Book Release in Pittsburgh

Pilot Books is proud to announce the imminent release of Sophie Klahr's chapbook _______ Versus Recovery. Sophie will be reading from the chap along with Anne Marie Rooney and Carolyn Elliott on November 9th, 8 pm at Modern Formations (4919 Penn Ave) in Pittsburgh, PA. A mere 20 copies of her book will be available for sale at the reading (special copies that Sophie designed the covers for herself). The rest of the edition will be available for sale from our website. In fact, we are taking pre-orders now!! (to ship mid-Nov.) Giddyup.

Interview with Joshua Marie Wilkinson

Read this cool interview with Joshua Marie Wilkinson (click on blog title). It was conducted by Rob McClennan for the 12 or 20 Questions blogspot.

Next Weekend: Lori Shine at So & So

Lori Shine will be reading in the So & So Series with Michael Carr & C.S. Carrier next Saturday, Sept 15. 8 pm. at the Distillery.

If you are in the Boston area, come on out! I hear there will be letterpressed broadsides there too. And it's free. And there will be poetry. And poets. And Lor & me driving all the way in from the valley boondocks. Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!

New ABSENT

from the eds:

absent magazine * issue two
now online here

featuring poetry by Jasper Bernes, Charles Bernstein, Regis Bonvicino, Jack Boettcher, Tim Botta, Julia Cohen, Shanna Compton, John Cotter, Shafer
Hall, Lisa Jarnot, Pierre Joris, Joan Kane, Noelle Kocot, Jason Labbe,
Kathleen Ossip, The Pines, Matthew Rohrer, Kate Schapira, Mathias Svalina,
Kathryn Tabb, Allison Titus and Betsy Wheeler.

in translation with Sergei Kitov and Octavo Paz.

musical work by Aaron Einbond.

prose by Joe Amato, Peter Ciccariello, Simon DeDeo, Adam Golaski, Kent
Johnson, Amy Newman, Davis Schneiderman and Tyler Williams.

edited by Elisa Gabbert and Simon DeDeo; with great gratitude to Irwin
Chen and his class at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

work solicited for issue three: please read guidelines here
* letters to the editor
solicited: please read

New Issue of MiPOesias

just released! you can view it by clicking on the post title, or order a paper copy of your very own for your very hands here. I haven't read the whole issue yet but pretty blown away by Bibbins' poems. check 'em out.

the facts... a poll.

this is a semi-random question... how much do you (you!) feel an obligation toward the "facts" in poems. say, for instance, in a poem that contains an historical figure. how comfortable would you be straying from the details (and if so, how far from the details) of this person's life? how about inventing details about the figure's life to benefit the language/interest of the poem? in other words... do you feel justified in sacrificing truth and historical fact for the sake of the poem's imagination?

just curious.

but also really sincerely want to know. comment below. or email me!

no place like NoHo

After 3 days of moving -- packing the van, driving the van, and unpacking the van in 95 degree heat (my mother is a saint for helping me), I am finally at rest at "home" in my new digs. I know I owe many people emails and phone calls and packages and yes I will do it soon, I promise. Now is time for unpacking, getting settled, finding a job, and getting the northeastern offices of Pilot Books up and running. Dean's at work in the offices of the northwest, getting together the snazzy new website and working on Mary Ruefle's comic book. It's now safe to say that the second season of Pilot Books is (slightly tardy but) on its way soon.


So now some pics from the last summer in Lewie-b, summer weddings, Seattle, and other amusements. Enjoy.


First wedding of the summer. Kevin and Paula, in the Outer Banks. Mazel tov!


Second wedding of the summer. Chelsea and Tim, just outside of Seattle. Hooray!


Not golfing with Joshua, Monica, Travis and Ross.

(video is too large... will shrink and post later.)
Red eye home, via Detroit. 5 am on this moving sidewalk was otherworldly.


My new home in Northampton, MA.


This is where I would post the group photo we were supposed to take at my going away dinner at Shara's house. But we didn't. So here's a pic of Shara (with Naomi) and the delicious spread she made for us. Goodbye for now, Stadler Center and Staff of the Stad. Thank you for having me. Thank you for being.

Hurrah!

The lovely Ashley Lamb (Pilot Books' unofficial assistant and officially awesome poet and visual artist) was the winner of the super exciting unjumble the jumble contest race challenge.

Not only did Ashley guess correctly that the letters spell "Tom_y Hilf__er" but she also guessed that those letters are eatable sugar letters and that today was the birthday of my friends (twins) both (unfortunately) named TH. Not really, but her story is better than the story of where those letters really came from.

Fun with letters

Who likes the jumble? First person to figure this out gets a free copy of BRIEF WEATHER. Bonus copy of COMING DOWN IN WHITE if you can guess why these letters are on my couch or where, specifically, they came from.

CLUE: it's a brand name

HINT: it's the same two words twice. four words; two of the same.

Hot Emu Love

you simply gotta go here to see the glory that is Hot Emu Love. i recommend (highly) the disco option.

all of a sudden i feel very happy, uncharacteristically jubilant in the sweltering bosom of july. maybe it's emus in kneepads, and Abba. maybe it's i'm reading this book. maybe it's the $90 i just spent on fabulous vintage dresses (which i really can't afford right now). whatever it is, i like it. hope you are liking your own july, wherever and whoever you are.

Big Searchlight from Small Anchor Press

The newly founded micro-press Small Anchor is now taking submissions for their chapbook series. Checkout their website for more info.

They'll be publishing a chapbook of mine sometime in the near(ish) future; a long poem that I've been working on for a long time. I couldn't be happier that it is in their hands.

mags! books!

(fairly) new issues of the following mags are now available for your reading pleasure. and they are chock-full of pleasure.

Pebble Lake Review


Pindeldyboz All Poetry Issue!!


Also, news from Pilot author, Julie Doxsee: her new chap, Fog Quartets is available now from Horseless Press. Congrats to poet and press!

Constructing ____VERSUS RECOVERY

We started at 10 pm. By 3 am, Ashley and I were slightly delirious and giggly over the slightly ridiculous and certainly long-ass process of making the book covers. We made a total of 4 whole books. Needless to say, the release will not happen for at least a few months until I make my move to NoHo and round up another crew of helpers. In the meantime, thanks to Bri and Ashley for all of their help. And especial thanks to Ashley for her creative input and her enthusiasm for book arts and overly-ambitious binding projects. I wish her the sharpest eyes for the coolest finds on her journeys of collecting. It made my night/week/month/summer to hear her and Bri and Zach exclaiming to each other (while sitting amidst the pile of my chapbook collection in the Poet's Cottage) on the last night of poetry camp: "I want to make chapbooks!" Do it!

I miss them all, my Junies and, as Mathias so aptly put it, their po-passion. Go on with yr bad selves and do even more great things...

Review of BRIEF WEATHER...

Noah Eli Gordon reviews BRIEF WEATHER & I GUESS A SORT OF VISION in the Chapbook Corner of the Summer 2007 Print Edition of Rain Taxi. Buy one! Or even better, become a subscriber to RT. Thanks to Noah for writing the review which is, I think, dead-on and v. favorable. Cheers, Robinson!

Pilot #2

We are delighted to announce the release of Pilot #2.


Pilot #2 features poems from Julie Doxsee, Noah Falck, John Gallaher, Heather Green, Anne Heide, Nathan Hoks, Noelle Kocot, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Clay Matthews, Jennifer Tolo Pierce, Nate Pritts, Brandon Shimoda, and Justin Taylor; collaborative work from Mathias Svalina & Julia Cohen, Matt Hart, and the Typing Explosion; translations of Paul Dermee by Kim Lohse; an interview with Sierra K. Nelson; as well as a number of chapbook reviews.

We hope you enjoy it!


(poets raise their glasses. i'm on the phone with Dean as he hits "send")

Crickets are misleading

Things have been quiet on this news page, I know. But that doesn't mean that things are quiet in Pilot-land. We are SO CLOSE to going live with Pilot #2 that I can taste it. You can taste it too. In books news: the text blocks of _____ VERSUS RECOVERY are back from the printer and ready to be sewn, just as soon as I finish making the covers -- a long process but you are going to love them, so it will be well worth the wait. I have some helper elves here in Lewisburg with me this month -- the young poets from as far as Portland and near as Pittsburgh and Long Island who've come here to write and talk poetry around us. They're super-talented and a few of them (thanks, Ashley and Ellen!) have been assisting in the book-making in the library of the Stadler Center. but then they drag me kicking and screaming to the pub and what can I do? all of this to say: beautiful things are coming your way...

But for now, some photos:


we went to see the primates in the animal behavior lab. very interesting and also strangely sad and sort of scary, but very very cool. my favorite were the capuchins, but i don't have pics of them. here's matt, zach and brian here with the baboons. zach got some great poems out of the experience.


this one is sad, i know.





















from top: sushi with bill olsen (my new favorite person) and matty (one of my all-time favorite persons). ron, right before nancy's reading with the fellows. zach and bri. megan and brian. eric and ryan. ashley and zach.

the june seminar is my favorite. i will miss teaching in it. i will miss hanging with my junies. i will miss Wine in a Box (the song, not the boxwine). hell, i'll miss everything. and everyone.

Announcement from Wave Books

Wave Books now offers annual subscriptions to their softcover titles (subscriptions were previously only available for hardcovers)

Softcover subscribers will receive all six titles published by Wave in 2007:

Sorry, Tree by Eileen Myles
Rise Up by Matthew Rohrer
Citizen Of by Christian Hawkey
No Real Light by Joe Wenderoth
AWE by Dorothea Lasky
The Scented Fox by Laynie Browne

A softcover subscription is only $60.00 for all six books, plus a very low, one-time shipping charge ($4 in the US)

To find out more about subscribing to Wave Books softcovers or hardcovers, go here.

Later, at the Bar

if you are looking for a great novel in stories to read these days, i highly recommend LATER, AT THE BAR by Rebecca Barry. the stories are smart, moving, funny, tragic, and altogether meaningful. i'm not much of a reviewer, but here's the rave she got from the NYTBR. she is on book tour right now, the next event in Columbus at Barley's Underground this Thursday night. more tour info here. i wish i could be there...

Absolutely You

a chapbook of poems by Betsy Wheeler & Dean Gorman... is available now for 5 bucks (free shipping!).

click on the title of this post to read some nice things Julia Cohen said about the book...

NYC report

Last weekend in NYC is measuring up to be one of my favorite visits to the city in the past couple of years. It felt very much like a reunion of sorts, but pleasantly filled too with the meeting of new folks (Valzhyna! Dottie! Gina!) and of course hearing so many talented poets read their work for two completely varied but engaged and excited audiences. Matthew put something really great and meaningful together with both of the group readings -- I wish I had recorded his intro after the break at the St Mark's reading so you could hear what he had to say about the growing interest and importance of chapbooks for poets -- as something we can make and do ourselves, an additional way of sharing and reaching out with our work. I'm conintuously inspired and impressed by what so many small presses are doing these days (see list gaining applause to the right). I couldn't be happier that Pilot is trying to contribute its own little something to that effort.

The pile of books I came home with is so high, it's toppling over on my coffee table, balancing on top of the other pile of books I still have not made it through since AWP. So much to look forward to. Thanks to everyone who bought, traded, looked at, read from, listened to, or picked up and played with Pilot chaps and all the other small press chaps. Julia and Mathias have been writing about many of these over at their houses.

And now for some photos...

Kate, Joanna, & me at Grassroots after St Mark's reading


Dottie & her friend in the orange dress -- mz: "that dress is from the future!" -- at the texan bbq place late Friday. note the size of the margaritas. that's "texas size"... made our legs not work any more.


Valzhyna in the chocolate bar after shopping St Mark's.


new haircut in chocolate bar.


aw, Cindy. nice realaxing evening at MZ's


dear MZ


for Joanna


until next time, all! ... keep reading. keep writing. keep sewing & stapling poems together on paper.

on Robinson's BRIEF WEATHER...

Sandra Simonds discusses her pleasureable personal reading experience with Robinson's BRIEF WEATHER & I GUESS A SORT OF VISION (click on heading for link). which, by the way, you can buy with Lori Shine's COMING DOWN IN WHITE for only $12 plus shipping at presspresspress. what a steal!

Poetry Readings in NYC this weekend

I'm heading out tomorrow for a long weekend in NYC. It will take a car, a ferry, a taxi, and a subway ride for me to get there, but I will get there. If any of you in the NYC area will be around this weekend lookin' for something to do, here are two readings you can come to. I'd love to see/meet/drink and/or eat with you! I'll be reading some new poems and from the collaborative chapbook Dean and I wrote together (and apart) called ABSOLUTELY YOU, which you will be able to purchase on this website soon. And as you can see from the list below, I will be reading in great company. And then there will be revelry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
St. Mark's Poetry Project -- Friday, May 11th -- 6:00 pm

A Glorious Celebratory Festival Of Brief Readings From Some Recently Published & Highly Awesome Chapbooks To be Followed By Revelry

A group reading curated by Matthew Zapruder (author of American Linden (Tupelo Press, 2002) and The Pajamaist (Copper Canyon, 2006), celebrating poetry from recently released award-winning and self-published chapbooks, featuring:

Dottie Lasky, Valzhyna Mort, Dan Chelotti, Kate Hall, Cindy King, Betsy Wheeler, Travis Nichols, Monica Fambrough, Lori Shine, Kathy Ossip, Cole Heinowitz and Stephanie Ruth Anderson. Note the early start time of this Friday night event!

The St. Mark's Poetry Project is located at 131 E. 10th St., at 2nd Avenue.

---

KGB Monday Night Poetry Series: May 14th -- 7:30 pm

Chapbooks Night: a group reading of poets with recently released chapbooks, featuring Kate Hall, Cindy King, Ish Klein, Tonya Foster, Gina Myers, Dan Hoy, Betsy Wheeler, Travis Nichols, Monica Fambrough, Karen Wieser, Rebecca Hoogs, Valzhyna Mort.

KGB is located just west of 2nd Avenue in the East Village, at 85 E. 4th Street. All readings are on Monday nights, and start at 7:30 pm

The Seattle weekend: some late edition photos from Queen Anne and Capital Hill

Introducing, the Vermont College crew. From left (at restaurant): Karen, Ali, Ron, Michelle, Nate, yours truly, and Jamal.

for Kismet

thank you.

I'm gonna eat the ______ outta that _______

So, Dean and I have another blog with some other poets who love to cook (and/or eat), including two Pilot authors, LS and AR. It's called Table and it's been a somewhat quiet table as of late. I am vowing once again to post recipes there more often. (link in title)

Travel Roundup: Seattle to Massachusetts

Finally home from a long week of traveling about, all in the name of poetry and our Pilot. two of my favorite things about returning from travels: 1) awesome excuse to order pizza for dinner 2) mail pileup. i can't even tell you all the unbelievable goodies in my mailbox. oh wait, i can (in no particular order)...

~~SOME BRIDGES MIGRATE, poem by Scott Pierce, images by Cherie Weaver. completely gorgeous book, letterpress printed and handstiched by our own Pilot author Friedrich Kerksieck. this book is incredible--the poem is ominous but beautiful in its strange comfort; the artifact itself is so stunning i am a little jealous of it, so i just keep reading it and turning it over and over in my hand. it's so hot off the press that a faint whiff of letterpress ink still wafts off the page. get one. seriously.

~~a selected grab-bag of H_ANGM_N chaps: flip/chap #1: ART by Dorothea Lasky and ADVICE FOR YOUNG COUPLES by Samuel Amadon, BETWEEN THE ROOM AND THE CITY by Erica Bernheim, and Elisa Gabbert's issue of COMBATIVES. i thought i ordered Andy Mister's COMBATIVES too, but alas. next time.

~~ the first issue of Saltgrass!! (thanks, Jules!) have you seen this? see a little bit here, now: then be tempted to order the whole shebang.

~~isn't this already a great mail pileup? i'm not even done yet

~~ a lovely care package of chapbooks from this lady. all of them signed to me! (thank you, C!) in the pack: THE AMPUTEE'S GUIDE TO SEX by Jillian Weise, A THING AND ITS GHOST by Evan Commander, and THE SMALL ANYTHING CITY by hers truly.

~~and last but entirely the opposite of least: one of the few remaining copies of the incomprable Matt Hart's SONNET which i can hardly wait to read. hardly wait. and tucked inside, a tiny collage/erasure showing me that "colors marked with a dagger may require multiple finish"... and a graph that measures the automatic natures of the machine called the moon. only from that Matt. he's one of my favorites.

i guess that means that i have a lot of books to keep me occupied until the next week of travel in may. hooray.

so, the jublilat/Juniper festival in amherst, mass was a mess of good times. i didn't make it to all of the readings and panels i had planned to make it to, partly because of timing but occasionally to do with whiskey. oops. but there was a LOT of excellent reading and chatting going on. Liz Hughey, Paul Fattaruso, Eric Baus, Timothy Donnelly and Sabrina Orah Mark were exceptionally amazing. fun time chatting (on a panel) about chapbook publishing/reading from those chapbooks with Matvei, Lori, Dan, and Alex to an incredibly engaged and kind crowd at Amherst Books---though i forgot to mention presspresspress. have you been there? go shopping!

all in all a fantastic weekend with dear friends, and met some new fantastic people too. huge applause in the direction of lisa olstein and dara and all the juniper folks for putting together such a great weekend po fest. many thanks to jj and Lori for putting me up as always. i love that part of the country and i can't wait to move there. i'm trying to convince Joanna to move there too. then all we need is Dean to move out of that rainy hippie city of his and join us on THIS coast. i can so see Open City and Pilot sharing a roomy office space, with windows all around, a swimming hole just down the road.


all of this makes the Seattle weekend feel like ages ago. but it too was memorable and full of poetry and dear ones. not as much whiksey though (surprisingly enough). Joshua took Matt and I to the friends of the library sale on friday (then went back twice on sat). just a few my great finds: the hardcover collected Stevens, Holmes' SHELLEY:THE PURSUIT, Gustov Dore's illustrated copy of the RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, and a hardcover of Jim Tate's RETURN TO THE CITY OF WHITE DONKEYS that i gave to Dean (i'm such a sweet and giving co-editor) and which has subsequently inspired a future Pilot project to be revealed at a later date. heard Richard Siken (mezmerizing) read, and (measured, patient)GC Waldrep, and my lovely bus buddy Mary Jo Bang, and the often heart-breaking, and funny and smart and talented Vis a Vis Society... we made a feast. we made lots of popcorn in the whirlypop. we ate piroshkis. we Lebowski'd. we played poker. we poetried. the boys played music. on our last evening of Fun Camp, Joshua and Matt read aloud to me and Anthony the entirety of Oscar Wilde's "the Decay of Lying"... well, Matt read most of it, which was quite a feat. alternately frustrating and fascinating in all of its meanderings, i faded in and out (it was very late and much wine) but i think that was a fine and maybe fitting way to interact with it. many thanks to Joshua for putting me up as always, on either coast.



and now, my friends, i have talked long enough. now i sleep. (dean, move out east).

Seattle Poetry Fest this weekend!

Hey, Seattleites!! Are you going to the Poetry Festival? You should! Dean and I will both be roaming around, doing poetry things. There will be many poetry happenings happening... but just a few highlights:

SATURDAY, APR 21
Richard Siken reads at 3:15
G.C. Waldrep reads at 4:15

SUNDAY, APR 22
Joshua Beckman & Matt Rohrer workshop at 1:00
Vis a Vis Society performs at 1:45
Mary Jo Bang reads at 2:15
I read at 4:00
JB & Matt read at 5:30


I can't wait. I fly out on Friday, back on Monday. I can't wait. Hope to see you there!!

Have your say about the potential postal rate hikes

This is bad news for all small publishing ventures. If you are so moved, please go to www.stoppostalratehikes.com and sign the letter to the Postal Board protesting the new rate system and demanding a congressional hearing before any radical changes are made. The
deadline for comments is April 23.

Rabbit Light Movies

are for you.

Press Press Press!!!

is a new online "bookstore" for small press publications. click on the title of this post to go shopping there. it's always fresh. always new. it's Press Press Press.

inside the Pilot cockpit

one of my favorite parts of book binding (besides the final product of course) is the meditative aspect of it. it's a similar sort of meditation that can happen while running or driving... a semi-distracted state of deep thought, a place you can seep into pleasantly while sort of trapped in the action. i don't listen to my ipod when i run but it's a necessity in the car. when it comes to bookbinding though for some reason music doesn't do it for me. so it's either silience (doesn't last long), my Gregorian Chant cd (a carryover from my undergrad years and a sort of tribute to my bookarts mentor) or This American Life episodes.

i'm always astounded when i meet a like-minded individual who hasn't heard of or doesn't religiously listen to this radio show. it's the best free entertainment available, in my humble opinion. it's been a part of my weekends for years---for a while it was what i listened to on saturdays while cleaning the house, then for a number of years with my ex it was tradition to go on long drives in the country and listen to the show. since i've moved to central PA, i miss listening to it on the radio because none of the local NPR stations air it. luckily, TAL archives all of their episodes online so you can listen to them whenever you want to. i highly recommend taking a listen if you aren't already familiar. my favorite episodes (very hard to pick) in no particular order: Act V, Liars, Fiascos, Testosterone, and Valentine's Day 98. but they're all good. you can't go wrong. and yes, i do have a tiny little crush on Ira Glass, but that's totally beside the point. there's a link to the TAL site on the title of the post.

this just in from Nate Pritts...

In honor of National Poetry Month, that time of year when we all join forces
in the spirit of commodification & prostitute the art form we love, H_NGM_N
is announcing our new line of VALU_ DEALS!

*

VALU_ DEAL MENU

#1 COMBATIVES/CHAPBOOK - Start a subscription to COMBATIVES (#'s 4-6) & get
a chapbook too! $8 ppd.

#2 Any 2 chapbooks from the H_NGM_N list. $8 ppd.

Order buttons for these special VALU_ DEALS are right here at
http://www.h-ngm-n.com! Please email editor@h-ngm-n.com to let us know the
title of your selections. Offer expires Monday, April 30th.

Best!
Nate Pritts, EIC & mogul.

end of reading period for Pilot, issue #2

Submission period is closed for the spring. Thanks to all who sent us work, we will be responding to everyone soon.

Keep an eye out for the next issue of Pilot comin at ya this May!

Rise Up

You are really really looking forward to reading this: when it is officially released on April 1st. If you are lucky, you may already own this book and if you are super lucky you have already read it and have had your life significantly changed for the better by it. I am that lucky. If you live in Brooklyn, and are feeling especialy lucky, you should go hear Matt read from this book you are looking forward to reading on Friday MARCH 16, 2007 8:00pm at Unnameable Books (formerly Adam's Books) 456 Bergen Street (between 5th and Flatbush) Brooklyn, NY 11217.

Go there. Be lucky. (which is different from but sometimes even better than getting lucky).

Grab your partner...

We are reading for issue #2 until March 31st, and are especially in need of collaborative pieces. submission guidelines here.

Vacation All I Ever Wanted

Thank god it is Spring Break, I still have not fully recovered from the madness that was AWP... but now all I have is timetimetime... Mister Gorman is back from his jaunt overseas and we are rarin' to go for more Pilot projects. Keep an eye on this space for updates, including the official release of Coming Down in White.

Miss Sophie Klahr (author of the forthcoming _________Versus Recovery) visited this weekend. We played with paper, we talked book dimensions, we edited... she stalked the poet's cottage, searching for ghosts. i made her promise not to tell me if she found one.

CENTO BINGO!!

A few months ago, while sitting in a crowded sports bar in Buffalo, NY (a rainy stop on the Poetry Bus) the genius who is Matt Hart shared with me his idea about creating the new game that is sweeping the nation. I remember thinking "fascinating. can it be done?" Well, folks, when Matt Hart is involved, anything can be done. I am in love with the idea of CENTO BINGO. I must now make my very own board. You should too!

100% of the dynamite exploded...

I am home from Atlanta. I am enjoying my first hangover-free day since Wednesday. My voice is cashed. But man, did we have a great night on Saturday. I have no pics of Friedrich or Lori reading---none of FK because he and Aaron James McNally asked me to stand in for Aaron and read their collaborations along with FK, and none of Lori because I was so wrapped up in her reading that I forgot. I had even planned to make a video. I think it speaks for the incredible awesomeness that is the poem "Coming Down in White" that a proud publisher would forget to photograph one of her authors while reading said poem. But the whole evening was grand. Here is a mini photo-tour for you to gaze fondly upon... (in reverse order because i'm too tired to fix it, and with apologies to zach for his sideways placement)... Sir Janaka Stucky of Black Ocean was the evening's emcee... and not just because he was the tallest. I really admire what he does, and he does it all with what seems like such ease; chapbooks, check; beautiful full-lengths, check; complicated facial hair and confident swagger, check check. Miss Reb Livingston, whom I adore, and her pack of wild No Tell poets. This woman did, single-handedly, break down and rebuild in her patented sexy way the old pattern of poetry readings. The No Tell crew, fondly referred to as the Bedside Manners, were incredibly fun. Then there was dear, dear, Mathias Svalina of Octopus and his multi-tentacled partner, Zach Schomburg. These guys are raising the bar with their online mag, their press, AND their poems. Raising glasses at the bar also, yes, but only after they are done raising the other bar. And then there was the crowd, to which this photo does not do justice. Max Greenstreet in the front, a man who, in my opinion, wins the biggest trooper award for 2007... I think that's Dan Nester with a gesture of loving kindness in the back: All in all it was an incredible night. Thanks to all the poets who read (Friedrich, Lily, Paula, Shafer, Karl, Ravi, Jill, Bruce, Laurel, Reb, Julie, Zach, Lori). Thanks to everyone who came out to hear our poets read, to hang out with us, to look at and even buy (thank you!!) the books we all publish. We need you all: readers, poets, friends. Dean, you were missed terribly. So were you, Tony. Next year I hope we can get the whole family together again. I met so many great people this weekend: it was so wonderful meeting you all!! And excellent to see all of you old friends. I miss you all already. Now I must sleep. Be good, all.