Friday, November 05, 2004

I'm going to Stephanie's.

Also, I forgot to post this earlier, but tonight at SPT there is what promises to be a great reading.

Mark McMorris is a poet, originally from Jamaica but via the US experimental scene (so an interesting mixture of influences). A really wonderful, declamatory poet and also all around amazing guy to talk to. [Strange Mark McMorris-Mills connection... He came and read at Mills a few years ago and Mills uses his image in all their publicity for the MFA program. So I'm sure you've seen his image. I keep joking to him that he should demand a fee or that Georgetown, where he now teaches, should send a desist letter.]

Rob Halpern's book just came out from Krupskaya and I've been enjoying it a great deal. It is really rich, really complicated language around desire. He is an SF poet. I've not heard him read before but I'm looking forward to it.

Friday, November 5, 2004 at 7:30 p.m.
Rob Halpern & Mark McMorris

Rob Halpern joins us in celebration of his debut book, Rumored Place, which Camille Roy says "commits itself to a lyric interrogation of power. The abjection of lyric is brought to bear as critique in a sensationalism of pure intelligence... the result is a work for our moment: exhilarating, and edged with grief." Mark McMorris' books include Moth-Wings, The Black Reeds, and the just released The Blaze of Poui, of which the Voice Literary Supplement says "Poetic equilibrium of this order is a rare thing when managing such charged material, but in a young poet it is cause for small amazement." McMorris joins us from Washington, DC, where he teaches at Georgetown University.

Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco (just off the intersection of 16th & Wisconsin)