Christopher Matthew Hennessy's Blog, page 8
September 9, 2011
Out.com interviews Henri Cole
Check out this short interview with poet Henri Cole. It's a strange experience for me reading it: he talks about his poem "Homosexuality" and gives a reading of it that seems so different (though it does makes sense) from my own reading of it. Is it bad that I like my reading better?
September 3, 2011
U Arizona Press has two forthcoming titles you migth want to know about
I heard about these two books forthcoming from the UA Press via my comment box. I love the blogosphere! Info. comes to you!
Here's what the UA folks tell me!
The first is edited by Blas Falconer and Lorraine López – "The Other Latin@." To quote Rigoberto González, "this collection of articulate essays dares to unpack what mainstream American media and culture have been forcing into a single neat package for decades: Latino. A timely manifesto!" [Falconer, and Gonzalez, are gay, by the way.]
September 2, 2011
The day I've been waiting for!
Look what came in the mail yesterday!
It was a moment, let me tell you. I'll remember it as long as I live.
I just want to thank Joe and all the folks at Brooklyn Arts Press. The book looks amazing, y'all. I couldn't be prouder.
It's already listed as "pre-order" on Amazon.
Consider "Like"-ing the BAP Facebook page.
Another way to help out is to have people sign up for our mailing list.
New in Queer Poety in Sept.
The Lambda Lit. site reminded me, new poetry in Sept!
Poetry
Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems by David Trinidad, Turtle Point Press
Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry edited by Julie Enszer, A Midsummer Night's Press
Nocturnal Omissions: A Tale of Two Poets by Gavin Geoffrey Dillard and Eric Norris, Sibling Rivalry Press
August 29, 2011
A video about gender (and bullying & …) that will mesmerize you
Oh, and it's set to a pretty cool funky song, too! Probably NSFW because of some major liplocking going on and not for those who don't enjoy seeing all manner of kissing couples. I won't say anymore.
August 22, 2011
New gay writing journal call for submissions
Got this the other day! It's so encouraging to hear venues for gay writing are thriving and new one popping up. Consider submitting to this new journal! Full details below:
Call for Submissions: Chelsea Station, Issue 1: A New Destination for Gay Writing
Chelsea Station, a new magazine of gay writing, will be published four to six times a year by Chelsea Station Editions. We accept for consideration original and unpublished fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, memoir, humor, narrative travelogue, interviews, and reviews (books, theater, television, and film) relating to gay literature and gay men.
Deadline for Issue 1 (November 2011) is October 1, 2011. Submissions should be sent to info@chelseastationeditions.com.
Manuscripts should be emailed as Word attachments. Please include your name, address, and e-mail contact information on the first page of your document. Please also include a brief bio. Please query before sending any artwork.
Please do not send more than one prose work or more than four poems for consideration. Please query if you would like to submit work for consideration in more than one genre for an issue. If you do not hear from us within three months of your submission, we are unable to use your submission, though you are always able to submit additional material for us to consider. If you would like to know more about what sort of writing we will consider, our inspirational model for Chelsea Station magazine is the former Christopher Street magazine (1976-1995). While we are open to all sorts of experimental forms, we tend to gravitate to more traditional literary writing. We also welcome recommendations for material and writers for consideration.
We currently do not offer monetary payment to contributors. Contributors receive a complimentary pdf edition of the issue in which their work is featured.
Current issues will be available as free pdfs for download from the publisher's Web site (www.chelseastationeditions.com) during the initial month of publication only.
Print and digital issues will be available for purchase through bookstores and Web retailers. Subscriptions will also be available.
The deadline for Issue 2 will be December 1, 2011.
For more information on the magazine and Chelsea Station Editions, please visit our Web site: www.chelseastationeditions.com and Web page: http://www.chelseastationeditions.com/ChelseaStation-ALiteraryJournal.html.
Thank you.
Jameson Currier
Publisher and Editor
Chelsea Station Editions
August 16, 2011
Collective Brightness—LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality
I'm excited to dig into the new anthology of GLBTQ poetry on faith, religion and spirituality, a topic I'm interested in on both personal and artistic levels. And as I was looking at the book's website, I saw all those wonderful videos of the poets reading their work (hat tip to Avoiding the Muse for posting the great Carl Phillips video!). As I scrolled down I realized —many of these poets were relatively new to me. I can't wait to see what these new (to me) voices bring. I'm lucky enough to have a copy of the book so expect a future blog post on what I find!
Until then, here's a voice, a poem, a video:
Never from Kevin Simmonds on Vimeo.
(Don't know why this isn't working)
A poem by Blas Falconer from A Question of Gravity and Light (University of Arizona Press, 2007) that appears in Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality, forthcoming in October from Sibling Rivalry Press and edited by Kevin Simmonds
August 13, 2011
August 11, 2011
Gay poet Gregory Woods' poetic response to ridiculous reviewer who pigeonholes gay experience
Sure, gay poets must only write about "these areas" and straight "areas" like "trees" or "flyfishing" (WTF!?! –see below) cannot possibly have anything to do with the gay experience. Lordy! Of course, the truth of the matter, as Woods so wonderfully shows in the poem below, is that the gay experience is also the human experience is also the mythic experience is also the natural experience is also the gay experience. Enjoy this poem. With thanks to Marshall for pointing me to it!
TREES OR FLY-FISHING
"I suppose a Professor of Gay and Lesbian Studies has a professional obligation to write about these areas, but I'd have welcomed a few poems about trees or fly-fishing."
—John Greening, London Magazine (in a review of Woods' 2002 collection The District Comissioner's Dream)
1 Trees
A boy has found a comfy place to perch
Among the branches of a silver birch,
A giant fledging, ignorant of flight,
His raison d'etre a growing appetite.
He's edging higher, coveting the breeze,
– When, whoops! young Zoltan snags his dungarees
Upon a wayward branch and down they come,
Exposing genitals and peachy bum
(The fleecy gold of the Hesperides)
In one fell swoop. Uncommon though the trees
That bear such appetising fruit as these
May be, a clement godhead might endow
Whole orchards with such ripeness on the bough.
2 Fly-Fishing
Casting their lines upon the sluggish flood
To stir if not its flow each other's blood,
Two boys are fishing at a river's edge,
Serene among the reeds and swaying sedge.
But one by accident then casts his fly
In the direction of his playmate's shorts,
Or by design, co-ordinating eye
And hand, and hooks the object of his thoughts.
Considerate and mercenary, he tries
To free his errant hook from Laszlo's flies
And manages to spring a big surprise –
Egorged, engaged, impertinent, improper!
He's never had a thing within his grasp,
Though like a chubby chub at its last gasp,
So full of life as this enormous chopper.
It leaps and slithers in young Zoltan's hand.
But who will, when his mortal span is spanned,
Believe those tales of landing such a whopper?
—Gregory Woods, from An Ordinary Dog, 2011
August 4, 2011
Sibling Rivlary Press announces 2012 titles
Among them are my buddies Brad Richard and Matthew Hittinger! So happy for these folks! CONGRATS. I'm so thrilled to see them find such an exciting home. I love how Bryan Borland, the SRP publisher, does this announcement. Great idea! — announcing via a video of the individual poems that stood out to Bryan and made him take that all-important second look that leads to love. Watch and hear some stellar work:
