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.

'Small Economies' has arrived

My first collection of fiction, Small Economies, was published last week by Mayapple Press. The 53-page book includes short stories and flash fiction written over the last three years.
The Mayapple website describes them as "economical in narration but comprehensive in their suggestion of the past, present, and future lives of their characters. The moments they contain are set against the background of diverse public spaces: the institutions, stores, factories, restaurants, even the street corners where people must come together and choose to serve, reject, or compete against one another."
I encourage you to buy a copy from Mayapple Press as a way of showing your support for this "small press" that has an increasingly important presence in literary publishing. As of today, my book was still available from Mayapple at a pre-order price of $12.55 plus shipping and handling.
Or drop me an email with your mailing address at japalen@aol.com. I'll send you a signed copy from my stock at the list price of $13.95, plus $1.50 postage and handling.
Some of the stories are very short -- perhaps close to prose poems. Here's one of my favorites.

PRACTICE
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! he said, a small, dark-haired boy in an untucked shirt. He ran careening out of the hallway toward the sanctuary. Have you lost your cello, Simon? the teacher asked, walking behind him on long legs. Simon hadn’t known she was even there, hadn’t realized he was talking loudly enough to be heard. No, he said, and ran on,
not waiting to explain that the cello was lying on a pew where he’d left it after dress rehearsal, nor that he was practicing Oh, my God! because his mother had said it over and over on the phone that morning. He didn’t know to whom, some part of her life on the other end. He thought she was surprised, a little worried but not too much, maybe putting the other person on a little. He tried to get just her same tone.
He remembered to grab the cello below the scroll and the bow at the frog. Only a little taller than the instrument, he dodged up through parents to his wooden stool and sat down. The teacher worked her way toward him, tuning cellos while the pianist sounded an A and paused, and then another. As he waited, his thoughts returned to the hallway. Some day, when he had people in his life who would call, he would need exactly that way of talking. He wanted to be as ready as he could. Things were bound to happen.

New at New Verse News

I've got a poem, "Primary Colors," on today's New Verse News site. While you're there, check out David Feela's "The Year in Preview," the Jan. 13 posting.

Two Poets I Like a Lot

Two poets I like a lot have books recently out or forthcoming.

Janice Harrington, who teaches creative writing at University of Illinois, offers The Hands of Strangers: Poems From the Nursing Home, published by BOA. Sandra Beasley presents and comments on one of the poems in John Griswold's blog, The Education of Oronte Chum, in Higher Education Today.

Also, Detroit poet Terry Blackhawk has a new book coming out soon from Wayne State University Press. It is The Light Between and can be preordered. I heard Terry read at Robert Fanning's fine Wellspring reading series in Mount Pleasant last year. I'm eager to see in print what I heard there -- and more.

Happy New Year!

I have poems in three just-published journals -- Prick of the Spindle, Honey Land Review, and Jelly Bucket. Here's one from Jelly Bucket, written in response to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting last Jan. 8. The poem seems appropriate for the end of 2011, the beginning of what I hope is a better year for all.

WHAT TO DO

When the chief surgeon’s press conference has winnowed to soundbites
and splashes of flowers cover most of the spattered blood
and we’ve swayed unarmed in a circle holding hands while a piper skirls
and police have unwound the yellow tape from stanchions and bollards
and before it all starts up again

let there be a little space in time
like a clearing
let us wash and dry the dishes after supper
and put them all away