What I’m Reading Now… by Kate Colby
Kate Colby discusses books by Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop (Litmus Press); Mary Oppen (Black Sparrow); Dara Wier (Wave Books); Joanna Howard and Joanna Ruocco (Sidebrow Books); and Elinor Lander Horwitz.
Joseph Massey’s “Illocality” reviewed by Elisabeth Whitehead
"With little presence of an 'I' that calls attention to itself, the words themselves seem to take on the dress of animation. Sometimes the words click. Sometimes they snake or fold. Sometimes they pause to breathe."
Renee Gladman’s “Calamities” reviewed by Aisha Sabatini Sloan
"Each essay in Calamities has about it the quality of Ikea instructions. Instead of a bookcase, though, these are directions for a cardboard device that makes the world look different than it was, like what Michel Gondry might try— a pinhole camera or chakra lenses or Google Glass. The thing she is telling you how to make is pure imagination, it is not something you would or could bring to life—but you can wear it by reading her essays."
Noelle Kocot’s ‘Phantom Pains of Madness’ Reviewed by Erin Lyndal Martin
In his 1917 essay "Art as Device," Viktor Shklovsky wrote: “the purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived, and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects ‘unfamiliar,’ to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself, and must be prolonged.”
CA Conrad’s “Ecodeviance” reviewed by Heather Sweeney
"These pages are fields of healing crystals. A crystal text. Crystal gestures full of strange angles. These are visceral experiments spliced with memory" -- Heather Sweeney on CA Conrad's Ecodeviance (Soma)tics for the Future Wilderness (Wave Books, 2014)
New to us: Phantom Limb
Yes, their most recent issue features new work from TSky author Shelly Taylor. But that's not the only reason to read the issue. There is also a conversation with Dorothea Lasky, among a dozen other things. Prior issues include work by TSky writers and peeps Heather Christle, Patrick Culliton, George Kalamaras, Karla Kelsey, Becca Klaver, Nate Pritts, and Brandon Shimoda.
Noelle Kocot’s _ Sunny Wednesday _, reviewed by John Findura
Noelle KocotSunny WednesdayISBN 9781933517391Wave Books, 2009$14Reviewed by John FinduraKurt Vonnegut famously wrote in Slaughterhouse-Five, of death, “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.” In Noelle Kocot’s fourth book of poetry, Sunny Wednesday, that sentiment is only partly [...]