I'm printing up some cards to promote Anti- at AWP. The copy on the back is entirely Anti-fied lines from well known poems. If you can name all of the poems without Googling, congratulations. You're a poetry nerd! Here they are:

Anti- met a traveller from an antique land.
Anti- had stood—a Loaded Gun.
Anti- put its clothes on in the blueblack cold.
Anti-'s eyes are nothing like the sun.
Anti- catches tigers in red weather.
Anti- will always end up in this city.
Anti- will die in Paris on a rainy day.
Anti- has wasted its life.
Anti-, too, dislikes it.

Happy New Year, everyone!

I'll be putting in a more concerted effort on this soon, but does anyone want to have me over for a reading when my book comes out very, very soon? I'm available, a fun reader, and I show up cheap.

In addition to two Christmas celebrations, within the last week I've finished all my MFA applications (which are ludicrously expensive, by the way, and I won't be doing this again) and approved the final version of my book cover and manuscript, so it's in the process of being uploaded and processed by the printer. It should be out early in the new year.

Just in time for Christmas, Anti- presents Issue 3!

26 poems by Donald Zirilli, Ellen Wehle, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Nic Sebastian, Karen Rigby, Kristen Orser, Jeff Newberry, Juan J. Morales, Philip Metres, Mark McKee, Nathan McClain, Mira Martin-Parker, Patrick Lawler, Jenn Koiter, Donald Illich, Brandi Homan, Christopher Hennessy, Chet Gresham, Emily Kendal Frey / Zachary Schomburg, Noah Falck, Adam Deutsch, and Julia Cohen / Brandon Shimoda.

My Father’s Rage

As I kicked through the swinging door,
the turkey shifted on the platter.
I juggled, lost it, clipped the bird
with the platter’s edge, and the hot meat
slid, skittered—greasy—on the floor,
and smacked the polished army boots
of Sergeant Walker, our Thanksgiving guest.
My daddy grabbed me by the throat
and slammed me up against the wall,
which boomed. My mother gasped. I lost
my breath and couldn’t get it back.
“You stupid idiot!” my father screamed.
Then Sergeant Walker touched Dad’s arm.
“John,” he said, “we’ve eaten worse—
when we were growing up.” Dad sighed,
and then, reluctantly, he let me drop.
But now his crazy anger’s gone
to whole days watching teevee, watching
golf, football, weather--gone to whole days
watching the fucking all-news channel.
And I, goddamn him, I want it back.

—Andrew Hudgins

Is there anyone out there who's pretty good with customized Wordpress templates and would be interested in helping out with a couple site design and security issues for a Wordpress-based online journal of poetry I happen to know?

The word will go up on the site with Anti- Issue #3 (coming soon!), but here are our nominees for the Pushcart Prizes:

“The Preacher Man Saves Lily’s Soul (1914)” by Nicolette Bethel
“Information Kiosk” by Jason Bredle
“Poem” by Jill Alexander Essbaum
“Poem with Diorama” by Elisa Gabbert
“Synth Composite Basketball: No More Court” by Adrian Matejka
“The Kiss” by C. Dale Young

Y'all are going to be seeing a lot of me promoting my book in the next couple weeks or so, once it arrives. You know I hope you buy it. However, I also thought I'd post the main acknowledgments so the people I needed to thank most will get thanked out here in public even if no one buys the book.

Thank you to Aaron Anstett, Mary Biddinger, Gina Franco, Brandi Homan, Mark Jarman, David Keplinger, Jenn Koiter, Rebecca Laroche, David Mason, Adrian Matejka, Richard Newman, Kristin Sumner, Jane Wampler, Jake Adam York, Mom, Dad, and especially Eric.

Here are the blurbs we're using for my book. I originally solicited anti-blurbs, but it turns out my friends are too nice. There's still a little of the anti-blurb flavor here, but my apologies to the people from whom I solicited specific anti-blurbs that didn't end up getting used.

Anti- and diode are happy to announce the co-sponsoring of an offsite reading at the 2009 AWP Conference in Chicago. The reading will be Friday, February 13th at 7 PM in Curtiss Hall on the 10th floor of the Fine Arts Building at 410 S. Michigan Avenue (just a couple blocks from the conference hotel, yay!).

Readers include:
Jake Adam York
Joshua Ware
G. C. Waldrep
Steven D. Schroeder
Lee Ann Roripaugh
Ada Limon
Patrick Lawler
Bob Hicok
Paul Guest
Matthew Guenette
Brent Goodman
Noah Falck
Adam Clay
Mary Biddinger

Food and wine of some kind will be provided. Much gratitude to Patty Paine for doing most of the heavy lifting to organize this event, to the Fine Arts Building for providing space, and to the readers.

I'm the featured poet over at Seven Corners, which is a publication covering Chicago and other Midwestern poets. These poems are all from the forthcoming book. If you search through the archives over there, you'll see I'm in good company.

1. Before every review he writes, William Logan sacrifices a goat and uses its blood as ink.
2. William Logan may be the most hated person in poetry, but he's only the 187,663,130th most hated person in America.
3. William Logan thinks Silliman is the name of a comic book supervillain.
4. Staring at William Logan can melt your face.
5. William Logan likes language, just not the way you use it.
6. William Logan lives in a cave guarded by the goblin queen. If you defeat her in combat, his office hours are 2 to 4 on Wednesday.
7. William Logan once wrote a review of William Logan's poetry that made William Logan cry.
8. William Logan's secret muse is a lop-eared, fluffy bunny.
9. William Logan raises real toads in his imaginary gardens.
10. William Logan and Franz Wright once formed a wrestling tag team called the Ultimate Warrior-Poets until Logan turned on Wright and bashed him over the head with a steel chair.
11. William Logan is eating poetry.
12. If you poke at William Logan with a stick, he puffs up to three times his normal size and shoots poison spines.
13. William Logan is the objective correlative for all the history of grief.

I'll be leaving early-early Thursday morning for my company's annual managers meeting. This year we're staying in Boca Raton, which is supposed to be in the mid-70s over the weekend, much better than the mid-30s we're going to be experiencing here. (I lobbied to have this year's meeting in Vegas, but it didn't happen.) I'll try to make one more post before I leave tomorrow, but if not, you can expect me back after Sunday. Keep an eye out for a couple notable Anti- announcements in the next couple weeks.