TGOB At AWP

AWP has become an excuse for me to see a big hunk of my writer pals in one place, get super-clocked by awesome readingparties, and wander around and stare at books.

As the AWP rowdy life goes, awesome things overlap and undercut and AHHHH. Here are the off-site readings I'm most stoked for this AWP (and will go to if the world is Nice):

Thursday
Table X Reading with Ashley Farmer, Tadd Adcox, Aaron Teel, and more!

12 Good Readers featuring Abraham Smith (FINALLY), Heather Christle, Ben Hersey, Scott McClanahan, and 8 more!

Their Peculiar Ambitions: A Night of  Presidential Fiction Readings with Sal Pane, J.A. Tyler, Matt Bell, and many more!

Ink Node Reading featuring Wendy Xu, Zachary Schomburg, Nick Sturm, Adam Fell, and more! 

Friday
Sixth Finch and Vinyl Poetry with Matthew Lippmann, Emily Toder, Dan Magers, and more!

I'm So Tired with Ben Kopel, Carina Finn, Matt Hart, and more!

LIT PARTY with Scott McClanahan, Mike Young playing music,  and more!

Saturday
There's Still Good In You with Jordaan Mason, Gabriel Blackwell, Amber Sparks, Adam Robinson, and more!

Six Party Talk with Layne Ransom, Dean Young, Caroline Cabrera, Bob Hicok, and more!

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I'll also be helping Mike with the Magic Helicopter table at the book fair during the day. Come visit, pick up the new issue of Noo Journal or the second edition of The Drunk Sonnets, and be our pal!

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I'm sure I'm missing stuff. What stuff am I missing? Tell me what I'll be missing! Still figuring out what panels I'll be going to.

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STAY STOKED AT AWP

Wow This Week

Wednesday is Layne's bday. Hitting up some delicious beers and cheese curds at Twenty Tap before rolling over to see Powerful Patricia Smith read at Butler.

Friday, I'm reading with Loopy Layne Ransom, Rad Ryan Rader, Justified Justin Carter, and Jumping Joshua Kleinberg at Be Here Now in Muncie at 8:30. So stoked to finally host my mega pal Kleinberg for a weekend. It is gonna be a solid foundation of fun to start yr weekends!

Saturday, Layne and I are co-hosting a bday party for the two of us (GROSS COUPLE ALERT) at my parents' barn and yard in Elwood. Holla if you need details.

ID LOVE TO SEE YOU

Big Silly Summer Shoulder

Everything you've heard is true, if everything you've heard is that I redislocated my right shoulder. It happened. Last Wednesday, it was the Field Day at the elementary school I work at and we'd just finished the water games and we were moving on to the obstacle course. I was running, playing, laughing, and I think everyone was having a fun time. I slipped and it just popped out, my shoulder, but also the fun time.

It's weird: the first time this happened I was being a total idiotjerksadguy; this time I was being a good human being. HMMMMMM

The last five days have been a fog of GEESH NO DISC GOLF and BOOOO this flops atop the summer road trip and GAHHH Layne moved to North Carolina! and the kids are at the pool and not learning from me, not drawing pictures of bananas and monsters for me.

I can be the most selfish person I know.

Yet, the trip must go on as I must go on. June is gonna get smooshed up a bit. July is gonna stay the same hopefully.

I've been chat-chattering lots with the poet and my dear friend Kat Dixon and we say things like NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO ADVENTURE TOGETHER. I wanna see if we are mistaken or maybe we are perfectly right. I bought two bus tickets and I'm going to see her in Atlanta on Wednesday. I've never done anything like that before.

Then, my dear WOLF Ashley and I are gonna go to Akron to see our dear Akron pals. I'm gonna make them talk to me about their city for the Vouched blog. I'm reading in Akron on June 8th and in Cleveland on June 9th. I'll probably still be wearing a sling. Still, I want hugs.

Then then, it's back on a Megabus (I hope they are like 25 feet tall!) to head to Chicago for a reading (THXXXXX Russ Woods for helping with that) and to see Japandroids and to hang out with Tadd Adcox for the Vouched Series.

THXXXXX to Joshua Kleinburg for getting me these readings!

Yesterday was like the worst emotional day I've had since January, which is both good and bad, you know?

It's an overwhelming feeling when people want to hang out and let you in their house and show you their city. It's an overwhelming feeling when someone you like wants none of this.

If you've ordered a poem postcard, you'll get it OH YES YOU'LL GET IT. Mondo thxxxxxxxxxxx to everyone who has supported that project. It's unreal coooool of you.

Wow, who even talks like this anymore?

OH MY DONT MISS THIS

THE FULLNESS OF EVERYTHING THAT IS GONNA HAPPEN WHEN WE GO OVER THE TOP

My chapbook, Goodness is a Fine Thing to Chase, is in an anthology of sorts called The Fullness of Everything, accompanied by a rad short story chapbook by Christopher Newgent and an awesome collection of lyric essays by Brian Oliu. It is out now(ish) from Tiny Hardcore Press.

To celebrate, we are heading out together on a mini-tour next week, along with Matt Bell, whose newest book, Cataclysm Baby, is out now(ish) from MudLuscious Press. We will be hitting Tuscaloosa, Atlanta, and Nashville. GUESS WHAT IM STOKED.

Christopher and I will also be lugging the Vouched Books table along with us, equaling more books which equals more fun, duh!

Also, we want to arm wrestle. I'll also regular wrestle or maybe even fight you if that is what you want. I'm a people pleaser.



Here is more info on each of those dates:

April 4th - Tuscaloosa, AL
Green Bar, 2209 4th Street
w/ Marsha McSpadden & Ashley McWaters
7pm

April 6th - Atlanta, GA
Goat Farm, 1200 Foster Street
w/ J. Bradley & Melysa Martinez
8pm

April 7th - Nashville, TN
Portland Brew East, 1921 Eastland Avenue
w/ Todd Dills
6pm

If you're in the area for any of these readings, I really hope you can make it out. We can laugh and talk about words and probably be pals (at least for a night! Maybe longer!). We will have copies of our book for sale.

If you can't make it to a reading and would like to help out, buy a book, share the Facebook events/flyer, or just say what's up on the web. WE ARE REALLY APPRECIATIVE PEOPLE SO THANX.

In the next week, I'll be blogging here about the two other chapbooks in the collection, my own contribution, and Matt Bell's writing, as well as a mass interview where I've been letting anyone who wants to ask me a question on FB/Twitter do just that and I'll answer them (Also, leave a question in the comments, if you want; it can be about the book, my writing, my life, nothing at all!). Other possible posts include videos of me reading poems from the book in awkward places, picture updates, and other weirdo proof of living.

I LIKE YOU A LOT.

SO STOKED FOR THIS

WOOT FOR THIS

WOOOOOOOOOOO

So stoked for the return of Vouched Presents! So stoked to see Heather Christle and Benjamin Hersey read! So stoked to be on the lineup! So stoked to see you there!

Matt Hart Is Rad

With a couple of my coolest lit pals, Layne and Ben, I went up to Lafayette this afternoon to see Matt Hart read as part of Nate Slawson's Panic Attack USA tour. Awesome words like this, some deals at Von's Bookshop, a massive grilled chicken cheese melt and cool pals; it was a nice way to spend a Sunday.

Some days I'm terrified that I exist at all.

Tonight, we are gonna celebrate National Poetry Month RIGHT. And by we I mean, Todd McKinney, Patrick Collier, Elysia Smith, Zach Arnett, Layne Ransom, Mark Neely, myself, and Christopher Newgent, along with whomever is cool enough to show up (LIKE MY PARENTS). Ah, Christopher Newgent. What a cool dude, a good dude, spreading the word of indie/small press lit, inspiring community, and writing cool poems. Remember that week long thing awhile back on Everyday Genius? Yeah, I revisited that to get pumped for tonight. It's all good, but man oh man, that day of "The Lamb" was a good day. Simmer in its goodness and CELEBRATE.

OH YES YOU CAN YOU CAN DO IT

Elysia Smith and her Chicklitz palz will be reading tonight and guess what IT'S NATIONAL POETRY MONTH. How nice of a combo! I think it'll calm something in me. Or at least, I'll stand in the back, clap appreciatively, and not act like an idiot.

GET STOKED!

THINGS THAT CAN REALLY MAKE ME FEEL BETTER THIS WEEK

The 2011 Issue of the Broken Plate (More on this later.)

Lynn Emanuel + Shaun Gannon

Yesterday's book was Hotel Fiesta by Lynn Emanuel from this two volume collection. Having read another of Emanuel's books, Then, Suddenly, I knew what I was getting myself into. She is a master of perception, of taking memory or perceived memory and fashioning into these mostly single-page poems. Stark images, a layering in the best way, pure emotional contained in the world of action, the physical. Emanuel often goes from an image in her life, a photograph, a painting, a memory, and delves into its world of possibilities. Out of it, she brings forth the beauty and the emotion and the real-life carnage that she finds. I wish I'd had time to read The Dig as well, but Emanuel's first book packed enough punch to hold me over for a long while.

I KNOW THIS SOUNDS LIKE A BLURB. THAT'S FUNNY. BUT IT'S A TRUE BLURB.

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I watched this video of my friend, Shaun Gannon, read his EPIC poem I AM SHAUN GANNON while I had breakfast. That's funny too.

Monday's Book + Bob Hicok Reading

The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster by Richard Brautigan

I loved Trout Fishing and a couple friends talked up these poems, so I was like Okay.

I highly admire Brautigan's gusto to push forms, to think outside of the norm, to not be afraid to say something.

One question: at what point does a short, funny piece cross the line (either way) between a poem and a joke?

I'm not accusing Brautigan of anything negative. I did really enjoy these poems.

He is a master of the short form it seems, prose or poetry, because of his ability to turn hints into statements.

A good example of this:

A Widow's Lament

It's not quite cold enough
to go borrow some firewood
from the neighbors.

I often have trouble letting a feeling or image stand alone in my poems, wanting to mesh it with others, wanting it to be fun and moving and fast and energetic.

In this book, I realized, when done right, something this simple can be heavier than thou.

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Last night, I went to Indianapolis to see Bob Hicok read. (BUTLER HAS SUCH A SWEET READING SERIES)

I've read a few Hicok books and the things he publishes in the journals I read. I'd call myself a good-sized fan (165 POUNDS OF POETRY LOVIN' DUDE), especially of his style. The humor-to-get-to-the-heavy-stuff feels so real life to me, like how we usually start out social interactions, even ones with big complications like a breakup, with jokes or light conversation. Read also: the repetition and discursiveness.

I was surprised by his reading style. Maybe naively, I expected more energy and more talk between pieces. Instead, he read as calmly as anyone I've seen, especially when I take into account the fact that it wasn't boring. HE WAS A DELIVERER.

Oh yes, it was a fabulous experience, me doing my weird headshake, scribbling in my notebook, trying to muster up the courage to ask a question. I DIDNT, though I had a few.

I did talk to him after, about Virginia Tech (a school to which I'm applying), his new book, and (ashamedly?) myself. I kept going back and forth about telling him I'm applying to VT, but I did it, I told him, and he was like OUR STIPEND IS GREAT. Also, he wrote in one of my books, "Good luck getting into a school." LOLZ.

DO I ADD THIS CLUMSY LIVING TO THIS WEEK'S READINGS? OR TOO SOON?

Another great reading with my cool set of pals, Tyler, Sara, and Cody.

WORDZ AT MY HEADWEEK

In addition to the sweet visit from Brian Oliu and the Alabama Undergradsthis week, I got to see Mark Halliday and Terrance Hayes read in Indy on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Here is a quick rundown of each, followed by one of my favorite poems by each poet:

Halliday: odd quirky personality, like mix of emotionally tender and cynical, style comes across so well during reading, went with Todd, Sara, Cody, and Tyler, Butler has a sweet reading series (HICOK STILL TO COME), got Jab, got Jab autographed, super fun.

Hayes: Really good reader, pace and tone, tried to be funny at times and came off as COME ON MAN, stopped in middle of a poem to explain something=lame, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER, poems seem deep like goodness, went with Ashley, Cody, Tyler, and DJ, ate at a 50's diner which was cool, U of Indy, Hayes wears two watches, bought Lighthead, got Lighthead signed, so did Tyler, our books look identical.

ODE: THE CAPRIS
by Mark Halliday
from Tasker Street

How do I feel about "There's a Moon Out Tonight"
by the Capris?
I thought you'd never ask

Marcia Koomen lived across Cherry Lane
getting tall, taller than me in fifth grade
and smiling behind her glasses, she knew something.
The summer nights in Raleigh were thick
with something bright in the dark; you could ride
bikes under the moon and in and out of
lampshine at the corner of Wade and Dogwood,
not caring about touching a girl, or, later,
not caring much still but happy to be a boy
who could some day "have" a girl, and be conscious of
a shivering beauty caught in the word girl

There's a girl at my side
that I adore
-the Capris knew something all together
and it called for this new verb, to adore;
something out there ahead of my bicycle in the dark;
I cared a loy about Paladin on "Have Gun - Will Travel"
but did I adore him? Scotty Koomen, years older,
got sort of pale and brittle when he went to visit
a certain girl in his class, he seemed to have trouble
breathing...
There's a glow in my heart
I never felt before
- not exactly in my heart yet but it was
what would be there if I rode just maybe deeper down
Dogwood Lane in the busy dark.

Across Dogwood lived Ann Dailey
who had freckles and an awesome kind of largeness,
not fat but big and this made my eyes feel hot and burny;
she moved slowly doing chores in her yard,
her long tanning thighs seemed sarcastic
as if she knew soon her freckled beauty must positively
carry her somehow out, out and away...And
Shelby Wilson one night kissed her on the lips.
I saw it happen - on the sofa in the basement -
her folks weren't home. Right on the lips!

Amazing lips are in your future, boy. That's
what the Capris were telling me; the North Carolinia moon
is natural and it can find you anywhere;
you have to let the moon paint you and your bike
and the picture of Elvis in your pocket
and it shines down on Marcia's hair
and on the thought of the green eyes of Ann Dailey.
Ride and wait, wait and watch;
you laugh, you shiver in the summer - cool - dark.
You speak of the Yankees and the Pirates but
cut a side glance at Marcia's tall shape
but when she says anything serious exasperate her
yelling Little Richard's wop bop alu bop

but this dodging, dodging will end -
somewhere -
the Capris being on Marcia's side.
Baby, I never felt this way before
I guess it's because there's a moon out tonight

and once that shining starts
no amount of irony will ever quite ride the Capris out of town.
I picture a deep pool with yellow flowers drifting
on the surface. The song pours up
out of that pool.

At Pegasus
by Terrance Hayes
from Muscular Music

They are like those crazy women
who tore Orpheus
when he refused to sing,

these men grinding
in the strobe & black lights
of Pegasus. All shadow & sound.

"I'm just here for the music,"
I tell the man who asks me
to the floor. But I have held

a boy on my back before.
Curtis & I used to leap
barefoot into the creek; dance

among maggots & piss,
beer bottles & tadpoles
slippery as sperm;

we used to pull off our shirts,
& slap music into our skin.
He wouldn't know me now

at the edge of these lovers' gyre,
glitter & steam, fire,
bodies blurred sexless

by the music's spinning light.
A young man slips his thumb
into the mouth of an old one,

& I am not that far away.
The whole scene raw & delicate
as Curtis's foot gashed

on a sunken bottle shard.
They press hip to hip,
each breathless as a boy

carrying a friend on his back.
The foot swelling green
as the sewage in that creek.

We never went back.
But I remember his weight
better than I remember

my first kiss.
These men know something
I used to know.

How could I not find them
beautiful, the way they dive & spill
into each other,

the way the dance floor
takes them,
wet & holy in its mouth.

BRIAN FREAKING OLIU

As part of the BSU-Alabama student exchange, four Alabama undergrads and faculty member, Brian Oliu, visited our campus for the last few days. Their visit was capped by a reading last night. All four students are really nice people. Brian is a nice guy, too. BUT MAN HE IS ALSO A STELLAR LYRIC ESSAYIST.

He read two from his missed connections series and three from his Nintendo video game series. The first missed connection one was from the gym, and holy cow, talk about ringing bells. I love the way those pieces stretch and fold within themselves, wrapping emotional talk around some tight images. Just a pleasure to listen to.

Speaking of ringing bells, he read his Nintendo essay about Punch Out!. Talk about a hard-hitter: WOAH OH JOKE OH. But really, the morphing this essay does within the theme set out by the title and situation is incredible. The words flexing themselves into strong sentences, meshing and mushing with other sweet sentences, and at the end, I truly just went "OH."

It was a pleasure to be able to talk to these people, finally meet Brian (who was one of my early Vouches), to hear about a different awesome CW school, to hear them read, and to spend some time afterwards getting to know other human beings. I'm truly looking forward to heading down there at the end of March, reading at the Slash Pine Poetry Festival (which these cool people are putting together), and seeing some CW life outside of Muncie.

OH YEAH HELP US GET TO ALABAMA PLEASE

WORD WISE WACKY WEEKS WAHEAD

I just realized that this all is happening in my life and I can't handle that much wordz.

Feb. 22- Brian Oliu and four U of Alabama undergrads visiting and reading at BSU as part of a writers exchange.
Feb. 23- Mark Halliday reading at Butler Univ. in Indy.
Feb. 24- Terrence Hays reading at the U of Indy. (WHAT A BUSY AWESOME WORD WEEK; also the 23rd is Sara's birthday)
March 1- Writers Gala Winners Reading with Layne, Lindsey, and Spencer
March 3-5- The East Central Writing Center Association Conference in Kalamazoo; I'm doing a panel discussion on the Reading Aloud Method for Tutoring Sessions
March 7- Bob Hicok reading at Butler in Indy
March 21-22- In Print Fest with Paul Killebrew, Debra Gwartney, Tina May Hall, and the Artifice editors
March 31-Apr. 2- Me, Layne, Elysia, and Jeremy are going with Lovelace and Mullins to U of Alabama for the other end of the exchange to read at the Slash Pine Poetry Fest and visit the school

DANG

THIS WILL PROBABLY BE THE BEST READING EVER

I WANT TO TELL YOU SOME THINGS SO I HAVE A BLOG

- Just got back from the reading with Jeremy and Lindsey. Layne hosted. What a killer trio of pals right there. Layne did funny intros, like mine was about Mac from It's Always Sunny... and people think I look like him (OKAY I CONCEDE THAT I DO), and people cracked up, like YEAH HE DOES TOTALLY. It was Lindsey's first reading, and she did a nice job, with a couple truly well-written stories. I think this was probably my best reading, definitely in terms of pieces, also my longest, also my Mom's first time to see me read. My mom knows I curse and has a vague idea of how I talk in my poems, but I was worried about her seeing me do that in public. She was a sport and took me to Greek's and it was good (GRILLED CHICKEN PIZZA SHELL). Jeremy ruled too, with some stuff I haven't read or don't remember and some cool new stuff and some fun stuff from the chapbook. Sold some books which is always nice. Village Green Records (TRAVIS SERIOUSLY RULES) was so sweet to host us, and I saw a few people buy things which is awesome. The crowd was not huge, but tidy and sweet and comfy and beautiful and friends. When people who don't "do" poetry come, it's a nice feeling. When professors get babysitters to come, it's a nice feeling. When friends keep coming to these events, it's a nice feeling. Overall, I think it was a radical time, though I wish there was an after-party.

- If I were still 16 year old Tyler, I would be rockin' out to this stuff right now. Taking Back Sunday TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS LINEUP OMG DUDEZ. 22 year old Tyler listened once.

- Todd and I were talking about Steve Orlen today, poet and teacher, and then I find out he died. It's got me shakyweird because Todd just introduced me to him. Tony Hoagland, Orlen's former student, had a nice essay over at H_NGM_N about Orlen.

- I'm making a Christmas list, per my two sets of parents' instructions. Orlen's Selected Poems is definitely on the list now. Also, Matt Hart's Wolf Face, some more Dean Young books, and Stevens' Collected on high on the book list. Also, I'd like a subscription to Pank I think. They do good work. I'm also really wanting some new jeans. I have like three pairs that I dig and they are wearing out. Also, my awesome comfy warm socks have holes, so they are on the list. I don't think this matters.

- What do you want me to blog about?