Eileen R. Tabios is a poet working in multiple genres and in-between. She also loves books by writing, reading, publishing, critiquing, romancing and advocating for them. This blog will feature her bibliophilic activities with posts on current book engagements and links to her books and projects related to books.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

ANNE GORRICK ON MY GORILLA YOU COULD FINGERPRINT

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge -- and acknowledge my love for -- Anne Gorrick's fabulous response to one of my poems, "I Forgot A Gorilla Could Be Fingerprinted." Anne read the poem in AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir, and wrote a poem of the same title but remixed in her wonderfully wide-ranging way -- you can see the poem HERE at Quail Bell Magazine, but here's an excerpt, its opening:

A front-projected diety with laser-based fingers, the fifth episode of the sixth season, finished in silver foil = Space and Music and Films and Aliens and stuff.   I forget how smart you are.  The door is locked.   Render images that, even to the naked eye, seem to float in space.  Find tickets for Ivy Dye / Pool Holograph / The Local Void.  Tickets starting at $5.  The night in its performance thaws vaudevillians and holographic pop stars, appears in the dust of an automobile hood.  The next moment the client is screaming, "I forgot, I forgot, I totally forgot that I had a head-on collision at that age.”  Information about each small image is scattered throughout this text.  In the future there will be only holographic anime pop stars, teleporting entities with weird eyes that are well, weird.   The mass must be completely described as on the surface of the sphere.  The mass must be forgotten.  The most common reason clients report not using their coping skills is simply, “I forgot.”  You're able to enter a game, story, faraway locale or learning environment, recently proposed in these optical remote sensing applications.  Memories could be a residual element to what electricity suggests.  There was a weird "Ah…I forgot I was wearing holographic clothes." A repatterning for the next day.

Thank you so much, Anne! You're an ideal poem's reader!

The referenced Gorilla poem, btw, first appeared in that wonderful Belladonna chaplet series under the chap title The Estrus Gaze(s) in 2005. Which is to say, it's surely wonderful to see a poem receive such support! Thank you, Universe.



Saturday, December 16, 2017

A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR A 'BANNED WORDS ANTHOLOGY'

This is A Call for THE ANTHOLOGY THAT WRITES ITSELF, which would be poets writing poems addressing the Administration's ban of 7 words. I wrote one which was swiftly accepted for publication. Read the article, Poet, if you haven't already, and poem-ize away. My poem, structured partly around a dialogue with a visiting family friend Harry, ends with

“Really?” Harry asks. “Who can protect
from                                               light?”

     Fetus
     Transgender
     Vulnerable
     Entitlement
     Diversity
     Evidence-based
    Science-based

In that science based on evidence, fragility
is not the domain only of the vulnerable, like
the fetus. Nor is transgender a synonym for
weakness. Diversity’s inescapable reality
will burn down the castle walls of entitlement
No one can be protected from light

*

DEADLINE: Dec. 23. Send to, or ask questions of, me at galateaten@gmail.com


Saturday, December 9, 2017

NEXT ON SERIES "POEMS INSPIRED / INFORMED BY [POET]"

The current (November) issue of Galatea Resurrects inaugurates this series featuring Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge. Well, I've identified the next poet to be featured through this series: Jessica Hagedorn!


So if you have poems inspired/informed by her work, please consider letting Galatea Resurrects publish it. Previously published is fine (I'll give acknowledgements). Deadline is Dec. 25, 2017 ... so you have time as well to write a new poem if the spirit moves you that way. Email to me with a bio to galateaten@gmail.com   A few lines about how Jessica's work affected your poem also would be welcome!

Cheers,
Eileen Tabios
Editor, Galatea Resurrects


Thursday, December 7, 2017

PINAY AND PINYX BOOKS FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

If you'd like to use holiday gift-giving as a means to expand your library for yourself or others, Barbara Jane Reyes has come up with a list of 40 books Pinay and Pinyx authors -- I'm glad to be on list as I love being contextualized with other such writers. You can see the LIST HERE but here's a lovely banner of the book covers (click on image to enlarge)!


And Mom is included too! Her book: DAWAC!



Wednesday, November 29, 2017

"RESISTANCE BY POETRY POWER"!


I'm always happy to see William Allegrezza (a long-time poetry angel) receive recognition, and especially when it's for the Locofo chap series. If you haven't yet, check out THIS HUFFPOST ARTICLE penned by Patrick Howell ... then Locofo which is continuing to put out new chaps!

And here's me burning my chap to burn Empire! Good thing I didn't burn down the house as it took over a dozen matches to set that cover aflame! Go over to Locofo -- many of those chaps sizzle!



Thursday, November 16, 2017

HAY(NA)KU 15: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

HAY(NA)KU 15-Year Anniversary Celebration
@ San Francisco Public Library
Filipino American Center/Kresge Foundation International Center

To celebrate the 15th birthday of the poetic form hay(na)ku, there will be a summer exhibition, reading, and new anthology in 2018. This is a CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS for the anthology, with a working title of HAY(NA)KU 15!

Deadline: February 28, 2018
Editor/Curator: Eileen R. Tabios
Introduction: by Abraham Ignacio, Filipino American Center Librarian, SFPL
Publisher: Meritage Press

Submission of Hay(na)ku Poems
—1 to 3 poems
—Poems can be the basic hay(na)ku tercet or any of the hay(na)ku variations. (If it’s an esoteric variation or one of your inventions, feel free to include a Note on Form.)
—Visual poetry is eligible if the work can be reprinted in a 6 x 9 book in black-and-white
—Collaborative submissions are also eligible
—Non-English poems are eligible if they come with English translations
—Open to all poets (you need not be Filipino)
—Submissions can be previously-published as long as the author carries rights to allow its republication. If previously-published, send with acknowledgments
—Not eligible: hay(na)ku previously published in the first three hay(na)ku anthologies as we would like to anthologize different (and new) work
—Send submissions to Eileen Tabios at meritagepress@gmail.com

Special Invitation for Students
We love having students participate in hay(na)ku projects. For example, The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. II featured student hay(na)ku from a poetry class taught by Elizabeth Robinson at the University of Colorado, Boulder. If you are a teacher (all levels) or workshop instructor and would like to have students focus on hay(na)ku, with possible publication in HAY(NA)KU 15, please contact the editor!

Submissions and Contact Info: meritagepress@gmail.com


****

HAY(NA)KU 15 will be the fourth anthology of hay(na)ku since its public debut in 2003. Thank you, Universe!

The first three hay(na)ku anthologies (jointly published by Meritage Press (U.S.) and xPress(ed) (Finland) are:

(click on image to enlarge)

The First Hay(na)ku Anthology, 2005, edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young

THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, Vol. II, 2008, edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young

The Chained Hay(na)ku Project, 2012, curated by Ivy Alvarez, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Ernesto Priego & Eileen Tabios

With your participation, we look forward to adding HAY(NA)KU 15 to the list!





Tuesday, November 14, 2017

THE FORCE IS WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY

(click on images to enlarge)

"The Force..."--just a Pinoy Pun on the generous title of an exhibit on some of my books over at the San Francisco Public Library's International Center (3rd floor, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco). The title is courtesy of the exhibit's generous curator who deserves to receive plaudits, not give them: Abraham "Abe" Ignacio. Since about four months ago, Abe has served as Librarian of the SFPL's Filipino American Center. I'm honored, I'm blessed, and I'm grateful. Maraming Salamat, Abe!  Abe is a historian and noted author as well, having released the important The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War (co-authored with Helen Toribio, Enrique de la Cruz and Jorge Emmanuel).

Here are photos of the exhibit which also reminds me to say Thank You to my book publishers whose faith I appreciate in publishing me. Featured in the exhibit are publications released through Editions du Cygne (France), Knives Forks and Spoons Press (U.K.), Black Radish Books, Theenk Books, Otoliths, and a few each by Paloma Press and Moria Books/Locofo. Thank you Patrice, Daniel, Irene, Alec, Marthe, Steve, Mark, Aileen and Bill.

Also below are photos of various Filipino- and Filipino-American titles displayed and also curated by Abe. It is great to be surrounded, to be contextualized among, these wonderful works by what is still one of the more overlooked groups within the literary world: Filipino English-language writings.


(Abe Ignacio)








In the marvelous company of: