Dear readers and poets,

We've had some queries about our open reading period (Meddling Kids Series) that usually runs in May. At this point, our catalog is full through 2012, so we won't be reading manuscripts this year. We hope you'll keep us on your radar, and consider subscribing to Season Five (3 books, 3 bookplates, free shipping!).

Love,
Pilot

Pilot Season Five and Terrance Hayes "Who Are The Tribes" now on sale!

Hello Pilot fans far and wide!

We're excited to announce the official release of the first title from Season Five: Terrance Hayes' "Who Are The Tribes". Season Five subscriptions are also now on sale:

Season Five book subscriptions include:

• Who Are the Tribes, by Terrance Hayes (available now!)

Terrance Hayes is the author of Wind in a Box (Penguin 2006), Hip Logic (Penguin 2002) and Muscular Music (Tia Chucha Press, 1999). His book Lighthead (2010) won the National Book Award in 2010. His other honors include a Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a National Poetry Series award, a Pushcart Prize, two Best American Poetry selections, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family.

• The Axioms, by Francesca Chabrier (forthcoming in Spring 2011)

Francesca Chabrier is the interviews editor for jubilat. Her work appears or is forthcoming in places like notnostrums, Sixth Finch, Invisible Ear, SIR!, Wolf In A Field and Forklift, Ohio. Her collaborations with Christopher Cheney can be found in GlitterPony. She lives in a valley on a hill.

• And our *Meddling Kids Series* pick from our open reading period...The Preservationist Documents, by Megan M. Garr (forthcoming in Summer 2011)

Megan M. Garr is the founder and editor of the Amsterdam-based literary journal Versal. Recent and upcoming publications of her poetry and writings on translocality include Tuesday: An Art Journal, SpringGun, and Corduroy Mtn., and the collection “A Megaphone” edited by Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young. Megan’s chapbook, "The Preservationist Documents," is forthcoming from Pilot Books. She lives in Amsterdam with her partner, artist Shayna Schapp.

PLUS THREE BOOK PLATES AND FREE SHIPPING...for only $40!


You can also check out past seasons of Pilot Chapbooks and more information at our new website!


Love,
Pilot

Breaking Radio Silence

It's been a long time, y'all. We've been busy with paper, ink, thread, lead type, glue, and other things. But we're back with a brand new invention...Not really, but we are back and making a concerted effort to stay in touch with you, our readers... I'd like to introduce you to the person who will be first-hand in making that contact happen, our new, fabulous intern LEORA FRIDMAN! YAY! We are so grateful to have her on board!

Also, we have announcements: Season Five titles, New Website, and AWP happenings

Our Season Five book lineup:

Who Are the Tribes, by Terrance Hayes (available at AWP, February 2011)
Terrance Hayes is the author of Wind in a Box (Penguin 2006), Hip Logic (Penguin 2002) and Muscular Music (Tia Chucha Press, 1999). His book Lighthead (2010) won the National Book Award in 2010. His other honors include a Whiting Writers Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a National Poetry Series award, a Pushcart Prize, two Best American Poetry selections, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family.

The Axioms, by Francesca Chabrier (forthcoming, Winter/Spring 2011)
Francesca Chabrier is the interviews editor for jubilat. Her work appears or is forthcoming in places like notnostrums, Sixth Finch, Invisible Ear, SIR!, Wolf In A Field and Forklift, Ohio. Her collaborations with Christopher Cheney can be found in GlitterPony. She lives in a valley on a hill.

And our *Meddling Kids Series* pick from our open reading period!!
The Preservationist Documents, by Megan M Garr (forthcoming, Winter/Spring 2011)
Megan M. Garr is the founder and editor of the Amsterdam-based literary journal Versal. Recent and upcoming publications of her poetry and writings on translocality include Tuesday: An Art Journal, SpringGun, and Corduroy Mtn., and the collection “A Megaphone” edited by Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young. Megan’s chapbook The Preservationist Documents is forthcoming from Pilot Books. She lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with her partner, artist Shayna Schapp.

Our new website is up! Designed by our very own Meghan Dewar, graphic designer extraordinaire. She also did the site for our dear pals at Factory Hollow Press AND she is available for hire: meghan@pilotpoetry.com. We are in the process of updating our links page, so if you want to swap links please let us know.

AWP happenings:

We are camping out at Table X this year, please come find us, and find all the other small presses we are keeping good company with!

We are co-hosting an offsite event: WIDE NIGHT Friday, February 4th 6:30-9:30 at Wonderland Ballroom. Francesca and Megan will be reading from their forthcoming chaps, along with Chris Martin, Lily Brown, Mark Horosky, Sasha Steensen, Emily Pettit, Dan Boehl, Sommer Browning, Jessica Young, Farrah Field, Guy Pettit, Kelin Loe, Alex Phillips and Luke Bloomfield.

Betsy will be participating in a panel on DIY and craft culture in small press publishing with Matthias Svalina (Octopus Books), Jennifer Flescher (Tuesday Journal), Timothy Schaffert (Omaha Lit Fest, among other things), Kate Bursick (Rose O'Neill Literary House/Literary House Press), Liz Ahl (Plymouth State University) - all on Thursday, February 3, 9-10:15AM at the Virginia B Room, Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level.

Hope to see you there!

Love,
Pilot

seeing that today, May 31st, is a postal day of rest...

Zoiks!! We have decided that it's o.k. to post yr Meddlin' manuscripts on June 1st.

More about The Meddling Kids Series

The Meddling Kids Series is the name of the first-ever open reading period for Pilot Books, and the subsequent manuscript that will choose from those we receive to be published in this semi-annual series.

Poems submitted should be written by poets ages 18 and older (not by kids). The audience for the poems is the same audience for the rest of the books we publish (ie: not really kids, though of course we're not opposed to kids reading our books!).

Short explanation: Pilot Books is reading chapbook manuscripts, and will choose one to be published in The Meddling Kids Series. We have a fondness for Scooby Doo, and sometimes feel like the meddling kids of the poetry world. And we like it that way.

Sorry for any confusion!

Introducing: The Meddling Kids Series

Just wait'll we get our hands on those books!


Pilot Books will hold our first open reading period in May of 2009 to select a manuscript to be published in our new Meddling Kids Series. Please submit 2 printed copies of your original poetry manuscript (10-25 pages of verse) postmarked between May 1st -May 31st , 2009. Include two cover pages--one with manuscript title, your name, address, email and phone; another with manuscript title only. Manuscripts will be logged in by an impartial third party, read anonymously by the editors and a panel of outside readers. A selection of finalists may be asked to submit their manuscript electronically. No SASE necessary, we will communicate via email. Post your entries, along with a $10 reading fee to the address below. (All entry $$ will fund the production of the selected manuscript.)

Pilot Books
39 Lilly Street
Florence, MA 01020

Please help us spread the word... post this on your blogs, websites, etc.

A Celebration of the Chapbook

We at Pilot Books are very excited to be a part of this great event in NYC this week. If you are in the area, come on by! We'll have copies of our Season Three titles available for sale:

FOR YOU IN FULL BLOOM by Matthew Zapruder and Chris Uphues
3 MOVEMENTS by Karla Kelsey
DEAFENING LEAFENING by Matt Hart and Ethan Paquin

along with other Pilot Books titles.

Hope to see you there!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Celebration of the Chapbook festival calls attention to the rich history of the chapbook and highlights its essential place in poetry publishing today as a vehicle for alternative poetry projects and for emerging authors and editors to gain entry into the literary marketplace. The festival will forge a new platform for the study of the chapbook inside and outside the academy and celebrate the importance of chapbooks to America’s cultural heritage and future.

Thursday, April 23
at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue & 34th St

Chapbook Fair
10:00am-6:00pm, The Elebash Recital Hall Lobby

Brief History of Chapbooks
3:00-4:30pm, The Elebash Recital Hall
With Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of the New York Public Library’s Berg Collection; Eric Lorberer, Editor of Rain Taxi; and Michael Ryan, Director of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia University. Moderated by Richard Kaye, Hunter College, CUNY

Chapbooks in the 20th and 21st Centuries
4:30-6:00pm, The Elebash Recital Hall
With Michael Basinski, Curator of the Poetry/Rare Books Collection of the University Libraries, SUNY at Buffalo; Anne Waldman, Chair and Artistic Director of Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program; and Kevin Young, Emory University. Moderated by Ammiel Alcalay, Queens College, CUNY.

Keynote Reading
6:00pm, The Elebash Recital Hall
Readings by Lytton Smith, Gerald Stern, Judith Vollmer, Kevin Young and others, with an introduction by Kimiko Hahn.


Friday, April 24
at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue & 34th St

Chapbook Fair
10:00am-4:00pm, Rooms 8301/8304

Chapbook Now: Producing Chapbooks
A Workshop for Poets
10:00-11:30am, Room 8400
With Rachel Levitsky (Belladonna*); Sharon Dolin (The Center for Book Arts); and Ryan Murphy (North Beach Yacht Club). Moderated by Alice Quinn (Poetry Society of America). WORKSHOP FULL

Chapbook Now: Producing Chapbooks
A Workshop for Publishers
11:30am-1:00pm, Room 8402
With Mark Wagner (Booklyn); Matvei Yankelevich (Ugly Duckling Presse); and Brenda Iijima
(Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs). Moderated by Rob Casper (Poetry Society of America). WORKSHOP FULL


Friday, April 24
at The Center for Book Arts, 28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor

Bookmaking for Writers: A Studio Workshop
With Susan Mills and Karen Randall
2:00-5:00pm

Bookmaking for Publishers: A Studio Workshop
With Susan Mills and Karen Randall
2:00-5:00pm

To register, call (212) 481-0295 or e-mailinfo@centerforbookarts.org – registration is
offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. There's a $20 materials fee for each workshop.

RECEPTION
at The Center for Book Arts, 28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
6:00 pm
All are welcome! Visit the exhibitions at The Center for Book Arts: \’fl \:art, text, new media,
Roni Gross: Zitouna at 20, and Spotlight: 2008 Artists-in-Residence.


Saturday, April 25
at The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, 16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A

Collector’s Show-and-Tell:
The Secret History of Asian American Literature
Patricia Wakida
2:00-3:00pm

Publishing from the Margins
4:30-6:00pm
With Tan Lin; Dawn Lundy Martin (Third Wave Foundation, Black Took Collective); and Bushra Rehman. Moderated by Ken Chen (The Asian American Writers’ Workshop). Followed by a brief reading from the Workshop's Postcard Poetry Project.

RECEPTION
at The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, 16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A
6:00 pm

Participating Publishers
Achiote Press
Belladonna*
Booklyn
Book Thug
Cuneiform Press
Dancing Girl Press
Diagram/New Michigan Press
dusie chapbook kollektiv
ellectrique press
Finishing Line Press
Flying Guillotine Press
Forklift, Ohio
hand*held*editions
Interlude Editions
NewLights Press
Noemi Press
North Beach Yacht Club
Octopus Books
Pilot Books
Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs
Rain Taxi
Sarabande Books
Slapering Hol
Small Anchor Press
Small Fires Press
TinFish Press
Toadlily Press
Ubu Editions
Ugly Duckling Presse
Web del Sol’s World Voices
X-ing Press
and others

Co-sponsored by The Office of Academic Affairs, The Graduate Center and MFA Programs in Creative Writing of the City University of New York, The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, The Center for Book Arts and Poetry Society of America

a shift in flight plan

Hello, dear readers. As some of you may have heard, we at Pilot Poetry have decided to cease publication of the online magazine so that we can focus our attention on the happenings at Pilot Books. Thanks for your readership, we hope you'll keep checking in on the happenings at the press. We're in the process of revamping our website, so for the time being you can find the most up-to-date info here on the Pilot blog.

Yours in Pilotry,
The eds

not strictly pilot news

I've decided to pick some of the coldest cities on some of the coldest days of this year to go on a mini tour to celebrate the release of my chapbook, Start Here, published by the fabulous folks (okay, one gal, Jen Hyde, who is a whole team of fabulous) at Small Anchor Press. She did an incredible job with the book and I couldn't be happier with it. If you don't live in one of the colder states in the country (lucky you!), and hence won't have a chance to freeze your ass off to come hang out and hear me read (with a whole slew of fantastic poets, including Pilot Poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson, at the venues listed below), but still want to get a copy of the chap, you can do so here.

TOUR DATES AND PLACES:
~~~~~~~~
Friday, February 15, 2008
Columbus, OHIO

The OSU Writers' Guild welcomes MFA Poetry alums
Betsy Wheeler and Maggie Smith

The Commons Room, Ohio State campus (Denney Hall 311)
Q & A Session: 4:30 PM (DE311)
Reading: 7:00 PM (DE311)
~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~
Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Lincoln, NEBRASKA

The Clean Part Reading Series
John Gallaher
Wayne Miller
Betsy Wheeler
7:00 pm. Sheldon Memorial Gallery
www.thecleanpart.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~
Tuesday, Febuary 19th, 2008
Chicago, ILLINOIS

Series A:
Betsy Wheeler & Joshua Marie Wilkinson
All the readings will be held
at the Hyde Park Art Center.
7:00-8:00
5020 S. Cornell Avenue
Chicago, IL

~~~~~~~~

Thanks...

thanks to all of you who stopped by our bookfair table -- whether to say hello, peruse the books, buy some, or become a subscriber. we love you all. thanks to all of the incredible small (or larger and independently-minded) presses and mags who make the bookfair the best part of the awp conference. and especial thanks to small fires press and factory hollow press for being the best table-mates imaginable. see everyone next year in chicago. xoxo

reading period for Pilot #3 now in session...

We will be taking submissions for Pilot #3 during the month of February. Please send up to 3 pages of poems (in the case of a longer piece, please query us before sending) to submissionsATpilotpoetry.com. As always we welcome collaborative work, lyric essays, and chapbook reviews.

Thanks everyone!

Ay Dubs (aka AWP)

Hello fearless and faithful Pilot readers. I hope you are still out there, even though we've left you with naught to read for way too many good morrows. But I'm here now to tell you that Pilot will be at AWP in the massive book fair, table 91 in the Gramercy Room on the 2nd floor. Please come by. We'll be sharing our space with our friends from Factory Hollow Press and Small Fires Press. There will be LIVE BOOKBINDING (read: we're still working on the books). There will be LIVE TYPEWRITING (read: we didn't have time to make actual biz cards). There will be other shennanigans I'm sure, since we're also parked next to our pals at Open City. Please come by, we have so many new books and things to show you...

Mary Ruefle's GO HOME AND GO TO BED! Available Now!!

We're so happy to announce the release of Mary Ruefle's comic book, GO HOME AND GO TO BED! You can go to the Pilot website to order it singly, or get a Season Two Subscription and get Mary's comic along with Sophie Klahr's _____VERSUS RECOVERY (available now) and Joshua Marie Wilkinson's BOOK OF FLASHLIGHTS, CLOVER & MILK (available soon).

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.