Wednesday, August 27, 2008

lit shiz...

well, it's official; Sunlight at Midnight, Darkness at Noon: The Cunningham/McCreesh Letters will be published by Orange Alert Press out of Chicago. we're very excited to get underway, the editing has begun, the artwork is being created, the special editions are being designed (there will be 26 special lettered editions of Sunlight, and we'll post more info later on those), etc.

here is the brief description of the book:

At first glance these may seem like simply a few letters between two nobody poets slowly becoming friends. But a deeper look reveals a kind of autobiographical novel, a long-form poetic snapshot, an independent document, a written record of two artists struggling with life in America at the beginning of the 21st century. It is a discussion that explores poetry, craft, politics and social criticism in intimate and stark detail. What unfolds here in these pages is the story of two lives as they struggle and search for meaning, for understanding, for some small measure of sense in a cold and often brutal, senseless world. Sometimes scathing and brash, sometime vulnerable, sometimes self-assured, the conversational threads are woven into a constant, furious tapestry covering the landscape of the American South, the desert Southwest and all the way to the cold mountains of Switzerland. Here are two writers clinging desperately to typewriters as war in the Middle East breaks out, as fear and terror motivate and penetrate the culture at large, gouge into its electronic eye, as the artistic mind is flattened, anesthetized. These letters represent a refusal to submit and a wild shout to the heavens that art can still matter.


it's slated for release on Inauguration Day 2009. we hope it is a documentation of a time that is at long last drawing to a close (even as peak oil, the unabated consolidation of executive and corporate power, the impossible to sustain credit markets, the vast propaganda of the media, and the rest of the global economic and military troubles, threaten all that tasty 'hope...') and a representation of how art matters most during the ugly, dark days...

much sooner, my new chapbook A Sound To Drive Away The Coming Darkness is slated for a late September 2008 release from Propaganda Press. it will, most likely, punch you in the face, in the best possible way. I hope you dig up your four bucks or so and pick up a copy when it becomes available. if not, I hope you feel some kind of minor foot pain that makes walking uncomfortable if you do it for a long distance, but isn't so bad if you're just like, walking to get a beer from the fridge or whatever. that's about four bucks worth, I'd say.

even sooner than that, on Labor Day, you can pick up In Gambler's Blood from KSE. bill shute is excited and so am I to present this book of poker poetry to the small press. and hey, it has a fucking handpainted insert signed by the asshole who painted it! how can you go wrong? buy one and tell me I suck (I know you can just tell me I suck right here on this bloggie but buy one anyway)...

and don't forget about the Ten Point Press broadsides coming very soon. these works of art are going fast so reserve your copy soon. and if you've not heard back from Sean, he's been on vacation, and will be right back on top of things upon his return.

it's exciting times to be a broke ass poet. thanks to everyone who thinks enough of my words to publish em and shove em out into the world to hopefully do their job, as well as everyone who takes the time to read em. that is the magical communication connection that is at the core of the creation of art...

Thursday, August 21, 2008

go buy this, now and in the future...

justin.barrett is back, fuckers, and apparently has poems bursting grossly forth from his thin, wiry frame into the world, like a pickleworm of literature, covered in buttons like you wouldn't believe.

go H E R E to j.b's blog and find out more.

and you can now officially order Hosho McCreesh's new book from the good people at sunnyoutside; go H E R E and do it or you will be sad. R E A D the sample poem. you will be appropriately crushed.

looking forward to the avalanche of new words.

finally, sometime next week you can buy In Gambler's Blood, my new chap from KSE that tells the story of a single poker hand between three metaphorical players. each copy will contain a handpainted pen/ink & watercolor ace of spades, and they all sport a killer cover photograph by cynthia (and she'll update her blog later today I think). I'll post a link when the book is available, but get your pennies ready, they'll go for four bucks each I think (original art for four bucks? that's right)...

UPDATE: I've heard further from the AWESOME folks over at alternating current and looks like I'll be the Pocket Protector poet for July 2009 (more on that later, if we make it thru the elections and the death of the dollar, etc.). thanks to leah and co. for the invite. they've also offered to do a chapbook to satiate all of your cunningham poetry needs in the interim, and again, I'll have more on this as we progress. the title will be A Sound To Drive Away The Coming Darkness. stay tuned...

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

I hate...

motherfucking pickleworms.

Friday, August 15, 2008

not sweet...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

more garden...

some of cyn's photos from yesterday:

a helpful bee...

cukes...

pineapple tomato...

a ladybug at work...

pimento pepper...

jalapeno pepper...

Monday, August 11, 2008

rip black moses...



this is from the film Wattstax. if you've not seen it, you should check it out. it's a good one.

Friday, August 08, 2008

readin...

you can read a poem of mine posted over on the blog Flahute if you like. click H E R E. thanks to Steven for the posting.

it appeared in the GPP Reader (the link takes you to the GPP Site where you can read the entire GPP Reader in .pdf if you like), but the poem is originally from my book Flowers In The Shadow Of The Storm, which is almost sold out (or might be by now). you can check with David at sunnyoutside if you're interested in reading more.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

lit shiz...

I just finished writing the poems for my new chapbook from Kendra Steiner Editions called In Gambler's Blood. it's a group of poems that are informed by an obscure Ennio Morricone crime soundtrack and revolves around one hand of poker between three archetypical players. I'm on a narrative poem kick and this is no exception: the poems work together and tell a story, though hopefully they also stand on their own.

it should be available in the next couple of weeks, probably mid august, and the cover photo was taken by my girl, Cynthia Etheridge, noted photographer and tolerator of lazy wine drinking card players who write poems too.

I don't recommend the lifestyle but I do recommend you head over and purchase a copy when it becomes available. I'll be posting the cover and more info on cost, etc. when I have it. thanks for supporting the small presses of the world and poetry in general.

also, I'm now the offical Poet Laureate of the Nootrosphere, the wordsmith of Noot Town and will be posting a piece on art and music over at the Noot d'Noot blog in the next couple of days. this helps my "hipness" in town, as you might imagine. thanks to the guys for the shout out, scattering goofer dust to the far corners of the world...

Friday, August 01, 2008

happy birthday jerry...



"goes to show you don't ever know
watch each card you play
and play it slow..."



"...one way or another
this darkness got to give..."



"...let there be songs to fill the air..."

and one more year older for me too...thanks jerry...
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