As the crowd around a car accident, WILLIAM SHATNER draws your eye to the devastation that surrounds its savior. Shatner is the subject. Shatner is the object. Shatner is not what you think he is. WILLIAM SHATNER marries biblical verse with Us Weekly, producing a journey for salvation that doubles as a gossip column through the arc of the poems. Williams tells us “william shatner is a ghost. by ghost i mean / he is a great television. in the city square, / william shatner has become multitudes. / or so says my souvenir tee shirt.” Be warned yet assured. WILLIAM SHATNER polishes its brass knuckles before punching you in the face.
—A. Minetta Gould
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Yes, this is an animal, cooing under terse lines mirroring old fashioned poetic disturbances. Disturbances in the sense that young poets can be terrorized by mere existence too. Farivar writes
If she wants
to say bird
not finch
not starling
not snipe
let her
This is how to break a heart, to rip into poem flesh and say “give me some space to breathe,” to show a subtleness in what plagues the poet that can at once be gendered and completely not. All I want to do is synchronize my movements with this animal. All I want to do is be correct too.
—A. Minetta Gould
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The lust-filled teenage heart that Slawson provokes out of the I of Panic Attack, U.S.A. has nothing on the mature articulations of contemporary anxiety these poems present in their hot bellies. As if peeling the band t-shirt off adolescence’s sweaty, nervous body, Slawson opens up the poem to a tragic humor that is so delicate I wonder if its skin has ever seen light: “what sucks about the soul / is not knowing if it ends / like a parade ends.” If poetry had a yearbook, and that poetry yearbook held a vote for “most popular” or “best hair” or twenty other meaningless awards, Panic Attack, U.S.A. wouldn’t win any of them; it’s too slight and quiet to ever be thought of for the ballot. It’s too smart to care.
—A. Minetta Gould
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Micro reviews will be posted every Monday on our blog. Interested in submitting? Send your review of ~100 words to nikkita@blackocean.org.
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How I got involved:
I discovered Black Ocean while I was living in Northern Michigan watching people shovel off the snow that threatened to cave in their rooftops, requesting books I’d only heard hints of be sent to the small library in town. I loved the vibrancy and richness I found with the books from Black Ocean, and I continued to follow what the press was doing until a year later when the online editor position opened up. It’s been so wonderful to get to know the staff and to be involved with projects I care so much about.
What I do and why I love it:
The position has developed over time to include updating all things virtual—the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and our monthly newsletter. Some of it is sharing content from other parts of the web, but the best part is the content I help create, often through collaboration with staff or authors.
Working on the blog especially has been a fun challenge, because we really want it to have the feel of a virtual community space; so I am always thinking of different features to add that will help bring about that sense. Having an excuse to reach out to poets I deeply admire and ask them questions is great—I’m constantly surprised and excited by the things I learn from our writers. And there really is such camaraderie and collaboration with everyone—authors giving me ideas and suggestions, initiating projects of their own, having conversations with us, with each other—so much wonderful exchange.
What it’s like to work virtually with staff and authors:
It’s kind of a given when working on a blog that a lot of correspondence will be through email, but what’s been really fun for me is the few times we do get to see each other. I started working with Black Ocean before I’d met anyone, so when I went to AWP last year, I was meeting Janaka and Carrie and Ashley in person for the first time, and our authors too. It made returning home to continue the work at my computer a little more dimensional and engaging.
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Read The Girl Without Arms and find yourself craving more? Brandon's latest book is O B O N, released by Litmus Press in November. Of O B O N Brandon says
O Bon was written from 2005 through 2007
in the skin of inland seas and migration, fire and dementia,
corpses and corpse eaters, the memory of the Shimoda Family
and the Obon Festival in Japan
It was written alongside my first book, The Alps.
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And because there's never too much Brandon Shimoda, check out his essay "Winter Dwelling" in this month's issue of EVENING WILL COME.
]]>In the QC, Ellen Welcker takes us back to (this) world of Ordinary Sun, describing it as "like listening to confession in a parallel universe, a world like the aforementioned, with all the guts displayed on the outside, and the underworld on top." She argues that
What makes this book feel so loaded is Henriksen’s investment in the act of existing in the poems, in imbuing words with symbolic and relational power, in not providing answers.
and that ultimately, this is "a book for the living."
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Amid an issue studded with gorgeous visuals, the review of Ordinary Sun in The Aviary explores the notions of language within the book, "a musicality of word relations that eschews simple wordplay," and notes that "[t]here is a type of beautiful frustration with not being able to reconcile the ordinary and the metaphysical in this world." The review is thoughtful and thorough, arriving at the idea that
What sets Henriksen’s work far apart, though, is the pure control of craft and language by which he changes what is being looked at, what is being read. These poems are well-wrought but not over-wrought, beautiful but human, accessible but refusing. The project here is to make the ordinary and the concrete something more “angelic” or infinite, but if the reader squints hard enough, he or she might see that even the poet himself cannot escape the beauty of bringing down to earth such things as heady and abstract as love and loss.
The diverse offering of these two reviews alone pays tribute to the rich possibility and depth of reading that Ordinary Sun can offer.
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A. Minetta Gould is our illustrious Managing Editor. When not hosting elaborate dinner parties, she works like mad juggling spreadsheets, contacting authors, and greasing the cogs of our dark machine.
On how she got involved:
Black Ocean was born for me in some hot springs north of Boise, ID. Martin Corless-Smith and I were giving Paige [Ackerson-Keily, Handsome Editor] (she was here as our visiting author, In No One's Land had recently released from Ahsahta Press) the full Idaho experience. It was right before the last AWP Chicago...2009...and after a few hours hanging out in the pools Paige announced that I must introduce myself to Janaka, the editor of Black Ocean. I think she said we were similar souls and that we'd get along well. Something like that. A few weeks later I was standing in front of the Black Ocean table at AWP, still drunk from the night before, announcing that we were supposed to know one another, that Paige had said so (I also in this heat of morning drunk passion told Brandon Shimoda that I loved everything he did and wept at a Wallace Stevens presentation, in case anyone was wondering what I'm like upon first meeting me). Janaka gave me his card, I went to the Black Ocean reading that night, and understood this is what I wanted. My actual position is the product of a few basic elements: I was around when something needed done, I did said thing. Rinse: Repeat.
On what she does and why she loves it:
I am the Managing Editor. This means I manage things. I have about twenty different spreadsheets for various aspects of the press that I keep updated. Time lines for awards. Reading organizers. Reviewers. Various other contacts. Pretty much everything that isn't creative about running a press I have a hand in. I like it this way...I could mess up creativity but I can't mess up whether or not a book store carries our titles. Janaka still takes care of a lot of organizational things like AWP related tasks, but most tasks that exist in the cloud I do.
I like that my job is to help make the press grow. A lot of the time when I'm doing tedious projects (ever try to decide whether every independent bookstore in the country would want to carry your books? Definitely tedious.) I am reminded that what I do is make this press more efficient and sustainable.
I think the most surprising thing about my position is when I get approached about the press. Sometimes when I'm in my little spreadsheet world I forget that people really love and admire this press. A few months ago a group of students from Montana came through Boise to read and afterward one of them cornered me and was all gushy over Black Ocean. 1. It threw me that he knew who I was 2. After a few drinks he kept saying to people "Do you understand who she is?!?" or variations of a sort. I am a symbol for him of something bigger, and that throws me whenever it happens.
On what it’s like to work virtually with staff and authors:
I think most small presses work virtually, don't they? I worked for Ahsahta Press prior to my position at Black Ocean and all of that was in the flesh. Most of it didn't need to be. It was nice to have everyone in a single room doing the same things, and impromptu conversations could arise that can't happen via email, but I think this system works well too. I like feeling popular, and when I get emails I feel popular, so days when we're discussing a topic in a long email train thrill me. Days when I can see Janaka or Carrie or Nikki working over in their time zones because I have five different email subject lines from them are awesome. It always makes me want to work harder. I don't think I'd have the same experience if we were all in the same place right now. I don't think it effects how I think about books or authors, beyond its nice to meet them in the flesh if I never have. A cherished moment kind of thing.
]]>Vote here. (Matthew's book is in the poetry section.)
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Black Ocean & Walter Sickert present
PANDORA'S BOX: Two Nights of Art & Mayhem
Local award-winning publisher, Black Ocean, teams up with Boston’s musical king of weird, Walter Sickert, to bring you two nights of art and mayhem.
Friday, November 18th, kicks off with Outrageous Banjo, followed by a literary set of performances curated by Black Ocean, featuring local guerilla poet Alex Gang, and bests-selling Black Ocean author Joe Hall (from Maryland). Then the night heats up with an exclusive Slutcracker Sneak Preview courtesy of the Babes in Boinkland. Following their act, the Somerville Symphony Orkestar will get even more asses shaking as they put the “punk” back in “funk,” and turn the club into “equal parts mosh pit and horah.” To cap off the evening Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys present a very special event: The Chimpwork Orange Experience; art, music and stage show inspired by Anthony Burgess!
Saturday, November 19th, kicks off with James McAndrew (of Milquetoast & Co.) doing a solo set, followed by another Black Ocean curated literary set featuring Jasmine Dreame Wagner (of the Cabinet of Natural Curiosities). Then the the Babes in Boinkland return with ANOTHER exclusive Slutcracker Sneak Preview. Following the Babes, Bury Me Standing will elevate the night to new heights of consciousness with their own brand of “Gypsy Dirge-Core,” intertwining Balkan folksongs with art metal and psychedelia. To cap off the evening Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys present a very special event: Batman and the Chocolate Factory; a super-heroic sugar-fueled dream inspired by Roald Dahl!
Doors @ 8 / $10 in advance / $12 day of show / $16 both nights!
TWO NIGHT PACKAGE comes with a FREE exclusive
UNRELEASED song download card to be picked up at the venue
11/18: BUY HERE
11/19: BUY HERE
Two Day Pass: BUY HERE
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