SPF: Small Press Festival in Pittsburgh

The 2nd Annual SPF: Small Press Festival will be held in Pittsburgh, with events happening throughout September 2010. The SPF Expo weekend will be September 25-26, 2010, with small press tables, readings, and panel discussions. Last year's Expo was focussed on small presses of Pittsburgh and the region, while this year's Expo will be open to all small and independent presses. Saturday and Sunday events will be held at Artists Image Resource, on Pittsburgh's North Side. Vending/display tables are $25 each. To register for a table, follow this link: http://www.spfpittsburgh.com/register

More details will be forthcoming as more presses and authors sign up. (Rumor has it that Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh plans to table at the Expo.) Meanwhile, enjoy this look at last year's SPF Expo made by Pittsburgh video artist, Ambulantic.

Book Review: Field of Wanting: Poems of Desire

W. Phipps, Field of Wanting. Buffalo, NY: BlazeVOX Books, 2008. Poetry. 142 pages.

When I write a poem, I talk about "things" and try to get the meter right. When Wanda Phipps writes a poem, she creates a fifth dimension! These post-Beat, post-Berrigan poems are something entirely Phipps' own: loose, clear, conscious, gorgeous. Desire in its widest definition. I suspect this is what happens when a writer lives very close to her writing, and is rigorous about her observations: life lived becomes changed, life written is something much wider than expected.

Recommended for collections including the avant-garde, New York writers, jazz-inspired writing, and contemporary poetry.