review of field work on Jacket2
"A speck of behavior, a fleck of culture"
A review of "Field Work: Notes, Songs, Poems, 1997–2010"
Field Work: Notes, Songs, Poems 1997-2010
When Henry James wrote about “the state of the streets” in American cities at the turn of the twentieth century, he expressed over and over the difficulty of ever doing justice to the task. Faced with “a welter of objects and sounds” James in The American Scene claimed his powers of perception to be in such disarray that the semiotics of American manners eluded his grasp almost completely (83). For James “there couldn’t be any manners to speak of” in cities defined by such violent congestion, such “unmitigated publicity, publicity as a condition, as a doom, from which there could be no appeal” (10, 9).
Cerise Press review of Hi-Density Politics by Urayoán Noel
Cerise Press, an international online journal of literature, arts, and culture, has recently published a review of Hi-Density Politics by Urayoán Noel in the Fall/Winter 2011-12, Vol. 3 Issue 8:
http://www.cerisepress.com/03/08/hi-density-politics-by-urayoan-noel
In Hi-Density Politics, Urayoán Noel celebrates the "composite of elsewheres" that make us whole. Allowing the shift of language its living immersion through the electric barrio, this book tunes into the many frequencies that "re-site the body" as observed by the "mock-spañol" sapien, the layered strata rife with invention. Let's move, these pages say, let's breathe the city through our body. With episodic density, Noel whirls us through an extravagant journey, proposing a newly charged coda for closeness.
—Edwin Torres
Urayoán Noel’s plurilingual, polyphonic, & polymorphous text works are images are performance scores are records of poetry actions are homophonic translations are poems are homages to some of Latin America and the Caribbean’s greatest innovators. Their language is a haunted one. Throughout Noel’s body of work the ghost of Spanish unsettles the English language, disrupting its expansionist ambitions. Ditto for the specter of English in the Spanish lines. The only expansionism here pertains to the field of poetry, and we’re all the luckier for it.
—Mónica de la Torre
In Hi-Density Politics, Urayoán Noel hurls himself out of himself towards what actually “happens” in the world – deep ideological dalliance with A = not-A’s, B’s = C’s. As mediator “between cultures”, mashing up newly found “passions” to cultural funk-outs, he is ever the exacerbationist (trozos de “intención” - micro choques en colliders de jour). But not just for himself (!) Go-ahead here is by community (dímelo) - a solid push back on repressive hegemonies. The puckish poetic reminds one of Brecht’s Die Hauspostille (“Manual of Piety”). The we-could-pull-the-plug-on-all-this-culture-art-stuff-at-any-time – has been ghoulish kin to cultural-political artists since then. Thus, this book is also a “teaching" of our un-teachable busted capitalist moment. And marvelously, we feel freedom-potential in Hi-Density Politics. Noel rattles the “big other” symbolic order just long enough for the signs to slink out from under it, unbridled, furiously cute, in maximalist rhythms.
—Rodrigo Toscano
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Urayoán Noel is the author of the book/DVD Kool Logic (Bilingual Press, 2005) and two
collections of poetry in Spanish: the object-book Las flores del mall (2000) and Boringkén (2008). A contributing editor of Mandorla, he is the translator of the chapbook Belleza y Felicidad (Belladonna, 2005), and has translated a variety of Latin American and U.S. Latino/a poets. His reviews and essays have appeared in Contemporary Literature; BOMB; and Diasporic Avant-Gardes (Palgrave), and he has performed internationally, both solo and as part of Spanic Attack. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Noel divides his time between the South Bronx and upstate New York. He teaches English at the University at Albany, SUNY, where he serves as a faculty advisor to the online poetics journal Barzakh.
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Book Information:
· Paperback: 106 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-031-6
N7ostradamus and Automatic Zygote Reviewed
2 New Great Reviews
N7ostradamus by Travis Macdonald reviewed in Jacket 2
_________________
Travis Macdonald’s poetry and prose has appeared in print and online
Book Information:
· Paperback: 168 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-009-5$16
Automatic Zygote by Jonathan Witherspoon Huey reviewed on Big Bridge
Book Information:
· Paperback: 100 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-018-7
$16
Small Press Book Fair, long-lists and great reviews!
What a great week for small presses! From book fairs to great reviews, BlazeVOX [books] has been making the news all over. Hurray!
Small Press Book Fair in Buffalo!!
http://www.buffalosmallpress.org
Yet again we had a great time at Buffalo’s Small Press Fair. This is a great event that seems to kick start Spring into it’s bloom for the Buffalo’s literati set.
Read the great article in Artvoice!
http://artvoice.com/issues/v10n11/literary_buffalo
And in the Buffalo News
Big hugs to Chris Fritton and the whole Book Fair team! I am already looking forward to next years event!
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Geoffrey Interviewed on Essential Writers
Read our interview with publisher Geoffrey Gatza of BlazeVOX [books] http://essentialwriters.com/blazevox-books-interview-10116.htm
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Hi Density Politics reviewed at Constant Critic
http://www.constantcritic.com/sueyeun_juliette_lee/hi-density-politics/
Buy the book here:
http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Shop/Poetry/hi-density-politics-by-urayoan-noel-208/
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Iowa Review reviews Barbara Henning's Thirty Miles to Rosebud
http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Shop/fiction/thirty-miles-to-rosebud-by-barbara-henning-66/
Midwest Book Review on Historic Diary
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/mar_11.htm
Tony Trigilio
BlazeVox Books
303 Bedford Ave, Buffalo, NY 14216
978160940125, $16.00
Lee Harvey Oswald in all of his infamy, proved to be one of the most intriguing characters of the twentieth century. "Historic Diary" is a work of poetry and fiction from Tony Trigilio as he tells a story through his poetry, hoping to show where Oswald's mind wandered and where it went. A truly unique experiment and blend of prose and poetry, "Historic Diary" is a fun and intriguing read that will prove hard to put down.
John Taylor
Reviewer
Buy the book here:
http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Shop/Poetry/historic-diary-by-tony-trigilio-196/
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Multiverse by Michael Smith has made the 2011 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Book Award Long List <http://www.sibaweb.com/siba-news/siba-news/209-2011-siba-book-award-long-list> .
Buy the book here:
http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Shop/Poetry/multiverse-by-michael-smith-159/
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The Future Is Happy by Sarah Sarai is reviewed by Melissa Studdard in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue American Book Review : http://americanbookreview.org/currentIssue.asp
Yay!
http://www.blazevox.org/index.php/Shop/Poetry/the-future-is-happy-by-sarah-sarai-144/
TRACK THIS: A Book of Relationships by Stephen Bett Reviewed
TRACK THIS: A Book of Relationships, Stephen Bett
(144pp, BlazeVOX books, Buffalo, New York)
reviewed by James McLaughlin
http://www.stridemagazine.co.uk/Stride%20mag2011/Jan%202011/TRACK%20THIS.htm
"...Voyeuristic in intent and disturbing as too much red meat. this book hits the spot - no pun intended."
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