Dave Bonta's Blog

Ice Mountain

I have a new book of ecopoetry out from Phoenicia Publishing in Montreal. It's called Ice Mountain: An Elegy. Here's the publisher's page. And here's a selection. In a nutshell, it's a poetic diary of linked verses chronicling the slow end of winter in a warming world. Also, the linocut illustrations by Beth Adams kick ass. Order here.

Warrior poets, shape-shifters and other unlikely characters: a year of reading aloud

An audio conversation at my literary blog Via Negativa. Books discussed include:

Sweeney Astray: A Version from the Irish [Buile Suibhne] by Seamus Heaney (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1983)
Ten Poems About Sheep selected and introduced by Neil Astley (Candlestick Press, 2012)
Bee Journal by Sean Borodale (Jonathon Cape/Random House, 2012)
The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy (Pan Macmillan, 2012)
Seven Viking Romances translated by Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards (Penguin, 1985)
Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney translated by Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards (Penguin, 1978)
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki translated by Jesse L. Byock (Penguin, 1998)

Breakdown: Banjo Poems

Can't believe I forgot to add this book on Goodreads till now! Too many social networks, too little time. Anyway, it's a chapbook, no ISBN, but very nicely printed and sewn, with cover artwork by my friend Steven Sherrill (also an author -- look him up). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Or go directly to the publisher's page:
http://sevenkitchenspress.com/our-aut...

I've been having fun making videos for poems in the collection. Find them at Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/album/2550499
or YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?featu...

Twelve Simple Songs

My newest collection is a short cycle of poems in dialogue with photographs about an intercontinental love affair, and it's available for free or at cost in multiple formats: PDF, audio, video, iBook, and print-on-demand. You can find links to all versions at the dedicated page on my website.

[Update] You can now also download the PDF from the book entry here at Goodreads: Twelve Simple Songs

LibraryThing

Has anyone here tried LibraryThing? I was thinking of decamping from Goodreads (not that I've been exactly active) due to the acquisition by Amazon, and I was intrigued by this new post at the official LibraryThing blog: "What makes LibraryThing LibraryThing?"

New Sun Rising

I have a brief essay about bento boxes in the new anthology New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan, available in paperback and for the Kindle.* That's not the main reason to get it though. Think of it instead as a donation to the Japanese Red Cross to support survivors of the 2011 tsunami, for which you get a free book. None of the editors, authors, or illustrators make a penny for this, and neither does the Aussie publisher. It's a beautiful book with a great diversity of contributions — a feel-good gift for all the readers on your Christmas list. Here's the publisher's blurb:

New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan is an anthology of stories, flash fiction, poems, haibun, haiku and artwork and photography donated by over 60 creators from all over the world to support those in Japan still affected by the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake. All monies go the Japanese Red Cross.

This anthology was prepared by an international team of volunteers and includes the donation of a poem in German with English translation by award-winning Austrian poet and writer, Friederike Mayröcker.

Greg Mc Queen, founder of 100 Stories for Haiti and 50 Stories for Pakistan says this:

"You're holding a book that beat the odds. A book made from determination. From compassion. And by holding it - buying it - reading it - telling others about it - you stand with the writers and artists who created it: ordinary people who watched the lives of strangers destroyed and decided that they needed to help."

Celebrate with us Japan and its people.

*I'm not listed as a contributor for the paperback edition, but that's because Goodreads only allows 50 contributors to be listed for any book.

The great Bill Knott "homepub" giveaway

The famously nonconformist poet Bill Knott turned down an offer from FSG to publish his New and Selected a few years ago, opting instead to self-publish. You can get his Collected Poems through Lulu—which I've not yet done—or you can take advantage of an offer at his art blog to buy an original painting for between $100 and $150 and get, in addition to the painting, a limited-edition print and "at least 10" of his hand-printed collections of poetry. I got 15. They are of very basic design, and most don't have a whole lot of white space—they are crammed with poems, even the short ones. They average about 50 pages in length; the longest is 204 pages long (Collected Sonnets, Vol. 2—with two sonnets per page!). Knott's poetry is all over the place in terms of style, mood and subject matter, ranging from formal verse to word salad and from satire to School of Quietude to surrealism. So there's something in it for everyone.

Today's poem at Via Negativa is an homage to Bill Knott.

Breakdown: Banjo Poems due out in September

According to the publisher, Seven Kitchens Press, my chapbook Breakdown: Banjo Poems should be out in just a couple of months.

Number 9 in our Keystone Chapbook Series and selected by Sascha Feinstein as co-winner of the 2011 Keystone Chapbook Prize, Dave's chapbook is scheduled for release in mid-September.

Stay tuned for information on pre-orders and give-aways. If you'd like a review copy, email me or leave a comment (or get in touch with Ron Mohring at Seven Kitchens, if that's how you roll).

Self-love

Goodreads authors are encouraged to rate their own books. Why? I can't conceive of a scenario in which this might constitute useful information to anyone.

That grouch aside, I'm happy to be here.