Another (praiseful) review of The Tethers

The current PN Review includes Alison Brackenbury's review of The Tethers (over two years after the book's publication, but hey, I'm not complaining). Here are some highlights: "The Tethers reveals Carrie Etter as a poetic chameleon, with a colour to dazzle every reader. [...] This is beautifully done. The Tethers is rich in technical variety. [...] Etter’s endings are persistently superb, including wicked collage, ‘you are saved, I tell you, you are saved’, and passionate entreaty, ‘Tell me which. Tell me both.’" See the magazine to read the whole.

Transatlantic (Dis)connections

"I have been making, I think, a familiar literary-historical claim about American poets and the British past: a claim that has no place, as American poets too often have no place, for the British present. Yet its largely sociological explanations seem to me insufficient - though perhaps necessary - if we are trying to explain how these bodies of literature [ie British and American poetries] diverged. American poets who settle in Britain seem to write either in a wholly British line of influence (Eva Salzman, for example, or the late Michael Donaghy) or else in a line that seems, as yet, wholly American (though keep an eye on Carrie Etter)."

Stephen Burt, 'Transatlantic Disconnections, or, The Poetry of the Hypotenuse' (PN Review 190 (36.2): 20-29)

Thanks to Andrew Bailey for bringing this passage to my notice. I'd be glad to understand how the British influence has manifested in my poetry--any takers?

The Son, a new, forthcoming pamphlet

I am delighted to say that Oystercatcher Press is going to publish my pamphlet, The Son. If you've heard of Oystercatcher but can't place it, it's probably because they just won the Michael Marks Award for a poetry pamphlet publisher (Americans, for pamphlet read chapbook). 

I hadn't planned on publishing another pamphlet in the UK at the moment (I had a chapbook ms under consideration at a US press and pulled it once this came through--it'll have to wait for another day), but Peter Hughes, editor and publisher of Oystercatcher, asked me to "come aboard," as it were, and I was flattered and honored to accept. 

The Son draws on a book manuscript in progress, Imagined Sons; large selections of its prose poems first appeared in PN Review in 2007 and The Republic of Letters earlier this year. "Birthmother's Catechisms," which also appear in the manuscript and pamphlet, have appeared in New Welsh Review, Stand, and The Times Literary Supplement.

As soon as I have the prospective publication date, I'll happily update this post accordingly.

Imagined Sons, second selection

Some readers will be aware that thirteen prose poems from my third collection, Imagined Sons (in progress), appeared in PN Review in its May-June 2007 issue. I'm pleased to say another sixteen appear in the new issue of The Republic of Letters, along with three poems from The Tethers. I strongly recommend the magazine--it abounds in both quality and variety, quite simply "a good read" wherever you begin. If you'd like to see the issue, John Sandoe Books in Chelsea stocks it.

Current Issues

I've been quiet for a while, but not inactive! My poems are in the current issues of PN Review and Faultline, and more poems have been accepted for future issues of Poetry Salzburg Review, Shearsman, and Staple.

My review of Zoe Skoulding's fine first collection, The Mirror Trade, will be in the next issue of New Welsh Review. I also have a short essay on Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "At the Fishhouses," forthcoming in an issue of Magma devoted to the sea.

Current Issues

"Awake" and "Short Break" appear in the new issue of Critical Survey, 16.3 (2004), though I'm sorry to report that the latter, a prose poem, is not right-justified as it should be. Given that the magazine mostly publishes academic essays, it can be found in many university libraries.

My review of Ruth Padel's The Soho Leopard appears in the new issue of Poetry Review.

"Axes for Crutches" appeared in the 21 January 2005 issue of The Times Literary Supplement.

In the last few weeks, I've received word of three more forthcoming appearances. "Here Comes the Sun," "Occasional Poem," and "Outpost" will be in PN Review 162. "The Cult of the Eye" and "Horace's Wet Clothes" will be reprinted in the US magazine, Faultline, while "The Honeymoon of Our Attraction" will make its first appearance in Columbia University's journal, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art.