Minnesota Book Awards Nominee Readings, A Funny Blog, Old English Words, and Sad News About Bill Holm

OK, this is going to have to be a quick entry:

First thing, the Minnesota Book Awards folks just announced their finalists for poetry, and a pair of them are regular Knockout contributors: Todd Boss and Tim Nolan. In addition, two other fine MN writers, Heid Erdrich and Margaret Hasse, were nominated as well. All four are pretty fantastic (mr. bombastic), if you know what I'm saying.

Well, they're giving a reading. Here's the info:

Event: Reading by Minnesota Book Awards Poetry Finalists
"Come out and hear Todd Boss, Heid Erdrich, Margaret Hasse, and Tim Nolan"
What: Listening Party
Host: Barnes & Noble
Start Time: Thursday, April 2 at 7:00pm
End Time: Thursday, April 2 at 8:30pm
Where: Barnes & Noble--Har Mar Mall (Roseville, MN)

Next, I'm a bit of an incessant news reader. I stumbled across this article about the Oldest English Words. Now I'm not vouching for its accuracy, but it does seem strange that we might share a few words out of our vocab with our ancestors from a bazillion years ago. In retrospect, it does make sense--if it ain't broke...

If you've never heard about Stuff White People Like, then you're missing out. A tongue-in-cheek analysis of white culture and specifically, of twenty-somethings (like me) in the creative class, it's pretty spot on. In the interest, of full disclosure, I'm guilty of liking the following:

#109 The Onion
#112 Hummus
#99 Grammar
#11 Asian Girls
#81 Graduate School
#46 The Sunday New York Times
#44 Public Radio
#20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
#106 Facebook

Anyway, check it out, the website (and writing) is smart and funny, even though the humor comes at your own expense. Here's a link to the main page: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

Finally, sad news about a Minnesota standard. Bill Holm, best known as a poet and an essayist, died yesterday. He was 65. Read the Star Tribune article here. And if you haven't read it, check out his book The Music of Failure. The title essay's wonderful. Here's a link to Amazon.

---Brett

New T-Shirt Designs on Cafe Press

OK, just so-s you knows, I've been slaving away designing t-shirts and all varieties of Knockout-related clothing on CafePress. Our cafepress store includes a wide variety of KO-gear, as well as gear for the general book-lover and or dinosaur fan (see the "thesaurus" above). Half of the proceeds from two sections of our shop go to charitable foundations--so get some cool gear and help improve educational opportunties in Sudan or prevent GLBT Youth Suicide. The rest goes to KO. I'm posting a few examples of what we've got to offer here; let me know what you think; I've been working away on these like a bee of work. Bzz. I'll have more designs up soon and more KO-news soon too.

Knockout Writer Denver Butson on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, Mars Rovers and an interesting Wall Street Journal article.

First of all, we're excited to announce that Garrison Keillor will be reading Denver Butson's poem "What She Was Wearing Today" on NPR's Writer's Almanac. If you don't hear it live over the radio, you can go here (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/02/23?refid=0) to read it yourself and download his reading of it.

Next up, the Wall Street Journal ran a level-headed guest editorial entitled "The War on Drugs Is A Failure." It's a frank assessment of the policies of the last few U.S. administrations by three former presidents of Latin American countries (they are former presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, respectively.) They discuss what went wrong, why, and possible ways to proceed. Now don't get me wrong, I disagree with the WSJ a good deal of the time (especially about economics, don't get me started there), but not always. Anyway, judge for yourself.
Here's the link again: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123535114271444981.html

Finally, to the Mars Rovers. Remember the Spirit and Opportunity Mars landers? They touched down on opposite sides of Mars in 2004 and they've been cruising ever since. Originally designed for 90 day missions, they've both lasted five years on a planet



that's 128,400,000-154,900,000 miles from the sun (source). Along the way, they capture video of martian dust devils (here) and the best picture yet of a Martian sunset (left).


Also: When I was an undergraduate at Moorhead State I remember when the landers touched down. Soon thereafter we had a cold snap and I checked online and sure enough--it was warmer on Mars than in Fargo. Some things don't change: Later this week the low for Fargo is forecast to be -14. There's a chance that Mars will be warmer. In any case, if you want more info about Mars or the rovers, check out this link.

Image credit: NASA/JPL

Knockout is now a cause on facebook! And Myspace news!

OK, so like I said in my first post, KO's been a bit behind the times, at least in terms of Myspace. I've always been partial to Facebook, though I've been behind the times there too (as I've always thought the Myspace layout looks circa 1993), but I'm conquering my demons.

To that end, I've been friending my face off on Facebook, and I just created a Knockout Literary Magazine "cause" in the Causes section. All monetary donations will go to The Trevor Project, the organization we're donating to for #2, and I also linked to our nifty cafepress store, which now includes a (cheap!) Knockout t-shirt. Here's the link.
And if you're a Myspacer, I've been revamping KO's Myspace presence too. So friend us, yeah?

Pride and Prejudice AND ZOMBIES

OK, the title of an upcoming movie reads like a bit like a Mcsweeney's List. It's a Jane Austen-style period piece interspersed with ZOMBIES. What's it called, you ask? Pride and Predator.

Apparently, there have been a whole series of these movies (and books). Check it out here.

And if you want the books, check it out here.

--Brett

Random Writing Challenge #1

So I was re-reading some old, old, old poems that I'd written. Most, if not all, were godawful, but one I came across a few exercises that I thought were fun. One of them was a variety of the ever so-cryptic found poem. (I'd really started getting into Found Poetry right about then.)

At the time (early 2000s, mind you), the Department of Homeland Security had just been created, and in the true spirit of "Duck and Cover", they released press releases suggesting that duct tape was an essential tool to protect one's family from chemical/biological weapons. This became known as the "Duct Tape Alert."

In any case, I'm posting one as an example. It's not great, but it's fun. And it's straight from the Fed. Send some along if you get a chance. I'll post 'em, yeah?

Be Informed

Cause suspicion.
If you see
dead people,
take immediate action.
Strip immediately.
Wash.
Look for a hose.
Seek attention.

Source: DHS

ok, this is sort of amazing.

Paste Magazine, a fine damn publication, has released Obamicon and Luvicon, two online apps that let you create fun posters and other gear. The former program lets you create posters similar to the Shepard Fairey's iconic Obama poster.

http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/

Here's the result of my mash-up. Note: This is Brett (me) in the picture, but dressed up a few Halloweens back as a poetry professor. I had a rather large, fake mustache (though I have a real one now), a Christmas sweater, a tweed jacket (with those wacky elbow coverings) and for the entire evening I carried a bunch of Derrida and Joyce around and pontificated about methods of discourse and modes of being.

In retrospect, I look a little more like Sherlock Holmes than a poetry professor, but what's done is done.

Knockout Editor Jeremy Halinen Is Reading

Hey y'all:

Jeremy Halinen, KO's co-editor and co-founder is reading next week!

He's reading at the NW POETRY PUBLISHERS' FORUM

Friday, February 27, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: The Phinney Center
6532 Phinney Ave.
Seattle, WA
Phone: 206.783.2244
Description: Poetry Reading / Literary Panel moderated by litarary journalist Dave Jarecki

Featuring:DAVID BIESPIEL, JEREMY HALINEN, DAVID HOROWITZ, PAUL HUNTER, STEPHANIE LENOX, KIRSTEN RIAN

More info: http://www.phinneycenter.org/arts.shtml

Quick reading list

Brett's currently reading:

Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven
Barry Lopez, Crossing Open Ground
Ernest Shackleton, South
The Iliad, Fitzgerald Translation
George Orwell: Narrative Essays
George Orwell: Critical Essays

Got a bunch of other books kicking around too.

I just got these books for my b-day, hooray: The Thought Box

Just finished:

Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
Carl Sagan, The Varieties of Scientific Experience
Todd Boss, Yellowrocket
Barry Lopez, The Rediscovery of North America
Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Journals

A confession

OK, it's true. I grew up in the Internet age. Truth be told, I was on chat rooms in the late '90s (does anyone else remember the WBS chat network?) and embarassingly enough, I even got cyber-married when I was 13. Typing that makes me feel like some sort of strange polygamist. (Or maybe that's because I'm reading this.) But not to worry, I never consummated said cyber-marriage, and in retrospect, that's probably a good thing. (BTW, my online nickname at the time: Jesterjoker.)

In any case, while I was once on the up-and-up with technology, I'm now behind the times. Granted, I'm not as bad as my mother--she called me the other day and asked me why "Goggle" and "Yoho" were broken. Nevertheless, it does seem to run in the family.

Despite my apparent technological defects, I'm giving it the good old college (postgraduate?) try. Please help spread the word about Knockout if you can, take a look at our website, and link to us, wouldja?

It's alive!

OK folks, so check it out: First things first, we're brand new at this, so this blog should be changing quite a bit in the next few days. A few bits of tantalizing KO news:

(1) Todd Boss's first book, Yellowrocket, was just released by W.W. Norton. You can get the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Yellowrocket-Poems-Todd-Boss/dp/0393067688

Todd's also doing a pair of readings in the Bay Area next week. You can catch him here:

MONDAY 02-23-09 at 6:30 P.M.
AT BOOK PASSAGE, 1 FERRY BUILDING (NEIGHBORHOOD EMBARCADERO),
SAN FRANCISCO: http://www.bookpassage.com/

and here:

AT BLACK OAK BOOKS: TUESDAY 02-24-09 at 7:00 P.M. 1491 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley. http://www.blackoakbooks.com/

TODD BOSS: http://www.toddbosspoet.com/

(2) Tim Nolan's new book, The Sound Of It, was just released from the fine folks New Rivers Press. (Incidentially, Brett used to work there as an undergrad). You can pick the book up here: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Many-Voices-Project/dp/0898232414

Also check out: http://www.newriverspress.com/

(3) If that weren't enough, these two fine fellas were just nominated for a Minnesota Book Award in Poetry along with Heid Erdrich and KO-friend Margaret Hasse. Check out more about that here: http://www.thefriends.org/news.htm#21stfinalists

(4) This list isn't definitive by any means. I'll be updating this list as soon as I can.

(5) In case you didn't know, we're giving 5% of our proceeds from our second issue (which was just released) to charity. We're donating to The Trevor Project (the Trevor Project), an organization that seeks to prevent suicide in the GLBTQ population. Check 'em out: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/.

(6) To that end (and just for the fun of it) we designed a few Knockout T-shirts, magnets, buttons, and so on. Again, proceeds from these products will go to KO and to our associated causes. So pick one up. A few of the designs are just silly. For these, you may blame Brett. (Yes, he likes dinosaurs. Especially this one: http://www.cafepress.com/knockoutpoetry.358218131.)

Check them all out: www.cafepress.com/knockoutpoetry

--OK, that's it for now. And spread the word about KO. We're doing our best to do good.

--Brett