Chapbooks heading to a library soon!

Poetry chapbooks (and one full-length poetry book) ready to be mailed (as soon as I decide whether to put them in a small box or two big envelopes and wrap them up).

Acquire a few for yourself at the Blood Pudding Press shop HERE - https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress 

A bunch of Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks!

A bunch of new and old Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks have found a new home! 🖤💜

(photo taken by Trina Stolec :) )

You can acquire some Blood Pudding Press chapbooks for yourself within the Blood Pudding Press shop HERE - https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress 

Links to a few Blood Pudding Press chapbook reviews

The Book Reviews section of M. Earl Smith's new website includes two reviews of Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks.

"Stick Up" by Paul David Adkins, which is still available in the Blood Pudding Press shop HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/188110107/stick-up-by-paul-david-adkins-2014-blood?ref=shop_home_active_3

and "Girl Gang" by Juliet Cook (currently discontinued)

Thank you to M. Earl Smith! Read the reviews by clicking the links HERE - https://mearlsmith.com/book-reviews

The books I got at AWP17!

Planchette Haunting by Margaret Bashaar

My darkly delicious poet-friend Margaret Bashaar has created wondrous mini-reviews of quite a few of my poetry chapbooks and today she has just posted a new one - a mini-review of my 'Planchette'. Her succulent, shimmering, haunted review is copied below:

"Planchette by Juliet Cook (Blood Pudding Press, 2008) - anyone who has read previous mini reviews by me knows that I love Juliet's poetry, and of course Planchette was no exception. Perhaps my reviews of Juliet's work should simply read "It was Juliet Cook. What do you think?". But no, I will be more descriptive than that. In this collection, I was particularly impressed with how well each poem fit together with the others. The entire collection was pale and haunted. There were hauntings of the body, hauntings of food, hauntings of dolls, hauntings of furniture, hauntings of spiders, and yes, hauntings of homes. I enjoyed how poems would reference one another, yet not be dependent upon one another in order to be understood and appreciated. I felt as though I was being lead through a tour of quiet madness by someone who, themself, was quite mad. As is always a strength in Juliet's writing, there is beauty in the grotesque of Planchette, and, I feel, a strong feminist undertone to her writing about women made pale with blood made thin and fingertips snipped off (though Juliet herself has told me she's been called everything from a radical feminist to an anti-feminist by those who have read her poetry). You can purchase a copy of Planchette at the Blood Pudding Press etsy store, as linked above, and I highly recommend it."

You may also visit Marg's Plucked From Ogygia blog to partake of more, here:

http://pluckedfromogygia.blogspot.com/

You may also visit my Blood Pudding Press etsy shop to see & read more about Planchette (and other chapbooks and artsy/crafty doodads), here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61369901/planchette-by-juliet-cook

You may also visit Marg's NEW etsy shop, currently offering stunning snippets of hand-made jewelry, here (I love the Turquoise and Shell Necklace):

http://www.etsy.com/shop/myhyacinthgirl?ref=pr_shop_more

AND speaking of Blood Pudding Press, I am currently at work on my Blood Pudding Press for Dusie Kollektiv 5 NEW poetry chapbook of mine called "Post-Stroke", so stay tuned.

AND after that chapbook is created (hopefully in February), then Blood Pudding Press will get to work on its NEXT poetry chapbook, "LETTERS FROM ROOM 27 OF THE GRAND MIDWAY HOTEL", by Margaret Bashaar.

What could be more wonderfully haunting!?!

MACAROON MOVIE PREVIEW - a poetry reading

Please feel free to partake of this scrumptious little live reading of the poem 'MACAROON MOVIE PREVIEW' by Juliet Cook. This poem is part of a coming-soon chapbook by Blood Pudding Press, to be published later in June.

The chapbook is called ANGEL FACE TRAILER and will feature hideously creepy poems by Juliet Cook along with darkly delicious Italian translations by Letizia Merello.



Please feel free to also look/listen to this poem's Italian translation, read live by yummy Letizia Merello, here: http://corpovalvola.blogspot.com/ !


MACAROON MOVIE PREVIEW

Otherwise known as Angel Face Trailer.
We need a few handfuls of height/weight proportionate females
weighing in at 130 pounds or less to just stand around
on men’s stomachs, feet sinking into the flesh.
Uncooked dough. Sprinkles. A dark cordial, the cherry floating
could be a bambi heart under blue light. Silky track
jacket. Satiny gym shorts. We need a few females to do their hair
like Farrah Fawcett when she was an angel. Hot rollers,
sponge rollers, long tube socks with candy stripes.


We need to see the little piggies literally sink
into the flesh. We mean wiggle and then disappear.

***

P.S. An updated Thirteen Myna Birds is now LIVE, featuring more poetry readings by me and Letizia Merello as a teaser for the new chapbook (plus an awfully delicious response to our poem by Tom Davidson, and more)! Check it out at http://www.13myna.blogspot.com/

poetry (good and not so good) stuff

I wrote some poems in December and now cannot read or understand them well, due to my stroke. I also can't read poetry (or other) books well. I can read/write a little, but much more slowly than usual. I have read a lot of neato cards and notes from folks and appreciate those.

After the beginning of January, I haven't written poems and I haven't read poems by others, including those submitted to my online literary magazine, 13 Myna Birds (for which I've received a lot of submissions lately and hope to start reading those soon). I also had to send emails to several poets who I had agreed to write book reviews for, but now can't.

I do have some writing written/submitted/chosen for publication before my stroke, coming soon:

~February 2--a long piece of writing will be published as part of Delirious Hem's "This is What a Feminist [Poet] Looks Like "

~February 16--a new poem at Everyday Genius

~Soon--three of my poems, along with three of Letizia's translations at Listenlight

~Later--three of my poems in Caketrain

***

Also, my first Dusie poetry chapbook, MONDO CRAMPO, can now be read online, here:

http://dusie.org/

(And my next Dusie thingee will be published soon...)

Who Wants Fondant (and other goodies)?

And not only fondant, but $5.00 FONDANT PIG ANGST?

UPDATE: I have received my fabulous author copies, so this porky publication is now also available (signed copies) in my etsy shop at http://www.BloodPuddingPress.etsy.com.



Slash Pine Press finished hand stitching my new poetry chapbook, FONDANT PIG ANGST, this weekend and it is now available for only $5.00 online or by mail. For more details on how to acquire, please see the Slash Pine Press website at http://slashpinepress.blogspot.com/.

From the site: "Slash Pine Press is pleased to announce the release of our first chapbook of poems, Juliet Cook's dynamically gut-wrenching, Fondant Pig Angst. I feel confident in saying Juliet's voice is an American original, fusing pastry with grotesquerie, icing with amputation. These poems are not plainly 'dark'. No, they are alive and electric and full of verve and spunk, playfulness even, and it's these competing impulses that make for such an amazing collection of poems. "

When I receive my own copies of the book, I will also offer a few signed copies for sale in the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop at http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/.

I will also be reading at the Slash Pine Press Poetry Festival this April, but more on that later.

The Birthday Pig image upon the cover of FONDANT PIG ANGST is by the marvelous Marnie Weber.


*

In other poetry goodness news, the latest Blood Pudding Press chapbook, Dana Guthrie Martin's The Spare Room, which was launched on Black Friday, is already eliciting excitement and positive buzz. Acquire your very own hand-designed copy from the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop, either by its lonesome or in a money-saving Combination Pack with one other Blood Pudding Press chapbook of your choice.

See the previous entry here for more information about the latest chapbook--and visit the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop at http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/ to select and partake of your own poetic morsels.


*

I haven't been the most diligent blogger lately, so here are a few other tasty little vittles I shall mention in passing:

~Poet/critic Adam Fieled thinks I'm a total bad-ass in a recent entry over at Stoning the Devil:

http://adamfieled.blogspot.com/2009/12/two-threads.html

~Columbus indie film company CutThroat Entertainment premiered their short horror film, BREAK last week and I emerged from my hermetically sealed mason jar (did you know that's where I lived & wrote?) to attend the premiere party, which was pretty fun, but I probably should have skipped that Christmas Ale. It'll be interesting to see what CTE does next. Also, I liked my dress; it was like an off-fuschia shag rug.

~I emerged from my hermetically sealed mason jar again this past weekend to attend a holiday party of sorts, which I should have skipped. Why is it that more often than not when I go out in public, I end up feeling mortified the next day? Maybe it's because I'm usually out of my element, my element being a mason jar full of tainted gummi pigs or somesuch. At least I liked my dress that night, too; it was like a space age waitress dress or like some weird Judy Jetson on Polyvinylchloride. Like a hairless kitty, you can't wash this dress, you have to wipe it clean with a damp sponge.

~But enough about my dresses, submit some poetry to me for Thirteen Myna Birds, especially if you're of the female and/or queer persuasion. I get too much crusty straight male poetry. I'm looking for juicy moreso than crusty, especially fake crusty. You know what I mean by fake crusty? I'll tell you. It's like you're some college student guy in your early twenties and you're writing this Bukowski impersonation about your hard knock life when you should actually be putting on a belly shirt and doing a little dance. I mean I want YOUR voice; not some crusty old man's voice (unless you actually ARE a crusty old curmudgeon, in which case, that's a little different, but I would like the poetry to be different, too, pretty please). So check out the guidelines at http://13myna.blogspot.com/ and if you think you have something that might interest me, feel free to submit.

Blood Pudding Press for the holidays

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade BloodPuddingPress.etsy.com

Indie poetry makes great alternative stocking stuffers! Yum!

~The latest Blood Pudding Press chapbook, Dana Guthrie Martin's 'The Spare Room' was just mentioned as a favorite book of 2009 by poet Matthew Hittinger!

+

~Several Blood Pudding Press chapbooks as well as my own full-length poetry collection 'Horrific Confection' were mentioend by poet Maragaret Bashaar in a new blog entry about reading for pleasure!

Find out for yourself what the buzz is about; visit the Blood Pudding Press shop!

*

In my pipeline (and hopefully coming soon): blurbs for upcoming books by Mairead Byrne, Charles Freeland, Mark Lamoureux, and Susan Slaviero--reviews of already published books by Karyna McGlynn and Matt Jasper--some sort of treatise for January's feminist poet forum on Delirious Hem--etc... No wonder I haven't had much time for my own poetry lately, but I'm pleased to report that I did begin work on a new poem today. Hurrah!

"icing with amputation"

Slash Pine Press has just sent out an email announcing that my newest poetry chapbook, FONDANT PIG ANGST, is now available for pre-order for only $5.00. If you would like me to forward you a copy of this email, which includes an attached form to order by mail, please feel free to let me know. They will also begin offering an online ordering option via their website (www.slashpinepress.blogspot.com) within the next few days. Here is an excerpt from the email announcement by Joseph P. Wood, co-editor of Slash Pine Press:

"Slash Pine Press is pleased to announce the upcoming release of our first chapbook of poems, Juliet Cook's dynamically gut-wrenching, Fondant Pig Angst. I feel confident in saying Juliet's voice is an American original, fusing pastry with grotesquerie, icing with amputation. These poems are not plainly 'dark'. No, they are alive and electric and full of verve and spunk, playfulness even, and it's these competing impulses that make for such an amazing collection of poems. Simply put, never have I seen a person convey the depths of human cruelty also be so in love with the language."

The tentative release date for FONDANT PIG ANGST is December 15.

(The Birthday Pig image, which will be the cover art on FONDANT PIG ANGST, is by the marvelous Marnie Weber.)

*

In other news, here is an updated article about the aforementioned extra-special Columbus Ohio indie horror movie event happening at Studio 35 on December 3. As of right now, tickets are still available. Let me know if you want in:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2431004/cutthroat_entertainment_film_premiere.html?cat=8

*

And here is another announcement for Fondant Pig Angst AND the latest Blood Pudding Press poetry offering, in the form of a Black Friday alternative. Happy Thanksgiving and beyond!

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2431670/a_few_creative_black_friday_shopping.html?cat=2

awkward insertion of meat hook

If you were desiring a more peculiar tease about FONDANT PIG ANGST then what I offered below, you're in luck. You can now read a book blurb from a robot.

I came to Juliet Cook's collection, Fondant Pig Angst, for glimpses into what it means to be human. I navigated my way through the detritus of the living -- took silk in my mouth, floated in a vat of tapioca, awkwardly inserted the meat hook. Cook's voice has disemboweled my assemblage, replaced my casing's wires with warped strings. If I am to believe Cook's speakers, the state of being human is nothing more than a blend of saltwater and ambergris, all in a jelly binding. I would rather remain a robot than dine at this feast, replete with cockroaches, confections and endless conditions.

--Feldman the Robot

*

In other poetry chapbook news & views, my 2008 Blood Pudding Press chapbook 'Planchette' (available via http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/) has recently been reviewed by poet Sarah Sarai on her fabulous and multifaceted writerly blog called 'My 3000 Loving Arms' (Ganesh has got nothing on Sarah Sarai). Here's an excerpt from her review:

"While hypomania is a 'mild mania' I have heard in arenas more esoteric than Webster's, hippomancy to be linked to divination. Which brings me back to that early girl. Whether the blue pills are valium or more 'narcotic,' in the poem they serve as emblem of the 'secret bruise' Cook writes of, of the 'Dream of white fizz' and its powers.

I'm figuring 'white fizz' can nullify the bruise. Pills do what pills will do. Mind will continue to struggle, as will spirit, thank God. Hence, poetry. The fizz feels chemical, feels alchemical, and that's part of Cook's intention, to draw the reader into a mysterious, suspect but real world."

You may read her review in its entirety (including excerpts from some of the tome's poems) on the aforementioned blog, here:

http://my3000lovingarms.blogspot.com/2009/10/stroking-poem-planchette-by-julia-cook.html

I read her review last night and at one point Sarai mentioned that I'm probably 20 years younger than she is and offers some perspective upon the sensibilities of young women, the girl sitting in the back of the class with her goth and punk leanings, etc...

Then shortly after reading her review, I found myself gazing in my bathroom looking glass, plucking out silvers, suddenly obsessing that my new hair cut seems to bring out the proliferating gray in my hair.

It must be some kind of arrested development, I thought to myself, because it can't be youth.

*

P.S. I've written several little animal-oriented articles lately, so I added an 'Animal Articles' section along with my other various little articles sections, in the lower right side bar zone.

Also, here's an article I wrote about artist Frida Kahlo:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2360792/filling_the_emptiness_frida_kahlos.html?cat=2

And here's a follow up article, wherein I briefly analyze several Kahlo paintings:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2367968/bleeding_all_over_the_landscape_a_view.html?cat=2

*

Saturday update: Gold Wake Press has revamped the design of their website, adding more visual oomph, and allowing poets to contribute an image to accompany their e-chaps. I contributed a piece of an old collage with a piece of an old (hideously over the top) poem. If you missed my small sequence of six short poems , (B)URN, published by GWP some months back, why not check it out now in the context of the site overhaul?

http://goldwakepress.org/2009/09/11/juliet-cook-burn/

Virtual Book Tour wrap up/Blood Pudding Press update

The final review of Read Write Poem's Virtual Book Tour (of Lisa Ciccarello's poetry chapbook 'At night, the dead:' published by Blood Pudding Press) was contributed by Ren Powell, editor of Babel Fruit magazine.

Some excerpts from this review:

“Lisa Ciccarello’s chapbook is an example of why poetry books are important as works of art. That is, 'poetry book' distinct from 'book of poems'.

...as with any charm, the context of the repetitive whole is mesmerising.

The vague references to superstitious practices are never fully fleshed within a cultural context…

This vagueness allows for the ambivalence that characterizes the collection. The charm to ward off the dead becomes seductive, just as children are seduced by the fear of the Ouija board, just as pleasurable touching becomes painful within the context of insistent repetition, just as pain can become almost pleasurable. The dead are feared and longed for: ‘The dead put their fingers in your mouth’.

The sestina-like repetition in the collection creates a pleasing tension with this reader, as I want to speed through the increasingly familiar phrases, but am stopped short for close reading by the poet’s attention to detail and abbreviated metaphors…

Clearly Ciccarrello’s poems grow from their communion with the dead – the kind of growth that needs the space of chapbook.”

You may read this review in its entirety at the More Babel blog:

http://morebabel.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-tour-at-night-dead.html

You may read excerpts from all seven preceding reviews on this Virtual Book Tour (and more) consolidated over at the Blood Pudding Press blog (click the bloody telekinetic female to your right OR the link below):

http://www.bloodyooze.blogspot.com/

I would like to thank Read Write Poem for orchestrating this Virtual Book Tour, everyone who contributed a review, and also those who have been reading along!

If your interest has been piqued re: 'At night, the dead:' it is not too late to acquire your very own ribbon-bound, spider-stamped copy from the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop:

http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/.

Coming next (hopefully soon) from Blood Pudding Press, a new poetry chapbook by Dana Guthrie Martin, after which your intrepid Blood Pudding Press editor (that would be me) will be taking a spell to focus on her participation within the dusie kollektiv 4!

During this time, feathered and flighty submissions will still be accepted for Thirteen Myna Birds on an ongoing basis.

XO. Juliet

P.S. #1--Did you read my exciting Slash Pine Press news?--
http://slashpinepress.blogspot.com/2009/09/slash-pines-first-two-authors.html

P.S. #2--Did you read my article about CutThroat Entertainment's new horror film on the Columbus Underground blog?--http://www.columbusunderground.com/break-a-horror-film-from-cutthroat-entertainment

***

update:

Kathrin Schaeppi/ellectrique press offers up a wonderful feature on the dusie 3 kollektiv collaborative chapbook swap project:

http://www.ellectriquepress.com/home/Feature.html

Dusie 3 is ending and Dusie 4 is starting up, but Dusie 3 will still have a last hurrah when all the completed chapbooks are published as free-to-read PDFs by editrix extraordinaire, Susana Gardner. Stay tuned!

IS THERE PIG IN FROSTING?

I was having one of those slow, achey, icky days in terms of personal physicality and productivity (um, maybe that is pretty much just an overly wordy way to say I have one of my headaches), BUT I must make mention of some extra-special excitingly delightful news I have received. Er, actually, you can read the news for yourself on the Slash Pine Press blog:

http://www.slashpinepress.blogspot.com/

Just in case you don't feel like leaving my blog until after you've read this whole entry: the gist is that my chapbook manuscript FONDANT PIG ANGST is going to be published by Slash Pine Press, a new independent press that not only has a great name, but also a highly appealing mission statement, which includes the resonant phrase, "a process of risk and otherness".

And I am going to be the press's very first author!

I'm super-duper excited about this and will have more to say on this matter soon.

Not right now, because despite this superb news, I am pretty off-kilter today.

This news is almost unbelievably exciting though, right? I can hardly believe I've won a book contest type thingee! Pinch me! Woohoo!

P.S. Also, Dana Guthrie Martin's ROBOT has agreed to write a book blurb for me. Pinch me again! Woohoo!

meat curtains & banana curls

A few recent search terms that have led to this blog have been 'pretty peckers' and 'Nellie Oleson banana curls'. The latter is most likely related to some mention of my short series of Nellie Oleson poems (one of which is supposedly forthcoming in 'Side of Grits' and one of which was just accepted for the premiere issue of 'Bone Bouquet' and a few others of which are crying out for revision), but don't ask me about the former.

You can ask me about meat curtains, though, or at least about my recent chapbook, MONDO CRAMPO. Nathan Moore did and his one question and my one answer (and one small disclaimer about adult language) are posted over at Read Write Poem today:

http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/08/25/just-one-chapbook-thing-juliet-cooks-mondo-crampo/

In other news, I finished my first-ever artist grant application! Yay! That's almost good enough to make me forget about my infernal PMS (cramps and headache and bloat of the breed that do not want to respond to any treatment). At least I don't have to use crocodile dung tampons or Lysol douche.

Oh and speaking of Read Write Poem, their first-ever Virtual Book Tour will be starting tomorrow--featuring the latest lovely Blood Pudding Press tome, 'At night, the dead:' by luscious Lisa Ciccarello.

Oh and speaking of Blood Pudding Press, the next tome is coming soon--'The Spare Room' by Dana Guthrie Martin. Stay attuned.

*

Update:

The Read Write poem first-ever Virtual Book Tour is now underway! Hurray!

Check out the entry there for details on how the tour will work and who will be involved and then stay tuned throughout the month for the poetry conversation.

I will also be posting ongoing updates on the Blood Pudding Press blog at http://www.bloodyooze.blogspot.com/

http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/08/26/read-write-poem-virtual-book-tour-%e2%80%98at-night-the-dead%e2%80%99-by-lisa-ciccarello/

Wholly Craft!

The last few days have involved an out of town family getaway (a good change of pace, but now I'm behind on various projects) followed up by some bummerish rejections and so forth, BUT on the plus side...

Yummy Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks are now available at a real live store in Columbus, Ohio called Wholly Craft!

Hot pink storefront, sweet DIY spirit, innards brimming with myriad artisanal offerings. Hand-sewn cards, screen-printed panties, aromatic soaps, yarn balls, one-of-a-kind tote bags, uniquely-designed attire, and so much more--and now five Blood Pudding Press titles have been added to the fun-filled mix. Hurrah!

If you're in or around the Columbus, Ohio locale, check out Blood Pudding Press chappies and other delightful artsy crafty goodies at Wholly Craft!:

http://www.whollycraft.net/index.html

If you're not in or around that area, you may still acquire Blood Pudding Press wares online in the etsy shop:

http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/

Yipee!

***

In other news, here's s a new little article I wrote about summer-to-fall fashion for women--starring knee socks:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2055419/fun_and_easy_summer_to_fall_fashion.html?cat=46

And another little article about why I can't take my dog to work:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2070429/why_i_should_not_take_my_dog_to_work.html?cat=53

cross-posting from the bloody ooze

I just happened upon a bad review of the 2008 Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook w i n g'd by Kyle Simonsen. Personally, I love this book (which I suppose is not surprising since I published it; Blood Pudding Press is my own small press). Indeed, I recently reread it for my own pleasure and liked it just as much as I did more than a year ago. Not so for coldfront reviewer Melinda Wilson. She was very much less than impressed.

The review kind of irked me. At least it was a thoughtful review. I looked at the reviewer's bio--she is the managing editor of coldfront (the reputable and multifaceted poetry book review site where this review was published), seems to be a pretty prolific reviewer who is willing to speak her own truth (and I think that honesty is definitely a good trait in a book reviewer; I don't wish for ass-kissy, back-scratchy, schmoozy book reviewers), and is a published poet herself. All good traits. Still, the review left me with the vibe that she was being a little too quick to dismiss just because the material of this chapbook inhabits a style that annoys her personally. I mean obviously having one's own personal preferences and pet peeves in poetry makes sense, but just because something doesn't mesh with one's own stylistic preferences, does that mean it's weak or bad?

For example, it would seem that this reviewer does not care for artifice or pop culture references and I happen to like that kind of hoopla. She talks about the first poem in the collection and being put off as soon as she hits the Kevin Federline reference. She remarks that KFed was a cliche long ago. Well, I would agree that few people want to see his mug on reality TV these days, but in this case he's in a poem and in a doe's mouth. How is he a cliche in that context? I've never seen him in a doe's mouth in real life. In fact, in real life, I didn't even think that deer were carnivorous or particularly predatory. They're certainly not man-eaters. Yet in the first poem in Kyle Simonsen's collection, we have a deer that is carrying KFed off to some nefarious fate and the speaker of the poem, despite his own mixed feelings, misgivings, and personal disdain for KFed (or what KFed respresents) ultimately saves him anyway. To me, part of what this poem presents is a warped natural landscape infiltrated by media influences, yet at the end humanity rises above--or does it?

To me, this poem and most of the others in Simonsen's collection are a provocative amalgamation of the natural world being encroached upon by more insidious superficial and fictive elements and vice versa. It's a strange fusion of humans and other animals and machines--each of which swap traits at some points and become monstrous in one way or another and encroach upon each other. I think the collection offers some apt commentary on contemporary culture with its confused intersections of reality and fictive media, celebrity idolatry, the steamrolling of corporate rhythms, and an underlying primal longing to get back to a more natural state--but perhaps it's too late; perhaps even that natural state has been corrupted by carnivorous deer and other mutant life forms and giant billboards shedding their skins into the earth like sex-selling snakes.

Of course the landscape of these poems is warped, because they're reflecting a warped landscape. I don't know whether or not KFed is a cliche when it comes to poetry, but I do know that reality TV show culture continues to proliferate and permeate and so I think it is apt that the first poem in this collection makes reference to certain celebrity fixtures, including a rather undesirable reality TV kind of creep and his insidious seep into public consciousness. Are poets just supposed to ignore all the warped stimulus creeping in on us and focus on more serious stuff? I don't think so. What is serious anyway? What is important anyway? Sometimes I like art that reflects the messed up landscape of contempo culture and does so creatively and I think that Simonsen's work fits the bill.

The reviewer also objected to what she perceived as extraneous cleverness in the collection. I don't consider myself a fan of clever either, but maybe we have differing definitions of cleverness. To me, cleverness is kind of like soul-less crossword puzzle wordplay, whereas I find Simonsen's work to be both uniquely visceral and emotionally resonant in its own way. The reviewer read the author bio first and was immediately put off by Simonsen's reference to tentacles. Maybe she thought it was gimmicky. Maybe she likes more serious author bios. She was also put off by the Table of Contents, which she initially read as a nonsensical poem. No, that was just the Table of Contents with a title other than Table of Contents. I like to use alternative titles for Tables of Contents because I think the phrase Table of Contents is boring. Is a fellow poet really so confused by re-naming? I think it's a creative little flourish; she probably thinks it's a bell or whistle.

Another part of the review that really bothered me wasn't even about Simonsen's poetic material; it was this remark in regards to my own copy about Blood Pudding Press:

So, I move on to find out a bit more about Blood Pudding Press. “Interests of the press include horrific confection, provocative frisson, and ribbon bindery.” All bells and whistles. This type of overwrought, flamboyant self-presentation takes away from the art and makes a show of itself in its feeble attempt to be different. All I can hope is that a similar “artistry” isn’t involved in the poems.

Call me an insecure narcissist in the grip of a warped and self-absorbed simultaneous superiority/inferiority complex, but this harsh assessment kind of makes me feel like I'm being labeled as a fake artist who has nothing but gimmicks to rely upon. However, I don't think that's the case. I think my description there is just my style. I think it's poetic, connotative, and evocative in my own weird way. But no matter what I think, I have to admit that the phrase 'feeble attempt' stings and hurts my feelings.

Stylistic differences? Maybe. One woman's opinion? Maybe. I certainly appreciate anyone taking the time to carefully read a Blood Pudding Press offering and devise a thoughtful review even if the reviewer's opinion substantially differs from my own. The tone of the review makes me feel a bit dismissed, though. Even the title of the review is 'bells and whistles' and that seems to sum up the reviewer's assessment--that Blood Pudding Press's style of presentation and Kyle Simonsen's poetry revolve around bells and whistles.

But maybe one woman's bells and whistles are another woman's legitimate artistic flourishes. I just peeled off my lime green fishnet knee highs. Were those bells and whistles? Now I'm wearing my lavender vintage stewardess dress. Is that a bell and whistle? Is the fact that I'm writing about what I'm wearing right now a bell and whistle? If I don't meet certain standards of so-called highbrow academic seriousness, am I a bell and whistle? I don't know. Maybe you can read the review for yourself and let me know what you think. Perhaps it will stimulate some interesting dialogue. Or click the second link to find out more about Simonsen's collection and read that for yourself (only ten copies left!). Or click the third link to read more about my take on artifice. Or click the fourth link and read Kyle Simonsen’s own response to the review. Or eat my stockings and puke up green netting and find out if there's a mangled bird inside.

http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/wingd-by-kyle-simonsen.html

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26830539

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1309951/whats_wrong_with_artifice.html?cat=38

http://thecrimsonninja.xanga.com/706654843/on-a-review-of-wingd/

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In other news, dog warts:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1979686/oh_no_not_dog_warts.html?cat=53

Yeah, that's right.

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In other news, some lucky duck happened upon this blog today via the following search terms:

women pecker goats breast porno gallery

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And speaking of reviews...

Review copies of the latest Blood Pudding Press chapbook, At night, the dead: by Lisa Ciccarello are now available via The Chapbook Review.

Review copies of a couple of my own chapbooks--MONDO CRAMPO (dusie kollektiv) and PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR are also available.

Check out these and other review copies and do consider writing a chapbook review.

http://thechapbookreview.com/submission-guidelines/available-for-review/

Tongue Like a Stinger (now with more angst!)

My latest e-chapbook, Tongue Like a Stinger, has just been published by Wheelhouse Press. Please feel free to check it out here:

http://www.wheelhousemagazine.com/chapbook/cook.pdf

It has been published concurrently with two other new e-chapbooks, which I look forward to reading soon--Xenomorphia by Matina Stamatakis & John Moore Williams and Over This Here Rainbow by Lars Palm.

You can read what Wheelhouse editor David Wolach has to say about these chapbooks, the Wheelhouse mission, and other exciting upcoming projects at his blog here:

http://davidwolach.blogspot.com/

A sort of hybrid of older work with new material, my chapbook might appeal to those who find some of my latest poetry a little too visceral or in-your-face for their liking. The 'Tongue Like a Stinger' collection is slightly more subtle; not a lot more subtle, just slightly.

It's about birds and bees and fur and tentacles and implanted debris and tainted femininity and more. It includes my Best of the Net 2007 winning and Pushcart Prize nominated poem, 'Some Explanations for Fainting Goats' and more. I designed the collage art cover with various images inlcuding a photo of a bird skeleton found in somebody's attic, which had to be disposed of after my photography session, because flesh was still clinging to the bones and it stunk.

If you're in the mood for my more in-your-face and oozing, my latest print chapbook, PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR is newly available from Spooky Girlfriend Press in a small print run, costs less than a fast food meal, and has already been described as "outrageously pungent" (Adam Fieled, poet & critic):

http://spooky-girlfriend.blogspot.com/2009/07/now-available-pink-leotard-shock-collar.html

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In other writing/editing news: new flight formation winging its way onto the scene some time tomorrow, dog warts article in progress, revamped DIY feminist poetry publishing article in progress, I have quite a few writing assignments on my platter that I pretty much need to finish up in the next week, plus I need to get started on the next Blood Pudding Press chapbook, egads!

At least I finished a chapbook review yesterday and submitted it to The Chapbook Review.

At least I got a dreaded doctor's appointment out of the way today and a not so dreaded hair cut.



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Update: Another tidbit of poetic good news--I have received a poetry acceptance from Action, Yes! YAY!!!

Plus, I just realized I now have ten published chapbooks (not counting the one that's out of print)! Five self-published through Blood Pudding Press (inlcuding two collaborations) and five published by other small presses (including two e-chapbooks). WOW!

Plus one more chapbook manuscript in circulation and one more collaboration in progress.

Poetry Poetry Poetry, go go go!

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Thursday update: I wonder if people think I'm being too self-congratulatory or overly self-promotional when I write up peppy little spiels like the above. Well, right now I'm in the midst of a small wave of discouragement (hopefully, it will pass soon enough and then I might delete this bit, because I don't want my blog to seem too negative or self-defeating). I truly do adore and become excited about poetry projects and I've had a pretty darn grand poetry week or so, with the publication of TWO new chapbooks, an acceptance from one of my highly-coveted wish list mags and more,

BUT...

A small wave of discouragement just came over me. Maybe it was because I found out today that a nifty freelance writing gig I recently applied for did not come my way. It was a writing gig for the Onion News Network. Of course, I'd prefer to write poetry, but poetry doesn't pay the bills, unless you have some kind of academic job, which I don't. Sometimes I get tired of taking consumer surveys online and writing little freelance articles about dog warts in order to make three dollars (not an exaggeration).

'Well, I'm not going to be a writer for the Onion News Network,' I semi-dejectedly informed my husband a little while ago.

'Well, neither am I, ' he replied.

Yeah, but he didn't spend nearly three full days working on the writing application.

I probably spend more time on my writing stuff than many people spend on their full-time jobs, but where has it gotten me? Okay, that's not a fair question. It's gotten me plenty. I've had lots of poems published--I have a book--I've published ten poetry chapbooks in the last three years, which I realized last evening and which seemed sort of impressive at the time--so I guess that must mean I'm doing something right with my poetry.

Yet every month, I struggle to pay my household bills, which is very stressful to say the least.

For thirteen years, I worked for the same company--for the last decade, it was one office job or another, passionless yet tolerable and with a company I didn't dislike. It wasn't a high-paying gig, but it was enough for a non-materialistic sort such as me, plus I had good benefits. This past November, my "position was eliminated due to organizational restructuring". I could go off on a long, bitter tangent about certain suspicions of underhandedness, but I won't.

Instead I will jump to the part about how I've applied for about 80 jobs since then (no exaggeration) and haven't gotten one yet and I don't think it's because my resume is bad or anything like that; I'm not sure what it's because of. I know the economy has been bad, I know the job market is very competitive, blah blah blah. Still, I've applied for about 80 jobs--from full-time to part-time, from well-paying to crappy-paying, ranging from university jobs to medical center jobs to art galleries to libraries to government jobs to office jobs to Call Center jobs to barista jobs and more. And I guess if my unemployment benefits run out, I'll start applying at fast food eateries, convenience marts, and gas stations, too.

So just in case anyone reads my blog and I'm giddily writing about my latest publication credits or poetry chapbooks or whatever and you think to yourself, 'Golly, way to pat yourself on the back about your ten chapbooks, Mrs. Egomaniac', you might want to consider that a big part of the reason for that (in addition to the fact that I really do get genuinely super duper excited about poetry stuff) is because POETRY is one area in my life in which things are going well and I have a lot of small successes and it makes me feel good about myself and happy. Which is not so much the case in certain other areas of my life.

Such as the elusive career area. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be investing less time into my poetry and more time into writing articles about dog warts or something even less appealing to me?

It's just that there's so much to do in the realm of writing. Writing and publishing my own poetry, publishing other's poetry and book reviews (because I like to give back to the poetry community), writing freelance articles, advertising and promoting and designing and brainstorming and organizing and reading...

Indeed, I've already let blogging fall way off; my participation in the blogosphere used to be much more extensive, but something had to give to make way for the consumer surveys and the freelance articles and the time-consuming, ongoing job search activities and the seemingly perpetual following up with people who don't get back to me. By the way, in addition to my resume, I now have a whole computerized folder of different cover letters that can be adapted to fit different job openings. I have an administrative cover letter, an art job cover letter, a library job cover letter, a customer service cover letter, an editor cover letter, and a freelance writer cover letter, among others. Apparently none of them are successful. But at least my poetry is.

Well, successful in most every way except for the bill-paying kind of success, which is probably the kind of success that matters most to a lot of people. In fact, an even more common response to my poetry chapbook pep talk would probably be something like, 'Who CARES if you have ten poetry chapbooks?'

So I was just trying to convince myself that I cared (which I do), since occasionally a wave of discouragement or deflation will overcome me and I'll feel like I'm writing into a void...

It just seems like it would make more sense if I could manage to earn my livelihood via the pursuits that I am truly passionate about, driven towards, committed to, and invest LOTS of genuinely-intended time, effort, and energy into, but alack.

Okay, enough angsty ranting. I'll try to come back later with more peppy promo, related to poetry, the Luna Chicks, and feral ferocity.

PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR

My latest poetry chapbook PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR is now available from Spooky Girlfriend Press in a VERY limited edition print run of only 25 copies. They are only $3.00 each!

Heck, at that rate I might buy some of them myself and resell them for $33.00 after licking the nipples and sticking on some googly eyes!

So if you want one on the cheap, you'd better buy it now before I do!

The picture atop my words here is an image of the cover art by Alexis Dietz, but on the real chapbook, it appears upon a hot pink backdrop.

You can read a few more details about the chapbook, including how to buy, here:

http://spooky-girlfriend.blogspot.com/2009/07/now-available-pink-leotard-shock-collar.html

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Monday: I just opened my back door to let the dog out and there is a strange pair of men's sandals (not belonging to myself or my husband) on the door mat, right in front of the door, directly facing the door,as if someone with an invisible body is just about to knock...

I hope he's a poet and I wish he would materialize soon and come downtown with me and buy me a smoothie or something. I don't really care for running errands by myself, but alack. I guess I just ought to quit dawdling and proceed, as there is very much to be done and I must get those errands out of the way soon.

At least I wrote an odd new poem this morning and am quite pleased with it. I wish I could spend hours & hours writing poems, but...

better news--Blood Pudding Press poetry, the dead, the velvet...

At night, the dead: is a darkly delectable poetry collection written by Lisa Ciccarello, one of the winners of the Blood Pudding Press chapbook contest.

The lovely cover art was designed by artist Emma Trithart.

The cover stock is pale gray, deckle-edged; the text stock is ivory, deckle-edged.

The pages are hand-numbered and spider-stamped.

This luscious tome is bound with ribbon and will also be tied up with a small expanse of luxurious black or dark red velvet.

Give yourself a macabre gift of resonant words bound in an artsy volume.

At night, the dead: may be procured individually for $7.00 or may be purchased as part of a Combination Package with another Blood Pudding Press chapbook of your choice for a substantial savings (please see separate listing). For trade copy or review copy inquiries, please feel free to contact me. To peruse or purchase, please do visit the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop at http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/

Won't you pretty please die a little death with us?

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update: In non-dead news, my husband brought home a passel of oysters (raw, in the shell) for dinner last night, neither of us having eaten oysters in years. As we neared the end of our dining experience, he cracked open an oyster to discover a tiny crab inside. Alive.

Too bad it wasn't a pearl.

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Okay, back to assembling and binding and then more printing. Feeling a bit overwhelmed...

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update: I wish I felt better about myself. Perhaps more on this tomorrow.

Keywords: tuna can, MRI

latest creative business

I sold out of my official copies of MONDO CRAMPO a couple months ago. They were published by Dana Teen Lomax for the dusie kollektiv 3 and were really slick-looking with bright red see-through covers and brad bindery, but alas, they are gone.

Well, I was recently asked for a review copy of MONDO CRAMPO and I remembered that Dana Teen had sent me some extra loose innards that she had leftover after assembling the chapbooks--basically, everything except the sleek red cover piece and the bindery hardware.So I decided to assemble a copy myself, stitched together with fringey turquoise ribbon that kinda looks like theatrical blue pubic hair.

I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I have just enough supplies to make two (and only two) more limited-edition copies like this, so if you want one, get in touch. I'll send a review copy for free; I'll also consider trade copies or sale copies. Let me know if you're interested and we can make some arrangements.

update: If you'd rather have one of the official red copies, even though I don't have any more, you can still request a review copy from either Galatea Resurrects or The Chapbook Review:

http://grarchives.blogspot.com/

http://thechapbookreview.com/submission-guidelines/available-for-review/

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Also, I plan to soon begin revamping some of the content of this article:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1494846/diy_poetry_publishing_power.html?cat=38

My revised version is going to be submitted to make/shift magazine--and for that revised version, I am seeking more voices of women of color poetry editors/publishers.

If you think you might be interested in having your voice represented, please feel free to get in touch with me, whereupon I shall share a few more details with you.

XO. Juliet