2013 began in a state of panic and pressure, as I struggled to finish my thesis, at least in a form ready for defense. At the end of my efforts: a 24-page poetics essay for an introduction and a 13-page appendix with some “notes on composition” bracket 56 poems. If that seems short, the prose section especially, it’s only because I had to wrestle all sorts of ideas out of my paper in the hopes of streamlining what was an unwieldy beast I could barely control back then. Now I can somewhat breathe again, this draft of my thesis with my critic, who will point out any revisions that have to be made before giving me the green-light for defense. Now I can finally rave about the great titles I received in January:
Useless Landscape or, A Guide for Boys by D.A. Powell
and, part of my wife’s Christmas gift to me, three books each from three small presses:
Top row: Canarium Books
- Madame X by Darcie Dennigan
- The Invention of Glass by Emmanuel Hocquard (translated by Cole Swensen and Rod Smith)
- I Am Your Slave Now Do What I Say by Anthony Madrid
Middle row: Factory Hollow Press
- Beauty Was The Case That They Gave Me by Mark Leidner
- Experiments I Should Like Tried At My Own Death by Caryl Pagel
- Crash Dome by Alex Phillips
Bottom row: Octopus Books
- Balloon Pop Outlaw Black by Patricia Lockwood
- Hider Roser by Ben Mirov
- Dear Jenny, We Are All Find by Jenny Zhang
Editions Of You 