a small note in these quarantine days: without forgetting how we’re all, directly involved, intimately connected, in our varied levels of precarity:
most of us with new books out are fairly restricted in what we can do vis-a-vis book/self promotion, and even more restricted by what we feel is right. I feel, acutely, (I suspect I’m not alone in this) my narcissism in the face of larger concerns: to state that if a new book like Two Californias has a lifespan, then our current situation will severely curtail its ability to make its way out into the world.
but we can help each other out. I recognize that many of us are in spending lockdown, and/or don’t want to further burden the postal service, and so can’t/won’t buy books right now. Having said that, if you’re in a bookbuying mood, I’ll point you to the New Books of AWP 2020 list – (https://www.facebook.com/New-Books-of-Virtual-AWP-2020-100568891566463/?ref=nf&hc_ref=ART343eJ165ahlJE3qfLTmt7iBuKHGntlHPePl6hug46NVQAskIeCZ9uO92ULpJTXJ0) – thanks to Danielle Pafunda for initiating this resource – and also to Rosebud Ben-Oni’s “Open to All: A Crowd-Sourced List of Over 300 Mid-2019 to 2020 Poetry Titles” (https://kenyonreview.org/2020/03/open-to-all-a-crowd-sourced-list-of-over-150-mid-2019-to-2020-poetry-titles/) at Kenyon Review.
yet there are things you can do that don’t cost money, which will help these books see the readership they deserve, AND (perhaps as importantly?) help writers when they write and try to publish/sell subsequent books. In particular, if you have the time and inclination, I’d encourage you to rate and review – 3 sentences will do! – our books on Amazon/Goodreads/other venues. (I know that Amazon/Goodreads are problematic entities – if anyone else has other/better venues, please let me know.) Thanks to Matt Kirkpatrick, who helped illuminate the easy and joyful benefits of rating/reviewing.
i’m listing here the books I know, as well as links to their Amazon/Goodreads pages:
Al Abonado: Jaw (Poems)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51374741-jaw
https://www.amazon.com/Jaw-Abonado-Albert/dp/1939675987/
Leland Cheuk: No Good Very Bad Asian (Novel)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52355028-no-good-very-bad-asian
https://www.amazon.com/No-Good-Very-Bad-Asian/dp/1936196999
Kathryn Cowles: Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World (Poems)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52372618-maps-and-transcripts-of-the-ordinary-world
https://www.amazon.com/Maps-Transcripts-Ordinary-World-Poems/dp/1571315020
Shira Dentz: Sisyphusina (Hybrid, out soon from PANK) and the sun a blazing zero (Poems)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44061652-the-sun-a-blazing-zero
https://www.amazon.com/sun-blazing-zero-Shira-Dentz/dp/1944884475
Noam Dorr: Love Drones (Essays)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43550185-love-drones
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Drones-Noam-Dorr/dp/1946448389
Robert Glick: Two Californias (Stories)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51899005-two-californias
https://www.amazon.com/Two-Californias-Robert-Glick/dp/1949540049
Eryn Green: BEIT (Poems)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48587417-beit
https://www.amazon.com/BEIT-Eryn-Green/dp/193697066X
Sadie Hoagland: American Grief in Four Stages (Stories)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44318980-american-grief-in-four-stages
https://www.amazon.com/American-Grief-Four-Stages-Stories/dp/1949199215
Matthew Kirkpatrick: The Ambrose J. and Vivian T. Seagrave Museum of 20th Century American Art (Novel)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43257277-the-ambrose-j-and-vivian-t-seagrave-museum-of-20th-century-american-ar
https://www.amazon.com/Ambrose-Vivian-Seagrave-Century-American/dp/1946724165
Shena McAuliffe: The Good Echo (Novel) and Glass, Light, and Electricity (Essays)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43272607-the-good-echo
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Echo-Shena-Mcauliffe/dp/1625577044
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49694031-glass-light-and-electricity
https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Light-Electricity-Essays-Permafrost/dp/1602234086
Danielle Pafunda: Beshrew (Poems)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44671514-beshrew
https://www.amazon.com/Beshrew-Dusie-Books-Danielle-Pafunda/dp/194425305X
Michael Palmer: Baptizing the Dead and Other Jobs (Essays)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44129322-baptizing-the-dead-and-other-jobs
https://www.amazon.com/Baptizing-Dead-Other-Jobs-Essays/dp/0872333027
Jacob Paul: Last Tower to Heaven (Novel)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48915099-last-tower-to-heaven
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Tower-Heaven-Jacob-Paul/dp/1949540022
Natanya Ann Pulley: With Teeth (Stories)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49497507-with-teeth
https://www.amazon.com/Teeth-Natanya-Ann-Pulley/dp/0898233895
Anne M. Royston, Material Noise: Reading Theory as Artist’s Book (Critical Theory)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44512546-material-noise
https://www.amazon.com/Material-Noise-Reading-Theory-Artists/dp/0262042924
Sejal Shah: This is One Way to Dance: (Essays)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48527188-this-is-one-way-to-dance
https://www.amazon.com/This-One-Way-Dance-Nonfiction/dp/0820357235
Cori Winrock: Little Envelope of Earth Conditions (Poems)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44017103-little-envelope-of-earth-conditions
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Envelope-Earth-Conditions-Winrock/dp/1948579065
Brian Wood: Joytime Killbox (Stories)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50851276-joytime-killbox
https://www.amazon.com/Joytime-Killbox-American-Reader-Brian/dp/194268391X
please add other books in comments (with links?), and sorry if I forgot anyone!
peace, quiet, joy, health,
r-