You thought I meant poetry readings, I’m sure, and yes, we will talk dirty to you in bookstores, classrooms, cafés, and other marginal spaces, for little or no compensation. But at the moment I’m referring to another kind of freebie. The wheel of the year has turned and it’s time to get Feral for National Poetry Month. At the prompting of verse alchemist Susan Rich I’m participating in The BIG POETRY GIVEAWAY (follow the link if you’d like to give away some books yourself). As she says in her invitation:
“Anyone with a blog can giveaway 2 books of poems. Anyone with an email address can enter any or all of the giveaways. Yes, poetry is that easy! You can give it away and you can also sign-up to receive it! You don’t need a blog to participate, you just need to visit different participating blogs.”
The two books I’ll be giving away at the beginning of May are my most recent poetry collection, The Receptionist and Other Tales, and Janet McAdams’ 2007 book Feral. Both have a slipstream vibe, occupying the littoral zone at the edge of speculative fiction. I like to call the long poem “The Receptionist” a feminist fantasy campus novella in terza rima; it’s followed by shorter poems involving revenants, hallucinations, zombie apocalypse, and other alarming lyric materializations.
Feral explores another kind of wildness—tales of feral children—although Janet McAdams also populates this intensely lyric book with fish girls, polar explorers, and others who hover between worlds. McAdams is a brilliant writer who teaches at Kenyon College in Ohio; other equally fabulous books include her novel Red Weather and her first poetry collection, The Island of Lost Luggage. She founded the Earthworks series for indigenous poetry at Salt Press.
If you’d like a chance to win these books, leave a comment below that includes a way to reach you. At the end of April I’ll develop some magical randomizing process for choosing a name. Like any of the participating bloggers, I’ll cover postage to any place in the universe. Here’s a teaser from Janet’s book.
What She Will Sing to You
My mother cast into the wave that nudged my birth
and I finned out with a slime-covered flipper
and learned a different kind of love:
this dorsal fin could cut you through like a razor.
You will learn to breathe here after all. Over these joined legs
are two fat breasts and a mouth, soft and open. A tongue to wrap
around the words I might whisper, through water, salt water.
Sailor, you can learn to breathe here. Come down, come
down. I was never human, not your fairy tale. I will teach you more
than breathing. I will make your body ache open with salt pleasure.
32 responses to “Poets do it for free”
Consider me entered. Thanks for the opportunity!
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Yes please! 🙂
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Please put my name in the figurative, or maybe not so figurative, hat, too. What a cool giveaway!
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Hey Lesley, please put me in the draw – what a fabulous idea, and what a great prize.
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Hey Lesley – please put my name in the draw. What a great idea, and I love the prize.
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Oh – contact details! abra@sartorelli.gen.nz
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Please count me in too – I already own the Receptionist – it was the first e-book I ever read!!! But I can think of someone I would love to give it to as a gift. And the McAdams intrigues me-I read a lot about feral children when researching for Fosterling……
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Me too please – I think my last hands up got wiped…..
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please please! And thank you!
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interesting. Add me, please.
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I’m in! Thanks!
Rodney Wilder
roquedog504@gmail.com
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Ooo! I’d like to win either of these.
Nice to meet you!
-Allyson (whipplea [at] gmail [dot] [com])
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Excited to participate! Count me in!
– Rena
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I love this giveaway idea! Thanks.
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Count me in!
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I am in – thanks for participating!
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Please count me in!
Cheers,
Deb
debwain(at)gmail.com
http://www.debwain.com
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Count me in too… I’d love books by either of you.
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I am IN for it, in on it, hoping for an in: count me in! These are two VERY neat choices.
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Please put my name in the hat!
–Bernadette
berniegeyer /at /yahoo /dot /com
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Thanks for doing this — thrilled to participate 🙂
Thanks,
Ivy
ivy973 (at) yahoo.com
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I’d love to play. Thanks!
And you can visit here, too: http://www.katrinaroberts.net/blog.htm
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Please enter me into the draw! Thanks! 🙂
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Please enter me into the draw! Thanks! 🙂
Doireann
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Thanks for doing this! Please count me in!
– Andrew
eldritch00 at gmail dot com
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I have not had the chance to read any contemporary poetry. I don’t know who or where to begin. Entering this contest seemed like a good way to start. Thank you very much for participating in this give away.
KnowledgeKnut
Knowledgeknut@gmail.com
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Lesley: Please sign me up for your book giveaway! If I happen to be lucky enough to be an honored winner this year, I will write a review and promote your book through the Vermont Poetry Newsletter (& Poetry Event Calendar), which now receives over 1M hits/year. I’ll be crossing my fingers and hope to soon find your book, or Janet’s book, in my personal poetry library! Thank you for participating in the 2013 Book Giveaway! Ron Lewis, VPN Editor (vtpoet@gmail.com)
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Please enter me in your sweet drawing! Thanks.
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Please count me in! Thanks! Nandini
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Wheee! Sliding by at the last minute to enter :-))
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An eleventh-hour plea for consideration!
Joseph Harker, linksfreude ( ) gmail ( ) com
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I actually have one of your older books, but please enter me as well.
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