Sundry on Monday

BONTASAURUS FLOWERS
I am liking Dave Bonta's wildflower poems at Via Negativa. These are responses to photographs by Jennifer Schlick. Some of Dave's poems have interesting responses in turn from Luisa Igloria. At left is Schlick's unusual photograph of False Solomon's Seal; I think this is the one that most surprised me.

THE BIRTHDAY ROSES & WIELDING THE TREE FINDER http://qarrtsiluni.com/2011/01/24/two-poems-from-the-plant-kingdom/ To my surprise, people are still commenting on "The Birthday Roses" and "Wielding the Tree Finder." I find that I am still such an innocent about how to get the word out about poetry that I feel out-of-the-ordinary pleased when people respond on 'zines that allow comments. Perhaps, given the state of poetry publishing, we are innocents together.

POETRY & PUBLISHING
Last year an editor of an interesting publishing house (mid-size, select) told me that they weren't going to do poetry anymore--than none of their copies broke 300 in sales. Isn't that bemusing, in a big country like ours? And there's a cost, isn't there, to not supporting poetry? Now a house that published good poets will publish no more. I hope those poets have found a new home...

BLOGGERS, ETC.
If any bloggers or others would like press release material for The Throne of Psyche, let me know here or at facebook or by email. I will be bundling what I get from Mercer with some other things soon, and I've started to collect a list. Meanwhile the paperback is up for pre-order at Amazon, but not the hardcover. Soon, I hope.

Poems at qarrtsiluni

Update 1/27: Thanks for all the grand comments at qarrtsiluni! Great to see discussion . . . "Wielding the Tree Finder" and "The Birthday Roses" (the latter from The Book of the Red King): here. Podcasts as well. Please comment there, not here--as a former q-editor, I'd rather qarrtsiluni get any love!

The Throne Jacket, goodreads, etcetera

THE BEAUTEOUS JACKET

See that? That, my dear friends and well wishers and passers-by, is the design for the hardcover jacket and the paperback cover of The Throne of Psyche (Mercer University Press, April 2011.) The smashingly lovely image is by my friend (more about books with him in an upcoming post) Clive Hicks-Jenkins. The designers seem to have manipulated it--the image is flipped, which we suggested, but it also seems to have pulled the layers apart slightly to create more of a 3-D effect. In the process, the sunflowers go softer and the levels of image separate. Interesting. (Graphic design: Burt & Burt Studio of Macon, Georgia.)

GOODREADS

The paperback is already listed at Amazon, and I found the cover first at goodreads.com. Speaking of goodreads, I joined today because my friend, the bookstore manager extraordinaire and author Erica Eisdorfer. She twisted my arm (note arm-twisting motif continued from cover.) Not sure why I avoided it earlier. Fear of trolls? Fear of even more shredding of time? Don't know. But I shall try it. See you there, maybe.

YOUR SHOPPING LIST

Be sure and buy several (or several dozen or more!) copies if you wish to save me from anxiety! Six books forthcoming: I can't figure out if that's bad or that's good in terms of getting them out in the world. It's a little intimidating.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Speaking of social media and books . . . I had come to the conclusion that facebook was a place mostly for utter frivolity and silliness (and not so much for bookishness) when I asked a question of poets about 1:00 a.m. this morning. I was working on my galleys for The Throne of Psyche. Tiny question: 145 comments. So maybe facebook is more bookish than you would think. Than I would think! However, somehow a blue paisley garter belt and a pink slip crept in before we were done. So maybe it has an insane and irretrievable bent toward the frivolous

PODCASTS, ETC.

I am making some podcasts for six poems due out at The Flea and qarrtsiluni. And am wondering: to what degree is multi-media the way to market poetry books. I hate to be thinking so much about marketing . . . and yet three poetry books will need a certain amount of push to fly off into the world, won't they? My friend Paul Tree (who is not really a Tree) tells me that multi-media is the way to go.

Mercer Book Award Winners, 2010

THE MERCER UNIVERSITY PRESS
INAUGURAL BOOK AWARD WINNERS

Congratulations to Kathy Bradley and Seaborn Jones! Award listing for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, plus remarks from each judge . . .

THE FERROL SAMS AWARD FOR FICTION

for A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage by Marly Youmans

“Ms. Youmans gives us a beautifully written and exceptionally satisfying novel with rich language and lovely turns of phrase that invite the reader to linger on every page.”

Update, Jan 21: pub date will be spring/summer 2012.

THE WILL D. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION

for Just Breathing and Walking Around by Kathy Bradley

“Ms. Bradley’s essays attempt to catch, if not to keep, beauty, friendship, the unscrolling of the world of weather and animal and human life. Her voice is one of contemplation and broad and broadening reverence.”

THE ADRIENNE BOND AWARD FOR POETRY

for Going Farther Into the Woods Than the Woods Go by Seaborn Jones

“Unlike any poet writing in the South, Seaborn Jones maintains a figurative connection to surrealism, one of the essential pathways of subjectivity in American Art.”

All three books will appear in the next eighteen months...