Christopher Matthew Hennessy's Blog, page 7
October 29, 2011
A review of Love-in-Idleness
A really wonderful, elegant review of my book over at Switchback. I'm honored! And thrilled! And biased! 
Please read and share the full piece.
But here's a taste:
[image error]
[image error]
October 28, 2011
Invite me in! (plus, a guest blog I did that's about fantasy and science fiction)
You're a blogger. You're trying to keep pace with the blogosphere. It's hard. So….what about a guest blogger or a fun and easy Q & A with a fellow blogger!? Problem solved! ME!
Check out this guest blog I did over at Dr. Peeler's Urban Fantasy Emporium:
Thanks so much to my dear friend for making this possible!
What about you? I'd love to visit your site!
[image error]
Two of my favorite things in one music video
A gay poet (this one happens to be John Giorno) and REM! Interesting concept for the video. They also have one (same song) with Kirsten Dunst.
[image error]
[image error] [image error]
October 26, 2011
Me, reading a poem from my new book
I've heard this can be interesting for folks, so I thought I'd give it a try.
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
October 3, 2011
It's Official, Baby! — Love-In-Idlness
I just sent this email out to my "friends, mentors, fellow writers and many who are all of these" and since I consider my readers here my friends, I wanted to share it with you!
Dear friends,
On Saturday, my first book of poems officially came out. I hope you don't mind this email but I was so excited to share my good news with you! It's an indescribable feeling, as so many of you know. Below you'll find an email I'm forwarding from my publisher that gives you all the info, you might be interested in, including the blurbs from Wayne Koestenbaum, D.A. Powell, Martha Rhodes and David Trinidad (and of course links to buy a copy).
Of course, I'm also writing to say—If you're able, please help me spread the word. As I'm sure you know, word of mouth (whether it's via email, Facebook, etc.), is invaluable! I would be especially gratified if emerging queer poets found the book of interest, so if you know of any such poets, please consider forwarding the info below. But I wrote the book hoping it would interest all readers, so please spread the word to anyone at all. Even a link on your Facebook page would be appreciated (and many thanks to those who have already done this during the pre-sale days!).
For those of you with blogs, I am would be honored to 'stop by' in some capacity, if you'll have me! I love doing Q & A's.
And for those who have already purchased a copy, thank you so much! I've tried to say this personally to those of you who I know have been so kind to pre-order copies, but if I missed anyone, please know how much it means to me that you're supporting my work. I hope the book doesn't disappoint.
My publisher had some good ideas and asked that I put out the following requests, so here goes.
1) If you do get the book, please consider submitting a review of it on Amazon. Even a sentence or two is great. It helps a lot! And it's simple and easy to do.
2) If you are planning on purchasing a copy—and don't mind being told when—we're asking folks to purchase via Amazon on Saturday, Oct. 8, so that it might have some effect on sales rankings and push the book into more visibility.
For those of you on Facebook, please consider "Liking" the book's Facebook page. That way you can easily get any info. (readings, reviews, morel recipes etc.).: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Love-I...
Again, thank you so much for letting me share this moment with you all! I feel so lucky to know so many talented and kind folks.
Warmly,
Christopher
PS: If you've heard all you care to hear about this subject, please let me know and I'll remove you from this list.
———- Forwarded message ———-
POETRY
10/1/11
Brooklyn Arts Press
CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY LOVE-IN-IDLENESS
Brooklyn Arts Press is pleased to announce the publication of Christopher Hennessy's first collection of poetry, Love-In-Idleness. To order your own copy of the book, or to download sample poems of Hennessy's work, click HERE to be redirected to the Brooklyn Arts Press website.
The book will also be available at: Amazon.com, BN.com, Smashwords.com, and through our print distributor, Small Press Distribution.
Pub Date: October 1, 2011
Print ISBN: 978-1-936767-02-1; Ebook ISBN: 978-1-936767-08-3
Print: $14.95, Ebook: $7.95
Poetry, 84 Pages, 5.5 x 8.5
ABOUT THE WORK
Shifting intuitively between youthful belligerence, the individualization of collective myths, and portraits of erotic maturity and angst, Christopher Hennessy's debut collection of poetry, Love-In-Idleness, commits itself to lyrical explorations underpinned by a sharp and honest introspection. These poems forget themselves, undulate, embrace the actual, dissolve and regroup in their efforts to detail moments of sustained interruption and desire. Here you will find a study of the vivisection of a Midwestern family, a soliloquy from the lover of a Han Dynasty emperor, the re-imagined death of Saint Sebastian, a steamy appropriation of Satie's humorous score notes, an admirer's courting of Carl Linnaeus, and the impending finality of a deathbed vigil. Together they announce the arrival of a gifted new voice in American poetry.
"If I were to reduce this book to a single letter, it would be O. Opulence, obsession, orgasm and opera all start with an open throat, a gape, a release of pent-up desire. So, too, does Christopher Hennessy's Love-In-Idleness emanate from the opening of the throat to the shudder and release of the last and final word. Oh, I thought, reading these urgent, physical, dangerously beautiful poems, with 'the terror ripping open my mouth at the corners'. Yes, and Oh, yes and O…"
—D. A. POWELL
"Christopher Hennessy's poems yearn for a sense of certainty, feel their way for a foothold that, ultimately, may not be there. From childhood poems of family and farm (as unsettling, in their vivid realism, as Roethke's greenhouse poems) to persona poems of deep erotic longing, Hennessy maintains an artful and risky determination, in each poem, 'to understand the need its song speaks.'"
—DAVID TRINIDAD
"Christopher Hennessy gets the rhythm right, the timbre right, and the heart-sense right. Every detail is in place, and the whole ensemble sings. There's hard labor behind these poems—in Oscar Wilde's sense, and in Emily Dickinson's. (Did Emily talk about hard labor? Indirectly, yes.) Wise about words and about the world, Hennessy's poems cut no corners, though they are full of the melancholy wisdom that hides in coverts, closets, hope-chests, crevices, and other concealed places. I praise Hennessy's talent, his ardor-packed process, and the shapeliness of the results."
—WAYNE KOESTENBAUM
"Love-In-Idleness is made up of muscular poems in which nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs truly pull their weight. Hennessy is a wordsmith if ever there was one. Line endings, too, often surprise and delight (Aunt Bert shuffles around the sun/porch in a pink and yellow apron). These are lyric narratives that engage and move us. [This] collection is layered, multi-dimensional, and impressive for its technical virtuosity and passion."
—MARTHA RHODES
ABOUT CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY
Christopher Hennessy is the author of Outside the Lines: Talking with Contemporary Gay Poets (University of Michigan Press). He earned an MFA from Emerson College and currently is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He was included in Ploughshares' special "Emerging Writers" edition, and his poetry, interviews, and book reviews have appeared in American Poetry Review, Verse, Cimarron Review, The Writer's Chronicle, The Bloomsbury Review, Court Green, OCHO, Crab Orchard Review, Natural Bridge, Wisconsin Review, Brooklyn Review, Memorious, and elsewhere. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in anthologies of gay poets, persona poetry, and poets of social justice. His prose is also included in DIVAS: Gay Men on the Women Who Shaped Their Lives (University Wisconsin Press). Hennessy is a longtime associate editor for The Gay & Lesbian Review-Worldwide.
© 2011 Brooklyn Arts Press * www.BrooklynArtsPress.com * email us at info@brooklynartspress.com
September 24, 2011
Question
Have you ever read anything from a writer about how they dealt with sending their work to their parents….a kind of explanation that your poetry isn't necessarily 'how you feel about them' but a dramatic representation of an experience? Jeeze. I sound like a little kid. Probably always will be when it comes to my folks. 
September 19, 2011
September 17, 2011
A review of Love-in-Idleness
From sir Amos Lassen: "[Hennessy's poems] represent the way he looks at life and at himself as he shares his desires with us. As he looks, we are with him on the journey that he takes and while at times we feel his urgency, we always feel the beauty of his written word."
September 16, 2011
Pssst….I got a book you might be interested in. Hot stuff!
I don't necessarily relish this part of the process, but I suppose it must be done…. and now that the book is actually available (Yeeeehaw!!!)… here goes….
Hi there. Would you like to buy a copy of my book?! Learn more about it and/or buy it here. Or buy it via Amazon. Or via SPD. You can even get it as an Ebook for your Nook or Kindle. And don't forget to "Like" it on Facebook so you can keep up on reviews, news, readings, etc. THANKS!
Here's what's being said about it:
"If I were to reduce this book to a single letter, it would be O. Opulence, obsession, orgasm and opera all start with an open throat, a gape, a release of pent-up desire. So, too, does Christopher Hennessy's Love-In-Idleness emanate from the opening of the throat to the shudder and release of the last and final word. Oh, I thought, reading these urgent, physical, dangerously beautiful poems, with 'the terror ripping open my mouth at the corners'. Yes, and Oh, yes and O…"
—D. A. POWELL
"Christopher Hennessy's poems yearn for a sense of certainty, feel their way for a foothold that, ultimately, may not be there. From childhood poems of family and farm (as unsettling, in their vivid realism, as Roethke's greenhouse poems) to persona poems of deep erotic longing, Hennessy maintains an artful and risky determination, in each poem, 'to understand the need its song speaks.'"
—DAVID TRINIDAD
"Christopher Hennessy gets the rhythm right, the timbre right, and the heart-sense right. Every detail is in place, and the whole ensemble sings. There's hard labor behind these poems—in Oscar Wilde's sense, and in Emily Dickinson's. (Did Emily talk about hard labor? Indirectly, yes.) Wise about words and about the world, Hennessy's poems cut no corners, though they are full of the melancholy wisdom that hides in coverts, closets, hope-chests, crevices, and other concealed places. I praise Hennessy's talent, his ardor-packed process, and the shapeliness of the results."
—WAYNE KOESTENBAUM
"Love-in-Idleness is made up of muscular poems in which nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs truly pull their weight. Hennessy is a wordsmith if ever there was one. Line endings, too, often surprise and delight (Aunt Bert shuffles around the sun/porch in a pink and yellow apron). These are lyric narratives that engage and move us. [This] collection is layered, multi-dimensional, and impressive for its technical virtuosity and passion."
—MARTHA RHODES
