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The lovely folks at ELKE were kind enough to publish my poem "Stranger Mouths;" which begins with two lines from Gabrielle Calvocoressi's "Plainsong;" which was written thanks to Abigail's first "letter" (which was written thanks to Matthew Olzmann's heartbreaking poem on gun violence "Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czesław Miłosz"); which is a brief catalog of want and self-preservation. 

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Over at Chicago Review of Books, I pick Kelly Schirmann’s Popular Music as one of the best poetry books of 2016 (the best book, poetry or otherwise, I read all year, for the record). It’s an incredible and surprising collection of poetry and essays, and you can read my praise (read: plea for you to read the book I can’t stop thinking about) at CHIRB.

Also worth noting and celebrating, the inclusion of Abigail Zimmer’s child in a winter house brightening and John McCarthy’s Ghost County. This is the second year-end nod for Abigail, who took home the 2016 Chicago Review of Books Award for Best Poetry earlier this month. I interviewed John earlier this year to talk about Ghost County, his debut collection and the only book this year I finished in one sitting.

Congrats to all the amazing books that made the cut at CHIRB. What a year!

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Abigail Zimmer’s child in a winter house brightening won the Chicago Review of Books Award for best poetry collection by a Chicago author in 2016. Thanks to Abi’s mesmerizing work, my press Tree Light Books now has a book award to add to our accolades, and I can finally say I’ve wandered through canyons with and drunkenly cried on the shoulder of an award-winning poet.

You can read Tree Light Books’ round-up of Abi’s panel discussion from last night’s award ceremony, along with a few thoughts on the win and publishing Abi’s chapbook at the Tree Light blog.

If you see Abi, buy the poetry queen a beer. If you see me, try to bring me back down to planet Earth. Or better yet, don’t.

[abigailzimmer]

The Poetry Shortlist for the 2016 Chicago Review of Books Awards

The inaugural Chicago Review of Books Awards (“Chirbys,” for short) will celebrate the best books published in 2016 by writers who currently live in the Chicago Metropolitan Area.

My chapbook, child in a winter house brightening (Tree Light Books, 2016) was shortlisted for the 2016 Chicago Review of Books Awards, alongside Nate Marshall, Kevin Coval, Tony Fitzpatrick, and Philip B. Williams!

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Also, this happened. NBD.

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Tree Light Books, the handmade chapbook I run, added another title to our catalog today: Tasha Cotter’s Girl in the Cave. An exploration of the south-central Kentucky landscape and a journey through the caves that lie underfoot, Girl in the Cave delves into the land and how it shapes our perspective.

These poems are thoughtful and inquisitive, both accented and driven by a curious landscape of caves, and “constantly surprising” (Charles Rafferty). Julie Hensley has said “The speakers in these poems follow and mourn the fissures of their pasts, knowing all the while each split makes a future upthrust possible. Cotter is a master at recreating the trapdoor effect of sudden, deep recollection.”

Additional praise, numerous interviews and publications can be found here. Beautiful, handmade (even hand-sewn!) chapbooks can be found here.

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Recently, I talked with the folks at Speaking of Marvels about my chapbook Mole People (BatCat Press) and my work with Ghost Ocean and Tree Light Books. Huge thanks to Ashton Jones for these incredibly thoughtful and interesting questions and to Will Woolfitt for the space to talk about the things I love.

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Reading Danniel Schoonebeek's AMERICAN BARRICADE. This, from his "Poem in Three Deaths."

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In Ghost Ocean’s newest and nineteenth (!) issue, I interviewed the lovely Wren Hanks about their latest chapbook and queer myth-making, C.J. Opperthauser reviewed recent Rose Metal Press book The Voyager Record, and a handful of poets and prose writers gave us their breathtaking original work, a taste of which you’ll find below:

“what does dark matter not touch inside” -John Fry

“we can make anything a heaven / by naming it” -Ting Gou

“I would rather be quiet than wrong.” -Sara Wainscott

“This solitude was the beginning of starvation” -Travis A Sharp

“Even his blue contacts fell into the darkness, rejecting him.” -Timothy Moore

“Our bodies / are similar sisters // from the same / northern constellation” -JenMarie Macdonald

“It’s the kind of look I haven’t seen on a not-drunk person’s face since elementary school.” -Megan Giddings

“We'll both have ham radios and talk in what we assume is the night.” -Christopher Citro & Dustin Nightingale

Plenty more literary goodness to be discovered, so dig in!

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”what eats at us / does so methodically”

-Ting Gou, “How to Survive the Winter,” Arcturus Magazine.

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I’m reading Kelly Schirmann’s POPULAR MUSIC. I’m living in the time of the radioactive election cycle. Sometimes those two worlds collide.

[abigailzimmer]

The Nature Committee

Poetry by Abigail Zimmer

An excerpt from my latest chapbook child in a winter house brightening (Tree Light Books, 2016) is up in the new Chicago magazine, Arcturus.

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At The Review Review, Joseph Dante asks me thorough, wonderful questions on writing and editing and grants me the joy of being able to talk about things I love: editing an online magazine, working with Timothy Moore, discovering new poets, re-gearing personal reading tastes, writing outside of comfort zones, Chicago, paraphrasing Ross Gay, etc.

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Mole People

My first chapbook is now available from BatCat Press! Each chap is handmade by the incredible staff at BatCat and features unique (read: badass) dust covers and letterpress hardcovers underneath.

You can order it here

& add it to your Goodreads here

& peruse BatCat’s other almost-too-beautiful books here.

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TIMBER just dropped their summer issue, which includes my poem “The Folk Band in Our Chest,” & lovely poems by Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, Hajara Quinn, and Gale Marie Thompson, too.

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From Ocean Vuong's "Ode to Masturbation" in NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS.

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Cloud the Shape of Bedroom is a collection of spirited prose poems that grapple with humanity’s relationship with the natural and mechanized world.

ICYMI: I spoke with C.J. Opperthauser about his debut chapbook CLOUD THE SHAPE OF BEDROOM, cultivating a productive writing environment, and even, briefly, barrel-aged beer.

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C.J. Opperthauser’s Cloud the Shape of Bedroom

The newest title from Tree Light Books, C.J. Opperthauser’s Cloud the Shape of Bedroom, is now available for pre-order! The cover art we’re both in love with, and we have local Fort Collins artist Mary-Ann Kokoska to thank for that. The image, “Eclipse,” is from her stunning Fire and Rain Series.

We decided to up the ante on the pre-order and throw in free postcard-size prints of Chicago mural artist Sick Fisher’s “Mangy Bear,” which he painted in response to Kathleen Rooney & Elisa Gabbert’s “A Bear with a Severe Case of Mange,” which first appeared way back in Ghost Ocean 3, which was before Bernie Sanders was a household name and before Donald Trump clogged hearts and national news coverage. Simpler times.

It’s been invigorating working on this chapbook with C.J., and the praise the chapbook has garnered is both well-deserved and truly connected to the spirit of the book. You can add the book to your Goodreads (and why wouldn’t you?), so that after you finish the wild ride that is Cloud the Shape of Bedroom, you can be sure that all your other bookish buds know just how much fun you had.

And in case you need further convincing, remember these limited edition chapbooks are hand-sewn with love, and I’ve endured numerous paper cuts to get C.J.’s high octane poetry into your hands.