GALATEA RESURRECTS IS FRESH FOR THE 26TH TIME!

First and foremost, HAPPY 20-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO GALATEA RESURRECTS. It's amazing to get this far since I did this project as a lark and thought then that it'd be good if it continued for a year or so.

Thanks as ever to Galatea Resurrects' generous volunteer staff of reviewers. In addition to presenting wonderful feature articles, we feature 90 NEW POETRY REVIEWS in the current and our 26th issue.

With Issue No. 26, GR has provided 1,669 new reviews and 149 reprinted reviews (the latter brings online reviews previously available only viz print or first published in now-defunct online sites). With Issue No. 26, we also increased our coverage of poetry publishers by 20 to 579 publishers in 17 countries. 

We hope you enjoy reading GR's Issue No. 26; for convenience, I cut-n-paste the Table of Contents below:

GR Issue No. 26 Table of Contents

[N.B. Click on highlighted titles to go directly to the referenced article.]

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

By Eileen Tabios

NEW REVIEWS

Monica Manolachi reviews Paper Children by Mariana Marin, translated by Adam J. Sorkin

Eileen Tabios engages A Picture of Everyone I Love Passes Through Me with collages by Lynn Behrendt and text mixed by John Bloomberg-Rissman and remixed by Lynn Behrendt

Anne Marie Fowler reviews 67 Mogul Miniatures by Raza Ali Hasan

Patrick James Dunagan reviews Particulars of Place by Richard O. Moore

Jason Morris reviews The Green Ray by Corina Copp

Monica Manolachi reviews Arctic Poems by Vicente Huidobro, translated by Nathan Hoks

Jay Besemer reviews Anti-Humboldt: A Reading of the North American Free Trade Agreement / Una lectura del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte by Hugo García Manríquez

Allen Bramhall reviews Green Oil by Jean Donnelly

Monica Manolachi reviews Dark Times Filled with Light: The Selected Work of Juan Gelman, translated by Hardie St. Martin

Tom Jenks reviews Parsival by Steve McCaffery

James Sanders reviews Alkali by Craig Dworkin

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews 100 Chinese Silences by Timothy Yu 

Allen Bramhall reviews AMIRI BARAKA & EDWARD DORN: THE COLLECTED LETTER, edited by Claudia Moreno Pisano

Jon Curley reviews Trafficke by Susan Tichy

Tom Beckett engages four books by Charles Borkhuis: Disappearing Acts, Afterimage, Savoir-Fear and Alpha Ruins

Genevieve Kaplan reviews Almost Perfect Forms by Michael Stewart

Neil Leadbeater reviews The Year of the Tree by Katherine Gallagher

Eileen Tabios engages THE UNFOLLOWING by Lyn Hejinian

Jay Besemer reviews Garments Against Women by Anne Boyer

Neil Leadbeater reviews A Hole in the Ocean: A Hamptons’ Apprenticeship by Sandy McIntosh

Anne Marie Fowler reviews Night Songs by Kristina Marie Darling

Allen Bramhall reviews AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONCRETE POETRY, edited by Emmett Williams

Jay Besemer reviews Fabulas Feminae by Susan Bee and Johanna Drucker

Eileen Tabios engages Radio Silence by Philip Schaefer and Jeff Whitney

Allen Bramhall reviews Roman Exercises by Donald Wellman

Jon Curley reviews The Cranberry Island Series by Donald Wellman

Neil Leadbeater reviews Reading Apollinaire by Valerie Fox

Chris Mansel reviews Pelican Dreaming: Poems 1959 – 2008 by Mark Young

Monica Manolachi reviews Like the Rains Come by Mercedes Roffé, translated by Janet Greenberg

Dan Raphael reviews Selected Improvisations by Vernon Frazer 

Joel Chace reviews Selected Improvisations by Vernon Frazer

Neil Leadbeater reviews All That Gorgeous Pitiless Song by Rebecca Foust

Alana Siegel engages Heart Thread by Robert Kelly

Chris Mansel reviews Latest Volcano by Tana Jean Welch

Daniel Y. Harris reviews Sapodilla by Michael Rothenberg

Creed Shepard reviews THIS HERE by Jim McCrary

richard lopez reviews THIS HERE by Jim McCrary

Brin Sanford reviews The Robot Scientist’s Daughter by Jeannine Hall Gailey

Eileen Tabios engages Bandicoot habitat by Mark Young

Valerie Morton reviews ONE BLACKBIRD AT A TIME by Wendy Barker

Neil Leadbeater reviews Ohio Railroads by C.S. Giscombe

Genevieve Kaplan reviews from Idylls & Rushes by Susana Gardner

Chris Mansel reviews CADDISH by Susana Gardner 

Monica Manolachi reviews New Poetry from Spain, edited and translated by Marta Lopez-Luaces, Johnny Lorenz & Edwin M. Lamboy

M. Earl Smith reviews i eat cannibals by Gina Abelkop

Neil Leadbeater reviews Border States by Jane Hoogestraat

Allen Bramhall reviews Jack London is Dead: Contemporary Euro-American Poetry of Hawai'i (And Some Stories), edited by Susan M. Schultz

Eileen Tabios engages Saint Pink by Mary Kasimor

Neil Leadbeater reviews Flirt by Noah Blaustein

Monica Manolachi reviews Morse, My Deaf Friend by Miloš Djurdjević

Chris Mansel reviews SWIMMING HOME by Vincent Katz

Jay Besemer reviews Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Literary Genres, edited by Marcela Sulak and Jacqueline Kolosov

Chris Mansel reviews HOW TO BE ANOTHER by Susan Lewis

Jon Curley reviews War, and After by Joel Chace

Genevieve Kaplan reviews The Greenhouse by Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet

Chris Mansel reviews ORIGINAL SIN by Michael Daley 

Eileen Tabios engages QUATREFOIL by CB Follett

Genevieve Kaplan reviews Part, Part Euphrates by Arpine Konyalian Grenier

Chris Mansel reviews VOICE’S DAUGHTER OF A HEART YET TO BE BORN by Anne Waldman 

Jon Curley reviews Labor by Jill Magi

E.E. Nobbs engages Paper Craft by Catherine Daly

and the podcast LA-Lit 29: Catherine Daly (November 11, 2007) / Penn Sound

Eileen Tabios Engages The Hand Has Twenty-Seven Bones—: These Hands If Not Gods by Natalie Diaz

Chris Mansel reviews Triple Crown by Jeffrey Cyphers Wright

Monica Manolachi reviews THE GREAT AMERICAN POETRY SHOW, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, edited by Larry Ziman, Madeline Sharples, and Nicky Selditz

jim mccrary presents micro-reviews of 

Works & Days by Bernadette Mayer;

Diary of a K-Drama Villain by Min K Kang; and

Touch the Donkey featuring Mary Kasimor, Billy Mavreas, Sonnet L’abbe, damian lopes, Pet Smit, Katie L Price, a rawlings and Gil McElroy

Eileen Tabios presents mini-review engagements of 

Traces: Poems to Paintings with poems by James Wagner and paintings by Nava Waxman;

Fire Tongue by Zvi A. Sesling; 

Dearest Annie, You Wanted a Report on Berkson's Class: Letters from Frances LeFevre to Anne Waldman, edited by Lisa Birman; 

MEDITATIONS IN A HELICOPTER ABOUT TO EXPLODE OVER A GUY COVERED IN CHUM, SURFING OFF OF SHARKBAY BEACH by Jason Bredle; 

SPINE by Carolyn Guinzio;

Collected Poems1957-1982 by Wendell Berry;

THE ARGONAUTS by Maggie Nelson;

Stanzas on Oz: Poems 2011-2014 by David M. Katz;

Take Your Hand Outof My Pocket, Shiva by Leonard Gontarek; and


Algaravias: Echo Chamber by Waly Salomao, Trans. by Maryam Monalisa Gharavi

Eileen Tabios presents mini-review engagements of 

DIANOIA by Michael Heller;

Drops of Rain / Drops of Wine by Patrick James Dunagan; 

100 Chinese Silences by Timothy Yu;

15 Chinese Silences by Timothy Yu; 

The Day Judge Spencer Learned the Power of Metaphor by Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow; 

CHARLOTTE SONGS by Paul Pines; 

Diurnal by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa; and

HI-DENSITY POLITICS by Urayoan Noel

FEATURED ESSAY

“Maya Angelou in Ferguson, Missouri: The Phenomenology of Peace” by Tom Hibbard

FEATURED POETS: TWO WORKING IN HAY(NA)KU

Heikki Lahnaoja

Radhey Shyam

THE CRITIC WRITES POEMS

Tom Jenks

FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE

Neal Leadbeater engages JOINING THE DOTS by Monica Manolachi

YELLOW FIELD presents micro-reviews on publications by Cate Colby, Lynne Dreyer, Cathy Eisenhower, Nava Fader, Hailey Higdon, Megan Kaminski, Devon Moore, bruno neiva and Paul Hawkins, Deborah Poe, Marcelle Sauvageot (translated by Christine Schwartz Hartley & Anna Moschovakis), Jill Tomasetti, Alexandra Van de Kamp and Brad Vogler

"MURDER, DEATH AND RESURRECTION"

[Apologies ahead of time for replicating a Facebook post]

So some of you care what Eric Gamalinda thinks, and he happens to think my forthcoming book THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA: THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA is the best poetry book I’ve written. Of course, Eric hasn’t read all of my books (who has?) but he’s really talking about the books coming out of my “Murder, Death & Resurrection” (MDR) project, which include THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS, I FORGOT LIGHT BURNS, and the forthcoming AMNESIA: SOMEBODY'S MEMOIR.  I’m reminded of Eric’s input when X-Peri (thank you curator Daniel Y Harris) just featured an excerpt from THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA which you can see HERE. You might also consider this Black Radish Pre-Publication Special. While all coming out of MDR, these projects are actually very different from each other so my non-biased opinion is that you won’t find it boring to have copies of all of them. (That’s it today for “marketing” moiself, which I do for the presses lovely enough to support my work—thank you all.)

Last but not least, thanks to Irene Koronas for her artwork designed to accompany the excerpt from THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA:

"Komma Klawed Magnolia"

VTY TAUGHT AT U.C. SANTA CRUZ!

I'm delighted to share that Verses Typhoon Yolanda has been picked up for U.C. Santa Cruz's course "Typhoons, Hurricanes and Tsunamis: Global Disaster Narrative" in their Cultural Studies Department.

On Facebook, I'd addressed the book's 133 poets by saying, "You wrote and donated poems to create not just a fundraiser but a needed alternative-to-mainstream-media coverage of Typhoon Haiyan that encompassed colonialism, environmental damage, political corruption, the limits of education and parenting, misogynism ... who knew a typhoon could cover so much? And now you're being studied. Well done!"

Here also is an excerpt from a note from the course's Prof. Danielle Crawford: "I wanted to thank you for sending me a desk copy of Verses Typhoon Yolanda... The collection is both beautiful and moving. It will definitely be a wonderful addition to my class, and will be useful for my research in general.” 

I am grateful for the news.

CONNOISSEUR IS REVIEWED BY THE VOLTA!

I'm very grateful for Marthe Reed's review of The Connoisseur of Alleys in one of my favorite journals The Volta.  The review itself is beautifully written; here's an excerpt:

Though the lines insist on the loss of memory, the logic of the generated poem—the recursion on which the poems are founded—asserts that nothing is ever forgotten. Each poem is composed in eight paragraph-like stanzas, the returns both familiar and new. Tabios’ algorithmic work depends upon the vivid imagery and emotion of the original lines and the wonder to which each new configuration gives rise. Reading these poems, I entered a durational space, a state in which time flows otherwise, according to the orbits of the recurring lines. I lost track of where and when in the drifting patterns the poet has construed, finding myself midmost a language journey: “I forgot the empty chair that awaited us, its expanse the totality of a planet still unexplored.”

Go HERE for entire review.

Marthe also does something that I actually think more reviewers might consider doing -- relating the cover image(s) to the interior poems (in some of my other books, I have an "About the Cover" section where I or the artist discuss the cover art). I see many books where said art is related to the poems but it's not noted by the reviewers. Anyway....of course, I also appreciate what Marthe said about the poems, particularly as she expresses so beautifully.

Connoisseur's front and back cover images were provided by Advaita Patel who had responded to an open call for artists interested in providing art for the book, a call managed by Michelle Bautista. I'm grateful to you all.

Here, actually, is a painting Advaita made as inspired by the poems in Connoisseur:

MAIL DU JOUR

Received this today. I haven't started reading but did look at a few photos, including this I share of Jose Garcia Villa in his New York apartment -- 

I highlight this photo (instead of that Gotham group photo which included that Brit who exoticized him green) because there's a (moving) reference to it in Jessica Hagedorn's essay in The Halo-Halo Review, which will be gone offline as of September (so read it while you can). To wit, when JGV said, "Most people think I live in splendor. This apartment looks like a bodega." Yes, as Jessica notes, "Intense and proud to the end. Weren't they all?"

WHAT I LOOK LIKE IN ROMANIAN

I'm blessed to hear several of my poems have been/will be translated into Romanian. The first such translation just appeared in Contemporary Literary Horizon, no. 3 (May-June), 2016, based in Bucharest, Romania. My thanks to poet and translator Monica Manolachi for opening up this possibility.  Here's a shot of my poem "Profiles" (from Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole, the gift that keeps on giving) translated by Teodore Panait of the University of Bucharest:
(click on images to enlarge)

English

Romanian

TWENTY YEARS LATER...

I expect to finish proofing AMNESIA today when I dither over glossy vs. matte re the cover. While proofing, I paused over the two epigraphs in the book, which quote from among my first year's poems. 2016 is my 20th year in poetry and looking back at my first year, I obviously had certain expectations from Poetry. I am happy to be able to say, 20 years later: Thank you, Poetry -- you did not disappoint.