City Change #3

Marina writes from Freeville, NY: "A group of people started a project in the village called the Dacha Project. They are a crew of 6 who wanted to start an off-grid, sustainable, educational homestead. They built a house with their own hands using as much salvaged goods and trade labor as they could and now it is up on running on waste-veggie oil for power instead of fossil fuels. They now hold events, classes, seminars on the property and give tours to people who are interested in unconventional building and communal living. The group of 6 also live in the house and have made their dream come true through hard work and help from the community."

Learn more about the Dacha Project here.

Reviews and interviews

In keeping with this site's role as an amplifier for my own horn, which I enjoy tooting, I've added a sidebar of links to reviews and interviews with me on either end of the equation. So there are reviews of TOWN at Alice Blue Reviews and Gently Read Literature, and also my review of Pierre-Albert Jourdan's The Straw Sandals, edited, introduced and translated by John Taylor; Kate Colby's interview with me at Word for/Word, and Deborah Poe's and my interview/conversation with Bernadette Mayer at the Denver Quarterly when the issue becomes available as a PDF.

More about me me me, sure, but I think this also highlights how essential the not-me is to the me: I love listening to and talking with (as well as reading) other poets, and my work is better for it.

Also, thanks, SPD-ers, for putting How We Saved the City on your "SPD Recommends" list!

from the Arcades Project

Stockport Flats editor and publisher extraordinaire, Lori Anderson Moseman, was working the seesaw at the Arcades Project this past weekend.

From left to right: How We Saved the City, my limited-edition chap A Sense of Things, the amulet I made for Lori, the City Changes postcards, the scarves Katie Yates made to benefit the Red Cross, Katie's book poem for the house, and the radiant Lori herself.

Also, How We Saved the City is in the sidebar at SPD! Small pleasures ...

Rockstar (in a mild way)

The Bounty: Four Addresses is on the big list at SPD, with amazing other books by Kim Hyesoon, Khadijah Queen, Shane McCrae, Amy King, Brandon Shimoda ... swoons all around!

Now go buy How We Saved the City so it can be on there next month.

Providence denizens, please come to my reading today at the Brown University Bookstore at 4:30 p.m. if you want a copy of either of these!

reading at the Brown bookstore!

Tomorrow -- 12/6/11, at 4:30 p.m. -- I'll be reading from the two new books at the Brown University Bookstore (244 Thayer St., Providence, RI). Please come listen!

Jennifer Fortin, Amish Trivedi and Nate Pritts, TONIGHT

Publicly Complex presents
Jennifer Fortin
Amish Trivedi
Nate Pritts

TONIGHT (Saturday, 12/3), at 6 pm
at Ada Books (717 Westminster St., Providence, RI)

Poetic excellence for our last reading of 2011. There will be snacks.

City Change #2

Krystal writes from Brooklyn: "The info booth at my subway stop was dismantled, and now there's a plywood structure in its place -- half painted blue half bare -- def. uglier than the empty booth was.

And I don't understand.

Historically, a person sat in the booth to help people. Now we all figure it out on our own."

City Change #1

Jenny writes from Esopus: "Every day the tide goes in and out, changing our town in minute ways along its edges. It's a rhythm that I never quite internalize, so I am usually surprised by it. Things are delivered by it -- old tires, bottles, broken bits, contours in the sand."

Other cities (the cities of others)

One thing I'm doing to promote How We Saved the City is giving people self-addressed, stamped postcards that ask them to tell me their name, where they live, and about a change in their city or town. I'll post what they tell me here, more or less as it comes in.

There will be an abundance of these postcards at the Arcades Project Showcase in Ithaca, NY on December 2nd, where Stockport Flats will give one to anyone who buys a copy of my book. Katie Yates's poem for the house will also be on offer. The first five copies to sell will also be accompanied by a very-limited-edition chapbook with a quilted cover (no picture; you have to go see) and purchasers will also have a chance to order one of the amulets I make -- more about those another time. Katie will also be offering hand-knit rescue scarves (proceeds to the Red Cross). I think there's a seesaw involved.

Look for the first city's change tomorrow morning.

How We Saved the City at SPD!

How We Saved the City is for sale at SPD (where you can also buy The Bounty: Four Addresses and TOWN). I got my copies yesterday and have been making squirrel sounds ever since.

Cover art by Tom Bubul, Cybele Collins, Jo Dery, Jungil Hong, Xander Marro, James McShane and Mike Taylor. Cover and text design by the all-knowing, all-seeing Lori Anderson Moseman, editor and publisher of Stockport Flats. Beautiful blurbs by Brenda Iijima and CA Conrad. Thanks to all who helped this book into being!

How We Are About To Save the City

Get a sneak peek at How We Saved the City, my upcoming book with Stockport Flats!

Distribute Me

The Bounty: Four Addresses is now available through SPD!

Don't forget, remember!

Come to the reading tomorrow night: Elizabeth Howort, Christopher Stackhouse, Paolo Javier, 6:00 p.m., at Ada Books, 717 Westminster, Providence.

And if you have any ears left after that, come hear Krystal Languell, Peter Richards, Jonas Moody and me in the Cousins Reading Series on SUNDAY night, 6:30 p.m., at 186 Carpenter Street, Providence.

Publicly Complex presents Christopher Stackhouse, Paolo Javier and Elizabeth Howort!

Elizabeth Howort
Paolo Javier
Christopher Stackhouse

will read their excellent poetry

on Saturday, November 12th, at 6 pm
at Ada Books (717 Westminster St., Providence)

Refreshments served.

The Bounty: Four Addresses

I'm delighted to announce that my new book, The Bounty: Four Addresses, is available for sale at Noemi Press.

The beautiful cover art is by Jenny Lee Fowler and the equally beautiful book design is by Jana Vukovic.

This is new!

This blog will help people who care what I do find out when, how and (occasionally) why I'm doing it.