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!