Tag: Evergreen Review

March 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

At long last, I feel like I am back into the reading groove. Work is, well, just as busy, but less chaotic, and therefore I have the mental energy necessary to focus on quiet things like reading. That is not to say that I am reading quiet books.

I am very happy with my book interactions this month. The five books which arrived are a mind-blowing mix. And the reading was a genuine delight.

Acquisitions

Books which arrived at my house in the month of March, 2025.

  1. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures (Grand River Poetry Collective) [2025.03.14] – Received as a gift from the Grand River Poetry Collective
  2. LeRoi Jones, Home: Social Essays [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  3. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast [2025.03.23] – Purchased from Black Dog Books and Records
  4. Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar [2025.03.24] – Purchased from City Lights Books
  5. Jean Baudrillard (Sheila Faria Glaser, translator), Simulacra and Simulation (University of Michigan Press) [2025.03.28] – Purchased from the publisher

Reading List

Books I finished reading in March 2025.

Books

  1. Barney Rosset, Dick Seaver, Fred Jordan, Mike Topp (editors), The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  2. Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings [2025.03.16]
  3. Melissa Wray, Small Gestures [2025.03.16]
  4. Maria Judite de Carvalho (Margaret Jull Costa, translator), Empty Wardrobes [2025.03.21]

Short Prose

  1. LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), “Cuba Libre”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  2. Kenneth Koch, “Bertha”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  3. Arrabel (James Hewitt, translator), “Picnic on the Battlefield”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.02]
  4. Robert Stromberg, “A Talk with Louis-Ferdinand Céline”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  5. Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara, “How to Proceed in the Arts”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  6. William S. Burroughs, “from Naked Lunch“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  7. Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Carla Colter and Alison Scott, translators), “The Tunnel”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  8. Ahmed Yacoubi (Paul Bowles and Mohammed Larbi Djilali, translators), “The Night Before Thinking”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.03]
  9. Brendan Behan, “The Big House”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.05]
  10. Heinreich Böll (Richard and Clara Winston, translators), “In This Country of Ours”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  11. Günter Grass (Ralph Manheim, translator), “The Wide Skirt”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.07]
  12. Samuel Beckett (Richard Seaver, translator), “The Expelled”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.08]
  13. Robert Coover, “The Square-Shooter and the Saint”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  14. Robert Gover, “from One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  15. Driss ben Hamed Charhadi (Paul Bowles, translator), “from A Life Full of Holes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.09]
  16. Jakov Lind (Ralph Manheim, translator), “Resurrection”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  17. Sławomir Mrożek (Konrad Syrop, translator), “Three Polish Tales”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  18. Pauline Réage (Sabine d’Estrée, translator), “from Story of O“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  19. Richard Brautigan, “from Trout Fishing in America“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.10]
  20. Hubert Selby, Jr., “from Last Exit to Brooklyn“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.11]
  21. Georges Bataille (Austryn Wainhouse, translator), “Madame Edwarda”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  22. Michael Rumaker, “Gringos”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  23. Witold Gombrowicz (Richard Seaver, translator), “On the Back Stair”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  24. Chester Himes, “from Pinktoes“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  25. Kenzaburō Ōe (John Nathan, translator), “Lavish Are the Dead”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  26. Henry Miller, “George Grosz’ Ecce Homo“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]
  27. Curzio Malaparte (Rex Benedict, translator), “Mamma Marcia”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.03.12]

Weekly Round-up, March 15, 2025

John Winkelman

Red maple buds on a twig, seen against a hazy blue sky.

[Red maple buds on a twig, seen against a hazy blue sky.]

It’s been an interesting week. The slide into an official, full-blown Christofascist ethno-state continues. I say “continues” because all of American conservatism has been heading in this direction for about the past 248 years, and REALLY the last 532 years.

The most clear-eyed theory states that, rather than 1930s Weimar Germany, we are seeing the USA mimic the late-1990s, post-Soviet Russia. The oligarchs are stripping the country for parts, and already the damage done in last than two months will take years to correct. The only real solution will be to purge the entirety of MAGA and DOGE, and all similar ideologies, from the world, and tax the wealthy until none of them have the financial resources to get involved in politics at any meaningful level, ever again.

In happier news, I just received the first book published by the Grand River Poetry Collective, Melissa Wray‘s Small Gestures. The Collective has about ten more books in various stages in the publishing queue, and more author inquiries are coming in every day.\

Grand Rapids Poet Laureate Christine Stephens-Krieger has been hard at work setting up opportunities and events for Grand Rapids poets. Two coming up in the near future are:

  • Sunday, April 6, 2:00 – 4:00 pm: The Power of Poetry Showcase at the Grand Rapids Public Library
  • Thursday, April 4, 6:00 – 7:30 pm: Grand River Poetry Collective Panel Discussion at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

Reading

I finished The Evergreen Review Reader, which was magnificent, and now I’m on to the next book – Minor Feelings, by Cathy Park Hong, on the recommendation of my partner.

Writing

I have a large pile of old poetry and short stories to investigate to see if any have merit, so that I may edit them. I feel cautiously optimistic and vaguely pessimistic in equal measure.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Portals, Cyborgs
Setting: Virtual Reality
Genre: Fantasy

Listening

Five years ago this week the COVID lockdowns commenced. That five years has been a very long couple of decades.

Interesting Links

IWSG, March 2025: A Thing for Just One Day

John Winkelman

I suppose I’m not the only person to find the idea of creative output exhausting here in the cyberpunk hellscape of 2025. Most of my creative sparks last just long enough to make me feel optimistic before being smothered under the latest news of the fascist bootlicks and apartheid fanboys currently running rampant in Washington, DC. But like Sisyphus I keep rollin’ that boulder, while Orpheus sings the blues.

My partner found an unlined journal with paper thick enough that I can use my fountain pens without bleed-through, so I have been scratching out rough drafts of new poems therein. I love my Moleskines, but the paper is just a little too thin for fountain pens.

On the creative front, two things have been keeping me stable this year. First is the ongoing work of the Grand River Poetry Collective, spear-headed by the Grand Rapids Poet Laureate (and my very good friend) Christine Stephens-Krieger. And second, the recurring re-connections with my many creative friends from Back In The Day, particularly with old college friends and co-workers from my several years at Schuler Books, back in the 1990s.

In a bit of fortunate timing, I recently started reading through The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966, which is a collection of the best of the first decade of the Evergreen Review literary journal. Most of the writers in the Review were names I first encountered while working at the bookstore. This coincidence has sent me down a rabbit hole of nostalgia, which is good for re-energizing the writing habit, but perhaps not so good for moving in new directions. Then again, time only moves in one direction (or rather, we only move in one direction through time), so everything old can be new again.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for March, 2025 is: If for one day you could be anyone or *thing* in the world, what would it be?

I have thought about this question many times in the past, though more in the guise of “What would you like to come back as?” This version is much easier to answer, as one day is much shorter than a lifetime, unless I choose to come back as a mayfly.

I think, for one day, I would like to true being a tree, on the southeast  side of a mountain, overlooking a river, in late Spring. Someplace far away from people. Most of all, some place quiet. There is far too little quiet in the world any more.

 

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February 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

At long last, over two months since I cracked it open, I finally finished Doctor Zhivago. It was a long read – mostly beautiful, occasionally frustrating, and above all definitely worth the effort.

Now I am reading short fiction, to help reset my brain. Currently I am working my way through The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966, which, in addition to being full of superb short prose and poetry, is an interesting time-capsule of the state of literature almost seventy years ago.

Acquisitions

The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste Speculative Science Fiction

  1. R.T. Samuel, Rakesh K., Rashmi R.D. (editors), The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF (Blaft Publications)

Reading List

Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak

Books

  1. Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago [2025.02.14]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “Kitemaster” (Patreon post) [2025.02.11]
  2. Samuel Beckett, “Dante and the Lobster”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.14]
  3. Jack Kerouac, “October in the Railroad Earth”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.14]
  4. Patsy Southgate, “A Very Important Lady”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.16] – [Note: I could find almost no information at all on Patsy Southgate online. Anything I found was as a side note to other writers and creative types. The two obituaries I could find, from 1998, were behind paywalls. Perhaps I will gather some sources and put together a Wikipedia page.]
  5. Kameron Hurley, “At the Crossroads of Many Futures” (Patreon post) [2025.02.16]
  6. Tobias S. Buckell, “The Last Cathedral of Earth, In Flight” (Patreon post) [2025.02.17]
  7. Alexander Trocchi, “From Cain’s Book“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  8. John Rechy, “From City of Night“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  9. William Eastlake, “Portrait of an Artist with Twenty-Six Horses”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.18]
  10. Carlos Fuentes (Lysander Kemp, translator), “The Life Line”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.21]
  11. Juan Rulfo (Lysander Kemp, translator), “From Pedro Páramo“, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.22]
  12. Octavio Paz, “Todos Santos, Día de Muertos”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.24]
  13. Henry Miller, “Defense of the Freedom to Read”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.24]
  14. William Eastlake, “Three Heroes and a Clown”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.25]
  15. Terry Southern, “Red-Dirt Marihuana”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.25]
  16. William S. Burroughs, “Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.26]
  17. Eugène Ionesco, “Foursome”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.26]
  18. Martin Williams, “Charlie Parker: The Burden of Innovation”, The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957 – 1966 [2025.02.28]

Weekly Round-up, February 15, 2025

John Winkelman

A trail of cat footprints in a light covering of snow.

[A trail of cat footprints in a light covering of snow.]

This past week was hectic, but not overwhelming. We are already making plans for ConFusion 2026, and I am excited to be part of that process. ConFusion 2025 was a tremendous experience and I am grateful that we are able to keep that momentum up as we plan for next year.

Reading

I finally finished Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. In any other year I would have completed it sometime around the holidays, but surviving in a cyberpunk dystopia takes a lot of mental energy, and is quite psychologically draining. And classic Russian literature requires a lot of focus and attention to detail.

Immediately upon closing the Pasternak, I opened The Evergreen Review Reader, 1957-1966. I believe I picked this book up as a remainder when I worked at Schuler Books & Music back in the mid-1990s. So this book has been in my possession for between 25 and 30 years. And now I am finally reading it. The first two short stories therein are by Samuel Beckett and Jack Kerouac.

Writing

While at Monumental ConFusion a couple of weeks ago, my partner bought me an unlined journal with paper thick enough to allow me to use a fountain pen without bleed-through or blotching. I have written a couple of poems in it, one a sort of “welcome to the journal” piece, and the other a response to finishing Doctor Zhivago here in the mid-21st century. Feels good to have my head in that space again.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Environment, Precursors
Setting: Frontier
Genre: Technothriller

Listening

“Careless Whisper” by Wham!

While looking for a song to include in this post, I found a list of the top 40 songs of this date 40 years ago. “Careless Whisper” was at the top of an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING collection of music. 1985 was a hell of a year to be a teenager listening to the radio.

Interesting Links

 

November 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

November wasn’t such a great month for reading, mostly due to the existential dread of watching democracy die in the USA. Other than that, things are great!

Acquisitions

Books I acquired in November 2024.

 

  1. Jordan S. Carroll, Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (University of Minnesota Press) [2024.11.01]
  2. Kateřina Čupová (Julie Nováková, translator, Damian Duffy, lettering), R.U.R: The Karel Čapek Classic (Rosarium Publishing) [2024.11.07]
  3. Yuri Herrera (Lisa Dillman, translator), Season of the Swamp (And Other Stories) [2024.11.12]
  4. Evergreen Review Reader 1967 – 1973 (Four Walls Eight Windows) [2024.11.14]
  5. Cheryl S. Ntumy, Songs for the Shadows (Atthis Arts) [2024.11.30]
  6. Ihor Mysiak (Yevheniia Dubrova and Hanna Leliv, translators), The Factory (Atthis Arts) [2024.11.30]

Reading List

Books

Books I read in November 2024.

  1. Elvira Navarro (Christina MacSweeney, translator), A Working Woman [2024.11.12]
  2. Mona Arshi, Somebody Loves You [2024.11.21]
  3. William Gibson, Spook Country [2024.11.27]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “A Game of Goblins” [2024.11.25]