New review
The new
Rain Taxi features a lovely review
For Girls by Nate Pritts:
Though Shanna Compton's second full-length book will probably get noticed first for its quasi-gender studies focus, the ironic tone and muscularly discursive lines of For Girls (& Others) mark it as first-rate poetry first, a lesson in articulating individual identity in a public sphere.
Compton owns her project--a kind of contemporary primer for girls that, in revealing how far we've come, indicates we haven't strayed far enough from the ideas of the 19th-century handbook that serves as impetus for some of the poems. Luckily, we have Compton's voice to help guide us: "Might you unlearn / to resent the joy / the world takes in you, // learn to return its gaze." The ending of "Pride in Having Small Feet" sets up the interesting tension of employing the rhetorical style of these outdated manuals in the service of offering some real insight. Moments like these, handled with grace and forcefulness, define the book, and provide the truest sense of a purpose here.
Lingustic virtuosity is a solid draw as well. Those who've read Compton's first collection, Down Spooky, already know her to be adept at torquing language in a way that reveals not simply multiple meanings, but multiple registers. "The Dome Is It" is a good illustration of Compton's ability to move into a realm where language becomes a reference to itself, where moods are the words used to describe them: The opposite of no within
the curved, complete shape
of your dreamed conveyance.
Everything you've said lately
so similar to immediate
but not quite so.
Throughout, Compton uses syntax and lineation to provide some of the punch. In "Opening Address," she begins the book with a pronouncement about girls "upon whom the universe / bestows fullness / in all the right places." Both biblical sounding and funny, it's a good read on the tone used throughout the book. Simultaneously reverent and irreverent, For Girls (& Others) is a complex work on identity and the forces we all work against to assert it.
Pick up a copy or subscribe to Rain Taxi
here.Also, please stop by the
Bloof Blog for more news & reviews of
My Zorba!Labels: bloof, for girls
Been working...
...on
Sandra's book this weekend, more. Tracked down & replaced the troublemaker font. (So the only things making trouble now're the poems, as they are wont.)
Everyone who turned the book down before I got to it = nuts.
Also, it's hot out. Downright steamy. But I enjoy that.
Labels: bloof
Um, nice poster?
Laughing. At least it's not a strip club.
Labels: bloof, for girls, plagiarism
DC this Sunday
Sunday, May 18 at 3:00 PM in Washington, DC
Jennifer L. Knox, Shanna Compton & Wade Fletcher read for the In Your Ear Series
Hosted by Maureen Thorson & Cathy Eisenhower
DC Arts Center
2438 18th Street NW
(Between Belmont & Columbia)
Washington, DC
Free for DCAC members or $3& some more
Bloofy news here.Labels: bloof, readings
Monday in Ashland, OR
Monday, May 12 at 7:00 PM
in Ashland, OR
Jennifer L. Knox reads for Emergent Forms
Emergent Forms: A 21st Century Reading SeriesHosted by
K. Silem MohammadSouthern Oregon University
Room/Bldg. TBD??
1250 Siskiyou Blvd
FREE
Labels: bloof
The refractory period of my excitable membrane
Got back home early Friday A.M. Spent most of yesterday zombielike or napping! That drive from Fargo to Milwaukee in sideways rain was a beeyotch, y'all. Pictures, reports, recordings and other goodies
here, with more to come.
But the tour's not actually quite over.
Jen & I go to Binghamton, NY on Thursday.
Danielle comes to Brooklyn on Friday.
And you can catch me reading unpublished, unexpurgated flarf (so, like, the opposite of
For Girls) with the Drew Gardner Flarfestra at the
Flarf Festival on Saturday 4/26 in Manhattan. (Catch the whole festival if you want your poetry nerve singed and tickled. It's gonna RAWK.)
Details
here.Other than getting ready for that stuff, I'm preparing the review copy mailing for
My Zorba and looking forward to starting work on Sandra's book for fall.
I fell behind on NaPoWriMo while on the road, but am hoping to catch up by doing 2 a day for a while.
UPDATE:Three today, so I'm getting there. Gonna keep posting them on the
Bloof blog, because that's what people have linked in their NaPoWriMoBloRos. But since I'm back at my computer they'll be expiring in 24 hrs like previous years.
Labels: bloof, NaPoWriMo, readings
NaPoWriMo begins...
Erm, Happy National Poetry Month to everyone
except Amazon.I'll be posting my daily poems, along with Jennifer L. Knox and Danielle Pafunda, over at the
Bloof blog.We're also going to be posting reading reports, pics, video and audio
from the road, starting tomorrow.
Didi Menendez suggests
another great way to celebrate. I'll try that when I get back. (I can't read in a car, I get motion sickness.)
Anne Boyer's The Romance of Happy Workers is just released today and one of the best books you'll read all year, promise.
See you at
Flarffest.Labels: bloof, DIY blog, NaPoWriMo, recommended
Something to do with your NaPoWriMo poems?
...if they happen to be about Portland, OR...
Powells.com celebrates National Poetry Month with an invitation to write a poem of your own. Before midnight on April 30, 2008, submit an original poem — under 20 lines and in some way about Portland, Oregon — to poetrycontest[at]powells[dot]com for a chance to win 26 books of poetry (from small press poets to contemporary prizewinners to classics) and a handy Powell's rucksack!
One of the prize books being offered is
For Girls (& Others).Entrance info here.Labels: bloof, for girls, NaPoWriMo
It lives!
Click image to go to Bloof store.(Powell's, Amazon, and other retailers to follow in about a month.
Or, if you catch us on the booktour, we'll have early copies too.)
Labels: bloof, My Zorba
If only William Shatner could ride shotgun
If you're ever planning a book tour, go with Priceline for the motels. The name-your-own-price, not the regular search.
I scored decent* rooms in 4 cities for $50-60 each. Including breakfast. Free food is nothing to scoff at, kids. Not when gas is $4 a gallon, especially. (It was $3.19 in KY in October 2005 during the last Knox/Compton/Pafunda tour, because I remember distinctly thinking
that was insane.)
*So, like, no repeats of Nashville 2005, i.e. broken beds, jacked cable, nondraining sink, thick layer of dust, and complimentary near-death pittbull experience. Ewwww.Labels: bloof, we're nuts but it's going to be fun
What better place to confess...
...you like watching your pets masturbate than the Best American Poetry Blog? Don't miss Jennifer L. Knox's blogging debut, today, tomorrow & Friday.
"Birds Do Do It"Update:Today's entry expresses love for Burt Reynolds, naturally.
Labels: bloof
Bloofy news...
...is new at the Bloof news blog. Bloof. News.
Yep.Labels: bloof, I have too many blogs
Sundrious & vandry
A couple of readings coming up:
Sunday, February 24th at 4:00 PM in Philadelphia
Shanna Compton, Teresa Leon & Elizabeth Scanlon
Hosted by CAConrad
Robin's Bookstore
108 S. 13th Street
FREE
Monday, February 25 at 7:00 PM in NYC
Bloof Books kicks off Spring's Monday Night Poetry Series at KGB
Shanna Compton & Jennifer L. Knox
Hosted by Laura Cronk & Michael Quattrone
KGB Bar
85 E. 4th Street
Between 2nd and 3rd Aves.
F to 2nd Ave or 6 to Astor Place
FREE
Also...
For Girls (& Others) is at last available via the distributors (Ingram in US, Gardners & Bertrams in UK), which means it's finally up at
Amazon (including .co.uk, .de, etc.),
Barnes & Noble, et al., and available to your favorite indie bookstores (they'll order it if you ask 'em), in addition to
directly from Bloof and our good buddies at
Powells.com.And hey...check out this new interview with Jennifer L. Knox in the
Southeast Review.Labels: bloof, for girls, readings
Pics & video from the pageant...
...have been posted
here.Labels: bloof, readings, that conference thingy
A work in progress...
BEST OF THE MICROPRESSES @/in/around AWPAlso, if you're interested in Bloof Books, we don't have a table. Look for me though. I'll be a walking bookstore--hawking copies of
Drunk by Noon, A Gringo Like Me, For Girls (& Others) from my tote--special event price $10 each!--& bestowing limited advance copies of
My Zorba on potential reviewers.
Danielle Pafunda will also have copies of
My Zorba in her bag to show off/give to reviewers.
Labels: bloof, that conference thingy
REMINDER: Meet our lovely contestants LIVE!
MICROPRESS POETRY PAGEANT
FRIDAY FEB 1 @ 8PM
STAIN BAR
766 Grand Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(L TRAIN to Grand Street, 1 block West)
FREE! PUBLIC! PRIZES!
No AWP badge required!
BLOOF BOOKSCOCONUT BOOKSNO TELL BOOKSHugh Behm-Steinberg
Jenna Cardinale*
Shanna Compton
Bruce Covey
Jill Alexander Essbaum
Shafer Hall
Jennifer L. Knox
Sueyeun Juliette Lee
Reb Livingston
Danielle Pafunda
PF Potvin
Ravi Shankar
(Sponsored by Lulu.com, the place for people to publish. Empowering
anyone to create, buy, sell and control their work with the click of a mouse.)
* Unfortunately cannot attend in person, yet will be attending in spirit, which is also good company.Labels: bloof, that conference thingy
In sash of satin she sways & sashays...
Reb "Your Ten Favorite Words" Livingston's isn't quite finished. Her status requires additional bling.
Labels: bloof, silly shit we do to entertain ourselves
The future of our road trip depends on it.
Hey, if you're in/near Des Moines, or Iowa City, or Central Illinois, or Minneapolis, or St. Louis & feel like having your brain picked, please drop me a line? (Email at top right.)
Ms. Knox, Ms. Pafunda & I are coming through there in April and have some spots to fill to complete our little tour, is why.
Roadside attractions & chowhound tips more than welcome too!
& how excited are we for part 2 of "Funcie in Muncie"? Oh, very. Who knew Muncie was the funnest town in the Midwest?
(The schedule so far is
here. Some local stuff coming up too!)
Labels: bloof, how we roll, readings
Publishers Weekly reviews For Girls (& Others)
"'For Girls,' the first of the two sequences that make up the book, responds to, reacts against and takes many phrases from an 1882 'health manual' with the same title: its advice on fashion, bodies and morals gives rise, in Compton's hands, to quirky but politically pointed verse. 'Comedy of Manners,' the second sequence, [...] hints of romantic narrative, frequent sarcasm, riffs on found texts and ambitious range of diction (from elaborate to vulgar) all serve Compton's consistent interest in how and whether the culture will ever let girls grow up."
Link to the full review (& thanks to C. Dale for the tip!)
Right now, you can only get the book
here or via
Powell's (because it's still not yet showing up in the distro system, alas).
Pretty much every page on this site is now out of date, most especially the blogroll. It's on my (very very very very) long to-do list. Sure it is.
Labels: bloof, for girls, reviews
2 new reviews of Drunk by Noon...
...& both terrific, naturally!
Ben Mirov in
Coldfront sez, "[
Drunk by Noon] is a series of beautiful failures linked together by the imaginative desire to fail again and again in highly enjoyable and creative ways."
& "Not since I first read James Tate have I encountered a poet who is able create a world that is at once so bizarrely asymmetrical to ours and yet somehow uncannily accurate in its portrayal of humanness."
&
many other nice things.Chris Purdom in
PhilArt compares
Drunk by Noon to a very wild ride of a careening cable car & recommends,
"It's that good. Seriously. Go buy a copy. Now."Shall I remind you that the Grand Opening Specials are available through the end of this month, at the
Bloof Store? Drunk by Noon is also available via
Powells.com (as well as the physical store in Portland, OR),
Amazon.com, these great booksellers, or your favorite store can order it for you via Ingram.
Labels: bloof
Working on My Zorba
It's gonna be great. Wait'll you see.
Sent D the first-pass proofs last night.
Here are some of the previously published poems (some in earlier versions):
--in Coconut
--in Apocryphal Text
Labels: bloof
An interview with Jennifer L. Knox...
... by Jason Jones is up at
Bookslut.Labels: bloof
Happy new year
Um, hi. I'm feeling shy in front of my own blog. Funny.
Even though the daily bits I've been posting are mostly
eh, I'm going to stick with it until I crack this unproductive streak. My excuse? That old saw "garbage in, garbage out."
Sina has posted the interview we did. Very interesting questions. (Thanks, Sina!) A few poems from
For Girls (& Others) too.
& speaking of interviews, look to
Bookslut on Thursday. Jason Jones will be posting a (really funny) interview with your friend & mine,
Jennifer L. Knox. One more thing I should probably mention here (wow, I have too many blogs):
Bloof Books now has a Facebook group. Sign up for (infrequent) news and event invitations. Danke.
It's back to the writing-about-shoes factory for me...
Labels: bloof
You've got nothing better to do
Sez Jennifer L. Knox:
"I'm reading tonight at KGB with Billy Collins.
That's right, I am! for the anthology,
Great American Prose Poems
along with some other very cool poets.
Like Mark Bibbins, Charles Bernstein, Jenny Boully,
Mark Strand, Paul Violi, Susan Wheeler, and others.
KGB Bar
7 p.m.
85 West 4th St NYC 10003
It would be awesome to see your friendly,
or short of that, familiar face.
Knoxoxoxo"
Labels: bloof, recommended
"Jennifer L. Knox is pure magic."
Who sold 40 books (you heard me) at FSU? Jen Knox, that's who.
If you wish you'd been there, check out
the podcast here.Labels: bloof, bragging
Tonight...
Monday, November 19 at 7:00 PM
in Manhattan
Jennifer L. Knox and Kenneth Goldsmith read for Readings Between A & B
11th Street Bar
510 East 11th Street
New York, NY
__
Quiet around here because I've been both busy & sick. Back soon.
Labels: bloof
Photos from the Drunk by Noon party...
...have been posted at the
Bloof blog.Labels: bloof
If you missed the party...
...you've got another chance to catch Jennifer L. Knox this week.
She's the featured poet at tomorrow night's Urbana Slam:
Tuesday, November 13 at 7:00 PM
Jennifer L. Knox features at the Urbana Poetry Slam, hosted by Shappy
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY
Also, next Monday:
Monday, November 19 at 7:00 PM
in Manhattan
Jennifer L. Knox and Kenneth Goldsmith read for Readings Between A & B
11th Street Bar
510 East 11th Street
New York, NY
Labels: bloof
The party...
...was a lot of fun, & we sold a million* books, ate 200 chicken wings***, were seranaded by a giant ear & a beautiful poet singing Conway Twitty, awarded/received a trophy for "asskicking the yahoos", & made some new friends.
& there are photos, probably not very good ones,** to be posted later.
But right now I go in search of
eggs [scrambled tofu***] of the brunch variety.
* Only a slight exaggeration
** Phone-cam, real camera still broken
***[This post has been modified because I have since gone vegan.]Labels: bloof
WTF is wrong with Blogger?
I keep getting old views of this page, despite clearing caches, using different browsers, etc.
Something is stuck in a tube somewhere. Maybe it's my webhost, because the exact same post shows up fine
over here. (That's hosted by a different company.)
Can you see the invitation to Jennifer L. Knox's book party this Saturday below?
If not, here's the scoop, text-only style:
Join us as we chell-o-brate the release of
DRUNK BY NOON
a brand-spankin' new book of poems by
JENNIFER L. KNOX
Saturday, November 10, 2007
7-9 PM
at STAIN BAR
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
766 Grand Street
(L train to Grand, 1 block west)
With your host ADA LIMÓN
Featuring MIXT TAPE,
FEATHER UNDERGROUND and more.
Plus yo-yo tricks, interpretive dance, Todd Colby,
a brief recitative, and other rare entertainments.
Chicken wings. Karaoke may follow.
Labels: bloof, in thrall to the wonky machine
Back from Buffalo & Brooklyn
Buffalo was a freaking blast. Kevin & Aaron are fun hosts, Rust Belt's backroom stage with its beetle-jigsawed podium, mural-painted wall, & cooler full of cheap beer constituted a real swank setup, the folks were all welcoming & funny, & I picked up some House Press stuff from the great local section, as well as Michael Kelleher's
Human Scale, & Aaron Belz's
The Bird Hoverer.More photos
here &
some from Aaron Belz too.The Brooklyn reading was awesome too, but I'm not sure there's photographic evidence. Nicole always packs the place with lovely attentive not-afraid-to-hoot-n-holler people. Many books were sold, then we hit Snacky & I crashed at my sister's place while the Prius napped safely in Greenpoint.
Hey, if you're near DC, do *not* miss Jennifer L. Knox tomorrow night, with Aaron Belz (again), Peter "Funcie from Muncie" Davis (with whom we overlapped Friday nite, damnit), & Michael Schiavo at
Burlesque.Labels: bloof, readings
Today & tomorrow
Today, Jen & I are driving to Buffalo to read with Aaron Belz...
Tomorrow, we're gonna see Niagara Falls (quickly) & then we're gonna drive all the way back down to Brooklyn, for this...
Friday, October 26 at 8:00 PM
Earshot
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg
Jennifer L. Knox (author of Drunk by Noon and A Gringo Like Me)
Shanna Compton (author of For Girls and Down Spooky)
John Reid Currie (Queens College)
Seamus Scanlon (City College)
Olivia Kate Cerrone (New York University)
The Lucky Cat
245 Grand Street
(between Driggs & Roebling)
Brooklyn, NY
(718) 782-0437
$5 admission includes a drinkOn Saturday, I'll probably take a loooooooooong nap.
Labels: bloof, readings
Now available in the Bloof store: For Girls (& Others)
For Girls (& Others)
by Shanna ComptonNovember 2007
Trade Paper Original
ISBN: 978-0-6151-6697-1
80 pp. | $15.00
more infoGrand opening special! For a limited time, get
For Girls &
Drunk by Noon for the reduced price of 2 for $25 (plus shipping). Details on the
main store page.Bookstores, libraries, and folks who prefer Amazon et al. should be able to order
Drunk by Noon any day now.
For Girls should be in the system by the end of November.
Labels: bloof, for girls
Everything is fine.
& the books are not pink this time.
This means there will indeed be books for
Buffalo & Brooklyn. Rock.
Will probably go live in the store this weekend, with Amazon, Ingram, etc. to follow within a few weeks.
Labels: bloof, for girls, readings
Heading out of town in a bit, but...
...just wanted to point you to the
Bloof Blog, which is now functionally integrated with Blogger. Rock. So Bloofy news will more likely appear over there than here, unless it's also personal.
Please bookmark & blogroll it?
Labels: bloof
"Coral is far more red than her lips' red"
Got the test copies of
For Girls today and was surprised-slash-dismayed (well a bit) to see the cover'd come out with a pinkish cast allover. My book, she blushes!
A PINK book called FOR GIRLS (particularly seeing as how it mocks exactly such girlish conventions) just will not do.
The Cover Girls were lovely in their dying sunlight, still, but the "antiqued ivory" (meant to be reminiscent of an age-foxed page) was positively rosy.
So I have had to ask them to try again, which is to say,
"I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks"!At least not anymore.
G's snippet has provoked much hilarity already. If you don't find the totally effed metaphors as amusing as I do, perhaps it's because you really
do think poetry's like golf? (As if!)
Labels: bloof, for girls, ways in which the poetry of [not John Donne] William Shakespeare is still totally relevant
Happy Bloofday
The store is open.Launch party details & October readings (Buffalo, Brooklyn) are on the
events page.For Girls is so next...uh, in about a week.
Labels: bloof
Final cover
(click for slightly larger version)
Labels: bloof
They're here
They look much better in person than in this crappy phone-camera pic. (My real camera is still kaput.)
But they're here!
I'll give it one last proofread tomorrow & if everything is OK, they'll go on sale.
Labels: bloof
Poll results
Some supposedly interesting findings:
A) "FillText" was preferred equally by both men and women
B) "PhysEd" was preferred by men
C) "Miss America gets a perm" was preferred by men
D) "Castle with pansies & swans" was preferred by women
Since more men than women voted, B) and C) tied for People's Choice, though I think A) may have edged them out by late yesterday.
Among the voters who have actually read the poems, C) was found to be all wrong tonewise (too funny, unless the man was cropped out).
D) raised concerns the irony might be lost (though I think the pansy-headed fairy on the back cover might have solved that problem).
B) apparently looks too much like Pattie McCarthy's
Verso, which I hadn't seen.
Graphic designers & bookstore employees preferred A) as looking least like a poetry collection and as being most distinctive in general.
I have through Wed. to decide for sure, but I think I will be going with A)--it was tied with D) as my personal fave all along anyway. It will be getting a few further tweaks. I will post it when it's final.
Thanks to everybody who weighed in, here or backchannel. It was a big help.
Labels: bloof, coming soon
Woohoo, a review...
...already, for
Drunk by Noon!
(Thanks, Nate &
LAS.)
UPDATE: & an interview too.Labels: bloof
Bloofy
Cover design by the brilliant Charlie Orr, with painting by Charles Browning. Click to enlarge.Just ordered the test copies of
Drunk by Noon--whee! If we find no errors, it should go on sale in about two weeks, right on schedule.
The launch party has been scheduled for Saturday, November 10 at Stain Bar in Brooklyn. Details to come.
Cover options for
For Girls will likely be posted for a poll here, sometime this weekend. I can't decide which one I like best.
Labels: bloof, coming soon
Gotta love that
Four of the review snippets (which we are using in lieu of blurbs) on the back cover of
For Girls (& Others) are signed by men. The other two are from uncredited reviews, but something tells me they might be male-authored as well.
Funny, no?
Labels: bloof, coming soon, for girls, the loathéd blurb
I have to tell someone
It is finished. I have sent it to the editor/reader people (whom I adore).
OK. Whew. I have a month for further tinkering but am going to try to resist till they've had a turn with it.
Labels: bloof, coming soon
(Almost) Drunk by Noon
Picked up the final cover files from the (genius) designer Mr. Charles B. Orr today at lunch and OH YES IT ROCKS.
Just gotta put on the spine text and the back cover Testimonials of Awesomeness.
Jen is going over the proofs again, checking the last round of corrections.
Not much longer now. It might even been a little early, and that, my friends, is a first.
To make up for it,
For Girls may be a little bit late. But that's ok. What am I gonna do, fire myself? Nah.
Still booking readings for fall, and hey, we'll also come out to see you in the spring. So holler with a date or two and we'll see if it can work (for one, both, or either of us).
Labels: bloof
What I would show you if my camera were not still broken:
One of the test copies of
A Gringo Like Me I got in the mail yesterday. (The other is on its way to El Knox for her approval.)
A few things to fix (the bloof bee logo doesn't pop enough on the spine, for instance, because of the textured background on this particular cover, and a font needs to be changed in one place inside), but otherwise I think they look blooftastic. I expect it to be available for sale within the week (which means I should really get cracking on that webstore).
Labels: bloof
Chicken Bucket International
Note: The participants are not actors, & have not been compensated by Bloof Books or Jennifer L. Knox in any fashion. Also, you must have a Facebook account to view the group's pages.
While I'm on the subject,
A Gringo Like Me.2 should be uploading this weekend and hopefully will be ready for purchase in the next week or so. (Meant to finish it up before I went away, but was afraid I'd make a mistake with the resized cover if I rushed.)
Labels: bloof
Blooftastic
Rock. Just finished the interior layout for Jennifer L. Knox's
Drunk by Noon.The new edition of
A Gringo Like Me will be available as soon as she's proofed it and the cover has been resized too. (The SSP version was 5.5 x 7.5, and the Bloof version will be 6 x 9.)
Speaking of hilarious/tragicomic/empathic poets, check out "The Dangerfield Conundrum," a rountable discussion from the HUM-PO list
in the new Jacket here.Labels: bloof
Gringo Deux
Just finished the new second edition layout for Jennifer L. Knox's
A Gringo Like Me! RAWK.
(We've resized it so it will match her new book,
Drunk by Noon.)
Labels: bloof
Knott on Knox
UPDATE: & a new chapbook from Jennifer "El" Knox
here. Woohoo.
Labels: bloof
Doings
Lovely weekend so much outdoors hardly inside at all with Maureen & Charlie & David & Stacy & Dot & Mr. Benchley & my honey. Canoeing (deer, frogs, geese, turtles) bbqing a couple of farmstands (strawberries, tomatoes, asparagus, flowers, there were goats and ducks and rabbits and a very tiny horse and a very decrepit old sheep, there are pictures) a walk in the park (we spotted a deer) a rainstorm a power failure some candles but nobody knew any ghost stories.
Now I'm back at work and trying to finish up some poetry things, an essay for
Poet's Bookshelf 2, my
Dusie chap, the resizing of
A Gringo Like Me for its Bloof edition, and working on
For Girls. Then there is the reading (been reading novels) Anne's
Selected Dreams and Alice Notley's
Alma, or the Dead Women and Danielle's
My Zorba (oh!) and Maureen's
Applies to Oranges (oh!) and the Dusie chaps that have so-far arrived, two more novels (new DeLillo, new Murakami, go now) after or during that.
Summer is here. I can tell because I'm piling up books for the porches and wearing my seersucker jacket.
Labels: bloof
From PGW's Chapter 11 to Soft Skull Press's new chapter
Or something like that. Here's
the scoop direct from Richard, but basically the deal is that Soft Skull is being acquired by Winton Shoemaker, which is also acquiring Counterpoint Press. Soft Skull and Counterpoint will be restructured as imprints of the larger organization, and Richard will be overseeing both.
In a way, I will always be a Soft Skuller. I never did quite get out the door until this past April, when my last project was finally completed. I found it hard to leave because, of all my experiences working in publishing, from large press to teeny, whether as a publicist, editor, book designer, reading series curator, freelancer, or Associate Publisher, my time at Soft Skull was the best and most fulfilling. Without Richard's innovative strategies and uncanny knack for scrappy miracles, SSP probably would have disappeared completely years ago. He'll continue to do what's best for Soft Skull and Soft Skull's authors, without a doubt. (Best of luck, darlin!) Shifts in focus related to the press's growth, my own theories about what works and doesn't for poetry publishing, and everything we learned along the way lead to my decision to found
Bloof Books to continue the kind of poetry publishing I did there, something I wouldn't have been ready to do without Soft Skull and Richard's encouragement. So it's all gonna work out fine.
As Richard notes, Soft Skull is *not* over. And they deserve and can really use your support now! He's offering 40% off EVERYTHING now at the
Soft Skull store. So I'll take this opportunity to suggest you pick up some of the
poetry, if you haven't. For instance,
there are only 9 copies of Jennifer L. Knox's A Gringo Like Me left in stock. After those are sold, Bloof will be rereleasing the book in a new edition (yay!) to match her forthcoming Drunk by Noon (yay!). (The other Soft Skull poetry titles will continue to be sold and distributed as before, no worries.)
Labels: bloof
