"If any state fails to take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority": Article 48, "Decree of the Reich President for the protection of People and State," 3/1/1933

last book: Make It Broken by Patrick Pritchett
current read: The Gossip Columnist's Daughter by Peter Orner
tbr last added: That Book Is Dangerous by Adam Szetela
next: Mercy by Joan Silber

Review: ‘L.A. Women’ is a breezy retro novel with bite — and lots of familiar characters Frenemies bearing more than a little resemblance to Joan Didion and Eve Babitz circle each other in Ella Berman's Laurel Canyon tale about creativity, ambition and reluctant motherhood.

At the LAT, I reviewed Ella Berman's "L.A. Women," about the love-hate relationship between two writers---one Didion-ish, the other and Babitz-esque---in the 60s and 70s. Beach-read-y, but it's smart about literary rivalries, sexism, and class FOMO. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Today's mail brought enticing new titles from @uglyducklingpresse.bsky.social -- I'm starting with EXERCISES 1950-1960 by Yannis Ritsos whose work I've always loved and who had been arrested in '48 & tortured during the Greek Civil War. He spent 4 years in jail. Translated by Spring Ulmer.

Katherine Larson's WEDDING OF THE FOXES is due 7/15 via
@milkweededitions.bsky.social. Splendid essays. Here's "Soap: Art of Failure" via ON THE SEAWALL / (our review is coming in Sept) bit.ly/40ETyUK

Fanny Howe's work is a gift to us. My pieces on MANIMAL WOE ('21) bit.ly/3GyD4WZ & THE WINTER SUN ('09) bit.ly/4leal8Z via ON THE SEAWALL

RIP Rosalind Fox Solomon. A few words on her A WOMAN I ONCE KNEW bit.ly/4nqhKmY from ON THE SEAWALL

Today is Fernando Pessoa's bday (1888). When I visited his house in Lisbon, the docent allowed me to place a fingertip on the letter P of his typewriter.

RIP Brian Wilson. A while back, I reviewed his memoir I AM BRIAN WILSON and Mike Love's GOOD VIBRATIONS at On The Seawall / bit.ly/3TitFp5

@samuelamadon.bsky.social

Lucky pigeon.

NEW: The May/June edition of ON THE SEAWALL. Please stop by the gallery / ronslate.com

Amelia Rosselli's pivotal DOCUMENT now available via
@worldpoetrybooks.bsky.social, poems written 1966-73. Here's an earlier piece I wrote on Rosselli for
ON THE SEAWALL / bit.ly/3ZCIshZ

ON THE SEAWALL is consistently full of smart, diverse voices. Every issue is a fascinating dinner party with @ronslate.bsky.social as the consummate host.

Also, guess what? These poems are going to be in SCYTHE, coming next year from @riverriverbooks.bsky.social 🎉

"Vida Nova, Los Angeles," "Heat Index" & "Teaching Marie Antoinette to Drive" -- 3 poems by @esylviapoet.bsky.social in the new May/June edition of ON THE SEAWALL ... bit.ly/43A6E77

NEW: The May/June edition of ON THE SEAWALL. Please stop by the gallery / ronslate.com

“He never tried to seek simple causal relations between the social forces of a period and a given work. He did not want to explain the appearance of the work; he wanted to discover the place that its existence needed to occupy in our knowledge": John Berger on Walter Benjamin

Meghan O’Rourke: The Work of a Little Magazine as Higher Education… Amid Trump’s attacks on higher education, making a space for literature and the arts is more important than ever.

"We find ourselves gathered not just to discuss poems & ideas but to reckon with what feels like the narrowing of possibility around us ... not only the state’s crackdowns, but the constriction of space for the work we do": @meghanor.bsky.social @yalereview.bsky.social bit.ly/3GkW0bf

Paul Celan DOTD 1970 at age 48 "more than any other poet poised the word against its affiliations,” said Heather McHugh. On BREATHTURN INTO TIMESTEAD bit.ly/4jlXIb3 via On The Seawall

InReview: The Close is where the heart is “Paradise Close,” the debut novel from poet and critic Lisa Russ Spaar, is an enchanting, soulful meditation on what it means to be home. Filled...

NBCC member Lisa Russ Spaar's debut novel, "Paradise Close," was reviewed by Christy Gualtieri at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

On Tuesday night 4/8 7:30pm ET, Elaine Sexton will read for us at PathwaysArts -- & you can join via Zoom. Her new collection is Site Specific: New & Selected Poems. The link will be available on Tues afternoon at pathwaysmv.org -- scroll to the "poster" for the reading.

ust heard that @masshumanities.bsky.social's NEH grant "has been terminated," loss of 35% of annual revenue. NEH staff now on "administrative leave," so agency is effectively shuttered.

People will come, Mark, people will come.

"Trump’s courting of Putin has provided an opportunity to expand and strengthen their subversion campaign in Europe": Andrei Soldatov @foreignaffairs.com bit.ly/4kPj2H6 [ie arson at Heathrow?]

Turkey Is Now a Full-Blown Autocracy Erdogan may come to regret his latest power grab.

"The government has crossed the line that separates Turkey’s competitive authoritarian system from a full, Russian-style autocracy in which the president handpicks his opponents and elections are purely for show": Gonul Tol @foreignaffairs.com fam.ag/4iKlxsn

"Her parents had badgered her about conforming to their notions of femininity. Now the child displays her belly fat and cracked toenails": my piece on A WOMAN I ONCE KNEW by Rosalind Fox Solomon via On The Seawall bit.ly/4l0rwel

"Sorokin’s work feels more and more urgent by the hour":
@tobiascarroll.bsky.social on Dispatches From the District Committee, a novel by Vladimir Sorokin @dalkeyarchive.bsky.social bit.ly/4j0wHJs via
On The Seawall

"An atmosphere of persistent unease and suspense, triggering contemplation of the delicate balance between order & chaos": @brittastromeyer.bsky.social on ULTRAMARINE by Mariette Navarro @deepvellum.bsky.social bit.ly/41EmA6f via ON THE SEAWALL

My pieces on AURORA AMERICANA by Myronn Hardy
@princetonupress.bsky.social, IN THE GLITTERING MAW by Joyce Mansour & BOOK OF EXERCISES II by George Seferis / @On_The_Seawall bit.ly/3DJ7p3G

"It felt so stupid to be afraid / of you. Still does. / Thinking I would be safe / if I became the place to hide": from 3 new poems by Jarrett Moseley via ON THE SEAWALL
bit.ly/3R3hPOz