Chinese Notebook and Silliman's "immersive reading"...

from The Islands

Insect Pastoral

The Cousins Sang An Insect Pastoral

“we collect snails in the orchard eating

marble in the summer as slick as snow melting

fields for lunch in a bowl swimming

eating, verdant insects chirping

in the olive trees their wings caught beating

the barbed wire an execution impaled

beetles caught sleeping, sailboat sails”

hey Rick this is Jessie, hope you're still home, me and Joe are driving over right now, we thought of a great name for our Foamcore band...it's around 7:30 on tuesday, see you soon...

please tell me you didn't forget the feathers...Lindsey, where are the fucking feathers? are you even into Falcore anymore? kind of seems like you aren't...

what do you know about Mumblecore?

the view from 28th fl hotel room balcony in Miami...

November 18, 1982 - November 19, 2007
love you

Jerome Rothernberg published some of our Agrafiotis Now 1/3 translations on his Poems And Poetics blog...

yassou JR...

It's my great pleasure to invite you to the 8th annual Symposium on Poetry and Translation, which will take place from August 2 - 9, 2011 at The European Cultural Center of Delphi http://www.eccd.eu/  in Delphi, Greece.

This is the same symposium that was formerly called the "Paros Symposium" but as we are no longer meeting on Paros Island we've dropped that part of the name.

The Paros Symposium was founded by Susan Gevirtz and Siarita Kouka in 2004, to foster translation and exchange between Greek and anglophone poets/translators. We meet to translate each other's work, discuss the cultural circumstances in which we work, and give readings. Up until last year we were sponsored by the European Center for the Translation of Literature and the Human Sciences (EKEMEL) (http://www.ekemel.gr/index2.html and met at the "House of Literature," their residence for writers on Paros island. Last year we met for the first time at The European Cultural Center of Delphi where we will again meet in 2011. This year I am organizing for the anglophones. In previous years Eleni Stecopoulos has been integral to solo and co-organizing the Symposium. And one year the poet john Sakkis co-organized. This year Siarita Kouka (poet and restorer of maritime antiquities for the Greek Cultural Ministry) and Socrates Kouvaroupolous (poet and director at EKEVI   http://www.ekebi.gr/frontoffice/portal.asp?cpage=NODE&cnode=138) will invite the participants and organize in Greece.

Our focus is on translation practice, working together to bring Greek poetry into English and vice versa, but we also envision a forum in which a diverse group of artists with different aesthetics and linguistic repertoires can engage in creative conversation. Participants range from those who actively translate between Greek and English, to those with partial or no knowledge of Greek but an interest in Greek literature and culture, to those who translate from other languages and write on cross-cultural poetics. Most if not all of the Greek participants are fluent in English. Though we Americans are acutely aware of a linguistic imbalance, symptomatic of larger global inequities, we believe there is still much to learn from this dialogue, however imperfect our knowledge of the other language. We would be honored to work together with all of you.

More details and a schedule will follow, but for now here is a general idea of what our days will look like. We will work in small groups for about 4 hours, break for swimming/lunch/siesta, and reconvene in the evening for talks and readings, before adjourning to dinner and more discussion. We will ask that each participant e-mail several items in advance to the group:

1)      Poems you wish to suggest for translation (roughly 3-5 pages).

2)      A bio.

3)      A brief statement of your poetics/politics/ethics, etc. of translation. This can be as  discursive or performative as you like. In the evenings, we plan to have informal talks and/or roundtable discussions in addition to readings. These discussions might begin with elaborations of our statements or take off from problems of translation, idiomatic issues, cultural differences, etc.,  illuminated by the morning's work.

In my next communication, I will let you know the dates by which you should e-mail these items to the group.

Readings will include one or two group events, and on the last night we will have bilingual readings of translations accomplished during our stay. All evening events are open to the public.

To give you an idea of work by past participants, here are just a few locations: Liana Sakelliou is co-translator of H.D.'s   _Trilogy_ into Greek (Gutenberg, 1999). Thanasis Maskaleris co-edited the Talisman _Anthology of Modern Greek Poetry_ [with Nanos Valaoritis]. Translations of Demosthenes Agrafiotis's work have been published in U.S. journals by several translators, including Sakelliou and John Sakkis. J Sakkis has also published a translation of Siarita Kouka's book _Benthos_. Agrafiotis was the first to translate George Oppen into Greek and has published Louis Zukofsky in Greek translation [tr. Stella Nikoloudi] in his journal _Clinamen_. John Sakkis and Angelos Sakkis have translated 2 books by Agrafiotis that have been published by Post Apollo Press  and ugly duckling press. Also look at http://www.e-poema.eu/index_gr.php?pid=22 Issue 9 and New American Writing No. 28. Tiff Dressen began, and Joseph Mosconi finished editing a section on poetry from the symposium for the online journal little Red Leaves ((http://littleredleaves.com/LRL5/5home.html)

Our work sessions, talks, and readings will all take place at The Cultural Center of Delphi where we will also be staying. Please see their website (http://www.eccd.eu/) to get a more detailed sense of the beautiful place and conditions for working.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you plan to attend. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions. I will check in with you at the beginning of March, and will need to know if you are definitely attending by that time.  Details, schedule, logistics, exchange of work to come, as we move closer to the event. If you know of anyone else who you think might be interested in participating please pass their e-mail on to me.

Thank you, and we hope to see you in Delphi!

Susan

(Gevirtz)

Lindsey Boldt and Lauren Levin w/ artist Neil LeDoux in background

"welcome everybody" including: Tanya Hollis, Bob Gluck, Lindsey Boldt, Steve Orth, Ronald Palmer, Dodie Bellamy, Jocelyn Saidenberg and Bruce Boone

big round of applause including: Brazil, Larsen, Warren, Killian Hollis, Gluck, Brown, Manzanno

Dodie Bellamy doing the exposition

Dodie reading her piece from Adios, Pelota!

Lauren Levin and Tony Valadez with drawings by Neil LeDoux on wall

scenes from Dodie's 'Whistle While You Dixie' chapbook celebration reading. tons of folks came out on a warm Sunday San Francisco night to hang out on Lindsey Boldt's stoop, squat on Lindsey Boldt's living room floor, eat Lindsey Boldt's food while having our head's massaged and our pain strummed by Dodie Bellamy's words. Dodie was fantastic of course. she started out by reading her Giants poem from the Adios, Pelota! book which i thought was very cool, then jumped right into reading selections from the WWYD chapbook. this was the second time i've heard Dodie read this piece. only this time i actually got to hear the whole thing. last time around, at a reading at Jason Morris's house with Chris Martin, i could only stand to stay for the first 10 minutes or so...there was a hammered guy standing next to me in the back of the room. and he was kind of hooting and hollering a little too much (via Ariana Reines), and kind of stumbling around and chugging beer and just being really annoying...and i wasn't feeling like Nada Gordon that night so i was like smell you later and grabbed a beer from the fridge and headed out the door heading from Potrero Hill to 16th and Valencia where i met up with Matthew Arnone and probably had a conversation about BSG or August Underground.

but anyways...

thanks Dodie and Summer BF. twas a great night...or your copy of 'Whistle While You Dixie' here...

another celebrity/ poet doppelganger thingy...

Kurt COBAIN

and

Joshua EDWARDS

Steve Orth working hard in the living room putting together Dodie Bellamy's new Summer BF chapbook 'Whistle While You Dixie'.

"All in preparation for the book release party this Sunday at the Summer BF headquarters. Dodie will be reading along with Cynthia Sailers.

Neil LeDoux, who did the wonderful cover for 'Whistle While You Dixie', will have his art on the walls. The interns are being forced to buy 4 cases of 4 Loco, chips and salsa.

So join us at 6:30 this Sunday 11/14, for a
book release/reading/art exhibition/celebration extravaganza.
Of course it takes place at the secretly hidden Summer BF HQ.
Which is totally located at:
1231 Fulton St. Apt 2
San Francisco, CA "

i take meetings with my UPS rep

i take meetings with my FedEX rep

my job requires me to know a lot about postage

USPS tries to meet with me, but you can't trust them

what happened to the mysticism

what happened to Jim Morrison

next week i'm flying to Miami for a book fair

i shipped everything UPSG

Steven Fama reviews Adios, Pelota!

celebrity/ poet doppelganger thingy...

David CROSS


and...

Allen GINSBERG

New Music...

i put out a chapbook of Giants poems for the World Series called Adios, Pelota! i only made 50 copies. i have around 10 left. if you're a Giants fan, or a baseball fan and you want one next time you see me let me know...list of awesome contributors: Patrick Dunagan, Larry Kearney, Brent Cunningham, Jackqueline Frost, John Sakkis, Kevin Killian, Sara Larsen, John Coletti, Keith Shein, Dodie Bellamy, Evan Kennedy, Jason Morris, Logan Ryan Smith, Lindsey Boldt, Zack Tuck, Erica Lewis, Steve Orth, Matthew Zapruder, Cedar Sigo and Jerry Estrin...all Orange and Black poets. WSChamps 2010, thanks for the season Giants. xoxo