Incendiary Lit

I pulled this old favorite from my shelf tonight and read over it again, remembering why it is an old favorite. Never heard of Campbell McGrath? He’s a MacArthur “Genius” as well as a Guggenheim fellow, a pushcart winner, Kingsley Tufts Award Winner among other prestigious awards he can claim as his own. Still unsure?This comparison may not be entirely accurate, it being after two and the eyelid lead is no longer being withheld my active muscles, making me look like I’m trying to see something far off, but I’d say Campbell McGrath is poetry’s Douglas Coupland. He has the cynical, sarcastic distaste for corporations and vast vocabulary of the young intellectuals in the ’80s. Equal parts Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and the Who (or Guns ‘n Roses perhaps). American Noise is McGrath’s second collection, after “Capitalism” which is long out of print, sadly. AN is probably one of my favorites. Favorite books period. There is such a vast, overwhelmingly American feel to his poetry, even when not describing things in America. He’s been a sailor, carpenter and alligator wrestler, but now settles with wrestling words in Miami, where he teaches at Florida International University’s MFA program. I had the good fortune of having been taught his poem Angels and the Bars of Manhattan in an early poetry class, and can’t help but think that I too will be teaching a poem from this collection when I’m teaching intro to creative writing to Freshmen. Right now I’m gravitating towards the wonderful Smokestacks, Chicago Here’s just the opening few lines, and you’ll understand:

“To burn, to smolder with the jeweled incendiary coal
of wanting, to move and never
stop, to seize, to use,
to shape, grasp, glut, these united
states of transition, that’s
it, that is it,
our greatness, right
there.”

The urgency of the poem, the mad-listing, and that “jeweled incendiary coal of wanting” how could you not love it. It’s also one of his much shorter poems (in line length, and only 2 pages, below the mean poem length of 3 pages for this journal) so it should, I figure, be easier to teach kids with shorter attention spans than my own. I should quote again, to give you another little taste for the book. Here’s from a poem directly linking him to the Beats- Blue Tulips and Night Train for Jack Kerouac’s Grave (y’all ridin the train? Woo woo!)

“This morning I see you slouched beneath the streetlight
on the corner, passing a bottle of tokay with the winos
from the last welfare dives on Belmont–the Julian,
the Bel-Ray, the Diplomat Hotel–a semaphore of cigarettes
and anachronistic neon, Transients Welcome
on the blink in rubific pink italic script.
October. Drizzle of elm trees and solemn flags.
Memories of the railroad earth kicked up on the wind
that squeegees fallen leaves along the back alleys
rich with the cast off declensions of our lives”

Pretty sweet, right? But did you see rubific? Declensions? Hopefully you don’t mind the out of the ordinary vocabulary words coming at you, because he digs deep into his pouch of words, and often. His poems are about celebration in the everyday, in roadside signs in the 7-11 burrito, “For his is the land of Salisbury steak and crinkle-cut fries,” for his are poems in which the questions and issues all of humanity deals with are dealt with: loneliness, alienation, mortality, but also camaraderie; celebration in a pint and a shot, a sunset in Brewster County, Texas, driving at night. At times life-threateningly urgent, at others meditative. Just, check it out already. Here’s a link for you lazy readers who might not buy the book if I don’t make it overwhelmingly easy for you. There are 3 copies under $6 right now, and another 3 under $7. I’ll leave you with one last quotation from Night Travelers:

“Rising from Newark I see the cars of the homebound commuters assembled

like migrating caravans.

Lush as glowworms, gregarious as electric eels in their dusty blue Hondas

and plush Monte Carlos,

they jam the tollways and access roads, flood the exits and passing lanes,

circle the sinuous cloverleaves

until they are nothing but rivers of dun and aluminum and butter-colored light”

So you have your poems collecting dust, the journals they’ve been in are sitting on your bookshelf, or worse even, in a box somewhere. Now what? Put together a book of course. But you don’t want to just slip through the waters of the poetry world and sink to the bottom, you want to make a splash! Well, that’s a lot tougher than it seems like it should be. But your first book winning a prize, that’s a little something extra to put on a resume. Here are some First Book Awards that are coming upon their deadline still in the ‘07 year:

The Gatewood Prize Deadline: October 1 (for only women between 18 and 39)
The Gerald Cable Book Award Deadline: October 15
Three Candles Press First Book Award Deadline: October 15
APR/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry Deadline: October 31
Patricia Bibby First Book Award Deadline: October 31
Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize Deadline October 31 (For only an American woman)
Walt Whitman Award Deadline: November 15
Yale Series of Younger Poets Deadline: November 15
Perugia Press Prize Deadline: November 15 (for only a woman’s first or second book)
New Issues Poetry Prize Deadline: November 30
A Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize November 30

Or time-tremors if you will. If we don’t have exercises or a joke for you in the course of the day, take that as a hint to pay more attention to your daily tasks, as the autopilot could go off at any second. For more on Timequakes read Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s tremendous book, intriguingly titled Timequake. Get your Kilgore Trout fix in these dark times without K.

Memoir writing is a risky undertaking. Although Augusten Burroughs’ widely-known memoir “Running with Scissors” was a critical success, even spawning a movie released last year by Sony Pictures, Burroughs’ novel was not without controversy. The Turcotte family, called the Finches in “Scissors,” brought a lawsuit again Burroughs and his publisher, which the family settled today. According to the Boston Globe’s article about the settlement, the suit “…had sought $2 million in damages for defamation, invasion of privacy, and emotional distress. It alleged the book is largely fictional and written in a sensational way to increase its market appeal, and demanded a public retraction and an acknowledgment that “Running With Scissors” is a work of fiction.”

As a result of the suit, Burroughs will change the word “memoir” to “book” in his acknowledgments note, and will also mention that the Turcottes “are each fine, decent, and hardworking people.” However, over at Gawker.com they have Burroughs’ statement on the matter, which asserts that the settlement is a “a victory for all memoirists,” as he wasn’t required to alter the text or cover of the book. Burroughs also mentions in the statement that the new acknowledgment will “point out the fact that they [the Turcottes] remember things differently.” Ha. I’m sure they do.

America is still mad about Harry. However, his reign atop the nation’s best-seller lists may be coming to an end next week, thanks to another teen fantasy series that features vampires instead of wizards.

On this week’s Wall Street Journal best-selling fiction list, the HP behemoth occupies not only the top of the heap, but spots 5, 6, 11 and 13. On USA Today’s list, half of the top ten is comprised of Rowling’s series.

Still, Khaled Hosseini’s “A Thousand Splendid Suns” managed to break through the Potter- pile and seize the number 2 spot. The feature film based on his previous novel “The Kite Runner” hits theaters this fall.

Also making waves in the top ten is “New Moon” by Stephenie Meyer, the second in a YA series about a supernatural romance between a girl and a vampire. The third book in the series, “Eclipse,” released this week on August 7th, sold a surprisingly hefty 150,000 copies its first day in release, proving readers are beginning to look beyond Harry Potter to get their fantasy fix. “Eclipse” is expected to bump “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” from the #1 spot next week. Still, over at DearAuthor they’re reporting the third installment hasn’t lived up to fans’ expectations, so it remains to be seen whether the series’ impressive sales numbers will hold over time.

WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS: FICTION

1. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)

2. “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead Hardcover)

3. “The Quickie” by James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge (Little, Brown and Company)

4. “The Secret Servant” by Daniel Silva (Putnam)

5. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre (Scholastic)

6. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre (Scholastic)

7. “The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel” by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)

8. “New Moon” by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)

9. “Beyond Reach” by Karin Slaughter (Delacorte)

10. “High Noon” by Nora Roberts (Putnam)

For more current best-sellers, click here

So it’s been over a week since the release of the seventh (and final) book in the Harry Potter series, and the onslaught of articles and opinions is upon us. Some of my favorite tidbits from around the web:

Not surprisingly, Harry had a record-breaking first day, selling 8.3 million copies in the US alone. At Barnes and Noble, during that all-important first hour of sales at midnight releases, 150 books were being sold per second. Pretty intense! More fun sales figures await here.

I thought this article from Christian Science Monitor “Missing from ‘Harry Potter’ – a real moral struggle” was an interesting read. While I disagree with a few of Ms. Sawyer’s points, it’s apparent she’s a fan of the series and isn’t just critiquing blindly, which seems to happen far too often for my liking when it comes to Harry Potter. What I most enjoyed was her assertion about who the true protagonist was, as my sentiments after finishing the book were quite similar.

Time Magazine’s literary critic Lev Grossman has a well-written review that, unlike the New York Times review, provides insightful commentary without spoiling any plot points. He also has a spoiler-full blog post I found enjoyable as well- I had the same thought about Griphook the goblin’s situation, though Grossman mixes up Bill and Charlie. However, he also calls Snape a “bad-ass,” so you know his head’s in the right place.

Over at Entertainment Weekly, a magazine that’s always been friendly to Harry and co., there’s a seven page “Muggle’s Guide” to the series, if your memory needs any refreshing. They’ve also got answers to readers’ queries about the story, though some of them seem a bit obvious to any reader who paid attention. My favorite, however, was EW’s interview with Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter’s big-screen counterpart. He actually had some good comments, and brought up a bit of information regarding the script of the fourth film that made want to go back and re-read the whole series with an eye open for hints at the story’s resolution. I’m still hoping that Stephen King will write a column or review on the book, his past writings on the subject are simply awesome (like this one).

Scholastic, the US publisher of HP, has just announced the J.K. Rowling and the Open Book Tour Sweepstakes. 1000 lucky fans will be chosen to attend a reading by Jo at Carnegie Hall on October 19th. You can enter the drawing at Scholastic’s website after July 30th.