Category Archives: publications

The November 3rd Club

The Winter 2008 issue of The November 3rd Club is now online, featuring poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art and conversation by:

CARLYE ARCHIBEQUE, GUSTAVO ARELLANO, MADELINE ARTENBERG, MARCUS BALES, OSCAR BERMEO, ROBERT BOHM, AURORE BOREALIS, ROLAND W. CORYELL, BRIAN DAUTH, RITA DOVE, BARBARA CARIDAD FERRER, RAGAN FOX, GERALD GEORGE, KIRPAL GORDON, SAURABH GUPTA, SAM HAMILL, M. AYODELE HEATH, JOY N. HENSLEY, BOB HOEPPNER, JASON JONKER, MARTY MCCONNELL, CHRIS MOONEY-SINGH, JAMES NAVÉ, THERESA C. NEWBILL, CRISTIN O’KEEFE APTOWICZ, SHERMAN PEARL, DEB POWERS, KEITH ROACH, ELIZABETH ROSS, IRIS N. SCHWARTZ, SKIP SHEA, FRANK SLOAN, MARC SOLOMON, ARTHUR SZE, EDWIN TORRES, TONY WILLIAMS and SHOLEH WOLPÉ.

Spindle is now live

Many thanks to Spindle for including my poem “I’m Jus Askin” as part of their soft launch!

A word from Editor Guy LeCharles Gonzalez:

Spindle is an online literary magazine with a twist, featuring creative non-fiction, poetry and short fiction by, for and about New Yorkers — literal and spiritual. Showcasing emerging writers, artists, musicians and other creative types, we are dedicated to the fundamental idea that cultural diversity, not cash or pseudo-celebrity, rules everything around us.

Why does it exist?

Because the New Yorker can be rather boring sometimes?

Because the Village Voice ain’t what it used to be?

Because TimeOut and CitySearch are kind of lame?

Because there’s far too many creative people in this City and not nearly enough interesting venues to feature their work?

Or, more simply, why the hell not?

ACHIOTE SEEDS (Summer 2007)

ACHIOTE SEEDS a chap-journal featuring ALFRED ARTEAGA, MARINA GARCIA-VASQUEZ, OSCAR BERMEO, and DOLORES DORANTES translated by JEN HOFER

A word from Craig Perez, Achiote Press Editor:

ACHIOTE PRESS 2007 END OF SUMMER CHAPBOOKS WILL BE PRINTED AND READY TO SALE AND SHIP.

since our Spring issues sold out in 3 weeks, many people were upset at me for not printing more, especially since the chaps sold out before i sent out a mass email announcing their release. so this time around, i am offering folks a chance to reserve a copy. if you want to reserve a copy, all you have to do is email me and let me know. this is not a commitment to purchase, but only guarantees availability if you decide to actually purchase a copy when they are ready (if you change your mind, no worries).

so for $12 dollars, you get 2 chaps. the ACHIOTE SEEDS chapbook, which features about 10 pages from 4 writers. the writers for our summer issue are:

ALFRED ARTEAGA

MARINA GARCIA-VASQUEZ

OSCAR BERMEO

DOLORES DORANTES translated by JEN HOFER

okay okay stop drooling. we couldnt be more excited by this lineup.

our single-author chapbook is Novaless I-XXVI by NICHOLAS MANNING
(check out some samples here at OTOLITHS)

To reserve your copy of ACHIOTE SEEDS, please email csperez06[at]gmail[dot]com

More Achiote Press info here

12 Ways: Reading and Book Release

The culminating event of three months of work and collaboration with the 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab, a joint program of Kearny Street Workshop, Galería De La Raza and Intersection for the Arts is on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 7:00 PM!

Join Kearny Street Workshop, Galería de la Raza, and Intersection for the Arts for the final event of the 4th annual 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab, a reading and book release event for 12 ways: an anthology of the 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab . The all-genres anthology features new work by a talented and diverse group of contributers, including IWL 2007 writers Maile Arvin, Oscar Bermeo, Nicole Bohn, Jennifer Chien, Jasmin Darznik, Rebecca Foust, Nirmala Nataraj, Lata Nott, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Carlo Sciammas, Jaime Omar Yassin, and Debbie Yee, and lead IWl 2007 artists Uchechi Kalu, Genny Lim, and Octavio Solis,with original cover design by Mark Baugh-Sasaki and letterpress printing by Patricia Wakida.

The IWL is a literary program to explore multiple forms of creative expression and generate new work. This event represents the culmination of the program, a series of workshops and public readings that began in March 2007.

Date: Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

Time: 7 -9 pm

Location: KSW’s space180, 180 capp street, 3rd floor, @ 17th street, san francisco

Cost: $5 – 15 sliding scale.

Info: http://kearnystreet.org

The 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab is supported by a grant from the Irvine Foundation.

A collaboration of Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts, and Galería de la Raza

Lord, Is This A Psalm?



Originally uploaded by thehoneymoon.

Is the title of the next Jack Agüeros book that I am going to pick up but since I am in quite the DO mode as of late and can’t wait for Amazon to get their shit together I figured I would just jump to it.

The psalm comes from another productive IWL workshop where we were asked to write the love letter of all love letters. After two failed attempts, I decided to write a love letter to not just my city, that is the city that exists in my poems, but to the street where all the denizens of my city meet– Anywhere Avenue.

In case y’all been wonderin the name of the street comes from Sonnet for the #6 which can be found in Sonnets from the Puerto Rican. Yeah, Jack’s work has been quite the inspiration as of late: The way he negotiates through city with an eye that is observant but not nosy; the way he can catch folks at the intersection between bad and worse and not stand in judgment; the way he can generate empathy without soliciting pity.

It should also come as very little surprise that this all these poems are occurring in the Bronx. Or, better stated, The Bronx that I remember. Where we played outside at night. Where we could go to the park by ourselves. Where a six year old boy is in charge of getting his four year old sister to school. Where there is danger but if we acknowledge that then we are just prisoners in our homes. Dealing with that acknowledgment at age 6. Where we are don’t have money but if we acknowledge we are poor than we become another kind of prisoner. Accepting food stamps and government cheese but not accepting the system that provides it. And music, lots and lots of music all around us. This is the Bronx that I remember and most of the time it is not the one I keep reading about in books and on the net.

Enough of dat, on to the new poem which borrows its form from Psalm 150 and also went through the the (patent pending) “speed editing” process that Barb and I have worked out.

Psalm for Anywhere Avenue
[Poem was here. Can now be found in 12 Ways: An Anthology of the 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab and OCHO #15.]