.” (Oct.)

bits

2011-09-18T14:19:00.003-04:00

i'm back home!
*
will post pics on monday.
*
i had a great time with my travel mates: angie cruz, jennifer clement, christopher merrill and kelly bedeian.
*
so thankful.

two pics by Kelly Bedeian

2011-09-14T16:24:00.006-04:00

i stumbled across this shop in montevideo, uruguay. go, arizona, go!! man, i look like a freaking tourist. ha.

here we are in la paz, bolivia. we are waiting for a meeting to begin. we are posing like one of the people in the mural behind us. we are silly.

la paz bits

2011-09-12T11:19:00.002-04:00

greetings from la paz, bolivia!!
[
man, i can't get the hang of these keyboards. ha.
[
montevideo was great. the people and the students were amazing. the city was beautfiul. gorgeous architecture. the weather perfect. the men hunky.
[
i had a great steak here. it was HUGE!! don't worry, i took a picture. will post later.
[
the steak was great but my favorite thing was this cheese and sausage appetizer. yummy.
[
we left montevideo yesterday. we flew to santiago, chile then to lima, peru. then finally to la paz.
[
i am loving this trip.

last minute bits

2011-09-07T05:06:00.007-04:00

i should be asleep!
*
i leave later this morning for my trip: uruguay, bolivia.
*
not taking my cell phone or my ipod.
*
"The hotel does not offer check cashing services."
*
upcoming reading: chicago, october 19th.
*
i need a new author photo! and a new face. ha.
*
there's a lot of internet cafes in uruguay so i will post once or twice during the trip.
*
"Find breathtaking views of the bay and the city from our 207 spacious guest rooms..."
*
is this a poem,
no, this
poem is not
a poem.
*

another blazevox bit

2011-09-05T13:21:00.001-04:00

Shanna Compton: Please, everyone, stop saying "vanity press." It's a stupid term--pejorative, emotionally charged, insulting. It's a slur. (And if I may repeat myself, no author seeking publication is exempt from ego-involvement. Call that vanity if you like, but apply it everywhere.)

2 bits

2011-09-04T17:22:00.004-04:00

Craig Santos Perez wins the PEN Center USA 2011 Literary Award for Poetry! Congrats, Craig!!
*
Brett Ortler: The other day I got some good news, or so I thought. My poetry manuscript, which I’ve been shaping ever since I graduated from Eastern Washington’s MFA program in 2007, was accepted by BlazeVOX Books. Nevertheless, as I delved into the long letter, it became apparent that the publication offer was contingent on a monetary donation...

some recent search terms that led people to my blog

2011-09-03T13:20:00.003-04:00

brandon flowers
capulina
foto william levy
william levy photos
arturo herrera
big gay bear male feet
cave canem
cyndi lauper nude

2 Reviews

2011-09-03T13:15:00.003-04:00

Scott Hightower on Fady Joudah

The language of The Earth in the Attic is engaging and straightforward. Foreign, but not distant; much like a host of Southern writers – from Thomas Wolfe and James Dickey to Yusef Komunyakaa and Betty Adcock – that have written about their home as a far away psychological country. Joudah, like all good Southern writers, writes from the perspective of “Home is an epilogue.”

Tory Adkisson on Katherine Larson

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the title, Radial Symmetry, also comes from science, where it refers to something symmetrical “around and axis”—that is, with no “left” or “right,” only a top and bottom. (A mushroom is a good example, or a human bone.) But symmetry is also an important element in art—it’s a principle of composition that, when present, creates a sense of wholeness, or completion—and again Larson capitalizes on that double meaning.

Attention Latino/a Poets!!

2011-09-01T15:49:00.003-04:00

Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize

Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, in partnership with Red Hen Press in Pasadena, CA, is pleased to support the publication of a second or third full-length collection of poems by a Latino or Latina poet.

The winning poet will receive $1000, a contract from Red Hen Press and, upon publication of the winning book, an invitation to give a reading in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.

The Ragdale Foundation will offer a two-week residency to the poet in the year the winning book appears. Letras Latinas will also set aside a modest fund to help defray travel costs associated with further promotion of the winning book. The Letras Latinas / Red Hen Poetry Prize is awarded every other year. There is no entry fee.

The inaugural deadline is January 15, 2012.

Guidelines here.

first book interview: justin evans

2011-09-01T15:43:00.001-04:00

What I would like to see happen is poets entering contests at presses with which they can see themselves creating a real working relationship. I think poets should find other ways to support the small press than rationalizing their contest reading fee as support. Poets should support presses without the ulterior motive of submitting to them. We all should buy more books just to buy and read them. More presses would survive that way...

Instant Mural: Gronk and Patssi Valdez in the ASCO performance piece: Photograph by Harry Gamboa Jr.: 1974

2011-08-28T22:39:00.004-04:00

Asco’s method was a kind of bombastic excess and elegant elusiveness that would have made Tristan Tzara proud, not to mention Cantinflas and Liberace. The Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote that the group “brought Zurich Dada of the late-1910s to 1970s Los Angeles.” But it was a distinctly Chicano brand of Dada, by way of David Bowie and Frank Zappa, drag and Pachuco culture, telenovelas and oddball UHF television stations, and New Wave and silent movies.

Cooper Dillon Books: Reading period ends 8/31

2011-08-28T22:25:00.001-04:00

Cooper Dillon Books is a small poetry press founded on promoting and maintaining
the values that make poems timeless. Through the publication and distribution of
full-length collections and chapbooks, our intention is to nurture the poet and
reader who finds joy in aesthetic, beauty, honesty and intimacy.

Between April and August, we welcome submission of chapbook and full-length
poetry manuscripts.

Full guidelines here.

just a reminder

2011-08-28T18:23:00.001-04:00

I will be teaching an online generative poetry workshop for the Piper Writers Studio this fall.

It's a month-long course.

one of my first loves

2011-08-25T13:13:00.002-04:00

HUSH

for my son

The way a tired Chippewa woman
Who’s lost a child gathers up black feathers,
Black quills & leaves
That she wraps & swaddles in a little bale, a shag
Cocoon she carries with her & speaks to always
As if it were the child,
Until she knows the soul has grown fat & clever,
That the child can find its own way at last;
Well, I go everywhere
Picking the dust out of the dust, scraping the breezes
Up off the floor, & gather them into a doll
Of you, to touch at the nape of the neck, to slip
Under my shirt like a rag—the way
Another man’s wallet rides above his heart. As you
Cry out, as if calling to a father you conjure
In the paling light, the voice rises, instead, in me.
Nothing stops it, the crying. Not the clove of moon,
Not the woman raking my back with her words. Our letters
Close. Sometimes, you ask
About the world; sometimes, I answer back. Nights
Return you to me for a while, as sleep returns sleep
To a landscape ravaged
& familiar. The dark watermark of your absence, a hush.

David St. John

Queering Poetics, or “Werking” It: Saeed Jones

2011-08-24T21:25:00.000-04:00

Going through my bookshelf, I happened across three examples of “straight” poets who queer language into exquisite poetry.

bits

2011-08-23T21:56:00.003-04:00

That’s a waltz in your mouth
*
i'm starbucking. thrilling, no?
*
working on some interview questions.
*
i hate eavesdropping on other people's conversations. i really do.
*
beautiful
*

Samuel Menashe, 1925-2011

2011-08-23T16:51:00.001-04:00

In our time of poetry movements, schools, coteries, and communities, Samuel Menashe was singular and self-sufficient. For over a half-century, he lived alone in a three-room apartment in New York with a 39-dollar rent, having as company poetry – and a grapefruit tree...

hottie of the week: papa smurf

2011-08-22T18:40:00.002-04:00

braggart bits

2011-08-22T17:08:00.010-04:00

*
i got my passport in the mail on friday. whew! so now i can reveal the details about my upcoming trip. the good people over at the international writing program at the university of iowa invited me to take part in a ten-day trip through guatemala and bolivia. i think four or five american writers were invited. in each country we'll give a reading and a workshop and we'll meet local writers and students. we leave early next month.
*
thanks to the editors of jubilat for taking a poem.
*
i'm a bit worried about altitude sickness in la paz, bolivia. i like a lot of oxygen. ha.
*
this is old news to my facebook buddies, but i know a lot of younger chicano/latino poets read my blog so i think it's important for me to repeat this bit of publishing news: poetry took three poems from my forthcoming book. many thanks to the editors.
*
i've been googling what to pack for the trip. fun and scary.
*
i'm thrilled i will be exploring/experiencing different landscapes and cultures, but what excites me most is the chance to meet writers from different countries. i can't wait to sit down and talk poetry and the writing life. i've been thinking about starting a translation project. maybe i'll meet a writer who'll let me translate his/her work into english!
*
just found out my book will be published in the first week of april. national poetry month, here i come!
*

Jacob Saenz on his first residency experience

2011-08-19T17:43:00.001-04:00

...Near the end of my residency, I went up into the tower at the Anderson Center and laid out all the poems I felt were ready to go into a book. I began envisioning sections of the book and which poems belong where. It's a process that I still am working but I feel that much closer to the end. I feel that in the coming weeks I will have the organization process done and will be ready to enter some contests in the fall.

Thanks, R. Erica Doyle!

2011-08-19T17:36:00.001-04:00

Martinez won the Whitman in 2009, which made me think of the Yale Younger Poets Award, for which I am now too old. Which made me think of Carl Phillips, this year's judge and one of my favorite poets of all time, who selected...

bits

2011-08-17T16:50:00.002-04:00

*
why do i live in arizona? i hate the heat. i really do.
*
i hung out with some asu mfa students monday night. what a bunch of good kids. the future is so bright...
*
it's syllabus time!
*

Photo of a Girl on a Beach

2011-08-17T01:15:00.001-04:00

Once when I was harmless
and didn’t know any better,

a mirror to the front of me
and an ocean behind,

I lay wedged in the middle of daylight,
paper-doll thin, dreaming,

then I vanished. I gave the day a fingerprint,
then forgot.

I sat naked on a towel
on a hot June Monday.

The sun etched the inside of my eyelids,
while a boy dozed at my side.

The smell of all oceans was around us—
steamy salt, shell, and sweat,

but I reached for the distant one.
A tide rose while I slept,

and soon I was alone. Try being
a figure in memory. It’s hollow there.

For truth’s sake, I’ll say she was on a beach
and her eyes were closed.

She was bare in the sand, long,
and the hour took her bit by bit.

Carmen Giménez Smith