Ages

It's been a while since I wrote anything on here, but it seems like an update needs to happen.

Also, since I wrote last time the Giants won the Super Bowl. Won't get tired of saying that until they're no longer the victors. Hopefully that takes at least a few years.

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First off, regarding the First Book Interviews, the first one, starting up the new wave of interviews that will hopefully take us into at least the new year, will be published on May 1st.

I have many poets I need to get interviews too, and a good amount of books to get through. If you're schedule to get an interview, you will soon, and accept my apologies for the delay.

PhD work is catching up with me, along with teaching, so soon enough I'll have time to dedicate to the series and get it back up and running with a new interview every two weeks.

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Also, I've had some recent publications over the last few months that you can check out if you're interested. Most are from my third manuscript, of which I recently finished a draft that I'm pretty happy with.

There's an interview and four poems in Connotation Press

Four poems in Superstition Review

One poem in Quarterly West

One poem in Devil's Lake

One poem in Linebreak

And some others in future issues of Rhino, Weave Magazine, Bellingham Review, Cream City Review, and a few more.

I still have a lot of these going out into the world also. I know they're not for everyone, but I decided just to go for it and try to put together a conceptual manuscript with all the film poems. I think it's working pretty well, but we'll see what others think when I get some more eyes on it.

I've been thrilled by the response from so many editors, so now it's to keep working on the third, and keep sending out my second manuscript, which I hope will be out in the world soon enough, but we all know how that goes.

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More soon...

Check back in May for the start of the new wave of First Book Interviews.

First Book Interview #51 - Steve Kistulentz

Today there's a new interview with Steve Kistulentz.

Check out the interview. Check out his work. Grab a copy of his book.

#51 - Steve Kistulentz

First Book Interview #50 - Shane McCrae

We've reached the half century mark with the newest First Book Interview from Shane McCrae.

Mule has gotten quite a good reception out there thus far, and for good reason, so do check out his work and buy his book.

#50 - Shane McCrae

A Few

Wanted to share this new review of Ghost Lights at Southeast Review Online by John Beardsley, whom I also need to thank profusely.

He did a great job with it, and though there haven't been a ton of reviews of the book, I've been thrilled with all of them, and this is definitely no exception.

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Also, last week I got my contributor copies of Copper Nickel, and the issue not only looks fantastic as an art object, but there's a ton of newer poets for whom I'll be on the lookout in the future, along with some friends and great poets I've been following for a while.

It's becoming one of my favorite journals in the country, and is surely worth the subscription price.

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Picking up The Tree of Life tomorrow.

Finally.

There was no stand-alone DVD released, as it should be.

Aside from the theater, it now needs to be seen on Blu-ray only.

I can't wait.

First Book Interview #49 - Nicky Beer

One more closer to 50 with a new one from Nicky Beer --

Happy reading.

#49 - Nicky Beer

While

So at this point, I'm not updating this regularly, except for First Book Interviews, and it will most likely stay that way.

Though once in a while I'll to do an update, like this one, in the midst.

Otherwise, I have two years left, if all goes well, until I have my PhD. And the job market waits for no man.

Considering how fast the first two years went, and all the great advice I've gotten from friends, I figure I need to start getting a foothold on what to look for, how to prepare, etc. for all the paperwork and the like that will soon be occurring.

Along with that, teaching, writing, watching amazing films, preparing for and writing comprehensive exams, and trying to be a good husband, I know these two years are going to go by even faster.

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In other news worth mentioning, I think: I was thrilled that my second manuscript, Sirens and Wildfire, which has making the rounds for a little less than two years now (picking up some other finalist nods along the way, for which I'm also very thankful), was a finalist for The National Poetry Series.

I was never more shocked by a poetry-related email in my life. I can tell you that.

I wasn't one of the five chosen in the end, but friend and fellow writer (whose first manuscript, Praise Nothing, you should put on your to-buy list when it's inevitably published) Joshua Robbins was also a finalist, and considering we've seen each other's said manuscripts and have talked a lot about them regarding contests, structuring, and much more, I was happy to be in such company.

I'm still hoping to have the manuscript under contract before I'm done at Binghamton in less than two years. That news gave me a little more hope that this thing's now officially ready, and I hope someone eventually believes in it enough to take a shot at getting it into the world.

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I have a poem in the new issue of DIAGRAM. As always, it's a varied and wild issue, and one definitely worth your time.

The poem's from a new series I'm working on. I'm hoping to put together a kind of conceptual manuscript (something I'd never thought about doing until maybe a year ago) within the next year (as I have about a third of it written currently).

If it doesn't turn into anything, I'm still loving the process of writing these. And overall, that's really the most important aspect of the project right now.

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Two poetry-related making-waves discussions lately (and yes, I'm late on these) are Brett Ortler's post about BlazeVOX and all the hullabaloo about MFA Rankings.

Regarding the latter, I'm on the side of down-with-rankings, but as I've mentioned in the past on this blog: I'm so thrilled that none of this talk existed in 2002-2003, when I was beginning my process of applying to schools.

But it's going to go on no matter what. As for young writers, I just hope they had the great guidance that I did, and they're applying to programs for the right reasons.

For what it's worth, in my opinion this is one of the best posts about it: belonging to Paisley Rekdal.

And for the former, I'm glad that got out into the open. At the very least, it prompted a ton of interesting discussions about publishing, self publishing, what's to gain by getting published, what the publishers gain from publishing you, etc.

Sometimes the arguments can be misleading, but to me, once you're able to slough through everything, a lot of it's worth reading, and then you can make your own decision.

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I'm now on Twitter (very late to the party), though I don't update it as often as some, here, if you're interested: http://twitter.com/keithmontesano

Contradictory, mostly. Boring to most, probably. But alas, there I am.

It's mostly my obsession and frustration with the New York Giants (Dear Lord: Why all the injuries?) coupled with some thoughts about films I'm devouring (and I watch as many as I can between everything else, as many people know). And I'll update there with news sometimes and new First Book Interviews. But mostly I like to keep the poetry-related goings-on within the blog.

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Finally, both poetry and film-related, The Tree of Life is released on Blu-ray on October 11th.

Black out the windows. Lock the doors. And crank the speakers.

First Book Interview #48 - Jeremy Halinen

Here's a new First Book Interview with Jeremy Halinen --

You know you want to read it.

#48 - Jeremy Halinen