Posts tagged Octopus Books

THE PERSON OF THE WEEK, #5: HAJARA QUINN Hajara Quinn is 5’6”. It’s pronounced HaJARa, so quit saying it wrong. You can call her Haji (HA-jee). That’s what I do. She wishes her name were Plum or Ponette though. I like those names a lot too, but those aren’t her names. In boarding school in Massachusettes, other kids called her Dodger, but this isn’t boarding school in Massachusetts anymore, people, so grow up. I first met Haji because she was a student in one of my poetry workshops at Crow Arts Manor. And then she took another one too. For one of those workshops I told everybody that they had to crawl in and out of the room’s window to come to and to leave class. She was one of the ones who did it. There were so many good poets in that workshop (here’s another one). I liked Haji at first because her poems were really good and she had a good laugh. She’s not really capable of bullshitting either. Also, she was the very first person in the world, besides me, to have a copy of Heather Christle’s The Trees The Trees because she wanted it so bad and kept asking about it before it was ever out. She’s like that with poetry books. She likes some of them so hard. Some of our first conversations were about how good Factory Hollow’s books are, for example, and she let me borrow her Mark Leidner’s Beauty Was The Case That They Gave Me, which was probably kept under her pillow every night before that. Anyway, this is especially cool because now she has a chapbook called Unnaysayer from Flying Object which is the organization/storefront the does Factory Hollow. You should buy that for $6, and you can read other poems of hers at Ilk, Kill Author, and in the next issue of Sixth Finch. She is an MFA poetry student at Cornell. She is a tremendously important and vital member of the Octopus Books team. Haji is an assistant editor, and has been for about two years now. Together we’re currently editing Bianca Stone’s forthcoming Tin House/Octopus Books book, Someone Else’s Wedding Vows. I really like editing poems with her. Also, Haji is the entirety of our shipping department. If you’ve ordered a book through our website in the past two years, Haji shipped it. She’s been shipping books from Ithaca. It’s cool that we have a shipping department on the other side of the country. I would guess Haji has single-handedly shipped about 1000 books. She once had a summer job handing out life jackets. One time she was in a canoe that capsized in the middle of a lake and sank. She took off her sweater and that sank. She thought maybe she’d sink too. But at this point she hasn’t. Oh, the important part of that story is that she wasn’t wearing a life jacket. Together with her boyfriend, Ben, we went to the Wild Ones show at Mississippi Studios this week. Also just this week, Haji got a pedicure and has a new toenail color, she completed her first year of grad school, and has moved back to Portland for the summer. So, for these three reasons and more, Hajara Quinn is this week’s The Lovely Arc’s The Person of the Week. Buy Unnaysayer from Flying Object here. Please submit your suggestions for next week’s The Lovely Arc’s The Person of the Week to me via email.

THE PERSON OF THE WEEK, #5: HAJARA QUINN


Hajara Quinn is 5’6”. It’s pronounced HaJARa, so quit saying it wrong. You can call her Haji (HA-jee). That’s what I do. She wishes her name were Plum or Ponette though. I like those names a lot too, but those aren’t her names. In boarding school in Massachusettes, other kids called her Dodger, but this isn’t boarding school in Massachusetts anymore, people, so grow up. I first met Haji because she was a student in one of my poetry workshops at Crow Arts Manor. And then she took another one too. For one of those workshops I told everybody that they had to crawl in and out of the room’s window to come to and to leave class. She was one of the ones who did it. There were so many good poets in that workshop (here’s another one). I liked Haji at first because her poems were really good and she had a good laugh. She’s not really capable of bullshitting either. Also, she was the very first person in the world, besides me, to have a copy of Heather Christle’s The Trees The Trees because she wanted it so bad and kept asking about it before it was ever out. She’s like that with poetry books. She likes some of them so hard. Some of our first conversations were about how good Factory Hollow’s books are, for example, and she let me borrow her Mark Leidner’s Beauty Was The Case That They Gave Me, which was probably kept under her pillow every night before that. Anyway, this is especially cool because now she has a chapbook called Unnaysayer from Flying Object which is the organization/storefront the does Factory Hollow. You should buy that for $6, and you can read other poems of hers at Ilk, Kill Author, and in the next issue of Sixth Finch. She is an MFA poetry student at Cornell. She is a tremendously important and vital member of the Octopus Books team. Haji is an assistant editor, and has been for about two years now. Together we’re currently editing Bianca Stone’s forthcoming Tin House/Octopus Books book, Someone Else’s Wedding Vows. I really like editing poems with her. Also, Haji is the entirety of our shipping department. If you’ve ordered a book through our website in the past two years, Haji shipped it. She’s been shipping books from Ithaca. It’s cool that we have a shipping department on the other side of the country. I would guess Haji has single-handedly shipped about 1000 books. She once had a summer job handing out life jackets. One time she was in a canoe that capsized in the middle of a lake and sank. She took off her sweater and that sank. She thought maybe she’d sink too. But at this point she hasn’t. Oh, the important part of that story is that she wasn’t wearing a life jacket. Together with her boyfriend, Ben, we went to the Wild Ones show at Mississippi Studios this week. Also just this week, Haji got a pedicure and has a new toenail color, she completed her first year of grad school, and has moved back to Portland for the summer. So, for these three reasons and more, Hajara Quinn is this week’s The Lovely Arc’s The Person of the Week.


Buy Unnaysayer from Flying Object here.

Please submit your suggestions for next week’s The Lovely Arc’s The Person of the Week to me via email.

THE PERSON OF THE WEEK, #3: JAMES GENDRON James Gendron is 5’11”. James’ other name is Jack. That’s what everybody I know calls him. His mom and his mom’s boyfriend, Tim, call him Jim though. It takes a little getting used to. Just a few months ago, I got to hang out with Jack, his mom and Tim in his childhood home in Portland, Maine, along with Amy Lawless and Mathias Svalina. Jack’s mom made us all beef stew, and made Mathias some spaghetti since he’s vegetarian (though he hated to be an imposition). She told us all stories about Jack as a boy which embarrassed him. We were there because Jack and Amy were all on a poetry tour together, and Mathias and I just did a couple of stops with them. Both Jack and Amy had poetry books on Octopus Books come out in March this year. Jack’s is called Sexual Boat (Sex Boats). Jack, Joseph Mains and I had a good time last fall meeting up and reading through all those poems out loud, editing them and making that book into an even better book. There is an official Portland Book Release party for it tonight, in fact, at Holocene, along with Joel Statz and Joanna Klink and some bands. The first time I ever really read Jack’s poems was a few years ago in a chapbook called Money Poems from Poor Claudia. They are so good, and it was always a treat hearing him read from them at different reading series’ around town. Jack teaches some classes pretty regularly for PSU, but he also has worked calling people for donations for the symphony, and slinging ice cream and pie and shit like that. One thing I usually tell other people about Jack is that he is sometimes a stand-up comedian, but I’ve never really seen him do stand-up comedy. I imagine it might be similar to hearing him read his poems. I’ve only heard that that stand-up comedy thing is true from our friend Derek (who has a crush on Jack’s mom). Sometimes Jack would invite me to Hilary’s, his girlfriend’s, pizza job for free slices of pizza. I probably shouldn’t say that. Because he is from New England, he roots for the Celtics. We watch basketball together, but I don’t like the Celtics. He sometimes takes care of Hilary’s sister’s cockatiel, Lowell, who likes to sing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and then take a crap. I mean, Lowell then takes a crap. Also, Jack’s birthday was this week, and he turned 31. Sometimes I think hanging out with Jack might be like what it would be like to hang out with one of the extras from a John Hughes film, one of the ones who walks around in the background in the airport scenes, or in the school hallway, but who is clearly far more interesting than the main characters doing all the dumb talking. Anyway, because of his birthday being this week, and his first official book release party being this week, James Gendron is this week’s Person of the Week. Pick up Jack’s Sexual Boat (Sex Boats) at Octopus Books, or at any local independent bookseller. Please submit your suggestions for next week’s Person of the Week to me via email.

THE PERSON OF THE WEEK, #3: JAMES GENDRON


James Gendron is 5’11”. James’ other name is Jack. That’s what everybody I know calls him. His mom and his mom’s boyfriend, Tim, call him Jim though. It takes a little getting used to. Just a few months ago, I got to hang out with Jack, his mom and Tim in his childhood home in Portland, Maine, along with Amy Lawless and Mathias Svalina. Jack’s mom made us all beef stew, and made Mathias some spaghetti since he’s vegetarian (though he hated to be an imposition). She told us all stories about Jack as a boy which embarrassed him. We were there because Jack and Amy were all on a poetry tour together, and Mathias and I just did a couple of stops with them. Both Jack and Amy had poetry books on Octopus Books come out in March this year. Jack’s is called Sexual Boat (Sex Boats). Jack, Joseph Mains and I had a good time last fall meeting up and reading through all those poems out loud, editing them and making that book into an even better book. There is an official Portland Book Release party for it tonight, in fact, at Holocene, along with Joel Statz and Joanna Klink and some bands. The first time I ever really read Jack’s poems was a few years ago in a chapbook called Money Poems from Poor Claudia. They are so good, and it was always a treat hearing him read from them at different reading series’ around town. Jack teaches some classes pretty regularly for PSU, but he also has worked calling people for donations for the symphony, and slinging ice cream and pie and shit like that. One thing I usually tell other people about Jack is that he is sometimes a stand-up comedian, but I’ve never really seen him do stand-up comedy. I imagine it might be similar to hearing him read his poems. I’ve only heard that that stand-up comedy thing is true from our friend Derek (who has a crush on Jack’s mom). Sometimes Jack would invite me to Hilary’s, his girlfriend’s, pizza job for free slices of pizza. I probably shouldn’t say that. Because he is from New England, he roots for the Celtics. We watch basketball together, but I don’t like the Celtics. He sometimes takes care of Hilary’s sister’s cockatiel, Lowell, who likes to sing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and then take a crap. I mean, Lowell then takes a crap. Also, Jack’s birthday was this week, and he turned 31. Sometimes I think hanging out with Jack might be like what it would be like to hang out with one of the extras from a John Hughes film, one of the ones who walks around in the background in the airport scenes, or in the school hallway, but who is clearly far more interesting than the main characters doing all the dumb talking. Anyway, because of his birthday being this week, and his first official book release party being this week, James Gendron is this week’s Person of the Week.

Pick up Jack’s Sexual Boat (Sex Boats) at Octopus Books, or at any local independent bookseller.

Please submit your suggestions for next week’s Person of the Week to me via email.

The first poems of Wong May’s published in over 25 years now appear in PEN Poetry Series, selected by guest editor C.D. Wright. Almost ten years ago, I stumbled upon Wong May’s first book of poems, A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals in the public library in Akron, OH, and having never before heard of her, and unable to find any information about her written after 1978, I wrote a Recovery Project in Octopus Magazine #3. Unlike what I said in that recovery project, Wong May has in fact not disappeared. Octopus Books will publish Wong May’s first book of poems since her last was published in 1978. It will be edited by myself and Brandon Shimoda, and it is called Picasso’s Tears. Wong May was born in Mainland China and raised in Singapore, where she obtained an English degree from the University of Singapore before attending the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She is the author of A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich,1969), Reports (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1972), Superstitions (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1978), and the forthcoming Picasso’s Tears (Octopus Books). She now lives in Ireland. Read four of Wong May’s new poems, and what C.D. Wright has to say about them here.

The first poems of Wong May’s published in over 25 years now appear in PEN Poetry Series, selected by guest editor C.D. Wright.

Almost ten years ago, I stumbled upon Wong May’s first book of poems, A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals in the public library in Akron, OH, and having never before heard of her, and unable to find any information about her written after 1978, I wrote a Recovery Project in Octopus Magazine #3. Unlike what I said in that recovery project, Wong May has in fact not disappeared. Octopus Books will publish Wong May’s first book of poems since her last was published in 1978. It will be edited by myself and Brandon Shimoda, and it is called Picasso’s Tears.


Wong May was born in Mainland China and raised in Singapore, where she obtained an English degree from the University of Singapore before attending the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She is the author of A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich,1969), Reports (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1972), Superstitions (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1978), and the forthcoming Picasso’s Tears (Octopus Books). She now lives in Ireland.

Read four of Wong May’s new poems, and what C.D. Wright has to say about them here.

If you live in Portland, let me remind you to get your Octopus Books from the good guys—from Backtalk (pictured above), Division Leap, Reading Frenzy (you can support their attempt to relaunch through Kickstarter now), and Powell’s. Or come to this Wednesday night and stock up with the rock up. 

If you live in Portland, let me remind you to get your Octopus Books from the good guys—from Backtalk (pictured above), Division Leap, Reading Frenzy (you can support their attempt to relaunch through Kickstarter now), and Powell’s. Or come to this Wednesday night and stock up with the rock up. 

Together with the other editors of Octopus Books, Mathias Svalina, Alisa Heinzman, and Hajara Quinn, I read a few pieces of poems out the books we’ve published from the April open reading periods of the recent past. Can you recognize these books from the tops of their open covers? We made this little video to remind you that you have a week left to submit, and to also check out the books we’ve already chosen and published.


We made a longer 2 minute version reading different excepts here, if you just can’t get enough reminders. 

Have you heard that James Gendron has a new book from Octopus Books called Sexual Boat (Sex Boats)? Have you heard that Joel Statz has a new noetry chapbook from Poor Claudia called Bart v Univers? Have you heard Joanna Klink is in town as the Tin House Writer-in-Residence at PSU? Do you dig rad jams and fat beats? You down with Holocene? You got 5 bucks left? You doing anything on Wednesday night, May 1? May I suggest something?

Have you heard that James Gendron has a new book from Octopus Books called Sexual Boat (Sex Boats)? Have you heard that Joel Statz has a new noetry chapbook from Poor Claudia called Bart v Univers? Have you heard Joanna Klink is in town as the Tin House Writer-in-Residence at PSU? Do you dig rad jams and fat beats? You down with Holocene? You got 5 bucks left? You doing anything on Wednesday night, May 1? May I suggest something?

Every April, we, at Octopus Books, accept full-length poetry manuscripts for consideration for publication. Today is the first day of April. If you have a poetry manuscript you’d like us to consider, ten dollars in your bank account, and a hankering that we may dig your poems, maybe you’d want to send it to us. Read our submissions guidelines, and we’ll read your book.

Every April, we, at Octopus Books, accept full-length poetry manuscripts for consideration for publication. Today is the first day of April. If you have a poetry manuscript you’d like us to consider, ten dollars in your bank account, and a hankering that we may dig your poems, maybe you’d want to send it to us. Read our submissions guidelines, and we’ll read your book.

Amy Lawless and James Gendron are going on their Sex & Death tour in celebration of their new Octopus Books books and have invited me along to the first two readings, Portland, ME, and NYC, NY. I will read sex poems in Maine, death poems in New York.

And then, in the few weeks after that, I’ll be pushing a tiny rental car with three of my very favorite humans on the planet from graveyard to graveyard across France, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium. Their names are Joshua Marie Wilkingson, Dot Devota, and Brandon Shimoda. If you’re looking for me, here’s where I’ll be, and when, and how.

3/7. Boston, MA. Ink Node reading at AWP. Sweetwater Tavern. 9pm.

3/10. Portland, ME. LFK. w/Amy Lawless and Jack Gendron.

3/12. New York, NY. Triptych Reading Series. w/Amy Lawless and James Gendron. TBA.

3/18, Paris, France—Spoken Word Paris @ Au Chat Noir, 9 pm—with Dot Devota, Zachary Schomburg, Joshua Marie Wilkinson & various rabble …

3/19, Paris, France—IVY Writers Paris @ Cafe Delaville, 7:30 pm—with Dot Devota, Paul Laborde, Virginie Poitrasson, Martin Richet, Zachary Schomburg & Joshua Marie Wilkinson

3/23, Basel, Switzerland—Elaine MGK, Museum für Gegenwartskunst—with Dot Devota, Zachary Schomburg & Joshua Marie Wilkinson

3/24, Zurich, Switzerland—Cabaret Voltaire—with Dot Devota, Zachary Schomburg & Joshua Marie Wilkinson

3/27, Amsterdam, Holland—Versal/This Is Not A Reading Series—with Dot Devota, Zachary Schomburg & Joshua Marie Wilkinson

3/29, Brussels, Belgium—International School of Brussels—with Dot Devota, Zachary Schomburg & Joshua Marie Wilkinson.

Also, you want to buy these Bad Blood broadsides from us at the Octopus Books table in Boston next week. They’re designed and letter-pressed by Stacey Tran. They have Patricia Lockwood and Ben Mirov poems on them. But for now, you need to go to bed. It is your bedtime. Then you need to wake up and try to do better this time.

I’m going to be po-busy on Thursday, March 7, and I’m hoping you’d want to be equally po-busy with me. Step 1: Go to the No Thousands reading at 6pm where I’ll be in support of two of our new Octopus Books, James Gendron’s Sexual Boat (Sex Boats) and Amy Lawless’ My Dead, and Poor Claudia’s new book, A Voluptuous Dream During an Eclipse by Elaine Kahn. Black Ocean, 1913 and Action Books will be there too. And then Step Two: Go to the Tin House/Octopus Books reading after 7pm to celebrate the release of two of our other new books, Brandon Shimoda’s Portuguese and Patricia Lockwood’s Balloon Pop Outlaw Black. Then after that, Step Three: go to the Ink Node reading after 9pm where I’ll be reading for a few minutes along with Octopus Books’ own Alisa Heinzman and another handful of killer poets. Phew. The task at hand is daunting, but it’s worth pretending like we can be in three places at once.

If you can’t make it to either of the Octopus readings, it’d still be nice to see you at our table at the bookfair. We have three new books to sell you, along with the entirety of our own catalog and the catalog of our chapbook imprint, Poor Claudia. We also have letter pressed Bad Blood broadsides, screen printed tote bags, and Drew Swenhaugen will be sitting in a 25 cent dunk tank full of whiskey.

Come to ADX for a Bad Blood to help Octopus Books and Poor Claudia celebrate the official release of two of our newest books: Ben Mirov’s Hider Roser (Octopus Books) and Elaine Kahn’s A Voluptuous Dream During an Eclipse (Poor Claudia). Ben and Elaine will be reading poems with Rebecca Farivar, author of Correct Animal (Octopus Books), and Brian Foley, author of The Constitution (Black Ocean, forthcoming). And we’ll let you sip on some Gigantic Beer if you remember to put some coin in the har har jar. Mingle is at 7:30. Tingle is at 8.

Come to ADX for a Bad Blood to help Octopus Books and Poor Claudia celebrate the official release of two of our newest books: Ben Mirov’s Hider Roser (Octopus Books) and Elaine Kahn’s A Voluptuous Dream During an Eclipse (Poor Claudia). Ben and Elaine will be reading poems with Rebecca Farivar, author of Correct Animal (Octopus Books), and Brian Foley, author of The Constitution (Black Ocean, forthcoming).

And we’ll let you sip on some Gigantic Beer if you remember to put some coin in the har har jar. Mingle is at 7:30. Tingle is at 8.

Drew Swenhaugen, book layout design wing of Octopus Books, and the book-maker and editor of its imprint, Poor Claudia, has just finished up folding and sewing, with his own bare hands, the beautiful, screen-printed cover, limited-edition (of 150) chapbook by Elaine Kahn, A Voluptuous Dream During an Eclipse (Poor Claudia 2013). It is now available to the most general public. Note: If you bought a subscription to OB/PC, you already bought this little number.

Drew Swenhaugen, book layout design wing of Octopus Books, and the book-maker and editor of its imprint, Poor Claudia, has just finished up folding and sewing, with his own bare hands, the beautiful, screen-printed cover, limited-edition (of 150) chapbook by Elaine Kahn, A Voluptuous Dream During an Eclipse (Poor Claudia 2013). It is now available to the most general public. Note: If you bought a subscription to OB/PC, you already bought this little number.

I just gave APRIL a few bucks because it is one of my favorite things going on in the Seattle poetry scene. And they’ll send you a rad shirt. And, because if you watch the video they put together about APRIL and about what they’ll do with your $35, you’ll see a substantial cameo from an Octopus t-shirt.

If you still have a few bucks left over in the porcelain pig, and you already have an Octopus Books subscription, let me suggest you put it into one of the most impressive small presses this current century has known, Ugly Duckling Presse. 5 books + a 6x6! for $25. Wha?! You have until tomorrow for that.

TIN HOUSE + OCTOPUS BOOKS = PORTUGUESE Tin House Books and Octopus Books are thrilled to announce a new collaborative series of poetry books. Matthew Dickman, poetry editor at Tin House magazine, and myself, editor at Octopus Books, are acquiring, and the first book we’ve chosen together is Brandon Shimoda’s Portuguese. Portuguese will be published by Tin House Books and Octopus Books on March 12, 2013, but it is available for pre-order on the Octopus Books site now. Shimoda is the author of three previous books of poetry—O Bon (Litmus Press, 2011), The Girl Without Arms (Black Ocean, 2011), and The Alps (Flim Forum, 2008)—among other solo and collaborative works in print, on cassette, online, and on vinyl. He is currently co-editing, with poet Thom Donovan, a retrospective collection of writings by Lebanese-American poet Etel Adnan (Nightboat Books, forthcoming). He was born in California, and has lived most recently in Maine, Taiwan, and Arizona. In 2014, Tin House and Octopus Books will again collaborate to publish Bianca Stone’s new collection, Someone Else’s Wedding Vows.


TIN HOUSE + OCTOPUS BOOKS = PORTUGUESE

Tin House Books and Octopus Books are thrilled to announce a new collaborative series of poetry books. Matthew Dickman, poetry editor at Tin House magazine, and myself, editor at Octopus Books, are acquiring, and the first book we’ve chosen together is Brandon Shimoda’s Portuguese.

Portuguese will be published by Tin House Books and Octopus Books on March 12, 2013, but it is available for pre-order on the Octopus Books site now.

Shimoda is the author of three previous books of poetry—O Bon (Litmus Press, 2011), The Girl Without Arms (Black Ocean, 2011), and The Alps (Flim Forum, 2008)—among other solo and collaborative works in print, on cassette, online, and on vinyl. He is currently co-editing, with poet Thom Donovan, a retrospective collection of writings by Lebanese-American poet Etel Adnan (Nightboat Books, forthcoming). He was born in California, and has lived most recently in Maine, Taiwan, and Arizona.

In 2014, Tin House and Octopus Books will again collaborate to publish Bianca Stone’s new collection, Someone Else’s Wedding Vows.

Octopus Books, Poor Claudia and Bad Blood are going to be repping so hard at this year’s Publication Fair at The Cleaners all day this Sunday. We’ve done our push-ups, and got fresh creases in our slacks. We’ll have the new books for sale, an even newer book, and if you buy a subscription, Drew will kiss you on the mouth. You need poems, we need a bit of cash to make more poems pretty. Please don’t be shy. We take checks. We’ve been taking checks since we were born.

Octopus Books, Poor Claudia and Bad Blood are going to be repping so hard at this year’s Publication Fair at The Cleaners all day this Sunday. We’ve done our push-ups, and got fresh creases in our slacks. We’ll have the new books for sale, an even newer book, and if you buy a subscription, Drew will kiss you on the mouth. You need poems, we need a bit of cash to make more poems pretty. Please don’t be shy. We take checks. We’ve been taking checks since we were born.