Something to do Tonight? Try Listening to Sonnets!

Poetry is meant to be read aloud. But it's not meant to be questioned. That's what I'm learning at Boswell Book Company. You don't usually have a Q&A component when you bring in poets. Why? I don't know. But you don't.

We had a really wonderful event with John Koethe last week, celebrating the publication of his newest collection, Ninety Fifth Street. Close to 100 people showed up, lots of people bought the book, and I even was lucky enough to celebrate nearby with some folks and a glass of wine.

Koethe's poems reminded me of Susan Engberg's recent, enlightening on the story genre. She argued that stories are not a stepping stone to a novel (at least not artistically; perhaps financially), but are an art unto themself, with different rules and different standards of success. In some ways, they are closer to the poetic form. I was hoping I could somehow reprint Engberg's wonderful talk here, or use it in a story display (heck, it belong in a magazine or journal) but it's just another thing you folks missed if you didn't attend our event. Engberg's new volume of stories, Above the Houses, is now available in paperback.

Here's Engberg flanked by local writers Valerie Laken and Liam Callanan. As Tyra would say, this was my best shot. My photos of Engberg reading were a bit blurry.

So Koethe's poems really are like stories, reminding me in some ways of Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate, which as you may know, is my favorite collection of poems ever, as it's also a novel. And it's also a sonnet.

A sonnet? Why we're having a celebration of sonnets on Tuesday, September 15th, 7 PM. That's tonight if you're reading this quickly, and you missed it if you're not. You've got to subscribe to our email newsletter.

Marilyn Taylor and B. J. Best are presenting "The Sonnet. Not Just for Dead People Anymore." We're also celebrating Taylor's new chapbook Going Wrong, and we'll have Best's (This Mead Lake) as well. We're working at getting these books on our web site as well. Right now the site uses Ingram's title base, but we're learning how to add our own books.

Meanwhile, we'll try to restrain our tone of suprise (Sonnets aren't for dead people! We're having poetry events and it's not even April!) and just enjoy the whole thing, tonight at 7.

Guest Blog! Susan Engberg Says a Few Words About Her Upcoming Reading for "Above the Houses", now in Paperback

I'm honored to host Susan Engberg to read at Boswell for her latest collection, Above the Houses, now in paperback. But I'm not too honored to badger her to say a few words!

Some thoughts for Boswell Book Company’s email newsletter and blog:

~From my first days in Milwaukee in the late summer of 1979, I’ve relished the never-fail pleasure of a trip to the bookstore at 2559 N. Downer Avenue—at first friendly Webster’s, then for such a long inspired tenure Harry W. Schwartz’s, and now, hooray, Boswell Book Company.

~And thanks to the fine old building for housing some of my previous readings. Now I’m delighted to appear once more in the store, this time to celebrate the paperback edition of my fourth collection of stories, Above the Houses.

~When people ask what my stories are “about,” I might at first laugh a little to ease the strain of attempting to fit myself into a niche and then say something like, Oh, you know, sort of everything—life, loss, work, loneliness, illness, mindfulness, sex, joy, love, death—you name it. I’m not being evasive. I’m not trying to get off the hook. Far from it: I’m totally hooked by the wonder of all our stories. May I ask what you are “about”? (And may I please take notes?)

~I’m also often asked why I continue to focus on stories and novellas rather than hefty novels. It’s about the harmony I feel with stories. We seem to belong together. A long time ago I really fell in love with the power of the story form, its ancient roots, its simultaneous affinities to both flowing narrative and poetic compression. So few elements can make such fullness. For now, I just want to go on experimenting with that expansive, beautiful, difficult simplicity.

Engberg will be reading a new story at the event. Note that the accompanying jacket photo is for the hardcover. Long story. It involves weighing the book, believe it or not. I'm not going to tell you any more than that, but it worked out well for us.

Please join us for this bookstore story unveiling!

--Daniel