Lit magazine reviews arrive from New Pages

New Pages has brought in a fresh cargo of lit magazine reviews, including my take on the inaugural number of Journal of Renga and Renku, the Japanese-rooted collaborative poetry practice. Other magazines reviewed include Agni, Antioch Review, Bateau, Beloit Fiction Journal (by Jeff Vande Zande), Briar Cliff Review, Louisville Review, Puerto del Sol, and the Prague-based Vlak, reviewed by Sarah Gorman. Check them out here.

Emily Palen's album 'Glass' has arrived

Emily Palen's solo CD of violin improvisations, Glass, is out from the Valence Project in hybrid super-acoustic format. A release concert is planned later this month in San Francisco. Preorders at http://valencerecords.downloadsnow.net/glass.

New novel from Jeff Vande Zande

One of my favorite fiction writers, Michigander Jeff Vande Zande, has a new novel coming out in the spring from Bottom Dog Press. Set in Saginaw, Michigan, American Poet is a "working-class story of poetry versus activism, fathers and sons, and what it takes to try to make a difference," according to Jeff's website.