Belleza y Felicidad in South Florida: Key West, Cottrell, South Beach, & O, Miami

Publisher Arlo Haskell, poet Cecilia Pavón, & translator Stuart Krimko after enjoying the waters north of Cottrell.

Later this year, we’ll be publishing an anthology of poems and documents by Cecilia Pavón and Fernanda Laguna. Last week, we had the pleasure of spending several days with Cecilia, the Argentinian poet, translator, and co-founder (with Fernanda) of the legendary Buenos Aires gallery and independent press Belleza y Felicidad.

After arriving in Key West from Miami with her American translator Stuart Krimko, we were joined for lunch by Harry Mathews at the Sand Paper offices: fresh-caught grouper, a salad, and white wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux. Talk was on literature and translation: Mark Ford’s new New Impressions of Africa, John Ashbery’s forthcoming Rimbaud, the works of South Americans César Aira, Jorge Luis Borges, Alvaro Mútis, and Roberto Bolaño, among others; and on life: children, love, landscapes, and the pursuit. After espresso we took to the waters (sans Harry, plus Ashley and Kenji) for a sunset swim north of Cottrell Key on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, then watched the moon rise over Key West with grilled fish and vegetables for dinner.

Stuart and Cecilia at Miami MOCA. That's Belleza co-founder Fernanda Laguna on the projection.

We drove to Miami the next day, where O, Miami mastermind Scott Cunningham had arranged a bilingual reading-in-translation for the three of us at Lester’s, Daniel Milewski’s forthcoming Wynwood cafe + bar + bookstore (they’ll carry Sand Paper Press, n+1, and the Brooklyn Rail, among others). The next night, Cecilia and Stuart gave an extraordinary presentation on Belleza y Felicidad and the Argentinean avant-garde at the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, part of that institution’s ongoing Spotlight Series, curated by Ruba Katrib, and in collaboration with O, Miami.

I think I speak for the three of us when I say it was a rare and tremendous handful of days. In the car and on the beach, at the hotel and the bars and the restaurants, we found ourselves completely enmeshed in the rare joys of poetry and friendship, the rarest joy of the life and the work becoming all one mission moving forward. We’re grateful to O, Miami and its sponsors for making this week possible.

Next year, with Fernanda too, in Buenos Aires…

Harry Mathews / THE NEW TOURISM / Oct. 19

Copies of Harry Mathews’s The New Tourism have shipped from the printer and will arrive any day now in Key West, New York, and San Francisco. A reading to celebrate the launch will take place at New York’s 192 Books at 7:00 p.m. October 19. Call ahead and arrive early; this will be standing room only. Books can be pre-ordered direct from Sand Paper Press now; they’ll ship on 10/22.

Sand Paper Press to publish Harry Mathews

(L to R) William C. Wright, publisher Arlo Haskell, and Harry Mathews take to sea to celebrate the agreement and hand off the manuscript for Mathews's The New Tourism.

Harry Mathews’s first poetry collection in nearly 20 years is coming this October from Sand Paper Press. The New Tourism includes new and previously published poems from the American avant-garde legend, many of which will appear in the United States for the first time.  The collection features such compelling anomalies as the prose sestina, didactic gastronomy, and a haiku sequence — a diary of discrete (if not so discreet) late-night improvisations on the familiar Japanese three-line form. The central section brings together tersely lyrical poems devoted to the unpredictable deviations of intention and desire — the landscape of the new tourism: “Where is it I came from / And where is it I’m stranded? / Part of the maps is black / And the rest’s in borrowed language.”

Media interested in obtaining review copies should write to sandpapereditor@gmail.com. A launch reading by Mathews will take place on October 19 at 192 Books.

Shawn Vandor’s FIRE reviewed in Dossier

Adam Novy reviews Shawn Vandor’s Fire at the End of the Rainbow in Dossier, the excellent journal of arts, culture, fashion, et al. Check it out:

“Fire At the End of the Rainbow, the first book by Shawn Vandor, is a poised and unusual performance, an autobiography made of very brief chapters which eschew the typical surreality of short prose forms in favor of a less experimental, more vernacular directness. It begins with jokey pieces about men confronting men, but steadily gets grave, until the violence—and the critique of masculinity—becomes extreme.”

If you’re in the Northwest, you can hear Shawn read from the book tonight, with fellow Sand Paper Presser Stuart Krimko, at 220 Salon.

Sand Paper Press California

We had a great time in California

David Kordansky helped us throw a party at his gallery.

A lot of our friends were there.

including our favorite bookworm, Rachel K., and the lionhearted Ariana.

After the party we saw some wildlife and drove to San Francisco.

The good people at Adobe Books gave us the keys for the night.

And we gave a reading in the stacks with a bucket of beer.

The next day we drove the coast through Big Sur.

In Los Angeles we washed off the dust from the road, rose early, and flew home.

Readings, Parties in Los Angeles & San Francisco

We’re heading to California for a pair of launch party readings. First up, February 27, 7:00 p.m. at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles (directions here). It’s a Saturday night, and the afterparty is shaping up nicely. Verditas, anyone?

Second, March 1, a Monday, 7:00 p.m. at Adobe Books in San Francisco (directions). Afterparty details to be announced.

Really excited about this trip. We can’t wait to catch up with you and all of our good friends in Cali. Until then.

xox.spp

Stuart Krimko reviewed for The Best American Poetry blog

There’s a review up this morning of Stuart Krimko’s The Sweetness of Herbert. It’s written by Adam Fitzgerald, editor of Maggy, and published by the good people that bring us The Best American Poetry. Check it out.

“The Sweetness of Herbert offers the surprise of a poet early in his career who has mastered the modulation of form, phrasing, tone, and most surprisingly, rhyme. Considering the Harry Mathews blurb on the back, one might expect Krimko to be like other New York School descendants… What distinguishes Krimko’s poems are their quirky yet formal composure, matched with an overt musicality that’s absent from too many of Ashbery, Koch, and O’Hara’s heirs.”

Launch Party, New York

Our New York launch party took place on January 19 at Max Protetch Gallery on 22nd St. Installation by Sun Xun, drinks by Jason Rowan of Embury Cocktails, photography by Sharon McGauley.

Key West

After a reading and launch party at The Studios of Key West, we had a chance to get out on the water for some fun and a touch of sun. That’s Stuart on the left, Arlo in the center, and Shawn in the plaid.

Stuart Krimko in Maggy

Our good friends at Maggy have put together an exciting first issue with poems by John Ashbery, Jeff Clark, James Schuyler, and Sand Paper Press’s own Stuart Krimko. The cover was designed by Quemadura, aka Jeff Clark, who’s also responsible for Ashbery’s new Planisphere and who read together with Krimko and Ashbery back in December as part of the Triptych reading series.