CR Newsletter March

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Happy march, fellow book lovers.  The March Compulsive Reader newsletter is now on its way to you, featuring reviews of new books like Meowku by Patricia Carragon and Flight by Robert Anthony Gibbons, Asylum Garden: after Van Gogh by Alan Catlin, Nina’s Memento Mori by Mathias Freese, and The Land of Last Chances by Joan Cohen. We also have lots of new interviews, including exciting new author Holden Sheppard, as well as two new audio interviews at Compulsive Reader talks.  There are two fantastic new giveaways too, and of course the full round-up of literary news from around the globe.  If you’re a subscriber it should be hitting your inbox very soon.  If not, you can sign up straightaway here: http://www.compulsivereader.com.  It’s free and we just send out the one email a month.  If you can’t wait for it to arrive, you can view it in your browser now.  Happy reading!

Festival Season: IF Festival in Maitland

We’re nearly in that lovely time of year when literary festivals abound. Are there too many? Nah. The questions we’re discussing in these festivals and the ongoing collaboration between readers and writers is more critical than ever. I’ve got three festivals in a row where I’m involved in panels, as moderator and presenter.
The kick off is the inaugural Indie Festival (IF) in Maitland: https://ifmaitland.org  All of the panels are completely free!  There are also a range of excellent workshops (not free but very inexpensive), and keynotes (also free). My sessions are on Saturday the 29th of February.

 I’m starting the day with the aptly titled The Importance of Regional Writers Festivals, moderated by David Graham. Joining me on the panel will be Creative Kids Tales’ Georgie Donaghey, UQld’s Dr Kim Wilkins and UMelbourne’s Dr Beth Driscoll, both highly respected, multi-published academics who are working together on the project Genre Worlds: Australian Popular Fiction in the Twenty-First Century. This session is going to be a cracker opening to the day. The session is followed by a series of Flying Island pocket book launches led by Flying Island’s very erudite Editor-in-Chief (who is launching his own new book on the day) including Michael Crane, Susan Fealy, Clark Gormley, Geoff Page, Kerri Shying, Melinda Smith, Gillian Swain, and George Watt. What a line-up! I’ll be personally launching both Melinda and Gillian’s new books and what an honour that is. My next session is called Just Walking the Dog, which I’ll be moderating, featuring poets Gillian Swain and Brian Purcell. We’ll be exploring the development of poems from initial idea through to release into the world and judging from our initial interactions, this is going to be an incredible conversation, full of fun and insights. Finally, phew, I’ll be moderating a panel on Independent and Community Publishing with Kit Kelen, Georgie Donaghey, and Jennifer Sharpe from Daisy Lane Studios about the different pathways to getting published independently. Come and learn from the best! Once again, all of these sessions are absolutely free of charge (but first in best dressed, so get in early), and there will always be time at the end for questions and audience interaction - you are the most essential part of this! So if you’re able, please come join me on the day - that’s Saturday February 29th around 230 High Street (there are a few venues), Maitland NSW.

Compulsive Reader Newsletter for Feb is now out

Our latest issue of Compulsive Reader Newsletter is now out.  This issue contains 8 fresh reviews including Billie Elish’s latest album, and new books by Jennifer Maiden, Robert Letters, Peter Papathanasiou, Lindsey Warren, Krishna Mohana Banerjea, Roslyn McFarland, and Leanna Petronella, as well as interviews with MBR’s Jim Cox, and Joey L. Dowdy. Of course there is also the usual roundup of literary news/awards, and 2 great competitions.  If you’re a subscriber, you should be receiving it in your inbox very soon.  If you aren’t a subscriber, subscribe here: http://www.compulsivereader.com.  You can also grab a copy online here: http://www.compulsivereader.com/sendpress/email/?sid=MA&eid=MTQ4ODE

Compulsive Reader Newsletter for Jan is out

Happy 2020 everyone!  Compulsive Reader is now in its 22nd year, which is a long time in Internet terms!  For those of you who have been with us for a while - thank you - I appreciate your ongoing engagement and camaraderie!  For new readers, welcome!  This month we have a terrific round up of literary news including Waterstones Book of the Year, The Diagram Oddest Book Title, The Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and more, along with another dozen new reviews like The Girl in the Mirror by Jenny Blackford, The Weekend by Charlotte Wood, and Ivory Apples by Lisa Goldstein, as well as our podcast interview with Jenny Blackford, and Q&As with David Puretz, Douglas Cole and Sybil Baker. Of course we have giveaways too.  If you’re a subscriber a copy is on its way to your inbox now.  If not, sign up here: http://www.compulsivereader.com.  You can also check it out at our online archive:
http://www.compulsivereader.com/sendpress/email/?sid=MA&eid=MTQ4MTI

Compulsive Reader News for Dec is out

The December Compulsive Reader Newsletter has gone out now and should be in your inbox now or very soon.  This month we have interviews with Three Dollars’ Elliot Perlman, Arachne Press’ Cherry Potts, Emerald City’s Brian Birnbaum, The Frugal Book Promoter’s Carolyn Howard-Johnson (Carolyn and I are long time collaborators as well), Son of the Sea, Daughter of the Sun’s Marc Graham, and a bunch of new reviews including The Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith, Creature by Rosalee Kiely, White Tears/Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad, and plenty more, along with a round-up of literary news, and two fabulous new site giveaways. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, you can check it out here:  View CR News in your browser

If you aren’t a subscriber, just pop over to http://www.compulsivereader.com and sign up.  It’s free - and I only send out one newsletter a month.  Happy reading!

CR Newsletter for November

The November Compulsive Reader Newsletter has just gone out and should be in your inbox now or very soon.  This month we have reviews of new books by Oliver Smuhar, Adrian Koesters, Sarah Myles (and do check out our interview with Sarah here: Sarah Myles on The Wolf Hour), Loisa Fenichell, Susan Taylor Meehan, our own reviewer par excellence Ruth Latta, Malcolm Gladwell, and Elayne Klasson.  We also have interviews with C B Anderson, Tantra Bensko, C R Richards, and Lois Hermann, and of course the usual extensive round-up of literary news, and two new site giveaways (Do please enter those - we generally only get about 20% of you entering the comps so odds are good!).  

If you haven’t gotten yours yet, you can check it out here:  View CR News in your browser 

If you aren’t a subscriber, just pop over to http://www.compulsivereader.com and sign up.  It’s free - and I only send out one newsletter a month.  Happy reading!

Poem (As the cat)

We’re just beginning week 6 (the beats!) of the wonderful annual 10 week session on modern experimental US poetry (ModPo).  William Carlos Williams (affectionately known as WCW) is actually covered in  week 3 and though I feel like I have an intimate knowledge of WCW’s work, once again, ModPo has given me a poem to work with that I’ve not read before: “Poem (As the cat)”.  We wrote our second essays in week 4, and critiqued others (a pleasurable activity that always yields new insights) through week 5. The full text of the poem follows:

As the cat
climbed over
the top of


the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot


carefully
then the hind
stepped down


into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot


Here’s my essay :-)

William Carlos Williams’ (WCW) “As the cat” takes the form of a single sentence. The poem follows the progression of a cat as it climbs over a cupboard into an empty flowerpot. The poem uses simple prosaic language, and creates a clear visual. The poem is spare in form, and free of extraneous words, however, this is not a static poem, and there are subtle, but deliberate choices that open the poem to interpretations that belie its apparent simplicity.


“As the cat” is structured to flow in soft, cat-like steps of 3 and 4 syllable lines. This is a cat on the move. The poem opens with the word “As”, which appears to be a conjunction, implying that something additional is happening concurrently with the cat’s descent, though there is nothing provided for comparison. “Then” is the natural companion to “As”, providing the poem’s turn in the moment when the cat changes direction from up to down, almost in a breathlike motion: the stepping up being an inward breath and the stepping down being exhalation.


Many of WCW’s word choices are unusual. This is not any cat but “the cat”. This implies intimacy with the reader. We are meant to know that this is a particular cat, most likely one that belongs to the speaker. It could be a metaphorical or real cat, but it is a cat with agency. It takes the deliberate action of climbing, which involve effort, then it steps down, another act of effort. No human involvement is happening here, other than in the observation, which creates an observer effect, fixing the cat in its motion or arc: deliberately moving over and then down. The jamcloset hints at a similar type of industry, that of jam-making (plum jam perhaps?), though we have no indication whether the closet is full or empty, though we know it must have contained jam because otherwise it would not be called a jamcloset – an unusual word that in assuming the reader will understand, also creates intimacy.


The word “pit” is also unusual here. Flowerpots are normally not excessively deep, and to call their interior a “pit”, particularly in conjunction with “empty” implies a kind of meaninglessness. This is more than just a visual image, but rather it’s an image of desolation that hints at death. There is a sense in the construction of this poem that by fixing the cat in this Sisyphean activity of climbing over the jamcloset and into the flowerpot, we are in fact keeping the cat in this state of agency, and thereby somehow cheating death. Of course the poem leaves this kind of extended interpretation solely to the reader. It merely provides a series of steps, rhythms, particular word choices, and the image itself, but by focusing such intense concentration on a single, ordinary, moment in time, the nature of that concentration creates this transcendence. This seems to me to be the very essence of the Imagist ideal.