steve fellner speaks!

"Fat poets like myself are the most wonderful things in the gay community."

"I like misshapen poems."

"You must have a small cock to ask me that question."

"Another truth: I want revenge."

" At least a dozen people come to my blog a day."

"Gay men are never safe."

bits

hey, you.
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almost done with my xmas shopping. bought a scooter, a swiss army knife, pjs, some video games, action figures, clothes and books for my nephews and nieces on friday.
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lights and music are on my mind...
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at what point do you move on beyond petty grudges? there's a female blogger who just won't stop her personal vendetta. i hope she realizes that no one else is going to join her campaign, and that her vendetta is overshadowing her poetry. i myself will never buy another book by this poet.
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best poetry books of 2009 include titles by d.a. powell and lucia perillo.
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i bought a smurf tote today!
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Go Team Voltron!

Huge congrats to my Bread Loaf roomie Alan Heathcock who just sold his story collection to Graywolf Press.

Go Team Voltron!!!!

Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor’s Choice Award

The Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor's Choice Award is an annual collaboration between Persea Books and The Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Project. It is open to any American poet who has previously published at least one full-length book of poems. The winner receives an advance of $1,000.00, publication of his/her collection by Persea, and the option of an all-expenses-paid residency at the Anderson Center, a renowned artists' colony in Red Wing, Minnesota.

Full guidelines here.

the cortland review rocks

what a line up!

click to read! click to listen!

shane book
Xochiqueztal Candelaria
david st. john
Juan Felipe Herrera
tom sleigh
Malena Mörling
Tomás Q. Morín (reading one of my favorite poems from his ms!)

mini-interview: g.c. waldrep

I do view writing as a spiritual vocation, in the sense that Flannery O'Connor used the term. A form of discipline, a practice. And so the pages accumulate, as artifacts of that practice if nothing else. Some seem worth sharing.

I will be wearing lipstick this spring

i'm so loving this photograph. it's a sneak peak at M.A.C.'s Viva Glam 2010 spring campaign. the campaign will feature cyndi lauper and lady gaga. each diva will get her own shade of lipstick: viva glam gaga and viva glam lauper. all profits will go to the MAC AIDS Fund.

i will be wearing viva glam lauper all spring!

poetry society of america: new american poets

a pic, a statement on poetics, and a poem or two: what a great way to introduce emerging poets to other poets.

jennifer chang
zach savich (he's freaking cute!)
aracelis girmay
matthew dickman
jericho brown
joeseph massey
carmen giménez smith

and more!

a first book is born!

congrats to january o'neil: she just received copies of her book! you can order it here.

from january's blog:
...Underlife represents the years of hard work, the late nights, the rejections and the acceptances. It represents revision after revision after revision (even now, there are poems I’d like to tweak). It heralds the end of one period in my life and reveals the beginning of another.

small press spotlight: daniel nester

I don’t think it’s a fault to be too honest in one’s work...I would suggest that what we’re talking about here is the artifice, the intended effect of the writing, of being honest to a fault. But I should point out that of course there are things I didn’t include in the book, things I think are too personal or too hurtful and can’t be transformed into something on the page. I’m not interested in being vulgar for the sake of it. I think there’s a liberation and power of confessing one’s sins and foibles in a public way; the key is to make it interesting and artful.