Lemons et al.

Up on Queen Mob's Teahouse I have an essay, "Souring on Community", where I discuss my evolving feelings about writing communities:

After being a community cheerleader for years, I began feel differently around 2011. I was feeling exhausted, overtaxed and unappreciated. Maybe I had let myself become a doormat for the community or maybe the distinction between community and individuals blurred for me. Maybe individual assholes do not equal community. But they are part of the community and to be in the community is to be in the midst of assholes. Assholes who take advantage. Assholes who insinuate and spread rumors. Assholes who want to shit in your kitchen and burn your house down. Petty assholes. Vindictive assholes. Obsessed assholes. Unstable assholes. Mean assholes.

It's not all puckered lips and assholes, I promise.

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There's also a Dreamsplaining with Anne Gorrick:

Shoes reflect where we’ve been and what we bring with us. 

The Wicked Witch of the West was willing to kill Dorothy for her Ruby Red Slippers. Cinderella’s stepsisters maimed their own feet to try to fit into her glass slipper. Snow White’s stepmother was forced to dance to death in hot iron shoes. The Twelve Dancing Princesses wore out their shoes from dancing all night in fairyland. While the Shoemaker slept, the elves made his shoes for him helping him out of poverty. 

Shoes are power and authority. 

Shoes are serious business.

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I share some of my poetry favorites with Straight Poetry.

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And lastly, NaPoWriMo is over! I did it! Again!

NaPoWriMo #30 

I should be careful lining my eyebrows
I’ve done too dark before
the poet inside is fragile and can easily be hurt
her powerful mind creates a great deal
that she often can’t control
she’s gonna stick a shiv
right through Long Dong Patriarch’s forehead
as Lady Snakebitch chokes
on a slut’s sonnet

final note (I hope) on speaking up

According to Statcounter (and as of this posting), 2384 unique visitors have read Saturday's post. 2020 were first time visitors to this blog. Suffice it to say, a lot of people are interested (and I hope concerned) about what's happening.

I've made my thoughts known. Others have too. I don't think I have much else to add on that front. I'm not interested in having fruitless discussions with individuals who abuse and intimidate in the guise of protecting abuse victims. It's a tactic that I regularly endured starting from childhood through my mid-30's and there's just no productive way to deal with that. I might point it out from time to time, but I won't engage it. I also have no intention of sanitizing comment fields either here or on FB. I think it's important for there to be a record of what a few are saying and doing.

I haven't (at least not directly) written about my own past abuse experiences and if I ever do choose to write about those events, it won't be to teflon myself against accusations of being an apologist or defender. It'll be on my own terms.

I truly appreciate all the messages of support I've received and am very grateful to see all the support and love for Bruce. I wish healing and recovery for EVERYONE tangled in this awful mess and to those who have been affected just by it being ever-present in their social media.

For now, I too would like to talk and write about other things.

Bombyonder Review & Page 69 Test

Marie Curran reviews Bombyonder in The Collagist:

Beyond logic and linear thinking, manners and order, humor and horror, there is Bombyonder. Not exactly a physical location, but more than a passing thought, Bombyonder echoes poetry of mythic proportions. It smells of decaying flesh, drips with bodily fluids, and brims with the anger of a Medusa. It is a subconscious space of both apocalyptic absurdity and astonishing lucidity, where zombie sex jokes can morph into profound commentaries on social media, and vague memories hilariously allude to Ancient Greek literary characters. Poet Reb Livingston's debut novel, appropriately titled Bombyonder, explores this confusing realm in lyrical prose that, while often overwhelming and disgusting, is searing and unforgettable.

Bombyonder is a disjointed tale made up of fragments: diary entries, memories, text messages, letters, forums from the future, and other indirect narrative forms. The book, however, opens as legend—like so many myths, a passionate patricide leads to an impossible quest—and it is important to remember this classic grounding because as the story continues, it dives into sensuous, often outrageous obscurity.

READ ENTIRE REVIEW

I couldn't be any happier with this review. As a writer (and sometimes as a human being too) I often feel like people don't "get" what it is that I'm trying to do. This is a common lament among writers and artists, but it feels true. So it's gratifying and very appreciated when someone both takes the time to seriously consider the work and engages it in its own realm instead of trying to force-fit it into a tidy category.

If you're curious as to what's on Page 69 of Bombyonder, you can see how it fares at TNBBC's The Next Best Book Blog.

Baby Got Books

Pre-AWP Book Booty

AWP Fashion Spread #1

AWP Fashion Spread #2

AWP Fashion Spread #3

All together now!

AWP, Broets, Poemblots & NaPoWriMo, Oh My!

I'll be at AWP in Minneapolis/St. Paul this week.

Thursday night I'll be reading at the Queen Mob's Teaparty along with Kirsten Kaschock, Nicholas Rombes, R.M. O'Brien and music by Vernon Dixon, Elizabeth Ghandour and Gabriel Douglas.

The Teaparty will be held at at Dulono's Pizza starting at 9pm.

Copies of Bombyonder will be on sale at the Coconut Books/Bloof Books table. Table 1633

I'll also have a few copies on hand myself.

At Queen Mob's Teahouse I have an interview with Collin Kelley regarding his poem "Saving Anne Sexton" and the critical reception both it and he received.

There's a Poemblot of a Julie Bloemeke poem where the reader contemplates whether or not Julie might be a stalker.

So far I've stayed on scheduled for NaPoWriMo.

We'll see if I can keep that up later this week when I'm at AWP.

NaPoWriMo & Queen Mob Teahouse News

This year I'll again be participating in NaPoWriMo over at my tumblr: Psychic Novel & Poems, Inc.

It should be fun and a mess, but whatever.

If you're participating yourself this year and looking for prompts, may I suggest the Bibliomancy Oracle. As of this posting, there are 2800+ potential prophecies/prompts/divine answers.

Would you like to be a regular contributor to Queen Mob's Teahouse? The editors are looking for 4 or 5 regular contributors and an assistant editor. Details here.

If you can't commit to a regular writing gig, Queen Mob is always looking for people to write occasional reviews and essays. Details here.

There are some new Poemblots for Bruce Covey, Cynthia Arrieu-King and Michael Gushue.

I wrote a collage poem using a PR release and another poet's work. Taking someone else's words and making them your own is a lot of fun and easy. I'm considering writing all my poems this way. It would really up my productivity level.

in other words . . .
greater rhetorical awareness: the paradox faced by language-users
virtually no one actually understands the principles

he feels a murderous rage toward his community but swallows
to rescue language from a perversion of language
from social media to blog posts: any way that content can be delivered

Reb Livingston Suggests Everything

Inspired by a Borges reading list that was making the rounds, I'm doing a new regular feature at Queen Mob's called Reb Livingston Suggests Books For Your Personal Library. I plan on adding books for the rest of eternity.

And there are new Poemblots for poems by Sarah Fox, Tarfia Faizullah, Teresa Ballard, Lynn Behrendt, G. M. Palmer and Brent Terry.

Unless you're living under a bookless news rock, you've heard about Hausfrau, the new book by G's godmother, Jill Alexander Essbaum, coming out in a few days.

Yeah, I plan on spending all next week hanging out by the front table at my local Barnes and Noble saying, "That's my son's godmother, you know."

I will also be passing out flyers highlighting all the kick ass small presses who were publishing Jill's excellent books long before the big dogs ever heard of her.

Heaven (Bakeless Prize, selected by Agha Shahid Ali, published by Middlebury Press, 2000)

Oh Forbidden (editor H. Palmer Hall, Grove Press, 2005)

Harlot (editor, ahem, published by No Tell Books, 2007)

Necropolis (editor Neil Ellis Orts, published by neoNuma Arts, 2008)

The Devastation (editor Adam Deutsch, published by Cooper Dillon Books, 2009)

I suggest you get the entire Jill Alexander Essbaum backlist in addition to Hausfrau.

I suggest you do it now.