The Dredge Cycle

To End at the Beginning

Tonight, mak­ing a few small, pointed edits, I saw a line at the start of Well­wa­ter Dredge again for the first time. It ties the book neatly in a cir­cle. Maybe a few oth­ers had seen it already; maybe I’m the first to make the catch. Regard­less, it’s a relief. It comes on the heels of think­ing strongly, again, about releas­ing the book myself. I have increas­ingly elab­o­rate design plans for it, and pro­por­tion­ately less faith in other pub­lish­ers. Sub­mit­ting Well­wa­ter is begin­ning to feel…

If you're reading this, thanks

It’s been four months of broad­sides, and I’m find­ing I really enjoy the rit­ual of prepar­ing and releas­ing them. Not to men­tion giv­ing one or two away every month. They give some of the Fresh­wa­ter poems new life, set to an image or tex­ture. So a full 6 hours before you were expect­ing it (you were totally expect­ing it) I’m post­ing July’s broad­side, right here. For you. Thanks for read­ing about my lit­tle bizarro home­town. Every day the Cycle creeps a lit­tle closer to publication,…

This Month's Broadside Winners

Because it makes me sad to choose among peo­ple mak­ing the dis­cus­sion hap­pen, and inter­est­ing, I’m gonna choose up to two peo­ple every month. This month’s win­ners are listed on the face­book page. Mean­while, you can grab a copy of “Hun­newell Field Base­ball Dia­mond” just as soon as you like, by click­ing on the image above. Happy May Day!

All the Books You Meant to Read

A month back I promised myself I’d read every­thing I’ve col­lected so far for the this project. I’ve top­pled The Mys­te­ri­ous Stranger Man­u­scripts, I’m halfway into Sin­clair Lewis’s Main Street, Cary Nelson’s Repres­sion and Recov­ery and Karyna McGlynn’s I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl. The first isn’t grab­bing me yet, the second’s like shav­ing with a cheese grater, and the latter’s giv­ing me more trou­ble than I antic­i­pated. It’s a lit­tle dis­heart­en­ing. These two weeks are the pre-​​​​press crunch for…

"First Day of Seventh Grade" Published in the Weekly Alibi!

After the tor­rent of sad real­iza­tions that AWP came to rep­re­sent, here’s some good news, and on a Thurs­day, no less: This week one of our alterna-​​​​rags put out a poetry issue, fea­tur­ing 4 poets, a poem from each, and a lit­tle expla­na­tion of process. Go on and give it a read; I think you’ll find the poems as fas­ci­nat­ing (and qual­ity) as their expla­na­tions. I’ll post a pic­ture of the print ver­sion this week­end, which doesn’t suf­fer such a ver­ti­cal lay­out. Spe­cial thanks to Erin…

Two Days Sober

After every­thing. The North­ern NM plains north of us, the company-​​​​store Safe­way in Trinidad, the Lud­low Mas­sacre memo­r­ial, and everyone’s occa­sional doz­ing (includ­ing the dri­ver.) The 430 miles home tra­versed, Pat and Mar­i­lyn deposited in the North Val­ley, and the Burque sky so warm it all but makes Wel­come Home sounds. When John and I are finally en route to my house, he says, “When­ever I go to AWP for a solu­tion, I come back with a far more com­pli­cated prob­lem.” I spent a lot of…

AWP2010 Photos

About 50 of ‘em, includ­ing a bunch of my favorite tables. These were pre­vi­ously on Face­book, but fuck facebook.

Closing AWP, Day 3

Yes­ter­day, as the real­ity re-​​​​settled that pub­lish­ing is a dread­fully long process, I got a lit­tle dra­matic. Today I had lunch with an old friend from col­lege, and a friend of hers, and some opti­mism found me. It was a poor choice to favor the book fair over the pan­els. The read­ings alone… I didn’t even know Tony Hoagland was here, much less read­ing, until a day had already passed. Stay­ing with my sis­ter, while awe­some, orphaned me at the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter dur­ing most of the…

AWP, Day 2

Today’s high­light: ran into Martín Espada this morn­ing, who stopped, hugged me, and stayed for a small, talk-​​​​amongst-​​​​equals type con­ver­sa­tion. I sure as hell don’t occupy his ech­e­lon, so I point to this as fur­ther evi­dence of that man’s con­fi­dence, sin­cer­ity and badassery. My sis­ter gra­ciously took the couch, leav­ing me most of a night’s sleep. Excel­lent vegan break­fast. More hours of walk­ing the book fair, this time tak­ing pic­tures of all my favorite tables. Look for them on Face­book this week­end. I real­ize I’ve…

AWP, Day 1

To put it lightly: · Last night: 9 hours in the car + drank heav­ily + didn’t quite sleep = This morn­ing: yeeow. · Five hours passed faster than I was expect­ing at the book fair. · Meet­ing up with Karyna McG­lynn and Ryler Dustin, two of my poets, is a high­light. · Made ini­tial con­nec­tions with the mak­ers of GOR­GEOUS books. Tomorrow’s for recon­firm­ing. · Stay­ing with my sis­ter 1.2 miles from the Con­ven­tion Cen­ter is kinda the best. · It’s actu­ally rather astonishing…