Tuesday, May 31, 2011

the whole pie approach

Sometimes people ask, or wonder without asking, why we publish only women at Switchback. I have about half a dozen different standard answers for this, but two of the most common are:
1. Our definition of "women" is really broad, so we're working to open up that definition, rather than shut down the types of work we're interested in.

2. Since we know the women-to-men ratio is not 50:50, by publishing only women, we're doing our part to increase the number of women poets published overall, across presses. Adding more deliciousness to the whole pie.
If you'd like to see a picture of this pie, then of course VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, an organization I'm a small part of, too -- send me your women's literary events for the calendar! -- is the place to go. VIDA's just released its latest count, of the Best American anthologies. See below how imbalanced Best American Essays has been over the years, and check out the rest of the results here, as well as an accompanying conversation between Amy King, Erin Belieu, Danielle Pafunda, Cheryl Strayed, and Adrienne Su here.



Tuesday, May 24, 2011

SEAM RIPPER's last round

Just in time for Bob Dylan's birthday, it's SEAM RIPPER's last round!


Friday, May 13, 2011

"just a road": Lauren Eggert-Crowe on fauxstalgia & LA Liminal

Over at Lauren Eggert-Crowe's Valentina in Orbit, she retypes "The Mexico It Would Take," LA Liminal's first poem, and defines fauxstalgia as "this concept of being nostalgic for a time you didn't even enjoy when you were in it."

On Facebook she told me that fauxstalgia seemed to be the unifying theme of LA Liminal, and she's probably right.

I told her about nostalgio, the term Andy & I invented for being nostalgic for the moment you're in, before it's even passed -- already feeling yourself missing the present moment.

Other people probably call that "being happy."

Don't let this Friday the 13th pass you by.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Jennifer Tamayo's [Red Missed Aches] Now Available For Preorder!


Jennifer Tamayo's Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes is now available for preorder on the Switchback website.

[Red Missed Aches] is a perfect-bound, double-impression color (black and red), 8.5" x 8.5" book of poems, images, and some things in between.




Switchback Books
May 15, 2011
ISBN-10: 0978617266
ISBN-13: 978-0978617264
$18.00

Visit the Switchback site to purchase the book via Paypal.

From judge Cathy Park Hong's citation:

Jennifer Tamayo's writing is cacophonous, rude, and stripped. She uses equal measures of English, Spanish, and Spanglish; she landmines her poetry with malapropisms so the music is startling and pleasingly discordant. [Red Missed Aches] feels defiantly unfinished, adhering to a DIY feminist punk aesthetic so that it is more rough assemblage than bound book, a palimpsest that provocatively revises female sexuality and citizenship. Tamayo's debut collection is a daring and astonishing work that refuses borders.