The Volta reviews TINA by Peter Davis

"What is the purpose of muse and subject? Muse and object? Davis goes beyond the unrequited odes and lovelorn salutations. We are perhaps carried by the tide of 21st century rejection of old-fashioned pining and Tina quickly morphs into something other than a Laura or Julia. Tina becomes an inner subject, an addressee who appears when one is left thinking alone in the shower, on the subway, silently griping at an anonymous stranger in a parking lot. The language Davis uses in TINA gives readers the itch on the brain that recalls something-familiar-but-not-quite, the unpredictably insular quality of Davis’ train of thought paired with the universal memory of talking to someone in our heads." —Ginger Ko

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SOLD OUT: Amanda Montei's THE FAILURE AGE!

☆ Sorry, this item is SOLD OUT. ☆

April 2014
Limited-edition handmade chapbook
5.5 x 7 inches
34 pages
Inkjet and faux fur on 80lb magenta cover 
Natural white interior
Handsewn 4-hole binding in natural Irish linen

The free Ebook/PDF is now available online.


Prose poetry or flash fiction? Fairy tale or domestic romance? The 33 short sections of THE FAILURE AGE flip through the daily lives of the yearning-to-be-iconic Woman and her violin-eating Husband, with occasional interruptions by Mother. Subtle, sexy, and hilarious by turns. 
_______

He takes up peripatetic dialogues on the rug. She misses the violin, the sitar. “Let me spread something on you,” she says. She begs. “I have to remain active!” she says. “I have to use this body or it gets so loud!” She imagines she will attend yoga by moonlight one day, high on a skyscraper. In a spinal twist, the moon pressing patterns into her eyes, she will decide that meditative movement is the ultimate postmodern act, and will not be sure if she likes this revelation. She will not be sure about such groundlessness. “We’re here to shed our stories,” the teacher will say, a calm palm on her back. “We’re here to shed ideas.” (The night will creak like bad stairs. Nonplussed.) She will shed the idea that as a child she cried at the sight of ponytails. She will shed the idea that she was once a poor casual lover. She will shed the idea that she will ever understand what clouds are made of, and she will shed the idea that her head will never grow into itself, the way people say your feet do. She will shed the idea that the failure age is upon them, and then all the ideas will come rushing back.

_______

Poems in this chapbook have previously appeared, in slightly different forms, in Gigantic, Joyland, Explosion-Proof Magazine, PANK, and Delirious Hem.

Here is Divya Victor's review of the chapbook + an interview with Amanda at the Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog: From Disney's Porn Vault...

Amanda Montei holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and is currently a PhD student at SUNY at Buffalo, where she is a Presidential Fellow. She is coeditor of Bon Aire Projects, and editor of the literary journal P-QUEUE. She is the co-author, with Jon Rutzmoser, of DINNER POEMS. Her novel Two Memoirs is forthcoming from Jaded Ibis in 2014.

THE FAILURE AGE is the second chapbook in the 2014 series from Bloof Books. Each chapbook in the series will be released in a limited edition of one hundred numbered copies, followed by a digital release.

scenes from the lives of my parents by Pattie McCarthy now available!

Sorry, this book is sold out. Free PDF coming soon. It is also included in full in BOUND: The First Array. 

scenes from the lives of my parents
Pattie McCarthy

December 2013
Limited-edition handmade chapbook
5.5 x 4.25 inches
28 pages
Full-color inkjet cover on 80lb cream stock
24lb natural white text interior 
Carmine red translucent flyleaves
Hand-sewn binding in natural twine


"when presented with the word puzzles
LO_AL & THR_ _T men were more
likely to complete the puzzles with neutral 
words like LOCAL & THROAT but women 
were more likely to choose LOYAL & THREAT. 
this breakthrough on the cryptographic 
systems was accomplished entirely through 
sweat-of-the-brow analysis without
the aid of any captured codebooks."

In twenty-one brief but concentrated pieces, scenes from the lives of my parents presents a fragmented narrative, a love story, a spy story, a compelling mystery for the codebreaking reader to crack. The cover design is a detail from the Voynich Manuscript, a “scientific or magical text in an unidentified language, in cipher,” carbon-dated to the 15th Century, with color botanical and astrological illustrations throughout.

scenes from the lives of my parents is the sixth chapbook in the 2012–2013 series from Bloof Books. Each chapbook in the series will be released in a limited edition of one hundred numbered copies, followed by a digital release. 

Pattie McCarthy’s most recent book is Marybones, published in December 2012 from Apogee Press. She is also the author of bk of (h)rs, Verso, and Table Alphabetical of Hard Words, all also from Apogee. Her chapbook L&O was published in 2011 by Little Red Leaves. Another book, Nulls, is forthcoming in 2014 from Horse Less Press. A 2011 Pew Fellow in the Arts, she teaches literature and creative writing at Temple University.

Windowboxing by Kirsten Kaschock now available!

Sorry, this book is sold out as of April 2015. Free PDF coming soon. It is also included in full in BOUND: The First Array.

WINDOWBOXING: A Dance with Saints in Three Acts
Kirsten Kaschock

December 2013
Gray textured 80 lb cover 
Three die cut windows with cream vellum insets
Cream 70 lb text interior
Hand-sewn binding in natural twine
7 x 7 inches • 44 pages
Includes 6 black-and-white drawings by Koen Kaschock-Marenda. 

___

"You would have my explosions be localized and armed against themselves. 

You would prefer I not discuss 'men' or 'women.' The genres.

It would be better to prevent the spread of the insurgency."

—from [WINDOWNER]
___

A sequence of twenty-four interlinked pieces, WINDOWBOXING: A Dance with Saints in Three Acts by Kirsten Kaschock moves with both muscle and grace through its three acts of steadfast looking—at dance, grief, abuse, the streets of Philadelphia, and especially "the elaboration of woman." 

Excerpts from this work appeared in Antioch Review, BOMBMagazine, Chicago Review, Everyday Genius, Many Mountains Moving, and Otoliths.

Kirsten Kaschock is the author of two books of poetry:Unfathoms (Slope Editions) and A Beautiful Name for a Girl(Ahsahta Press). Her debut novel, Sleight, a work of speculative fiction, was published by Coffee House Press. She has earned a PhD in English from the University of Georgia and a PhD in dance from Temple University. Her most recent manuscript, The Dottery, has won the Donald Hall Prize for poetry from AWP and will be published by the University of Pittsburgh Press is 2014. She is currently the Viebranz Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at St. Lawrence University. When she is not in the North Country, Kirsten resides in Philadelphia with Dan Marenda and their three children. More at kaschock.wordpress.com.

WINDOWBOXING: A Dance with Saints in Three Acts is the fifth chapbook in the 2012–2013 series from Bloof Books. Each chapbook in the series will be released in a limited edition of one hundred numbered copies, followed by a digital release.

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Visitors to our book fair tables over the last year or so have repeatedly asked to sign up for our email list—but we dumped our list years ago, preferring to Facebook, Twitter, and feed-reader blog subscriptions. We were surprised. Who knew they'd be back?

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A Month in a Day: Sunday, May 4 at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop!

During the month of April, we agreed to write (or record) new work each day, posting it to our blog and Twitter feed, creating a sort of collective public notebook. On Sunday, May 4 at 4PM we're coming together IRL to celebrate & explore the results of this group experiment. We'll read/screen 1-2 poems representing each day and talk about what did (or didn't) work.

Natalie Eilbert
Farrah Field
Kirsten Kaschock (via video)
Becca Klaver (IRL + video)
Pattie McCarthy
Amanda Montei
Catie Rosemurgy (via video)
Dawn Akemi Sueoka (via video)
Jared White
Shanna Compton

& special guest Maureen Thorson (via video)

Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop
126A Front Street
DUMBO, Brooklyn

Bloof Books
http://news.bloofbooks.com/

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Enter to win one of 5 copies of ULTRAMEGAPRAIRIELAND at Goodreads

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Ultramegaprairieland

by Elisabeth Workman

Giveaway ends May 15, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win