kevin mcpherson eckhoff's Blog, page 2
March 30, 2013
The 2013 John Lent Poetry-Prose Award: Call for Entries
Kalamalka Press is thrilled insode its bones to announce the second annual John Lent Poetry-Prose Award!
The competition seeks chapbook-length works of poetry, short fictions or hybrids thereof. Entrants should be residents of Canada and in the early stages of their writing careers, having not published more than two full-length books. The winning chapbook will be published in a limited fine-press edition by Kalamalka Press.
Guidelines
* Manuscripts should be double-spaced in a legible 12-point font and span no more than 20 single-sided pages (including title page, table of contents, epigraph/dedication, etc.).
* Please include your name, mailing address and email on a separate cover page, and place only the title and page numbers on every page.
* Excerpts from the manuscript may be previously published in periodicals, but should not yet have appeared in a trade collection.
* The competition is open to poetry, short narratives or any combination of the two. Please do not send work in translation.
* Manuscripts should be submitted on plain 8.5” × 11” paper, fastened either with a staple or clip, and will be recycled unless accompanied by a return self-addressed stamped envelope.
Entry Fee
$10 for each manuscript. Writers may enter as many times as they wish. Please make cheques out to Okanagan College Foundation.
Prizes
The winner receives $250.00 and ten percent of the book’s print-run.
Deadline
All entries must be postmarked between February 1 and May 1, 2013. Submissions received outside of this time frame will not be considered. The winner will be announced by July 1, 2013, and published during the subsequent academic year.
Send submissions to:
The John Lent Poetry-Prose Award
c/o Okanagan College
7000 College Way
Vernon, BC
V1B 2N5
Direct any queries to the contest coordinator, Kevin McPherson: kmcpherson@okanagan.bc.ca
The competition seeks chapbook-length works of poetry, short fictions or hybrids thereof. Entrants should be residents of Canada and in the early stages of their writing careers, having not published more than two full-length books. The winning chapbook will be published in a limited fine-press edition by Kalamalka Press.
Guidelines
* Manuscripts should be double-spaced in a legible 12-point font and span no more than 20 single-sided pages (including title page, table of contents, epigraph/dedication, etc.).
* Please include your name, mailing address and email on a separate cover page, and place only the title and page numbers on every page.
* Excerpts from the manuscript may be previously published in periodicals, but should not yet have appeared in a trade collection.
* The competition is open to poetry, short narratives or any combination of the two. Please do not send work in translation.
* Manuscripts should be submitted on plain 8.5” × 11” paper, fastened either with a staple or clip, and will be recycled unless accompanied by a return self-addressed stamped envelope.
Entry Fee
$10 for each manuscript. Writers may enter as many times as they wish. Please make cheques out to Okanagan College Foundation.
Prizes
The winner receives $250.00 and ten percent of the book’s print-run.
Deadline
All entries must be postmarked between February 1 and May 1, 2013. Submissions received outside of this time frame will not be considered. The winner will be announced by July 1, 2013, and published during the subsequent academic year.
Send submissions to:
The John Lent Poetry-Prose Award
c/o Okanagan College
7000 College Way
Vernon, BC
V1B 2N5
Direct any queries to the contest coordinator, Kevin McPherson: kmcpherson@okanagan.bc.ca
March 13, 2013
fifth blog post-post: supragoodreads: ebbflux by gmb (online, 2011)
If do you enjoy online ebooks? Even fake reading can be vigorous and tasty! But there is the one virtual poetry experience that takes the extreme too far still. Everyone, say "truth be damned" to the ebbflux!
This lil imposter thinks of itself as Oulipian narrative beyond lyric postulating, maybe, but any aesthete reader can sense that it's trying past its breach! Personally, i love the attempting more than the completing & the questing more than the competing, so ebbflux touches my soul perfectly! I could hyperlink from word-to-word, expanding and refreshing until those user interface metaphors became honest! Here's a many giblets:
"You need a better encryption algorithm (and right, think about the broadcast and tell me that’s not ironic). True, nevertheless.
Appropriations, appropriations, appropriations. And it appears to be authentic — no gimmicks here.
With fish arms and quiet gentle lips she gazes up into him. With unbridled squeals and a sudden death grasp she walks up into him. Reach, grab hold ... swing.
It is with these hesitations that we wall forward and head on into our every days. A walk unchanging, a walk without end.
Here is a place where bright green moss flourishes between century old stonework on town halls, village walls, and brilliant cobbled falls.
(the invertebrates have arrived, by the way. they’ve been here for months. sea side. desk side. sand dollar worn.)
Men howl like animals behind echoes down. Red lines of indentation cut into pink flesh. How like you, the summer rain.
It works like an icon. Just select it.
She is simple, adorable, beauty incarnate. She’s acquired through taste and circumstance. She develops and ages slowly like wine ... over time. In this place, near that space where perfection is revealed on a beach side sand dollar reflection: starfish, spotted eel, and slimy brown sting rays at a petting zoo."
The action is rigorously imprecise, the characters more authentic than the internet, the antagonist smells of parenthood. Gestalt theory suggests that the summation of this poetic equation suggests an idiocy of the extraordinary within the daily typing of yourself. Read on means click on means move on means memory on.
If you were me, you'd recommend checking out this affordable dabble into priceless texting as artifact of artifiction. Please, do the linking and realize the purchase within this very real stepping into steep language and vary generosity! You're thank you!
This lil imposter thinks of itself as Oulipian narrative beyond lyric postulating, maybe, but any aesthete reader can sense that it's trying past its breach! Personally, i love the attempting more than the completing & the questing more than the competing, so ebbflux touches my soul perfectly! I could hyperlink from word-to-word, expanding and refreshing until those user interface metaphors became honest! Here's a many giblets:
"You need a better encryption algorithm (and right, think about the broadcast and tell me that’s not ironic). True, nevertheless.
Appropriations, appropriations, appropriations. And it appears to be authentic — no gimmicks here.
With fish arms and quiet gentle lips she gazes up into him. With unbridled squeals and a sudden death grasp she walks up into him. Reach, grab hold ... swing.
It is with these hesitations that we wall forward and head on into our every days. A walk unchanging, a walk without end.
Here is a place where bright green moss flourishes between century old stonework on town halls, village walls, and brilliant cobbled falls.
(the invertebrates have arrived, by the way. they’ve been here for months. sea side. desk side. sand dollar worn.)
Men howl like animals behind echoes down. Red lines of indentation cut into pink flesh. How like you, the summer rain.
It works like an icon. Just select it.
She is simple, adorable, beauty incarnate. She’s acquired through taste and circumstance. She develops and ages slowly like wine ... over time. In this place, near that space where perfection is revealed on a beach side sand dollar reflection: starfish, spotted eel, and slimy brown sting rays at a petting zoo."
The action is rigorously imprecise, the characters more authentic than the internet, the antagonist smells of parenthood. Gestalt theory suggests that the summation of this poetic equation suggests an idiocy of the extraordinary within the daily typing of yourself. Read on means click on means move on means memory on.
If you were me, you'd recommend checking out this affordable dabble into priceless texting as artifact of artifiction. Please, do the linking and realize the purchase within this very real stepping into steep language and vary generosity! You're thank you!
November 3, 2012
October 31, 2012
Tho Best Poetry Book of 2012: My Heart Sores by Chief Dan George
My Heart Soars
Of all the books of poetry published this year, Chief Dan George's My Heart Soars offers either the sincerest or most radically sarcastic collection of illustrated word unbelongings and graphite colonizing.
"Nothing belongs to you of what there is."
Check out his expert exploitation of the exclamation. Peek at his attentiveness to the adjective "good". The instruction poems shame the imperative paintings of Yoko Ono into owning their own incredulity.
"Touch a child--they are my people."
Carry your village embers with you. Protect them. Listen to them. Show them to your children. Respect the trees that sacrificed themselves for the book by burying its seeds deep into the loam of your heart organ.
"When I thank, I thank for everything."
The appreciation of the all-world reminds poets that even words can become meanings again, and the truth that was once a proper noun can transcend the ironic self-observance of the individual, of the individual's individuality.
"This alone will no longer be possible."
These mournfully meditations instill a praise of past/present/future in readers within generations of dialogue that is living on this every-earth with this culture and nature that remain invisible/indivisible/inadvisable. To know the nevermore is to hallucinate hope and a real belief in the moment. Drums. Smoke houses. Coyotes.
This talk has been good!
Of all the books of poetry published this year, Chief Dan George's My Heart Soars offers either the sincerest or most radically sarcastic collection of illustrated word unbelongings and graphite colonizing.
"Nothing belongs to you of what there is."
Check out his expert exploitation of the exclamation. Peek at his attentiveness to the adjective "good". The instruction poems shame the imperative paintings of Yoko Ono into owning their own incredulity.
"Touch a child--they are my people."
Carry your village embers with you. Protect them. Listen to them. Show them to your children. Respect the trees that sacrificed themselves for the book by burying its seeds deep into the loam of your heart organ.
"When I thank, I thank for everything."
The appreciation of the all-world reminds poets that even words can become meanings again, and the truth that was once a proper noun can transcend the ironic self-observance of the individual, of the individual's individuality.
"This alone will no longer be possible."
These mournfully meditations instill a praise of past/present/future in readers within generations of dialogue that is living on this every-earth with this culture and nature that remain invisible/indivisible/inadvisable. To know the nevermore is to hallucinate hope and a real belief in the moment. Drums. Smoke houses. Coyotes.
This talk has been good!
October 15, 2012
Dvice for Writers (Yold &New): Ever Give Up!
Here're a simple few of the advices i give to the face-areas of all my writerly acolytes.
1. Find a sobject; you "care" a bout.
2. Lustily using adverbs either grossly is or daintily isn't some kinda mortal sin.
3. The reader is a fiend, not an adversary, and not a spectator-tot.
4. Never.
5. To use the word "then" as a conjunction, we have. For "and" purpose. Substituting lazy. Is the writer's non-solution?
5. No what a story is or isn't or neither.
6. Always carry adequate postage on your person. That's right, ON your person.
7. Do not ever even give advice to aspiring anyones.
8. Wait for inspiration; perspiration is fugly.
9. Put it aside. Channel Fear. Call your cemetery. Read it 1200 days later, pretending you're a gazelle. Show it to strangers whose opinion is illiterate.
10. Tread widely and with incrimination. Bad reading is contagious.
11. Remember writing doesn't love you.
1. Find a sobject; you "care" a bout.
2. Lustily using adverbs either grossly is or daintily isn't some kinda mortal sin.
3. The reader is a fiend, not an adversary, and not a spectator-tot.
4. Never.
5. To use the word "then" as a conjunction, we have. For "and" purpose. Substituting lazy. Is the writer's non-solution?
5. No what a story is or isn't or neither.
6. Always carry adequate postage on your person. That's right, ON your person.
7. Do not ever even give advice to aspiring anyones.
8. Wait for inspiration; perspiration is fugly.
9. Put it aside. Channel Fear. Call your cemetery. Read it 1200 days later, pretending you're a gazelle. Show it to strangers whose opinion is illiterate.
10. Tread widely and with incrimination. Bad reading is contagious.
11. Remember writing doesn't love you.
July 31, 2012
third blog post-post: supragoodreads: EKNEB by Ian MacTilstra (no publisher, no date)
the ridiculous and credulous spartacus books in vancouver sold this amazing little pandora to my bookshelf self.
$4.00 and worth every twoonie. pure artist book joy. simply cover with white and yellow-gold blocks of block and starky sans-serif typographicals. no title page, introduction, tuxedo, colophon, boredom... just straight to the adrenalined goods:
"Click here faceplate for motorola razr v3xx - grey snake skin hp #94 / c8765wn brand new genuine black ink cartridge 18 volt black & decker firestorm drill driver battery autoclutch for ultima belt drive jockey shift custom..."
for 404 pages until:
"...holofoil coach wallet hamptons #6058 blk& gray/ new in box."
THE END.
in lieu of publication data details, a single loosely-leafed page contains some of the following and a bit more:
"state-of-the-art Quality
we pay careful attention to the commitment of quality.
we put our feet on quality.
...
Remember customer's hopes every minute. Concern customer's satisfaction every second.
Success Upon Honesty
Pay out Practical cost.
Mark practical prices.
...
Employees Culture:
competition,challenge,innovation
more innovation,endless innovation"
with the author's for-real ballpointed signature. my uniquely copy is also hand numbered 68/2048. no location. no imprint. no barcode. and here is precisely what my brain especially hearts about this object of book-like dimensions and perceptions: there's absolutely no suggested/implied/directed meta-reading. there's no notes section telling the reader how to do her/his job. there's no contextualization within some gross theory of intellectualiZINGER! there's just the text-word-product and the consumer's experience of this barrage of consumer-friendly language. this is aesthetic. the encounter is a good ol' butt-scratcher. and of course any given/gotten page near-speaks upon the collection whole:
"dominoes st therese of roses decca...craft embroidery pattern book...alien...us expedition long camo...explore your soul...midi interface unused!...new sims vibration camo...veneer" 320
the excess fully wonders itself into pain and exhaustion and eventually beauty. it's our Stockholm Syndrome with capitalism. it's one hundred of our everydays exploded into a single moment. it's only four bux plus tax.
$4.00 and worth every twoonie. pure artist book joy. simply cover with white and yellow-gold blocks of block and starky sans-serif typographicals. no title page, introduction, tuxedo, colophon, boredom... just straight to the adrenalined goods:
"Click here faceplate for motorola razr v3xx - grey snake skin hp #94 / c8765wn brand new genuine black ink cartridge 18 volt black & decker firestorm drill driver battery autoclutch for ultima belt drive jockey shift custom..."
for 404 pages until:
"...holofoil coach wallet hamptons #6058 blk& gray/ new in box."
THE END.
in lieu of publication data details, a single loosely-leafed page contains some of the following and a bit more:
"state-of-the-art Quality
we pay careful attention to the commitment of quality.
we put our feet on quality.
...
Remember customer's hopes every minute. Concern customer's satisfaction every second.
Success Upon Honesty
Pay out Practical cost.
Mark practical prices.
...
Employees Culture:
competition,challenge,innovation
more innovation,endless innovation"
with the author's for-real ballpointed signature. my uniquely copy is also hand numbered 68/2048. no location. no imprint. no barcode. and here is precisely what my brain especially hearts about this object of book-like dimensions and perceptions: there's absolutely no suggested/implied/directed meta-reading. there's no notes section telling the reader how to do her/his job. there's no contextualization within some gross theory of intellectualiZINGER! there's just the text-word-product and the consumer's experience of this barrage of consumer-friendly language. this is aesthetic. the encounter is a good ol' butt-scratcher. and of course any given/gotten page near-speaks upon the collection whole:
"dominoes st therese of roses decca...craft embroidery pattern book...alien...us expedition long camo...explore your soul...midi interface unused!...new sims vibration camo...veneer" 320
the excess fully wonders itself into pain and exhaustion and eventually beauty. it's our Stockholm Syndrome with capitalism. it's one hundred of our everydays exploded into a single moment. it's only four bux plus tax.
July 11, 2012
second blog post: supragoodreads: Gerry Gilbert's SKIES (talonbooks, 1974)
these poetry make the minimal look like max power. scribbling takes and gives beyond the ink. think yonder, animal sounds as image with a few words as pebbles on an invisible path.
from "more trees than people":
"watch a elm tree explode / form sing gull lion / mountains range / one slug feels / eye men city"
handwriting meets typography-riting. collages, photographs, foundness, stats, instructions, conversations, dreams, annoyances, drawings. puns spun pus n up.
grid of 15 windows hiding daylight and a cat butt. photos of creature footprints in snow as track-marks. "LIGHTHEARTS" turnipping into "HEARTSLITE". sexy sex sexing relationship poem or two too, to who! "love is a round corner".
the ghost ARE alive. the empathy lives obey-on-&-ond. giving the present as passed. this document receives a full four-&a-half star-shaped orange slices.
one of the few available copies for sail, for blues kies, forgery
...
from "more trees than people":
"watch a elm tree explode / form sing gull lion / mountains range / one slug feels / eye men city"
handwriting meets typography-riting. collages, photographs, foundness, stats, instructions, conversations, dreams, annoyances, drawings. puns spun pus n up.
grid of 15 windows hiding daylight and a cat butt. photos of creature footprints in snow as track-marks. "LIGHTHEARTS" turnipping into "HEARTSLITE". sexy sex sexing relationship poem or two too, to who! "love is a round corner".
the ghost ARE alive. the empathy lives obey-on-&-ond. giving the present as passed. this document receives a full four-&a-half star-shaped orange slices.
one of the few available copies for sail, for blues kies, forgery
...
July 9, 2012
first blog post: poetries that is supragoodreads: Kai Nieminen's Serious Poems (rain taxi, 2000)
about poetry. translation. i've never really had me any Anselm Hollo before. the title is beautiful. even though i would only rate this little ditty a 3/5 orange, five-tipped assholes, i wanted to represent it on my very important new goodreads blog. the breeze! ah! the concerns are overtly and stinkily political, some thoughts in the book made me word and some words made me thought.
one section, "uncivilized ruminations," equals pretty smart-pretty Kafka-y or George Murrayesque a la Glimpse stacked aphorisms:
"My list of merits may not be anything to write home about, but you should see the cv that lists all the foul deeds I left undone even though I could have committed them" (23).
simultaneously serious, not serious enough and too serious for its own good. power. fool. carrots.
one section, "uncivilized ruminations," equals pretty smart-pretty Kafka-y or George Murrayesque a la Glimpse stacked aphorisms:
"My list of merits may not be anything to write home about, but you should see the cv that lists all the foul deeds I left undone even though I could have committed them" (23).
simultaneously serious, not serious enough and too serious for its own good. power. fool. carrots.
