No Tell Motel's Nominations for Dzanc Books' Best of the Web

"Eating The Future" by Elizabeth Hildreth

"Ghazal, with Accessories" by Jenn Koiter

"When I Worked for Madonna" by Joanna Ruocco

PERSONATIONSKIN - Now Available at Lulu

BUY NOW at Lulu
Coming soon to retail outlets

PERSONATIONSKIN by Karl Parker
ISBN: 978-0-578-01872-0
Publication Date: November 2009
136 Pages

What People are Saying about PERSONATIONSKIN:

Hilarity in the vault! A man without a face and an ever-shifting position on things: sheer terror and comedy follow where "everywhere, divides."
—Fanny Howe


To read Karl Parker's poems is to revel in the tremendous reach of a mind that, more than any other I've read (more than John Clare, more than Khlebnikov or Kharms or Huerta) can render me awed at the realization that we, each of us, have a person inside our skins with us. Parker enacts this phenomenological remembering with such a wit and lyricism, and such a grief, that I believe him likely one of the smartest, saddest, funniest writers alive. He is without doubt one of my favorite writers. I have been following his work for years. And so will people for years to come.
—Gabriel Gudding


Karl Parker’s PERSONATIONSKIN makes for a strange and auspicious debut. The self in these poems tries on and discards one skin after another while Rome burns in the background—his fiddling indistinguishable from the burning. Joyous and agonized bodies dance through the funhouse, leaving sticky-note poems on distorting mirrors to mark their circular progress: “peel back the skin, back to the everything, the pale tenderest fleshpetal, where we are reeling still.” A broken umbrella in the face of major weather, a map of a landscape in which the difference is spreading: poems to make your flesh creep, to make you feel alive.
—Joshua Corey


Parker's jolting, often baffling assertions keep escorting you to the edge of some political or psychological cliff, where you glimpse an abyss into which a part of you or someone who has stolen your identity may already have jumped—and then yanking you back with a nudge in the ribs. It is funny—the way Samuel Beckett is funny. But wholly original. You don't want PERSONATIONSKIN to end because it keeps getting you to smile at the reasons why you might despair. It is a tender, good-natured, painfully discomfiting, and aesthetically exhilarating book.
—Jim Crenner


There are moments of human interaction that leave one with a sense of cosmic disconnection, as if the earth has stopped spinning, as a record would skip and scratch at a school dance. There is something so delicately transcendent in that shock. It’s like being hung-over and walking out into the twenty-below morning, a gasp. Karl Parker’s poems bring me as closer to that terror and transcendence than any other writer.

I think of Whitman rubbing his hide on tree bark, in both penance and ecstasy. The American elegy is tapered to a wick which burns back on itself. The edges of Parker’s writing shudder, as the skin shudders when it comes in contact with thorns—or caresses. But it is beyond good and evil. Many voices hash this out. There is Beckett reciting Shakespeare, Paul Celan reading Dylan Thomas. Voices plummet from the heavens. They are eloquent and rational, and they hold back tears. The personating fills that void with bodies and consciousness. That brings them even closer to, and makes them the membrane between body and self. They engineer earthly structure to support the weight of regret and hope. Parker’s poems are some of the most delicate and dangerous that exist. In their sublime instants, we are both present and complete.
—William Pettit, Tarano, Italy 3/09

Indie Publishing: Two Questions and Several Answers

Eileen Tabios, Francisco Aragón, Reb Livingston, and Rusty Morrison respond to Barbara Jane Reyes questions on independent poetry publishing at Harriet.

Also, Rauan Klassnik asks Reb Livingston "What’s Right & What’s Wrong (with the small press world)" at HTMLGIANT.

Eileen Tabios on Rebecca Loudon's Navigate, Amelia Earhart's Letters Home

every word in this collection is necessary -- which is amazing because, as a project-oriented collection and given its nature, it stood the risk of containing poems-as-placeholders. The vibrant energy here does not cancel discipline.

This Week at No Tell

Tiffany Midge looks for something implicit this week at No Tell Motel.

New Titles by No Tell Poets

A Model Year by Gina Myers (Coconut Books)

Don't ever stay the same; keep changing Elisa Gabbert and Kathleen Rooney (Spooky Girlfriend Press)

A Nest This Size by Ann Fine (Shearsman)

The Found Titles Project by Mark DuCharme (Ahadada Books, e-book)

Disappears in the Rain by Matthew Thorburn (Parlor City Press)

State(s) of Flux by Steve Karl (Into Copious Unknowns)

Stars of the Night Commute by Ana Božičević (Tarpaulin Sky Press)

RECENTLY CLOUDS by Jess Mynes and Aaron Tieger (Petrichord Books)

Amphisbaena by Ray Succre (Cauliay Publishing)

all the jawing jackdaw by Nava Fader (Blazevox)

This Week at No Tell

Jenn Koiter requests you sharpen your scissors and remove all belt loops this week at No Tell Motel.

Coming Soon

PERSONATIONSKIN by Karl Parker
ISBN: 978-0-578-01872-0
Publication Date: November 2009
136 Pages

What People are Saying about PERSONATIONSKIN:

Hilarity in the vault! A man without a face and an ever-shifting position on things: sheer terror and comedy follow where "everywhere, divides."
—Fanny Howe


To read Karl Parker's poems is to revel in the tremendous reach of a mind that, more than any other I've read (more than John Clare, more than Khlebnikov or Kharms or Huerta) can render me awed at the realization that we, each of us, have a person inside our skins with us. Parker enacts this phenomenological remembering with such a wit and lyricism, and such a grief, that I believe him likely one of the smartest, saddest, funniest writers alive. He is without doubt one of my favorite writers. I have been following his work for years. And so will people for years to come.
—Gabriel Gudding


Karl Parker’s PERSONATIONSKIN makes for a strange and auspicious debut. The self in these poems tries on and discards one skin after another while Rome burns in the background—his fiddling indistinguishable from the burning. Joyous and agonized bodies dance through the funhouse, leaving sticky-note poems on distorting mirrors to mark their circular progress: “peel back the skin, back to the everything, the pale tenderest fleshpetal, where we are reeling still.” A broken umbrella in the face of major weather, a map of a landscape in which the difference is spreading: poems to make your flesh creep, to make you feel alive.
—Joshua Corey


Parker's jolting, often baffling assertions keep escorting you to the edge of some political or psychological cliff, where you glimpse an abyss into which a part of you or someone who has stolen your identity may already have jumped—and then yanking you back with a nudge in the ribs. It is funny—the way Samuel Beckett is funny. But wholly original. You don't want PERSONATIONSKIN to end because it keeps getting you to smile at the reasons why you might despair. It is a tender, good-natured, painfully discomfiting, and aesthetically exhilarating book.
—Jim Crenner


There are moments of human interaction that leave one with a sense of cosmic disconnection, as if the earth has stopped spinning, as a record would skip and scratch at a school dance. There is something so delicately transcendent in that shock. It’s like being hung-over and walking out into the twenty-below morning, a gasp. Karl Parker’s poems bring me as closer to that terror and transcendence than any other writer.

I think of Whitman rubbing his hide on tree bark, in both penance and ecstasy. The American elegy is tapered to a wick which burns back on itself. The edges of Parker’s writing shudder, as the skin shudders when it comes in contact with thorns—or caresses. But it is beyond good and evil. Many voices hash this out. There is Beckett reciting Shakespeare, Paul Celan reading Dylan Thomas. Voices plummet from the heavens. They are eloquent and rational, and they hold back tears. The personating fills that void with bodies and consciousness. That brings them even closer to, and makes them the membrane between body and self. They engineer earthly structure to support the weight of regret and hope. Parker’s poems are some of the most delicate and dangerous that exist. In their sublime instants, we are both present and complete.
—William Pettit, Tarano, Italy 3/09

No Tell Motel's Reading Period Open During October

Submission guidelines are here.

This Week at No Tell Motel

Sampson Starkweather is searching for a real moment of text this week at No Tell Motel.

Jehanne Dubrow interviews Jill Alexander Essbaum

I'll discard, momentarily, the death bit and talk about sex and God. The trope of God as Lover did not begin with me; look to the medieval woman saints, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard, Christina the Astonishing—they have absolutely no reluctance speaking of their desire for God as if he were a physical, imminently present man. Or even the words used to describe the Christian story. We speak of the passion of the Lord. A saint is said to be in ecstasy. The church is called Christ's Bride. And the words of institution: this is my body, given for you. Far earlier than that, we have both the psalms of David and the Song of Solomon-- neither of which flinch at real depictions of human emotion, including sexual emotion. Why the pairing of sexual and religious expression seems wrong to our post-modern American ears, I think, is because we're all (no matter what we believe or don't) direct inheritors of a Puritan heritage that disdains human physicality (full disclosure: when I typed this, I accidentally typed "hymen" instead of human!) in lieu of pursuits of the spirit alone. But look—I'm hardly spiritual. I'm carnal. And, if you are a Christian, you believe that for a time in history, God was too. And we celebrate that. It's hard for me to explain this because it makes such natural sense to me. And yet, I realize that at times, I am both provocative and outre.

Delirious Lapel

In May 2009, Danielle Pafunda curated the first installment of Delirious Hem's This is What a Feminist [Poet] Looks Like. This forum featured women discussing the relationship between their feminism & their poetry, and these contributions elicited thoughtful responses from women & men bloggers alike. Mark Wallace was one of those bloggers. Together, we've curated This is What a (Pro)Feminist [Man Poet] Looks Like. We hope you'll visit, read, comment, & enjoy!

Monday October 5: Brian Teare, Christian Peet, & H.L. Hix
Tuesday October 6: Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Kareem Estefan, & Kevin Simmonds
Wednesday October 7: Mark Wallace, Mike Hauser, & Nate Pritts
Thursday October 8: Philip Jenks, Tim Atkins, & Tony Frazer
Friday October 9: Tony Trigilio, David Lau & Rodrigo Toscano

Upcoming Forums:
November: This is What a Feminist [Poet] Looks Like, 2
December: 2009 Advent Kalendar (check out 2008's!)

Switchback Books Fundraising Subscription Sale

From Switchback Books:

In an effort to boost sales and give our supporters a great deal, we will be adding a subscription option on the Switchback Books Website (www.switchbackbooks.com/catalog). This will give you the opportunity to purchase up to five books at an amazing deal. Details on our blog now (switchbackbooks.blogspot.com)!

In addition, we’ve added donation buttons to our blog and website, allowing you to instantly support Switchback in any increment you can. As we work toward becoming a 501c3 nonprofit organization, we’re relying on others’ help to aid our efforts in supporting women’s poetry, voicing feminist ideals, and building an inspired and inspiring community of writers. No donation is too small, and we appreciate all forms of generosity.

Our goal—$800 by the end of the year for the printing and promotional costs of Marisa Crawford’s The Haunted House—is within reach with the help of even a modest donation.

Thanks to those of you who participated in and contributed to our bartending fundraising event held earlier this summer!

Here is a Pen: An Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets

From Achiote Press:

We are excited to announce Achiote Press' newest chapbook: Here is a Pen: An Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets, edited by Ching-in Chen, Margaret Rhee, and Debbie Yee.

Kundiman is a wonderful 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing a nurturing space for Asian American poets. Like many other arts organizations in these difficult times, Kundiman has suffered from budget cuts. To help, Achiote Press teamed up with three Kundiman poets to create a beautiful anthology featuring numerous Asian American writers.

We conducted a fundraising reading on the UC Berkeley campus on 9/17/09, and now we are continuing our efforts online.

Please click link to order your copy of this chapbook and to read the introduction (http://www.achiotepress.com/kundiman.htm). Cost: $7 (shipping included). Proceeds will be donated to Kundiman.

Supplies are limited so please order soon.

Writers in the anthology Include:

Neil Aitken, Tamiko Beyer, Ching-In Chen, Marilyn Chin, Oliver de la Paz, Vanessa Huang, Janine Joseph, Joseph O. Legaspi, Ngoc Luu, Sally Wen Mao, Noel Pabillo Mariano, Soham Patel, Jai Arun Ravine, Margaret Rhee, Melissa Roxas, Brynn Saito, Sharon Suzuki-Martinez, Yael Villafranca, Andre Yang, and Debbie Yee

Fou 3

On the twenty-first day of September, two thousand nine years after the common era, Fou Magazine, the first aerial panda parade, catapults itself simultaneously from Paris and New York, to escape the confines of captivity and cover all regions of the Internet, Earth, and beyond with its benevolent embrace. On this ethereal monument, let future ages record the wondrous enterprise of empire, aided by heroic carousing, abetted by the fortitude of mankind, this great improvement on panda-based literary dissemination that the World Wide Web hath generously permitted.

Featuring poems by:

Samuel Amadon, Erik Anderson, Cynthia Arrieu-King, Joshua Beckman, Christopher DeWeese, DJ Dolack & Allison Titus, Claire Donato, Noah Falck, Jessica Fjeld, Alina Gregorian, Richard Jones, Caroline Knox, Rebecca Loudon, Ben Mirov, Alexis Orgera, Tomaž Šalamun, Morgan Lucas Schuldt, Peter Jay Shippy, Bianca Stone, and no others!

www.foumagazine.net

Tarpaulin Sky Press Reading Period

During the month of October, Tarpaulin Sky Press will be reading full-length manuscripts of poetry, fiction, and cross-genre work. Manuscripts should be postmarked between October 1 and October 31, 2009. There is no need to query first; simply mail the manuscript according to the directions below.

Tarpaulin Sky Press publishes paperbacks as well as a literary journal that appears in online and paper editions. Our trade paperbacks are available though major retailers and independent booksellers alike, and are distributed by Small Press Distribution--where the majority of our full-length titles have appeared on the distributor's "Best Sellers" lists, sometimes for several months. In addition to being included in "Ten Great Titles from Underground Presses" in Time Out New York, Tarpaulin Sky Press and its titles are featured and reviewed in places such as Poets & Writers, American Book Review, Rain Taxi, Bloomsbury Review, and Bookslut, among others.

TO SUBMIT:

Send one copy of your manuscript along with two copies of the title page (note: the reading process is not "blind"--we ask for two title pages only so that we may keep one with the manuscript, and the other for reference/notes, etc). Be sure that your title pages include your name, address, telephone number, and email address.

Cover letters are read with interest. We like to know who your are, what you're up to, and where we can read more of your work.

We do accept simultaneous submissions but ask that you let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere. Individual pieces from the manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, anthologies, and short-run chapbooks, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Manuscripts will not be returned. Please do not send us your only copy.

Writers who have not been published in our literary journal should include a $20 reading fee in the form of a check or a money order made payable to Tarpaulin Sky Press. Past contributors to Tarpaulin Sky may submit their manuscript with a $10 reading fee. Current subscribers to Tarpaulin Sky Press do not need to include a reading fee (you've already done plenty to
support the press--thank you). Everyone submitting a manuscript is welcome also to choose from any TSky Press trade paperback (sorry, no chapbooks)--just let us know which title you would like, and enclose with your submission packet a 9x12, self-addressed, stamped envelope with $2.64 in postage. We will ship the books separately from your notification SASE.

Mail your submission to

Tarpaulin Sky Press
PO Box 189
Grafton, VT 05146

For notification of decisions, include a business-size SASE. If you would like to receive acknowledgment of the receipt of your manuscript, please include a stamped, self-addressed postcard. Notification of decisions will be made in February 2010. Publication of accepted manuscripts will be in 2010 & 2011.

If you are not familiar with our press and the type of books that we publish, we encourage you to explore our work before submitting, by purchasing one of our titles.

This Week at No Tell

Jennifer L. Knox wrangles up grub like a real cowboy this week at No Tell Motel.

I See Straight People

Please join AQLF for a fun -- but not frightful -- fundraising event, I See Straight People. This reading will feature straight allies who will be reading from their poetry to help support AQLF. The reading will be held Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the Horizon School Auditorium, 1900 DeKalb Ave.

Featured poets include No Tell's Laurel Snyder and Bruce Covey along with Cecilia Woloch, Megan Sexton, Jon Goode and Alice Lovelace. Rupert Fike will host.

No Tell Motel Reading Period is Open

No Tell Motel is accepting poetry submissions during the month of October. Please follow the guidelines.