Talking Points

* Jen Bervin & St. Francis (with birdies). The Crush List is updated.

* Did you know that Sarabande was calling Legitimate Disasters a "Definitive, broadly representative anthology of poets born after 1960?" It's gonna be awful embarrassing when this definitive, broadly representative anthology ends up at the Strand for $9.00 in a few months...Keep saying it to yourself, Sarabande: There is no Jennifer Moxley, there is no Jennifer Moxley, there is no Jennifer Moxley. And what about all the great poets that are like 32 and under? Are they gonna order it for their classes? Survey says: XXX! PS: If you are a contributor and you don't even get to sit at the cool kids table in this sentence: The poets include Rick Barot, Joshua Beckman, David Berman, Nick Flynn, Matthea Harvey, Terrance Hayes, Major Jackson, James Kimbrell, D.A. Powell, Spencer Reece, Matthew Rohrer, Rebecca Wolff, Kevin Young, Matthew Zapruder, Andrew Zawacki, and many others. In case you're counting, that's 2 women and 13 men. Like, if you are represented simply as "and many others"...well ho, ho, ho. Olena Kalytiak Davis is as cool as anyone in that sentence. Mark Bibbins is. But so is Hoa Nguyen, Heather Fuller, Peter Richards, Tanya Larkin, you know. But can you imagine being in the anthology and not being on that little marketing list--woo, chilly. The making of an anthology is a spiteful act in general. And the little prickers you have to stick people with along the way, well, the best revenge against any editor of an anthology is that they will be thought of only as an anthologizer. Donald Allen (most of the poets in *that* anthology were lame, too. But a solid 100 pages.) It's also funny that no dead poets are in the anthology, like everyone's still alive, hunh? No one died young? Why do I think there are probably a couple of people who have died that they just forgot about because they don't see them at AWP (are there any former Brown undergraduates other than Lisa Jarnot, the love of my life so far?) Hmm...remember: definitive. Broadly representative. Sawako Nakayusa should be in this rather than, I don't know, some white guy I've never heard of. Pick one of those guys. Also Kasey Mohammad: but I'd much rather read a Flarf anthology anyway. Those people know how to fucking party.

* People say to me: don't you know you're just helping them with sales, etc.? Well, cool! *Buy it*! Unfortunately you'll probably agree with me. You know how much I hate *that.* And please don't vote that my review is "helpful," what the fuck does that mean? If there was a button that said "did you find this review punkass and did it make you cry" click that.

* They should also delineate between "A Reader" and "A Contributor" in the reviews section. I wonder who else might dare to sign their own name. Like some reader is already gonna have a copy that was unavailable on amazon until a few days ago and will now take up to 11 days to arrive (11 days? In the talons of a falcon or something? Get your shit together, Sarabande.). I did see a single spined-out copy at St. Mark's but zero copies at Barnes & Noble Union Square (somehow they had 3 copies of Free Radicals faced out in the New Poetry Releases section, hunh). No new Soft Skull poetry books either...maybe somebody could, you know, bring some over there.

* Can you still think someone is crushworthy after you hear them ask another person "So, are you going to Austin (as in AWP)?" I'm leaning no. Anyone who doesn't have to be like dragged to that thing in chains, sorry, you're off the list.

* Even the Publisher's Weekly guy mentions Olena Kalytiak Davis twice in like a six sentence review. C'mon! We're not stupid. She's way better than pretty much anybody in it. Put her in your little mini-hype marketing line!

* Started smoking again! But I think I need some kind of fancy silver pack of American Spirits. Maybe they can make a Jimmy Flavor. Oh, Native American guy! You'd never hurt me! How old is Sherman Alexie, by the way? He didn't get in? And what about all those great poets of Filipino descent? India? Prageeta Sharma? Hello! Also Jacqueline Waters, but I'm totally in love with her. She's brilliant tho! Way more brilliant than the guy from Silver Jews!

* I was trying to think of anything Sarabande ever did I was crazy about...eh...I like Afaa Michael Weaver. Music Like Dirt by Frank Bidart. But, whoa, who's Simon Muench? I think I'm in love. Poets with glasses...dreamy sigh. The only guy I really think is sexier than me in the LD anth is C. Dale Young. He makes me want to be a better man and way more gay.