FORKLIFT, OHIO #16, CANNIBAL! and My Signature that looks like a Phone Booth, etc.

I've been a little too relaxed about this blog thing lately. Sorry. That said, this week is Spring Break, so more to follow. Until then, please consider these few anouncements, thank yous, apologies.

1) Eric Appleby and I are pleased to announce the publication of Forklift, Ohio #16!

As always, the issue will feature poetry, cooking, and light industrial safety -- this time from the likes and dislikes of:

Lucy Anderton, Martin Arnold, Cynthia Arrieu-King, Sommer Browning, Julia Cohen, Evan Commander, Stuart Dischell, Jason S. Fraley, Dobby Gibson, Heather Hartley, Anthony Hawley, Steve Healey, Matthew Henriksen, Christopher Janke, Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, Bradley Liening, Rebecca Loudon, Clay Matthews, Marc McKee, Corey Mesler, Jason Morris, Gina Myers, Amanda Nadelberg, Kevin Oberlin, Ethan Paquin, Nate Pritts, Jessy Randall, Virgil Renfro, Zachary Schomburg, Peter Schwartz, Matthew Siegel, Richard Siken, Mathias Svalina, Chad Sweeney, Allison Titus, William D. Waltz, Betsy Wheeler, Dustin Williamson and Matthew Zapruder

You can find the new issue, as well as a lot of other cool stuff -- including a very few copies of Nate Pritts' Forklift Ink chap BIG CRISIS at www.forkliftohio.com .

Eric and I also want to say thanks to everyone who picked up copies of the new issue, etc. at AWP. It was great connecting faces and voices with names and email addresses. We had a blast and appreciate so much everyone's comments, good will, and support. We'd especially like to say thanks to our fine table mates at Octopus, Typo, H_NGM_N and Cannibal, who are fine people, publishing some of the finest work around.

2) And speaking of Cannibal, here's a message from the desk of Cannibal's editor-in-chief, Matthew Henriksen:

The second issue of Cannibal is now available and features poems from Hadara Bar-Nadav, Jen Bervin, Julia Cohen, John Coletti, Christopher Eaton, Landis Everson, Karen Garthe, Daniela Gesundheit, Johannes Göransson, Kate Greenstreet, Jane Gregory, Shafer Hall, Janet Holmes, Dan Hoy, Amy King, Donna Kuhn, Mark Lamoureux, Kristi Maxwell, Farid Matuk, Ben Mazer, Jess Mynes, Sawako Nakayasu, Eugene Ostashevsky, Arlo Quint, Chris Salerno, Mary Ann Samyn, Frank Sherlock, Stacy Szymaszek, Maureen Thorson, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Jake Adam York & Alex Young.

Cannibal is seventy pages, hand-sewn in signatures and screen printed.

Copies are available through Paypal for $12 at flesheatingpoems.blogspot.com.

We are also releasing the first two books in the Cannibal Chapbook Series, Jane Gregory's The Second Is Thirst and Shannon Jonas' Compathy, both available at for $7 at flesheatingpoems.blogspot.com. Chapbooks are side-stapled on quality paper.

3) What's a phone booth?

4) As this year was my first attending AWP, I have some explaining to do. In many ways I felt like the whole experience involved a lot of "irritable reaching after fact or reason," and of course this failed miserably, as "logic is always wrong." Keats and Tzara. We never got to play CENTO BINGO, because there was no place to play that made sense, and as nonsense is serious business we couldn't just play anywhere. Plus, everyone (including me) always seemed to be dashing off to this thing or that or the other. It was my biggest conference disappointment, and largely it was my fault. Please look for the first CENTO BINGO centos to arrive soon at www.centobingo.com . Russell Dillon and Andrew Hughes are two of the finest mad scientists anywhere. If you happen to run into them on the street in San Francisco or NYC, respectively, ask them respectfully to make of you a monster. They will happily comply, and you will be the wiser/weirder for it. My paragraph construction is horrible. Betsy Wheeler is better than the solar system. So, too, my transitions. For those of you still reading, thanks go out to everyone who picked up a copy of my book-book from the Slope Editions table (or my chapbook from H_NGM_N) or heckled me while signing a copy or two of either of them. ETHAN PAQUIN! CHRIS JANKE! I am marbles. Having never seen C.D. Wright before, I did not recognize her. I am sorry. I am dopey. Mathias Svalina, Zach Schomburg, Matthew Henriksen, Katy Henriksen, Adam Clay, Brett Price, Evan Commander, Eric Appleby, Nate Pritts and Gina Myers (in absentia) I am honored to have been in your presence (except for Gina, whose presence we all missed). I am hungry. I am mist. Who wants some wild mushroom risotto with a dash of white truffle oil? Note: remember the name Paul Otremba. It will come back to haunt you (and I mean that in the best possible way). You all like ghosts, don't you? Apparently, the inimitable Merrill Feitell has written a poem. I cannot wait to see it. Strangely, this is still about AWP. I met Anne Boyer briefly, though I don't think she met me. I talked to Amy King. It was pleasant. Finally (but most especially), apologies go out to everyone who's name I forgot or mis-pronounced or misplaced (either out of confusion or nervousness or general excitement) upon a face where it didn't belong.

5) "How I peace./Let me know when./You can other me in a trillion different ways;" -- Joe Ceravolo from "Sea Level"

Forklift, Ohio at AWP and 2 New Chaps from H_NGM_N Books

1.

This year, for the first time, Forklift, Ohio will be at AWP! And we'll be sharing a table at the bookfair with our good friends at Octopus, TYPO, and H_NGM_N. We'll have lots of newly made copies of selected back issues of the magazine + some other goodies, i.e. cooking tips, safety demonstrations, recipe cards etc. -- perhaps even a friendly game or two of Cento Bingo. Please stop by and see us.


2.

From the desk of H_NGM_N Books' Editor, Nate Pritts:

Announcing the next two numbers in the H_NGM_N Chapbook Series:

#5 - A THING AND ITS GHOST by Evan Commander http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n-b__ks/chapbook-5-a-thing-and-its-ghost-by-evan-commander.html

&

#6 - THEORY OF THE WALKING BIG BANG by Robert Krut
http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n-b__ks/chapbook-6-theory-of-the-walking-big-bang-by-robert-krut.html

Click on over to H_NGM_N B_ _KS for full info on the chaps, including links to sample poems, shots of the cover & ordering info.
http://www.h-ngm-n.com

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Also, be sure to pop in on us at the AWP Bookfair - we'll be at table #125, hanging w/ our buddies from Octopus, Typo, Forklift, Ohio & who knows who else?!? We've even cooked up an exclusive version of Robert Krut's newchap, available only at the conference!

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Don't forget to order your copy of COMBATIVES #3 before they're gone - a tremendous selection of exquisite corpse poems by Sarah Lilius & Erin M.Bertram. COMBATIVES#4 - featuring Elisa Gabbert - will be out in mid-March.
http://www.h-ngm-n.com/combatives/

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&, as always, make sure to check out H_NGM_N. #6 is live & rockin'.
http://www.h-ngm-n.com


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yr ed_tor,

Nate Pritts

The Agriculture Reader, my reading this Monday at KGB in NYC with Tomaz Salamun, etc.

I have to admit I almost don't want to tell anyone about this, because I want to keep it all to myself, but...

Recently I received in the mail a copy of issue #1 of The Agriculture Reader, and it really knocked my socks off. Edited by Jeremy Schmall, Erik Schmall, Tom Huffman, and Jessica Douglas in Brooklyn USA, the hand assembled journal is bound in a file folder with a metal clip. The front cover is a (useable!) stencil of a simplified barn and two silos with "The Agriculture Reader" stamped across it in staggered gold with shadow black. The file folder itself fastens along the front right edge with a piece of twine and a big thriftstore-looking sweater button. A red hand-painted echo of the front cover barn and silos appears in the lower right hand corner of the back cover of my copy--though I wonder if they're all the same?

Included on the inside of the front cover is a copy of the AGR #1 Mix CD featuring 13 tracks of fantastic original music by a bunch of mad geniuses, most of whom I'd never had the pleasure of hearing before (Edmund Berrigan's I Feel Tractor was the exception to this). In addition to the music, the CD also contains a humorous (found) "spoken-word" piece by President Bush and a fine poem by Joshua Marie Wilkinson. By my lights, the disc compliments the journal itself as both a soundtrack and an extension of its marvelous literary aesthetic.

And speaking of that, what really makes The AGR great is the work. Highlights include a stunning new poem/erasure of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by Anthony McCann, as well as new work by Matthew Henriksen, Noelle Kocot, Edmund Berrigan, and relative newcomer Amy Lawless. The issue also includes some mind-bending drawings by artist Wes Berg and two very fine short stories, one by Justin Taylor and the other by Danielle Ben-Veniste (and by "very fine" I mean Donald Barthelme meets William S. Burroughs meets John Barth meets Siegfried & Roy...). But in any case, these "highlights" only scratch the surface of the contents, which really are fantastic through and through. The Agriculture Reader is a quality DIY journal of good humor and good will, not to mention also down home smarts and unbridled joy. Of course, it's also really cool.

The Ag. Reader costs $12 + $3 shipping and handling. You should buy one. Get it here: http://booklyn.org/agriculture.html


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I'll be reading in NYC this Monday, Feb. 12th in the KGB Monday Night Poetry Reading Series opening for Tomaz Salamun at KGB. If you live in the area, I hope you'll try and make it out. The reading starts at 7:30. KGB is located at 85 E. 4th St.


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etc.