Tag: Jim Harrison

June 2023 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

June is my birthday month, and I celebrated by driving clockwise around Lake Michigan, starting in my home town of Grand Rapids and hitting Madison, Marquette, and Sault Ste Marie before returning home. In each city, we stopped at an independent bookstore where I offered my monetary support in exchange for bound bundles of words. That, plus the arrival of a couple of Kickstarter rewards, made this the biggest book acquisition month of the year thus far.

Acquisitions

New arrivals in the month of June 2023

  1. Rihannon Rasmussen and dave ring (editors), Luminescent Machinations: Queer Tales of Monumental Invention (Neon Hemlock Press) [2023.06.02] – Kickstarter reward
  2. China Miéville, A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto (Haymarket Books) [2023.06.03] – Purchased from Books and Mortar bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  3. Maurizio Lazzarato, Capital Hates Everyone: Fascism or Revolution (Semiotext(e)) [2023.06.06] – Purchased at A Room of One’s Own bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin
  4. R.F. Kuang, Yellowface [2023.06.06] – Purchased at A Room of One’s Own bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin
  5. Chris McCabe (editor), Poems from the Edge of Extinction [2023.06.08] – Purchased at Snowbound Books in Marquette, Michigan
  6. Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise [2023.06.09] – Purchased at Island Books and Crafts in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan
  7. Florence McClinchey, Joe Pete (Ziibi Press) [2023.06.09] – Purchased at Island Books and Crafts in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan
  8. Patricia Bray and Joshua Palmatier (editors), Solar Flare: Solarpunk Stories (Zombies Need Brains) [2023.06.30]
  9. S.C. Butler and Joshua Palmatier (editors), Dragonesque (Zombies Need Brains) [2023.06.30]
  10. Stephen Kotowych and Tony Pi (editors), Game On! (Zombies Need Brains) [2023.06.30]
  11. David B. Coe and Edmund B. Schubert (editors), Artifice & Craft (Zombies Need Brains) [2023.06.30]

Reading List

What I read in the month of June 2023

Books

  1. Jim Harrison, Returning to Earth (re-read) [2023.06.04]
  2. R.F. Kuang, Yellowface [2023.06.16]
  3. Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. [2023.06.24]
  4. Jonathan C. Creasy (editor), Black Mountain Poems: An Anthology [2023.06.25]
  5. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Nomadology: The War Machine [2023.06.30]

October 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

What I read in October 2022

This was the month I finally made it to the bottom of my stack of back issues of The Paris Review. It was a wondrous, wild ride full of some of the best writing I have experienced in my adult life, but I feel a sense of relief now that I am done.

This was also the month in which I passed 200 pieces of short prose read, which means 2022, for all its chaos and uncertainty, was a stellar year for reading.

Books and Journals

  1. The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  2. The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  3. The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  4. The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  5. The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.12]
  6. The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.13]
  7. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #31 [2022.10.15]
  8. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #32 [2022.10.18]
  9. Lady Churchiill’s Rosebud Wristlet #33 [2022.10.22]
  10. Marissa Lingen, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  11. Jim Harrison, The Search for the Genuine [2022.10.28]
  12. Poetry #221.2 {2022.10.30}

Short Prose

  1. Yohanca Delgado, “The Little Widow from the Capital”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  2. Peyton Burgess, “A Supernatural Landscape of Love And Grief Not Unlike Your Own”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  3. Maxim Osipov (Boris Dralyuk, translator), “Sventa”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  4. Kenan Orhan, “The Beyoglu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.02]
  5. Joy Katz, “Tennis is the Opposite of Death: A Proof”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  6. Vladimir Nabokov (Tatyana Gershkovich, translator), “A Monologue”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  7. Adania Shibli (Nora Parr, translator), “Mathematics, under Which Is Love, Whose Bed Is Language”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  8. Christina Wood, “A Summer Party”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  9. Lydia Conklin, “Rainbow Rainbow”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  10. Camille Bordas, “The Lottery in Almeria”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  11. Anuk Arudpragasam, “So Many Different Worlds”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  12. McKenzie, “We All Fall Down”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.05]
  13. Annie Baker, “Infinite Life (excerpt)”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.05]
  14. Caleb Crain, “Walks”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  15. Lawrence Jackson, “Letter from Lafayette Square”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  16. Chetna Maroo, “Brothers and Sisters”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  17. Emmanuel Carrére, “Exhaling”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  18. Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, “This Then Is a Song, We Are Singing”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  19. Lakiesha Carr, “Tomorrows,” The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.07]
  20. Will Arbery, “from Corsicana“, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  21. Zach Williams, “Trial Run”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  22. Ishion Hutchinson, “Woman Sweeping”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  23. Kathran Scanlan, “Backsliders”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  24. Annie Ernaux (Alison L. Strayer, translator), “Diary, 1988”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  25. Paul Dalla Rosa, “I Feel It”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  26. Harriet Clark, “Descent”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  27. Esther Yi, “Moon”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  28. Rachel B. Glaser, “Ira & the Whale”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  29. Leonard Cohen, “Begin Again”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  30. Dan Bevacqua, “Riccardo”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  31. Robert Glück, “About Ed”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  32. Matthew Shen Goodman, “Lording”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.11]
  33. Darryl Pinckney, “For Snow Queens”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.11]
  34. Emma Cline, “Pleasant Glen”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.12]
  35. Nancy Lemann, “Diary of Remorse”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  36. Michelle de Kretser, “Winter Term”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  37. Sam Pink, “The Ceremony”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  38. Maya Binyam, “Do You Belong to Anybody?”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  39. Katherine Dunn, “The Education of Mrs. R.”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  40. Christian Kracht, “The Gold Coast”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.13]
  41. Jessy Randall, “You Don’t Even Have a Rabbit”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #31 [2022.10.13]
  42. Goldie Goldbloom, “Never Eat Crow”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.13]
  43. Kathleen Jennings, “Skull and Hyssop”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.13]
  44. Owen King, “The Curator”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.15]
  45. Sarah Micklem, “The Necromancer of Lynka”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.15]
  46. Henry Wessells, “The Beast Unknown to Heraldry”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.16]
  47. Alyc Helms, “The Blood Carousel”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.16]
  48. Kodiak Julian, “Marrying the Sea”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  49. Joe M. McDermott, “Everything Is Haunted”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  50. Henry Lien, “The Shadow You Cast Is Me”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  51. Joanna Ruocco, “Auburn”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  52. Dylan Horrocks, “The Square of Mirrors”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  53. Nicole Kimberling, “Sleek Fat Albinos in Spring”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  54. Jade Sylvan, “Sun Circles”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  55. Carmen Maria Machado, “I Bury Myself”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  56. Christopher Brown, “Winter in the Feral City”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  57. Alena McNamara, “Starling Road”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  58. Giselle Leeb, “Ape Songs”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  59. Michelle Vider, “For Me, Seek the Sun”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  60. Deborah Walker, “Medea”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.20]
  61. D.K. McCutchen, “Jellyfish Dreaming”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.20]
  62. Sofia Samatar, “Request for an Extension on the Clarity“, LCRW #33 [2022.10.21]
  63. Nicole Kimberling, “Cook Like a Hobo”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  64. M. E. Garber, “Putting Down Roots”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  65. Eric Gregory, “The March Wind”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  66. Marissa Lingen, “Shrapnel From My Cousin’s Kaiju Battle: $229 Plus Shipping”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  67. Marissa Lingen, “Accountable Monsters”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  68. Marissa Lingen, “The River Horse Who Almost Ate Me, And His Lawyer”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  69. Marissa Lingen, “The Swarm of Giant Gnats I Sent After Kent, My Assistant Manager”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  70. Marissa Lingen, “After the Monster”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]

Hello October Again

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of September 25, 2022

Well that September just flew by, didn’t it? It wasn’t a bad month, just busy and barely any time to sit and relax. All I can say is that it was a hell of a lot better than September 2021.

Three new books and journals have been added to the library in the past week.

First up is the October 2022 issue of Poetry, which arrived on Wednesday and I read on Thursday, because I had a chunk of quiet time.

Next is Cathy Park Hong‘s Minor Feelings, which I added to my list after coming across some of her poetry online. Upon returning home from Books and Mortar, we discovered that my partner Zyra had picked up a copy some months ago and it was sitting on a shelf in plain sight. At least now, as the joke goes, I can read it more than once.

On the right is The Search for the Genuine, the new collection of Jim Harrison‘s nonfiction writing. I doubt there is much in here that I have not already read at some point, but Harrison’s nonfiction is just a pleasurable a read as his fiction and poetry so this is a welcome addition to the collection.

In reading news, in addition to the above I am on the first issue of 2021 of The Paris Review, which means I have only half a dozen remaining in my stack. I might get one more issue. As stated before, I am going to focus on this journal until I am caught up to present, then move on to the next stack of back issues of something.

One of the consequences of reading so many short stories by such a wide variety of writers is that, inevitably, I discover people who have recently died. This happened back in July with Duncan Hannah, whose book Twentieth-Century Boy was excerpted in The Paris Review in 2017. Hannah died this past June, aged 69, which no longer seems very old to me.

This past Friday I cracked open issue #236 (Spring 2021) of The Paris Review. The first item therein is the brilliant short story “Maly, Maly, Maly” by Anthony Veasna So. So died in December 2020 at the age of 28, just before his first book Afterparties: Stories was released.

In writing news, I am planning out my NaNoWriMo project, so while I am taking a lot of notes, I am not writing anything at the moment with a coherent narrative. This will be the first time I have planned out a project in advance, beyond the most basic outline of the order of events. At the moment, I feel optimistic that I will actually finish the first draft before the end of the year.

Back to the Grind, In a Good Way

John Winkelman

Jim Harrison's Complete Poems boxed set

I’ve been busy playing catch-up this past week. Taking two days off of work to attend ConFusion 2022 turned into, as it always does, less of a vacation and more of a deferred workload. That workload caught up with me at 8:00 Monday morning, and was still dogging me when I logged off at 18:00 Friday afternoon. But by several orders of magnitude I am not paid enough to work weekends when the literal end of the world is not at stake.

The only reading material to arrive in the past week, and it is a very big deal, is the three-volume boxed set of Jim Harrison‘s Complete Poems. This collection is absolutely beautiful. The book covers are from paintings by the late Russell Chatham, and the volumes have introductions by (respectively) Colum McCann, Joy Williams, and John Freeman. This set was a special edition published through Copper Canyon Press‘s project The Hearts Work: Jim Harrison’s Poetic Legacy. The online book launch celebration is available for viewing on YouTube.

In reading news, I finished Tamsyn Muir‘s Harrow the Ninth in the middle of last week, and started Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel shortly thereafter. I finished it this past Thursday evening, in our hotel room at ConFusion. After returning home I started reading S.A. Chakraborty‘s The Empire of Gold, the third volume in her fantastic Daevabad trilogy.

In writing news, I was thrown off my stride somewhat by preparing (physically, mentally, and emotionally) for ConFusion, so I didn’t accomplish much. This past week I have made some more progress on my short story, and should have it finished next week. Since my new writing routine has the first full week of the month set aside for editing, I still have one more writing week in which to complete some work. Thanks to my weekend of good friends, good fellowship and good vibes, I feel energized to dive back into my creative work.

December 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Books read in December 2021

Reading-wise, this month started out slowly. Between the mental fatigue of finishing NaNoWriMo and the emotional fatigue of GODDAMN EVERYTHING, I didn’t have much brain power left to work my way through the two books I started reading back in October (Graeber) and December (Dostoevsky). Dostoevsky and Graeber are brilliant and rewarding writers, but wow, do they require a lot of focus and mental energy to read attentively.

As a counterbalance, as soon as I finished the Graeber I picked up a few books from my embarrassingly large pile of unread genre fiction. These books were much easier to read. This is not to say that genre fiction is on its face light or inconsequential. The Scalzi, Hines, and El-Mohtar/Gladstone volumes were much easier to read simply because they were (a) not Dostoevsky, and (b) not an economic treatise which covers the previous five millennia of world history.

Jim Harrison’s book sneaked in at the top of the list because I picked it up after the arrival of his Collected Poems at the beginning of the month, and essays about food make for comforting reading.

All of the short prose I read this month was contained in the Dostoevsky. Six birds with one stone. Or maybe one bird with five pebbles, depending on how one splits that particular hair.

Books

  1. Harrison, Jim, The Raw and the Cooked (reread, 2021.12.14)
  2. Dostoevsky, Fyodor (Volokhonsky, Larissa, and Pevear, Richard, translators), The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  3. Graeber, David, Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2021.12.28)
  4. Scalzi, John, The Collapsing Empire (2021.12.29)
  5. Hines, Jim C, Terminal Uprising (2021.12.30)
  6. El-Mohtar, Amal and Gladstone, Max – This Is How You Lose the Time War (2021.12.31)

Short Prose

  1. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “A Nasty Anecdote”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.05)
  2. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Eternal Husband”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.26)
  3. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “Bobok”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  4. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Meek One”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)
  5. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”, The Eternal Husband and Other Stories (2021.12.27)

Two More Weeks

John Winkelman

New reading material for the week of December 12, 2021

Brief update. Too tired and burned out to throw a lot of detail into this week’s post.

one book and one magazine arrived in the past week.

First up is Vital: The Future of Healthcare, an anthology of speculative stories about what health care might look like in the coming months, years and decades. This was another of the delayed Kickstarter rewards I have written about previously, and once again, no harm and no foul, here in the middle of an ongoing pandemic.

Next is issue 1 of Inque Magazine, from another Kickstarter campaign. Yes, that is a literary journal. And yes, it is that big.

In reading news, I read Jim Harrison’s collection of food writing The Raw and the Cooked. This was prompted by the release last week (and my receipt of) of Harrison’s Complete Poems. I am also making good progress with Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years and Dostoevsky’s The Eternal Husband and Other Stories. I feel confident that I will complete them this month, which will give me time to get caught up on my genre fiction in the run up to ConFusion 2022, assuming the upsurge in COVID doesn’t cause the con to be cancelled again.

In writing news, there is not a lot happening other than journaling, thanks to a general malaise. I have a lot of great ideas, but right now the though of writing them down exhausts me.

This Year Can’t End Soon Enough

John Winkelman

New reading material from the week of December 5, 2021

This past Wednesday I received my COVID booster shot at a local pharmacy and, like with the first and second shots in April, I felt an immediate sense of relief which was welcome but not altogether pleasant. It was something like a hangover, a post-stress reaction to getting a thing which is desired but not wanted, if you follow me. Since it was necessary, I was glad to get it, but I would much rather that it was not necessary. But this is the world in which we now live.

I just found out that an old friend has entered hospice, which, coming after another friend passed a couple of weeks ago, and two others in late winter and early summer of this year (none from COVID), really took the energy out of me. And all this in addition to Mom dying back at the beginning of September. Yeah, 2021 can go straight to hell, which at this point is kind of redundant.

On a more positive note, this was a most excellent week for the library at Winkelman Abbey, with many books and magazines arriving in this, the first full week of December.

First up is The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey by Shawn Speakman, newly arrived from a successful Kickstarter. This is another of the Kickstarters which was significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated fallout and supply chain disruption. I suspect this will not be the last Kickstarter reward which will suffer from the events of the past couple of years, and at this point it is probably fair to say that this will be the normal state of affairs for the foreseeable future. As Hofstadter’s Law states, “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.”

Next up is the latest issue of The Paris Review. I recently cancelled my subscription, or rather the automatic renewal of my subscription, as I have not read any of the previous six issues. However, the thought of no longer receiving The Paris Review causes me a sense of unease, so that cancellation may soon, well, be cancelled.

Next up are two(!) books from my subscription to the catalog of And Other Stories — Paulo Scott’s Phenotypes, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn, and Mona Arshi’s Somebody Loves You.

Next is issue 44 of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, a small magazine of great words published by Small Beer Press.

Next is Terminal Uprising by Jim Hines. This is my second copy of this book. Hines signed the first one at ConFusion 2020, and I gave it to some friends who live on the east side of the state. This copy, however, is MINE, and I hope to get it signed at ConFusion 2022, which is scheduled for the third weekend in January.

And finally, the boxed set of the Interdependency series (The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, and The Last Emperox) by John Scalzi, of which much to my surprise I did not own copies. This is also a purchase specifically meant for receiving one or more signatures, as Mr. Scalzi is a regular attendee at ConFusion.

Jim Harrison Collected Poems

As Zyra and I were leaving to pick up dinner last night I noticed a box tucked in a sheltered corner of our porch. When I opened it I found my copy of the single-volume edition of Harrison’s Complete Poems, which I was not expecting to arrive for several more weeks. This book is gorgeous; nearly 950 pages long, and it contains, as it says on the cover, all of Harrison’s poetry. This edition includes a beautiful introduction penned by Terry Tempest Williams, and cover art, as with so many of Harrison’s other books, by the late Russell Chatham.

Wednesday night after Tai Chi class, I watched the book launch event for Jim Harrison’s Complete Poems, hosted by his publisher Copper Canyon Press. It included stories about Harrison, as well as his friends reading some of his poems. I have been a fan of Jim Harrison since the early 1990s when, at the suggestion of one of my professors, I picked up Wolf. One book led to another, and I have never looked back nor regretted a single minute spent reading his words.

The event was recorded and is available for viewing here on YouTube.

In reading news, I am (still) working my way through the stories in Dostoevsky’s The Eternal Husband and Other Stories, as well as David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5,000 Years. I am enjoying both immensely, but times being what they are I don’t have a lot of energy or focus, and these books each deserve both. So I am reading slowly and in small chunks.

In writing news I am noodling around with a short story and a few poems, trying to work up the energy to dive back into my partially-completed NaNoWriMo manuscript. I would have made better progress, but 2021 keeps finding way to kick my legs out from under me, metaphorically speaking. So maybe I will hit my writing goals for the year. All I can say about that is, this year was a hell of a lot better than last year, writerly-speaking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was good.

June 2021 Reading List

John Winkelman

Book I Read in June 2021

Considering how busy I was in June, this is not a bad reading list. I had a good mix of genres, with fantasy, poetry, critical theory, and literary fiction in the mix. I could have maybe snuck in one more book, but the mix of work scheduler and stress, life stress, family stress, and general burnout kept me from enjoying my free moments as well as I could have.

If you look closely, you will see that my copy of Dalva is quite worn. Both front and back covers are attached by the tiniest remnant of the original adhesive, and the pages within are quite yellowed. I purchased this copy when I worked at Schuler Books and Music, sometime around 1996 or 1997, I think. So it’s at least 20 years old. I have read it at least half a dozen times, and loaned it out twice. All the damage to the book was done by me, hauling the book on vacation and to various cafes and offices over the years. I love this book unreservedly, and will likely pick up a replacement copy sometime this year.

As with last month, I didn’t read any short fiction. This is beginning to bother me, and as I have a two-week vacation coming up, I will do my best to set aside time to correct this omission.

Books

  1. Harrow, Alix – The Ten Thousand Door of January (2021.06.12)
  2. Liem, Tess – Obits. (2021.06.15)
  3. Pike, J. Zachary – Son of a Liche (2021.06.24)
  4. Tiqqun, The Cybernetic Hypothesis (2021.06.24)
  5. Harrison, Jim – Dalva (2021.06.28)

Rainy Days are Good Days for Reading

John Winkelman

Reading material arriving in the week of June 20,2021

We have been dealing with a drought of sorts for the past month, and in the last couple of days the weather patterns have stepped up to correct that imbalance. The cooler air has been nice, though it has brought with it some extremely humid days, which have reminded me of early spring in New Orleans. And that has brought with it a specific melancholy, as I have not been to New Orleans since May of 2009, when my father died. I have promised my girlfriend that we will take trip down south one of these days so she can experience the city before it is permanently underwater.

Humid, stormy days dampen down the motivation to do much of anything, so even simple tasks are difficult, as if undertaken after a strenuous workout. And difficult tasks are, well, more difficult. And make necessary frequent naps.

One magazine and one book arrived here last week.

On the left is the latest issues of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, the literary journal published by Small Beer Press, a company which consistently turns out some of the best writing by the best authors in the business.

On the right is Ron Hogan’s new book Our Endless and Proper Work, which I purchased on impulse after seeing it in one of John Scalzi‘s regular round-ups of the books and ARCs which arrive at his house every week. I admit I have not heard of Hogan, and that I purchased the book mostly because it was published by Belt Publishing, a company which also turns out excellent writing, centered around authors and cities in the Rust Belt region of the American Midwest. At a quick glance he appears to be quite a good writer, with good advice for writer.

In reading news, I finished both The Cybernetic Hypothesis and Son of a Liche. To clear my head, I have started re-reading Jim Harrison‘s magnificent Dalva, a book which I return to every few years when I need to reset my mind in a specific way.

Reading Harrison also helps to prime my mind for writing, and right now I need all the boosts I can find in order to get my head back into that space. Already the year is half over and I have not written any prose of substance since the first week of last November. More than six months, and though I have about three dozen new poems, that isn’t much to show for 200 days.

Time to get to work.

Re-centering Poetry

John Winkelman

One of the advantages, if you can call it that, of working at home in the Days of COVID is that I can see the day-to-day progression of the diminishing daylight as we move from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice. When I close down my laptop at the end of my shift the sun is just a little closer to the horizon, the light a little more golden – or red, depending on the drift of smoke from the west coast. And each day it is just a little more difficult to pull myself from bed early enough in the morning to complete my morning routine.

Two things are helping keep me on my game as winter approaches: Poe, who still insists on being fed at 5:00 every morning, and a large stack of poetry books and chapbooks to read through as part of the Sealey Challenge. I am managing to stay on schedule, mostly thanks to a large pile of unread chapbooks which have arrived over the past four years as part of my subscriptions to Horse Less Press (currently on indefinite hiatus) and Ugly Duckling Presse, which is still going strong though I had to let my subscription lapse for financial reasons. I note that traditionally the Sealey Challenge has run during the month of August, so next year I will align myself with the rest of the poetry universe and complete the challenge in the appropriate month.

An excellent pile of books arrived this week at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. On the top left is a new one from Subterranean Press – Edited By, a collection of stories which have been edited by Ellen Datlow. The collection itself is, well, edited by Ellen Datlow. So there’s a lot of meta going on with this one.

In the top middle is Francesco Verso‘s Nexhuman, the latest delivery from Apex Book Company, to which I have a subscription through Patreon. Editor Jason Sizemore was kind enough to reach out to me when the original print run for this shipment ran a few short and he allowed me to pick any title from the Apex catalog. This was my first choice, and it was fortunate they had copies in stock, as I am slowly picking up every book Apex has published, thanks to Patreon, Kickstarter, and purchases at various ConFusions over the past several years.

On the top right is Road to Heaven, Bill Porter‘s beautiful travelogue/story of wandering the mountains of China looking for the Buddhist and Taoist hermits who maintain a tradition once much revered in Chinese culture.

Bottom left is The Collected Ghazals by the late, great Jim Harrison. Copper Canyon Press recently released this collection, as well as the book in the bottom center, Letters to Yesenin. I have been a fan of Jim Harrison since a college professor turned me on to him back in 1993, when he picked up a copy of Wolf. Since then I have read almost everything Harrison wrote, and have bookshelf dedicated to his poetry and prose.

On the bottom right is the new collection from Garrett Stack, Yeoman’s Work. I first heard of Stack when we published a few of his poems in an issue of The 3288 Review. This is an excellent collection, and well worth seeking out.

In reading news, I have so far read 18 poetry books and chapbooks, and am keeping a running tally of the list up on Instagram and Twitter. I haven’t taken a deep dive into poetry like this since the late 1990s, unless you count the thousands a year I read as editor of The 3288 Review, which is not really the same thing. The Sealey Challenge has been a wonderful experience and with 13 more books to read my mind will be in a wonderful place when NaNoWriMo starts on November 1.

I just finished reading For Exposure, Jason Sizemore’s brilliant history of Apex Publications, with contributions by half a dozen or so of the editors and other contributors, employees and supporters of his wonderful company. I picked up For Exposure at ConFusion back in, I think, 2015, when I managed to spend a few minutes talking to Sizemore about the trials and tribulations of running a small independent publishing company. He is a Righteous Dude, as the kids say these days, and I offer all the kudoes to him and his team for the work they do in the literary world.

Writing hasn’t been going as well as reading, though I managed to put down a couple hundred more words in the book as I try to work through this one lynchpin chapter and scene, from which the rest of the book will flow, which tells me I may need to just mash my fact against the keyboard until something clicks and I can move ahead. The goal is still to complete a first draft this year, and with luck even complete the draft during NaNoWriMo, though I am having more and more concrete thoughts about a series of short stories which might eventually become chapters in a new book. All I know is that I will spend a lot of time writing in November 2020, assuming the slings and arrows of the mundane world allow me the mental space and emotional clarity to do so.