The Sun Grows Arms: Henriksen and Shimoda In Conversation

Recently,  Johannes Göransson and Adam Robinson sparked a discussion of Ordinary Sun. The conversation continues on HTMLGIANT as Matthew Henriksen and Brandon Shimoda interview one another, unafraid to ask difficult questions, such as "What do you think about a poem of yours being read aloud by nurses in the emergency room of a hospital?" or "Would you kill someone?" You can check out the post here and learn the answer to these questions, and others just as pressing and evocative. If you need to catch up, you can find a short summary and links to the previous posts here on our blog.

Nurse Jackie and another medical professional discuss Ordinary Sun and The Girl Without Arms.

The Girl Without Arms In Constant Critic!

Sueyeun Juliette Lee reviews The Girl Without Arms in her most recent review over on Constant Critic. She writes:

The dominant mode of being in these poems casts a dark heat—desire and destruction couple in his imagination, and its terrains concatenate with lush (emotional) desolation. The text’s landscapes are both central and spectral—they haunt his being, tilting his psyche as he wrestles with his feelings, with others, with ghostly whispers from beyond. There isn’t space for a middle ground in this sort of writing: his spirit ravages and is ravaged, and in tracking these contortions, his turns of phrase swerve with a symbolic richness reaching towards religiosity.

Be sure to check out the rest of the review on the Constant Critic website.

Ordinary Sun a best seller!

Ordinary Sun debuts on the Poetry Foundation's contemporary best seller list this week at number 23! Read more here.

Robinson & Görannson Weigh In: Ordinary Sun

Which matters more when reading a book of poems: the meaning you take from it or the experience you have when reading it?  

In Adam Robinson's review of Ordinary Sun, he shares his mother's questions upon reading the book, confronting the difficulty some readers have when they cannot pinpoint a concrete meaning. Robinson asks "how can one say a thing that cannot be said?"--how do we interpret language beyond just gleaning information--and ultimately determines that, for Ordinary Sun, at least,

"[e]ternity within temporality doesn’t make a lick of sense within the framework we’ve constructed for sense-making, but that’s the name of the game for poetry; life is bigger than sense. Accordingly, there is a metaphysics in the weave of Ordinary Sun that indicates something behind our precarious notion of communicating ideas." 

Johannes Görannson (translator of With Deer) posted a response to this review on his blog, where he argues that

"[t]he 'difficulty' of Henrikson’s poetry is not about access but the experience it aims to put the reader/writer through. It’s not about some cavalier stroll through poetry’s garden (picking up a bee box to listen to before putting it down, going swimming in/fucking Emily Dickinson/her poems) as in Collins, but an idea of poetry as spiritual violence that breaks us apart..."

Check out both of these compelling reviews and then head to the comments section, where you can add to the discussion yourself.

Consider giving the gift of Ordinary Sun on Mother's day--and see what conversation results! 

On the Airwaves

Matthew Henriksen recently did a radio interview for a local NPR station to talk about his new book, Ordinary Sun. You can listen to the interview here, and because you'll want more, the audio extras (baseball! jazz! poetry!) here! 

Highlights to come in a follow up!

Reviewers: Want to share your love & get a free book?

Two great journals Taurpalin Sky and Denver Quarterly are looking for reviewers for two of our latest and greatest titles: Brandon Shimoda's The Girl Without Arms and Matthew Henriksen's Ordinary Sun. If you are interested in reviewing either of these books (copies will be provided), please get in touch with our poetry editor Carrie Olivia Adams by sending an email to carrie [at] blackocean.org.

As lovers of good books & indy presses, the best thing we can do is share that love with others. If you're one of these people, both Black Ocean and the respective journals would be grateful if you'd consider the fun challenge to review one of these titles.

Update on 2011-04-22 14:08 by Nikkita Cohoon

We have a reviewer for Ordinary Sun at Denver Quarterly, but we still need:

• The Girl Without Arms at Denver Quarterly and Tarpaulin Sky
• Ordinary Sun at Tarpaulin Sky

Recommendation Machine!

Love a Black Ocean book and not sure what to read next? Perhaps you picked up Scary No Scary at AWP and want something like it? A new website called YourNextRead seems like the Pandora for books. It's still under development (our latest titles don't have any recommendations), but a fun way to get exploring.

The Black Ocean wesbite is no fancy machine of a thing like YourNextRead, but I can promise that any title from our catalog is a sure bet.

Open Arms

We are excited to share the latest review of Brandon Shimoda's The Girl Without Arms just posted on Publishers Weekly. The Girl Without Arms is one of Black Ocean's latest, where "[b]ig sets of long sentences give way to great gaps that suggest destruction or trauma, a blank homecoming whose 'garden has gone/ White with guano from the bombs' " (PW). Check out the rest of the review here.

Make your vote count!

Be sure to cast your vote for Scary No Scary in the Oregon Reader's Choice Award. Today is the last day to vote; polls close at 5.

If you love us, and I hope you do, take a minute or so and show it through a click. Thank you!

VOTE HERE

Yes, we're on the interwebs

Black Ocean now has an shiny & official Facebook page. If you haven't yet, please click over and "like" us. We all need affirmation.

Dismantled Catechism

New City Lit has reviewed Matthew Henriksen's ORDINARY SUN. If you haven't picked up this book yet, here's a taste of what you're missing (from Kelly Forsythe's review):

“Ordinary Sun,” separated into nine sections, functions under Henriksen’s idea of a “dismantled catechism,” the breaking down of the ordinary and commonplace into extreme, surprising close-ups of perception. He writes:

Sometimes she’d touch
a body in her empty bed.

A stranger’s face, a dark
spot on the wall, watched
her as if from a mirror

and behind the face a hand
held a brush for her hair.

The rawness of imperfection in this portrait helps the reader to push past the veils of the physical world to enter into a painful but graceful emotional landscape. In the title section, which is also the final portion of “Ordinary Sun,” Henriksen motions for the reader to more actively re-experience with him: “The body moved above the water / and the water was cold. / It made the sirens roar.” His associations become stronger and assertive, though still surreal and immediate.

*****

Matthew will be reading from Ordinary Sun at Nightbird Books on Thursday April 21 at 7pm. 

Update on 2011-04-21 01:58 by Nikkita Cohoon

Listen to an interview with Matthew about Ordinary Sun here.

A knife is never a knife as long as I cannot say for certain what a knife is

Over at the Studio One Reading Series blog, Bronwen Tate and Matthew Henriksen have an interesting convesatio about his new book with us, Ordinary Sun. It kicks off in an itnensely intimate way, and then spirals outward from there:

-----------------------------------

BRONWEN TATE: I've been thinking, reading your book and just in general recently, about how words name things that exist in the world (bees, the moon, a table), but also are constantly in play with other uses of the same word in other writing. And poetry is sometimes trying to slough off those allusions and make the reader actually see a moon (not a symbol) and at other times relies on allusions to make meaning or create depth. Can you talk a bit about how this works inOrdinary Sun? Do you see your writing moving in one direction or another? Is a knife ever just a knife?

MATTHEW HENRIKSEN: A knife is never a knife as long as I cannot say for certain what a knife is. What does a knife do? I can say that it cuts, but I have not been cut by a knife. Therefore, I have no intimacy with knives. I know what a person is because I know what a person can do. A person loves, and I have been loved by a person. I am a person because I have inflicted my love intimately upon another. In poems, I am not comfortable with "knife" as symbol or as word. If I believe in the holiness of poems, I find holiness in the literal presence of the image, which is neither of the word "knife" itself or what "knife" suggests. The image is the event of a group of words flashing upon the brain and creating a "place" where shapes, colors, and sounds--conceivable sensations--occur. The act of impression, not merely the result, defines the image's presence. If a knife gets into my brain as an image I know what it is. The image is always intimate, inflicted by another and leaving a scar of memory. In "Copse," I do not talk about a knife but my friend's table, "where knife-gnaws never healed." I can't make the reader actually see that table, but I can try to impress the knife-inflicted damage on the brain of another. The image does not come from the actual table or the moment when I saw the table but from the scar of memory that coincided with writing that line. Images are more like ideas than facts, which is lucky for us, because we cannot posses a fact as intimately as we can an idea. The idea of my friend's table made me sad, and the image contains rather than symbolizes that sadness.

-----------------------------------

If you live near Oakland, the Studio One Reading Series happens on the first Friday of every month. Appearing tonight, March 4th, are Bronwen Tate and Matthew Henriksen. Forthcoming appearances include: Nik De Dominic, Amanda Nadelberg, Geoffrey G O'Brien, Anthony McCann, Robyn Schiff and Matthew Rohrer.

Alice Blue Reviews

Alice Blue Reviews posted some microreviews on their blog today, including write-ups on: Portrait of the Artist as a Software Engineer by Maged Zaher, Bird Any Damn Kind by Lucas Farrell, and our two latest books. This is what Amber Nelson had to say:

Ordinary Sun by Matthew Henriksen

I am biased as a long-time fan of Cannibal (now sadly defunct) who met Matthew Henriksen and adored him instantly. But I think, even if I didn't know him, this book just out from Black Ocean, and just read by me yesterday, is one of the best books of the year, if not this decade. Talk about being put in your place. Henriksen gets it. He gets it. I mean, the book is good all the way through, but then to land on that last poem, that title poem, that at the end you just kinda go fuck and then you just have to read it all over again because you realize, up until that point, you didn't know anything. But he knew and he is schooling you.

Girl Without Arms by Brandon Shimoda

Also just out from Black Ocean, and just read by me this morning and is also one of the best books of the year. (These two books by Black Ocean could contend for Best Book of the Year probably.) I published Shimoda some 8000 years ago in alice blue. Talk about growth. I loved his work then but he just keeps growing and changing and these he writes this book that is at times just plain violent or gross or brash and then gets just freaking unreasonably beautiful. It crescendoes in the middle and slips back down. It is filled with quiet in the middle of a racing, violent language. I left this book changed, stepping off the bus into a weird new world.

Rock the Vote

The Boston Phoenix is holding their annual Best of Boston Reader Poll, and included a category for Best Poet this year again... but despite the write-in campaign that won me the title in 2010 (in an effort to make the selection more interesting), not only am I not on the ballot this year, but it's almost identical to last year's lineup:

Mignon Ariel King
David Rivard
Louise Glück
Gail Mazur
Sam Cornish
Robert Pinsky

While I admire some of these poets, the selection is not very exciting. So this year I'd like to nominate the excellent, vital voice in Boston poetry:

Elisa Gabbert!

Just take 30 seconds to go to the link:

http://thephoenix.com/thebest/boston/vote/poet/

- Write in "Elisa Gabbert"
- Click "Submit My Vote"
- THEN click "Skip To Finish"
- THEN click "Vote Now"
- You do NOT need to enter your name & email address
- You can vote once per day!

Elisa is a killer poet, a great reader, and a great mind. Please vote for her and in so doing urge the Phoenix to get hip to what's happening in poetry in poetry in Boston! Dan Pritchard (Critical Flame, Boston Review) and I are working together to make poetry interesting in Boston--please help us by casting your vote.

Janaka Stucky, Publisher
BLACK OCEAN

-------------------------

Elisa did not ask me to do this... I just think she deserves the nomination.

Best Scary Poetry + Free Books!

We've got some good news that we'd like to share, and free books we'd like to give away! Out in the far reaches of the Pacific Northwest, Zachary Schombrug's second book, Scary, No Scary, has been nominated in Best Book of Poetry in the 2010 Oregon Book Awards. Now, ever since the Huffington Post picked it as one of the Top Nine Indie Books of 2009 we new we had a winner on our hands--but it's nice to have Zach recognized on his home turf.

So, to celebrate we're going to be giving away a free book to anyone who purchases a copy of the book in its limited edition hardcover. If you didn't know, there is a very special foil-stamped hardcover publication of Scary, No Scary in a limited run of two hundred editions, signed and numbered by Schomburg himself. The textless dust jacket also features different artwork from the softcover version. Each copy comes with a fine letter pressed miniature broadside as well, courtesy of Brave Men Press, containing the title poem from the book. There are less than 40 copies left!

Beginning Monday, February 14th each order will come with another one of our titles for free. Each day offers a different title, so check the schedule below:

Monday: Holy Land by Rauan Klassnik
Tuesday: Scape by Joshua Harmon
Wednesday: Upon Arrival by Paula Cisewski
Thursday: Objects for a Fog Death by Julie Doxsee
Friday: Pigafetta Is My Wife by Joe Hall

Just go to our catalog to order your copy and we'll automatically include that day's free title. And as always: free shipping! You can thank us by checking out the Reader's Choice poll going at at The Oregonian, and voting for Scary, No Scary as your favorite finalist. It takes 30 seconds and it would make Zach feel loved, a lot.

Black Ocean at AWP

If you make it to DC through the great blizzard of 2011, dust off your snowpants and find Black Ocean editors and authors at our book-fair booth D15 which can be found in Hall B North. We'll have all your favorite Black Ocean titles and some swag too!

Black Ocean is also hosting, along with Action Books, Apostrophe Books, Slope Editions, and Tarpaulin Sky Press, POSSESS NOTHING AWP on Saturday, February 5  from 6:30pm - 9:30pm at The Wonderland Ballroom (1101 Kenyon Street, NW). The reading features Jessica Baran, Julie Doxsee, Lara Glenum, Johannes Göransson, Matt Hart, Matthew Henriksen, Lucy Ives, Paul Foster Johnson, Joyelle McSweeney, Peter Richards, Brandon Shimoda, Abraham Smith and Daniel Tiffany. When the reading stops at 9:30, the dance party begins. See you there!

Oregon Book Award Finalists

Scary No Scary by Zachary Schomburg is a finalist for the Stafford/Hall Award For Poetry as part of the Oregon Book Awards. Congratulations to Zachary! Follow the link and check out some of the other great finalists. Octopus Books, the press Zachary co-edits with Mathias Svalina, won an a Oregon Literary Fellowship.

 I like to imagine the conversation for deciding these nominations went like this. Did you read all those books from Black Ocean? I did. Did you read that book called Scary No Scary? Beginning to end. 

Get your PJs and Popcorn

Together with Cinamatheque Press, Black Ocean has been holding a salon-style reading series called Poetry & Biscuits in poetry editor Carrie Olivia Adams' living room. If you don't live in Chicago and can't catch the real thing, be sure to check out the Poetry and Biscuits vimeo page and enjoy these sure to please readings at home in your jammies (or anywhere you like and in your attire of choice). Past readers include Joe Hall, Julie Doxsee, Matt Hart, and A. Minetta Gould. 

Poetry & Biscuits A Minetta Gould from Poetry & Biscuits on Vimeo.

With Deer, forever

In the week following our offer of a free lifetime subscription to anyone who got a tattoo inspired by one of our books, people have been blogging and reblogging the news. Here are just a few examples:

Jason Boog for Galleycat
Simon Says for MLive.com
Caroline Stanley for Flavorwire

And then, The Guardian (UK) wrote about it on their website today!

What's more, there is already another lifer who has joined the ranks... Robert W. got a tattoo of the antles from the With Deer cover at his local parlor today. He was kind enough to record the deed on video and post it to YouTube:

Here is a picture of the piece, raw and ready to heal:

And lastly, he blogs about his experience and reason for getting the piece over at the online magazine, Uncanny Valley.

While this is all amazing and fun and completely unexpected, it's also been really meaningful to me. I'd like to clarify that this is not simply a 'marketing gimmick' but a way for me to express my gratitude for the enthusiasm people are expressing. We're a small press that started only half a decade ago that I've kept running with the help of a devoted staff and a pocketful of credit cards. I just wanted to put out books that I believe in--that were important to me. In the process, others have found these books to be important and that's incredibly rewarding.

Thanks again to all our readers, tattooed or not. You keep us going.