Anti-'s Feature #39 is a collaborative effort from John Cotter and Shafer Hall. This is the first collaborative feature we've had (though we've published collaboratives in our issues), so we're glad to break that barrier. We hope the next feature milestone will be translations. In the meantime, definitely read this!

I did a couple word clouds of where my manuscript stands right now. Quite a diverse bunch of oddness, so that suits me. Most of the commonly repeated words (thirteen and something, for example), are based almost entirely on repetition in a single poem.

First of all, the good news I alluded to recently is that I'm one of the winners of the Poetry in Motion contest at Metro Arts in Transit of St. Louis, meaning my poem (the first one here, or you can scroll through the winner list too) will be put on a poster with lovely design (see last year's winners for examples) and will appear on Metro rail cars and buses all year. Hurray!

Also, I have a poem in the new issue of Pebble Lake Review. You can also hear me read the poem if that's your thing. The issue looks like a good one as usual, so you should go there. Thanks, Amanda!

I stole this title from Mary Biddinger. Thanks, Mary! I notice that I'm using "again" at the end of poems a lot now. It's a new move/thing-I-have-to-watch-out-for.

Oh, I miss the good old days of poetry. Why, back then...

• The public revered poets as deities and dusted them with gold every time they went out.
• Riots broke out if tickets ran short to a poetry reading.
• Poetry groupies were hot.
• Collectors searched poets' garbage to find discarded drafts and auction them to the highest bidder at astronomical rates.
• Literary magazines magically received poems, all gems, out of the ether, exactly as many as they had space to publish.
• It's not just that history forgot them--there were no bad poets.
  
• If you wanted to publish a book, you first had to score a perfect 100 on a test of literary devices, plus suffer from a potentially fatal illness, so anyone with a book was serious.
• When someone published their friends, it was objectively right and done with honor.
• No one ever learned to write in some workshop or program. A poet came out of the womb with a pen in his hand and iambic pentameter in his heart.
• People were allowed to teach or to write poetry, but not both.
• People were counted as readers or writers of poetry, but not both.
  
• Poets were like either Simon or the Predicate: what they said, you did.
• A secret cabal of poets controlled the world from a cave on Mount Olympus.
• Poetry was an Olympic sport.
• For a while, a single poem was the only manmade object visible from space.
• Literary magazines could cure cancer.
  
• You could read a poem without worrying that it had been written by one of those pesky women or minorities.

Work has really picked up, so my posting here may be more infrequent for a while, especially since I'm working on a couple applications and want to get my poem submission sets for March ready to go. However, I'm happy to say Anti- has added a new Assistant Editor to the staff, one many of you already know: Suzanne Frischkorn. Welcome aboard, Suzanne!

Here's her bio if you don't know her:

Suzanne Frischkorn is the author of Girl on a Bridge (forthcoming 2010) and Lit Windowpane (2008), both from Main Street Rag Publishing. In addition, she is the author of five chapbooks, most recently American Flamingo (2008).

Anti-'s Featured Poet #38 is Erika Meitner. One of her poems is "January Towns," but it fits this cold February well as well. Proceed to read it!

Got a nice bit of good news today. Will announce it when it's official. Tee hee!

Had anyone consulted me ahead of time on Google's decision to automatically opt millions of Gmail users into its Buzz service, which would in turn publicize said user e-mail contact lists to anyone else on the list, my first reactions would be (A) "Do you want to get sued?", and (B) "Who the fuck thinks this is a good idea?" And right on cue, here's the first batch of lawsuits. This is as colossal, hubristic a fuck-up as I've ever seen by a company, especially one as supposedly savvy as Google. I hope this hurts them, and badly. I hope no one ever goes to bed again with the idea that Google lives up to its "Don't Be Evil" slogan.

Anti- is very interested in considering photography and visual art for its upcoming covers. Guidelines are here. If you are a visual artist/photographer or know any whose work you admire, please keep us in mind and spread the word!