CruelestMonth.com

Have a SuperFun weekend!

- MS

A Lover of Unreason

From "Written out of history," an article on Ted Hughes's mistress--Assia Wevill:

Throughout his life, Hughes warded off biographers and journalists and asked his friends to refrain from mentioning him in interviews or in their memoirs. When his archive at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, was made available to the public in 2000, it was devoid of Wevill's presence in his life: none of the numerous letters they exchanged, the notes, drawings or photos, were there.

Intrigued?  Click here for the full.

- MS

Hello Again, Old Friend

Weeks ago, searching after poet Matthea Harvey, I found and posted about Octopus magazine.  On the contributors list was a familiar name, though so familiar that it could have been any number of people.  There are a handful from my hometown alone, and casting out a net for "Julia" or "Cohen" or "Julia Cohen" brings in millions of blinking possibilities.  Had she taken up tennis since I saw her last?  Become a political activist?  If you know this poet, my friend from college, you know neither is entirely likely.  We met as dutiful helpers at a summer writers' conference, shuttling authors to and from the train and the bar, and sitting in on workshops in exchange.  The poem in Octopus was incredibly different from what I had heard her read that summer.  That poem, one of the "Ruby" poems, the collection of which (I am proud to report) will be published in a chapbook next year, was a listening vertigo, perspectives and colors stacked on each other like the vertebrae of a curling stairwell; and it wouldn't be pulled open any wider--the way it landed on my ear, there was no room for me to wiggle in a finger and see what she was trying to do.  Unlike the other poems that had been read that afternoon, this poem was done.  What lovely seams she made!

A year passed and we became friends. She said she had a low table in her room and pillows on the floor.  She is tall and folded herself to the edge of the table to write.  Perhaps because I only knew a few of her poems then, I would have had to have said that she looked like a "Ruby" poem. 

But these two in Octopus were almost unrecognizable.  I wondered and then called, then forgot, until finally, last weekend, we managed to see each other.  She said she was writing in an entirely different way now. Her first chapbook, If Fire, Arrival was published by horse less press earlier this year; there's a little more on my friend and her chapbook on a blog called Blatt. I can say that I see the same poet in them now. But comparisons of new and old aside (as I am unqualified), my favorite of the two in Octopus is "For the 'H' in Ghost." I love this poem: the way she unwinds nostalgia back to the innocence of the original moment, but remembering all the while, and especially the closing section, with the lines, "The unspeakable 'H.'/ When the bar// falls away/ 'I' and 'I' stand// face to face,"--it is simultaneously playful and yet with such a note of longing--she weds the two and here, as elsewhere, so gracefully spans the poem's then and now.

Seeing her last weekend for the first time in over a year, I am not so sure she looks like a "Ruby" poem anymore.  She looks more like what I always thought she would look like, maybe because she is doing exactly what she knew she would.  She looks more like my Julia Cohen, the one and only.

-AH

From the Fishouse

I don't remember how I came across From the Fishouse, but I'm glad I did.  It is "an audio archive of emerging poets."  It was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization that "promotes the oral tradition of poetry."  They have lots and lots to listen to; I recommend that you acquaint yourself with the rich library of sound available at From the Fishouse.  Here's one I enjoyed: "A Hunger So Honed" by Tracy K. Smith.

- MS

Mommy, What's an Editor?  This is dead on.

- MS

Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; James Laughlin Award

Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds by Eleanor Lerman (Sarabande Books) has won the 2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.  The Academy of American Poets and the Nation award $25,000 to "the most outstanding book of poetry published the previous year."  Judges were poet Carl Dennis, Tony Hoagland, and Carol Muske-Dukes. 

Finalists:

• Christian Barter for The Singers I Prefer (CavanKerry Press)
• Jack Gilbert for Refusing Heaven (Knopf)
• Dorianne Laux for Facts About the Moon (Norton)
• Ron Slate for The Incentive of the Maggot (Mariner Books)

Duende by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf Press) has won the 2006 James Laughlin Award--a $5,000 prize for a poet's second book.

(via Shelf Awareness)

- MS

And We Have Our Ten

Thanks for responding everyone!

- MS

Brief Encounters with Che Guevera

This book has been out for about three months now, but glowing reviews keep rolling in--understandably so.  In fact, in my time here at Harper, this has been the best reviewed book by far.  It has been a Barnes & Noble "Discover" Pick, a Borders "Original Voices" Pick, and a BookSense Pick.  Here are a few of my favorite blurbs:

"In this first collection the author brings the virtuosity of Greene and le Carre to tales of foreign adventures.” — Boston Globe

“. . .finely crafted. . . irony abounds in Fountain’s mini-theaters of the absurd, where Kafka would feel right at home.” — Texas Monthly

“An impeccable debut collection; if Fountain can keep it up, he’s an heir to Paul Theroux.” — Kirkus Reviews

"Throughout his book, Fountain makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange, showing the human factor that links seemingly diverse nations. Heartbreaking, absurd, deftly drawn. . .” — New York Times Book Review

Now to encourage the enthusiasm of the reader: the first five people to e-mail me at [email protected] will receive a copy of Brief Encounters by Che Guevera by Ben Fountain.  I hope to hear from you!

- MS

Family Guy: Brian Griffin is Blogging

Brian Griffin, erudite lush and pet dog, is blogging this very second and all this week over at the Olive Reader.  His book Brian Griffin's Guide to Booze, Broads, and the Lost Art of Being a Man goes on sale today.  Head on over to the Olive Reader for the musings and insights of a newly published author.

- MS

Poets House: Branching Out

Three Great Events at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at BMCC, 199 Chamber Street, NYC

Tuesday, October 17, 7:00pm
Martin Espada on Pablo Neruda

Tuesday, November 14, 7:00pm
Edward Hirsch on Federico Garcia Lorca

Tuesday, December 12, 7:00pm
Elizabeth Alexander on Gwendolyn Brooks

Visit Poets House for more information.

- MS