CruelestMonth.com

April is the Cruelest Month

April, National Poetry Month and our namesake, starts tomorrow.  I can't even express how excited that makes us here at the Cruelest Month.  We're busy gearing up for the Ashbery Festival, April 6-8, at the New School.  We'll accompany the festivities with myriad giveaways and an exlcusive chat with John Ashbery himself.  Also, prepare for the reanimation of the HarperCollins Poetry Newsletter, which will include the best of the Cruelest Month, and a slew of other offers that my marketing budget doesn't allow for.

As always, we'll take our best stab at covering what's new in the world of poetry. If you have any comments, suggestions, wishes, or complaints, please let us know at CruelestMonthPoetry (at) yahoo (dot) com.  Enjoy the weekend.

"Sign up for the HarperCollins Poetry Newsletter and you'll be entered to win a collection of some of our exciting new poetry books*, as well as a letterpress broadside signed by Mary Karr.

Three lucky winners will be selected at random. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 18 or older. Entries must be received between April 1, 2006 and May 31, 2006. If you already receive the HarperCollins Poetry newsletter, you are automatically entered to win.

• Be the first to get news about our exciting new books and poets.
• Get a chance to win free signed copies from our authors.
• Read exclusive excerpts, author interviews, essays, and reviews
• And much more!

* The collection of books will include Come On In! by Charles Bukowski, Sinners Welcome by Mary Karr, After by Jane Hirshfield, and six essential collections of poetry by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, William Blake, William Shakespeare, and William Wordsworth just reissued by Ecco."

Here are some links:

Two Yeats Plays--The Cat and the Moon, The Only Jealousy of Emer--performed by the Handcart Ensemble

The Griffin Trust: For Excellence In Poetry--has some podcasts of readings as well as the Griffin Poetry Prize

Poetry Boot Camp--exactly what it sounds like.  Not only will you write poetry, but you'll shoot guns.  In fact, you'll shoot guns at poetry.

The Elegant Variation--a literary and relatively successful weblog.  It often posts just what I'm interested in at the time.

In the presence of books

Thanks to an unsettling, death-tempting cab ride, I was slightly ill-at-ease when I arrived at Poets House on Spring Street last night.  But after a few plastic thimbles of wine, I was "good to go," as they say.  Some smarter guests--namely our in-house, co-host patriarch--smuggled deli coffee cups into the party (all the better to get loose); and though he once praised the saying, "I don't dabble in people," dabbled quite happily with a number of tweed-clad, old men with loaves of bread tucked under their arms.
     I, on the other hand, tried to play it cool, resisting urges to be vulgar, and alternatively, obsequious--behavior only acceptable in the company of strippers, and these people were definitely not strippers.  In the end, I got a little tipsy and chatted up some co-workers.
   
Yeah, the image is awful, but that's kind of how I remember it.  I'm looking forward to returning for the Poets House Showcase-20th Anniversary-Birthday Cake Bash, April 1, and to paying some more attention to their comprehensive (45,000 volumes open to the public) and nicely displayed collection of poetry.  Lots of cool stuff on the shelves.

Thankfully, there was little in the way of formalities.  Two people spoke into a microphone to thank everyone and talk about the upcoming move in 2007 to a larger space in Battery Park.  People looked on through their horn-rimmed specs and nodded.  It was good to be alive.

The hors d'oeuvres were provided by Balthazar Restaurant and consisted of things I don't normally think to eat (except for the bread and cheese--that was good).  I also came away with lots and lots of poetry links, resources, and information--all of which I will share on this blog later on today.  Really, looking back on the whole evening, I'm just glad this guy wasn't there.

Good Things

Poetry Daily--poems everyday, archived for one year after first appearance on PD
AQR (Alaska Quarterly Review)--"A Literary Magazine of Consequence"
Indiana Review--postmark deadline for the 2006 Poetry Prize is March 31.  There is still time.

The Center for Book Arts 2006 Benefit, Books That Kill, Edible Mystery Thrillers, is taking place Wednesday April 5, from 6-9pm!  Louise Bourgeois, Ed Colker, Ralph Ocker, Robert Sabuda, and Buzz Spector will be honored for their outstanding contribution to the field of book arts.

Tickets start at $75.  Please remember all proceeds support the Center's programs.  To purchase tickets please call the Center at 212-481-0295.  Tickets may also be purchased online at http://www.centerforbookarts.org.

Lastly, tonight A Salute to Poetry Publishers & Editors and a sneak preview of the 2006 Poets House Showcase.  Somehow I finagled an invite to this, for which I am very grateful.  Full synopsis tomorrow.

Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006)

• Federico Garcia Lorca: "A graceful show of poet's life in N.Y."
• "The New Yorker’s poetry editor, Alice Quinn, edited and annotated “Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box,” a new volume of Elizabeth Bishop’s uncollected poems, drafts, and fragments. Here, Quinn talks with Matt Dellinger about Bishop and her work, and reads selections from the book."(via Poetry Hut)

The Scots Are Coming

Sorry to post so late in the day, but it's busy over here.  Last night I saw Jeff Parker and Sam Lipysyte read.  Parker is a young man with a bushy, half-goatee that made me think of college.  He read an excerpt from his forthcoming chapbook of short fiction, The Drinking Game.  There was some enjoyable confusion over the English word "barber" and the Russian word for whore.  Lipsyte was, as expected, brilliant and happily vulgar.  He read some ridiculous story about a breast-feeding, child-rearing counselor called a "dulo."  I met some MFA students of his from Columbia.  They asked if his prose "disturbed" me.  Obviously, this was something they had discussed.

Did you know that March 30 - April 8 is Tartan Week in New York?  No.  Well, it is.  A troupe of Scottish writers will descend upon New York City for 7 days of whiskey, flannel, and, of course, literature.  See this site for full details.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway. As you know, I aim to please. Below are the titles that were requested. Readers with good taste, for what more could you ask?

V. by Thomas Pynchon
Holy Skirts by Rene Steinke
Czeslaw Milosz New and Collected Poems
A Model World and Other Stories by Michael Chabon
And one deal involving an undetermined Zbigniew Herbert title

Have a great weekend! And for you NYers, remember, Sam Lipsyte will be reading at KGB Bar Sunday at 7pm.

Some people wouldn't know a good thing if it crapped on their head, slid a hand down their pants, maced them in the face, stole their children, thankfully, a few do.  Two books can still be had.  See below.

Just Because I Love You

Get this!  Since it's Friday and I'd rather be asleep, the CruelestMonth is having another GIVEAWAY! But not just any giveaway, not just some blatant plug for a particular book, this giveaway is f-ing ridicky.  I want to give 5 people whatever book they want.  All one must do is check www.HarperCollins.com to find out what titles we publish, pick one, and then send your request to CruelestMonthPoetry (at) yahoo (dot) com.  Wha, wha, WHA!  "Did I hear right?," you say.  Yes, you did.  Any book published by HarperCollins is yours.  Now reach out and touch it.  CruelestMonthPoetry (at) yahoo (dot) com.  (First 5 people only.  I'll let you know when the slots are filled.)

"All shall love me and despair."

The blogging thing I use for this site wouldn't let me post this simple addition to the post below:

Mike Snider has an entertaining bit about Bukowski.  Here.