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E-NOTES: WHEN THE NEWS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE BLOG OF E. ETHELBERT MILLER
Thursday, September 09, 2010
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A GOOD DAY FOR SCIENCE, NOW IF WE CAN JUST STOP THE BURNING OF QURANS
Breaking News Alert: Court temporarily lifts ban on stem-cell funding September 9, 2010 1:17:10 PM
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An appeals court Thursday lifted a temporary injunction barring the federal government from funding research involving human embryonic stem cell research.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/ZTVJ68/V11QZ0/SP2MXI/2YD014/XM8K9/7V/h
Breaking News Alert: Court temporarily lifts ban on stem-cell funding September 9, 2010 1:17:10 PM
----------------------------------------
An appeals court Thursday lifted a temporary injunction barring the federal government from funding research involving human embryonic stem cell research.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/ZTVJ68/V11QZ0/SP2MXI/2YD014/XM8K9/7V/h
COFFEE BREAK:
LATEST NEWS
Quincy Troupe will be honored with an American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Laird Hunt’s Ray of the Star is a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award for Fiction.
Allan Appel’s Hebrew Tutor of Bel Air is a finalist for the Harold U. Ribalow Prize.
Publisher's Desk
A Message from Chris Fischbach, Associate Publisher
My favorite time of year, fall brings crisp weather and honeycrisp apples, and it’s the best time of year for baseball. Every year Allan, the founding publisher of Coffee House Press, buys the whole staff tickets to a Twins game. This year, we’re going on September 22 to watch my Twins pound Cleveland. As many of you know, outdoor baseball has returned to Minnesota, and the whole state is buzzing about our fancy new stadium, and our return to the open air.
Just across the Mississippi, here in our office, change is also in the air. Over the next couple of months, you’re going to hear from us more often as we introduce you to our snazzy, revamped website; a blog or two; an improved newsletter; a mess of e-books for all e-readers; and even a partnership with an exciting new audio book company. We’ll be fully plugged in, and we invite you to join us.
But have no fear, because as I looked up from writing that last paragraph, just outside my office door I spied the platen press that started us off more than thirty years ago, at Allan’s house in Iowa, when Coffee House was just a glimmer in his eye as he ran Toothpaste Press, setting type by hand. Even though we’ll be stepping toward a more digitized future, we’re more dedicated than ever to the physical beauty and permanence of well-made paper books. We’ll never give that up—there will just be new ways to get your hands on them.
Go Twins! Go Coffee House Press!
Featured Books
10 Mississippi
Poems by Steve Healey
"Despite the national craze for self-expression that poetry has become, it is harder than ever to hear an original voice; but here one is and it's a doozy. Somehow Steve Healy has figured out a way to get a new sound out of the saxophone of English. Loopy, smart, eyebrow-raising, wiggy, and wildly entertaining belong in the string of modifiers that would try to describe this poet's amaing voice." —Billy Collins
Upcoming Events
A virtual book launch is in full swing running until September 10. Anyone can order a signed copy of 10 Mississippi on the Coffee House Press website and receive a nice discount, and a portion of the proceeds will go to The Conservation Fund, a charity that works to revitalize the Mississippi River. Click here for more information about the sale.
Friday, September 10, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
Minneapolis, MN
The Soap Factory
514 North Second Street SE
This event is part of the Rain Taxi Reading Series and co-sponsored by Coffee House Press. Click here for more information.
Extraordinary Renditions
Debut fiction by Andrew Ervin
Check out the book trailers for Extraordinary Renditions
"Set in a madly grasping modern Budapest, literary critic Ervin’s debut mines very different ways of achieving personal and artistic freedom in three neatly polished, interlocking tales." —Publishers Weekly (starred), Pick of the Week
“A thought-provoking exploration of tyranny, freedom, and the power of music.” —Booklist
“To read Andrew Ervin’s new book is to know why independent small-press publishing just may hold the ticket to our future in literary fiction.” —The Longest Chapter
Upcoming Events
Sunday, September 12, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Book Festival
International Stage (on Court Street between Joralemon and Pierrepont)
“Foreign Destinations and Destinies” panel discussion with Sandra Rodriguez Barron and Lan Samantha Chang
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Minneapolis, MN
Twin Cities Book Festival
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
1501 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Horse, Flower, Bird
Stories by Kate Bernheimer
“Imaginative . . . lean and lyrical writing. . . . Bernheimer’s passion for fairy tales is evident in every story she spins. . . . [Her] work provides a refreshing contrast to most available fiction. It is no stretch to compare her to Aimee Bender or Kelly Link.” —Library Journal
“Deep-seated fears find their way into these eight brief, dark adult fairy tales. . . . These stories are the product of a vivid imagination and crafty manipulation by their skillful creator.” —Publishers Weekly
“Hauntingly poetic. . . . By turns lovely and tragic, Bernheimer’s spare but captivating fables of femininity resonate like a string of sad but all-too-real and meaningful dreams. This is a collection readers won’t soon forget, one that redefines the fairy tale into something wholly original.” —Booklist
Upcoming Events
Friday, September 10, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
Omaha, NE
Omaha Literary Festival
KANEKO
1111 Jones Street
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
Portland, OR
Powell's
1005 West Burnside Street
Dear Sandy, Hello: Letters from Ted to Sandy Berrigan
by Ted Berrigan; Edited by Ron Padgett and Sandy Berrigan
Publishers Weekly: An interview with Ron Padgett
“This volume vividly preserves young love through Ted’s letters to Sandy while she was institutionalized—packed with rage, frustration, and thoughts about writing . . . ‘It’s time for less warm tears and more cold fury,’ writes Ted, transporting the reader to a time when a passionate and impulsive young woman could be committed for behavior contrary to social norms. Even those unfamiliar with Ted’s poetry will be fascinated by the drama inherent in this collection.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
"For anybody with a taste for Ted, this book is another sweet addition to the happily increasing literature by and on the subject." —Bookforum
Sarah—Of Fragments and Lines
Poems by Julie Carr
“As Carr shuttles among her triple roles as mother, daughter, writer, individual words and phonemes shuttle back and forth like classical melodies. . . . Repetitions and echoes owe something to Gertrude Stein, but Carr’s earnest music never simply repeats earlier experiment. Rather, her spare songlike pages . . . portray the strong contrary pulls in her divided mind.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
Upcoming Events
Friday, September 10, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
Ann Arbor, MI
Copper Colored Mountain Arts
7101 W. Liberty Road
 |
Quincy Troupe will be honored with an American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Laird Hunt’s Ray of the Star is a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award for Fiction.
Allan Appel’s Hebrew Tutor of Bel Air is a finalist for the Harold U. Ribalow Prize.
Publisher's Desk
A Message from Chris Fischbach, Associate Publisher
My favorite time of year, fall brings crisp weather and honeycrisp apples, and it’s the best time of year for baseball. Every year Allan, the founding publisher of Coffee House Press, buys the whole staff tickets to a Twins game. This year, we’re going on September 22 to watch my Twins pound Cleveland. As many of you know, outdoor baseball has returned to Minnesota, and the whole state is buzzing about our fancy new stadium, and our return to the open air.
Just across the Mississippi, here in our office, change is also in the air. Over the next couple of months, you’re going to hear from us more often as we introduce you to our snazzy, revamped website; a blog or two; an improved newsletter; a mess of e-books for all e-readers; and even a partnership with an exciting new audio book company. We’ll be fully plugged in, and we invite you to join us.
But have no fear, because as I looked up from writing that last paragraph, just outside my office door I spied the platen press that started us off more than thirty years ago, at Allan’s house in Iowa, when Coffee House was just a glimmer in his eye as he ran Toothpaste Press, setting type by hand. Even though we’ll be stepping toward a more digitized future, we’re more dedicated than ever to the physical beauty and permanence of well-made paper books. We’ll never give that up—there will just be new ways to get your hands on them.
Go Twins! Go Coffee House Press!
Featured Books
10 Mississippi
Poems by Steve Healey
"Despite the national craze for self-expression that poetry has become, it is harder than ever to hear an original voice; but here one is and it's a doozy. Somehow Steve Healy has figured out a way to get a new sound out of the saxophone of English. Loopy, smart, eyebrow-raising, wiggy, and wildly entertaining belong in the string of modifiers that would try to describe this poet's amaing voice." —Billy Collins
Upcoming Events
A virtual book launch is in full swing running until September 10. Anyone can order a signed copy of 10 Mississippi on the Coffee House Press website and receive a nice discount, and a portion of the proceeds will go to The Conservation Fund, a charity that works to revitalize the Mississippi River. Click here for more information about the sale.
Friday, September 10, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
Minneapolis, MN
The Soap Factory
514 North Second Street SE
This event is part of the Rain Taxi Reading Series and co-sponsored by Coffee House Press. Click here for more information.
Extraordinary Renditions
Debut fiction by Andrew Ervin
Check out the book trailers for Extraordinary Renditions
"Set in a madly grasping modern Budapest, literary critic Ervin’s debut mines very different ways of achieving personal and artistic freedom in three neatly polished, interlocking tales." —Publishers Weekly (starred), Pick of the Week
“A thought-provoking exploration of tyranny, freedom, and the power of music.” —Booklist
“To read Andrew Ervin’s new book is to know why independent small-press publishing just may hold the ticket to our future in literary fiction.” —The Longest Chapter
Upcoming Events
Sunday, September 12, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Book Festival
International Stage (on Court Street between Joralemon and Pierrepont)
“Foreign Destinations and Destinies” panel discussion with Sandra Rodriguez Barron and Lan Samantha Chang
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Minneapolis, MN
Twin Cities Book Festival
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
1501 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Horse, Flower, Bird
Stories by Kate Bernheimer
“Imaginative . . . lean and lyrical writing. . . . Bernheimer’s passion for fairy tales is evident in every story she spins. . . . [Her] work provides a refreshing contrast to most available fiction. It is no stretch to compare her to Aimee Bender or Kelly Link.” —Library Journal
“Deep-seated fears find their way into these eight brief, dark adult fairy tales. . . . These stories are the product of a vivid imagination and crafty manipulation by their skillful creator.” —Publishers Weekly
“Hauntingly poetic. . . . By turns lovely and tragic, Bernheimer’s spare but captivating fables of femininity resonate like a string of sad but all-too-real and meaningful dreams. This is a collection readers won’t soon forget, one that redefines the fairy tale into something wholly original.” —Booklist
Upcoming Events
Friday, September 10, 2010 @ 6:00 pm
Omaha, NE
Omaha Literary Festival
KANEKO
1111 Jones Street
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 @ 7:30 pm
Portland, OR
Powell's
1005 West Burnside Street
Dear Sandy, Hello: Letters from Ted to Sandy Berrigan
by Ted Berrigan; Edited by Ron Padgett and Sandy Berrigan
Publishers Weekly: An interview with Ron Padgett
“This volume vividly preserves young love through Ted’s letters to Sandy while she was institutionalized—packed with rage, frustration, and thoughts about writing . . . ‘It’s time for less warm tears and more cold fury,’ writes Ted, transporting the reader to a time when a passionate and impulsive young woman could be committed for behavior contrary to social norms. Even those unfamiliar with Ted’s poetry will be fascinated by the drama inherent in this collection.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
"For anybody with a taste for Ted, this book is another sweet addition to the happily increasing literature by and on the subject." —Bookforum
Sarah—Of Fragments and Lines
Poems by Julie Carr
“As Carr shuttles among her triple roles as mother, daughter, writer, individual words and phonemes shuttle back and forth like classical melodies. . . . Repetitions and echoes owe something to Gertrude Stein, but Carr’s earnest music never simply repeats earlier experiment. Rather, her spare songlike pages . . . portray the strong contrary pulls in her divided mind.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
Upcoming Events
Friday, September 10, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
Ann Arbor, MI
Copper Colored Mountain Arts
7101 W. Liberty Road
What a wonderful evening last night. My friend Channapha fixed a delicious Lao meal at her house in NE.
Here's the Lao meal we shared:
Tum mak hoong - papaya salad
Yum - glass noodle salad
Nam - red curry rice w shrimp and herbs
Mok pha - steamed fish w herbs
Kao neo mak muang - sticky rice w mango
Kao neo - sticky rice
Sap lai - delicious.
NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Dear Friend of Poetry,
Our Fall 2010 Poetry at Noon series kicks off with a program we're calling, "Rhode Island Sampler." Rhode Island State Poet Laureate Lisa Starr, and Rhode Island poets Tom Chandler and Chachi Carvalho will read from their work. Also appearing will be Amber Rose Johnson, national champion of the Poetry Out Loud competition, who will perform her winning recitation.
The event takes place on Tuesday, October 19 at 12:00 noon in the Whittall Pavilion in the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. SE in Washington, DC. The event is free and tickets are not required. If you have any questions, just email me or give me a call.
Please join us!
Sincerely,
Robert Dardano
Poetry and Literature Center
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20540-4861
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
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| NTOZAKE SHANGE |
said: is this fletcher henderson's band or the blackbyrds. you wd
know. i say. pick one: ayler or coltrane. here's another: charlie parker or ben webster. most of you wd know. the tone. the lyric. rhythm & cadence of the musician is a personal thing to you. you listen & learn
the particular flow of a particular somebody.
soon you'll say that's oliver lake. not julius hemphill. or that cdnt be david murray. that's gotta be hamiett bluitt. you cd go so far as to say joseph jarman wd never play anything like that. or even point ornette coleman out/shd you see him any where/& say...he is history.
we can do this with any kinda horn...clarinets, saxophones, trumpets/tell me what does 'some day my prince will come' / mean to you. that is not snow white or walt disney/that is miles davis.
PM PRESS GETS READY FOR THE PENNANT RACE
http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=20090216164752198
http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=20090216164752198
SAVE THE DATE:
For the forthcoming Book Launch of
WASHINGTON’S U STREET: A BIOGRAPHY
by:
BLAIR A. RUBLE
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2010
Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th floor Flom Auditorium
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 2004
4:00-6:00 pm
About Washington’s U Street:
Duke Ellington grew up in the neighborhood; and diplomat Ralph Bunche, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and medical researcher Charles Drew were all members of the community. This book traces the history of the U Street neighborhood from its Civil War–era origins to its recent gentrification. Home throughout the years to important scholars, entertainers, and political figures, as well as to historically prominent African American institutions, Washington’s U Street neighborhood is a critical zone of contact between black and white America. Howard University and the Howard Theater are both located there.
Washington’s U Street: A Biography is published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press and the Johns Hopkins University Press.
About the Author:
Blair A. Ruble is uniquely equipped to undertake the history of this culturally important area. A prominent urbanist and longtime resident of Washington, D.C., he offers here a rare instance of original research told in a compelling voice. Ruble is director of the
Comparative Urban Studies Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, as well as of its Kennan Institute, and the author of several books about the governance of cities worldwide.
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| REETIKA VAZIRANI |
MORE ABOUT REETIKA VAZIRANI
Top of the Pile: What I’m Reading Now #6
September 6, 2010
Radha Says, the final poems of Reetika Vazirani will inevitably be read in the context of her life, and of course, her death. I’ll just get it out the way now: Vazirani took her own life, and that of her two-year old son in 2003. These poems have been collected from handwritten manuscripts she left behind; and that’s what’s important: the poems. The editors, Leslie McGrath and Ravi Shankar, have done a masterful job in crafting this into a coherent collection and presenting it without any maudlin sentimentality or judgement, but with a great introduction and glossary. Basically, they avoid the Plath-effect as much as possible.
To be honest, I found them utterly baffling on my first read. The interwoven references to Indian culture and Hindu mythology left me disorientated in my own ignorance until I reached the astoundingly powerful title poem ‘Radha Says’. The voice here gathers such assurance that it transcends these cultural attachments to declare:
[ . . . ] shun the toxic envyIt would be easy to say that the disorientating and fragmentary mature of these poems reflected Vazirani’s psychological state towards the end of her life, but the stretching thin of already tenuous links between images and abrupt shifts is both more embedded and more enduring in her work. Radha Says is infused by caesura. Vazirani forgoes any other kind of punctuation, solely using the white space of the page to break up her poems. The visual fragmentation echoes the often curious shifts in image: at times it as if her desire to be an economical poet has whittled away the underlying conceptual metaphor, leaving the reader to divine the connections between the phrases offered. Such a challenge is quite seductive to the reader, as in ‘Hotel Mogul and House Cleaning’:
for if you speak honestly
to yourself perhaps one morning
you will speak to God
your name appears in a scriptIt is clear from this collection, and from reviews of her other collections that I will definitely read in the near future (White Elephants, winner of the 1995 Barnard New Women Poets Prize, and World Hotel winner of the 2003 Anisfield-Wolf book award) that Vazirani was more than capable of escaping the marketing box of ‘Indian-American poet’. Despite the entrancing voices, the touches of personal classicism just strong enough to ignite my curiosity about Hindu mythology, what impressed me most about Radha Says was the formal experimentation. Doing away with punctuation and inviting the reader right into the centre of the poem, brandishing caesura in a confident and new way and exploring the problematic prose-poem in the Ghalib sequence, Vazirani never lets her formal play overtake the content. Those who insist on reading Radha Says as some kind of explanation of a mad-woman should take a second to look at her deftly handled and controlled forms before declaring these poems as evidence.
cashmere socks unroll you
on video Coco Chanel’s
nape plucked clean as boaters
Sita eyes the phone
money blurs in chateaux
I think that is the beauty of this collection: the occasional flashes of a feeling of coherence, of understanding, in an otherwise terrifyingly spasmodic and uncertain female landscape.
* * *
Radha Says is published by Drunken Boat Media, who kindly gave me a review copy. This absolutely does not guarantee a good review, and I always state when I have received things to review that I have not paid for. Always objective—so you can believe that it’s good! (or terrible…)
Tricycle Daily Dharma
Deep Listening
- Susan Moon, "Ten Practices to Change the World"
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
ELECTION DAY IN DC:
If you are interested in working at the polls on Election Day (September 14th primary) call 202 727-2525 for more information, or submit an Election Worker Application online at:
www,dcboee.org
If you are interested in working at the polls on Election Day (September 14th primary) call 202 727-2525 for more information, or submit an Election Worker Application online at:
www,dcboee.org
Monday, September 06, 2010
 | |
| SUSAN DEER CLOUD |
POEM FROM MY FRIEND SUSAN DEER CLOUD:
Labor Day
is beginning in this old factory town
once home to Endicott Johnson Shoe Factory;
a cigar factory now the Lost Dog Café;
another factory for making spools
and factories whose names I never knew.
These days artists exhibit paintings in
The Spool MFG. In concrete entry hangs
a blow up of turn of the century workers,
faces clumped together like dandelion strands
whose silk toughness could be blasted
into poverty by a hard economic wind.
I worked in a pen factory once,
in Liberty, New York. My father’s
immigrant mother and father worked
at EJ stitching shoes. My Czech grandmother
had a gift for languages so she translated
for the workers homesick for Russia, Germany,
Austria, Poland, Italy, Armenia, Romania.
People in this ghost factory town
like to reminisce about the boom days
when Endicott Johnson built houses
for its workers and gave them parks
with swimming pools and carousels.
The unions are busted now.
Grandchildren of the factory workers
often are the artists, poets and musicians
whose voices fill back up The Spool MFG
and Lost Dog. The EJ factories remind me
of my nightmares made of dark brick
and knifed eyes. And we with university degrees,
our grandparents’ and great grandparents’
American dream, are busted, stiffed
the way workers were before they fought
to have unions, and won.
An artist told me there used to be a bordello
between State Street and the train tracks.
Yes, those were flush days and flusher nights
when the whores had long tresses
and mouths the rose of this valley’s
wild geraniums. A person could respect
prostitutes like that. The first time
my father drove us downtown
I saw a woman sashaying under
the gay streetlights, sprouting pink hair
like cotton candy. That’s how it was
when people got off work.
They looked like bright candy.
It is beginning, Labor Day,
and we 21st century desperados get to
curse the bankers, CEOs, politicians, generals,
the real whores. Sunday I drove
to the Iroquois Festival up north
to find beaded moccasins, the shoes
from before the factory machines
and time clock hands began
the ear-deafening dirge of producing shoes.
But tonight I am writing shoeless
in my garret, in the silence
of machines shut down and carousel
ponies bowing their painted heads
under the shot out lights.
© Susan Deer Cloud, 9.6.10, Labor Day
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| SUSAN DEER CLOUD |