Poem published in Poydras Review blog

My poem "Elegy" was published March 24 in the Poydras Review poetry blog. Read it here.

New lit mag reviews posted

Lit magazines reviewed at New Pages this month include Armchair/Shotgun, Basalt, The Bitter Oleander, Cimarron Review (reviewed by me), The Dirty Goat, Gargoyle, Inkwell, Inscape, Memoir (and), New Madrid (also reviewed by me), Notre Dame Review, Permafrost, Poetry International, Toad Suck Review, and World Literature Today. Read the reviews here.
Kirsten McIlvenna is editing New Pages' magazine reviews, taking over for Jennifer Vande Zande.

'Buzz' likes my book

Small Economies, my book of minimalist fiction just out from Mayapple Press, got a positive review in the March 15 edition of Buzz, the weekly arts magazine published by Illini Media in Champaign-Urbana. The reviewer, David Ball, is a liberal arts senior at University of Illinois.
"In this flash fiction format," Ball writes, complexity is achieved by Palen's willingness to withhold information, focusing on those details most immediate in the character's mind and finding symbolism in those everyday objects on which we all fixate."

Book Signing in Chicago Saturday

I'll be at the Mayapple Press table at the AWP Bookfair 1-1:30 p.m. Saturday to sign copies of my short-story collection, Small Economies. The fair is on the lower level of the Chicago Hilton, 720 S. Michigan Ave., and is open to the public. Mayapple's table is P15 in the southeast hall. Hope to see you there.

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.