PUBLICATIONS READ IN 2024

In 2020, I read 403 books. But after 2020 I began focusing my writing on novels and not just poems. As a result, my reading dropped drastically—in 2021 I read 209 books and in 2022 only 91 books—as the form of the novel, for me, requires more and more deliberate attention. While my 2023 reading of 145 books increased over 2022, I still read at a significantly reduced pace compared to when I wasn't working mostly as a novelist. However, based on my 2024 reading of 315 books, it looks like I’m returning to my habit of prolific reading. Here’s 2024’s reading list with authors listed alphabetically—they are mostly books but I also include book(ish)-length publications like newsletters:

 2024 BOOKS READ: 315

61 Fiction, 184 Poetry, 70 Non-Fiction

 

Fiction-61

Baumgartner by Paul Auster (Grove Press, 2023). Novel.

Selected Short Stories by Cecilia Brainard (PALH, 2022). Short Stories.

Gigantvm Penisivm: A Tale of Demonic Possession by Jose Elvin Bueno (Clash Books, 2024). Novel

America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo (Viking, 2028.) Novel.

The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Delacorte Press, 2023). Novel

Oh Baby by Kim Chinquee (Ravenna Press, 2008). Flash Fictions

Veer by Kim Chinquee (Ravenna Press, 2017). Short fictions

The Guest by Emma Cline (Penguin Random House 2023). Novel.

One Woman Show by Catherine Coulson (Avid Reader Press, 2023). Novel.

TRUST by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead Books, 2022.) Novel

A New Chapter (Secrets of Mary's Bookshop) by Kristin Eckhardt (Guideposts, 2012). Novel

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox (Graydon House, 2023). Novel

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser (Ballantine, Penguin Random House, 2021). Novel.

Deleted Scenes from the Autobiography of Ed Go, as Told by Napoleon Id by Ed Go (Other Rooms Press, 2014). Short Stories.

FORGIVING IMELDA MARCOS by Nathan Go (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2023). Novel.

One Minute Out by Mark Greaney (Berkley, 2020). Novel.

Relentless by Mark Greaney (Berkley, 2021). Novel.

Sierra Six by Mark Greaney (Berkley, 2022). Novel.

Burner by Mark Greaney (Berkley, 2023). Novel.

The Gray Man by Mark Greaney (Berkley, 2009). Novel.

Mission Critical by Mark Greaney (Berkley, 2019). Novel

TRIPLE NO. 24 by Soramimi Hanarejin, Jeffrey Ethan Lee, and Eileen R. Tabios (Ravenna Press, 2024). 3-authored book of prose and poetry

Piglet by Lottie Hazell (Holt, 2024). Novel

The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz (St. Martins Press, 2023). Novel

The Survivor by Gregg Hurwitz (St. Martins Press, 2012). Novel

Red London by Alma Katsu (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2023). Novel (1/2)

Nadja on Nadja by Tsipi Keller (Underground Voices, 2019). Novel

The Golden Chain: A Fairy Story by Rockwell Kent (Somesuch Press, 1986). Short story. [Stanley Marcus says in his Foreword that to his knowledge, "this is the first professional book, large or miniature, composed and printed by one so young."] Size: 2-3/8" x 3"

YOU by Caroline Kepner (Emily Bestler Books, 2014). Novel.

EASTBOUND by Maylis de Kerangal, trans. by Jessica Moore (The Archipelago Books, 2023). Novel

The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Trans. by Martin Aitken (Penguin Press, 2021). Novel

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (MacMillan, 2024). Novel

Historical Markers by Lynn Kozlowski (Ravenna Press, 2004). Short fictions

The Best American Short Stories edited by Min Jim Lee and Heidi Pitlor (HarperCollins, 2023). Short stories

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Grove Press, 1987). Novel *

Escher's Journal by Norman Lock (Ravenna Press, 2012). Novel

Golden Gate and other stories by Clarence Major (Ravenna Press, 2023). Short stories

Liars by Sarah Manguso (Hogarth, 2024). Novel

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin (Hanover Square Press, 2021). Novel

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin (Hanover Square Press, 2022. Read half & opted not to finish). Novel

Frog, Where Are You? by Mercer Mayer (Dial Press, 1969). Drawings / Children's Book

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue (Random House, 2016). Novel

PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage International, 1962). Novel.

The Coordinates of [His] Separation by Kevin O Cuinn (Ravenna Press, 2017). Short fictions w/ poems

Wildflowers by Beverly Parayno (PAWA, 2023). Short stories.

The #1 Lawyer by James Patterson & Nancy Allen (Little, Brown and Co., 2024). Novel

A Little Family by Kathryn Rantala (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023). Short fictions 

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Riggs (William Morrow, 2020). Novel

Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth (Vintage, 1995). Novel

This is Not the Way We Came In: Flash Fictions and a Flash Novel by Daryl Scroggins (Ravenna Press, 2008). Flash Fiction

10 x 10, Issue 20 edited by Zvi A. Sesling (pdf mailer). Flash fiction

10 BY 10: Flash Fiction Stories Issue #18, July 2024 edited by Zvi A. Sesling. Fiction

Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit w/ illustrations by Arthur Rackham (Haymarket Books, 2019). Updated Fairy Tale

MARS by Thea Swanson (Ravenna Press, 2017). Flash Fictions

The Balikbayan Artist by Eileen R. Tabios (Penguin Random House SEA, 2024). Novel

A children's book by a Person who's Unnamed because the book is awful. (2024). Children's book

in a dark, dark wood by Ruth Ware (Simon and Schuster, 2015). Novel

Sharp Rocks by Diane Willie (Mammoth Publications, 2017). Short stories or memoirs.

End of the Fire Cult by Angela Woodward (Ravenna Press, 2010). Novel

Queen of the Universe by Pia Wurtzbach (Tuttle, 2023. Could only half-read; editing desperately needed...). Novel

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (Algonquin Books, 2014). Novel

 

 

 

Poetry-184

Life is a Fatal Disease by Paula Gunn Allen (West End Press, 1997). Poetry

Erik Satie WATUSIES His Way Into SOUND by Jeff Alessandrelli (Ravenna Press, 2011). Poetry

CHARISMATIC SPIRALS by Will Alexander (Isolarii, 2024). Poetry.

Noveau's Midnight Sun edited by John Thomas Allen (Ravenna Press, 2014). Poetry

A Brief History of Fruit by Kimberly Quiogue Andrews (University of Akron Press, 2020). Poetry

The Inside Room by Lisa Andrews (Indolent Books, 2018). Poetry.

AGIMAT by Romalyn Ante (Chatto & Windus, 2024). Poetry

 

Antiemetic for Homesickness by Romalyn Ante (Chatto & Windus / Penguin Random House, 2020). Poetry

Gathering Words / Recogiendo Palabras by Maria Luisa Arroyo (Bilingual Press, 2008). Poetry

PAPER BOAT: New and Selected Poems 1961-2023 by Margaret Atwood (Knopf, 2024). Poetry

Made to Explode by Sandra Beasley (Norton, 2021) Poetry

HOetry by Jim Berle (sp, nd). Poetry.

Don’t Forget to Love Me by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books, 2024). Poetry

NETS by Jen Bervin (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2004). Poetry

Silk Poems by Jen Bervin (Nightboat Books, 2017). Poetry

Shapeshifter by Sherwin Bitsui (University of Arizona Press, 2003). Poetry

if nothing else by Harold Bowes (Ravenna Press, 2012). Poetry

else as soon by Harold Bowes (Ravenna Press, 2016). Poetry

Detached Palace Gardens by Harold Bowes (Ravenna Press, 2017). Poetry

The Tradition by Jericho Brown ( Copper Canyon Press, 2019). Poetry.

Punk Poems by John Burgess (Ravenna Press, 2005). Poetry

Licorice by Ellen C. Bush (Bull City Press, 2018). Poetry.

Disease of Kings by Anders Carlson-Wee (Norton, 2023). Poetry.

Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions, 2024). Poetry and Prose

Tunisia / Amrikiya by Leila Chatti (Bull City Press, 2018). Poetry.

The Book of Light by Lucille Clifton (Copper Canyon Press, 1993). Poetry

Crown by Joanna Penn Cooper (Ravenna Press, 2014). Poetry

Rhapsodys by John Crouse (Serious Publication, 2024). Poetry

X Marks the Dress by Kristina Marie Darling and Carol Guess (Persea, 2015). Poetry

The Diaspora Sonnets by Oliver de la Paz (Liveright, 2023). Poetry

And Yet Held by T. De Los Reyes (Bull City Press, 2023). Poetry.

Headline News by John Deming (Indolent Books, 2018). Poetry.

Every Evening Deserves a Title by Carol Dorf, w/ illustrations by Terri Saul (A Delirious Nonce Publication, 2013). Poetry.

The Geese in Logic by Ann Douglas (Ravenna Press, 2017). Poetry

City Bird and Other Poems by Patrick James Dunagan (City Light Books, 2024). Poetry

gutter rainbows by Melissa Eleftherion (Querencia, 2024). Poetry

Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T.S. Eliot (Harcourt Brace, 1963). Poetry

Katana by Marie Etienne (Ravenna Press, 2014). Poetry

Relieved of their Whispers by George J. Farrah (Ravenna Press, 2021). Poetry

The Low Pouring Stars by George J. Farrah (Ravenna Press, 2014). Poetry

Poems-For-All Mini Books by Lawrence Ferlinghetti:
1260 (2014): Poetry as an Insurgent Art #
1260 (2014): Constantly Risking Absurdity #
1261 (2014): Populist Manifesto (for Poets with Love) (2" x 3.75")
1263 (2014): The Discourse on Peace by Jacques Prevert, trans. by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Or Current Resident by Thomas Fink (forthcoming Marsh Hawk Press; read in manuscript). Poetry

Minor Chord by Joan Fiset w/ collages by Liz Gamberg (Ravenna Press, 2016). Poetry & Art

How It Was With Scotland by Joan Fiset w/ images by Noah Saterstrom (Ravenna Press, 2019). Poetry & Art

Alaskero Memories by Robert Francis Flor (Carayan Press, 2016). Poetry.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: 12 Events by Ken Friedman (sp, 2023). Poetry.

Poetry Project Newsletter #276 edited by Kay Gabriel, Spring 2024

Zero Gravity by Eric Gamalinda (Alice James Books, 1999). Poetry

Be With by Forrest Gander (New Directions, 2018). Poetry

Profile: Poems and Stories by Armando Garcia-Davila (McCAA Books, 2014). Poetry

The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck (Ecco Press,1992). Poetry

Settling St. Malo by Randy Gonzales (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2023). Poetry.

Starlight by Zachary Asher Greenberg (Ravenna Press, 2014). Poetry

Special Poetry Issue The Classical Outlook 99.3 edited by Rachel Hadas (Fall 2024). Poetry

The Ghost Forest: New and Selected Poems by Kimiko Hahn (Norton, 2024). Poetry

Falling Awake (The Haiku Workshop, 2022). Poetry

I Would Leave Me If I Could by Halsey (Simon and Schuster, 2020). Poetry

Making the Scene: Selected Poems by Kenneth O. Hanson (South View Press, 2004). Poetry

Disapparitions by Joseph Harrington (BlazeVOX, 2023). Poetry.

Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: 50 Poems for 50 Years by Joy Harjo (Norton, 2023). Poetry

Lighthead by Terrance Hayes (Penguin, 2010). Poetry.

Gardening Secrets of the Dead by Lee Herrick (WordTech Editions, 2012). Poetry

Chant De La Sirene The Journal, Issue 4 : Climate & Poetics, Editor Laura Hinton (Spring 2024). Literary/Arts Journal.

SAVINGS by Linda Hogan (Coffee House Press, 1988). Poetry

The Book of Medicines by Linda Hogan (Coffee House Press, 1993). Poetry

SAGINAW no. 9 edited by David Harrison Horton (nd). Poetry journal.

SAGINAW no. 10 edited by David Harrison Horton (nd). Poetry journal.

SAGINAW no. 13 edited by David Harrison Horton (nd). Poetry journal.

Heart Mountain by Jodi Hottel (Blue Light Press, 2012). Poetry

Vibratory Milieu by Carrie Hunter (Nightboat Books, 2021). Poetry

Caulbearer by Luisa A. Igloria (Black Lawrence Press 2024). Poetry

Translucence by Samar Abdel Jaber (Indolent Books, 2018). Poetry.

Consequence 16.2, Guest Editor Marcus Jackson (Consequence Forum, Fall 2024). Literary journal

Waves & Tonics by Tsipi Keller (Ravenna Press, 2022). Poetry

 

Another America by Barbara Kingsolver (The Seal Press,, 1992). Poetry

Weather Central by Ted Kooser (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994). Poetry

"peut-être le Messie" by Márton Koppány (Otoliths, 2024). Visual poetry / art / poetics

DAPHNE and Her Discontents by Jane Rosenthal LaForge (Ravenna Press, 2017). Poetry

Up Late by Nick Laird (Norton, 2024). Poetry

Skeletons by Deborah Landau (Copper Canyon Press, 2023). Poetry

Invasive Plants by Jim Leftwich (Serious Publication 50, 2024). Poetry.

Hard Words and other poems by Ursula K. LeGuin (Harper and Row, 1981). Poetry

RINGER by Rebecca Lehmann (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 2019). Poetry

Ages of Chaos and Fury by Oswald LeWinter (Ravenna Press, 2005). Poetry

Profeta Without Refuge by Raina J. Leon (Nomadic Press, 2016). Poetry

Selected Poems by Denise Levertov (New Directions Book, 2002). Poetry

Treadwinds by Walter K. Lew (Wesleyan University Press, 2002). Poetry

MISUSE by Julia Rose Lewis (The Knives Forks and Spoons Press, 2024). Poetry

Lucky Wreck by Ada Limon (Autumn House Press, 2021). Poetry

In the Time of Rat by Norman Lock (Ravenna Press, 2013). Poetry

For the Union Dead by Robert Lowell (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965). Poetry

He's a Color Until He's Not by Christian Hanz Lozada (Moon Tide Press, 2023). Poetry.

Estranged Domain by Lori Lubeski (Serious Publications, 2023). Poetry.

Last Love Letter from Highgate by Scott MacLeod (Serious Publication 48, 2024). Poetry.

The Best American Poetry 2022, guest-edited by Matthew Magruder (Scribner, 2022). Poetry

SONGS OF LOVE AND WAR: Afghan Women's Poetry edited by Sayd Bahodine Majrough, trans. by Marjolin de Wager (Other Press, 2003). Poetry

Document Shredding Machine by Afrizal Malna, Trans. by Daniel Owen (World Poetry Books, 2024). Poetry

MAMMOTH by Rachel McKibbens (Organic Weapon Arts, 2014). Poetry *

Pink Elephant by Rachel McKibbens (Cypher Books, 2009). Poetry *

It Conquers the Madness by Nancy Mercado (Long Shot,Productions, 2000). Poetry

Collected Lyrics by Edna St. Vincent Millay (Washington Square Press, 1959). Poetry

A Letter from Texas by Townsend Miller (Somesuch Press, 2001). Poetry.

EYE by Sati Mookherjee (Ravenna Press, 2022). Poetry

Through the Stonecutter's Window by Indigo Moor (Northwestern University Press 2010). Poetry

Winter in Fargo by Rodney Nelson (Ravenna Press, 2016). Poetry

Dear Diaspora by Susan Nguyen (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). Poetry

The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye (BOA Editions, 2019). Poetry

everything turns on a delicate measure by Maureen Owen (BlazeVOX, 2023). Poetry.

Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (FSG, 2024). Poetry

Language Being Time by John Phillips (Shearsman Books, 2024). Poetry

Living Things: Collected Poems by Anne Porter (Zoland Books, 2006). Poetry

Works & Days by Dean Rader (Truman State University, 2010). Poetry

Missing the Moon by Bin Ramke (Omnidawn, 2014). Poetry

Lord Baltimore by Peter Ramos (Ravenna Press, 2021). Poetry

The Exhibitionist by Kathryn Rantala (Ravenna Press, 2024). Poetry

This Space for Correspondence: An anthology of vintage postcards and imagined messages edited by Kathryn Rantala (Ravenna Press, 2019). Postcard poems and prose

King Me by Roger Reeves (Copper Canyon Press, 2013). Poetry

STYROFOAM by Evelyn Reilly (Roof Books, 2009). Poetry

ASCENSION by Luivette Resto (Tia Chucha Press, 2013). Poetry

Quadlibet by Tree Riesener (Ravenna Press, 2020). Poetry

Shadowboxing by Joseph Rios (Omnidawn, 2017).

Thrift Store Metamorphoses by Tony Robles (Red Hawk Publications 2023). Poetry.

Where the Warehouse Things Are by Tony Robles (Redhawk Publications, 2024). Poetry

Little Double Elegy for All of You by Anne Lovering Rounds (Ravenna Press, 2020). Poetry

OUTSPEAKS: A Rhapsody by Albert Saijo (Bamboo Ridge, 1997). Poetry

ANDES by Tomaz Salamun (Black Ocean Press, 2016). Poetry

Hermosa by Yesika Salgado (Not A Cult, 2019). Poetry

Ang Armadong Paraluman Sa Panahon Ng Kilabot / The Armed Parmour In A Time of Terror by E. San Juan, Jr. (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2023). Poetry

ABYSS AND SONG: Selected Poems by George Sarantaris, trans. by Pria Louka (World Poetry, 2023). Poetry.

Little War Machine by M Sarki (Ravenna Press, 2004). Poetry

Who's On First? by Lloyd Schwartz (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Poetry

DEER A-WI by Kim Shuck and Denise Low (Mammoth Publications, 2024). Poetry

Once… by Aaron Shurin (SUNY Buffalo Holiday Broadside, 2024). Poetry

Season Dares by Leah Silvieus (All City Press, 2018). Poetry.

That Little Something by Charles Simic (Harcourt, Inc., 2008). Poetry

Counting Descent by Clint Smith (Write Bloody, 2016). Poetry

Black Movie by Danez Smith (Button Poetry / Exploding Pine Cone Press, 2015). Poetry

HOMIE by Danez Smith (Graywolf Press, 2020). Poetry

Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith (Graywolf Press, 2017). Poetry

Such Color: New and Selected Poems by Tracy K Smith (Graywolf, 2021). Poetry.

Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf Press, 2018). Poetry.

Left Out in the Rain: New Poems 1974-1985 by Gary Snyder (North Point Press, 1986). Poetry

Utriculi, Part 2, edited by harry k stammer (Sandy Press, 2024). Visual Poetry journal

Utriculi, Part 1, edited by harry k stammer (Sandy Press, 2024). Poetry journal

Utriculi, Part 2, edited by harry k stammer (Sandy Press, 2024). Poetry journal for visual art

alleys't' by harry k stammer (Concrete Mist, 2023). Poetry.

 

In Both Hands by Joannie Stangeland (Ravenna Press, 2014). Poetry

The Scene You See by Joannie Stangeland (Ravenna Press, 2018). Poetry

HARMONIUM by Wallace Stevens (Lisa Shea, 2023). Poetry.

IMAGINARY GARDENS: American Poetry and Art for Young People edited by Charles Sullivan (Harry N. Abrams, 1989). Poetry and Art

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore (Scribner Poetry, 1997). Poetry

Balikbayan by Dujie Tahat (New Michigan Press, 2022). Poetry

OR by Parker Tettleton (Ravenna Press, 2022). Poetry

A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017). Poetry

Rolando S. Tinio, Jose F. Lacaba, Rio Alma Translated and introduced by Robert Nery (Vagabond Press Asia Pacific Poetry Series, 2012). Poetry

TERTULIA by Vincent Toro (Penguin, 2020). Poetry

What happens is neither by Angela Narciso Torres (Four Way Books, 2021). Poetry

The Afterlives of Trees by Wyatt Townley (Woodley Press, 2011). Poetry

The Book of Perceptions by Truong Tran, with photography by Chung Hong Chuong (Kearney Street Workshop, 1999)

The Lands Between by Faruk Ulay (Ravenna Press, 2018). Poetry

REFUGEE by Pamela Uschuk (Red Hen Press, 2022). Poetry

What You Refuse to Remember by MT Vallarta (Harbor Editions, 2023). Poetry.

Proof of Stake: An Elegy by Charles Valle (Fonograf Editions, 2021). Poetry

A World in Transit by Eric Tinsay Valles (Ethos Books, 2011). Poetry.

After the Fall: Dirges Among Ruins by Eric Tinsay Valles (Ethos Books, 2014). Poetry.

Before Wisdom: The Early Poems of Paul Verlaine, trans. by Keith Waldrop and K.A. Hays (World Poetry, 2023). Poetry.

Mungan and Lola by Justine Villanueva with illustrator Ray Nazarene (Sawaga River Press, 2024). Children's book (using a book-length hay(na)ku poem)

...I never saw another butterfly...: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 edited by Hana Volavkovd (Schocken Books, 1993). Poetry & Art

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press, 2022). Poetry

Follow the Blackbirds by Gwen Nell Westerman (Michigan State University Press, 2013). Poetry

Invisible Gifts by Maw Shein Win (Manic D. Press, 2018). Poetry

Crevasse by Nicholas Wong (Kaya Press, 2015). Poetry

NO FINIS by Deborah Woodard (Ravenna Press, 2018). Poetry

Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre by Lois-Ann Yamanaka (Bamboo Ridge Press, 1993). Poetry

Tell It Slant by John Yau (Omnidawn, 2023). Poetry

Alkaline Pageantry by Mark Young (Serious Publication, 2024). Poetry

The Magritte Poems by Mark Young (Sandy Press, 2024). Poetry

100 Titles From Tom Beckett by Mark Young, with paintings by Thomas Fink (Otoliths, 2024). Poetry/Art

eNumerations by Mark Young (Sandy Press, 2024). Poetry

MELANCHOLY by Mark Young (SurVision, 2024). Poetry

un saut de chat by Mark Young (Otoliths, 2024). Poetry.

The Experiment of the Tropics by Lawrence Lacambra Ypil (Gaudy Boy, 2019). Poetry.

Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora (Copper Canyon Press, 2017). Poetry

 

 

Non-Fiction-71

Best Bookstores in California and the West (An Alta Guide / California Book Club, 2023). Nonfiction

Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill (Granta, 2008). Memoir

Alive, Alive Oh! by Diana Athill (Norton, 2004-2016). Memoir

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett (Riverhead Books, 2009). Non-fiction/Journalism.

POUND OF PAPER: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter (Thomas Duane Books/St. Martin's Press, 2002). Memoir. 40

 

Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print by Lawrence Block (Writers Digest Books, 1979). Non-fiction 30

Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker (Viking, 2024). Memoir/Journalism/Art

Meeting Dr. Johnson by James Boswell (Penguin 60s Classics / Penguin Books, 1995). Memoir

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (Godine, 2020). Diary.

Remainders of the Day: A Bookshop Diary by Shaun Bythell (Godine, 2022). Diary.

A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece edited by Jane Jacobs (Vintage Books, 1995). Memoir.

Reading the Poem-Object: Intimacy and Collaboration in Julie Jonstone's Essence Press by Maddie Beaulieu (The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, SUNY Buffalo, "Among the Neighbors" #24, 2023). History/Essay.

Measures' Measures: Poetry & Knowledge by Michael Boughn (Station Hill Press, 2024). Poetry/Essays.

The MicroBibliophile, Vol. XLIII No. 4, Issue No. 250, Editor James Brogan, July-August 2024. Newsletter

The MicroBibliophile, Vol. XLIII No. 5, Issue No. 251, Editor James Brogan, September-October 2024. Newsletter

The MicroBibliophile, Vol. XLIII No. 3, Issue No. 249, Editor James Brogan, May-June 2024. Newsletter

The MicroBibliophile, Vol. XLIII No. 2, Issue No. 248, Editor James Brogan, March-April 2024. Newsletter

The Microbibliophile, Vol. XLII, No. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2023, Editor James Brogan (The Microbibliophile, 2023). Journal.

Miniature Book Society Newsletter, Issue No. 124, Contents Editor Cynthia Cosgrove, May 2024 (MBS). Newsletter

Miniature Book Society Newsletter Issue No. 123 (MBS Society, December 2023). Newsletter.

Miniature Book Society Newsletter, Issue No. 125, Contents Editor Cynthia Cosgrove, October 2024 (MBS). Newsletter

Miniature Book Society Competition Catalog (Miniature Book Society, 2024). Catalog

America Is In The Heart by Carlos Bulosan (University of Washington Press, 1943 &1973-2002). (Auto)Biography.

EXIT INTERVIEW: The Life and Death of an Ambitious Career by Kristi Coulter (FSG, 2023). Memoir.

Sir Winston Churchill: His Life and His Paintings by David Coombs and Minnie S. Churchill (Running Press, 2004). Art / History.

The Collector and the Collected: Notes on Our Recent Miniature Book Exhibit by Alan Dietch (Anchor and Acorn Press, 1992. 174/200). Exhibition Catalogue.

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati, Trans. by Elena Pala (Scribner, 2022). Memoir.

Twentieth Century Filipino Artists, Vols. I and II, by Manuel D. Duldulao (Legacy Publishers, Quezon City, 1995). Art.

The Young Man by Annie Ernaux, Trans. Alison L. Strayer (Seven Stories Press, 2022/3). Memoir.

In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante (Europa Editions, 2022). Essays

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Knopf, 2023). Journalism.

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press, 2016). Memoir

The Archipelago Conversations by Edouard Glissant and Hans Ulrich Oboist, Trans. by Emma Ramadan (Isolarii, 2021). Philosophy.

Distillation & Essence: World View in Modern Philippine Literature by L.M. Grow (Giraffe Books, 2002). Literary Study.

A Perfect Score by Craig and Kathryn Hall (Center Street/Hachette, 2016). Memoir

Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author by Lucinda Halpern (Hay House, 2024). Non-Fiction

Selected Amazon Reviews by Kevin Killian (Semiotext(E)/MIT Press, 2024). Reviews/Memoir

 

I LOVE RUSSIA by Elena Kostyuchenko, Trans. by Bela Shayevich and Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse (Penguin, 2023). Non-fiction/Journalism

The Location of Failure by Travis Kurowski (The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, SUNY Buffalo, "Among the Neighbors" #26, 2023). History/Essay.

Other Russias by Victoria Lomasko, translated by Thomas Campbell (n +1 books, 2017). Graphic reportage.

Maori Place Names (Langenscheidt / A.H. & A.W. Reed, Berlin-Schoneberg / New Zealand, 1962). Size: 1.5” x 2”

The Best of the Best: The Making of the Best American Poetry by David Lehman (Marsh Hawk Press, 2023). Poetry / Memoir.

Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence by Denise Low (Meadowlark Press, 2022). Essays / Autobiography

METPO by Scott MacLeod (Serious Publications, 2023). Memoir.

PASSED by Margaret Staples MacLeod and Scott MacLeod (Serious Publications #54, 2024). Art

On Reflection by Brian Marley (Grand Iota, 2023). Photography with Prose Poetry "captions."

Cid Corman and ORIGIN by David Miller (The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, SUNY Buffalo, "Among the Neighbors" #25, 2023). History/Essay.

SOCCER, design and production by Peter Murray (Murray Books, 2010). Sports. 60

FAST TALK With Writers by George Myers Jr. (Sandy Press, 2023). Interviews.

MIXERS: On Hybrid Writing by George Myers Jr. (sp, 2022). Non-fiction / Essays. 50

For Now by Eileen Myles (The 2019 Windham-Campbell Lecture / Yale University Press). Memoir.

THE TIMES: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism by Adam Nagourney (Crown, 2023). Journalism.

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett (Harper Collins, 2013). Essays.

ORANGE (boardbook art) through Pantone (2012). Size: 3.5" x 3.5". Art.

RED (boardbook art) through Pantone (2012). Size: 3.5" x 3.5". Art.

Follower of the Seasons: A Onethology in Symphony by Oscar Penaranda (Eastwind Books, 2023). Autobiography

The Book of Unusual Knowledge compiled by Publications International (2012). Non-Fiction

THE SOVEREIGN TRICKSTER by Vicente L. Rafael (Duke University, 2022). History / Political Science.

We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth by Jennifer Risher (Xeno, 2020). Memoir

EARMARKS: Being A Metaphysic On The Profound Nature of Ears by Jaime Robles and Linda Rollins (Two In A Tub Press, 1974). 2.5" x 3.25". ART

KNIFE: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (Random House, 2024). Memoir

Trench Art by Nicholas J. Saunders (Shire Publications, 2002). Art / Archaeology

Scribners: Five Generations in Publishing by Charles Scribner III (Lyons Press, 2023). Memoir

HOURGLASS: Time, Memory, Marriage by Dani Shapiro (Knopf, 2017). Memoir

KIKI SMITH by Helene Posner (Bullfinch Press, 1998). Art

Georgia O'Keefe: A Portrait by Alfred Stieglitz (Metropolitan Museum of Art / Viking Press, 1978). Art

Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature by Dan Sinykin (Columbia University Press, 2023). Non-fiction/Journalism.

Civil Disobedience and Reading by Henry David Thoreau (Penguin 60s Classics, 1984)

The Beginning of Leaving by Elsa Valmidiano (Quercia Press, LLC, 2023). Essays.

 

The Second Half: forty women reveal life after fifty edited/by Ellen Warner (Brandeis University Press, 2022). Biographies

Reading the Room: A Bookseller's Tale by Paul Yamazaki (Ode Books, 2024). Memoir

 

 

"LIT IN 5!" COVERS THE BALIKBAYAN ARTIST

Through a new Feature: “Lit in 5!" two authors ask five questions to each other about each other’s book. In our case, I asked Luisa about her new poetry collection, Caulbearer, and she asked me questions about my new novel, The Balikbayan Artist. (The full interview was first published in The Halo Halo Review.) 

[For 2024 Holiday gift-giving, The Balikbayan Artist is available through Amazon.]

LIT IN 5!—LUISA A. IGLORIA and EILEEN R. TABIOS

Luisa Asks Eileen R. Tabios:

1. 

In your Author's Note, you describe The Balikbayan Artist (Penguin Random House SEA, 2024) as a work of historical fiction that "presents alternate histories to actual events"—a setup also predicated on your deployment of what you call "Kapwa Time," an indigenous perception which sees "no difference between past, present, and future since one is connected to everything in all time periods." Do you think this conception of "Kapwa Time" radically reworks what we've conventionally been taught of literary values like the Aristotelian "unity of time, place, and action;" and how?

I hope so. While I see the advantages of Aristotle’s views—indeed, I believe his ideas more fit the zeitgeist’s limited attention span than my ambitious-and-perhaps-impossible goal of roping everything onto the page—I would not want an Aristotelian constraint on my work. I feel his “unity of time, place, and action” relate more to craft than to art (I use the terms conventionally though they can overlap). I’m a great believer in reader response (from that poetic upbringing) and such exists more in art’s domain than within the bounds of craft’s “how-to-create” standards. Part of reader response’s trickiness—its disadvantage but also its marvelousness—is that I even can combine seemingly random elements and yet somehow the rub of those words can generate a meaning to some reader so that my diction fails at being nonsense. Not all readers would respond this way, but readers also respond differently to works adhering to conventional standards. As well, Aristotle might hold a stricter difference between art and life/reality while I try to eliminate the difference (delete the stage’s proscenium)—this alone can disrupt Aristotelian unities since life is messy. I can’t help but wonder whether the most popular type of work today that best abides by Aristotle’s standards are romantic-comedies, and yet rom-coms may not possess the gravitas for which Aristotle was meditating. Perhaps the serious topics that would concern Aristotle—his “tragedy”—are complicated enough so that convention might flatten how they’re developed. In any event, there’s a place for all types of approaches and I think that’s what creatives should keep in mind. Creatives have a different role from that of philosophers, scholars, critics, and teachers. I once studied Aristotle; I also have since forgotten most of what I learned. Sure, creatives should try to know the rules—e.g., what’s conventional because those standards generally exist for a reason—but not necessarily follow them. Creatives should do what the art requires, even break rules.

2. 

Your novel's character Vance Igorta (modeled after Filipino painter Venancio C. Igarta) recounts the differences between the reception he has received from people in his community in Surat barangay in the Philippines (curious, respectful, accepting), and those he has received from people in the art world in New York City (insulting, dismissive, racist). Igorta says he no longer minds, because he is "back where [he] was born: Surat in the Ilocos province, north and blessedly distant from the urban grit and cacophony of the capital, Manila." What does this reflect, if at all, of current thinking about what constitutes originality, relevance, and the "right audiences" for a work of art or literature?

I love this question. Because, yes, my novel could be seen as positing that there is a “right audience” for works of art and literature, and that such right audience is based on one’s community or background. This notion comes up often in works by artists of color in terms of how they are presented as well as received. But I think, generally, that some folks may be extrapolating wrongly from the responses of those who are racist, misogynist, or otherwise compassion-stunted or close-minded. The wrong extrapolation is to consider these responses to belong in the aesthetic realm of creating good work (however “good” may be defined by the artist and writer in creating their works). I may write a work—like The Balikbayan Artist—whose audience would seem to be Filipinos. But if you’re interested in art, history, psychology, the humanities, political science, poetry, and even economics, my novel would have something for you regardless of your ethnicity or community. Note that while, in The Balikbayan Artist, Igorta experiences racism and objectification while he’s in New York City, he also experiences dismissiveness over his abstract art from his fellow Filipinos. Yet Igorta didn’t stop making abstractions because many around him preferred figurative art—he kept true to his vision for his work. Also, for subjective assessments like “relevance,” we should separate the contexts of creation and reception. I may or may not consider audience at the time I’m writing; my writing standards are more directly related to creating the work well rather than hewing it to a preconceived audience even when, later, I may hope for a positive reception from a particular audience.

 

3. 

I'm also intrigued by Igorta's "statement of faith" and belief in his home country's capacity to prosper: "When a country was strong enough to repel a dictator instead of believing his lies while taking his bribes, there's sufficient raw material to mold into a prosperous nation that would persuade its children in the diaspora to return." Do you share the same, or a similar, conviction? What would it take to land such "persuasion?"

Well, that part is clearly fiction (laugh). I don’t know that I have enough faith in humanity to believe that cause-and-effect I describe between not having a dictatorship and creating a sufficiently attractive nation for diasporics to return. Other matters besides dictatorships can create a dismal country—for examples, oligarchies, corporatism, and just general stupidity among, say, politicians. But for purpose of The Balikbayan Artist and the Philippines, it’s legitimate to express this hope. Because there was a dictatorship and there is a political infrastructure that is structured partly on the gap between the wealthy and the economically disenfranchised as well as relies partly on bribery and corruption (and its attendant cynicism).

Since I don’t want to end this answer on such a pessimistic note, I’ll share that against the proven cruelties in human history, Filipino or not, I cope by making a distinction between macro and micro realities. What I call “macro” are the larger and/or systemic contexts in which reality unfolds and which could make us feel helpless. What I call “micro” are the immediate, day-to-day, individual or more personal actions that unfold in our lives. Regardless of the macro and how corrupt and abusive it may be, such direness should not be an excuse for us to not behave well and strive hard towards good effect in our personal lives. If you’re, say, against the incoming President of the U.S. and you live in the U.S., you should still be behaving as a good person, battling injustice, and so on during his administration. If you live in the Philippines during authoritarianism, you should still be behaving well as an individual, taking care of your neighbors, seeking to improve your community’s lives, and so on. No macro element need to disrupt your micro decisions to be a good citizen of the planet. And, ultimately, it’s these micro actions that can change the macro system  or environment (or at least aspects of such). Individual or grass roots activities can create exponentially larger effects.

 

4. 

I see the balikbayan box as a physical object and complex repository of wishes for certain ideas (and the fantasy?) of "return"—many of these wishes paired with notions of duty, obligation, and care. These have also been associated with the notion of Kapwa or community. On the other hand, it can't be denied that in the reality of social dynamics, these same ideas of duty, obligation, and care do not always sketch out fully reciprocative flows. What do you think about this?  

I agree. That’s why I believe one should never expect a return for one’s gift to others, as well as that one should never be obliged to give. But don’t listen to me—I often break tradition, including long-held traditions for how a family or tribe or community or culture operates. I don’t believe, for example, in “Respect your elders.” I believe respect needs to be earned and the elders aren’t excused. I can cite other examples. This has made me a “bad daughter,” among other things. Note that, for what it’s worth, I’m answering this amidst plenty of bingeing on Asian dramas where parents and elders use family values to take advantage of the younger generation. In the balikbayan context, I’ve heard of certain values being debased by the existence of relatives in the diaspora—for example, those being helped assuming service and heaped-upon sacrifices from those “lucky enough” to have made it to the diaspora. This is frustrating, even as I’m not surprised because of the weaknesses and/or fragility of human nature. I can only hope that for those situations, the existence of love is sufficient to overcome the tensions that arise. One loves by respecting others’ positions, not by creating demands—in this more healthy context, exchanges are more joyously made.

 

5. 

How do you envision this novel in conversation with the current and looming realities faced especially but not only by communities of color, communities in the diaspora, and communities that continue to be wrecked by the violent systems of capital and corruption? Does it offer a vision for a particular type of future, and our role in getting to it?

The novel encourages never giving up on the fight for justice, no matter how long and hard the battle—in the novel, the people do eventually overthrow the dictatorship. But, I repeat: the fight can be long and hard—in the novel, the primary protagonist dies before the dictatorship is overthrown. But because he kept up the good fight, he achieves his goal of reaching his deathbed with no regrets.

The novel encourages self-education, which is critical and reminds me of the debate over whether everybody needs to go to college. Institutions of higher learning are not just for determining future jobs—education is also a vitamin for the brain to create better-thinking citizens, including better voters. The more ill-educated the populace, the more likely they’d fall for poor leadership due to elements like fake science and other fake facts, as well as overrely on manipulated impressions versus reality (Hello, social media). Education, of course, need not just be what occurs in schools and should continue beyond schools—the novel’s artist protagonist is self- instead of institution-educated.

The novel is a cautionary note against repeating cycles of abuses by knowing one’s history and by maintaining priorities that do not sacrifice one’s culture and resources to others.

There are, I hope, other lessons that would make the novel relevant to those forced to live within the bounds of capitalism and corruption. But certainly a clear one is the effectiveness of art in making sense of our world. Art-making and poetry—there is poetry in the novel—are inherently anti-capital.

I’m not sure, though, that I intended the novel to offer a vision for a particular future (perhaps it does, but that would be up to and enacted by readers for the circumstances of their lives). What I wished for the novel to offer is how “Kapwa” makes everything related across all time. From that understanding, I believe the odds for a better future arise. But I believe the novel encourages increasing the odds for, but  without guaranteeing, this better future. Because—as discussed by the novel’s characters—human history itself shows how human nature is flawed. For example, as is mourned more than once in the novel, “Power corrupts.” And yet, we live. The novel asks, How do we live? Hopefully, the novel will move the reader to respond, Let’s live better.

~~

Eileen Asks Luisa A. Igloria:

1.

Caulbearer (Black Lawrence Press, 2024) strikes me as a hefty poetry book, which I personally welcome since I’ve long decried how capitalism makes many poetry books so slim. If I counted correctly, there are 73 poems in this 110-page book. Please discuss how you formed and organized it. For example, I know you write at least one poem a day—did you then “harvest” the 73 poems for a particular theme, or?

That’s a great question, and I love how you use the word “harvest” —which does in part describe some of the process of putting a book together out of my daily writing practice. In fact, I’ll add it to my process vocabulary! Whenever I write my daily poem, I’m not at the moment thinking about what it’s going to be “for.” When I’m writing my daily poem, you could say I’m simply processing what I’m living through, thinking through, and perceiving (in the simultaneous dailiness and extraordinariness of our daily lives), using the language and structures and image- and metaphor-making capacity. Putting Caulbearer together, I looked back through almost a year of writing during a time of intense personal grieving and questioning. I write about that some more in a “What Sparks Poetry?” feature I was invited to write for Poetry Daily. Those kinds of experiences can’t really be rushed, nor contained. You can’t say, I have 25 poems on that now, time to stop.  

2.

I sort of amused myself with my reaction to your poem “The Dogs of Appetite.” At first, I thought you knew nothing about dogs—I speak from my no doubt snobby position of having three German Shepherds. I thought this because I somehow doubt that any dog curbs its appetite so much as, as a more direct effect of its environment, hones its behavior to behave defensively when the dog’s occasion warrants it. But I think the poem ends up being brilliant because of its last three lines: “The others, whipped to frenzy, will do / the bidding of faceless gods for an arm, / a tooth, a throat, an excavated heart.” It seems to me the lesson in those three lines can be presented in a variety of ways. So how did you come to focus on dogs for this poem? Feel free to go beyond dogs—I’m just obsessed with them.

You’re right, I don’t know anything really about dogs— we never had pets at home, not even back in the Philippines, except for around a dozen lovebirds (budgies) we kept in a large wire cage on the porch, and which we took great pleasure in, until one by one they succumbed to some kind of illness... Also, everyone in my family is allergic to animal dander. I think writing this poem came partly out of that time when many of us were watching with great anger and frustration the reinstatement of corrupt power in so many governments—not the least of all in the Philippines, with the violent Duterte administration and the bloodlust unleashed on some of the most vulnerable in society (children, women, the elderly); how crushed I was when Leni Robredo was stripped of the opportunity to rebuild from good; and when in a banal as well as horrifying way, the Marcoses came back to power. While perhaps there may be more metaphorical reference to dogs in my poem, those last three lines you quote are also my favorite, and I’m glad they come through with the kind of force I intended. When we anthropomorphize animals, or anything else, what we’re really describing is ourselves.

 

3.

Please share more insight on your poem “Theory & Praxis”?

THEORY & PRAXIS

A cento

 

You, you are a factory

above the waves, those lost years I drifted

Let me explain how nothing ever changes—the scenery, sure

 

More and more now I do things alone—

I keep a spur under my pillow to ward off nightmares.

 

You will find me, God

furnace child, goblin child, pulse

god of multiple tongues all sacred lick me

 

In some prisons, you can’t have a last cigarette, but Valium is

permitted.

There was a gate and we walked through

 

there’s no unenduring it

 

It’s got a killer last line, as they say: “there’s no unenduring it”.  Relatedly, what is “unenduring” to you? It’s such a resonant word…

“Theory & Praxis” is a cento—and so each line is “sourced” from as many poets as there are lines in the poem (Sally Wen Mao, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Richard Jones, Eduardo Corral, Ilya Kaminsky, Ilyse Kusnetz, Kazim Ali, CD Wright, Catherine Barnett). The cento, as an exercise in poetic collage, is infinitely interesting to me, because while I draw from existing language (and wisdom), I feel I must also push beyond the constraint to shape something new, something that was born out of my sensibility both as a reader and as a writer.

Rereading the poem today—and especially its last 2 lines— in the aftermath as well as the daily unfolding of yet so much grief and laceration of public consciousness, one of the things I’m reminded of is how all of this is both so old, and so new; and yet there’s no way through it except to go through it (and by “it” I refer also to so much that is morally repugnant that we are being made to normalize). I hope that we can keep drawing strength from one another, for our mutual survival and good. 

 

4.

Congratulations on Caulbearer becoming published as a winner of Black Lawrence Press’ Immigrant Writing Series. Would you discuss please your view on entering poetry contests. I’m not talking so much about the reductive topic of whether contests are generally a good or bad practice. But I refer to how you might view it as a tool or something else. I don’t know if you remember but you once mentioned to me years ago how some folks in academia didn’t think highly of one of your books because its publisher was a *too small press*. So I wonder if poetry contests—winning or placing in them—was something for which you conceive a particular role in your life as a poet.

Thank you so much for the perceptive way in which you’ve written this question, and invited me to view the contest submission practices we have in the literary (and art) world “as a tool or something else.” Also, you have a great memory! What you referred to was an experience I had when I was coming up for tenure at my university. One of the (white, male) members of my committee had a lot of questions about the book I’d published that year, and which was included in my tenure review portfolio. He’d actually expressed the opinion that my book was not appropriate for a tenure credential, implying somehow that it was merely a “vanity publication.” That was a time when small, independent literary presses/poetry presses had just started turning to the POD (print on demand) production model, because it just makes sense when you’re not a “big 5” publisher and have a smaller budget, you know? My publisher at that time was indeed a small, independent poetry press; but it has a proud roster of both emerging and established poets, and a rigorous process of review. The publisher, too, has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, so you’d think people could feel confident he knows what he’s doing, right? So yes, in some ways, I’ve come to see putting my work forward for consideration either just for publication, or for contests—and not only placing in them but also winning—as validation not so much just for me, but for them too, haha, if you get my drift? 

 

5.

I love the last stanza of the last poem in the book, “Outrigger”:

 

O outrigger. I am an island and you are

An island and everyone else is an island

And we could be an archipelago.

 

I like at least two things about this stanza. First, it doesn’t present a binary between the individual and the collective. Second, the mention of “O outrigger” presents a forward momentum, it seems to me, of the poem’s persona continuing to move—progress—forward, and with the admirable curiosity of a traveler, despite perhaps all that the persona has experienced and learned. I’m glad you positioned it as a last poem since I feel it’s life-affirming. But those are my thoughts—as its author, could you share more about the poem please, as well as how you chose it to be your collection’s last poem?

Again, I love what you say here about the last poem in Caulbearer—the forward momentum, the “admirable curiosity of a traveler” (which I hope is something that I can keep, even as I’m growing older), and the movement away from those usual binaries “between the individual and the collective.” I wanted to underscore also how the nostalgias we experience, especially but not only as a result of living in diaspora, can sometimes feel overwrought, over-romanticized, or even too familiar (as in, Oh are you writing about the past again?). I say in the poem,  “...the undercurrent of all/ nostalgias turning into something// we only think we understand”— which I mean as a reminder to myself, too—What else can we do with our nostalgia? I’d like to think, we have the capacity to turn it towards a larger canvas of meanings, defined on our own terms. I’m also so pleased about the way this poem came together for me on a sonic level.

  

*****

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Poet, writer, and translator Luisa A. Igloria is the winner of the 2023 Immigrant Series Prize for poetry (Black Lawrence Press) for Caulbearer (2024). She is the author of Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (Co-Winner, 2019 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize, Southern Illinois University Press, 2020), The Buddha Wonders if She is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2018), and 12 other books. She was the inaugural recipient of the 2015 Resurgence Poetry Prize, UK—the world’s first major award for ecopoetry (now known as the Ginkgo Prize), selected by a panel headed by former UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. She is lead editor, along with co-editors Aileen Cassinetto and Jeremy S. Hoffman, of Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States (Paloma Press, September 2023). Luisa is a Louis I. Jaffe Professor of English and Creative Writing in the MFA Program at Old Dominion University; she also leads workshops for and is a member of the board of The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk. During her appointed term as 20^th Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia (2020-22), Emerita, the Academy of American Poets awarded her one of twenty-three Poet Laureate Fellowships in 2021, to support a program of public poetry projects. Author Links:  www.luisaigloria.com and https://linktr.ee/thepoetslizard

 

Eileen R. Tabios has released over 70 books of poetry, fiction, essays, visual art and experimental prose from publishers around the world. Recent releases include the novel The Balikbayan Artist; an art monograph Drawing Six Directions; a poetry collection Because I Love You, I Become War; an autobiography, The Inventor; and a flash fiction collection collaboration with harry k stammer, Getting To One. Other recent books include a first novel DoveLion: A Fairy Tale for Our Times which was subsequently translated by Danton Remoto into Filipino as KalapatingLeon and two French books, PRISES(Double Take) (trans. Fanny Garin) and La Vie erotique de l’art (trans. Samuel Rochery. Her body of work includes invention of the hay(na)ku, a 21^st century diasporic poetic form; the MDR Poetry Generator that can create poems totaling theoretical infinity; the “Flooid” poetry form that’s rooted in a good deed; and the monobon poetry form based on the monostich. She also has edited or conceptualized 16 anthologies of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including HUMANITY, Hay(na)ku 15, BABAYLAN: An Anthology of Filipina and Filipina American Women Writers, and BLACK LIGHTNING: Poetry in Progress. Translated into 13 languages, she has seen her writing and editing works receive recognition through awards, grants and residencies. More information is at https://eileenrtabios.com

 

A POETRY COLUMN: LOVE'S LABOURS FOUND

 I've decided to do a Poetry Column for my local newspaper, St. Helena Star. I don't know how this journey will go but am willing to try and see how it goes. The premise of my column, "Love's Labours Found" (haha), is to present various experiences--from the mundane to the news--and from those experiences share the poems they inspired. 

The limitations of teaching poetry has been known for a while. Poems are usually taught to be "about" something. If for instance, you experience something about a cat, the poem then would be about a cat. Such, anyway, is how I've seen journalism often cover poetry (when it does). And of course poems are about something but that POV, if over-emphasized, flattens the wonders of poem-making and poetry.

So I hope to present experiences, followed by poems that one might not have imagined they would inspire. Because as I say in my first column: "while a poem can have a specific inspiration, the poem also can be mischievous and/or transcend a poet’s initial intention."

My first column details a human interest story about my local vet adopting cats with special needs. But the poem itself deviates or expands from that experience, as exemplified by its title "Kintsugi," the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery. I don't wish my column to be didactic, so I hope just presenting the experience plus poem exemplifies without me saying explicitly that to make a poem is a journey without a map.  

My first column came out today and I present the newspaper images beginning with the front page inaugural announcement. I can already see that the newspaper format will require certain adjustments. It doesn't accommodate broken lines well or stanza breaks and indents--not a problem, a poem is still possible within those constraints. But I'll present as the last image the way the poem is supposed to be with its correct stanza breaks and indents.

I hope you enjoy it. I do play to deploy humor often because that's a reliable way to interest non-poets into reading poems. Cheers!

THE BALIKBAYAN ARTIST IN VARIOUS NEWSPAPERS

 I love when literature appears in regular media. This happens this week with The Napa Valley Register (a daily) and the Saint Helena Star (a weekly). You can see the article HERE but because you may be locked out if you're not a subscriber, here are screenshots below. More book info at moi website. And, yes, article also touches on my being a wildfire refugee...