May 27 2014: Paige Taggart, Rasheedah Phillips, Natalie Lyalin

GENERAL IDEA #14 is coming up!

On Tuesday May 27 at 7PM at Brickbat Books, come to hear Paige Taggart, Rasheedah Phillips, and Natalie Lyalin. Hosted by Cindy King.

Paige Taggart's first book Want for Lion (Trembling Pillow Press) is here (!) and Or Replica is forthcoming this year with Brooklyn Arts Press. Her chapbook of translations, I am Writing To You From Another Country; Translations of Henri Michaux will be released with Greying Ghost Press. She makes jewelry :mactaggartjewelry.com











Rasheedah Philips writes science fiction stories and essays on Philosophy and Metaphysics. She has a piece in the anthology Growing Up Girl (edited by Michelle Sewell), inspirational essays published in Sister to Sister: Black Women Speak to Young Black Women (edited by Beth Johnson) and Professor May I Bring My Baby to Class (edited by Sherrill Mosee). She recently independently published her first science fiction novel, called Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel Tales). In 2011, Rasheedah created The AfroFuturist Affair, an organization dedicated to celebrating and promoting Afrofuturistic culture, art, and literature through creative events and creative writing. She is a founding member of Metropolarity Speculative Fiction Collective. She is an attorney.

Natalie Lyalin is the author of Pink & Hot Pink Habitat (Coconut Books, 2009), and a chapbook, Try A Little Time Travel (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). She is a part of the Agnes Fox Press editing collective and the cofounder and editor of Natural History Press. She lives in Philadelphia.

October 18: David Buuck, Juliana Spahr, Katy Bohinc, Mark Johnson

GENERAL IDEA #13 is coming up!

On Friday October 18 at 7PM at Brickbat Books, come to hear David Buuck, Juliana Spahr, Katy Bohinc, and Mark Johnson.

Juliana Spahr edits with Jena Osman the book series Chain Links, with nineteen other poets she edits of the collectively funded Subpress, and with Joshua Clover and Jasper Bernes she will begin editing Commune Editions. With David Buuck she wrote Army of Lovers, a book about two friends who are writers in a time of war and ecological collapse (forthcoming from City Lights). She has edited with Stephanie Young A Megaphone: Some Enactments, Some Numbers, and Some Essays about the Continued Usefulness of Crotchless-pants-and-a-machine-gun Feminism (Chain Links, 2011), with Joan Retallack Poetry & Pedagogy: the Challenge of the Contemporary (Palgrave, 2006), and with Claudia Rankine American Women Poets in the 21st Century (Wesleyan U P, 2002). And several times she has organized free schools with Joshua Clover: the 95 cent Skool (summer of 2010) and the Durruti Free Skool (summer of 2011).

David Buuck is a writer who lives in Oakland, CA. He is the founder of BARGE, the Bay Area Research Group in Enviro-aesthetics, and co-founder and editor of Tripwire, a journal of poetics. An Army of Lovers, co-written with Juliana Spahr, is just out from City Lights, and SITE CITE CITY will be published by Futurepoem in 2014.

 

Katy Bohinc is a poet and digital media strategist for the Democractic Party of China.  She co-edits COYDUP a poetry pamphlet decidated to hand-to-hand distribution at and around Occupy events with Meg Ronan.  Work has recently appeared in Armed Cell, and is forthcoming in Poor Claudia, Apartment, & Open Letters Monthly.  She has a background in math, comp litt, China, France & Buenos Aires.  She lives in Manhattan.

Mark Johnson lives in Philadelphia, where he runs Hiding Place, a record / book shop / reading space. His latest book is DREAM OF A LIKE PLACE, a chap published by SUS, the new press operated by Eddie Hopely and Astrid Lorange.

GI 12: Joe Hall, Stephanie Barber, Scott Garson

GENERAL IDEA returns in the fall with series # 12!

On Saturday September 28 at 7PM at Brickbat Books, come to hear Joe Hall, Stephanie Barber and Scott Garson read from their new books!

Stephanie Barber is a writer and artist living in Baltimore, MD. Her chapbook poems was published by Bronze Skull Press in 2006 and her book these here separated… was reprinted in 2010 by Publishing Genius Press who have also just published her recent book Night Moves. Her videos are distributed by Video Data Bank and her films are distributed by Canyon Cinema and Fandor.com. More can be learned at her website http://www.stephaniebarber.com/

Joe Hall is the author of The Devotional Poems (Black Ocean 2013), Pigafetta Is My Wife, and, with Chad Hardy, The Container Store Vols. I &II. His poems, fiction, book reviews, and essays have appeared in Gulf Coast, Octopus, Puerto Del Sol, HTMLGiant, The Colorado Review, and elsewhere. He lives with the poet Cheryl Quimba in Buffalo, NY.

Scott Garson is the author of IS THAT YOU, JOHN WAYNE?--a collection of stories--and AMERICAN GYMNOPEDIES, a book of microfictions. His fiction has won awards from Playboy, The Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation and Dzanc Books, and he has work in or coming from Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, Hobart, Conjunctions, New York Tyrant and others. He edits the Pushcart-Prize-winning journal of very short fiction, Wigleaf.

March 17: Marion Bell, Brandon Holmquest, Carlos Soto-Roman

GENERAL IDEA 11 is coming up w/ co-host Ryan Eckes!

On Sunday March 17 at 4PM at Brickbat Books, come and hear poetry by Marion Bell, Brandon Holmquest, and Carlos Soto-Roman!

Carlos Soto-Román was born in Valparaíso, Chile. He is the author of Philadelphia's Notebooks (Otoliths, 2011). He curates the cooperative anthology of contemporary u.s. poetry Elective Affinities. He lives in Philadelphia, PA.

Brandon Holmquest will just show up unannounced in your town like it's no big deal and leave just as nonchalantly. When not living out his childhood dream of being a suspicious drifter, he writes and translates poems, rolls cigarettes and wonders what his problem is, exactly.

Marion Bell is a poet who lives in Philadelphia. She has a chapbook called The Abjector from con/crescent press. Recent interests include Marxist and trans feminisms, prison abolition movements, and the uses of anger. She also likes folk songs, cats and coffee. She’s working on a manuscript tentatively titled Hey High Lonesome or Queer Theory for Losers or You People. She was selected for a 2012 grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Foundation.

February 9: Rauan Klassnik, Tony Mancus, Jaime Fountaine, Paul Cunningham

GENERAL IDEA 10 is coming up w/ co-host Ryan Eckes!

On Saturday February 9 at 7PM at Brickbat Books, come and hear poetry by Rauan Klassnik, Tony Mancus, and Paul Cunningham, and fiction by Jaime Fountaine.

Tony Mancus is the author of two chapbooks, Bye Land (Greying Ghost) and Bye Sea (forthcoming from Tree Lights). He and Sommer Browning founded Flying Guillotine Press in 2008. He currently lives in northern Virginia with his wife Shannon and their two cats. 

Jaime Fountaine is a liar.  Her work has appeared in PANK, Pear Noir!, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere.

Rauan Klassnik lives in Kirkland, WA, home of Costco, etc. His 2nd book of poetry, The Moon's Jaw, releases Jan 21st from Black Ocean. He invites you to check out the video trailer (by Paul Cunningham) for it.

Paul Cunningham is the author of two e-chapbooks of poetry: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Pangur Ban Party, 2010) and Foamghast (NAP, 2012). He is the managing editor of the online journal and press, Radioactive Moat, and his writing has appeared in publications including A Capella Zoo, DIAGRAM, Aesthetix, Shampoo, H_NGM_N, and The Destroyer. 

January 19: Ian Davisson, Kate Greenstreet, Stan Mir

GENERAL IDEA 9 is coming up w/ co-host Ryan Eckes!

On Saturday January 19 at 7PM at Brickbat Books, come and hear poetry by Iain Davisson, Kate Greenstreet, and Stan Mir.

Stan Mir is the author of two books, The Lacustrine Suite (Pavement Saw, 2011) and Song & Glass (Subito, 2010). He lives in Philadelphia where he co-organizes the Chapter & Verse reading series with Ryan Eckes.

Kate Greenstreet's new book Young Tambling is just out from Ahsahta Press. Her other books are case sensitive and The Last 4 Things. Find out more at kickingwind.com.

Ian Davisson has recent work in Tenderloin and Little Red Leaves. He's glad that the pit of despair known as the year 2012 has come to an end, but values all the poems that came out of that pit--some of which he will be reading on Jan 19.

GI 8: Pollock, Browne, Magnus, Bennett

GENERAL IDEA 8 is coming up! Sunday October 7 at 7PM at Brickbat Books. Readings by Iain Haley Pollock, Laynie Browne, Magus Magnus, and Jacob A. Bennett.

Iain Haley Pollock's first collection of poems, Spit Back a Boy, won the 2010 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.  He teaches English at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia and poetry at the Solstice MFA Program of Pine Manor College. 

Laynie Browne is the author of nine collections of poetry and one novel.  Her most recent publications include: Roseate, Points of Gold (Dusie, 2011), The Desires of Letters (Counterpath, 2010), The Scented Fox (Wave, 2007), and Daily Sonnets (Counterpath, 2007). Her work is forthcoming in The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry  as well as Ecopoetry: A Contemporary American Anthology  (Trinity University Press). Her honors include: the National Poetry Series Award, of the Contemporary Poetry Series Award, and two Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative American Poetry.  She has taught at The University of Washington, Bothell, at Mills College, Naropa University, and at the University of Arizona. She has also taught poetry-in-the-schools for various organizations including Teachers & Writers Collaborative in NYC and Seattle Arts & Lectures.  At University of Arizona she developed and ran an outreach program which brought graduate and undergraduate students into schools to teach residencies in imaginative writing in three genres (poetry, fiction, & creative non-fiction).  Since 2011 she has been a volunteer mentor for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project (http://awwproject.org/). Recent editorial projects include curating for the online journal Trickhouse, as well as a collection of writings celebrating the life and work of poet Stacy Doris on http://www.thevolta.org/. She is co editor of I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues Press, 2012). 

Magus Magnus is the author of The Re-echoes (just out from Furniture Press); Idylls for a Bare Stage (twentythreebooks 2011); Heraclitean Pride (Furniture Press 2010); and Verb Sap (Narrow House 2008). Two poems from Verb Sap - "Radical Crumb" and "Empirical/Imperial Demonstration" - appear in the 10th edition of Pearson Longman's English Anthology textbook, Literature. Washington D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company will host a performance showcase of Idylls for a Bare Stage at Sidney Harman Hall in Spring 2013; development of the Idyll as a performance form can be tracked at http://sharedimagining.blogspot.com/"

Jacob A. Bennett has only known you four weeks and three days, but to him it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week and the second day seemed like five days. And the third day seemed like a week again and the fourth day seemed like eight days. But the fifth day you went to see your mother and that seemed just like a day, but then you came back and later on the sixth day, in the evening, that started seeming like two days, so in the evening it seemed like two days spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four days, so at the end of the sixth day on into the seventh day, it seemed like a total of five days. And the sixth day seemed like a week and a half. He has it written down, and he can show it to you tomorrow if you want to see it.