Roundup in TONY

Hi. So I haven't been very vigilant at blogging, but please check out this roundup I did for Time Out New York of four news books of poems: Geoffrey G. O'Brien's GREEN AND GREY, Meghan O'Rourke's HALFLIFE, Christian Hawkey's CITIZEN OF and Paisly Rekdal's THE INVENTION OF THE KALIDOSCOPE.

Publishers Weekly National Poetry Month Coverage

Just want to point folks toward the two stories I did for PW's National Poetry Month coverage, which we did early this year.

Peter Gizzi: An Author Profile

A Chance To Be Heard: on Literary Magazines


Also, take note of our new website, which launched this very afternoon.

Back in New York

Welcome home everybody. Hope the flights weren't too bumpy.

Just want to address a comment that was made on the post below about the fact that I said, during the NBCC panel, that I don't think friends reviewing frieds' books is really a big deal.

First, know that in my work at PW, I do everything I can to ensure that the reviews I run are fair.

In my own reviewing work, however, and in the reviews I read, I'm not convinced that friends or aquantances reviewing each other is really at the heart of any of poetry's problems. Friendship with a poet doesn't promise that a reviewer will be unduly hard or easy on their book. That's up to the reviewer. And, anyway, reviwers should not be in the business of simply praising or condemning books of poems. There's got to be something more at stake there, some argument to be made about what poems should or shouldn't, or do or don't do, and if a friend's book is the best example, so be it.

That said, if a reviewer is assigned a book by an editor under the supposition that the review will be "unbiased" perhaps that reviewer should come clean. I just don't believe that any review is unbiased. I think there are other problems--like taking the risk of saying something more than superficial about a book--to be dealt with.

Dispatch from AWP

From my very hotel room in Atlanta, here is a list of the books I picked up. Ain't that exciting!:

POETRY BOOKS

THE MAN SUIT by Zach Schomburg
GOLDBEATER'S SKIN by G.C. Waldrep
THE COMPLETE POETRY by Ceaser Vallejo
THE BOOK OF THE ANGEL by Medbh McGuckian
PENNYWEIGHT WINDOWS by Donald Revell
MISS AMERICA by Catherine Wagner
MACULAR HOLE by Catherine Wager
SHAKE by Joshua Beckman
SAINTS OF HYSTERIA
REVERSABLE MONUMENTS by Wiegers and De La Torre
ONE BIG SELF by CD Wright
THEORY OF ORANGE by Rachel M. Simon
A SEANSON IN HELL by Rambaud/Revell
IN THE ARCHIVES by Christopher Arigo
LIT INTERIM by Christopher Arigo
BREAKING NEWS by Ciaran Carson
SELECTED POEMS by Ciaran Carson
WEATHERING by Rusy Morrisson
IMMANENT VISITOR by Jaime Saenz

CHAPBOOKS

Octopus Chapbooks
Cannibal Chapbooks

PROSE

THE FIRE by Robin Blaser
THE VERSE BOOK OF INTERVIEWS edited by Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki

LIT MAGS

JUBILAT 12
DENVER QUARTERLY VOL. 41 # 2 & 3
FENCE vol 9 # 2

ridiculous, no.