Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange: April 6, 2017 (Updated last month)

The Poetry Center presents Maw Shein Win, Carrie Hunter, Melissa Eleftherion, Aja Couchois Duncan, and Trevor Calvert reading from their contributions to The Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange, an online community for poets to share and collaborate through chapbooks, hosted by The Poetry Center. Their readings are followed by a conversation with the audience.

Elise Ficarra introduces Melissa Eleftherion. Eleftherion explains the creation of The Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange as a way for poets to capture the ephemerality of chapbooks by digitizing and saving them online. Eleftherion introduces Maw Shein Win. Shein Win reads from her chapbook Ruins of a glittering palace (SPA 2013): "Cast away," "Stipulations," "love love," "Questions for the silvery moth." She then reads from Score and Bone (Nomadic Press, 2016): "The Dressing Stick," "Dialogues #12," "Objects," "The Wheelchair," "Are You in the Room With Me Now?" Eleftherion introduces Carrie Hunter. Hunter reads a series of poems from her chapbook Linguascapes (ypolita press, 2012): "Rage is a container...," "We definte ourselves based on what we are not...," "Linguascapes," "There are no true synonyms...," "If I produce a contradiction...," "Entering into agreement..." Elise Ficarra introduces Melissa Eleftherion. Eleftherion reads from her chapbook PrismMaps (dusie kollektiv, 2014): "Little stem resist parent tyranny...," "The aurora call...," "Working girls get the butter..." She then reads from her book Field Guide to Autobiography (H_NGM_N Bks, 2017): "i made myself from rocks," "a human is a halfway house," "abalone," "the apple tree," "acolyte elytra," "Hydra in her own Dust," "that time a tree grew out of my mouth and i had armor." Ficarra introduces Aja Couchois Duncan. Duncan reads "Worst Case Scenarios" from Restless Continent (Litmus Press, 2016): Worst Case Water," "Worst Case Earth," "Worst Case Air." She also reads from her chapbook Nomenclature, Miigaadwin, a Forked Tongue: "Offering, I have only this...," "In old English there is always some German...," "Grammar," "Optics." Ficarra introduces Trevor Calvert. Calvert reads from his chapbook Tide and Mermera, based on Andrei Tarkovsky's movie Solaris: "Begin with the telescoping...," "Spirals and mirrors capture the sound of bells...," "Raining and a torn door...," "Small hands add twigs to fire...," "Paper flickers...," "He was a scientist, not a poet...," "Oh Suzanne, oh don't you cry...," "I have a feeling I've forgotten something...," "I remember drinking tea...," "What is beneath that bandage?", "I am something quite different...," "I love him, I'm human...," "The ancients...," "The woman in white...," "Islands have started to form..." He also reads a work in progress titled Imagined Flowers: "Water spills across wood...," "Air currents pile up...," "Were they roses or petunias...," "Unpewing from the division..."

The poets take questions from the audience. They talk about how they each got started in creating chapbooks. They advise to think of your work as a book and to check out books on making books, as well as looking into small press micropublishing. They also discuss creating continuity throughout the chapbook, picking a focused subject, and how it is typical to wonder where the threads are between single pieces of poetry. They recommend showing work to friends or inviting others to reframe or reinterpret your work. Ultimately, they suggest making writing a sort of game and to enjoy the process of writing.