Mark Terrill
“...the true poet and ‘forlorn observer’ of the world...”
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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Mark Terrill |
“...the true poet and ‘forlorn observer’ of the world...” |
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NEWS ARCHIVEPOETS WEAR PRADARoxanne Hoffman, editor and publisher of the Poets Wear Prada chapbook series, is editing a new anthology with BUGS as the theme, and has included a poem of mine, which is now posted on her site, along with other work which will be appearing in the anthology, guidelines, etc. Check it out at: http://poetswearprada.blogspot.com/2008/04/mark-terrill-poem-for-those-who-mean.html RATTLE AUDIO ARCHIVESAn MP3 file of me reading my poem, "Ways In, Ways Out," accompanied by the Wacken Lo-Fi Sound System, can be heard on the Rattle Audio site, which includes many other great readings from other poets who have previously appeared in Rattle. Check out Editor Tim Green's "Cooking Dinner" as well: www.rattle.com/audio.htm BOOKS RECEIVED, READ, REVIEWED, ETC:My multi-review of Lewis Warsh's new collected poems, Inseparable (Granary Books), Geoffrey Young's The Riot Act (Bootstrap Press) and Edmund Berrigan's glad stone children (Farfalla Press) will be appearing in a forthcoming edition of Rain Taxi. Also just out from Longhouse Poetry is a brand new collection of the late Cid Corman's poetry, The Next One Thousand Years, The Selected Poems of Cid Corman. Editors Ce Rosenow and Bob Arnold have sifted through over a hundred books, chapbooks and unpublished manuscripts and deftly edited this major collection of one of the most important figures of post WWII poetry. Destined to push aside the self-inflicted veil of obscurity that has surrounded Corman and his work for decades. www.longhousepoetry.com And in today's mail came the Complete Poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus, translated, with essays, by Ryan Gallagher, from Bootstrap Press. This looks like a monumental work, all 287 pages of it, which I will be delving into for weeks to come. For more info on all things Bootstrap, see their site at: www.bootstrapproductions.org I recently re-read J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (*****) for the umpteenth million time and was surprised at how well it's still holding up after all these years. Other books & chapbooks I've recently read or re-read include Dean's Bar, Tangier (****) by Francis Poole; Windblown Journals (***) and Book of Sketches (**) both by Jack Kerouac; The Red and the Black (***) by Stendhal; The Belly of Paris (****) by Emile Zola; The Astonished Man (****) by Blaise Cendrars; For Bread Alone (*****) by Mohammed Choukri (translated by Paul Bowles); Save Twilight (***) by Julio Cortazar; Gasoline (****) by Gregory Corso; The Collected Works of Nathaniel West (*****); How I Work as a Poet (*****) and Selected Poems (****) both by Lew Welch; Hemingway: The Paris Years (***) by Michael Reynolds; Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation (****) by Noel Riley Fitch; The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier (****) edited by Richard McDougall; plus German editions of new collected poems of Nicolas Born (****) and Peter Handke (****), as well as an excellent collection of essays about Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (also in German), edited by Gudrun Schulz and Martin Kagel (****). (*****) = Indispensable, major work, required reading AMERICAN MUSIC CLUBAMC recently passed through Europe on a long, gnarly tour, and I was fortunate enough to see them play in Hamburg and Berlin. It was my first opportunity to see/hear the new line-up, with old stalwarts Mark Eitzel and Vudi now backed up by Steve Didelot (drums, backup vocals) and Sean Hoffman (bass, backup vocals). Although my initial reaction to their new album, The Golden Age, was a bit lukewarm, I was vastly impressed by how good they were live. Steve and Sean lay down a seamless carpet of rhythm and vocals that allow Eitzel to stay focused on singing and playing, without wandering too far out of the groove. The two shows were some of the best I've ever seen, and as AMC's former road manger, there probably aren't too many folks out there who have seen as many AMC shows as I have. They're now touring America and will be back in Europe this summer for some festivals, so if you get a chance, by all means go and see them. A new album is in the works as well. For more info check out: www.american-music-club.com UPCOMING READING IN PARISI will be reading some new work in Paris at the launch party for issue #9 of Upstairs at Duroc, Thursday, January 31, 2008, at 7 PM, at WICE, 20 boulevard du Montparnasse, 75015 Paris. (Go through the big street door into the courtyard) NEW LIMITED EDITION CHAPBOOK OUT NOW
These 28 new prose pieces pick up where Bread & Fish left off, with a beautiful layout and design by Katy Jean May utilizing images of receipts, ticket stubs, boarding passes and other travel paraphernalia which I've collected over the last 35 years. Available via Pay Pal, check or money order for $9.00 / €6.50 / £4.50 directly from the publisher at: www.planbpress.com MICHAEL LALLYMichael Lally, poet, actor and blogger extraordinaire, recently posted the following on his blog site, Lally's Alley (one of the best blogs around): "Mark Terrill, one of my favorite contemporary poets, who wrote one of my favorite books, a small collection of prose poems called BREAD & FISH, has another little collection of prose poems just published, called SOMETHING RED (Stay At Home Press). Like BREAD & FISH, it is a revelation. There's an "I do this I do that" Frank O'Hara thing going on, though it's more "I see this I think that" and the Bukowski grasp of the poetry in the anecdotal, told straight and crisply precise. But there's so much more. I could cite tons of other terrific poets whose work Terrill's compares favorably to, but in the end, his work is unique. I've never read anyone quite like him, or known anyone with his extensive resume of worldly-working-man-poet-philosopher experience. I love the poems in SOMETHING RED, as well as the observations and epiphanies they generate, as I did those in BREAD & FISH. If you can find a copy on the internet of either, or better yet both of these books, I believe you'll consider yourself lucky you did." Check out Lalley's Alley at http://lalleysalley.blogspot.com OTHER NEW WORK OUT NOW & FORTHCOMINGI have other new work out now in The Rambler, Poetry Salzburg Review, Water-Stone Review, Louis Liard Magazine, Rain Taxi and the newest issue of Bordercrossing Berlin.
Other new poems, prose and translations are forthcoming in print and online in Mimesis, Subtropics, Shearsman, Santa Clara Review, no man's land and Action, Yes, (see the Links page or Google any of the above for more info). My review of Ron Padgett's newest collection of poems, How to be Perfect (Coffee House Press), is forthcoming in Small Press Review. My review of Edie Kerouac-Parker's memoir, You'll be Okay (City Lights Books) is forthcoming in Rain Taxi Review of Books. ATLANTA REVIEW GERMAN POETRY ISSUEThe submission period for the special German Poetry issue of the Atlanta Review is now closed. After more than a year's work, I've put together a collection of 49 poems, by 35 poets, translated by 14 different translators. It includes new work by Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, Silke Scheuermann, Jörg Fauser, Monika Rinck, Günter Kunert, Ernst Jandl and many others, known and unknown. The issue will be available sometime next year. Details will be posted as they come in. NEW WORK IN PRINT & ONLINEI have a new poem in the current issue of Cutthroat, a new prose piece in the current issue of Rattle, and an excerpt of my translation of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann's long poem, "Some Very Popular Songs," accompanied by an excellent essay by Martin Kagel on Brinkmann's late poetry, in the current issue of Mantis, from Stanford University.
My review of Barbara Henning's My Autobiography from United Artists is in the current print issue of Rain Taxi, and I also have some new poems in the current issues of California Quarterly and Vox.
My review of Joe Boyd's terrific memoir White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s and my review of Ed Dorn's Way More West: New and Selected Poems (Penguin Poets) can both be read in the current (summer) online issue of Rain Taxi:
Meanwhile I have other new poems, prose poems & translations published and/or forthcoming in Basalt, The Café Review, Confrontation, Controlled Burn, Gargoyle, Origin #4, The Rambler, Stand, and Water~Stone Review. UPCOMING READING IN PARISI will be reading again in Paris at the launch party for the next issue Upstairs at Duroc, in which I have some new work forthcoming, sometime this fall-stop by again for the details. A brief review of the Live Poets Society reading in Paris which I participated in along with Cralan Kelder and Sean Street in April can be read here: http://spokenwordparis.blogspot.com/2007/04/live-poets-society.html RECENTLY READ/RECEIVEDA Book of Prophecies is a newly published journal by John Wieners, originally written in 1970-1972, now available from Bootstrap Productions, who have also recently published On Going by Tom Morgan and Beloved Integer by Michelle Naka Pierce. Actually, I haven't seen it yet myself, but Cralan Kelder's French Pastry poem has just come out as a mini-chapbook from Coracle in Ireland, and anyone familiar with their work (and Cralan's) knows what to expect. Have a look at the Coracle sight for more details: http://coracle.ie I also just received two excellent chapbooks by Francis Poole, The Devil's Swizzle Stick and Good Night at Jo's, Casablanca, available from Feral Press, P.O. Box 358, Oyster Bay, NY 11771. Great stuff. I just finished one of the best books I've ever read, The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolano. An incredible odyssey of some members of the "Visceral Realists," an avant-garde group of poets from Mexico City, in search of a long lost poet. The story is told from the viewpoints of over fifty different characters, over a time period of 20 years (1976-1996), and is quite simply one of the most amazing tales ever told, and unlike anything you've ever read before. It's mostly quasi-autobiographical, which lends the story its gritty integrity and authenticity. You'll be reminded of Borges, Malcolm Lowery, Thomas Mann, Albert Camus, Rimbaud & Verlaine, W.G. Sebald and many others. Bolano, who died in 2004 at the age of 50, completed another opus shortly before his death, which will appear in English next year, entitled 2666. He has several other books published by New Directions, including a collection of short stories entitled Last Evenings on Earth, which is also great. John Lydon: Stories of Johnny (Chrome Dreams, 2006) is a compendium of essays, articles and interviews all dealing with Mr. Rotten, covering pretty much his entire career, from the Sex Pistols' bursting onto the scene with the "Anarchy in the UK" in 1976 up to their refusal to be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, with much attention to all the years in between with PiL, etc. A good, solid collection and very entertaining. Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues, by Paul and Beth Garton (Da Capo, 1992) is an excellent in-depth and critical biography of this unique personality in the history of the Blues. Don't Ever Get Famous: Essays on New York Writing after the New York School, edited by Daniel Kane (Dalkey Archive, 2006) is a terrific collection of essays on contemporary and postmodern poetry in and around New York, with excellent essays about Bernadette Mayer, Lorenzo Thomas, Hannah Wiener, Clark Coolidge, Anne Waldman, Lewis Warsh, John Wieners and many others. Highly recommended. I have two new poems in the May issue of Nth Position, the excellent online magazine edited by Todd Swift in London: www.nthposition.com. Just click on Poetry--and you're there. I also have five new translations of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann in Green Integer Review No. 8 (Mar-May 2007), another excellent online magazine edited by Douglas Messerli: http://www.greeninteger.com/green_integer_review/issue_8/Rolf-Dieter-Brinkmann.cfm Jay Corsilles has made an excellent fluid & flowing video of my prose poem "The Stream", which can be seen on his site at: http://jcoremedia.com/stream.html READING FOR THE LIVE POETS SOCIETY IN PARISMy next reading will be for the Live Poets Society in Paris, with Cralan Kelder and Sean Street. Tuesday, April 17, 2007, at 8:00 pm at the Highlander Pub, 8 Rue Nevers, 7500 Paris. Metro Odeon or St. Michel. Donation 5 €. The Live Poets Society is the oldest reading series in Paris and a bona fide event. Be there or be fairly square. TWO NEW BOOKLETS OUT NOWWhispering Villages: Seven German Poets is a beautiful, handmade foldout booklet of my translations of seven contemporary German poets, just released from Longhouse Poetry. As it says on the wraparound band, "It was Theodor Adorno, the German social philosopher, who said 'To write poetry after Auschwitz is Barbaric.' These new translations by Mark Terrill of seven post-WWII German poets deliver a vibrant & lyrical antithesis." For image & ordering info see the Books page. Postcard from Mount Sumeru is a five-poem mini-chapbook from Bottle of Smoke Press, part of the Chapbook of the Quarter Club series, available in a series of four directly from the publisher. For image & ordering info see the Books page. NEW PUBLICATIONSNew poems, prose poems, translations and reviews out now in Upstairs at Duroc, Red Mountain Review, Vulcan, Saranac Review, Orbis, Presa, Mineshaft, Small Press Review and Rain Taxi Review of Books.
Other contributors to Babylon Burning include Charles Bernstein, Maxine Chernoff, Paul Hoover, Richard Peabody, Nathaniel Tarn, John Tranter and many, many others. Other new work forthcoming in Poetry Salzburg Review, Basalt, Mantis, Rattle, Controlled Burn, Spillway, Poetry International, Cutthroat, Circumference, nthposition, Green Integer Review, and California Quarterly. GERMAN POETRY IN THE ATLANTA REVIEWI'm still searching high and low for good translations of contemporary German poetry for a special issue of the Atlanta Review which I am editing, forthcoming in 2008. Scroll down below for details and submission guidelines. RECENTLY READ/RECEIVED/REVIEWEDThe first issue of the last series of Origin is up online and downloadable in PDF format from Longhouse Poetry. This is an amazing collection of poetry, prose, photography and artwork, carried on by Bob and Susan Arnold in the tradition of Cid Corman's original Origin (Bob Arnold is Cid Corman's literary executive.) Lewis Warsh has two new chapbooks out, The Flea Market in Kiel, from The Rest Press, and Flight Test, from Ugly Duckling Presse, both beautiful examples of "book art" containing excellent poetry. My review of both of these chaps is in the March-April issue of Small Press Review. My review of Robert Stone's Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties, can be read in the current issue of Rain Taxi, along with my review of Bob Arnold's Sunswumthru a Building. The best book of poetry I've read so far this century is without a doubt the recently published collection of Robert Zenith's excellent translations of Fernando Pessoa, A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe. These poems knocked my socks off, got the short hairs standing on end, and peeled back the top of my skull like good poetry is supposed to do, but so seldom does. I highly recommend this book. Geoffrey Young has a new mini-chap out from Henry Porter, entitled Likeness, which is really unlike anything, other than perhaps Geoff's previous collection, Fickle Sonnets. Witty, urbane, topical, kinetic and the perfect palate-cleanser between such main courses like Pessoa & Co. Another recommendation.
Joe Boyd has written a terrific autobiography about his years in the music biz; talent scouting, tour managing, and producing Fairport Convention, Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Incredible String Band, etc. A warm, intelligent and lucid account of an otherwise wild and at times incoherent decade. An excellent read. Best music book in years. There's also a CD out with the same name - White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960's, which has all kinds of rarities & B-sides and oddities from everyone he produced and worked with. I highly recommend both. I recently swapped chapbooks with poet Alan King, and enjoyed reading his Transfer and The Music We Are, with their ironic humor and gritty takes on life in the DC 'burbs. MORE UPCOMING READINGSSTOP PRESS! - The reading in Prague on Saturday, February 24th has been moved to Shakespeare & Sons, Krymskà 12, Prague 10, Vršovice, and will start at 7:30 pm.
Bordercrossing Berlin, Berlin’s English language literary magazine, puts on an evening featuring authors from its first issue at Cafe Metropole/ Anagram bookshop in Prague. On Tuesday, April 17th, I'll be reading more of my work for the Live Poets Society in Paris at the Highlander Pub at 20:00, along with Cralan Kelder and Sean Street. The Live Poets Society is the oldest reading series in Paris. The Highlander Pub, Rue de Nevers, 75006 Paris, metro Odeon or St. Michel, tel. 01-43-26-59-20, www.the-highlander.fr That's all for now. Come back soon for other updates with info about Whispering Villages, a beautiful foldout booklet of seven of my translations of various German poets published by Longhouse, as well as info on new journal and magazine publications, reviews, forthcoming chapbooks, a video of my prose poem, "The Stream," by Jay Corsilles, and much more...
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I also have a poem in the new anthology, Babylon Burning: 9/11 Five Years On, edited by Todd Swift, available as a free e-book (PDF file) from Nth Position at: http://www.nthposition.com/babylonburning911.php
Other contributors to Babylon Burning include Charles Bernstein, Maxine Chernoff, Paul Hoover, Richard Peabody, Nathaniel Tarn, John Tranter and many, many others.
Another new poem of mine, "A Poem for Patriots," is in the current issue of The Diagram, an excellent online journal from New Michigan Press: http://thediagram.com/6_4
I've been invited on board as guest editor for a special German Poetry issue of the Atlanta Review, forthcoming in 2008. I will be looking for English translations of contemporary German poetry (preferably living poets), from middle-of-the-mainstream to outer-avant-garde. Send up to five translations, with originals, bio info, and permission to translate from poet or publisher, to:
Mark Terrill
Hafenstraße 37
25712 Burg
Germany
Please include an email address for notification; manuscripts will not be returned. Or send as an e-mail with the poems pasted into the text. No attachments please: markterrill
Deadline is June 31st, 2007. Payment will be two contributor's copies and author's discounts on extra copies and subscriptions.
Atlanta Review distributes up to 6,000 copies, depending on the issue. It goes out to 120 countries, making it the world's most widely distributed literary journal, and the ideal venue for promoting German poetry to the world. For the past 10 years, it has consistently been one of the five best selling poetry journals in the world.
You can check out their site at: www.atlantareview.com
The photos from the launch party & readings for Versal 4 are now posted on their site at: http://www.wordsinhere.com/versallaunch.html
The combined Paris Writers Workshop and Upstairs at Duroc reading in Paris went down very well. It was good to read with both poets and fiction writers. It was well organized and well-attended, despite the sweltering summer temperatures. Luckily we were down in the basement area, which was relatively cool, so it was more like downstairs at Duroc. Hats off and a big thanks to Barbara Beck, the Upstairs at Duroc team and WICE for doing a great job.
My review of The Yage Letters Redux, recently published by City Lights Books, can be read in the online edition of Rain Taxi Review of Books at: www.raintaxi.com
Other new work forthcoming in Bordercrossing Berlin, Atlanta Review, Sentence, Pinstripe Fedora, Blades, Free Verse, Remark, Orbis, Rain Taxi, Rhode Island Roads Magazine, and Sulphur River Literary Review.
Sunswumthru A Building, by Bob Arnold, Origin Press, 2006. A Delightful collection of brief, concise prose meditations on tools, carpentry, and life in the Vermont woods.
Light & Shade: New and Selected Poems, by Tom Clark, Coffee House Press, 2006. A great selection of Clark's poetry, new and old, from over 40 years of work.
Square One, Issue No. 4, Spring 2006, edited by Jennifer Dunbar Dorn, Patrick Kelly, Casady Monroe, et al. Published by the Creative Writing Program, University of Colorado at Boulder. Square One picks up where Rolling Stock left off, the seminal "literary gazette" edited By Ed Dorn, his wife Jennifer, and others back in the seventies. This is an exemplary publication, going far beyond the scope of the usual "literary magazine," incorporating articles, essays, prose, poetry and artwork and photography in a beautiful large format. You can view the archives and find out more at: www.colorado.edu/English/squareone/index.htm
I'll be reading my work in Paris and Berlin at the following upcoming occasions:
WICE's literary journal Upstairs at Duroc will be co-hosting a reading with the Paris Writers' Workshop on July 3rd at 7pm. Reading for Upstairs are poets Sarah Petlin & myself. The two readers for PWW will be the 2006 Patricia Painton Scholarship winners.
AT: WICE, 20 Boulevard du Montparnasse, 75015 Paris, Metro: Duroc. Free!
The Poetry Hearings will be taking place again in Berlin this November, from Friday the 17th through Sunday the 19th. Three nights of poetry, a total of twelve poets, with four poets reading each night. Other participants include Jennifer K. Dick, Michelle Noteboom and Jeremy Hilton, who edits the UK mag Fire. Not sure yet which night I'll be reading.
AT: Café Rosa, Berlin. More information will be posted here as it comes in.
Meanwhile, the launch party and readings for Versal 4 at the Sugar Factory in Amsterdam went down exceptionally well. Those Versal folks really have it together and did a fabulous job. Totally organized, highly professional and on the ball. If you haven't seen Versal 4 I highly recommend that you do. It's packed full of top-notch, cutting-edge poetry, prose and artwork. Presently one of the classiest English-language mags in Europe. If they keep it up, they just might rise to the top. Click here for more info about Versal and the wordsinhere writer's collective in Amsterdam: http://www.wordsinhere.com
In the interim a lot of new poetry, prose and some Brinkmann translations have been accepted and will be appearing in Mantis, Saranac Review, New Delta Review, Upstairs at Duroc, Presa, Louis Liard Magazine, Silk Road, Diner, Butcher's Block, and Vulcan. The complete sequence of my poems about Paris, "Parisian Suite," can be seen in its entirety at Stride, one of the better magazines currently online in the UK. Stride features a lot of very interesting work, with a strong emphasis on prose poetry. www.stridemagazine.co.uk
A review I wrote of Edward Field's memoir, The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag will be appearing in the next print edition of Rain Taxi Review of Books, and a review I wrote of The Yage Letters Redux, by William Burroughs & Allen Ginsberg (City Lights Books), will be appearing in the next online edition of Rain Taxi.
I'm still slowly reading my way through Ted Berrigan's big Collected Poems and continue to be amazed almost every day. Some works of absolute genius in there, along with a fair share of mediocre filler. But that's what collected poems are all about.
Also reading my way through the incredible Beckett trilogy, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable. Why didn't someone recommend these to me years ago? Superb writing.
I've also been going back and re-reading John Wieners—both his Selected Poems and Cultural Affairs in Boston (both Black Sparrow), as well as his journal, 707 Scott Street. What an incredible tragic-romantic poet Wieners was.
Last but not least—anyone been listening to Julian Summerhill's The Hologram Cowboys Lay Down With Their Horses? I have, and it's great. He'll be playing in Hamburg at the Reeperbahn Festival, Sept. 21-23, along with Bruce Kaphan on pedal steel and Bruce Bowers on fiddle. Be there or be square.
This year didn't exactly start off with a bang, but it did commence with an unprecedented flurry of acceptances in a wide variety of publications, including Red Wheelbarrow, Gin Bender Poetry Review, Poesia, Ginosko, Red Mountain Review, Van Gogh's Ear, Blue Book #8 and Versal, all of which will be appearing in the course of this year.
Also forthcoming is a broadside of a poem of mine entitled "Interzone," (about William Burroughs), as well as a chapbook in the Chapbook of the Quarter series, both from Bottle of Smoke Press.
Each chapbook contains 5 short poems by one poet. The entire edition is printed on an antique Chandler & Price letterpress and hand bound. Each book is also autographed by the poet. Other poets scheduled for the series include Annie Menebroker and Adrian Manning. The Chapbook of the Quarter Club is strictly limited to 100 memberships. The price for membership is $20, or $22 for those outside the US. See the Bottle of Smoke Press website at www.bospress.net for more info.
The next issue of Van Gogh's Ear (Paris), The Medusa Issue ("Murder, rape, suicide, drugs, all Charles Manson Family values . . ."), will include some of my translations of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, as well as two unpublished prose pieces of mine, and one brand new prose piece written especially for this issue. So be on the lookout for what should prove to be a very interesting issue. For more info about Van Gogh's Ear and French Connection Press, click here: http://www.frenchcx.com/index_en.html
Versal, an excellent yearly collection of writing & artwork coming out of Amsterdam, will be running a previously unpublished prose piece of mine entitled "Yokohama Time-Continuum Meditation," in #4 and should be out in May. The official release will take place Sunday, 7 May at the season four finale of The Open Stanza, the monthly poetry and performance evening also organized by wordsinhere, the publishers of Versal.
The Open Stanza is held every month at Nachttheater Sugar Factory in the heart of Amsterdam (www.sugarfactory.nl) and is emceed by one of Versal's Assistant Editors, Prue Duggan. The release party will include performances from Versal editors and contributors, a live band and a DJ, as well as an exhibit of the artwork. Versals, of course, will be on sale. I will be there to read my work and to carouse & cavort in a quasi-dignified manner. Come by if you can.
Blue Book #8, edited by Kevin Opstedal and published by his fine Blue Press, just came out and is one of the better issues so far, with excellent work by Duncan McNaughton, Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, Noel Black, Michael Price, Joanne Kyger, Micah Ballard, Lewis MacAdams, Kevin Opstedal, Donald Guravich, Cedar Cigo, Jeff Chester, Patrick Dunagan, Edward Ainsworth, and myself, represented with a healthy chunk of seven poems, some from Memo from Stonehouse, and some even newer work. Copies are $10 and are available directly from Blue Press at 515 Walnut Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, or from Amazon.com.
Also available from Blue Press is AbandonShip, by Harris Schiff. This appears to be his first book in quite a while. If you're not already familiar with Harris Schiff, I highly recommend his work. His incredible prose piece, "I Should Run for Cover But I'm Right Here," which appeared in the Angel Hair Anthology, is one of the best things I've ever read. I also just finished reading an earlier collection of Schiff's poems, In the Heart of the Empire, published by United Artists back in 1979. One of the best collections I've read in a long time, despite its being from almost another era. I also just finished Reed Bye's brand new collection, Join the Planets, also from United Artists, and a review I wrote will be appearing in the next issue of Rain Taxi Review of Books.
Other books, chaps and broadsides I've recently read which are worth recommending:
Coastal Disturbance (Bikini Machine), by Kevin Opstedal, Pale Music Press, 2005
On the Low, by Kevin Opstedal, Gallery Books, 2006
Information From the Surface of Venus, by Lewis Warsh, United Artists, 1987
Blue Mosque, by Anne Waldman, United Artists, 1988
The Wisdom Anthology of North American Buddhist Poetry, edited by Andrew Schelling, Wisdom Publications, 2005
Danger on Peaks, by Gary Snyder, Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004
night falls and is slow to get up, by Cralan Kelder, Longhouse
The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag, and Other Intimate Portraits of the Bohemian Era, by Edward Field, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2005
Zorro on the Zephyr, Marie Kazalia's long poem done up as a broadside from Red Hand Press
I also recently received contributor copies of both Mineshaft #16 and fulva flava #1. Mineshaft contains comics, artwork and writing by The Deitch Bros., Penny van Horn, Bill Griffith, R. Crumb and others, as well as a previously unpublished poem of mine about Tangier entitled "Ciné Roxy." Check out their site at: www.mineshaftmagazine.com
The first issue of fulva flava contains work by Lyn Lifshin, Alan Catlin, Cheryl Townsend, B.Z. Niditch and many, many others, as well as three previously unpublished prose pieces taken from my forthcoming book, Memo from Stonehouse. fulva flava has the spirit and editorial presence of the mimeo mags of the sixties and seventies and is well worth reading. It's edited by Marie Kazalia and published by her Red Hand Press. It's available for $7 from Red Hand Press, P.O. Box 485, Cortland, OH 44410.
Meanwhile, Brinkmann's Wrath, the film about the last years of the German poet, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, which I've been working on in the capacity of translator for the last couple of years, is going into the final phases of production. I spent a couple of days in the studio in Berlin with the director, Harald Bergman, "spotting" subtitles, and will be returning to Berlin for one final session before the film is completed and sent off to Cannes as an entry in the next festival there. For more info see the site at: www.brinkmannszorn.de
Last but not least, Tim Beckham, designer of this site and good old buddy from way back, recently sent me a photo of me and American Music Club, taken somewhere on the road in Germany during AMC's long and wending way to the top. The picture is now installed in the Gallery for the sake of posterity as well as historical documentation (check the hair!). Another new addition to the Gallery is an old picture of our house here in the Hafenstrasse in Burg, taken in 1926, when the place was still a functioning shipyard.
The launch party and two readings in Paris for the special American Poets in Paris issue of The Café Review all went down extremely well. I had the honor of reading on two different nights in Shakespeare & Company (bookstore) and Ismery's Gallery, along with Alice Notley, Ian Ayres, Jennifer Dick, Christopher McDonald, Heather Hartley and others. Both events were well attended and the "vibes" were quite good. Other poets in the current issue of The Café Review include Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Marilyn Hacker, Amy Hollowell and many others. For more details see The Café Review website at www.thecafereview.com. A big thanks to Lee Bellavance and Heather Hartley for their organizational skills and for making the whole thing happen.
Also a big thanks to Shakespeare & Company and the folks at Ismery's Gallery.
Meanwhile, three prose pieces from my forthcoming collection, Memo from Stonehouse, will be appearing in the November 2005 issue of Fulva Flava, and two other prose pieces from Memo will be appearing in Defect Cult, sometime later this winter. Both publications are edited by Maria Kazalia and published by Red Hand Press in San Francisco. More details at: http://RedHandPress.BlogSpot.com
Another new poem from Memo will be appearing in Mineshaft #16, which is currently at the printers and due out soon. Check out their website at: http://www.mineshaftmagazine.com/
Other poems from Memo from Stonehouse will be appearing in future issues of Sulphur River Literary Review, Eclipse and Atlanta Review.
If you haven't already read Graham Robb's terrific biography of Rimbaud, you best do so. Other recent & notable reads include:
Continuous Flame: A Tribute to Philip Whalen, from Fish Drum
The River: Books One, Two & Three, by Lewis MacAdams, from Blue Press
Minus Tide, by Kevin Opstedal, from Smog Eyes
Lemon Red, by Cralan Kelder, from Coracle.
All highly recommended.
My new collection of poems and prose poems, Memo from Stonehouse, is complete and now making the rounds at various publishers. It was written under a cloud of influence in which dwelled the ancient Chinese poet/monks Cold Mountain and Stonehouse, as well as contemporary American poets such as John Wieners, Joanne Kyger and Philip Whalen. The feedback so far has been good, some of which I'm posting below. Any publishers interested in seeing the manuscript or a sample, feel free to contact me via email.
"I'm having a great time reading Memo. There are few poets I like to spend time with, and it is sweetly familiar to move thru the movement of Mark Terrill's lines—his way, his path, his punch lines—the details of his physical life; his 'setting'. But Memo is more than his very sure tour of words on the page—he gives a dimension of culture and living in the moment that is very reassuring."— Joanne Kyger, author of Again: Poems 1989-2000 and As Ever: Selected Poems
"An Ally of the Zen Wing of The New American Poetry of observation & witness, Mark Terrill's poems receive inspiration from his expansive 'radar dish of consciousness.' A solid collection from a vigilant compañero of the real work".— Anne Waldman, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
"Mark Terrill may have washed up on the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic, but he remains indelibly a poet of the Pacific Rim. Surmounting the 'pathology' of thinking but not, thank God, of poetry, he celebrates moments of pure consciousness in these lucid, intriguing poems."— Edward Field, author of Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems 1963-1992
"Mark Terrill's poems and prose poems in Memo from Stonehouse overwhelm me with the unlikely combination of: a deeply intuitive understanding of the mystery of all existence and an instantly familiar accessibility. As though Rilke had mated with Bukowski and these were their offspring. Every piece fulfills the expectations of that unique combination, and then some."— Michael Lally, winner of the American Book Award for It's Not Nostalgia
Meanwhile, The Café Review will be publishing a special American Poets in Paris issue, in which some of my work will be appearing. There will be a reading and release party in Paris at Shakespeare & Company as well as another location on October 24/25. I will be there to read my work and to pillage the bar and hors d'oeuvres. More details will be posted here as they come in. You can also check the websites of both The Café Review and Shakespeare & Company at:
A new prose piece of mine will be appearing in issue #25 of Paragraph Magazine, due out later this summer. Published by Karen Donovan and Walker Rumble at Oat City Press in East Providence, Rhode Island, Paragraph has been around since 1985, "as a homeopathic remedy for media overload." Covers printed on a vintage Vandercook 317 letterpress. Check out their site here.
Five poems from my forthcoming collection appeared in the recent Little Horse's Magazine. Other work by Joanne Kyger, Lewis MacAdams, Noel Black, Harris Schiff, Michael Price, Anselm Hollo, Duncan McNaughton, Kevin Opstedal and others. An excellent read. Available from Small Press Distribution.
A new prose piece of mine can be read in the online magazine Szirine
Two new poems from my forthcoming collection can be read in the current online edition of Thunder Sandwich
A flyer with blurbs and reviews for my recent collection of poems, The United Colors of Death, can be seen on the Pathwise Press site
A new poem of mine appeared in the recent issue of Van Gogh's Ear
Two tracks from my new CD, The United Colors of Death, can be heard on the CD accompanying the latest issue of Gargoyle
A new prose piece from my forthcoming collection will be appearing in Fish Drum #20
Other new prose pieces from my forthcoming collection will be appearing in Poetry Motel, Mudfish and Rive Gauche
The title piece from my collection Bread & Fish will be appearing in the tenth anniversary issue of Atlanta Review, due out in 2005
Four new poems from my forthcoming collection will be appearing in Sulphur River Literary Review
A new prose poem from my forthcoming collection can be read in the current issue of Water~Stone Review, the literary annual from Hamline University. e-mail: water-stone@gw.hamline.edu
"Acceleration," a prose piece from my collection, Bread & Fish, was included in the recent anthology entitled Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree and other works of Buddhist Fiction from Wisdom Publications
Other new work out or forthcoming in Yefief, Confrontation, Luna, Spillway, Sentence, Bombay Gin, Blades and elsewhere
| BKM |
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Something Red, a new collection of 28 prose pieces, has just been published in a limited edition of 50 copies by Stay at Home Press (a division of Plan B Press).
Todd Swift selected my poem "Enduring Freedom" for his excellent anthology, Babylon Burning: 9/11 Five Years On, available from Nth Position at: 
My review of Barbara Henning's My Autobiography, from United Artists, will be appearing in the forthcoming Rain Taxi. This is a series of 72 sonnet-like collaged cut-ups with lines taken from 999 books in Henning's personal library. A wacky synaptic neo-Oulipian joyride through the likes of Agee, Artaud and Apollinaire to Zukofsky and all the way into the kitchen to Henning's cookbooks.
JUST RELEASED - NOW AVAILABLE