No Tells

#TheThePoetics talk with small press publishers & editors

2012-01-22T20:01:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, January 24 at 8pm

Hosted by Metta Sáma

Join us when we chat with Reb Livingston (No Tell Books), Matt Bell (Dzanc Books), Heather Buchanan (Aquarius Press), & Katherine Sullivan (YesYes Books & Vinyl Poetry). If you're a small press editor or/and publisher, of a literary journal, series, and/or press, please do add your thoughts and visions!~

To join the conversation, simply type in #thethepoetics as part of your comments! Looking forward to being with you all in this 2012 season~

Low Residency MFA at UCR Palm Springs

2012-01-08T00:52:00.004-05:00

Study poetry with Jill Alexander Essbaum and Matthew Zapruder.

Spend your residencies at a resort in Palm Springs.

Pretty awesome.

Deadline: February 1

More information

Split This Rock Poetry Festival

2012-01-06T09:15:00.001-05:00

March 22-25, 2012
Washington, DC

Poetry by and for the 99%!

Featured Poets, 2012

Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness invites poets, writers, activists, and dreamers to Washington, DC for four days of poetry, community building, and creative transformation. The festival features readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, parties, activism—opportunities to speak out for justice, build connection and community, and celebrate the many ways poetry can act as an agent for social change.

As people’s movements ignite here at home and throughout the world in response to economic inequality, political repression, and environmental degradation, the festival will consider the relationship of poets and poetry to power and to the challenges to power. We will also celebrate the life and work of poet-essayist-teacher-activist June Jordan on the 10th anniversary of her death.

Split This Rock calls poets to a greater role in public life and fosters a national network of socially engaged poets. Building the audience for poetry of provocation & witness from our home in the nation’s capital, we celebrate poetic diversity and the transformative power of the imagination. Please join us in March!

Bestest Poetry Books of 2011

2011-12-30T07:00:00.030-05:00

This year over 400 No Tell Motel, Bedside Guide contributors and other poets were invited to contribute their selections for "best poetry books of 2011" (however they chose to define such a pronouncement). Of those invited, 36 responded with lists.

Titles included on multiple lists:

(6 lists) Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

(5 lists) Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

(4 lists) Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)

(4 lists) The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus Books)

(4 lists) California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

(4 lists) All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

(4 lists) Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat)

(4 lists) The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

(3 lists) Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

(3 lists) Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus Books)

(3 lists) The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)

(3 lists) Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)

(3 lists) Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

(3 lists) This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)

(3 lists) Studying Hunger Journals by Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill)

(3 lists) You and Three Others are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)

(3 lists) MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

(3 lists) Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

(3 lists) Address by Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University Press)

(2 lists) Money Shot by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan)

(2 lists) People are Tiny in Paintings of China by Cynthia Arrieu-King (Octopus Books)

(2 lists) Scared Text by Eric Baus (Center for Literary Publishing)

(2 lists) Utopia Minus by Susan Briante (Ahsahta Press)

(2 lists) Words Facing East by Kimberly L. Becker (WordTech Editions)

(2 lists) The Kings of the F**king Sea by Dan Boehl (Birds, LLC)

(2 lists) not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them by Jenny Boully (Tarpaulin Sky)

(2 lists) Rust or Go Missing by Lily Brown (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

(2 lists) Roseate, Points of Gold by Laynie Browne (Dusie Press)

(2 lists) Laked, Fielded, Blanked by Brooklyn Copeland (alice blue books)

(2 lists) Click and Clone by Elaine Equi (Coffee House)

(2 lists) The Many Woods of Grief by Lucas Farrell (University of Massachussetts Press)

(2 lists) FABRIC: Preludes to the Last American Book by Richard Froude (Horse Less Press)

(2 lists) Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham (No Tell Books)

(2 lists) Called by Kate Greenstreet (Delete Press)

(2 lists) Little Winter Theater by Nancy Kuhl (Ugly Duckling Presse)

(2 lists) The Wide Road by Carla Harryman and Lyn Hejinian (Belladonna*)

(2 lists) Wolf Face by Matt Hart (H_NGM_N BKS)

(2 lists) Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday (Fence Books)

(2 lists) A Beautiful Name for a Girl by Kirsten Kaschock (Ahsahta)

(2 lists) No Eden by Sally Rosen Kindred (Mayapple Press)

(2 lists) Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me by Mark Leidner (Factory Hollow)

(2 lists) Discipline by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat)

(2 lists) White-Collar Worker: I Am A Destiny by Dan Magers (H_NGM_N)

(2 lists) Becoming Weather by Chris Martin (Coffee House Press)

(2 lists) Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen (Noemi Press)

(2 lists) Drizzle Pocket by Tim Roberts (BlazeVOX)

(2 lists) How Phenomena Appear to Unfold by Leslie Scalapino (Litmus Press)

(2 lists) How We Saved the City by Kate Schapira (Stockport Flats)

(2 lists) O Bon by Brandon Shimoda (Litmus Press)

(2 lists) the new black by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan)

(2 lists) Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr (Black Sparrow)

(2 lists) Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson (Ugly Duckling Presse)

(2 lists) I Am a Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina (Mud Luscious Press)

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Reb Livingston

2011-12-29T07:02:00.004-05:00

Reb Livingston's selections:

not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them by Jenny Boully (Tarpaulin Sky)

Sinead O'Connor and her Coat of a Thousand Bluebirds by Neil de la Flor & Maureen Seaton (Firewheel Editions)

The Weary World Rejoices by Steve Fellner (Marsh Hawk Press)

Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

WHO ARE THE TRIBES by Terrance Hayes (Pilot Books)

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

A Beautiful Name for a Girl by Kirsten Kaschock (Ahsahta)

This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)

Mule by Shane McCrae (Cleveland State University Press)

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson (Ugly Duckling Presse)

* * *

Reb Livingston is the author of God Damsel (No Tell Books, 2010) and Your Ten Favorite Words (Coconut Books, 2007).

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Daniela Olszewska

2011-12-29T07:01:00.003-05:00

Daniela Olszewska's selections:

The Wide Road by Carla Harryman and Lyn Hejinian (Belladonna*)

Thirteen Designer Vaginas by Juliet Cook (Hyacinth Girl Press)

Man Years by Sandra Doller

Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday (Fence Books)

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat)

I Want To Make You Safe by Amy King (Litmus)

Re- by Kristi Maxwell (Ahsahta)

Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen (Noemi Press)

Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

* * *

Daniela Olszewska is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Citizen J (Artifice Books, forthcoming) and cloudfang : : cakedirt (Horse Less Press, forthcoming). She sits on Switchback Books' Board of Directors and serves as Associate Poetry Editor of H_NGM_N. Daniela is pursuing her MFA at the University of Alabama, where she teaches creative writing in conjunction with The Alabama Prison Arts & Education Project.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Timothy Bradford

2011-12-29T07:00:00.003-05:00

Timothy Bradford's selections:

Money Shot by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan)

Utopia Minus by Susan Briante (Ahsahta Press)

Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham (No Tell Books)

Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

the new black by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan)

Birds of Tifft by Jonathan Skinner (BlazeVOX [books])

SABORAMI by Cecilia Vicuña (ChainLinks)

* * *

Timothy Bradford’s Nomads with Samsonite was published by BlazeVOX [books] in 2011. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Tulsa and lives with his wife, two sons, and an ever-changing menagerie just outside of Oklahoma City.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Michael Meyerhofer

2011-12-28T07:01:00.002-05:00

Michael Meyerhofer's selections:

About the Dead by Travis Mossotti (Utah State University Press)

Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! by Peter Davis (Bloof Books)

The Book of Men by Dorianne Laux (Norton)

Brushstrokes and Glances by Djelloul Marbrook (Deerbrook Editions)

Illinois, My Apologies by Justin Hamm (Rocksaw Press)

Poems for an Empty Church by Tom Holmes (Palettes and Quills)

Winter’s Journey by Stephen Dobyns (Copper Canyon)

Imaginary Logic by Rodney Jones (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Saint Monica by Mary Biddinger (Black Lawrence Press)

American Busboy by Matthew Guenette (U. of Akron Press)

* * *

Michael Meyerhofer’s third book, Damnatio Memoriae, won the Brick Road Poetry Book Contest. His previous books are Blue Collar Eulogies (Steel Toe Books) and Leaving Iowa (winner of the Liam Rector First Book Award). He has also won the James Wright Poetry Award, the Laureate Prize, the Annie Finch Prize for Poetry, the Marjorie J. Wilson Best Poem Contest, and five chapbook prizes. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, North American Review, Arts & Letters, River Styx, Quick Fiction and other journals, and can be read online at www.troublewithhammers.com. He is the Poetry Editor of Atticus Review.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Deborah Poe

2011-12-28T07:00:00.002-05:00

Deborah Poe's selections:

O Bon by Brandon Shimoda (Litmus Press)

Territories of Folding by TC Tolbert (Kore Press)

People Are Tiny In Paintings of China by Cynthia Arrieu-King (Octopus Books)

More Radiant Signal by Juliana Leslie (Letter Machine Press)

How We Saved the City by Kate Schapira (Stockport Flats)

Studying Hunger Journals by Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill Press)

Little Winter Theater by Nancy Kuhl (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Roseate, Points of Gold by Laynie Browne (Dusie Press)

poem for the house by Katie Yates (Stockport Flats)

Flood Letters by Karin Gottshall (Argos Books)

* * *

Deborah Poe is the author of the poetry collections Elements (Stockport Flats Press 2010), Our Parenthetical Ontology (CustomWords 2008), and “the last will be stone, too” as well as a hybrid novella, "Hélène." Her writing is forthcoming or has recently appeared in journals such as Shampoo, Mantis, Horse Less Review, Open Letters Monthly, Peep/Show, and Denver Quarterly.

Deborah is assistant professor of English at Pace University, guest curator for Trickhouse, and curator of the annual Handmade/Homemade exhibit at Pace University Westchester’s Mortola Library. For more information, please visit www.deborahpoe.com.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Evie Shockley

2011-12-27T07:01:00.001-05:00

Evie Shockley's selections:

Best, schmest. : ) Here are 10 (actually, 11 -- but I'm hoping Reb will let me get away with it) terrific books from 2011 that I would want someone to tell me about, if I didn't already know about them. Not included: other terrific books that: (1) I think you've surely (surely!) heard about already, (2) I didn't get to read even part of yet, and so feel sadly unable to recommend personally at this point, (3) I don't know about myself, but will be searching for on the other lists Reb's publishing this month, or (4) I finally just couldn't fit into a list of 10 (well, 11) without turning it into a list of 20. Okay, here goes, in alpha order:

Called by Kate Greenstreet (Delete Press)

Kingdom Animalia by Aracelis Girmay (BOA Editions)

Vocabulary of Silence by Veronica Golos (Red Hen)

Things Come On {an amneoir} by Joseph Harrington (Wesleyan)

Neighborhood Register by Marcus Jackson (Cavan Kerry)

A Beautiful Name for a Girl by Kirsten Kaschock (Ahsahta)

Nod House by Nathaniel Mackey (New Directions) --

Slot by Jill Magi (Ugly Duckling)

Discipline by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat Books)

Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen (Noemi Press)

Howell by Tyrone Williams (Atelos)

Have a Happy Poetry Reading Interlude, and a Joyous New Year!

* * *

Evie Shockley is the author of two books of poetry -- the new black (Wesleyan, 2011) and a half-red sea (Carolina Wren Press, 2006) -- and a book of criticism, Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry. She teaches African American literature and creative writing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Bernadette Geyer

2011-12-27T07:00:00.002-05:00

Bernadette Geyer's selections:

Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson (Ugly Duckling Presse)

No Eden by Sally Rosen Kindred, (Mayapple Press)

After the Ark by Luke Johnson (NYQ Books)

The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception by Martha Silano (Saturnalia Books)

Sightseer by Cynthia Marie Hoffman (Persea Books)

* * *

Bernadette Geyer is the author of the poetry chapbook, What Remains (Argonne House Press), and recipient of a 2010 Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County. Her poems have appeared in No Tell Motel, Oxford American, North American Review, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Geyer works as a freelance writer and copy editor in the Washington, DC, area, and serves as an instructor at The Writer's Center. Her web site is http://bernadettegeyer.homestead.com

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Bruce Covey

2011-12-26T07:00:00.001-05:00

Bruce Covey's selections:

Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them by Jenny Boully (Tarpaulin Sky)

The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus Books)

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

Click and Clone by Elaine Equi (Coffee House)

Herso by Susana Gardner (Black Radish Books)

Of Lamb by Matthea Harvey, Paintings by Amy Jean Porter (McSweeneys)

MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

How Long by Ron Padgett (Coffee House)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr (Black Sparrow)

Dear Prudence — New and Selected Poems by David Trinidad (Turtle Point Press)

* * *

Bruce Covey's fifth book of poetry, Reveal, will be published by Bitter Cherry Books at the beginning of 2012; his next-most-recent titles are Glass Is Really a Liquid (No Tell Books, 2010) and Elapsing Speedway Organism (No Tell Books, 2006). He lives in Atlanta, GA, where he edits Coconut Poetry and curates the What's New in Poetry Reading Series.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 Lists will Resume on December 26th

2011-12-24T01:09:00.001-05:00

We still have more lists to go -- we're posting new ones all the way until the end of the year.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Joseph Massey

2011-12-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Joseph Massey's selections:

Money Shot by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan)

Rust or Go Missing by Lily Brown (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

Uncertain Time by Richard Caddel (Pressed Wafer)

MOTES by Craig Dworkin (Roof Books)

Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)

The Nineteenth Century and Other Poems by Chris Glomski (The Cultural Society)

SEWN by Nathan Hauke (Horseless Press)

Deseret by Kirsten Jorgenson (Horseless Press)

Book of the Given by Rusty Morrison (Noemi Press)

How's the Cows by Jess Mynes (Cannot Exist)

Metropole by Geoffrey G. O'Brien (University of California Press)

The Larger Nature by Pam Rehm (Flood Editions)

Wharf Hypothesis by Ron Silliman (Lines)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

The Method by Rob Stanton (Penned in the Margins)

The Cost of Walking by Shannon Tharp (Skysill Press)

Anew: Complete Shorter Poetry by Louis Zukofsky (New Directions)

* * *

Joseph Massey is the author of Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009) and At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), as well as eleven chapbooks: Minima St. (Range, 2002), Eureka Slough (Effing Press, 2005), Bramble (Hot Whiskey, 2005), Property Line (Fewer & Further Press, 2006), November Graph (Longhouse, 2007), Within Hours (The Fault Line Press, 2008), Out of Light (Kitchen Press, 2008), The Lack Of (Nasturtium Press, 2009), Exit North (Book Thug, 2010), Mock Orange (Longhouse, 2010) and Another Rehearsal for Morning (Longhouse, 2011). He lives in Arcata, California.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Brandon Shimoda

2011-12-22T07:00:00.001-05:00

Brandon Shimoda's selections:

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

Collected Poems, 1944-1949 by Nelly Sachs, translated from the German by Michael Hamburger, Ruth and Matthew Mead, and Michael Roloff, introduction by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Green Integer Books)

The Eternal Wall by Dot Devota (Cannibal Books)

The Hole by Thom Donovan (Displaced Press)

How Phenomena Appear to Unfold by Leslie Scalapino (Litmus Press)

Into the Snow by Gennady Aygi, translated from the Chuvash and Russian by Sarah Valentine. (Wave Books)

The Many Woods of Grief by Lucas Farrell (University of Massachussetts Press)

Notes on Sea & Shore by Greta Wrolstad (Tavern Books)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

Spring and All by William Carlos Williams, introduction by C.D. Wright (New Directions)

Studying Hunger Journals and The Formal Field of Kissing by Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill and Monk Books, respectively). The Formal Field of Kissing including an introduction by Dorothea Lasky.

Tamura Ryuichi: On the Life & Work of a 20th Century Master Edited by Takako Lento and Wayne Miller (Pleiades Press)

Tantra Song: Tantric Paintings from Rajasthan Selected and with writings by Franck André Jamme, translated from the French by Michael Tweed. Introduction by Lawrence Rinder, interview by Bill Berkson, essay by André Padoux (Siglio Press)

A Wiser, More Beautiful Death by Miklós Radnóti, translated from the Hungarian by Solomon Rino (Editions Michel Eyquem)

* * *

Brandon Shimoda's most recent publications include O Bon (Litmus Press) and the limited edition The Pines: Bubble, with Phil Cordelli & friends.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Alice Fogel

2011-12-21T07:01:00.001-05:00

Alice Fogel's selections:

lie down too by Lesle Lewis (Alice James Books)

Strata by Ewa Chrusciel (Emergency Press)

Flies by Michael Dickman (Copper Canyon)

* * *

Alice Fogel's third book of poems, Be That Empty, was a national poetry bestseller in 2008, and in 2009 Strange Terrain (a guide for nonpoet readers and teachers, as well as for poets) came out. A recipient of a fellowship from the NEA and five-time Pushcart nominee, her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, former Poet Laureate Robert Hass’s Poet’s Choice, TriQuarterly, Third Coast, Crazyhorse, Hotel Amerika, and No Tell Motel. A freelance proof reader and copy editor, she teaches writing for all ages and levels, and is a passionate hiker and backpacker. She is also an award-winning designer and creator of custom clothing, particularly from “upcycled” materials (www.lyriccouture.com). Alice will be the 2012 Writer in Residence at the Carl Sandburg homestead in Flat Rock, NC.

Holiday Buying Guide - Alice Fogel

2011-12-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

Alice Fogel's suggestions:

Spillway #17 editor Susan Terris (Tebot Bach Press) is loosely on the theme of "Crossing Borders." This magazine shows the hand and eye of its editor (as opposed to journals that are arranged merely alphabetically, and whose poems could interchange their authors without anyone noticing) with a truly varied range of works that have depth and gravitas, and are genuinely interesting in craft and thought. Without being on some kind of poetic acid trip, these poems still wake you up to that elusive experience of being touched by something beyond the wall.

Inaudible Trumpeters by Elizabeth Robinson (Harbor Mountain Press, 2008). In this lovely book of poems, with her matching initials and last name, Elizabeth Robinson takes the titles and end words from works of the famous E. A. Robinson (1869-1935) and fills in her own original lines to make new, moving poems. They are totally worth it whether you find this structural relationship cool or not.

Cold Pluto by Mary Ruefle (Carnegie-Mellon, 1996). Pretty much all of Mary Ruefle's books are interesting, but this one just won't let go. Figures that it is not available, but you can get her new Selected from Wave Books.

Paradise Lost by John Milton (Penguin Classics). Even though this is basically 17th century soap opera, it is mind-blowing how accurately Milton gets men and women, sex and marriage, desire and fear. Lots of fun to read aloud at parties.

* * *

Alice Fogel's third book of poems, Be That Empty, was a national poetry bestseller in 2008, and in 2009 Strange Terrain (a guide for nonpoet readers and teachers, as well as for poets) came out. A recipient of a fellowship from the NEA and five-time Pushcart nominee, her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, former Poet Laureate Robert Hass’s Poet’s Choice, TriQuarterly, Third Coast, Crazyhorse, Hotel Amerika, and No Tell Motel. A freelance proof reader and copy editor, she teaches writing for all ages and levels, and is a passionate hiker and backpacker. She is also an award-winning designer and creator of custom clothing, particularly from “upcycled” materials (www.lyriccouture.com). Alice will be the 2012 Writer in Residence at the Carl Sandburg homestead in Flat Rock, NC.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Nathan Logan

2011-12-20T07:00:00.001-05:00

Nathan Logan's selections:

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)

Laked, Fielded, Blanked by Brooklyn Copeland (alice blue books)

Arousing Notoriety / Your Trouble is Ballooning by A. Minetta Gould / Amber Nelson (Publishing Genius)

Wolf Face by Matt Hart (H_NGM_N BKS)

How Like Foreign Objects by Alexis Orgera (H_ngm_n Books)

* * *

Nathan Logan is the author of three chapbooks, the most recent being Arby's Combo Roundup (Mondo Bummer, 2010). He manages Spooky Girlfriend Press and is a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Leigh Stein

2011-12-19T07:00:00.001-05:00

Leigh Stein's selections:

Smiles of the Unstoppable by Jason Bredle (Magic Helicopter Press)
"Sometimes I imagine everyone I know discussing the last time they saw me/before I disappeared." Bredle's poems are like if an anxiety attack and a Grimm fairy tale got together and had a love child inside a supermarket.

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)
"I collect books found in celebrities' bathrooms; so far my life sucks." Birds LLC publishes just the right amount of books by just the right people in just the right way. This collection contains poems for people who like looking at pictures, and pictures for people who like reading poems.

sorry it's so small by Lauren Ireland, illustrated by Krysten Brown (Factory Hollow Press)
"I fucked you right through the dream catcher." The most beautiful chapbook of the year. If you have ever felt sad or brave or wished you were anywhere but here, buy this.

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)
"I don't feel like I'm crazy, / I just feel like someone who wants to go to California." In 2009, Thermos published the title poem to this collection (http://www.thermosmag.com/poetry/denrow.html) and it changed my life forever. I reviewed the collection for NOO Journal here.

* * *

Leigh Stein is the author of four chapbooks of poetry, including The Future Comes to Those who Wait (Grey Book Press, 2011). Her first novel, The Fallback Plan, and full-length poetry collection, Dispatch from the Future, are both forthcoming from Melville House in 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Noah Eli Gordon

2011-12-18T07:00:00.002-05:00

Noah Eli Gordon's selections:

Threshold Songs by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan)
I think this is Peter’s most intimate work to date.
Poems on the threshold of love, loss, and looking.

You and Three Others are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)
Ethics in action.
Experiments in thought.

I Am a Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina (Mud Luscious Press)
Mathias has a masterful imagination.
Calvino meets Bill Gates.

Discipline by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat)
Stunning prose.
Stellar poems.

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)
Um, this is my wife’s book.
I bet she’d be mad if I didn’t mention it.

lucky coat anywhere by Michael Burkard (Nightboat)
What Do I Know

I was going to read your new book tonight going to start
on the balcony where I go to smoke standing next
to a square of light let out by the little window there
which gives enough to see if all the apartment lights are on
since I still haven’t changed the bulb above the porch a waste
I know I was going to read but the snow was too strong
it blew right into the first few pages so I closed the book
and smoked with my back to the wind which felt
deliberate and defiant at the same time I mean the act
not the weather although I know either way works really
ten years ago I wrote “gushing self-pity” next to a poem
in one of your books I’m sorry ten years ago I thought I knew
everything about what poems should do now I know I know
very little and that it’s better this way standing here in the dark

One Sleeps the Other Doesn’t by Jacqueline Waters (UDP)
What an ear.
What an eye.

Scared Text by Eric Baus (Center for Literary Publishing)
Baus is getting weirder & weirder.
Part human, half sound rain.

To Be Human Is to Be a Conversation by Andrea Rexilius (Rescue)
Genre-bending, investigative work.
.The double : elbuod ehT.

Drizzle Pocket by Tim Roberts (Blazevox)
Writing the body is already old hat.
Welcome to being the writing.

FABRIC: Preludes to the Last American Book by Richard Froude (Horse Less)
A foreigner writes America.
The future of poetry in prose.

* * *

Noah Eli Gordon is the author of several books, including The Source (Futurepoem, 2011) and Novel Pictorial Noise (Harper Perennial, 2007). Gordon is the co-publisher of Letter Machine Editions, and teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing at The University of Colorado–Boulder. His recent work can be found in the following anthologies: Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, 2nd Edition (W.W. Norton, forthcoming), A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line (University of Iowa Press, 2011), Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing (Northwestern University Press, 2011), and Poets on Teaching (University of Iowa Press, 2010).

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Cindy St. John

2011-12-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

Cindy St. John's selections:

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)
for your future self, “grown very tall and large, and may not fit into the métro.”

Headlamp limited edition broadsides: Hoa Nguyen/Ronaldo Wilson or Mary Ruefle/Abi Daniel
for you and “your your your” and yours.

Matchbook Volume 3
for the gardener who "hides the picture/ of the naked/ blonde with saucer/ nipple tits hanging."

Becoming Weather by Chris Martin (Coffee House Press)
for those who “still want to be as real as a hamburger.”

July Oration by Dale Smith (Fact Simile)
for “Abraham Lincoln in a stovepipe hat” and anyone who is “hungry.”

Bumpers by Kyle Schlesinger (Cuneiform Press)
for someone who has "killed an afternoon in Mamaroneck just to watch it die."

Oz by Nancy Eimers (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
for those who “feel other sentences yielding to seismic vibrations that could mean the underground presence of nothing or something.”

Stanzas in Meditation by Gertrude Stein, edited by Susannah Hollister and Emily Setina
for a friend who "likes it that there is no chance to misunderstand pansies." (Yale University Press)

I Am a Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina (Mud Luscious Press)
"for the most delicate of osteoporotic pianists.”

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)
for those who "embrace the solid and particular with a mind of glass and broken bricks."

Sand Theory by Bill Olsen (Northwestern University Press)
for “the neighbor across the street who picks up every twig on her sidewalk / because secretly she wishes to put a tree back together."

The Market is a Parasite That Looks Like a Nest by Susan Briante (Dancing Girl Press)
for you, if you live on “a street named for revolution.”

* * *

Cindy St. John is the author of three chapbooks: Be the Heat (forthcoming from Slash Pine Press), City Poems (Effing Press) and People Who Are in Love Will Read This Book Differently (Dancing Girl Press). She lives in Austin, TX, where she prints Headlamp, letterpress postcards of poetry and art.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Lily Ladewig

2011-12-16T07:00:00.002-05:00

Lily Ladewig's selections:

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

The Enthusiast by Noah Gershman (Snail Press)

Beauty Was the Case That They Gave Me by Mark Leidner (Factory Hollow Press)

If I Falter at the Gallows by Edward Mullany (Publishing Genius)

Goat in the Snow by Emily Pettit (Birds LLC)

Mercury by Ariana Reines (Fence)

Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

Finally, issues #3 & #4 of SUPERMACHINE magazine, which closed it's beautiful doors this year:

* * *

Lily Ladewig’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Conduit, Denver Quarterly, H_NGM_N, Salt Hill, Sixth Finch, and Spinning Jenny. She is the author of the chapbooks You Are My Favorite Person of the Year (Mondo Bummer Press, 2010) and, with Anne Cecelia Holmes, I Am A Natural Wonder (Blue Hour Press, 2011). Her first full-length book, The Silhouettes, will be published by SpringGun Press in 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - John Findura

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

John Findura's selections:

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

Testify by Joseph Lease (Coffee House)

Click and Clone by Elaine Equi (Coffee House)

Destroyer and Preserver by Matthew Rohrer (Wave Books)

Birds of Tokyo by Nicole Steinberg (Dancing Girl Press)

Lessness by Brian Henry (Ahsahta)

Rust or Go Missing by Lily Brown (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)

* * *

John Findura holds an MFA from The New School and is currently working on a degree and licensure in psychotherapy. A Pushcart Prize nominee and a guest blogger for The Best American Poetry, his poetry and criticism appear in journals such as Verse, Fugue, Fourteen Hills, Copper Nickel, No Tell Motel, H_NGM_N, Jacket, and Rain Taxi, among others. Born in Paterson, he lives in Northern New Jersey with his wife and daughter.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Scott Abels

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Scott Abels' selections:

Homage to Homage to Homage to Creeley by Joshua Ware (2010 Furniture Press Poetry Prize)

The Louisiana Purchase by Jim Goar (Rose Metal Press)

Micrograms by Jorge Carrera Andrade, translated by Alejandro de Acosta and Joshua Beckman (Wave Books)

Mined Muzzle Velocity by Jennifer Fortin (Lowbrow Press)

* * *

Scott Abels currently lives and teaches in Honolulu, where he edits the online journal of poetry Country Music. His poems can be found in Sink Review, H_NGM_N, DIAGRAM, Best New Poets, Word for/ Word, Juked, Sixth Finch, RealPoetik, LEVELER, and others. His first book, Rambo Goes to Idaho, is available with BlazeVOX [books].

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Tiffany Midge

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Tiffany Midge's selections:

Words Facing East by Kimberly L. Becker (Of Cherokee/Celtic/Teutonic descent) (WordTech)
In Words Facing East, Kimberly Becker aligns us with rose lines, ley lines leading language reclamation along the riverway serpent she locks onto with the subtle force of finding her natural family course after lifetimes away." -- Allison Hedge Coke

Night Cradle by Sy Hoahwah (Yappituka Comanche and Southern Arapaho) (USPOCO BOOKS)

Killing the Murnion Dogs by Joe Wilkins (Black Lawrence Press)
"In Killing the Murnion Dogs, the old lonelinesses, bodied forth by whisky in jam jars and rotting porches, highways, wolves, the dream of escape, are reinhabited and updated by Joe Wilkins' own urgent interrogations." -- Lia Purpura

What the Alder Told Me by Anita K. Boyle (Moonpath Press).
"Anita K. Boyle is a poet daring to the rigors of describing the indescribable. Articulate, lush and with a precision of a raindrop falling from eaves of a barn that lists to its side, Boyle's work attends to a still life portrait of perpetual astonishment." -- Tiffany Midge

Our Blood Remembers by Lois Red Elk (Descended from the Isanti, Hunkpapa, and Ihanktowan bands of the Dakota/Lakota Sioux Nation) (Many Voices Press)
"The poems in The Blood Remembers by Lois Red Elk make a circle from the old days and old ways to the present where ghosts of the past walk with the living." -- Adrian C. Louis

A Large Dent in the Moon by Monty Campbell (Cayuga Tribe of the Six Nations) (FootHills Publishing)

Anthology: Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas edited by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (University of Arizona Press)
"What a diverse feast of poetry! Indigenous poets from Puru, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Canada--as well as the United States--serve up delicious unforgettable poems. A good number of the poems are composed in indigenous languages, which make this collection especially valuable." -- Leslie Marmon Silko

Journal: South Dakota Review: Vol 49 Issue 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2011 edited by Lee Anne Roripaugh (University of South Dakota)

* * *

Tiffany Midge is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She is the recipient of the Diane Decorah Poetry Award from The Native Writers Circle of the Americas for her collection, Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-Up Halfbreed published by Greenfield Review Press. The chapbook, Guiding the Stars to Their Campfire, Driving the Salmon to Their Beds, was published in 2005 by Gazoobi Tales. She lives in Moscow, Idaho, is a graduate from University of Idaho's MFA writing program and teaches part time for Northwest Indian College.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Elizabeth Savage

2011-12-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth Savage's selections:

Address by Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University Press)
A loving confrontation of the memes, music, and memory shaping the state of our nation. For every member of Congress.

Beauty is a Verb editors Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, & Michael Northern (Cinco Puntos Press)
Essays and poetry encountering the frustrations and fertility of the compromised body. For everyone you know with a body.

No Eden by Sally Rosen Kindred (Mayapple Press)
A wrenching, gorgeous collection that corrects (again) the notion that narrative poetry=easy poetry. For those trying to convert childhood into a useable past.

Weaving a New Eden by Sherry Chandler (Wind Publications)
A smart, compassionate capture of disarticulated voices. For loved ones who read Susan Howe with dirt under their nails.

When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina by Cynthia Hogue, Interview-poems & Rebecca Ross, Photographs (UNO Press)
A model of respectful intimacy that restores humans erased by the weight of event. For friends who have been extra-good or need to learn how to be.

Three Novels by Elizabeth Robinson (Omnidawn)
A book of grieving and reading. For the bereft for whom magical thinking doesn’t cut it.

The Woman without Experiences by Patricia Dienstfrey (Kelsey Street Press)
A book too long under-read. For anyone tired of narrow visions of self and sexuality.

The Human Abstract by Elizabeth Willis (Penguin USA/National Poetry Series)
After Address, you’ll want to read more Willis, and you most certainly should. For the very deserving, lovers of Blake, saints in the making.

* * *

Elizabeth Savage is author of Jane & Paige or Sister Goose (2011, Furniture Press) and poetry editor for Kestrel: A Journal of Literature & Art. Her poetry appears (or will soon appear) in Appalachian Heritage, Court Green, No Tell Motel, Prime Number, the New Sound, and Wallace Stevens Journal. Find her essays about other people's poetry in Journal of Modern Literature, Tulsa Studies, and Contemporary Women's Writing.

Holiday Buying Guide - Lucy Biederman

2011-12-11T07:01:00.000-05:00

Lucy Biederman's suggestions:

For the daughter on your list: Granted by Mary Szybist (Alice James Books)
This book ROCKS. E.g., "When I Was a Spoon In My Mother's Kitchen": "I can think so clearly, / it's like dreaming."

For anyone reading this who doesn't already have it: The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel (No Tell Books)
A poem in it by Noah Eli Gordon has THIS in it: "The perfect companion's a photograph of sand // Unexpanding, elegant universe / something something something the end" and a poem by Reb has THIS: "Love in a hand basket. / Hell in my heart," and the last poem in the book is absolutely amazing.

For the human on your list: It's Not You, It's Me: The Poetry of Breakup ed. Jerry Williams (Overlook)
The worst thing about this book is being seen with a book called "It's Not You, It's Me: The Poetry of Breakup," but I am seen with it ALL THE TIME because it includes so many excellent poems by contemporary poets I love (like J. Allyn Rosser, Amy Gerstler, Kevin Prufer).

For your post-avant-garde associates: American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics ed. by Claudia Rankine & Lisa Sewell (Wesleyan University Press)
I believe that everything is a construction except deals, and this book comes with a bonus CD. It also feature analytical essays and beautiful poems by writers like Susan Wheeler, Stacy Doris, and Myung Mi Kim.

For the 900 people you know who say, I just don't understand poetry: The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland (Norton)
I love this book, because Strand and Boland do a really thorough but un-condescending job of explaining the various poetic forms, and their examples of the forms are wide-ranging and awesome, like for the "Open Forms" section, Sharon Olds's poem "The Language of the Brag": "I have done with you wanted to do, Walt Whitman, / Allen Ginsberg"

For the smarty-pants on your list: One Kind of Everything: Poem and Person in Contemporary America by Dan Chiasson (U of Chicago Press)
Chiasson talks so freshly and intelligently about poets like Frank Bidart and Frank O'Hara that it almost‚ almost, makes me want to write a paper or something.

* * *

Lucy Biederman's life is like an episode of Queen for a Day, but still she buys small-press poetry books from independent sellers. Her chapbook The Other World is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in Spring 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Lucy Biederman

2011-12-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Lucy Biederman's selections:

Say So by Dora Malech (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)
"full blown and come to blows and left / full well enough alone, rose from the playing dead / to heads"

Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus Books)
"This morning you said / my hair is always / perfect. Meaning, / you have loved someone / other than me."

The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)
"In the sun / pants riding / my hips I was / so beautiful // Why did you leave / me open / like that?"

Light-Headed by Matt Hart (BlazeVOX)
"Amazing how it happens, the ever forever / I don't intend to get all minimal on your ass, but / the fact that I'm running meant I'm running out of gas"

The Bigger World by Noelle Kocot (Wave Books)
"Saskia was afraid to look outside. / So instead she looked into the void, / And there were rose petals."

I Heart Your Fate by Anthony McCann (Wave Books)
"I'm down in my life / With you name in my face"

The City, Our City by Wayne Miller (Milkweed Editions)
"Smoke // rises from the chimneys, / then the air conditioners whirr // against the descended / heat. While all around us, / folks keep lying down / inside their parents' fears--"

Poet by Default by Tristan Corbiere (trans. Noelle Kocot) (Wave Books)
"In the twisted marrow / A tear springs / Within it I see paradise"

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham (No Tell Books)
"But I keep thinking of you like Columb & Williams thought of Wayne C. Booth, writing his voice into the third edition of The Craft of Research years after he died."

Rambo Goes to Idaho by Scott Abels (BlazeVOX)
"I could feel a question, / a good bridge for everyone, / coming on, / I saw it as a smile / incapable of simple declarative sentences, / and the answer was love."

* * *

Lucy Biederman's life is like an episode of Queen for a Day, but still she buys small-press poetry books from independent sellers. Her chapbook The Other World is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in Spring 2012.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Joshua Marie Wilkinson

2011-12-10T07:00:00.004-05:00

Joshua Marie Wilkinson's selections:

Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

Roseate, Points of Gold by Laynie Browne (Dusie Press)

The Odicy by Cyrus Console (Omnidawn)

Woodnote by Christine Deavel (Bear Star Press)

My rice tastes like the lake by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (Apogee Press)

Chrysanthemums, Rowers by Hans Faverey, translated from the Dutch by Francis R. Jones (Leon Works)

The Source by Noah Eli Gordon (Futurepoem)

Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday (Fence Books)

Come and See by Fanny Howe (Graywolf Press)

Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat)

MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

O Bon by Brandon Shimoda (Litmus Press)

Address by Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University Press)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

* * *

Joshua Marie Wilkinson is the author of five books, the editor of two anthologies, and the director of a new film about the band Califone. He lives in Tucson, where he teaches at the University of Arizona.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Steven Karl

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Steven Karl's selections:

The Kings of the F**king Sea by Dan Boehl (Birds, LLC)

Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus Books)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

The Girl Without Arms by Brandon Shimoda (Black Ocean)

Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat Books)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)

The Peace Conference by Thomas Fink (Marsh Hawk Press)

White-Collar Worker: I Am A Destiny by Dan Magers (H_NGM_N)

& finally two late 2011 releases that I am dying to read:
MOUTH: EATS COLOR Sagawa Chika Translations, Anti-Translations, & Originals by Sawako Nakayasu & Chika Sagawa (Rouge Factorial)

Scared Text by Eric Baus (Center for Literary Publishing)

* * *

Steven Karl is the author with Angela Veronica Wong of the forthcoming chapbook, Don't Try This On Your Piano or am i standing here with my hair down (Lame House Press, 2012). His other chapbooks include emissions/ of (H_NGM_N portable chapbooks, 2011), (Ir)Rational Animals (Flying Guillotine Press, 2010) and with Joseph Lappie, State(s) of Flux (Peptic Robot Press, 2009). He has poems in or forthcoming from EOAGH, Forklift, Ohio, and We Are So Happy To Know Something.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Megan Kaminski

2011-12-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

Megan Kaminski's selections:

This is a list of ten wonderful new books of poetry that I loved this past year. I am sure that I am forgetting more than a few great books, though.

Feralscape by Michelle Detorie (Dusie Kollektiv & Hex Presse)

The Wide Road by Carla Harryman & Lyn Hejinian (Belladonna*)

Study in Pavilions and Safe Rooms by Paul Foster Johnson (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs)

(a poem-essay, or precursor: NOTES: for a novel: Ban en Banlieues) by Bhanu Kapil (Belladonna*)

Little Winter Theater by Nancy Kuhl (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Hordes of Writing by Chus Pato, trans. Erín Moure (Shearsman Books)

the new black by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan)

Come Such Frequency by Ash Smith (Dusie Kollektiv)

Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr (Black Sparrow)

Maybe Malibu, Maybe Beowulf by Elizabeth Workman (Dusie Kollektiv)

* * *

Megan Kaminski's first book, Desiring Map, is forthcoming from Coconut Books in 2012. She is also the author of five chapbooks, including most recently Favored Daughter (Dancing Girl Press). Her writing has recently appeared in Everyday Genius, Puerto del Sol, Eleven Eleven, American Letters & Commentary and Post Road. She teaches poetry at the University of Kansas.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Rob MacDonald

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

Rob MacDonald's selections:

The Kings of the F**king Sea by Dan Boehl (Birds, LLC)

Either Way I'm Celebrating by Sommer Browning (Birds, LLC)

The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus)

Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus)

The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey (Cleveland State University)

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen (Black Ocean)

Cursivism by Will Hubbard (Ugly Duckling)

Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me by Mark Leidner (Factory Hollow)

White-Collar Worker: I Am A Destiny by Dan Magers (H_NGM_N)

Polaroid Parade by Paige Taggart (Greying Ghost)

* * *

Rob MacDonald lives in Boston and is the editor of the online journal Sixth Finch. His poems have appeared in Everyday Genius, notnostrums, No Tell Motel and other journals. Last New Death, a chapbook, is available from Scantily Clad Press.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Trina Burke

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Trina Burke's selections:

Rag & Bone by Kathryn Nuernberger (Elixer Press)
The devil is in the details. The dark and science-y details.

Campeche by Joshua Edwards (Noemi Press)
Words and pictures for lovers of Galveston.

Building the Barricade by Anna Swir (Calypso Editions)
A nice introduction to the work of Anna Swir. The book includes the original Polish as well as the English translation.

The Many Woods of Grief by Lucas Farrell (University of Massachussetts Press)
Farrell layers images that will make your head spin in the best possible way.

The Bulk of the Mailable Universe by Jules Gibbs (Dancing Girl Press)
Timely-yet-playful songs for the digital age.

* * *

Trina Burke is the author of Great America (Dancing Girl Press, 2011). Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in NOO Journal, Bone Bouquet, Hunger Mountain, and RHINO.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Gina Myers

2011-12-05T07:00:00.001-05:00

Gina Myers' selections:

Notes from Irrelevance by Anselm Berrigan (Wave Books)

My Common Heart by Anne Boyer (Spooky Girlfriend Press)

Utopia Minus by Susan Briante (Ahsahta Press)

California by Jennifer Denrow (Four Way Books)

Old News by Ryan Eckes (Furniture Press)

S E W N by Nathan Hauke (Horse Less Press)

Wolf Face by Matt Hart (H_NGM_N BKS)

Diary of When Being With Friends is Like Watching TV by Amber Nelson (Slash Pine Press)

Sweet Nothing by Nate Pritts (Lowbrow Press)

The Hermit by Laura Solomon (Ugly Duckling Presse)

* * *

Gina Myers is the author of A Model Year (Coconut Books, 2009) and several chapbooks, including False Spring (forthcoming from Spooky Girlfriend Press, 2012). She lives in Atlanta, GA where she makes books for Lame House Press.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Tamiko Beyer

2011-12-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

Tamiko Beyer's selections:

People are Tiny in Paintings of China by Cynthia Arrieu-King (Octopus Books)

Voyager by Srikanth Reddy (University of California Press)

Lucky Fish by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Tupelo)

called by Kate Greenstreet (Delete Press)

* * *

Tamiko Beyer is the author of bough breaks (Meritage Press, 2011), and her poems have appeared in DIAGRAM, PANK, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. She is a former Kundiman Fellow, a contributing editor to Drunken Boat, and the Advocacy Writer at Corporate Accountability International. Find her online at wonderinghome.com.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Joshua Ware

2011-12-03T07:00:00.002-05:00

Joshua Ware's selections:

Erik Satie Watusies His Way Into Sound by Jeff Alessandrelli (Ravenna Press)
Satie is Alessandrelli, Alessandrelli is Satie: an interesting character-examination of an historical figure and contemporary poet.

Micrograms by Jorge Carrera Andrade (Wave Books)
Small poems coupled with a manifesto about small poems.

Laked, Fielded, Blanked by Brooklyn Copeland (alice blue books)
A fine little chapbook with poems that remind me of Niedecker; I love Niedecker, so this is a good thing.

Correct Animal by Rebecca Farivar (Octopus Books)
I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

Late in the Antenna Fields by Alan Gilbert (Futurepoem)
I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

Neveragainland by MC Hyland (Low Brow Press)
I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

This Isa Nice Neighborhood by Farid Matuk (Letter Machine Editions)
Technically, this book was published in December of 2010, but it's close enough for me; I wrote a review of this book, which can be found here.

* * *

Joshua Ware lives in Lincoln, NE (if only for a few more days) where he reads books of poetry by fantastic poets. His own book of poetry, Homage to Homage to Homage to Creeley (Furniture Press), was released earlier this year.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Anne Gorrick

2011-12-02T07:00:00.001-05:00

Anne Gorrick's selections:

Pushing Water by Charles Alexander (Cuneiform Press)

Parts and Other Pieces by Tom Beckett (Otoliths)

This is the story of Things that Happened by Lynn Behrendt (Dusie)

Aution, Caution by Geof Huth (Redfoxpress)

Radiator by NF Huth (Laughing/Ouch/Cube/Publications)

Glossematics, Thus by Brenda Iijima (Least Weasel Chapbooks)

Uncertainities by Robert Kelly (Station Hill)

As We Are Sung by Christina Mengert (Burning Deck, Anyart)

You and Three Others are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)

How We Saved the City by Kate Schapira (Stockport Flats)

* * *

Anne Gorrick is the author of I-Formation (Book 1) (Shearman Books, Exeter, UK, 2010) and Kyotologic (Shearman, 2008). Her new book I-Formation (Book 2) is due out in 2012.

Collaborating with artist Cynthia Winika, she produced a limited edition artists’ book called “Swans, the ice,” she said with grants through the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

She curates the reading series, Cadmium Text, which focuses on innovative writing in and around the New York’s Hudson Valley ( www.cadmiumtextseries.blogspot.com ) She co-curates, with poet Lynn Behrendt, the electronic poetry journal Peep/Show at www.peepshowpoetry.blogspot.com Her visual work can be seen at: www.theropedanceraccompaniesherself.blogspot.com

Anne Gorrick lives in West Park, New York.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Anji Reyner

2011-12-01T07:00:00.001-05:00

Anji Reyner's selections:

All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi (Action Books)

An Antenna Called the Body by Sarah Mangold (Little Red Leaves textile series)

FABRIC: Preludes to the Last American Book by Richard Froude (Horse Less Press)

Peril as Architectural Enrichment by Hazel White (Kelsey Street Press)

The Urban Lightwing Professionals by Ellen Welcker (H_NGM_N pdf chapbooks)

You and Three Others Are Approaching a Lake by Anna Moschovakis (Coffee House Press)

* * *

Anji Reyner lives in Montana. Her writing appeared in NANO Fiction this year.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - J. A. Tyler

2011-11-30T07:00:00.001-05:00

J.A. Tyler's selections:

If I Falter at the Gallows by Edward Mullany (Publishing Genius Press)

Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate by Johannes Goransson (Tarpaulin Sky Press)

Shot by Christine Hume (Counterpath Press)

I Ain't Asked Any Pardon For Anything I Done by Sasha Fletcher (Greying Ghost)

The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle (Octopus Books)

* * *

J. A. Tyler is the author of four novels, including A Man of Glass & All the Ways We Have Failed from Fugue State Press. His work has appeared with Black Warrior Review, Caketrain, Diagram, New York Tyrant, and others. For more info, visit: www.chokeonthesewords.com.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Jessy Randall

2011-11-29T08:49:00.003-05:00

Jessy Randall's selections:

Excuse Me While I Wring This Long Swim Out of My Hair by Sarah J. Sloat (Dancing Girl Press)
If you like the title poem, you will like this whole book.

Invisible Strings by Jim Moore (Graywolf Press)
Jim Moore gets better and better with every book. His poems are funny and full of love. You will get the sense that he likes you, and you like him.

The Sliding Glass Door by Scott Poole (Colonus Publishing)
For people who think it would be a good idea to read a poem called "Thoughts on Chewbacca." And really, what kind of person wouldn't want to read that?

Thirteen Designer Vaginas by Juliet Cook (Hyacinth Girl Press)
The only chapbook I know with a vajazzled cover.

Dog Ear by Erica Baum (Ugly Duckling Presse)
These poems, or should I say "poems," no I will just say poems, are made by photographing carefully dog-eared pages of printed books. You'll see. It's cool.

* * *

Jessy Randall's newest book is Interruptions: Collaborative Poems, written with Daniel M. Shapiro (Pecan Grove Press, 2011). Find out more at http://personalwebs.coloradocollege.edu/~jrandall/writer.html.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Laynie Browne

2011-11-28T07:00:00.002-05:00

Laynie Browne's selections:

Studying Hunger Journals by Bernadette Mayer (Station Hill)

Culture of One by Alice Notley (Penguin)

How Phenomena Appear to Unfold by Leslie Scalapino (Litmus Press)

In the Time of the Blue Ball by Manuela Draeger, translated by Brian Evenson (Dorothy Publishing Project)

Address by Elizabeth Willis (Wesleyan University Press)

The Ravickians by Renee Gladman (Dorothy Publishing Project)

Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil (Nightboat)

Light, Grass & Letter by Inger Christenson (New Directions)

Drizzle Pocket by Tim Roberts (BlazeVOX)

Both Poems by Anne Tardos (Roof Books)

* * *

Laynie Browne's most recent books include Roseate, Points of Gold (2011, Dusie) and The Desires of Letters (Counterpath, 2011). Soon out is an anthology she co-edited: I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues Press, 2011, co-editors Carolyn Bergvall, Teresa Carmody, & Vanessa Place).

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Gary L. McDowell

2011-11-27T07:00:00.002-05:00

Gary L. McDowell's selections:

Traffic with Macbeth by Larissa Szporluk (Tupelo)

Orphan, Indiana by David Dodd Lee (Akron UP)

Ladies & Gentlemen by Michael Robins (Saturnalia)

Dear Editor by Amy Newman (Persea)

The Black Ocean by Brian Barker (SIU--Crab Orchard Series in Poetry)

Trancelumination by John Bradley (Lowbrow Press)

Darling Endangered by Carol Guess (Brooklyn Arts Press)

Events Film Cannot Withstand by Zach Savich (Rescue Press)

We Almost Disappear by David Bottoms (Copper Canyon)

We Are Starved by Joshua Kyrah (Center for Literary Publishing)

* * *

Gary L. McDowell is the author of American Amen (Dream Horse Press, 2010), winner of the 2009 Orphic Prize for Poetry, and co-editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry (Rose Metal Press, 2010). His poems have appeared in various literary journals, including Colorado Review, The Indiana Review, New England Review, Ninth Letter, and Quarterly West. His poems, stories, and essays are forthcoming in Ancora Imparo, Hobart, PANK, Burnside Review, DIAGRAM, Tusculum Review, Mid-American Review, and others. He lives in Nashville, TN with his wife and their two kids where he is an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Belmont University.

Best Poetry Books of 2011 - Kim Roberts

2011-11-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

Kim Roberts selections:

I selected six poets with strong ties to Washington, DC, who released new books in 2011, and whose books are highly recommended and deserve a wide readership.

Words Facing East by Kimberly L. Becker (WordTech Editions)
Includes a remarkable series of poems about learning Cherokee

A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos by Tim Dlugos, edited by David Trinidad (Nightboat Books)
Includes some never-before-published work, arranged chronologically by the city where he was living when he wrote the poems.

Second-Skin Rhinestone-Spangled Nude Souffle Chiffon Gown by Landon Godfrey (Cider Press)
Poems about fashion that sparkle and surprise--and never stay just on the surface.

Little Boy Blue: A Memoir in Verse by Gray Jacobik (CavanKerry Press)
A heartbreaking series of poems on parenting and self-forgiveness.

Meanwhile by Kathleen O'Toole (WordTech Editions)
Poems of quiet attentiveness that read almost like prayer.

Falling Out of Bed in a Room with No Floor by Terence Winch (Hanging Loose Press)
Poems about friendships and family, in a narrative voice that is witty, playful, and sure.

also:

If it's not too self-serving to say, my own third book of poems, Animal Magnetism, was released this year from Pearl Editions. Of course I'd like to recommend that book too! Includes poems about medical museums and the imaginary husband series.

* * *

Kim Roberts is the author of five books, most recently Animal Magnetism, winner of the Pearl Poetry Prize (Pearl Editions, 2011), and Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC (Plan B Press, 2010). She is a literary historian specializing in authors from Washington, DC. In November she presented a walking tour on Henry Adams at the DC Historical Studies Conference, and unveiled a new and comprehensive website, created with Dan Vera, called DC Writers' Homes. Since January 2000, she has edited the journal Beltway Poetry Quarterly.

No Tell Books Black Weekend SALE

2011-11-25T00:01:00.007-05:00

Select ANY THREE (3) No Tell Book titles for only $25 (plus $4 for shipping). That's a savings of up to 50% off retail (depending on which titles you select).

Offer good from Friday, November 25 to Monday, November 28.

Valid for U.S. mailing addresses only.

Full Catalog List:

Shy Green Fields by Hugh Behm-Steinberg
Glass Is Really a Liquid by Bruce Covey
Elapsing Speedway Organism by Bruce Covey
Harlot by Jill Alexander Essbaum
Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham
Never Cry Woof by Shafer Hall
God Damsel by Reb Livingston
The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel edited by Reb Livingston & Molly Arden
The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel - Second Floor edited by Reb Livingston & Molly Arden
Wanton Textiles by Reb Livingston & Ravi Shankar
Cadaver Dogs by Rebecca Loudon
Navigate, Amelia Earhart's Letters Home by Rebecca Loudon
PERSONATIONSKIN by Karl Parker
The Attention Lesson by PF Potvin
The Myth of the Simple Machines by Laurel Snyder

Books are sexy.

Books make great gifts.

Support independent publishing.

New Titles by No Tell Poets

2011-11-22T21:34:00.002-05:00

I Want to Make You Safe by Amy King (Litmus Press)

The Weary World Rejoices by Steve Fellner (Marsh Hawk Press)

C. by Rob McLennan (LRL textile series)

The Bounty: Four Addresses by Kate Schapira (Noemi Press)

The Louisiana Purchase by Jim Goar (Rose Metal Press)

Gardner Remembers...the Lost Tapes by Corey Mesler (Pocket Full of Scoundrel)

Rambo Goes to Idaho by Scott Abels (BlazeVox Books)

No Tell Motel's Nominations for Sundress' 2011 Best of the Net Anthology

2011-11-03T21:05:00.001-04:00

"Letters" by Timothy Bradford

"East River" by Tamiko Beyer

"Siegfried and Roy" by Alan King

"DRILL, BABY, DRILL (When I Heard the Song of the Angels)" by Nicole Mauro

"Happiness" by Laura Van Prooyen

"Bucky Follows a Cold Trail" by Maureen Thorson

This (Final) Week at No Tell Motel and a Note from Jill Alexander Essbaum

2011-10-17T00:01:00.001-04:00

Jill Alexander Essbaum loses each mother-may-I game this week at No Tell Motel.

* * *

and a note from Jill Alexander Essbaum:

Seven years ago this week, No Tell Motel published my poem “On Reading Poorly Transcribed Erotica.” It was my first online publication.

Seven years.

Smash a mirror and your prize is a seven-year span of woe. Seven years of marriage and things get itchy. A single human year equals seven for a dog. Heinrich Harrer spent seven years in Tibet. The book of Genesis describes seven years of plenty followed by seven years of lack. And every seven years, they say, enough of your cells have been sloughed, shed, scrubbed away that you have become an entirely other person than, seven years prior, you were.

For seven years Reb Livingston (No Tell Motel’s public persona) and Molly Arden (the wild woman behind the scenes) have edited one of the most popular, most respected, and most generous poetry magazines of our time: Five poems, one poet. Every week for the last seven years. Every week. None were missed or overlooked. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor zombies, nor Mayan apocalypses, nor alien abduction. Seven years. Over 2000 poems. Almost 300 authors.

In layman’s terms: a fuckton.

As a tree is judged by its fruit, a journal is made by its poems. And No Tell Motel’s have always been consistently good. Reeeeeeaaaaal good. To wit: Craig Morgan Teicher’s “Ultimately Justice Directs Them” appeared in the 2009 edition of The Best American Poetry. Other No Tell Motel poets have made Dzanc’s Best of the Web and Sundress’ Best of the Net lists—Miriam Bird Greenberg, Clay Matthews, Derek Pollard, Charles Jensen, Jennifer L. Knox, Bruce Covey, Joanna Ruocco. Any of these names ring a bell? They should! They’re fantastic! And while none of my own No Tell poems have earned the above distinctions, I will admit to a singular, swaggering pride: my aforementioned “On Reading Poorly Transcribed Erotica” is No Tell Motel’s most searched for poem.

The first poem No Tell Motel published was Jennifer Michael Hecht’s “Blind Love”. The poem’s opening couplet: Lady says Doc, I think I need glasses. / Teller says, You sure do, this is a bank. No Tell Motel’s final poem is my own, and its ultimate lines read Look, look, look to the lake. / Then leave it. I will suggest a circular—an ouroboric, if you will—correspondence between seeing and looking, between a financial bank and a lake's bank, and between women with male middle names, but I’ll do no more than propose it. Let’s leave the academics to someone else.

From No Tell Motel, No Tell Books was born. To date the press has published 15 books. How many readings have there been? How many AWPs? How many No Tell toothbrushes? How many broken pencils? Broken hearts? Broken ribs? Reb Livingston is the hardest goddamn working woman in poetry. She’s our James Brown.

Seven years. No Tell Motel is older than Reb’s son Gideon and most of my piercings. No Tell Motel was publishing poems before Cyprus and Malta adopted the Euro as their currency. No Tell Motel was launched the same summer that Harold and Kumar went to White Castle. No Tell Motel published its first poem between seasons 3 and 4 of American Idol. It’s a post-Fantasia pre-Underwood establishment.

Seven years of poems. A clear beginning, a fixed end. A discrete period of time. How appropriate. A No Tell poet is, if nothing else, discreet. Slip us a room key, Sailor. We’ll never say a word.

Thank you, Reb and Molly. Thank you. Thank you.
Love,
All of us.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-10-10T00:23:00.002-04:00

Carmen Giménez Smith lands in a bed of cloud this week at No Tell Motel.

Recent Reviews of Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You

2011-10-05T10:17:00.008-04:00

by Lea Graham
Available Now $14.99
Save 15% at Lulu

With a wonderful lyric intensity, Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You reveals our luscious world. Graham has a voice, and it sings.
—Claudia McQuistion reviews Hough & Helix at storySouth

. . . a steady thematic thumping of sex and want, a rhythmic book of push and drive.
—J.A. Tyler reviews Hough & Helix at PANK Magazine

New Titles by No Tell Poets

2011-10-05T09:12:00.003-04:00

the new black by Evie Shockley (Wesleyan University Press)

What's This, Bombardier? by Ryan Flaherty (LSU Press)

marrowing by Maryrose Larkin (Airfoil chaps)

My Common Heart by Anne Boyer (Spooky Girlfriend)

Nomads with Samsonite by Timothy Bradford (BlazeVOX)

Call the Catastrophists by Krystal Languell (BlazeVOX)

Answer by Mark DuCharme (BlazeVOX)

Re- by Kristi Maxwell (Ahsahta)

F L O W E R C A R T by Lisa Fishman (Ahsahta)

notational by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa (Otoliths)

Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes by Jennifer Tamayo (Switchback Books)

Undercurrent an album of amplified poetry by Brandy Nālani McDougall and Craig Santos Perez

and I would open by Jill Stengel (Ypolita Press)

1 + Scattered=Zero by Julia Cohen (Ypolita Press)

Forgotten Borough: Writers Come to Terms with Queens edited by by Nicole Steinberg (SUNY Press)

She Returns to the Floating World by Jeannine Hall Gailey (Kitsune Books)

Great America by Trina Burke (Dancing Girl Press)

About Birds by Stacy Kidd (Dancing Girl Press)

Samaritan by Julia Cohen & Brandon Shimoda (Dancing Girl Press)

Saint Monica by Mary Biddinger (Black Lawrence)

Millie's Sunshine Tiki Villas by Grace Cavalieri (MiPOesias)

Sweet Nothing by Nate Pritts (Lowbrow Press)

Sky Poems by Nate Pritts (Greying Ghost Press)

An Antenna Called the Body by Sarah Mangold (textile series)

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-10-03T00:06:00.002-04:00

Lorna Dee Cervantes twines hair all halo and sash this week at No Tell Motel.

FREE Tarot Reading or Dream Interpretation Offer

2011-09-26T21:22:00.010-04:00

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Buy any *two* No Tell Books titles between now and Sunday, October 2, 2010 and receive a FREE tarot reading or dream interpretation! (One free reading or interpretation per customer)

If you buy two No Tell titles during this timeframe, not only do you receive stellar collections of poetry, you also receive FREE PSYCHIC ADVICE from me, poet and editor, Reb Livingston. This psychic advice will be dispensed via either a tarot reading or dream interpretation. BUT WAIT, THAT’S NOT ALL, if I receive any clairvoyant snippets while I’m doing your reading or interpretation, I will share them with you AT NO EXTRA COST.

Psychic Qualification Statement: The first thing I ever shoplifted was a deck of tarot cards from Spencer Gifts. I was in 8th grade. The tarot cards called out and asked for me to take them. While I own several decks of tarot cards, I still use my original, thieved deck because it is the BEST. As a child I was harassed by a civil war era ghost (same ghost that harassed my grandmother, supposedly all he wanted was to “talk,” whatever, jerk) and I informed my mother about her friend’s miscarriage hours before she received the call with the news. Who wants to hang around a ghost-seeing, miscarriage-knowing little kid? NOBODY. So like any creepy kid who wants to be loved and accepted, I turned my back on these abilities and lost them. Now, like every middle-aged bozo, I’m searching for meaning, purpose and spirituality. Three years ago I made the conscious decision to reconnect with that weird little girl and last year it happened! She appeared to me in a dream--a tiny, deformed creature living in a robotic Alice in Wonderland-looking body. She was sad and freaky and I am totally embracing her. TOGETHER, HUMANOID ALICE & I WILL SHINE A LIGHT ON AND GUIDE YOU TO YOUR TRUE PATH.

For over three years I have been tracking and interpreting dreams. Aside from my own dreams, I’ve interpreted the dreams of friends, family members and great poets such as Jill Alexander Essbaum, Hoa Nguyen, Rauan Klassnik, Bruce Covey as well as a slew of Facebookers! I’ve read a number of books by C.G. Jung, Marie Von Franz and other accomplished Jungian thinkers.

But don't just take my word for it, read these testimonials from those who previously took advantage of this amazing offer:

"Spooky dead-on, and incredibly specific." -Nicole Mauro

"A generous and thought-provoking reading." -Peg Duthie

"This is vision. Pure. Sugar. Simple. Over the years I've had several readings by Reb, but last year was the stinger. Told me not only what I wanted to know. Told me what I needed to keep alive. Told me it was time again to check the newbees buzzing from the No Tell hive. Told me it was time again to put the honey where my mouth is."-PF Potvin

"I was completely inspired by my tarot reading to continue in the new direction I'd been thinking of moving toward in my writing. And the books I purchased from No Tell Books are ones I will return to again and again for their poems' captivating voices." -Bernadette Geyer

"I don't know from psychic veracity--if you handed me an oak leaf I could see in it whatever you said to me as you did--but I did enjoy the tarot card reading, it's like someone's writing a poem about you and when is that ever not fun? The funny thing is, Reb, and No Tell Books, is all about one person using her will to make happen what she wants to happen, as opposed to passively looking for portents and fortuitous moments to do what the portents tell her to. Reb Livingston is imaginative enough to make anything work; she has an amazing will-to-power, and it shows in both her editorial as well as prestidigitory focus. So try a reading, and you get to try both. Pretty cool deal, I think."" -Stuart Greenhouse

"I took advantage of Reb Livingston's offer of a Tarot reading in return for purchasing a book from No Tell Motel, and I recommend that others take advantage of it too! The reading was extensive and detailed--clearly more time and thought had gone into it than a lot of people put into, well, writing a poem. For that matter, the reading resonated with me more than most poems do too. As a bonus it was an excuse for me to get Rebecca Loudon's terrific book Cadaver Dogs!"-Robert Thomas

HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS AMAZING OFFER

1. Buy two (2) NTB titles between now and Sunday, October 2, 2011 While it is preferred that you purchase directly from Lulu or take advantage of NTB's 2 for $20 deal, the purchase of two new titles from any retail outlet or store will suffice. Purchasing Reb’s Your Ten Favorite Words (Coconut Books) qualifies as well and can be ordered via the 2 for $20 deal, as well as retail outlets.

2. Forward the receipt (proof of purchase) to reb(at)notellbooks(dot)org. If you purchase the books via a brick and mortar store, send a jpg of the receipt. Lulu & other retail outlets do not share customer information and my psychic abilities are not THAT powerful. Yet. The only way I will know that you purchased a book is if you forward your receipt to me.

I will contact you within 24 hours with directions on how to receive your FREE tarot reading or dream interpretation.

Time of delivery of reading or interpretation will depend on the number of book sales. If we sell 100 books (oh goddesses, please let us sell 100 books), it may take a little while to receive your FREE reading or interpretation. If we sell 2 books, you’ll hear from me pretty quickly.

One reading or interpretation per customer.

All readings and interpretations will be communicated over email.

Sorry, books purchased at earlier dates do not qualify for this offer.

Sorry, the purchase of used books does not qualify for this offer. We're glad you're interested in the books, but this offer is a fundraiser for the press and we do not receive a penny from used book sales.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-09-26T00:11:00.001-04:00

Joseph Ross creates an arching tombstone this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-09-19T00:27:00.002-04:00

Alice B. Fogel thinks you are what you are made of or what you make of that this week at No Tell Motel.

In Your Ear Presents Lea Graham and Reb Livingston

2011-09-13T13:20:00.002-04:00

DC Arts Center
2438 18th Street NW
Washington, District of Columbia

Please join the In Your Ear Reading Series for a reading by Lea Graham and Reb Livingston at 3PM on Sunday, September 18, 2011.

Lea Graham’s first book, Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You is just out from No Tell Books. She is also the author of the chapbook, Calendar Girls (above ground press, 2006). Her poems, collaborations, reviews and articles have been published in journals and anthologies such as American Letters & Commentary, The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel: Second Floor, Notre Dame Review and The Capilano Review. Her translations are forthcoming in The Alteration of Silence: Recent Chilean Poetry through the University of New Orleans Press. She is Assistant Professor of English at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and a native of Northwest Arkansas.

Reb Livingston is the author of God Damsel (No Tell Books, 2010) and Your Ten Favorite Words (Coconut Books, 2007). She's the co-editor of The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel anthology series, the publisher of No Tell Books and the editor of the soon-to-be-closed-for-business No Tell Motel. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.

Admission is $5.00.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-09-12T00:01:00.001-04:00

Lee Ann Roripaugh bells down around you like a cool white jellyfish this week at No Tell Motel.

the ease of selling poetry books

2011-09-08T09:39:00.009-04:00

Some have focused on my following statement as being defeatist or having a bad attitude in regard to poetry's potential:

Gatza states, "In general, books by new authors sell around 25 - 30 copies." Shocking? Only if you don't know the first thing about poetry publishing.

Let me explain. Poetry collections categorized as "avant garde" or "experimental" written by less known poets tend not to sell a great deal of copies. Probably less than poetry collections categorized as "mainstream" by less known poets. The reasons are multiple. Some may argue that these types of books lack "accessibility" and "appeal" -- I don't know if I agree with that, but I throw that out there as one possible reason. I do believe that this perception does carry a great deal of influence in promotional opportunities a book may receive. These types of books by less known poets are very rarely reviewed in places that have a substantial readership, if anywhere at all. They're also less likely to be taught in college courses (course adoptions are a significant percentage of NTB's sales). Libraries are less likely to order books by new and unknown poets. Few bookstores shelve them. Word of mouth is limited.

Also, a significant factor in how well a book sells is based on how successful the author is at promoting it. Truth is, many poets with first books don't fully grasp this. Or often they don't know how to promote effectively. I recall one NTB author pursuing his hometown bookstore for months, trying to get the owner to order his book. After several months, this author got a local newspaper to write an article about a local poet making it good and how people could find his book at this bookstore. Finally this bookstore owner felt compelled and grudgingly ordered 5 copies, while complaining to me how persistent my author was. That was a lot of work to sell 5 copies. Probably not the best investment of his time.

Sometimes authors are limited (just like publishers) in what they can do. Many authors have financial limitations, job and/or family commitments that restrict travel. Some authors are shy or have difficulties in social situations. Some authors have medical reasons that limit how much promotion they can do. There are NTB authors who fit into each of these categories.

Sales certainly have some level of importance to me as a publisher because I can't continue doing what I do if I don't recoup at least some of my expenses. Also, I want as many readers as possible for my authors, as I do for my own work -- let us not forget that pretty much ALL POETRY PUBLISHERS ARE POETS. But when I consider manuscripts, I don't take into consideration sales potential. If I did that, I wouldn't have published any of the titles I have. The reason the majority of poetry today is published by small presses is because it has little sales potential. Else bigger, for-profit presses would publish more and would take chances on unknown poets writing weird poems.

Do I think 25-30 sales to be in any way impressive? No. Those are low numbers by any standard, even poetry. Do I think those same titles have the potential to sell more than that? Yes, in most cases they probably do. So let me phrase it this way:

Do I find it shocking that a book from an unpopular genre, written in what some perceive to be a less popular style of that unpopular genre, written by an inexperienced, unknown author and published by a low-profile, small press with limited means only sold 25-30 copies for the press?

No, not at all.

Because I know how difficult it is to sell poetry books. As both a publisher and an author. Sure, I've had instance where it was easy to sell some books, but most times, it is not. Not in substantial numbers. I've published 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th collections by poets with NEA and Stegner fellowships, whose earlier titles won national awards, who teach at universities, who've been published in some of the "biggest" and most "prestigious" poetry publications out there. It's still really difficult. It's still a great deal of work. I'm sorry if that bums you out or bursts your bubble but maybe this is something you need to hear.

I'm not saying that as a publisher I've done everything right (I haven't) or that there isn't plenty more for me to learn (there is). But don't blame low poetry sales on the only people out there making poetry books happen at all. If you have ideas, by all means implement and share them. Do the job better, if you can, but please stop calling poetry publishers the problem even though, admittedly, it's true that there wouldn't be a low book sales "problem" if we didn't exist.

No books, no problems!

Sincerely,

Reb Livingston
Editor & Publisher of No Tell Books

No Tell Books Supports BlazeVOX

2011-09-05T11:42:00.014-04:00

Yesterday a post with the sensational headline BlazeVOX Goes Vanity Press? appeared at HTLMGIANT. It generated a stream of criticism in the comment field and prompted this explanation from BlazeVOX publisher, Geoffrey Gatza and a few hours later, this announcement stating he will be closing the press at the end of the year. (Update: after this article was posted, Geoffrey Gatza announced he would not be shutting down BlazeVOX.)

Publishing poetry is a thankless job. What begins as a labor of love can often sour rather quickly. Despite technological advances, such as print-on-demand, publishing books still cost money, supporting and promoting books, even creatively and with a shoe-string budget, costs money. Very few people, including poets looking to be published, buy many poetry books. If I sold anywhere near the number of books that I receive as submissions, No Tell Books would be making a small profit. No Tell Books is not making a small profit. When all the costs are put together (including printing, postage, author copies, review copies, design, proofreading, holding reading events, advertising, travel and costs to participate in book fairs and conferences), No Tell Books loses thousands of dollars each year. I lose money on things like bookstores not paying invoices (around half never pay for books ordered and received so now we require all payment up front, which means many bookstores won't order directly from us). When I travel to speak at universities about poetry and publishing, I often loses money, even if I'm being paid. For instance, once I drove 8 hours to speak at a university. They paid me $150, but gas, meals and a modest hotel cost more than that--and I have to claim the $150 on my taxes as income. Yes, I claim my expenses too, but since my expenses are always so much more than my income, every year I taunt an IRS audit.

I do a lot of things knowing I am losing money because I believe it's important to promote the books I publish. I also believe it's important to educate people on diy-publishing and poetry. But it's draining, really draining. I gave a reading and spoke at a classroom at a university. After my reading, I sold one book and had two stolen. Luckily that university paid me $500 and covered my hotel and airfare, so the sting was much less than if I paid my own way. Often I'll travel to give readings at independent reading series. These are almost always on my own dime, but I go because they often bring big crowds. I can't tell you the number of times I'll read to a full room of 50-100 grad students, the girls in their pretty leather boots, the boys with their fancy scarves, all enjoying pricey cocktails and nobody will buy a single book afterward. But many want to know when is my next reading period.

No Tell Books' best selling title broke even after three years and is now earning a very modest profit. This is by an author whose work has appeared in places like Poetry and Best American Poetry. This title has been taught at universities. How many copies does one have to sell to be the best selling title at No Tell Books after four years? 228. That is not a typo. This number doesn't include what the author has sold herself, probably around 200 copies on her own. But the press doesn't earn money on those sales.

So if that's a best seller, what's a flop? 74 sales after five years (again, this number doesn't include what the author sold on his own, which was maybe 50 or so). (UPDATE: Gatza states, "In general, books by new authors sell around 25 - 30 copies." Shocking? Only if you don't know the first thing about poetry publishing.)

This is the reality of poetry publishing. There are certainly presses that sell more copies. A poetry title reviewed in The New York Times can sell 2-4k copies, it is true. But small, independent presses, those small shops, usually run by one or a few people, rarely see those kinds of sales. University presses, for the most part, don't see those kinds of numbers for poetry. I attended a panel by the publisher of Grove/Atlantic and he said his press' poetry sales was around 800 per title. They publish "big-name" poets, their books are often shelved by chain bookstores, they have good distribution, a strong reputation . . . and that's what they sell. Publishing poetry is their charity--their poetry titles are subsidized by their fiction and non-fiction sales.

This is why there are so many poetry contests. Because, in general, poets will spend a lot more money on their desire to be published than they will on poetry itself. Because the readership of poetry by non-poets is ridiculously tiny. When people don't believe me, I ask them how many poetry books did they buy in the past 10 years. Few can come up with one title.

If we're going to talk about ethics, I think giving a donation to a press that's publishing your book and supporting you as a writer is far more ethical than giving money to presses that likely won't read more than a few pages of your manuscript, that likely won't even forward your manuscript to the final judge(s) for consideration, that really have no interest in you or your work at all.

$250 to support a really good press that's going to support you as a writer (if we're going to be all capitalist about it, a press that is going to be give you ALOT more value than $250) or entering 10 contests where your manuscript many never once be seriously considered. If we're going to use terms like "scam" -- what's the scam here? What's not transparent? A publisher wants to publish your work, he asks for a donation--you have the choice to say yes or no. You can walk away, no harm, no foul (except maybe to your precious ego). If you say yes, you know you're getting a book from a press that has a proven track record of publishing good books. When you send that check into a contest--what do you know? Do they tell you who has read your manuscript? How many pages? Do contests ever write back to the folks who enter and say, "Hey, we're never in a million years going to publish this manuscript, so save your money and don't enter next year?" No, those people who never had a chance will get an announcement about next year's contest. And then the contest after that.

I haven't entered a contest in over 7 years, yet a week doesn't go by where I don't receive an announcement imploring me to enter or help promote a book contest. Can we be that critical of these presses? Let's be honest, most poets entering these contests know little to nothing about the presses they hope will publish them. Few have purchased or even seen previous titles published by these presses. The cycle can't exist without participants. Lucky for the cycle there are plenty of participants to go around. Long live the cycle! Oh, it will, it certainly will.

I had a successful money job in the '90s. Because I saved some of my earnings from that job, I was able to put roughly $25k of my own money into No Tell Books over the past 5 year. That's money gone, most of which I'll never get back. Most people aren't able to do that. Most people who are able to do that, would not. They are smarter or more savvy and put that money into their homes or travel or their children's college education or pretty much anything else. I am wildly fortunate and probably have a touch of the crazy. In 12 years when my son goes off to college and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to pay for it all, I may curse this entire publishing venture. I may wish that I asked for donations. Or maybe even held a contest.

What occurs to me is that it makes less and less sense for poets to seek publishers at all. Since there is no money in poetry publishing, little prestige and perks for publishing poetry, an intense requirement to invest one's own time, energy and often money -- and doing so opens one up oneself up to all kinds of scrutiny and criticism about how one is managing to do the MIRACULOUS TASK OF PUBLISHING POETRY-- why would ANYBODY want to publish someone else's poetry? Aside from having a touch of the crazy?

More poets need to be publishing their own poems, books, projects, etc. We need to get back to focusing on the poetry itself instead of HOW it's being shared and distributed. Truth is readers don't care if the work was subsidized by the author or not, it's not a factor in what they chose to read or buy. It's not something that crosses their minds.

Let us be artists and create art and share it however we can. Let us not worry ourselves with other artists' methods of sharing. Let us save our disdain for the works themselves. Like God wants us to do.

Sincerely,

Reb Livingston
Editor & Publisher of No Tell Books

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-09-05T00:54:00.001-04:00

Jane Joritz-Nakagawa unfolds along with impersonal bad luck this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-08-29T01:13:00.000-04:00

Gillian Devereux checks on the children once more before bedtime this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-08-22T01:24:00.004-04:00

Emma Ramey wonders who cries when she waves her hand in front of her face this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-08-15T00:09:00.004-04:00

Donald Illich hears a gurgle, then a stomp of a three-ton baby's foot this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-08-08T00:45:00.001-04:00

Shira Dentz is warbled warbled warbled warbles in her triangle this week at No Tell Motel.

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham Available Now!

2011-08-01T01:00:00.002-04:00

ISBN: 978-0-9826000-2-3
68 pages
$14.99 (print)

Buy at Lulu and Save 15%

Also available as a PDF for $6.29

Coming Soon to B&N, Powells, Amazon and other retail outlets

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-08-01T00:14:00.001-04:00

Joseph Harrington waits to ascend through the skylight this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-07-25T00:04:00.003-04:00

Sheila Squillante really loves you in a house so full of stupid boys this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-07-18T01:19:00.001-04:00

Joshua Ware slopes sloping slopes this week at No Tell Motel.

No Tell Motel To Close Doors

2011-07-16T11:00:00.004-04:00

When I launched No Tell Motel with Molly Arden back in August 2004, I had no idea the life it would take on. At the time I just wanted to work on a literary magazine and nobody else would let me work on theirs. So I started my own, with no editorial or publishing experience, only ideas on how it "ought to be done." Over the past 7 years, NTM published over 2000 poems by almost 300 poets. This is one of my proudest accomplishments and I thank all the poets who gave NTM the honor of publishing their poems.

Anyone who edits a publication knows the amount of time and energy required to start and maintain a literary magazine. After 7 years of channeling much of my time and energy into NTM I decided that I very much wish to channel it into new directions. The week of October 17 will be NTM's final week. Jill Alexander Essbaum, one of NTM's earliest contributors and the author of the magazine's most popular poem, has graciously agreed to be our final guest.

Our archives will remain online and accessible indefinitely. No Tell Books will publish Lea Graham's Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You in August. After that No Tell Books will take a hiatus from publishing new titles. I will use that time to further support the backlist and revaluate the direction of the press. It is my intention relaunch No Tell Books sometime in the near future.

I have already shared this news with some friends. A few expressed sadness and offered suggestions on how I could continue running NTM or the possibility of passing it down to a new editor. I'm not sad about NTM ending. Everything has a lifespan. Also, there is nothing stopping other potential editors from launching their own publication using or modifying NTM's format if they wish to do so.

Thank you for being a reader of No Tell Motel. It's been a true pleasure.

Sincerely,
Reb Livingston, Editor

Lea Graham's Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You is The Rumpus' Poetry Book Club Pick for July

2011-07-12T22:36:00.003-04:00

Sean Singer discusses why he selected Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You:

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You, creates energy by relentlessly kneading its central questions. It mixes sophisticated word choice with images gleaned from mythology and popular culture, but these blur past the reader, like images seen through the window of a train.

Lea's book will be available for purchase on August 1 at Lulu and retail outlets soon after that.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-07-11T00:31:00.001-04:00

Soham Patel comes into a place where all the doors remain shut for the hours this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-07-04T00:06:00.001-04:00

Tiffany Midge makes a proper demon this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-06-27T01:04:00.001-04:00

Wade Fletcher circles snow in car-light this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-06-20T00:03:00.002-04:00

Albert Abonado tells you a story about men made of smoke this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-06-13T00:35:00.001-04:00

Elizabeth Savage meets the current—deployment—intent this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-06-06T00:23:00.002-04:00

Sally Van Doren lets loose a fibrous guillotine this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-05-30T00:17:00.001-04:00

J. A. Tyler turns ghost this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-05-23T00:18:00.001-04:00

Steffi Drewes knows every night was named for this week at No Tell Motel.

No Tell Motel's Best New Poet Nominations

2011-05-17T21:35:00.001-04:00

No Tell Motel nominated the following poets and poems for Best New Poets:

"Notes on Polyphony" by Yona Harvey

and

"War Relics" by Qiana Towns

Good luck Yona and Qiana!

2010 Best of the Net Anthology

2011-05-17T21:28:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to Miriam Bird Greenberg. Her poem, "My Own History of Plagues," which first appeared in No Tell Motel, was selected by Erin Belieu to appear in Sundress' 2010 Best of the Net.

New Titles by No Tell Poets

2011-05-17T21:06:00.002-04:00

Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability edited by Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, and Michael Northen (Cinco Puntos Press)

A Beautiful Name for a Girl by Kirsten Kaschock (Ahsahta Press)

The Many Woods of Grief by Lucas Farrell (University of Massachusetts Press)

FABRIC: Preludes to the Last American Book by Richard Froude (Horse Less Press)

Petticoat Government by T.A. Noonan (Gold Wake Press)

How Like Foreign Objects by Alexis Orgera (H_ngm_n Books)

Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls by Erika Meitner (Anhinga Press)

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-05-16T01:26:00.002-04:00

Anna Maria Hong hates you for making it bull-fucking tough this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-05-09T01:32:00.002-04:00

Robyn Art begins with rain, a late hour, the moon’s punched-out face this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-05-02T01:04:00.002-04:00

Joe Hall is so happy to speak to you this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-04-25T00:08:00.001-04:00

Maureen Thorson keeps the girl out of it this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-04-18T00:07:00.002-04:00

Joel Patton lumbers out of the dry slimy twist of the bedclothes this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-04-11T00:31:00.001-04:00

Laura Van Prooyen cannot call you, you do not exist this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-04-04T00:23:00.001-04:00

Boyer Rickel took his friends’ faces this week at No Tell Motel.

Conversations and Connections: Practical Advice on Writing

2011-04-03T19:37:00.000-04:00

Conversations and Connections: Practical Advice on Writing, is coming back on April 16, 2011

We’re pleased to announce that the conference is coming back, bigger and better than ever, in 2011. This year’s conference will be held on April 16 in the same location — the Washington, DC campus of Johns Hopkins University, just off DuPont Circle.

If you're a writer, register now -- your $65 registration fee gets you

the full-day conference (panel sessions, keynote speech by Steve Almond, and bookfair)

one ticket to “speed dating with the editors"

a subscription to a participating literary magazine

a book by one of our speakers

Save 20% off ALL No Tell Books' already discounted titles

2011-04-03T18:17:00.000-04:00

Happy National Poetry Month!

Save 20% off ALL No Tell Books' already discounted titles.

Now thru April 5 at Lulu.

Coupon Code: SPLISH

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-03-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

Kate Schapira strikes into your heart-case like a tall stair this week at No Tell Motel.

New Titles by No Tell Poets

2011-03-21T00:33:00.003-04:00

Applies to Oranges by Maureen Thorson (Ugly Duckling Presse)

bough breaks By Tamiko Beyer (Meritage Press)

The Girl Without Arms by Brandon Shimoda (Black Ocean)

Say So by Dora Malech (Cleveland State University)

Mule by Shane McCrae (Cleveland State University)

Heraclitean Pride by Magus Magnus (Furniture Press)

Tea Party Poems by Nicole Mauro (Furniture Press)

Animal Magnetism by Kim Roberts (Pearl Editions)

The City from Nome by James Grinwis (The National Poetry Review Press)

Deepening Groove by Ravi Shankar (The National Poetry Review Press)

The Book of Evil by Jason Bredle (Dream Horse Press)

On Happier Lawns by Justin Marks (Poor Claudia)

Roseate, Points of Gold by Laynie Browne (Dusie Press)

Smiles of the Unstoppable by Jason Bredle (Magic Helicopter Press)

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-03-21T00:03:00.002-04:00

Lily Ladewig knows you tuck into someone’s brim like an ice cube in a tray this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-03-14T00:28:00.002-04:00

Amber Nelson is struck in a sucky track of sad stacks this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-03-07T00:53:00.002-05:00

Paul Siegell goes bowling with a roll of toilet paper this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-02-28T00:05:00.001-05:00

Cindy St. John dreamt a man held a snake by the neck this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-02-21T00:56:00.002-05:00

L. Lamar Wilson prays without manly pretense this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-02-14T00:54:00.001-05:00

Serena Chopra leaks a rusty nipple this week at No Tell Motel.

It Happened to . . .

2011-02-09T08:57:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to Timothy Bradford -- winner of the LOTTERY at AWP! Timothy wins the entire catalogs of Bloof Books, Cooper Dillion Books and No Tell Books.

All of Timothy's hopes and dreams have now come true.

And congratulations to our 2nd place winner, Alex Gang. Alex wins one title of his choice from each press.

Thank you to everyone who bought books and tickets and supported independent poetry publishing!

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-02-07T00:09:00.002-05:00

Nicole Mauro may rely on it like a blast of healthy sunshine this week at No Tell Motel.

This Week at No Tell Motel

2011-01-31T00:08:00.001-05:00

Jessy Randall has a face full of ectoplasm and no one to cry to this week at No Tell Motel.