E. Rowan Mena

Vanity Presses, Self-Publishing & The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight

August 26, 2013 by E. Rowan

I just received an advance review copy of The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight, forthcoming in January from Altaire Productions & Publications. I wasn’t surprised that I hadn’t heard of the poet or the press, they are in Australia and it’s a sad reality that very few books published outside the US gain any real attention here. There are a handful of UK presses I know and love, because I lived there briefly, and I’ve worked hard to gain expertise in […]

Categories: Poetry, Publishing, Reading Journal, Reviews • Tags: altaire productions, marie slaight, poetry, self publishing, self-published, terrance hasker, the antigone poems, vanity press

The History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo (ed. David Carrasco)

August 18, 2013 by E. Rowan

I just finished the 376 page abridgment of Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s “true” History of the Conquest of New Spain selected, edited and translated by David Carrasco. I stumbled across this book in a reference, an extended quote, from another book I was reading on the history of the feather (Feathers by Thor Hanson). A vivid description of the splendor of the aviaries in Tenochitlan, and their subsequent targeted destruction by burning by Cortés. Though I didn’t find either of […]

Categories: Reading Journal • Tags: bernal diaz del castillo, history, Latin America, mexico, reading journal

Some Days Are Great

August 14, 2013 by E. Rowan

Today is a beautiful day. I’m totally soaring right now because I just got copies of the course evaluations from the course Matt and I taught in the first part of the summer at UMass Boston (The Art of Stealing). We had thirteen students in the class, and boy were they amazing. I’ve said this about every class I’ve taught so far (maybe I’m just super lucky with students?), but this was by far my favorite class. When the semester […]

Categories: Teaching • Tags: #stealart, culture jamming, teaching, the art of stealing

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Letterpress Art for Sale

August 13, 2013 by E. Rowan

Hi Friends! So I’ve decided to get my act together and put some of the letterpress stuff I’ve been making online. I’ve added a bunch of stuff to my Flickr account and intend to be better about updating my artwork there, so if you’re interested in what I’m making, check it out. And if you ever wanted to buy anything that I make (triceratops notecards, anyone?) check out my new store on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/smartmousepress

Categories: Art • Tags: art, books, broadsides, handmade, letterpress, notecards

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Truth in Advertising

August 12, 2013 by E. Rowan

I‘ve started noticing more than the usual egregious amount of photoshopping going on in my consumer experience. And so, since most of my consuming is done online, I decided I would begin capturing it. Pointing it out. This is a series of completely unaltered screen-grabs is from the Maidenform website (not even the whole website, just one page). The first two appear exactly as they did on the Maidenform website (i.e. side by side, and in the same row), and […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: advertising, body image, feminism, killing us softly, lingerie advertising, photoshop, women's bodies

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Critical vs. Criticism (And Misogyny in SF)

August 10, 2013 by E. Rowan

Not all reviews have to be critical. Of course they have to be critical, but they don’t have to criticize. And it’s too bad that so many reviewers out there seem to think that in order to demonstrate their own intelligence they have to tear apart the work they’re reviewing as much as possible. I’ve seen this over and over as a trend in reviewing – surprising because just a few years ago I remember a number of people ’round […]

Categories: Reviews • Tags: criticism, feminism, feminist, guardian books, literature, misogyny, reviews, science fiction, sexism, sf mistressworks, women

Trapped in a translation binary

August 9, 2013 by E. Rowan

I’ve only just read Adam Plunkett’s review of Merwin’s Selected Translations for The New Republic. Plunkett seems to be trapped in a couple of typical binaries, the first and most obvious when considering works of translated literature: faithfulness and departure. Plunkett spends a good part of the review taking Merwin to task for not being faithful to the originals, but unlike other reviewers who fall into this trap, he actually attempts to define what he means by faithful. Plunkett is […]

Categories: Translation

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Saddest Reading List Ever

August 9, 2013 by E. Rowan

Maybe it’s because it’s pouring rain, or because something about the end of the summer always makes me sad. Maybe it’s because my husband is out of town for the weekend, and I tend toward the morose. Before he left this morning he came back from his morning run dripping wet, from the rain and sweat, but also with tears. He said (my emotionally stable, steady husband) he had made himself cry while running imagining what it would be like […]

Categories: Reading Journal

Darkness at Night by Edward Harrison

August 1, 2013 by E. Rowan

A few months ago I used the word “dark” in a poem, and brought it into my workshop. I knew it was a risk, there are a number of words that are more or less off limits to ‘serious’ poets. In fact, there are so many words that are off limits to poets that it’s hard to categorize them, or say generally what makes them off limits. For the most part it’s overuse – which gives an easiness to the […]

Categories: Reviews • Tags: astronomy, darkness, math, olber's paradox, poetry, science

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Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schlanasky, trans. Christine Lo

June 15, 2013 by E. Rowan

This book caught my eye a few years ago in the Harvard Bookstore. I wasn’t at the time acquiring books, since we’d been moving so much, so I wrote down the title in Evernote on my phone and promptly forgot about it. This spring, as I was trying to clean out some stuff from my phone hoping to squeeze another few months of life out of it, I came across the note and remembered being intrigued by the subtitle: Fifty […]

Categories: Reading Journal • Tags: atlas of remote islands, book arts, cartography, christine lo, judith schlanasky, translation

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