Intuitive Intertextuality

MiPOesiasVolume 23, Issue 4October 2010

Many thanks to Editor Didi Menendez for including work from To the Break of Dawn for the latest issue of MiPOesias.

You can preview and purchase the issue at MagCloud. Here’s some info:

MiPOesias (October 2010)
Edited by Didi Menendez and featuring work by GRACE CAVALIERI, SCOT SIEGEL, OSCAR BERMEO, KIMBERLY ALIDIO, MIRANDA MERKLEIN, DONAVON DAVIDSON, JASON RYBERG, MARTIN WILLITTS JR., GREGORY SHERL, MELISSA ELEFTHERION, KRISTINA MARIE DARLING, JEFFERY BERG, CHRISTINA MURPHY, DARYL ROGERS, MAGDALAWIT MAKONNEN, COLEEN SHIN, AMANDA GENTRY, KARINA BOROWICZ, MICHAEL BROEK, MARIA MIRANDA MALONEY, KIRK CURNUTT, MELISSA MCEWEN, JEFF FRIEDMAN, and art by AMY HUDDLESTON.

I’m also thankful for editors, like Didi, who are always looking for new work to include in their publications.  It’s been keeping me on my toes when it comes to having my cover letters and poems ready to go when a publishing opportunity comes around.  In short, I’m trying to do my best to keep my work out in the world and keep momentum going strong on my new chapbook and my developing manuscript.  It feels like I’m working three jobs: my normal 9-5, my work as an aspiring author and being my own PR team. Yeah, it has been a little draining as of late but it’s either work hard to get published or crawl away and I don’t plan on leaving.  End personal pep talk.

Hate Fee Zone
Originally uploaded by xomiele

Many thanks to Francisco X. Alarcón and all the editors at Facebook’s Poets Responding to SB 1070 for including my poem “By the Time I Get to Arizona” in their online anthology. It’s an honor to be included in such a diverse and populous list of voices who continue to speak up against the terror legislation of Gov Jan Brewer. Even as key parts of the law are being struck down by the Federal government, the fight against SB 1070 goes on and the voices continue to ring.

Speaking of a multitude of voices, La Bloga’s On-Line Floricanto is reprinting select poems from the Facebook anthology and are also including my work. Mil gracias to Michael Sedano and all the gente at La Bloga for providing another opportunity to declare our hope that Arizona can take care of all her children equally and justly.

An extra shout out to Francisco Aragón for passing on my poem to Señor Alarcón and helping creating more poetry bridges.

phati’tude Literary Magazine
(Vol 2, No 1)
Originally uploaded by OBermeo

I’m finishing up the last details of my new chapbook (some folks who have supported me through the years already have early draft copies) and I am happy to report that one poem from this new collection has already found a home in an outside publication: phati’tude Literary Magazine.

I remember hearing about phati’tude back in my early years of NYC open mics.  Even before I was ready to submit my work to publication, I knew I wanted to be in this kind of magazine—one not only open to all kinds of poetries but also one looking to highlight voices who have chosen to stay close to their poetic constituencies like Pedro Pietri and Louis Reyes Rivera.  Early heroes of mine who I was happy to see in print.

When the call for submissions to the relaunch issue came out, I was all over it.  On a real personal note, I like submitting to publications with cool names.  For reals, people, isn’t it cooler to be in phati’tude than to be in, say, Double Loop Farm Review.  (Pause, Oscar double checks through Google that there is no Double Loop Farm Review. Searching, searching… Ok, we’re in the clear.)

So many thanks to Gabrielle David and all the editors at phati’tude for including “Make Me A City” in their new issue.  It’s a poem I’m super proud of and now it is in some dope literary company.  You can peek a PDF preview here of the issue and if ya like what ya see then you should cop a copy now.  Especially if you are a fan of diverse literature.  phati’tude, like many other publications, faces a tough time to keep putting out their projects.  You can help by buying the issue or making a donation. Word.

More from Ms David:

We’re prepared to go forward because we’re dedicated to providing poets, writers and artists the best possible platform to showcase their works to the general public. But we need your help to continue, especially in light of funding cuts from the city and state. We need you to help us help you! So please, donate whatever you can — $5, $10 — to help keep “our thing” going at phatitude.org.

And more from phati’tude:

Many thanks to the editors at Eleven Eleven for including two of my poems, “Urban Relación” and “The Story of How Pigeon Came to Live in City,” in their latest issue.

This is the latest in what has been a wealth of great poetry news lately and it’s all coming in just in time as I have a few classes of poetry to teach and some talks to give in the very near future, and it would suck to be doing any of that important work without feeling 100% in love with poetry.  A statement I think I’m almost ready to say but instead I will say this:  Yes, I am 100% in love with the possibilities of poetry.

Back Room Live: October 31, 2009
Originally uploaded by OBermeo

The poetry of Amalia Bueno, Rachelle Cruz, Guillermo Parra and Amir Rabiyah is featured this month’s issue of Back Room Live, guest edited by Oscar Bermeo.

From my editor’s notes:

The poets presented here believe in the value of community.  All the poems here happen in the wild open air with interactions as varied as Radiohead in Venezuela, a trip on the Bx1 in the Bronx, communion with the dead, and conversations with God.  These poems bristle against the unexpected, invite conversation and (in my idealized world) spread out to create connections with their poetry.

Many thanks again to Life Long Press editor-in-chief Valyntina Grenier for this chance to the work of some very exciting poets.