Stone Girl E-Pic by Ed Baker

Ed Baker's new book, Stone Girl E-Pic, is now published, and available for sale at Amazon, or on the Leafe Press website (via Paypal). I have to say (immodestly, as publisher) that it's a fine artefact, and a snip at £15.95 (inc. postage). It's large format (almost a foot high and 8.5 inches wide) and it's a fascimile of Ed's original typescript (yes, he typed 500 or so pages on a manual typewriter) including artwork - sometimes full page. The artwork had to be in B&W due to cost contraints, but Ed's a fine draftsman, so it still works (and in any case, many of the drawings were conceived in B&W). Here's the write-up from the Leafe site:

Leafe Press are excited to announce the publication of this major work by American poet and artist Ed Baker. This is a large format book, which includes visual artwork. "Stone Girl E-Pic" is a remarkable visual and minimalist poem, in which Baker's drawings are integrated with, and indeed, form part of, the poem itself. Baker is "in that stream of & flows with" the Objectivist and the Black Mountain poets, and is part of a circle of poets that includes Cid Corman and Theodore Enslin.

"...here is work that manages to retain all the elements and yet make contemporary Vispo look very empty, leaving the reader to look for the essentials of a more tradition-based visual poetry: a minimalism that matters and the most purely 'concrete' art that ever illustrated text. Writing that cuts to the bone, iconoclastic and original, and a 'Stone Girl' art sprung out of the lines themselves. Writing and art on Baker's terms."

Conrad DiDiodato

The Present Day - Ernesto Priego

Click here for details of how to acquire this book.

This is a sequence of poems on contemporary Mexico through the voice of a Mexican living abroad, a commentary on Octavio Paz's chapter 'The Present Day' in 'The Labyrinth of Solitude' and a meditation on the passage of time and the ways in which it's viewed differently in different cultures. The writer lives in London, and the poems reference his beloved English literature, including Dickens and Shakespeare. Don't expect an easy read - it requires work from the reader - but equally, don't expect impenetrability; Priego writes an English - though some short passages are in Spanish - of remarkable simplicity and clarity.

Here's what Ed Baker had to say on reading this book:

"I wasn't sure what to expect especially after first (re) reading Paz's
The Present Day chapter out of The Labyrinth of Solitude...
thought/feared, maybe, trickery and gimmickery

but
was pleasantly surprised... Ernesto's humanity shines through

I appreciate the form that these pieces have taken and the absence of
(most) punctuation

he lets the lines do their own "punctuate" breathing where 'things'
work ... they REALLY do their job

I like his method.... needs be that a few of the pieces have several
images competing unnecessarily nothing major to detract fr4om his thrusts

anyway

I ain't no critic.... the entire book held my attention... and I read
it straight through without a single pee-break!

I also think that production-wise this is a clean presentation/print
job. Good type-font selection..."

Cid Corman, Ed Baker, Theodore Enslin and Chuck Sandy

Turns out Ed Baker, regular visitor to Litterbug, is a friend of Theodore Enslin (see photo). Ed reminded me that the poem to George Oppen was called 'The Weather Within'; it's a wonderful piece of work, and it's still available on-line, here.

Manipulating Goddess

Ed Baker

and here's some poetry to go with it.

I meant to mention the poetry/artwork by Ed Baker which is now available on Litter, soon to be followed by poetry from Morrocan poet Abdellatif Laâbi, in a new translation by American Gordon Hadfield. Work is hectic at the moment. After the delights of John and Kathy's visit and our French holiday, it's back to the grind. I'm working in Bracknell, Berkshire this week, next week in Prague (an improvement on Bracknell, admitedly), then, I hope at home to catch up.