One and Other: Karen Head on the Fourth Plinth

Atlanta poet Karen Head made history today by being the only American visiting London to stand on the Fourth Plinth as part of the living art project One and Other. She read one of my poems to the crowd (yay!) and also work by Julie Blomeke, JC Reilly, Christine Swint, David Matthew Barnes and more. Via Twitter, she also collected lines for an "exquisite corpse" poem called "Monumental." Above are screenshots from the live feed from Trafalgar Square. TIME magazine covered her appearance on the Plinth. Check back for more links and I'm sure Karen will have some comments up soon at her blog. 

Karen Head as living art, AWP Denver, RIP Turner Cassity

De-lovely and delicious Atlanta poet Karen Head will ascend the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square tomorrow (July 31) at noon east coast time (that's 5 p.m. in London) as part of the One and Other project. You'll be able to watch Karen live on the Plinth and interact with her on Twitter (she's @poetphd). While on the Plinth, Karen will be doing exquisite corpse poetry, asking the folks following her on Twitter to supply the next line. Here's what Karen says:

"You need to be following me on Twitter so you can see what I post. At random I'll pick a name from the list (your Twitter name) and ask you to write the next line. Try to be as quick as possible. Begin your post with @poetphd (this directs the message to me so I'm sure to see it, while allowing others to see it as well). Because Twitter is so restricted, you can only type 140 characters at a time, you may have two postings for each addition you make to the poem. If you are going to need two postings, end your first post with and ellipsis (...) so I know that you'll have a second coming up. I'm going to be transcribing everything onto my computer and reading it aloud from the Plinth. I will also be randomly calling on people from the crowd, so you will see lines posted by me. There is also a chance that someone will post something via Twitter from a mobile without me expecting it--but that will be part of the fun. I hope to get to all of you at least twice, but we'll have to see how long it takes."

Karen asks that you email her your Twitter ID tonight so she'll make sure she's following you. You can email her at khead@gatech.edu. In case of tech snafus, Karen has also asked that you send a short poem that she might read from the Plinth. TIME magazine is covering Karen's appearance on the Plinth. Consequently, your contributions could be mentioned by the reporter in the article or appear as part of the short film they are making. This is going to be a very cool event, and Karen is making a little history in the process.

In other news, the panel I cooked up with Karen Head, Megan Volpert and Lola Haskins was accepted for AWP Denver next year. The panel, which was selected from more than 850 entries this year, is called "About My Day Job: The Proliferation of Poetry by Any Available Means" and focuses on how to maintain a career and also be a poet. I'm waiting to hear if the second panel I'm supposed to be on gets picked up. Denver, here I come.

Found out this evening that Atlanta poet Turner Cassity passed away on Sunday. Turner founded the poetry reading program at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center and was the author of numerous acclaimed collections, the most recent being No Second Eden and Devils and Islands. You can find out more about him at this link.

Venus update, book tour, more Poets on Twitter

Conquering Venus is in "pre-media," which means it's almost ready to go to the printer, according to Vanilla Heart. Woot! While this is happening, I've been trying to set up readings and signings outside Atlanta. I have a friend in Austin helping me set something up there and another working on Florida. I was on the phone yesterday with bookstores in Tennessee and South Carolina and am waiting to hear back about dates. One bookstore declined because they aren't doing readings and signings anymore unless the author has friends or family to come and buy books. The owner's response was that people just aren't coming to readings anymore. That's a bummer.

Any day now, I'll be finding out if either of the AWP panels in Denver were accepted and I also hope the Split this Rock panel I'm on gets accepted. I've been invited to do a reading in Savannah in February (details soon) and would love to go back to Saints & Sinners in New Orleans. Fingers crossed that 2010 is chockablock with events for Conquering Venus.

I've started compiling another list of Poets on Twitter. Since the first list appeared back in the spring, the number of poets who are tweeting has grown substantially. There were many poets who didn't make the list, but left there follow names in the comments, so I'll be verifying those and putting up a brand new list in the coming week. Are you a poet who tweets? Let me know! Rules will be the same as last time: You can't be an anonymous tweeter and you have to be actively tweeting right now.

Oh, and if you aren't following the Modern Confessional blog, scroll down the sidebar and join in!

Tron Legacy, AQLF update, Venus readings

When I was 13 and going to the arcade after school and every day during the summer, Tron was geekgasm supreme. The movie looked like nothing else at the time (1982) and there was always a line to play the video game. At Comic Con in San Diego, folks got to see this trailer for the sequel, Tron Legacy. The graphics are super cool and Jeff Bridges is back, but I kinda giggled because he sorta looks like The Dude (His Dudeness, Duder, El Duderino) in The Big Lebowski. That light cycle holds the room together, Dude.

The schedule for the 2009 Atlanta Queer Literary Festival is nearly complete. Along with keynote speakers Staceyann Chin and Manil Suri, we just confirmed Terry Galloway (author of the new memoir Mean Little Deaf Queer) and Michael Montlack (who edited the My Diva anthology). Read an update at www.atlqueerlitfest.com.

Still working on setting up regional readings for Conquering Venus. Phone calls and emails are out, so just waiting for dates. North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida in that order if all goes well.

Of Poetry, Paula, Professors and Presidents...

Poet Saeed Jones interviewed me about poetics and Conquering Venus at his blog, for southern boys who consider poetry. Thank you, Saeed, for featuring me and the insightful questions.

This has been a very long week, punctuated by my car dying on Wednesday. I had to have it hauled out of the parking garage at my building and taken to mechanic. The alternator was shot, and that had drained the battery. I really can't afford a new car, but my trusty old Escort is 12 years old and has well over 100,000 miles. I had the car one final time. The next time big repairs are needed, I'm driving it to the scrap yard.

The incident with Harvard professor Henry Gates being arrested for breaking into his own home has usurped President Obama's attempt to keep everyone on message with health care reform. Gawker has an analysis of the controversy that, I think, presents both sides and shows that Gates and the cop were both at fault, but something in the milk ain't clean about the cop's report that he ordered Gates out of the house because the acoustics in the kitchen were bad. Say what? Obama invited Gates and the cop to the White House to kiss and make-up over beers.

Oh, and if the producers don't have Paula Abdul back on American Idol next year, I'm not watching the show. I rag on Miss Pills in my recaps, but her loopy antics are entertaining and endearing. Idol would not be the same without her incoherent ramblings. Rumors are she wants $20 million for next season. Fox can afford it. Pay up, ya cheap bastards.

Weekend Music: "Boy with a Coin" - Iron and Wine

Love this song and video. Iron and Wine is actually just Samuel Beam, but his sister, Sara, often sings backing vocals. You've heard Iron and Wine before and probably not realized it. His music has appeared on countless soundtracks, including Garden State, The L Word and even Twilight. Thanks to BFF Donna for showing me this video.

Barnes & Noble, foreign distribution, health care reform

Conquering Venus is now available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble for only $11.21! That's quite a savings from Amazon.com, so if you haven't ordered a copy visit this link. A few of my UK friends inquired when the book would be available there, so I asked Vanilla Heart and was told the book will soon be available for order at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de (Germany) and Amazon.fr (yay, France!) and also through distributors including Gardners, Bertram and BDS, who supply to libraries primarily in the UK.

Vanilla Heart is holding a big "Build Your Bookshelf" contest to win 25 novels, including Conquering Venus. There are multiple ways to enter and you can see all the details at this link.

I haven't ranted and raved about politics lately, but I am worried that President Obama's health care reform push is verging on epic fail 2.0. There's a bill in the House, a bill in the Senate and still not enough answers on how it will be paid for. There are 46 million people in this country without insurance and that must change. The idea that Congress wants to take a four-week break in the middle of all this verges on criminal. The Democrats are setting themselves up again for another fall into conservative hands, and if Obama doesn't play his cards right, there won't be a second term. I shudder to think of another Republican taking control of the country in three and a half years.

First Conquering Venus reading/signing, Aug. 19

Since Conquering Venus is out Aug. 5, Outwrite Books invited me to do a reading and signing prior to the Decatur Book Festival. The Outwrite event is set for Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 7:30 p.m. I'll read a couple of chapters followed by a Q&A and signing. Outwrite is located at 991 Piedmont Avenue in Midtown Atlanta. www.outwritebooks.com

If you can't make the Outwrite event, I will be reading Saturday, Sept. 5, at 1:45 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Conference Center as part of the Decatur Book Festival. I'll be joined by Z. Egloff, author of the novel, Verge. www.decaturbookfestival.com

More signings and events are in the works!

Torchwood: Children of Earth begins tonight

The Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, returns to BBC America tonight with an epic mini-series called Children of Earth. An hour-long episode airs every night this week, and if you've never watched the show, this series is an excellent place to begin. Torchwood is nothing like Doctor Who. It's an adult program, with language, nudity and themes that would scare the kiddies to death. Speaking of kiddies, this series of Torchwood is all about them.

Torchwood agent Gwen Cooper's videotaped message (that's the clip above) is one of the more chilling scenes from the series, as she asks why the Doctor has not come to help the Earth in its moment of greatest peril. She can only surmise that the Doctor must look away in shame at the horrors we inflict upon ourselves. And while aliens are up to no good in Children of Earth, it is ultimately human beings who are to blame. This is some of the darkest television I've ever seen. It is brilliantly written, acted and filmed, but the despair is deep and there is very little redemption at the end.

Torchwood, for those who've never watched the show, is an organization created by Queen Victoria in 1879 (after an unfortunate run-in with the Doctor) to fight future invasions of the Earth by aliens. Torchwood is a special ops unit that acts outside the government and is based in Cardiff, Wales in a secret, subterranean headquarters called The Hub. The group is led by Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), a mysterious alien in human form, who was made immortal by Rose Tyler in the Doctor Who series. He can be shot, knifed, dropped from tall buildings and exploded into millions of pieces, yet he always regenerates. Gwen Cooper (the brilliant Eve Myles) is a former Cardiff police officer recruited to Torchwood in its first series. She's grown from being a nervous, uncertain accomplice to being a serious, ass-kicking agent. Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) is Torchwood's multi-purpose agent and Captain Jack's lover, which adds some red-hot, same-sex appeal to the show. Tech wizard Toshiko Sato and Dr. Owen Harper were the other Torchwood agents, but they were killed in the last series, so The Hub is not operating at full capacity.

In Children of Earth, every child on the planet begins stopping in place and uttering the words, "We are coming." Seems a bit silly, but the way it's scripted and filmed is downright spooky. Torchwood knows it's alien activity, but then the UK government sends assassins to kill the team and destroy The Hub. What's the government hiding? Back in 1965, an alien race known as The 456 offered a cure for a virus that would have killed 25 million people. In exchange for the vaccine, The 456 demanded a dozen children. The government rounded up the kids from orphanages and made the exchange. Now, The 456 are back and they want millions of children or they will destroy the entire planet. What The 456 do with the kids is horrifying, but even more so is the governments of the world rounding up children identified as under-achieving and living in poverty to give to the aliens. Yes, it's science fiction, but there is a realism in this series of Torchwood that rings cold and true, especially when it comes to what governments will do for the "greater good."

Russell T. Davies, who brought Doctor Who back to life and created Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures, loves to explore the darkness of the human (and alien) soul, and many fans believe he's gone a step too far in Children of Earth. The way Davies dispatches characters and sets up no-win situations borders on nihilism, but you can't turn away. Children of Earth is quite possibly the best five hours of television you're likely to see all year.

Find out more and get caught up on Torchwood at the BBC America site.

Sunday Sundries

Many thanks to Yolo Akili and the folks at the United 4 Safety Task Force for asking me to read last night at their fundraising event. There was an impressive group of folks gathered on the rooftop of the Oakland Park building. We had gorgeous weather in Atlanta yesterday and the sunset over downtown was an incredible backdrop for the event. I read poems from Slow To Burn and After the Poison, sharing the mic with the fantastic Lakara Foster. United 4 Safety is a new organization that aids people in the GLBT community who are victims of domestic violence. Please offer any monetary support you can to this worthy cause.

Nearly 200 people have joined the Conquering Venus fan page at Facebook. Thanks to everyone who is following the page! I'm posting photos and info there about the book in the run up to the launch of the Conquering Venus blog on Aug. 1.

I got my schedule for the Decatur Book Festival on Labor Day weekend. I'll be reading from Conquering Venus at 1:45 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Conference Center on Saturday, Sept. 5. I'll be sharing the spot with Z. Egloff, author of the novel Verge. I'll also be hosting two hours of poetry on the Java Monkey Coffee House stage on Sunday, Sept. 6, featuring fabulous poets like Ginger Murchison, Amy Pence, Katie Chaple, Cleo Creech and more. There might actually be a reading and signing for Conquering Venus before the Decatur Book Festival. I'll have details next week. Check back.

Just found out that my poem, "Jean Arthur at the Lincoln Memorial," has been nominated by Hobble Creek Review for the Sundress 2009 Best of the Net. Thanks, Justin!

In Memoriam: Walter Cronkite

He was the gold standard for journalism. Good night, Mr. Cronkite.

...and that's the way it is.

Amazon rank, blog tour & Espresso Book Machine

Got a note from Kimberlee at Vanilla Heart today that Conquering Venus already has a sales ranking in the 50,000 range at Amazon.com, which means out of the four million titles (thereabouts), I'm number 50,000 on the list. Today, anyway. Thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered and if you haven't already please consider doing so.

There's now a Facebook fan page for Conquering Venus, which you can find at this link.

I, sadly, won't be attending the West Hollywood Book Fair this year. Vanilla Heart submitted my name, along with the fabulous Kate Evans, for reading spots and we were not selected. Instead, I'm going to focus on regional readings and signings -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and New Orleans are in the works -- and then began going further afield to places like D.C., New York, Texas and the West.

I've set up a dozen stops on the Conquering Venus blog book tour. There will be Q&As, guest posts and maybe even some video action. I'll be announcing stops on the tour soon.

Along with the novel being available at Kindle and other eBook sites, Vanilla Heart will also make it available for the Espresso Book Machine. Read the recent article and watch the video above on how a perfect bound paperback book can be made in minutes while the customer waits at a bookstore, coffee house, or just about anywhere.

Conquering Venus Prologue

For here there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life. -- Rilke

In his dreams he can remember her name. From the shadowy first glimpses when she was peripheral, on the edge of a crowd or morphing into a friend or family member, to the day the plane lifted off from Memphis Airport bound for London and her face and body finally synchronized in mid-flight slumber. Upon waking, her image remains sharp and clear, but her name slips into the ether of his subconscious.

She is older, but stunning, like a French movie star; her mouth down-turned at the corners, dark eyes, hair long and blonde. She has a place now, too, not just random locations in unrelated dreams, but a balcony over a street. She appears, a palm raised in what seems like greeting, until she begins tracing her lifeline, a delicate finger circling the pad under her thumb, the mound of Venus. I don’t know what you mean, -----, he says with frustration. She smiles and rests her hands on the railing, their whiteness shocking against the black metal, and on the back of her left hand, between the thumb and index finger, is a tattoo of small interlocking crosses. He knows this marking, knows it like the back of his own hand, because in the summer of 1995 as Martin Page stares at himself in the mirror of his London hotel room, he can see the same tattoo inked into his skin – a South American symbol meaning “equal but opposite” - and her name is on the tip of his tongue.

Conquering Venus: A Novel by Collin Kelley, coming August 2009 from Vanilla Heart Publishing. Pre-order now at Amazon.com.

Pre-Order Conquering Venus

Just sent over final corrections for Conquering Venus to Vanilla Heart. It looks amazing, even as a PDF. I'll see a final, hard copy proof in a few weeks. Vanilla Heart also alerted me that Amazon.com has the novel available for pre-order for $14.95 with a release date of Aug. 5, but if you want to pre-order your copy, please do. The book will also be available for Kindle, the Sony Reader and other devices if you want to read it digitally. I'm also hoping that many of you will write a review on Amazon once you've read it. The more reviews the better! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself.

Coming Out Party, July 18

My next gig is a fundraiser for the United 4 Safety Task Force, an organization that works to address the lack of services for victims of violence in the GLBT community. The "Coming Out Party" is Saturday, July 18, from 8 to 11 p.m. on the roof of the Oakland Park building, 563 Memorial Drive. The roof area has dramatic views of historic Oakland Cemetery and downtown Atlanta. I'll be reading with Lakara Foster and Yolo Akili, and there will be music from DJ Lily. Admission is $20 and includes wine and refreshments. RSVP to united4safety@gmail.com.

In search of book reviews

I just read -- and completely agreed with -- Victoria Chang's latest blog post about the state of literary reviews moving out of the hands of bastions like the New York Times and online in a more grassroots effort. Victoria's blog post is in response to a post by Jacob Silverman on the Virginia Quarterly Review blog that bemoans Salon.com's decision to review MTV reality star Lauren Conrad's novel, L.A. Candy. Why was this worthless book reviewed, he wants to know, and do all books even deserve reviews? Aside from the touch of imperiousness, my question is why did he waste a blog post basically giving Conrad's novel even more press (complete with dust jacket image). Maybe they were looking for a few more page views at VQR?

Vanilla Heart is an indie publisher, so they don't have the budget to send out dozens and dozens of review copies of Conquering Venus. That means I'll be sending some out myself. Here's my offer: I'm looking for five blogging friends (or new bloggers I've yet to meet) to review my novel when it's published in August. I'll send you an autographed copy free of charge. Who's in?

Conquering Venus, Swing Out Sister & Whatever Works

I am anxiously awaiting the final galley of Conquering Venus from Vanilla Heart. This galley will be a last minute check for formatting, making sure the errors from the last galley were properly corrected and that acknowledgement pages are in order. I have been slowly working on building Conquering Venus its own blog, and it will now debut Aug. 1. There will be exclusive photos, poems, content and more on this blog.

While waiting for the final galley, I spent more than 12 hours (8 of those in a marathon on Friday) working on the sequel to Venus. This was a combination of rewrites and new scenes. I'm pretty damn happy with it. On Saturday night, I was positively giddy. I always listen to music when I'm writing, and the soundtrack for the weekend came courtesy of Swing Out Sister. They are as vital now as they were more than 20 years ago, with their new album, Beautiful Mess, one of the best jazz/pop albums I've heard in ages. Swing Out Sister inspired the title of my first poetry collection, Better To Travel, and here they are again giving me joy and inspiration, especially with the song/video posted above, "Waiting Game," from 1989's Kaleidoscope World. The lively melody -- and gorgeous shots of Paris -- belie the lyrics, which are quite melancholy. Thanks to Corinne and Andy, if you happen to read this.

On the Fourth of July, I went to dinner and a movie with Cleo Creech to see the new Woody Allen movie, Whatever Works. I didn't have high hopes. His last two -- Cassandra's Dream and Vicky Cristina Barcelona -- didn't rank very high on my Woody-meter, but I'm a glutton for cinematic punishment. I am delighted to report that Whatever Works totally worked for me! Larry David was, naturally, channeling Woody, but the star of this movie is Patricia Clarkson. As a Bible-thumping, Mississippi-born socialite, she storms into the picture about halfway, and owns the rest of the movie. Her transformation to a wanton bohemian is hilarious. Kudos also goes to Ed Begley Jr. -- yeah, Ed Begely! -- as Clarkson's estranged husband, who takes his roughly 20 minutes on screen and mines comedy gold. After trotting off to London and Spain, Woody is back in his beloved Manhattan -- the stylized, mannered Manhattan that only exists in Allen's films. Allen has been making variations on the same plot (older, cremudgeon falls for beautiful, young woman and comedy/tragedy ensues) for 30-plus years, and while Whatever Works is far from his best work, it's a comforting throwback.

Read This: The Brother Swimming Beneath Me by Brent Goodman

Brent Goodman's debut collection, The Brother Swimming Beneath Me ($14, Black Lawrence Press), is surely going to be in my top three of 2009. Reading poems from this collection over the last couple of years in various magazines, journals and at his blog, did not prepare me for the power of the book as a whole. This collection has a nearly perfect narrative arc. Every poem falls into place, ebbs and flows seamlessly to the next and from section to section as Goodman elegantly, tenderly and heartbreakingly details his older brother's death from cancer.

I had planned to read The Brother Swimming Beneath Me in one sitting, but after the devastating second section, I had to stop and compose myself. The stand out poem in this collection is the long centerpiece, "Maier," his brother Mark's Hebrew name. The printed poem is seven pages long, the stanzas alternately cascading down the pages in short bursts of words or in tight prose. "Maier" -- or any of the poems -- could have easily moved into mawkish, self-indulgent handwringing, but that never happens. The poems are lyrical and beautiful even in the face of a death.

As the narrative builds toward Mark's passing, we see glimpses of Goodman's religious upbringing, his coming out of the closet to his conservative father (How dramatic my coming out, tears blurring my eyes. Father puts his fork down. My mother feigns surprise.), and his own near death at age four from blood poisoning, a precursor to Mark's demise (This was my small death, one which would eventually swallow him entirely.)

In the poem "Evaporation," Goodman recounts how his brother might have been stricken with cancer, admitting that this explanation has become a "religion," but not gospel (Grief begins with how, not why). Mark has dropped out of high school and is working in a pressure gauge factory, when he accidentally ingests freon. He came home ghost-faced, went to bed. Dreamt he swallowed sky until his blood turned to wind.

The third section of the collection is a series of short, experimental prose poems, which are in stark contrast to the poems that came before. Mark disappears from the narrative, yet he always seems to be fluttering around the edges: an errant birthday balloon bobbing against a ceiling, a missing pet, spaceships and seagulls silently hovering. And then, in "[behind]", a memory of shooting squirrels and spying on a girl swimming brings Mark's memory back in one deft line: Behind my brother I turn to shadow.

Debut collections this good are few and far between. The Brother Swimming Beneath Me is an unforgettable, cathartic read.

Another Prayer

Dear religion, there is no afterlife.

I hope you don't mind me saying this.

When you say heaven on earth

I think: the dead read minds.

When you think dust to dust

I say: this body is a riverbed.

Will the congregation please

recite what this wall of stained glass

is trying to tell you? Dear Buddha,

I've been knocking from the inside.

Heaven is not an ecosystem.

When I dream my brother visits me

it is my brother looking at his reflection

through my eyes, my sleeping tongue.

When we die we turn inside out and call

this turning a tunnel made of light.

Weekend Music: Crazy in Love - Antony & The Johnsons

Paul Lisicky posted this on his blog the other day and I've listened to it a dozen times. Yes, this is Beyonce's "Crazy in Love." You'll never think of it the same way after hearing this orchestral version, which turns the bouncy song into a haunting dirge.

To be in England, in the summertime, close to the edge...

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in Southern Voice's "Best of Gay Atlanta." The results will be announced on July 16. I was in friendly competition with fine poets -- Theresa Davis and Yolo Akili -- and was happy for the nomination. I need all the publicity help I can get with Conquering Venus just around the corner. 

In other poetry news, Karen Head is blogging from Oxford, England this summer, where she's teaching at Worcester College. Check out blog, Poetic Acts in a Digital World. Karen is also part of the Fourth Plinth project, meaning she'll be standing on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square for an hour July 31 reading poetry and tweeting about it. Her new collection, Sassing, is out, too, so pick up a copy. You'll be glad you did.

Also Oxford-related, Karen is using the David Lynch/Twin Peaks-inspired chapbook A Slice of Cherry Pie (which features my poem "Sometimes Her Arms Bend Back") as part of her curriculum at Worcester. The Private Press editor Ivy Alvarez will be traveling from Wales to talk about the Lynch project (a new chapbook featuring poems inspired by Blue Velvet is coming soon). Hey, if I can't be in England, at least one of my poems is being read there.

What are you doing for 4th of July, fellow bloggers? I'm spending mine writing. Reviews of Brent Goodman's excellent collection, The Brother Swimming Beneath Me, and The Seventh Seal from Criterion coming soon.