Ages

It's been a while since I wrote anything on here, but it seems like an update needs to happen.

Also, since I wrote last time the Giants won the Super Bowl. Won't get tired of saying that until they're no longer the victors. Hopefully that takes at least a few years.

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First off, regarding the First Book Interviews, the first one, starting up the new wave of interviews that will hopefully take us into at least the new year, will be published on May 1st.

I have many poets I need to get interviews too, and a good amount of books to get through. If you're schedule to get an interview, you will soon, and accept my apologies for the delay.

PhD work is catching up with me, along with teaching, so soon enough I'll have time to dedicate to the series and get it back up and running with a new interview every two weeks.

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Also, I've had some recent publications over the last few months that you can check out if you're interested. Most are from my third manuscript, of which I recently finished a draft that I'm pretty happy with.

There's an interview and four poems in Connotation Press

Four poems in Superstition Review

One poem in Quarterly West

One poem in Devil's Lake

One poem in Linebreak

And some others in future issues of Rhino, Weave Magazine, Bellingham Review, Cream City Review, and a few more.

I still have a lot of these going out into the world also. I know they're not for everyone, but I decided just to go for it and try to put together a conceptual manuscript with all the film poems. I think it's working pretty well, but we'll see what others think when I get some more eyes on it.

I've been thrilled by the response from so many editors, so now it's to keep working on the third, and keep sending out my second manuscript, which I hope will be out in the world soon enough, but we all know how that goes.

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More soon...

Check back in May for the start of the new wave of First Book Interviews.

First Book Interview #51 - Steve Kistulentz

Today there's a new interview with Steve Kistulentz.

Check out the interview. Check out his work. Grab a copy of his book.

#51 - Steve Kistulentz

First Book Interview #50 - Shane McCrae

We've reached the half century mark with the newest First Book Interview from Shane McCrae.

Mule has gotten quite a good reception out there thus far, and for good reason, so do check out his work and buy his book.

#50 - Shane McCrae

First Book Interview #49 - Nicky Beer

One more closer to 50 with a new one from Nicky Beer --

Happy reading.

#49 - Nicky Beer

First Book Interview #48 - Jeremy Halinen

Here's a new First Book Interview with Jeremy Halinen --

You know you want to read it.

#48 - Jeremy Halinen

First Book Interview #47 - Justin Evans

A new one with Justin Evans.

Check this and his book out while you're at it...

#47 - Justin Evans

First Book Interview #46 - Kyle McCord

For your reading enjoyment, I present the next interview with friend and former DHP Reading Tour partner in crime.

#46 - Kyle McCord

First Book Interviews #44 - Nicholas Ripatrazone, and #45 - Luke Johnson

Sorry for the delays with these...

Had a lot of problems with Luke's, so if you see mistakes, suffice it to say that I'm worried about trying to correct them and having to delete it and start over. Long story. Blogger problems, I think, but they were probably on my end too.

That said, you now have two for your perusal.

#44 - Nicholas Ripatrazone

#45 - Luke Johnson

Many good ones coming around, so stay tuned, folks.

First Book Interview #43 - Laurie Clements Lambeth

Here you go, folks.

Thanks to Laurie for answering some questions.

First Book Interview #43 - Laurie Clements Lambeth

First Book Interview #42 - Bobby C. Rogers

I can't really express how thrilled I am that Bobby C. Rogers decided to answer some questions for me.

I've been a fan of his work for years. From the first poem I saw of his in a journal, "Night Air" in an older issue of Meridian six years ago, I was absolutely floored. It continued from there.

So it's no surprise that I hold his first book, Paper Anniversary, in such high regard. There's the spirit of late-life Larry Levis. There are the cinematically poetic flourishes of Terrence Malick. There's beauty in the most menial tasks. There's the southern romanticism of Joe Bolton. I could go on.

It's a beautiful and necessary book of poetry, first book or not.

So here we go...

First Book Interview #42 - Bobby C. Rogers

Return

Just got back last night from a week in Rome, Florence, and Venice with my wife.

We've been talking about it for a couple years.

I'm glad we finally did it. It was worth every penny.

And there are so many cities we still haven't seen in Italy, much less the rest of the world.

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Walking's the way to go. This may be obvious, but alas.

I don't know how many miles we walked, but we're starting to realize that you need to travel when you're still young, if you can.

Too many retired people on the plane. Too many that looked miserable, as if they were forced to do it because that's what you're "supposed to do" when you're retired.

I can't see my legs holding up that long. Or my mind, my body, my willingness. My tolerance.

I think we're trying to do South America next. Going to try to look, at the very least, into some travel grants.

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Already wrote one poem on the plane (one that I've been returning to, stuttering and stopping with for five years, which is unusual for me), and after the Uffizi in Florence, I have ideas for a few more.

I never tried my hand, really, at true Ekphrastic poems, as far as paintings go.

Sure, I've done a lot of film-related poems, and still am, but I think it's time to try and see what I can do with some of the paintings that I saw.

There were a few that I'm going to have to write about.

But since so many writers deal with Ekphrastic poems these days, I'm going to have to try and make them... not as expected as some we get these days. Whatever that means.

Even though it's tough after how great Steve Gehrke's Michaelangelo's Seizure is. But I suppose I can learn from it.

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One of the best things about Rome was seeing The Tree of Life in a back alley art house theater near The Spanish Steps.

Didn't make it to the Keats-Shelley House, but again, the former made up for it.

It didn't seem like anyone was going to show up, but they did. It was packed. The first theater we went to had it dubbed.

This one had it with subtitles.

I could talk about the film for a while, but I still need to see it again, and again, and again after that.

It's one of the most beautiful movies ever filmed, in my opinion, and proves that you don't need lush countries and cities, necessarily, or CGI, but one of the best directors ever to get behind a camera, and one of the best production designers out there in Jack Fisk.

Again: I need to see it again, but that was an experience I'll never forget.

And the fact that it's not playing around Binghamton makes me even happier that I took advantage, though I hope that it'll get here once it goes beyond the limited release.

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I listened to the new Bon Iver record over ten times on the trip.

Let's get this straight: I think For Emma, Forever Ago and Blood Bank are overrated.

Very overrated.

So naturally I was curious to hear the new one.

And I felt the same kind of shiver that I get not very often, from the first tracks of records that you hope keep going like that.

I hear Miracle Fortress, Owen, Mark Kozelek, Jim Guthrie, Bruce Hornsby, and a ton of others as far as influences go, but there seems to be a kind of lack of complacency this time around.

There are weird flourishes with instruments and static, the lap steel is expertly placed and used in a nearly perfectly ambient way, the vocals are, of course, layered most of the time, but there's a better sense of melody with all the instruments this time around.

In other words: it seems like he knew he could make a record like he's been making, and people would buy it and could continue to do the same.

But he decided to step it up, and thankfully we still have some indie artists that are doing that these days.

Usually, for me, this doesn't happen. I'm not a fan of someone's music, as hyped as they are, and I still can never come around.

This time, though, I have come around. And for good reason.

The new record's awesome. I imagine I'll be listening to it a lot this summer, even more.

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I'm officially halfway done with my PhD.

Field exams, language, and dissertation in the next two years.

Reading for my first field exam right now, which I'm taking in August. And I have rough outlines of what I want to do for the other two, so hopefully more work will go into that this summer.

My goal has been to start working on a third manuscript that will become my dissertation, and I feel like by the end of the summer I'll have 30-35 pages of solid work, so I think I'm on track to reach it.

And what's great is a lot of the weirder poems I've been writing have been well-received by journals, so I'm thrilled that others are liking the work too.

I think a handful of journals are opening up submission periods in a few days, so it may be time to send some more work out.

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It's been a busy May, but I also need to get back to sending out First Book Interviews.

There are a bunch of poets I'm excited about contacting, so hopefully you'll see them running every two weeks throughout the summer and through the fall, and as long as poets are willing to answer questions, I'm going to keep it up as long as I can.

First Book Interview #41 - Elyse Fenton

Here you go, dear readers:

First Book Interview #41 - Elyse Fenton

Hope you enjoy it.

First Book Interview #40 - Mike Dockins

Here you go, folks...

#40 - Mike Dockins

Enjoy!

First Book Interviews - Slightly Early

I'm unable to post Michelle Bitting's interview on April 15th, so it has to come a little early this time.

#39 - Michelle Bitting

And I also, somehow, forgot to post the link to Alexander's:

#38 - Alexander Dickow

Not sure why the spacing's weird when you go to the regular page. I don't know what happened. But if you click on the name of the poet whose interview you'd like to read on the front page or on the right side of the page, the spacing goes back to normal.

Sorry about that.

First Book Interview #37 - Sandy Longhorn

Enjoy, folks.

#37 - Sandy Longhorn

First Book Interview #36 - Leslie Harrison

Here you go, dear readers...

#36 - Leslie Harrison

And I'm getting really sick of the long lines and colors in the template I have, so I think something simpler and brighter and easier is coming, hopefully sooner than later.

Late to the Party

AWP was a good time.

There's really not too much to review, I suppose, but I should put something down before I forget everything I wanted to say.

We had about eighty or so people in the audience for our panel. Honestly, that was a lot more than I thought would show up.

This was it:

S158. From the Page to the Small Screen: What the Information Age Means for Us . (Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, Terry Hummer, Maggie Dietz, Mary Flinn, Brian Brodeur, Keith Montesano) As digital technologies such as blogs, online periodicals, hypertext, and phone Apps gain legitimacy, more writing than ever before finds its home online. Some big questions loom: What is lost or gained when we translate our work from the page to the screen? Are these technologies promotional tools or new creative forms? Are we witnessing the death of the page or its evolution? Panelists from Slate, Blackbird, the Favorite Poem Project, AmeriCamera, and the blogosphere will answer these questions.

Thanks again to Andrew for getting everything together, and everyone for making it what it was, even only for an hour.

The main reason I went was the panel.

But I also wanted to meet a lot of people I only "know" through Facebook, and that I did.

I also needed to give Ghost Lights to some blurbers (Paul and Lisa, I still owe you a book).

Wojahn had a signing, but Pittsburgh Press was all out of World Tree. Kind of had me bummed.

It's always amazing to me when I see the complete mix of frighteningly egotistical people that are like sharks to just one drop of blood, and then the people who turn out to be absolutely humble and down to earth. I wish everyone could be in the latter category, but even that realization makes me happier to know, now, so many of them.

Books I picked up:

Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie - Joshua Harmon
Requiem for the Orchard - Oliver de la Paz
Vivisect - Lisa Lewis
Reliquary Fever - Beckian Fritz Goldberg

Was going to buy many more, but I already have a ton to read, as we all probably do.

Plus, since we got a new bookshelf, in the words of Jess: "It really doesn't look like the we did anything. We just moved the books from the original onto the second."

Near the end of AWP, as the book fair was closing down, someone handed me an uncorrected proof of Michael Kimball's Us, which seems right up my alley and I can't wait to read.

Was it you, Michael? Or was it Giancarlo?

Unless I have a reason for going next year in Chicago, I'm probably good for a few years. But maybe things will change.

That said, to all the people I met, drank beers with, shot the shit with, I wanted to say thanks to you. You're all what made AWP for me this year.

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The crossroads point has set in with my second manuscript.

At what point do you say, "It's finished" or, "It's done"?

Is it presumptuous to say that?

Isn't there always something that can be done, even if it's realizing in the .doc file that you have two spaces between a word instead of one?

That said, I'm confident at this point. More confident than I've ever been with it.

The book's not for everyone, just like Ghost Lights was not and is not. But I have a lot of faith in it, more than I ever have with Ghost Lights (is that how it should be?) so hopefully that accounts for something.

I just got it out to five more places, with a handful more added to the list in the coming months.

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I also feel like I've started, finally, a third project.

It still weirds me out a bit to type that.

I know if I don't move on, I'll be stuck, drafting and shredding, deleting.

But I have an idea and I'm running with it.

Unlike the past two manuscripts, I think I'm going to sit on these poems for a while, amass the good ones, tweak them, keep them in mind.

I'm usually fast to send out poems, but admittedly, I like to think a lot of my drafts don't take months, or sometimes even weeks, for me to be finished with them.

A thought's usually in my head for a while, and then usually I can get what I think is a decent draft down when it starts making itself known that it needs to be in words.

This new thing I'm working on isn't like that, so it's important for me to see how it develops. And slow is the way to go at this point. Or at least contained.

Even if it's just a glimmer at this point, I'm excited to see what happens.

And my last new poem, before the few I wrote in this last week, was written in October.

Too long.

Light the fire.

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And also speaking of manuscripts and projects, I have First Book Interviews slated until, at the earliest, May 15th.

Again, I'm getting back to doing one every two weeks. Should I get a flood of them in the next few weeks, maybe I'll do a two-for-one every once in a while, but I want to make sure that the schedule fleshes itself out accordingly.

A lot of good interviews are on the way, so stay tuned.

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You should listen to the new Twilight Singers record, Dynamite Steps.

Greg Dulli has been an influence on me for a long time.

I've written a lot of poems to Dulli-related projects, and somehow the dude never slows down.

The new record's fantastic. It deserves your time.

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This is a busy semester for me, as it's my last semester of course work.

Soon it'll be time for field exams. And I still have to get the language requirement out of the way.

My main goal for the next two and a half years? Get my second manuscript published and have whatever my third's going to be (hopefully there is one) turn out to be my dissertation.

If I have to set myself up for disappointment, then so be it. But that's what I'm shooting for.

That means I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing, but at the very least, First Book Interviews will still be popping up every couple weeks.

First Book Interview #35 - Brent Goodman

Brent Goodman graces us this time around with his presence...

#35 - Brent Goodman

And some good news also: There will hopefully be a First Book Interview every two weeks for many months to come, and hopefully even longer.

So stay tuned...

First Book Interview #34 - Traci Brimhall

Traci Brimhall answers some questions about her fantastic first book, Rookery.

#34 - Traci Brimhall

Enjoy...

Somewhere

I was recently interviewed by The Collagist about "Stargazing," which was published in their last issue.

You can read the interview here.

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Thanks to Boxcar Poetry Review for recently taking a poem.

This was nice to hear mostly because it's the last poem I've written in the last few months.

And I've been a reader of theirs for a while now.

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You need to see Somewhere when you can. Sofia Coppola's slowly becoming one of the better young filmmakers out there.

I imagine Stephen Dorff was chosen specifically or the role, as if she almost wrote the movie around him, imagining not the character, but the actual man playing the parts.

And of course with Harris Savides behind the camera, you could watch it with the sound off and be happy, even if the movie wasn't great.

A lot of people won't like it. Many will write it off as a rip-off of Lost in Translation. And though it wouldn't be surprising if she ripped herself off, and it does drink from the same fountain, I think more's at stake here.

Plus it's hard not to love the clear homages to Paris, Texas and The Brown Bunny. And the feeling that the blood of De Sica, Bertolucci, and Antonioni's been coursing through her veins for a long time.

It's definitely one of my favorites of the year, to say the least, and it's something I can't wait to get once it's finally available.