History of U.S. Puerto Rico Relations
by E. Rowan
This history of U.S. – Puerto Rico relations in one thousand & one words: Vieques
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Puerto Rico
Books and Unicorns in Seattle
by E. Rowan
I just got back from a week-long trip to Seattle, perfectly timed to completely miss the awesome indie publisher festival that’s going on there right now. Sigh. But the purpose was visiting family, and that was fulfilled. Strangely, at least once a day I happened upon a unicorn. The first day it was wandering up to the new location (well, new since I was there last, two years ago) for Elliott Bay Books. After popping in there, drooling over their […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Elliott Bay Books, Pilot Books, Seattle, travel, unicorns
E-lit, digital poetry, new media frenzy
by E. Rowan
As part of my re-entry into indie publishing this past Ides of March with the launch of Anomalous Press, I’ve been incorporating as much new media and hybrid literary arts as I can into my vision. But it’s something that I know only a little about. Well, today I feel like I got a crash course thanks to finding out about the 10th anniversary of the E-Poetry Festival this year on Harriet. The festival looks interesting, and I’m especially intrigued […]
Categories: Poetry • Tags: 21st century publishing, digital poetry, electronic literature, future of the book, new media, poetry
Indie publishers vs. self-publishing
by E. Rowan
This article by Roxane Gay, Taking No For An Answer, over at HTMLGiant got me thinking about self-publishing’s defensive stance against publishers, who as Roxane rightly points out, are positioned as “the enemy.” A lot of the rhetoric around self-publishing confuses me. I wonder when publishers became the enemy. All too often, the rhetoric of self-publishing sounds like writers who are trying to convince themselves that going it alone is the best option because they don’t want to wait or […]
Categories: Publishing • Tags: indie publishing, self publishing, small press
Anomalous Press
by E. Rowan
After weeks of not sleeping, or eating, or really doing much of anything other than this, it’s finally here and ready and shiny and new. Anomalous Press, my new literary journal, launched this morning! What do Nancy Reagan and Mr. T have in common? How about Venantius Fortunatus and Sarah Jessica Parker? The answer to these burning questions, and more, at Anomalous Press. It’s pretty awesome. My husband and I built the site from scratch (despite being sorely tempted to […]
Categories: Publishing • Tags: 21st century publishing, Anomalous Press, audio literature, fiction, hybrid literature, multi-modal, new media, nonfiction, poetry, translation
Reading The World #8
by E. Rowan
I’ve been woefully bad about posting all the interesting things I’ve been up to lately because of the imminent launch of my new journal/press Anomalous Press but the latest Reading the World went up a little bit ago. In this one I talk with translator Mark Schafer about his translations of David Huerta’s poetry and his new translation out from City Lights, The Scale of Maps by Bélen Gopegui. Listen to it in iTunes here. Or stream it on Three […]
Categories: Podcasts • Tags: Bélen Gopegui, City Lights, David Huerta, Mark Schafer, poetry, Reading the World, Three Percent, translation
Pop-up success
by E. Rowan
A few nights ago I learned how to make a pop-up card. It’s surprisingly simple, just takes a little math and planning. And then I successfully made this prototype wedding invitation for my aunt. Pretty awesome, no?
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: crafts, handmade
Glass slipper, a mistranslation
by E. Rowan
I just learned that Cinderella’s glass slipper was made out of fur. That is, in the French. The word was mistranslated in an early version (Phin, Seven Follies, p. 208). And that leads me to believe that mistranslation, intentional or un-, can often be the cause of really wonderful things. How much more poetic, more heartbreaking, more magical is it that her slipper became more than just a fur-covered item, but one of delicate, dangerous, utterly unique glass. Half the […]
Categories: Translation • Tags: Cinderella, fairytale, French, mistranslation
TRex Conquers the Moon and more
by E. Rowan
Just before Christmas I finished and sent off this magnet set I made for a friend who is somewhat invested in the Tyrannosaurus Rex. I’m so proud of it (it took me literally months, but that’s because I was being wishy-washy about it) that I have to share with you: The Adventures of TRex: TRex Goes Snowshoeing TRex Rides the Rooster […]
Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: crafts, handmade, projects, TRex
Objectively Dangerous: There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair by Tomaž Šalamun
by E. Rowan
Tomaž Šalamun’s latest book of poems to be translated into English,There’s the Hand and There’s the Arid Chair, is as difficult as the title suggests. The book has to be read slowly, carefully, over and over for it to unfurl; the poetry is not immediately accessible and requires commitment, dedication. It is demanding, complex and strange. It can’t be absorbed in the span of a single read. Rather, this is the kind of book that I want to come back […]
Categories: Reviews, Translation • Tags: Cerise Press, poetry, review, Tomaz Salamun, translation
E. Rowan Mena 