Fact-Simile

January's Poetry Trading Card Features Robert Kelly

2012-01-16T18:28:00.000-08:00

It is with great pleasure that we here at Fact-Simile announce another year of Poetry Trading Cards. And we can't think of any better way to kick off the 2012 series than with a new poem from the great Robert Kelly.

Robert Kelly is the inimitable poetic force behind more than 50 books of staggeringly beautiful verse. His latest poem, "For Jack Spicer" is no exception.

These limited-edition poetic collectibles are printed on recycled paper and available for just 99 cents on our website.

Subscriptions to the entire 2012 series are just $10 plus shipping and, as always, our 2010 and 2011 Poetry Trading Cards are still available individually or as a complete set.

Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Now Accepting Submissions for Fact-Simile #8

2012-01-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from Fact-Simile Editions!

We just wanted to let you know that we are accepting submissions for Fact-Simile Magazine #8 from now through April 1, 2012 with an eye toward early summer publication.

So if you or someone you know has some innovative, thought-provoking poetry or prose that you think would be a good fit for Fact-Simile, please visit (or send your friends) to our newly revised submission guidelines.

If you're not sure of the kind of things we like, you can always read all our past issues here.

All Best,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Stuff Your Literary Stocking With Poetry Scratch-off Tickets

2011-12-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

A few winters back, we were talking excitedly about the idea of poetic scratch-off tickets with the artist Noah Saterstrom. Well, today are pleased to announce that the time has come to turn that idea into a reality!

MINImaxims by Richard Kostelanetz is a series of 10 one-line poems printed on 110# card stock, covered with silver "scratch-off stickers" and perforated to look and feel like real-life poetry lottery tickets. Available individually, in strips of 5 or in (complete set) sheets of 10, we can personally guarantee that every ticket's a winner.

Happy Holiday Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
travis@fact-simile.com

Joan Retallack Poetry Trading Cards Make Great Gifts

2011-12-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays from Fact-Simile! December's Poetry Trading Card features new work from Joan Retallack, author of such essential critical and contemporary poetic texts as AFTERRIMAGES (Wesleyan, 1995), Memnoir (The Post-Apollo Press, 2004) and The Poethical Wager (University of California Press 2004).

As always, these limited-edition poetic collectibles are just 99 cents on our website. Subscriptions to the 2012 series are now available for just $10 and, for you collectors out there, all 2010 and 2011 cards are going fast.

Happy Holiday Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

2011 Equinox Chapbook Results

2011-12-12T17:47:00.001-08:00

We here at Fact-Simile Editions are pleased to announce the winners of our 2011 Equinox Chapbook Contest:

TOTEM by Brian Foley
Very Different Animals by Frank Sherlock
Impossible Map by Jane Wong

In addition to these three amazing books, in 2012 we will be publishing a series of hand-lettered mini-broadsides featuring poems from each of our winners as well as the following finalists:

Kimberly Alidio
Jeff Alessandrelli
Scott Bentley
Michelle Disler
Jacob Russell
Rowland Saifi
Mark Terrell
Soham Patel

Many thanks to everyone who submitted work. Details on next year's contest will be posted in early 2012.

November's 2011 Poet Trading Card Features Bhanu Kapil

2011-12-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit overdue, but we here at Fact-Simile neglected to mention that November's Poetry Trading Cards are in and they feature new work from poet, teacher and humanimal Bhanu Kapil.

Bhanu Kapil's works of cross-genre literary experimentalism include: The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), Incubation: a space for monsters (Leon Works, 2006), humanimal [a project for future children] (Kelsey Street Press, 2009), and Schizophrene (Nightboat Books, 2011)

These limited-edition poetic fetishes are printed on recycled paper and available for just 99 cents on our website.

Subscriptions to the entire 2011 series are just $10 plus shipping and, for you collectors out there, our 2010 cards are still available.

Or, better yet, order any Fact-Simile title and we'll include a card of your choice free of charge!

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

October's Trading Card Features Bob Perelman

2011-10-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

October's Poetry Trading Cards have arrived and they feature new work from Language School poet, critic and editor Bob Perelman.

Bob Perelman's first book Braille, a series of "improvisations" inspired by William Carlos Williams, was published in 1975. His many works since then include The First World (1986), Face Value (1988), Virtual Reality (1993), Playing Bodies (2003) and IFLIFE (2006).

These limited-edition poetic collectibles are printed on recycled paper and available for just 99 cents on our website.

Subscriptions to the entire 2011 series are just $10 plus shipping and, for you collectors out there, our 2010 Poetry Trading Cards are still available.

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Joe Harrington Reading at Moonstone Arts Center

2011-10-12T15:50:00.001-07:00

Saturday October 15, 7pm - Poetry
Travis Macdonald and Fact-Simile Editions Presents
Rachel Blau DuPlessis & Joseph Harrington

Rachel Blau DuPlessis is an American poet-critic, whose ongoing long poem project, begun in 1986, is collected in Torques: Drafts 58-76, Drafts 1-38, Toll (Wesleyan University Press, 2001) and Drafts 39-57, Pledge, as well as Draft unnnumbered: Precis (Salt Publishing, 2004). DuPlessis was awarded a residency at Bellagio in 2007; she was the recipient of a Pew Fellowship for Artists and of the Roy Harvey Pearce/Archive for New Poetry Prize, both in 2002. On October 21st, 2011 from 10am to 5pm, Temple University will celebrate her career and life’s work with an all day tribute featuring poets from Philadelphia and beyond.

Joseph Harrington is the author of Things Come On (an amneoir) (Wesleyan University Press 2011), a Rumpus magazine Poetry Book Club selection; the chapbook earth day suite (Beard of Bees Press 2010); and Poetry and the Public (Wesleyan University Press 2002). His creative work also has appeared in BathHouse, 1913: a journal of forms, Hotel Amerika, The Collagist, Otoliths, Fact-Simile, and P-Queue, among others. He teaches at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, USA.

Beverly Dahlen Trading Cards

2011-09-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce that September's Poet Trading Card (#21 in the series) features San Francisco poet Beverly Dahlen.

Co-founder of the groundbreaking feminist poetics newsletter (HOW)ever and author of the ongoing serial poem, A Reading, Beverly Dahlen is a poetic force whose contributions to the field inspire and resonate across an ever widening spectrum.

These limited-edition poetic collectibles are printed on recycled paper and available for just 99 cents on our website.

Subscriptions to the entire 2011 series are just $10 plus shipping and, for you collectors out there, our 2010 cards are still available.

Best Regards,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Fact-Simile #7 is Live

2011-09-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing -

This issue features an interview with Fran Herndon by Elizabeth Robinson and new work from: Sarah Mangold, SJ Fowler, Janna Plant, Ryan Eckes, Eric Elshtain, Gregory Fraser, Michelle Disler, Travis Cebula, Dawn Pendergast, Cara Benson, Lindsay Winters, Matthew Johnstone, KJ Hannah Greenberg, Jamie Townsend, Laura Walker, Jeff Encke, Ed Baker and Andrew Topel.

We hope you enjoy it.

Best Regards,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

The O Mission Repo Recap

2011-09-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our week long remembrance of The 9/11 attacks by taking advantage of our free downloadable ebook offering of The O Mission Repo. Over 200 of you took the time to read through this erasure of The 9/11 Commission Report.

While this limited-time promotion has concluded, you can still pick up a print copy of The O Mission Repo at our website for just $12 plus shipping.

The O Mission Repo FREE online

2011-09-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

In honor of all who lost their lives and loved ones as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America and in the two senseless wars perpetrated in response to that national tragedy, we here at Fact-Simile Editions would like to continue an annual tradition:

From this moment until September 18th, we are making The O Mission Repo, an erasure of The 9/11 Commission Report available for all to read free of charge.

Sincerely,

The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions

C. McAllister Williams Reading From Neon Augury

2011-09-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

C. McAllister, winner of Fact-Simile Editions 2010 Equinox Chapbook Contest, reading from his glow-in-the-dark book Neon Augury at Moonstone Arts Center in Philadelphia on July 29, 2011..

Our 100th Post: 100 Thousand Poets For Change!

2011-09-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

August's Poetry Trading Card: Vanessa Place

2011-08-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce the latest in our line of poetry trading cards: #20 features a previously unreleased poem from writer, lawyer and Les Figues Press co-director Vanessa Place.

Recent books by Vanessa Place include Dies: A Sentence (2006), La Medusa (Fiction Collective 2, 2008), Notes on Conceptualisms, co-authored with Robert Fitterman (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009) and The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality and Law (2010)

These limited-edition poetic collectibles are printed on recycled paper and available for just 99 cents on our website.

Subscriptions to the entire 2011 series are just $10 plus shipping and, for you collectors out there, our 2010 set is still available.

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Andrew K. Peterson Reading from Bonjour Meriwether And The Rabid Maps

2011-08-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

Andrew K. Peterson reads from his new Fact-Simile chapbook Bonjour Meriwether And The Rabid Maps at Moonstone Arts Center in Philadelphia on July 29, 2011.

Debrah Morkun Reading at Moonstone Arts

2011-08-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

A Reading by Debrah Morkun from Fact-Simile Editions on Vimeo.

Debrah Morkun reading at Robin's Books and Moonstone Art Center in Philadelphia, PA on July 29th, 2011 as part of the Fact-Simile Editions Equinox Book Release.

Jess Stoner (Wigent) read by Travis Macdonald

2011-08-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

Jess Stoner (Wigent) Read by Travis Macdonald

Travis Macdonald reading You Are Going To Die Jess Wigent by Jess Stoner (Wigent) at Robin's Books and Moonstone Art Center in Philadelphia, PA on July 29th, 2011 as part of the Fact-Simile Editions Equinox Book Release.

Charles Alexander is July's Trading Card (#19)

2011-07-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce #19 in our ongoing poetry trading card series: Arizona poet, printer and book artist Charles Alexander.

Alexander's recent books of poetry include Four Ninety Eight to Seven (Meow Press, 1996), Etudes: D & D (Quarry Press, 1997), near or random acts (Singing Horse Press, 2004) and Certain Slants (Junction Press, 2007).

Now -- with this previously unreleased poem from his work in progress With, In, and Of -- Alexander is at it again. These limited-edition poetic collectibles are printed on recycled paper and available for just 99 cents on our website and subscriptions to the entire 2011 series are just $10 plus shipping.

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions

Amiri Baraka Trading Cards Hot Off the Presses

2011-06-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Happy solstice! We here at Fact-Simile are kicking off what promises to be an action-packed summer publication schedule with a new "Low Coup" from the legendary poet and revolutionary activist Amiri Baraka.

Number 18 in our ongoing Poetry Trading Card Series, this month's poem answers that age-old question: "Who would win in fight...The King Of Rock & Roll or the Godfather of Soul?"

Wherever you stand on that particular issue, these limited-edition poetic collectibles are available for a song (just 99 cents) on our website and subscriptions to the entire 2011 series are just $10 plus shipping.

At that price you can frame them, trade them or put them in your bike spokes! Poetry Trading Cards are summer fun for everyone.

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions

Poetry Beats Patriotism

2011-05-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

We here at Fact-Simile are celebrating the Memorial Day Weekend in style with CAConrad Trading Cards!

The 17th installment in our monthly Poet Trading Card Series features this phenomenal Philadelphia writer at his very best as he commemorates, in verse, one of America's most beloved heroes: Elvis Presley.

As always, these limited-edition collectibles are available for a song (just 99 cents) on our website and subscriptions to the entire 2011 series are just $10 plus shipping:

For those collectors who can't stand to have an incomplete set, today's your lucky day: we've reduced the price of last year's Poet Trading Card series to just 8 bucks. At that price you can frame them, trade them or put them in your bike spokes! Poetry Trading cards are summer fun for everyone.

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions
travis@fact-simile.com
Jenmarie@fact-simile.com

Joanne Kyger Trading Cards Make Great Mother's Day Gifts!

2011-05-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that we here at Fact-Simile Editions announce:
April's Poetry Trading Card features a previously unpublished poem by the
legendary Joanne Kyger!

"[T]he very nature of Joanne Kyger’s work, tracking time as it does through
many shifting perspectives, demands intimate attention and requires that it
be observed according to its own terms." - Dale Smith

Pick up your copy of this limited-edition poetic object for just 99 cents on our website. Or collect the whole set!

Also, you can now follow Fact-Simile on Twitter to stay up-to-date with new book and magazine releases, trading cards, contests, calls for submission and literary reviews.

As always, thanks for reading!

Yours Truly,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
Fact-Simile Editions
travis@fact-simile.com
jenmarie@fact-simile.com

Fact-Simile Trading Card #15

2011-03-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce #15 in our Poetry Trading Card Series: Rachel Blau DuPlessis!

Rachel Blau DuPlessis is a poet, educator and feminist literary critic living in the Greater Philadelphia area and teaching at Temple University. She is the author of numerous works of criticism as well as the "life poem" Drafts.

We are honored that Ms. Blau DuPlessis has chosen to share this excerpt from Drafts with us and hope that you will join us in celebrating the work of this wonderful poet. This limited-edition poetic collectible is available for just 99 cents (plus shipping) on our website.

If you haven’t done so already, take a moment to look through the great lineup of poets we’ve featured over the past 15 months. Subscribe today to receive a new trading card in the mail each month during 2011. And, of course, 2010 cards are still available individually or as a complete set.

Best Regards,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
Fact-Simile Editions
travis@fact-simile.com
jenmarie@fact-simile.com

Calling All Submissions

2011-03-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Readers-

We know you're out there. Somewhere. It's that time of year: Canadian bears are honking their way north again and grizzly geese are stumbling around the woods hibernation-drunk. That's right. The Vernal Equinox is almost upon us and that means Fact-Simile's Spring/Summer 2011 issue is accepting submission for a few more days.

Seven of them to be exact. Any submissions received before (or on) Monday, March 21 will be considered for this issue. Any submissions received after Monday will be considered for the Fall/Autumn 2011 issue.

So if you have some superb writing and/or word-work that you think might be a good fit, please send it along to:

submissions@fact-simile.com

If you've sent some poetry and/or prose along already and haven't heard back yet, please bear with us. It is still under careful consideration. If you're not familiar with Fact-Simile's most recent issues, you can read them all right here.

Also, keep an eye out for the opening submission call for our 2011 Equinox Chapbook contest. Details to be announced next Monday. In the meantime, we look forward to reading your work!

Best Regards,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors @ Fact-Simile
submissions@fact-simile.com

Now Batting: Charles Bernstein

2011-02-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

Fact-Simile Editions is happy to announce that February’s trading card features new work from poet, editor and educator Charles Bernstein.

Former editor of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E; co-founder and editor of PENNsound; co-founder and editor of The Electronic Poetry Center; and author of more than 40 books, ranging from large-scale collections of poetry and essays to pamphlets, libretti, translations and collaborations, most recently All the Whiskey in Heaven: Selected Poems (2010) from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Charles Bernstein is an incomparable poetic force whose work has touched untold multitudes.

Now, with this latest, previously unreleased poem, Mr. Bernstein once again takes to the field. This limited-edition poetic collectible is available for just 99 cents (plus shipping) on our website.

Subscribe today to receive a new trading card in the mail each month during 2011. And, of course, our 2010 series is still available individually or as a complete set.

Best Regards,

The Editors
Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
www.fact-simile.com

Fact-Simile 3.2 is Alive

2011-01-31T07:52:00.000-08:00

Seven states from where we started and only one month late, Fact-Simile 3.2 Autumn/Winter 2010 is officially live, in print and online.

Featuring an interview wih New Mexico Poet Arthur Sze plus new work from Laura Sims, George Moore, Erin Geegan Sharp, Debrah Morkun, Shawn Huelle, Andrew Schelling, Deborah Poe, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Cindy Savett, Susanne Dyckman, Changming Yuan, Scott Alexander Jones and Nicholas Chiarella, this issue is sure to please!

Download a PDF, read it online at the link above or, if you're planning to attend AWP next week in DC, swing by the Fact-Simile Table (I-20) and pick up a free hard-copy of the new issue.

While you're there, purchase $20 or more worth of Fact-Simile Book/Items and sign up to receive a complimentary AWP Tarot Reading by poet Hoa Nguyen! $20 purchase of FS books = basic 15 minute reading. $35 purchase of FS books= 15 minute reading, picture of spread emailed along with a comprehensive interpretation.

We should also have one or two exciting new Equinox Series Chapbooks making their debut at Table I-20, so swing on by to say hello and see what we've been up to.

We hope to see you soon. In the meantime...

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions

The O Mission Repo No Longer Available on Amazon

2011-01-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers-

It is with great dismay at the current state of book distribution outlets in America that we regret to inform you: The O Mission Repo will no longer be available for purchase via Amazon. In addition to requiring that small publishers such as ourselves swallow all shipping costs and taking a 55% consignment slice of the cover price, Amazon has also begun charging an annual "membership" fee that has more than reduced our profit margins. In fact, it seems that, despite marking up the Amazon price by $4 per book, we are not exactly breaking even. In fact, WE are now paying THEM for the privilege of being listed on their Walmartian website.

But do not despair! We will continue to offer all remaining copies of The O Mission Repo, on our very own website for the reduced cover price of $12. That's a steal...in the good way.

What's the moral of this story? The next time you buy a book, please consider doing so directly from your friendly local small press or publisher.

Sincerely,

The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions

Nathaniel Tarn is the 1st Trading Card of 2011

2011-01-15T07:24:00.000-08:00

We here at Fact-Simile are pleased to announce that we will be continuing our Poetry Trading Card series in 2011. And so, without further ado, we present #13 in the series: poet, essayist, anthropologist and translator Nathaniel Tarn.

With a publication history that spans the last half-century, Nathaniel Tarn has left an indelible mark upon the pages of modern literary history. Recent titles include Ins and Outs of the Forest Rivers (New Directions), Avia (Shearsman) and The Embattled Lyric (Stanford University Press).

Now, with this latest, previously unreleased, poem, Nathaniel Tarn once again takes to the field. This limited-edition poetic collectible is available for just 99 cents (plus shipping) on our website.

Subscribe today to receive a new trading card in the mail each month during 2011. And, of course, 2010 cards are still available individually or as a complete set!

Best Regards,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
www.fact-simile.com
travis@fact-simile.com
jenmarie@fact-simile.com

Gary Snyder's Four Changes

2010-12-31T10:46:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011! We here at Fact-Simile would like to begin the new year with a message from Gary Snyder:

Four Changes

Happy Reading!

Poetry Trading Cards Make Great Gifts

2010-12-18T17:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays from Fact-Simile! We've been busy settling into our new city,
creating our 2011 Calendar and
publishing Hoa Nguyen's new book, Chinaberry so we've fallen a little bit
behind on our 2010 Trading Card Series responsibilities.

Without further delay we'd like to announce the release of not one...not two...but THREE new Poetry Trading Cards featuring new work from Kristin Prevallet, Harryette Mullen and Jerome Rothenberg:

What better way to spread the seasonal cheer and stuff the stockings of all your favorite poet friends than a Trading Card (or three!) from Fact-Simile? Just 99 cents plus shipping (the price of a pack of gum) you can own an authentic replica of your favorite poet's face on piece of recycled cardboard. Plus, there's a previously unreleased poem on the back of each card! How cool is that?

You can order the whole 2010 set by following the "subscribe" button at the link above. Order your cards soon and we'll get them in the mail before
Santa Claus even packs his sleigh.

Speaking of great holiday gift ideas, subscriptions to our entire 2011 catalog are now available for a steal. More details here:

Stay tuned in the new year, we've got another great lineup of poets planned with 2011 Trading Card subscriptions going on sale soon. But, for now...

Happy Holiday Reading,

Travis & JenMarie (aka The Editors)
Fact-Simile Editions

Now Batting: #9 in the Series...Ron Silliman!

2010-10-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

We here at Fact-Simile are pleased to present #9 in our Poetry Trading Card series, none other than that big hitter of the blogosphere: Ron Silliman himself!

Curator of the internet’s most widely read literary blog, founding member of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school and author of more than 30 books of poetry, including Ketjak, The Age of Huts and The Alphabet, Ron Silliman is one of the most important literary voices of his (indeed, any) generation.

Now, with this latest, previously unreleased, poem from Revelator, Mr. Silliman once again takes to the field. You can secure your copy of this limited-edition poetic collectible for just 99 cents (plus shipping) on our website. Or, collect the entire set with our generously discounted subscription plan.

Many Thanks and Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors of Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Now Announcing Trading Card #8: Peter Gizzi

2010-09-16T10:36:00.001-07:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to present the 8th installment in our Poetry Trading Card series: Mr. Peter Gizzi!

In addition to introducing Jack Spicer to a new generation of readers and writers (see The House that Jack Built & My Vocabulary Did This to Me) Peter Gizzi is the author of more than 5 books of poetry including Artificial Heart (Burning Deck 1998), Some Values of Landscape and Weather (Wesleyan 2003) and more recently The Outernationale (Wesleyan 2007).

With this latest poem, Mr. Gizzi once again "[takes] language close to the bone...forces attention to operate closely according to the dictation of images."-Dale Smith

You can pick up your very own copy of this limited edition poetic ephemera for just 99 cents (plus shipping) on our website. Or collect the whole set with our generously discounted subscription plan.

Many Thanks and Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors of Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Better Late Than Never: Linh Dinh's Trading Card from Fact-Simile

2010-09-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Just realized that we forgot to post Linh Dinh's Trading Card here on the blog. So, without further ado, it is with great pleasure that we here at Fact-Simile present the 7th installment in our Poetry Trading Card series: Linh Dinh!

Author of over 5 books of poetry including All Around What Empties Out (Tinfish 2003), Borderless Bodies (Factory School 2006) and the recent Some Kind of Cheese Orgy (Chax 2009) with this latest poem Linh Dinh once again "turns his considerable powers to the depiction of acrid ironies, unmitigated disgust and politically charged gall."-Publishers Weekly

You can pick up your very own copy of this limited edition poetic keepsake for just 99 cents (plus shipping) on our website. Or collect the whole set with our generously discounted subscription plan.

As always...

Many Thanks and Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors of Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Fact-Simile 3.1 Has Arrived!

2010-08-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that we would like to announce the overdue arrival of Fact-Simile 3.1, our Spring/Summer issue. To view this issue online or download a free PDF version, please click here.

This is our biggest issue ever, featuring an interview with Brian Evenson plus new work from: Michelle Disler, Cralan Kelder, Shanna Miller McNair, Andrew Wessels, Mark Cunningham, Tim Roberts, Derek Henderson, Elizabeth Robinson, Roxanne Carter, Mary Kasimor, David Brennan, Charles Freeland, Richard Schwass, Peter Grieco, John Tway Zackel, Matt Reeck, Rich Murphy, Ryan Ridge, Dan Ruhrmanty, John Kearns, Scott Bentley, Jennifer Karmin and Michael Leong.

If you are a subscriber or contributor, then print copies are, as they say, in the mail! If you are not yet a subscriber and would like to receive physical manifestations of Fact-Simile magazine for the ridiculously low price of $5 per year (2 issues), you can email us or follow the PayPal link on our website.

We sincerely hope you enjoy Fact-Simile 3.1 and be sure to share it with all your friends. Many thanks in advance and, as always...

Happy Reading!

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Ed Baker's Points/Counterpoints Now Available

2010-08-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that we announce the official print release of Ed Baker's Points/Counterpoints from Fact-Simile Editions.

As some of you may already know, we published an electronic online version of Points/Counterpoints in 2009. Now, in order to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of this important text, we've assembled a limited-edition print run of 100 hand-numbered books for sale exclusively through our website.

This limited edition is $10. If you order your copy in the next 48 hours we will include a Fact-Simile Trading Card of your choice.

Just be sure to indicate your card preference along with payment. Customers without access to PayPal, please contact us directly for ordering information. Many thanks in advance and, as always, happy reading!

Travis & JenMarie
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Trading Card #6 features Elizabeth Robinson

2010-07-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that we here at Fact-Simile Editions announce the 6th installment in our 2010 Trading Card Series: Elizabeth Robinson!

Author of more than 10 books of poetry including Pure Descent, winner of the National Poetry Series and, more recently, Also Known As, from Apogee Press, Elizabeth Robinson's poetry exhibits “a minimalist's precision and a logician's attention to linguistic morphology.” (-Ann Lauterbach)

You can pick up your very own copy of this limited edition poetic ephemera for just $0.99 plus s/h on our website. Or collect the whole set with our generously discounted subscription plan .

Many Thanks and Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors at Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

ALSO KNOWN AS by Elizabeth Robinson

2010-06-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

Also Known As
by Elizabeth Robinson

-Paperback: 68 pages

-Publisher: Apogee Press, 2009

-ISBN: 0-9787667-5-7

“If I don’t give you the shirt off my back, / at least I can stand on the street corner and turn it / inside out for you. // You are invited to see the dander of the person who once / lived inside.”

-from “Beggar”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. In the vast majority of cases, the theft is economic in nature. In 2009, at least 1 of those 9 million thefts was poetic.

In her latest book of poetry, Also Known As (Apogee Press), Elizabeth Robinson approaches the task of identity theft in the digital age with the meticulous physical treatments of an expert document forger; scratching away and building up surfaces, manipulating the shifting vessels of each line, each stanza, each poem with all the authority of a lonely, hyper-literate, historian. The cumulative result is a seamless (if eerily disjointed) whole in which the individual edges of authorial identity become indistinguishable from the tangible act of each poem’s performance on the page.

That identity can be represented as a surface should come as no surprise to readers of Elizabeth Robinson’s body of work; in which every object, every act, every incident consistently seems possessed of four or more dimensions. Indeed, the poet makes no secret of this particular text’s deceptive intentions, beginning as she does with an invocation of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa followed by a quote from Ricardo Reis, one of Pessoa’s many “heteronyms.”

Finishing this invocation, Robinson claims to “write in the persona of an author who was himself writing under the guise of multiple personae.” And yet, reading and re-reading these pages, one cannot help but sense a poetic depth and range beyond even Pessoa’s varied cast of characters.

With each poem, each oblique investigation, Robinson tugs from another angle at the delicate structures of identity, unraveling and re-arranging their basic threads into something resembling a self (or series of selves) intersecting. The implements of this intersection, however, are anything but delicate.

On the contrary, the poet repeatedly employs the language of abrasion as a means of releasing and revealing the inner substances of identity both overtly with poems like “as if I were getting a rash on my soul” and more subtly with “On the Yellow Stairs” in which the speaker unscrews his or her hands to serve as doorknobs, opening into the poem. This particular piece ends with the lines, “I would scratch / increments toward / a more contiguous flight of stairs / a cleaner amputation,” as if to suggest that these methods of the speaker’s excavation fall short when compared to the poet’s need for precision of language and thought.

Over the course of this series, the forces of textual abrasion are carefully counterbalanced by that same poet’s urge to contain the self within quantifiable boundaries. Just as the speaker in “Alias as Color” asserts, “I measure my own flesh for distortion,” likewise Robinson seems to remind the reader that each deception is painstakingly calculated to reveal only so much surface as is necessary at any given moment.

The result is, as the last line of the title poem “Also Known As” would suggest, “Like a series of trunks stacked one atop another.” Using Pessoa and his heteronyms as a starting point, Elizabeth Robinson has surpassed the master himself to create the poetic equivalent of a Matryoshka, in which every narrative, every surface is nested within another.

Also Known As (Apogee Press, 2009) is available through Small Press Distribution for $15.95

-Travis Macdonald

Summer Updates

2010-06-22T07:09:00.001-07:00

Dear Reader-

The first day of summer has come and gone and we here at Fact-Simile are slightly behind schedule with our Spring/Summer issue (3.1).

Here's a teaser, though: it features an interview with Brian Evenson! It is also our biggest issue ever.

Enough teasing. We promise we will get it up online and in the mail shortly.

Also, June's trading card might be a little late...yeah, we've been a little busy.

-The Editors

May's Trading Card Features K. Silem Mohammad

2010-05-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that we present the Fact-Simile Editions Literary Trading Card for May 2010: K. Silem Mohammad!

The poet of Deer Head Nation, A Thousand Devils, Breathalyzer and The Front was kind enough to share with us a previously unpublished excerpt from his Sonnagrams (anagrams of Shakespeare’s Sonnets) for this, our fifth installment in the 2010 Literary Trading Card Series. You can pick up your very own copy of this limited edition poetic ephemera for just $0.99 plus s/h on our website.

Or collect the whole set with our generously discounted subscription plan.

Thanks and Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors of Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

Equinox Chapbook Contest Closed

2010-05-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Fact-Simile Equinox Chapbook Contest is officially closed. Many thanks to all the amazing writers who sent us so much wonderful work. We will be going through the stacks in the next couple of months and announcing the results at that time. The winning work will be published on or around the Fall Equinox.

April's Trading Card and Equinox Contest News

2010-04-20T19:06:00.001-07:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce the 4th installment in our 2010 Literary Trading Card Series; poet, author, playwright, librettist, and presidential candidate: Eileen Myles!

The complete series is available via subscription for $10 plus shipping, or you can collect each individual card separately for 99 cents apiece via our website.

In other news: after an exhausting month of preparing for, enjoying and winding down from AWP, we are finally starting to get caught up on our stack of reading materials for Fact-Simile 3.1 Spring/Summer 2010. If you have yet t receive a response, rest assured that your work is still under consideration.

We're also very excited about all the amazing chapbook submissions we've been receiving for our annual Equinox Chapbook Contest. The deadline for submissions is May 1, so there's still time to send in your manuscript. Submission guidelines are available here.

Sincerely,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com

March Trading Card Featuring Rae Armantrout

2010-03-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

For our March Trading Card, Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to present none other than National Book Critics Circle Award Winner Rae Armantrout! You can preview the card here.

That's right! With Fact-Simile Literary Trading Cards, you too can own your favorite poet's likeness on a genuine issue 2.5"x3.5" recycled cardboard rectangle for just 99 cents.

April's card should be available at our AWP table in Denver, April 7-10, 2010 where all of our titles will be available at discounted rates. You're also invited to join us during AWP for two great readings:

Wednesday, April 7th, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Translation Gallery, 1743 Wazee Street, Denver, CO
Featuring Tarpaulin Sky Press, Fact-Simile, and Sidebrow Books

Thursday, April 8th, 10:30pm-1:00am
Dazzle Restaurant and Lounge, 930 Lincoln St, Denver, CO
featuring Fact-Simile, Tarpaulin Sky, Monkey Puzzle Press, Fast Forward, Bombay Gin, and Zero Ducats.

We hope to see you there!

Best Regards,

The Editors

February Trading Card featuring Christian Bök

2010-02-18T09:14:00.000-08:00

Fact-Simile is pleased to present the next installment in our 2010 Literary Trading Card Series, featuring experimental Canadian poet Christian Bök!

Every month during 2010 and beyond we will release a limited edition trading card featuring new work from a notable contemporary literary figure.

Patterned after classic baseball card designs, each collectible card will be available for just 99 cents on our website or FREE with any purchase of a Fact-Simile title/item. Collect the whole set! Trade them with your friends! For the price of a song on iTunes, you too can own a piece of literary history.

Many Thanks and Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors @ Fact-Simile Editions
http://www.fact-simile.com/
travis@fact-simile.com
jenmarie@fact-simile.com

The All New Recently Received

2010-02-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

We've been receiving some really great texts for review from writers and small presses across the country and, inevitably, we will not be able to address every single one with the full attention that it deserves. For this reason, we've decided to implement a Recently Received list to keep our readers updated on all the exciting work available from our contributors and the greater community beyond:

Aim Straight at the Fountain and Press Vaporize, Elizabeth Marie Young, Fence Books 2009
Also Known As, Elizabeth Robinson, Apogee Press 2009
amphisbaena, Ray Succre, Cauliay 2009 (Interactive CD/E-book)
The Black Automaton, Douglas Kearney, Fence Books 2009
Duties of an English Foreign Secretary, Macgregor Card, Fence Books 2009
Ghosts of Breath, Howie Good, Bedouin Books 2009
The Mecox Papers, Anselm Parlatore, Wyandanch Lane Press 2009
My New Job, Catherine Wagner, Fence Books 2009
The Orphan and Its Relations, Elizabeth Robinson, Fence Books 2008
One Day There Will Be Nothing To Show That We Were Ever Here, Scott Alexander Jones, Bedouin Books 2009
Stranger, Laura Sims, Fence Books 2009
Umbra: The Sculpture Poems, Anselm Parlatore, North Fork Press 2010

We will be featuring reviews from this list in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

If you're interested in writing reviews for Fact-Simile, please contact us. We will be accepting submissions for issue 2.3 until March 20th.

More soon...

Fact-Simile Literary Trading Card Series

2010-01-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

It is with great pleasure that we would like to announce the official launch of Fact-Simile's Literary Trading Card Series!

Every month during 2010 and beyond we will release a limited edition trading card featuring the work of a notable contemporary literary figure. Patterned after classic baseball card designs, each collectible trading card will be available for just 99 cents apiece on our website or FREE with the purchase of any Fact-Simile title/item.

That’s right: you can own a piece of literary history for the price of a song on iTunes! So go ahead...indulge. And remember to tell all your friends!

This month's featured writer is none other than the almighty Anne Waldman with a previously unpublished excerpt from her epic poem Iovis.

Many Thanks and Happy Reading,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
The Editors @ Fact-Simile Editions
http://www.fact-simile.com

Sonnet 86

2010-01-20T19:48:00.000-08:00

I was feeling a little stuck with this translation project I'm working on and was looking for some inspiration this evening in, of all places, my Dover Thrift Edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, when I discovered the original photograph above (of Robert Creeley and Bobbie Louise Hawkins) marking sonnet 86. My best guess is, I picked the book up in Boulder at a second-hand bookshop where it had found its way from the collection of Bobbie Louise. In the spirit of serendipity, I would like to share with you the sonnet 86:

Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
Bound for the prize of all-too-precious-you,
That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
Making their tomb wherein they grew?
Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
Giving him aid, my verse astonished.
He nor that affable familiar ghost
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
As victors, of my silence cannot boast;
I was not sick of any fear from thence.

But when your countenance fill'd up his line,
Then lack'd I matter; that enfeebled mine.

Announcing The Equinox Chapbook Series

2010-01-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce the official release of our first annual Equinox Chapbook Series. This project has been more than 8 months in the making so, without further delay or undue ceremony, I give you:

The winner of Fact-Simile's Equinox Chapbook contest, Point of Intersection is a 4.5" x 6.5" portfolio style chapbook consisting of 12 new poems from Buffalo poet Joseph Cooper. Each unique book is hand-bound in scarred and branded leather. Point of Intersection was printed in an edition of 100 with additional vegan copies available while supplies last.

Brooklyn poet Matt Reeck's midwinter, runner-up in Fact-Simile's 2009 Equinox Chapbook contest, is a 6 foot long accordion folded text with accompanying magnifying glass. midwinter bound in hand stamped bookboard and printed in a limited edition of 45.

Some Colors Will Touch Regardless is an elegant Japanese-bound collection of cascading hand-colored pages from Colorado poet Travis Cebula. Runner-up in Fact-Simile's Equinox Chapbook contest, this limited edition of 30 books is bound by a single string of waxed thread in a heavy black folio.

Each title is available individually on our website for $15 plus s/h or $40 plus s/h for the complete set. Available while supplies last. Please don’t hesitate to contact us directly if you do not have a PayPal account or prefer to purchase a book via alternative means.

Happy Reading,

Travis & JenMarie (a.k.a. The Editors)
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com
travis@fact-simile.com
jenmarie@fact-simile.com

Fact-Simile 2.2 is Alive!

2010-01-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

As most of you probably know by now: Fact-Simile 2.2 is live! This issue features a collaborative interview with Keith & Rosmarie Waldrop as well as a wide array of innovative work from new voices nationwide (and beyond):

Dale Smith
Duane Locke
Peter Davis
Ray Succre
Monica Peck
Billy Cancel
Mark DeCarteret
John Cross
Francesco Levato
Andrew McEwan
Michael Alfaro
Mark Terrill
Anne Gorrick
Adam Strauss
Felino Soriano
George Moore

Please take a moment to download a PDF at the address above or peruse the ISSUU online.

Also, it's not too late to order your 2010 Calendar featuring the textual artwork of
Andrew Topel. Supplies, as they say, are running low!

But don't worry. We've got lots of great things planned for 2010 including the release of last year's Equinox Chapbook winners and a trading card series that will launch next month with
work from Anne Waldman. More on those matters soon...

Until then,

The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com
travis@fact-simile.com
jenmarie@fact-simile.com

Cooper and Cebula at the Dikeou January 9th

2009-12-15T18:24:00.000-08:00

It is with great pleasure that I invite you to join us for the Equinox Chapbook Reading/Release party at The Dikeou Collection in Denver on Saturday, January 9th at 7 p.m.

The evening's festivities will begin with readings by Joseph Cooper and Travis Cebula, winner and runner up of the Fact-Simile Equinox Chapbook Contest. A reception and book signing will follow, during which the winning chapbooks will be available at a discounted price. Please mark your calendar for Fact-Simile Editions' first poetry event of the new year.

We hope to see you there!

Best Regards,

JenMarie and Travis
Fact-Simile Editions
www.fact-simile.com
jenmarie@fact-simile.com
travis@fact-simile.com

2010 Fact-Simile Calendar On Sale Now!

2009-11-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce the upcoming release of our 2010 Calendar featuring the textual artistry of Andrew Topel. You can get a sneak peak at this project HERE.

This limited edition spiral bound calendar is already selling fast, so reserve yours today!

THROUGH THE FUNERAL MOUNTAINS ON A BURRO by Charles Freeland

2009-11-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

Through the Funeral Mountains on a Burro by Charles Freeland
-Paperback: 68 pages
-Publisher: Otoliths, 2009
-ISBN: 978-0-9806025-2-4

“What follows then is a re-telling of that uncommon event. But by re-telling I mean a specific sort of invention that might be confused, by the uninitiated and the poorly fed, for myth-making. Even out-and-out fraud. I really must insist whatever opinions you form in the process should be wrung out thoroughly. And hung up with animal skins.”

-from Folly’s List of Companions

The storyteller has, until only recently, played an integral part in the development of modern civilization. The very basis of human communal discourse lies in those moments around the primordial fire in which ‘the hunt’ was both recounted and embellished for the benefit of the remaining, cave-bound, tribe. As such, the story is, at once, both historical act and performative gesture. Through stories, we impart our basic cultural values and attempt to convey the lessons necessary to ensure both the survival of our immediate kin and, by extension, the customs and traditions we hold sacred.

Over the last half-century, the role of the storyteller has been largely decentralized, displaced by mass-media conglomerates with committee-minded plot lines and focus-grouped pabulum cooked up to appeal to the lowest common denominator of our collective attention spans. A new discourse has arisen, based not on the direct experiences of disparate, tight-knit communities of individuals, but on the commercialized representations of cultural difference on an unprecedented international scale. But take comfort. All is not yet lost.

In Through the Funeral Mountains on a Burro, Charles Freeland invokes that first primordial storyteller with a masterful ease of style both refreshingly new in its perspective and reassuring familiar in its anecdotal nature. The subtle, shifting tales he weaves, interspersed as they are with strange advice and questioning digressions, leave little resemblance to any myth or fable in the traditional sense. That is to say: they do not draw on a distant and idyllic past, but rather a strange and disjointed present in which all the world’s myth-systems seem to exist simultaneously alongside the commercial detritus of the 20^th century:

"We return with our heads under our arms, as if we expect at any moment to be assailed by ravens. And not the literary kind either, but those that haven’t lent their names or dispositions to so much as an ad for lawn furniture. Haven’t followed the river to where it becomes something without boundaries, something so enormous the engineers are scratching their heads."

-from Post Hostile Machine

If the pastoral appears in these passages, it is in constant opposition to a distinctly more contemporary human landscape. Indeed, the conflict of civilization with the natural world is a recurring theme throughout the text; between ravens and lawn furniture, rivers and engineers, animal skins and invention, myth and opinion; Freeland’s stories take their shape from the palpable friction that arises between these elements. They are not so much told, in the linear sense, as they are formed gradually in the reader’s mind by elliptical processes of description and diversion. The final result is a layered, multi-dimensional surface (fully enclosed) the form of which is perfectly described/inscribed but the contents of which remain a distant mystery to be, at best, hinted and guessed at. Like any good story, they demand the active and attentive imaginations of their audience.

And like any master storyteller, Charles Freeland keeps his readers/listeners engaged with a repertoire of age-old techniques presented in his own distinct and musical prose style. Through direct address and the frequent use of collective pronouns, he demands more than just complicit witness, but rather the direct interaction of audience with each passage at hand. By way of example:

"You’d think people would get sick of waiting. But maybe they don’t mean the same thing by “waiting” as we do. Assuming of course, we can come to some sort of consensus ourselves."

-from Fugue, Commencing at the Toes

Taken altogether Freeland’s collection seems to suggest and acknowledge that, while no such consensus is ultimately possible, it is nevertheless the responsibility of the writer/storyteller to strive after that ever elusive goal of communal experience. In fact, our individual and collective histories depend on it. These intricate, experiential fictions so full of strange truths, rhizomic digressions and subtle humor come humbly closer to that goal than any I’ve encountered in quite some time.

Of course, no book is perfect and Through the Funeral Mountains on a Burro is no exception to this brutal rule. Its faults are, however, so small as to be easily missed or happily overlooked. For my own part, there were times when the arrangement of the overall collection felt somewhat discordant, specifically in “Small Concavity at the Base of the Neck” and “Lost Voices of Jamestown.”

Here Freeland abandons the already established form that characterizes the rest of this intricate and deliberate series of narratives. Instead of the succinct surrealist transitions framed by continuous prose blocks found throughout the rest of the collection, each of these two-page pieces is composed of numbered stanzas seemingly loosely connected to each other and their overarching titles. The brief, interjectory nature of these formal intrusions is, perhaps, intended to inject some variety into the eye’s journey through the text. However, the infrequent nature of the gesture ultimately struck this reader as more disruptive than surprising or re-engaging.

That said, this is a damn fine book full of original and engaging prose poems/stories whose leaps and connections will inspire the imagination upon first encounter and then continue to surprise the ear with each subsequent read.

Through the Funeral Mountains on a Burro is available from Otoliths for $10.45 plus S/H.

-Travis Macdonald

A Sh Anthology Reading a Huge Success!

2009-11-10T12:29:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to all our readers and everyone who turned out to listen at the A Sh Anthology reading this past weekend in Denver.

It was wonderful to see you all and to share in the amazing space that is The Dikeou Collection. We had such a great time, that we are already planning another release party reading for later in the winter...we'll keep you posted there.

In the meantime, once again: Thank You!

A Sh Anthology Reading in Denver, CO

2009-10-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

Fact-Simile Editions invites you to join us as we celebrate the release of the A Sh Anthology Saturday, November 7th at The Dikeou Collection in Denver. The evening’s festivities will include live performances by:

Selah Saterstrom
Erik Anderson
Sara Veglahn
Andrew K. Peterson and
j/j/[pleth

Doors open at 6:30 and the reading starts at 7pm. If you're unfamiliar with The Dikeou Collection , check out their website, and be sure to arrive early so you can explore this amazing space:

Saturday, November 7th @ 7pm
The Colorado Building
1615 California Street (at 16th Street)
Suite 515
Denver, CO 80202

We hope to see you there...Oh yeah, and the A Sh Anthology will be on sale for one-time-only price of $9.99!

For those of you in far away places, stay tuned. We will be posting a full video recording of the event on our blog as soon as we get back to New Mexico.

In the meantime...

Best Regards,

Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
Fact-Simile Editions
http://fact-simile.com/
Travis@fact-simile.com
JenMarie@fact-simile.com

Commuter, James Belflower

2009-10-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

Commuter by James Belflower
-Paperback: 86 Pages
-Publisher: Instance Press
-ISBN: 9780967985473

During an age ravaged by The Plague and other brutalities that often truncated lifespans, “memento mori” portraits became a popular mode of painting. The subjects, countered with skulls, wilting flowers and rotting fruit, reminded a viewer of his or her mortality. James Belflower’s Commuter operates in much the same way as one of these memento mori. This debut, full-length book of poetry reminds the reader that, with the 21st century's plague of terrorist bombings, death and destruction are always adjacent to the "normal" moment.

The reader begins the ride with the prologue’s color picture of a subway map. The representation of an underground system of tunnels offers an excellent visual association given that public transportation is so often targeted in attacks. On a deeper level, however, the image begins an intricate patterning of circulation that recurs through the rest of the book.

From the map, the reader is then propelled through into a network of tunnels that are really narrative passage-fragments. These fragments oscillate between moments of stability (ex. matrimony and sight-seeing) and periods of eminent danger and death (accounts from bombings). They seem to blink, tensely, the way we imagine those in the actual subway do in the immediate aftermath of violence, the way our eye blinks between the person in the memento mori portrait and the skull he holds.

Commuter’s language and typography, like a memento mori’s stark representation, reminds us that devastation is always skulking at the brink of common time - catastrophe can interrupt any day, any page, and, as evidenced by Belflower's readable redactions and parentheses that never close: any sentence.

Its passage-fragments often mimic the events the language represents and detonate upon the page: passages of stability become the lopped off limbs of larger narratives absent from the physical page, those passages of destruction are the shrapnel. The reader must tread carefully through the mine/mind field knowing the book is both the ground upon which the bomb is planted and also the bomb itself. Explosions are inevitable if one is to travel cover to cover. For example, within a few pages of one another, the reader witnesses the negotiating a wedding’s rice details:

we argued

birds

their swollen odor

swollen with

rice, rice, rice

and then the bombing of a pizza place:

...I tasted something in my mouth. Thick smoke. The […aroma…]

of burning flesh in my mouth...

Even the book’s layout succumbs to the simultaneity of memento mori. Two parallel lines travel through the book and the space between them forces a gap between the narrative fragments. This gap represents any of several concepts: the track that separates the two platforms of a subway hub, the strata of language, the representation of time’s passage, the pure breath of a moment of solace, or the weighted calm before calamity. Or perhaps it is the hinge of stability and collapse...the silence that rises when language fails us in moments of ultimate pleasure or pain.

Violence and death are not new. They circulate and evolve as time passes and the world transforms its surface. For a reader, or anyone for that matter, to go on, he or she must witness the atrocious, the mortal, but simultaneously locate in life's moments the wonderful and quotidian. Lucky for us, Belflower paints all of these within the same immediate frame.

Commuter is available from SPD for $15.00

-JenMarie Davis

TOUCH ME, Joseph Cooper

2009-09-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

TOUCH ME by Joseph Cooper
· Paperback: 94 pages
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 9781935402190

In TOUCH ME, his latest release from BlazeVox Books, Joseph Cooper ignites a deft tension between the alternating frictions of electronic and visceral forces as they chew through the emotional states of their narrator.

Organizing his exploration of an amorphous and plaintively devastating love affair through the lens of the 1980’s Milton Bradley game “Simon,” Cooper invokes and desecrates both the basic machinery of flesh and the inherent humanity of mechanism. The book pronounces itself a game and, indeed, patterns itself as such. Yet the language at play here is more dangerous than a bag of vibrating knives:

Strung between paranoia and poison, sustenance feeds on organized repetition. Body of nails begins a mother-speaking being. Maternal body is nourishing, murderous, and fascinating. Serrated errantly her blouse stitched hormonal derangement. Chiropractic embraces.
-from “Difficulty Level 2”

This passage, compared to much of the text, is fairly tame, containing no overt slang references to the interaction of bodies, human or otherwise. In fact, by way of warning: Mr. Cooper’s language is aggressively pornographic at times, much of it perhaps unfit for re-publication in review before mixed audiences. And yet, this tendency for verbal transgression is immediately tempered by the simple, almost adolescent honesty of the narrator. It is as if a clever, and perhaps psychotic, twelve year old were given expert command of a diverse and disturbing lexicon of images and set loose to describe the intricacies of love against the template of an anatomical textbook. From the graphically naïve comparison of the vagina to a slice of cantaloupe (explored to its ultimately confused conclusion involving a bicycle) to the complex and x-rated adult relationship that repeatedly develops and unravels throughout the course of the narrative between the primary characters Elle and Simon.

The resulting sympathies that arise between reader and text, if not narrator, is at once tantalizing and disturbing, as if the dangerous affair described were being occasionally transposed upon the reader-writer relationship. Indeed, the frequently repeated “Dear Player” sections serve to further reinforce this effect, drawing the reader or “player” in as complicit witness to the violence and lust at hand.

Let me be clear: this book is not meant for the faint of heart or stomach. Please don’t attempt to read it if you are overly conservative, squeamish, puritan, uppity, prude, naïve, lacking a crude sense of humor or otherwise easily offended. Unless of course, you are currently in search of a cure for one of these conditions…even then, something tells me you probably wouldn’t enjoy it properly.

On the other hand, if you’re the kind of reader that likes the top of your head taken off and the depth of your most basic human fears and insecurities plumbed with alien poetic technologies, then this book is required course reading. With language that might of made Bukowski blush and Ginsberg giggle, Joseph Cooper has churned out another little-known knockout of experimental fiction in what promises to be a noteworthy body of work.

TOUCH ME is available from BlazeVox Books for $16 plus shipping and worth every cent. Check it out.

-Travis Macdonald

The O Mission Repo FREE Online

2009-09-11T06:52:00.001-07:00

Exactly one year ago today, we here at Fact-Simile Editions released The O Mission Repo. Since that day, we've received some great buzz from places like Poets & Writers, Rain Taxi, and Verse.

Now, in commemoration of all who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001 and in the two senseless American wars since, Fact-Simile Editions is pleased to announce the FREE ONLINE RELEASE of The O Mission Repo by Travis Macdonald.

We might be crazy. We probably are. But we want to make this text available to as any readers as we can. We urge you all to take full advantage of our manic fancy and download your very own copy of The O Mission Repo today. Send your friends along so they can download a copy as well.

Then, if you like what you read on the screen and would like to purchase a real, old-fashioned perfect-bound copy of the book to hold in your hands, you can do so HERE.

Many thanks in advance.

-The Editors

A Sh Anthology Official Release

2009-09-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers:

We are pleased to announce the official release of Fact-Simile's A Sh Anthology!

This little gray box, roughly 3 ¼ by 3 ½ by ¾ inches in size, contains 10 scroll shaped texts with new work from:

Sara Veglahn
Erik Anderson
Noah Eli Gordon
Elizabeth Robinson
j/j/[pleth
Elizabeth Rollins
Andrew K. Peterson
Selah Saterstrom
Geoffrey Gatza
Jared Hayes & Joseph Cooper

Copies of this limited edition book-object are available for purchase HERE.

If you live in the Front Range area of Colorado, stay tuned for official release party information in the coming weeks.

Best,

Travis & JenMarie
The Editors @ Fact-Simile Editions

August Updates

2009-08-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers:

August has been a busy month. Before it slips away without a single blog post, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still here and working hard on a number of exciting projects...

First up: Fact-Simile's long-awaited ASh Anthology will go out this week to reviewers and contributors. If you are in the "book" then check your mailbox. This Anthology will be available for purchase on our website soon after. Check back soon...I think you'll like it.

Next: FS 2.2 is coming along nicely. Our Interview this issue examines the act of collaboration in all its many forms with Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop. Also, we've received an overwhelming number of impressive submissions from all over the country. So much so that we are considering implementing a reading period in the near future. But for the time being, our open door policy remains in place, so please send some work along that you think might fit our fancy.

Last but not least: we are hard at work designing books and book objects for our three Equinox Chapbook winners Joe Cooper, Matt Reeck and Travis Cebula. Stay tuned for more details there.

Best,

Travis & JenMarie

The Editors @ Fact-Simile

Points/Counterpoints Reviewed by Lilliputians

2009-07-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

The good folks at The Lilliput Review were recently kind enough to share some words regarding Fact-Simile's first E-book, Points/Counterpoints from Ed Baker.

The Story of the Copier

2009-07-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

JenMarie sent me a craigslist posting last week for a FREE COPIER. Being something of a natural skeptic, I raised one eyebrow as I dialed the number furiously.

It connected me to the voicemail of one Upper Pecos River Watershed Preservation Association and a very nice woman named Lexie. I left a long rambling message about Fact-Simile and how much this machine would mean to us and, a few days later on my birthday, I got a call back. So I leave work early and convince a friend to help me move the thing, also for free. It being my birthday after all.

Anyway, on the way to our destination, a true New Mexican monsoon moves in and the road conditions approach whiteout. Realizing the precariousness of our situation and the sensitive nature of the cargo at hand, we stop at the first Dollar General we see and buy a dropcloth, two shower curtains and a roll of fake duct tape. We arrive to find the copier in working order and, indeed, FREE. So we load it up onto the truck in two halves and wrap it up tight and tie it down to the back of the cab. Of course, by now it has stopped raining. The rest of the ride is bone dry.

Our wrapping job is so good that, when we get it back to my garage, we decide it would be a damn shame to waste the dollar store shower curtains and duct tape and, since we have one more set of hands, we might as well try and take it all down at once.

CounterExample Poetics

2009-07-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

At the risk of chasing away our readership, I urge you to go check out CounterExample Poetics and some of the exciting work contained!

Points/Counterpoints Reader Review

2009-06-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

Below you will find a reader review of Fact-Simile's first E-book Points/Counterpoints by Ed Baker.

A. Upon first read of “Points/Counterpoints” by E. Baker the skidding was terrific.
A1. (I cud pick my own velocity with mind’s accelerator-foot)
B. View surprisingly cl-ear from all windows.
B2. (I kud see my own mindscape reflected back frrrruum his sidewalk windows {both sides of his street})
C. I never got snow tired from burning the gassamer pages.
C2. (I had an amusement park time playing hyde-n-seik in his banyan paper forest)
D. More Illustrator than texter, he could carve my gravestone better than I.
D2. (Let the man pass onto the nexd square on his board, $200 in his shoe)

To read the text and judge for yourself, CLICK HERE.

The Archivist by James Kerley

2009-05-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

I have just spent the past hour or so navigating the delightful maze that is James Kerley's The Archivist. Mr. Kerley has managed to configure a virtual poetic choose-your-own-adventure and program it into an interactive online experience. The reader begins by charting their journey through the home page map, a heavily notated affair which is accompanied by arcane bits of disparate text, whose meaning manages to dance just beyond the grasp of "traditional" comprehension. Indeed, this same trait becomes increasingly apparent the further one delves into The Archivist and its author's intricate net. The final product, constantly evolving in an organic manner at Mr. Kerley's whim, reads like notes from a distant future, a future in which our very own existence is both historically tenuous and contextually endangered.

I strongly urge you to start your own journey into The Archivist files HERE.

Fact-Simile 2.1 Spring/Summer 2009

2009-05-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to announce the official e-release of Fact-Simile 2.1 the Spring/Summer 2009 issue. Though the print version should have hit mailboxes early last week, we have been fine-tuning our e-release and are pleased to present this issue on Memorial Day. You can tune in and download a PDF of the magazine here:

FACT-SIMILE 2.1 SPRING/SUMMER 2009 ISSUE

Featuring an interview with Kristin Prevallet on the subject of mourning, and an extensive lineup of work from innovative writers nationwide, Fact-Simile 2.1 is the perfect way to celebrate this Memorial Day in literary style.

Now please continue barbecuing!

Stalactite Chandelier

2009-05-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

Fact-Simile would like to extend many thanks to Michael Leong of Stalactite Chandelier for his insightful REVIEW of The O Mission Repo and erasure poetry at large!

Rain Taxi Review of The O Mission Repo

2009-05-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that The O Mission Repo has received a wonderful review (by the incomparable Elizabeth Robinson) in the second installment of Rain Taxi Online!

If you have a chance, please check it out and help us pass the word along. Fact-Simile Editions relies on the continued support of readers like you to keep our small-press dreams alive!

Fact-Simile Editions Welcomes its Newest Employee: AB Dick 360!

2009-05-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

We here at Fact-Simile Editions would like to offer a warm welcome to the newest member of our team: AB Dick 360! Many thanks to the amazing Joe Richey who made our latest hire possible.

House Press Still Accepting Submissions for SM04.

2009-04-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

To view SM03 click HERE.

Included in the upcoming SM04:

Veneration of Saint Sylvia (Izzy Oneiric)
Excerpts from n7ostradamus (Travis Macdonald)
Text For Nothing, But Cut-Up (Nico Vassilakis)
NYTimes Headlines (Russell Pascatore)
NYTimes Headlines (David Mauro)
The Well-Equipped Pad (Damian Weber)
Formation of Bogs (E.J. McAdams)
Man Thinks "Woman" (SAM OR SAMANTHA YAMS)
The Art of Marriage (by Tim and Beverly LaHaye by Chall Gray)
Formation of Bogs (E.J. McAdams)
Pearls (Karin Falcone)
& work by Meghan Raham and Jonathan Skinner

The O Mission Repo inspires acts of erasure in public schools!

2009-04-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I was recently delighted to have my attention brought to the following online article on (Poets & Writers Dot Com) as part of their extended consideration of The O mission Repo.

Apparently several roomfulls of high school students in New Hampshire were locked inside the school and not allowed to leave for Xmas break until they all wrote erasure poems. Sounds crazy, right? Check it out now.

The O Mission Repo read by Travis Macdonald

2009-04-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Reading Thanks and Equinox Updates

2009-04-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

Many thanks, first and foremost, to those who turned out for last Saturday's reading. JenMarie and I were both relieved that the weather held off enough for us to get there, so seeing everyone else who turned out was a pleasant surprise indeed!

Jen is currently up in Boulder putting the finishing touches on Bombay Gin and her graduate thesis, but when she returns we will be reading all the wonderful submissions to our first annual chapbook contest and putting together the spring 2009 issue of Fact-Simile, so stay tuned!

Saturday April 4th, 2009 Reading at Naropa University

2009-03-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot: Travis Macdonald and Lisa Birman will be reading at Naropa University, upstairs in Shambhala Hall on April 4th at 8 pm

We would love to see you there!

-The Editors

Equinox Chapbook Contest is Officially Closed

2009-03-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to our first annual Equinox Chapbook Contest! The response was truly overwhelming...we've accepted dozens of submissions from talented writers nationwide and we are currently reviewing every page in order to determine the best fit for our press. If you haven't heard, we will be publishing an announcement of the winning text in the upcoming issue of Fact-Simile Magazine, featuring an interview with Kristin Prevallet. So please stay tuned!

Equinox Chapbook Contest

2009-03-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the first day of spring came rolling in the door and with it the official deadline for Fact-Simile's first annual Equinox Chapbook Contest!

The response has been overwhelming...So much so that, there's just now way we're going to get around to reading all the subs this weekend.

With that in mind, WE'VE DECIDED TO EXTEND THE DEADLINE for another week as we organize and review submissions. So if you were on the fence, now is the time to send some work along to:

travis@fact-simile.com

Monthly Updates Overdue

2009-03-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

February was a busy month for the boys and girls here at Fact-Simile Editions. We have been enjoying all the good press we can from "The O Mission Repo." We are just starting to take a look at submissions for the Spring 2009 issue of Fact-Simile magazine, featuring an interview with Kristin Prevallet. So be sure to send something along for consideration if you're so inclined.

We are also actively courting advertising for this issue, so if you have an artistic or literary endeavor that you'd like publicized at ridiculously low rates, please be sure to contact us here.

Other projects on the horizon, you'll be hearing more about very soon:

The Ash Anthology
Equinox Chapbook Contest
Summer Broadside Series

Fact-Simile at AWP in Chicago

2009-01-28T13:20:00.000-08:00

Good People of the Blawg-

Fact-Simile Editions invites you to visit us at the 2009 AWP conference in Chicago. We will be offering extra special discounts on all of our titles as well as some rare, yet-to-be-revealed merchandise that will only be available for a limited and exclusive time.

For more details on all that Fact-Simile can do for you, stop by our table and say hello to Sloan or Jen.

We look forward to seeing you!

-The Editors

Poets & Writers Reviews The O Mission Repo

2008-12-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

JenMarie and I are very excited to announce that Fact-Simile Magazine and The O Mission Repo were reviewed in the January/February 2009 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine! So pick up a copy at your local bookstore, flip to page 18 and read it out loud at the top of your lungs to whoever will listen.*

*The first person to actually commit and document said act will receive a FREE Fact-Simile Baseball Tee!

"The O Mission Repo" Receives its First Review!

2008-10-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween America! We just wanted to let you all know that our first full-length book, "The O Mission Repo" has received its first official review.

If you don't know about Cool 'Eh Magazine, you should find out about Cool 'Eh Magazine.

These guys are based in NYC and somehow manage to keep their dirty little fingers on the local/national pulse of politics, art and music on a monthly basis. You can check out their latest issue at the address below or visit them at the link to your right.

COOL' EH WEB ISSUE # 11

Please check it out if you get a chance!

-The Editors

Fact-Simile is Moving to Santa Fe!

2008-10-30T16:42:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I got laid off from my job last month and have been searching feverishly for a new one ever since.

Well, I finally found it. And it's a good one. Only problem is: it's in Santa Fe...and it starts on Monday.

So, yeah...I'm moving to New Mexico tomorrow. JenMarie will be following behind shortly thereafter upon completing her semester at Naropa. Short notice, I know...but them's the breaks.

The new mailing address for Fact-Simile Editions is:

129 West Coronado St.
Santa Fe, NM 87505

Needless to say, we will miss our Denver friends! That said, we are very excited to explore our new community, so if anybody has any good leads on the art and literature scene down there, please send them our way!

-Travis

THIS IS NOT A READING, November 10th

2008-10-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

ONOMATO-[pin-yacht-AAHHH!]

Please join the Editors of Fact-Simile Editions for a fun-filled evening of nefarious noises at The Larimer Lounge, Monday November 10th, at 8pm.

Kurt Schwitters. John Cage. Harry Partch. Do you know what I mean? If so, we want YOU! Or maybe you play the bassoon. Maybe you're a bat-man fan dying to do your best Adam West impersonation. If not, that's okay too...maybe you have a crazy hidden noise-talent that you never before had a venue for. We want you too.

If you DO have a noise or two that you'd like to share with the group, please email your ideas to TRAVIS@FACT-SIMILE.COM for consideration. We will make every attempt to accommodate every single conceivable notion proposed.

And yes...THERE WILL BE A PINATA!

All audience members and participants are strongly encouraged to bring a small, legal, non-lethal, light and sharpless object to contribute to the Pinata.

Sincerely,

The Editors
Fact-Simile Editions
WWW.FACT-SIMILE.COM
travis@fact-simile.com

Short Lehman Brothers Film

2008-09-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

I thought maybe everyone would enjoy this artistic interpretation of the current financial crisis that I found on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A94ZINn4PuM

Quote of the Day

2008-09-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

"Treasury’s 840-word legislative bailout proposal comes to more than $830 million per word...when they come up with a title, that will drive the average dollar per word down."

-Stephen Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense

The Laws of Economic Conservation

2008-09-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

The law of ENERGY conservation states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed.

Unfortunately for those of us living in America today, the same cannot be said for money. They print that shit every single day.

Ironically enough, if the current economic trends are any indication, all that the American dollar will be good for pretty soon is wiping our sorry national ass in polite preparation for China's economic cock. But if we're making more money every day, you ask, where does it all go? It wasn't so very long ago that American wealth was a worldwide benchmark of prosperity. What, exactly, has happened in the interim?

A few decades back, as some of you will remember, our good buddy Dick Nixon gave the slip to direct economic representation through the gold standard. This turned the dollar, indeed money-at-large, into a much more fluid entity, open to freer and faster speculation. Since that fateful day, the American dollar has been dancing ever closer to the precipice of unsustainable growth. The recent collapse of some of our nation's most stalwart financial institutions (Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) is merely a symptom of this viral expansion of wealth.

Now, I know you're wondering to yourself: EXPANSION of wealth?! Why haven't I seen a piece of that sweet apple pie yet? I like pie just as much (if not more) than the next CEO. Where do I find my slice?

Well, the sad fact of the matter is this: unless you've been sinking the entirety of your minimum wage paychecks into the market and living on soybeans harvested from your basement, you won't be getting a taste any time soon. We have vague corporate entities to thank for this.

The corporation was born in post-colonial America on the basic premise that a company's only responsibility is to the checkbook of its shareholders from which said company is (at least on paper) comprised. For more on this, please see "The Corporation" a well thought-out documentary that addresses this notion more fully than the space of this blog will allow.

This idea of responsibility forms the very foundation of "free" market capitalism in America. The idea being, that the market is a self-regulating entity inherently incapable of another collapse like that of The Great Depression. To put it simply: In Market Forces (not God) We Now Trust.

The problem with this structured system of faith (or one of the many at least) is that for several decades, if not more, the higher-ups of corporate America have been paying themselves increasingly exorbitant salaries to oversee the meager investments of most Americans. Now, I'm all for lining the pockets of vested interest with the motley cloth of American manpower...I mean, who isn't? But the fact of the matter is, in order to justify their increasingly bloated salaries and lobbyist kickbacks, these very same corporate executives have been pressuring their respective accounting departments to err on the side of expansion. Let me explain:

There are a number of "acceptable" accounting processes and methods of calculation available to any savvy CPA, each portraying the "true" financial picture of a given company's given assets and growth patterns differently. These processes may be broken down into three basic categories: a)conservative b) moderate and c) extremist. Each of these categorical practices, when applied, will yield a much different picture of the given company's economic health.

Now, a "responsible" accountant will mix these methods periodically in order to present a healthy, balanced picture of sustainable company growth. Unfortunately for the American people, the current corporate accounting practices, in order to show continuous increases to their shareholders, have been stuck on option C for far too long. This means that all of these generous little over-estimates have accumulated, avalanche style, creating an actuality vacuum on the books of investment banks and other speculative enterprises like the recently fallen mortgage giants.

So who should bear this multi-billion dollar cross whose total cost conveniently equals that of the Iraq war and its aftermath? Well, George Bush Jr. thinks it should be you.

Mr. Bush presented a whopping 3 page piece of legislation to Congress today that effectively states this burden should fall, once again, squarely on the shoulders of the American Taxpayer...to the tune of $2,000 for each and every one of us!

This little gem, of course, coming as it does on the heels of Mr. Bush's "economic revitalization package," which put a tidy sum of $600 in each of our leaky pockets (actually, as a freelancer, my government "gift" only came to $300) should revitalize the worldwide economy. Right. One has to wonder if that $600 apiece would have been better spent staving off the current crisis rather than shoring up republican support for the coming election.

And what of the fact that the government now owns your mortgage debt? Can you say conflict of interest? I knew you could! What will this do to the idea of eminent domain in America?

Furthermore, whose to say that this unprecedented injection of government cash into the "free" market economy will even stop the problem upon us? It seems to me that giving a blood transfusion to a body riddled with bullet holes doesn't do much good unless the entry and exit wounds are first sewn up and packed with gauze. But it's worth a try, right? I mean, it's better than the alternative: wait and see which way the 21st Century technological dust bowl will blow!

Yes, we must, of course, and ad the very least TRY to save our drowning economy. Just not with MY money, if I had any. Instead, I have what I believe to be a better solution:

I say we send every corporate executive and well-heeled politician, past and present, straight to Iraq to help build roads and dig irrigation canals. Their money (minus airfare, of course) would have to stay home and help US rebuild things here on OUR soil. For safety's sake, we'll let their families stay behind and live, like so many honest Americans, on the public welfare system that corporate economic policies and outright political collusion have stripped bare.

It seems fair to me. But that's just one taxpayer's opinion.

Release Party a Success!

2008-09-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to everyone who made it out to The O Mission Repo release party last night. Your support is greatly appreciated.

It was a privilege to hear the voices of our friends and peers reading the words we spent so long putting into print.

Sincerely,

JenMarie & Travis

The O Mission Repo Official Release

2008-09-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

Today, as the world mourns the victims of the September 11th, 2001 attacks, we here at Fact-Simile Editions invite you to participate in this commemoration with your very own copy of The O Mission Repo.

Composed of the partially erased pages of The 9/11 Commission Report, this innovative text takes readers on a parallel journey through the earth-shaking events whose aftermath has largely determined the course of modern history and culture to date.

The O Mission Repo is currently available on our website (www.fact-simile.com) as well as a handful of small booksellers in the Denver area with more venues to be added shortly.

If you live in the Denver area, you are hereby cordially invited to our official release party, this Saturday, September 13th at the address below:

1258 Pennsylvania Street, #1
Denver, CO 80203

The book will be available for $2 off the cover price for the duration of this event! Doors open at 4pm...We hope to see you there. Please feel free to email with any questions.

Sincerely,

Travis Macdonald
Fact-Simile Editions
WWW.FACT-SIMILE.COM
travis@fact-simile.com
(303) 993-3932

Writers and Money

2008-09-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

J.K. Rowling (creator of the Harry Potter series and the richest writer alive today) along with her publisher (Warner Brothers) has successfully sued one Mr. Steven Jan Van Vander Ark of Brighton England (one of her biggest fans) for copyright infringement. Now, I'm all for copyright protection, to a limit...it serves the noble purpose of securing a writer's livelihood and guaranteeing him or her full rights to the creative output in question. And believe me, as a starving writer myself, I hold dear the idea that my words could one day pay for food and clothing, not to mention the jet-setting lifestyle to which I so ardently aspire. Indeed Ms. Rowling has been quoted as saying:

"I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably...I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work. The proposed book took an enormous amount of my work and added virtually no original commentary of its own."

Bravo Ms. Rowling, Bravo. Your intentions are, indeed, admirable! Of course, had this been the whole truth, one would assume you would have settled for preventing the publication of Mr. Vander Ark's "Harry Potter Lexicon." Much to the contrary, Ms. Rowling, you and your lawyers saw fit to sue Mr. Vander Ark for $6,750 in damages!

I wonder, have you forgotten what it's like to live on a waitress salary? Surely that neat little sum is but a drop in the bucket for your budget, but for Mr. Vander Ark, a former librarian and teacher, this represents a substantial percentage of his annual income. Do you really want to treat struggling up and coming writers (a group to which you yourself once belonged) in such a disgustingly discouraging manner? Do you really think that Mr. Vander Ark's modest proposal would have infringed upon your market share in any appreciable way?

No, I think not. If anything, this small press-run of 10,000 books that "The Lexicon" was attempting to put into print, could be expected to BOOST the sales of the Harry Potter series. Certainly more so than the resulting public backlash that will ultimately result from this conflict.

But the true spit on the cupcake is this: the damages secured were designated to compensate Ms. Rowling for the time and energy lost to mental anguish when she should have been working on her latest book!

Really Ms. Rowling...Really? You were distracted from your latest project for a couple of days while your lawyers at WB took care of all the details? I can't imagine what you must be going through. Please believe me when I say that I would like nothing more than to understand your dire plight firsthand!

The simple fact of the matter is, Ms. Rowling does not need to write another word EVER in order to maintain the comfortable lifestyle to which she has, no doubt, become accustomed. Shouldn't she be using her position of acquired privileges to support folks like her former self, just hoping to make a living out of literature in the face of the current cultural vacuum?

Or, at the very least, one might imagine that, since there is little possibility of the "Lexicon" supplanting her work wholesale, that Rowling might look fondly on the cross-connections her humble little childrens book has generated among a worldwide fan-base. But no...to the contrary, this once-waitress now mega-celebrity has taken to picking the pockets of the very fans who put her in the position of "literary" affluence she now enjoys.

The simple fact is: writers steal words from writers. This has always been the case. Rowling's book is built upon themes and content that mirrors any number of fantasy/sci-fi novels written in the 20th century and beyond. For more on this point, check out Orson Scott Card's reaction to the current debacle:

http://www.linearpublishing.com/rhinostory.html

For all the desperate maneuvering she has put herself through in order to secure her "intellectual" "property," the author has, in fact, succeeded only in diminishing her loyal readership...by one, at least.

[DID YOU KNOW: Mickey Mouse is the father of modern copyright laws? Disney, dismayed that their iconic money-maker was about to fall into the public domain, pulled some strings with their government cousins and had the copyright laws revised to provide protection for 70 years, a drastic jump from the previous period of 14 years!]

DNC aftermath and a little economic venting

2008-09-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

You will be happy to hear, dear readers, that JenMarie and I survived the 2008 DNC without injury or incarceration. Unless, of course, you consider the effect of all that whiskey on one's liver...

Some folks were not so lucky from what I understand: The Denver Police had a sweet little "daycare" racket running throughout the festivities. Apparently, your one constitutionally guaranteed phone call has to be to a land-line and with the modern cell-phone phenomenon in full effect, a number of party-goers found themselves in impromptu prison for the duration of the event...

And though we were unable to get The O Mission Repo out in time to take our share of the Democratic dollars, it appears as if only a handful of local businesses benefited from this media circus anyway...namely those already affluent establishments clustered around the convention center who (gawd knows) needed the boost. Of course, that little tidbit should come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying any attention in this country over the past 30 years and beyond.

To you observant citizens, it should come as no surprise that the middle class is being stretched to obsolescence by the meteoric rise of the first percentile. As the rich get inevitably richer (it takes money to make money) the poor are left to piece together their subsistence from increasingly meager table scraps.

This notion, in itself, is nothing new. The inertia of vested interests has been directing the course of history for several thousands of years. However, if we turn our modern lens to the present state of gross, world-wide population increase, it should become fairly clear that the only way most of us (or our distant descendants) will ever have a chance of joining those vaulted ranks is to populate every planet from here to Pluto. Of course, the majority would still be pushing brooms and cleaning toilets in this galaxy and the next...but at least we could all take comfort in the notion that a few more folks are living the dream.

Side-Note: I am composing this post from my new position in a six-person cubicle, where I crank out mountains of mindless ad copy for classified listings nationwide. Yes, today is Saturday and I am a sucker who won't have Health Insurance for another 86 days.

Sign me up for the next flight to Uranus, because I think this is shitty.

On the eve of the 2008 DNC in Denver

2008-08-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends and countrymen!

As we here in Denver prepare for what promises to be an exciting week, we thought we'd share with our electronic audience some of the important safety tips we printed up for the occasion:

"How to Stay Safe in the Event of Police Action"

"Knowing is half the battle!"
-GI Joe

Over the past 4 decades, Riot Control in the United States has been honed into a precise science. Therefore, the best way to avoid bodily harm, in general, would be to avoid riots and similar scenes of social upheaval altogether. HOWEVER, should you find yourself in the midst of civil unrest, the following pointers may come in handy:

What to do in case of Tear Gas

Tear Gas and its close cousin Pepper Spray are chemical agents designed to enter the bloodstream by way of your body’s mucous membranes at a rate much faster than air or water. There is no defense against a direct hit...should you find yourself in a cloud of capsaicin without a full-face respirator, go fetal and put your hands out politely to be handcuffed. Don’t worry: it shouldn’t take too long.

If, however, you find yourself on the periphery of a tear gas cloud, there are several measures you can take to ensure your continued comfort and safety:

1. Find HIGHER GROUND. If this is not possible, try to determine the wind-direction and depart the area in a PERPENDICULAR MOTION.

2. If the person next to you can’t see, OFFER YOUR ASSISTANCE IN EXITING THE AREA.

3. If you find your vision diminished due to swelling or irritation, TRY TO FIND A PARTNER LESS IMPAIRED AND FOLLOW HIM/HER AWAY FROM THE AREA.

4. In the case of contact with the eyes, FLUSH the area with clean, warm (room-temp) water CONTINUOUSLY for at least an hour. There are a number of saline eye-washes on the market that will do the job, but should you find yourself unprepared, CLEAN room-temperature water will usually suffice. (If you are using bottled water, you should be aware that “Fiji” has the lowest mineral content and most neutral pH among major brands and is therefore less likely to further irritate the affected area.)

5. In order to limit exposure, wash your clothes in soap and water as soon as possible.

What to do in case of Water Cannons

Most Riot Control Procedures dictate that the use of Water Cannons will be authorized only in areas backed by concrete or masonry walls. That is to say, if there are a large number of glass surfaces in the area (building facades, shop windows, automobiles, etc.) you are considerably less likely to encounter this particular type of crowd control technique. However, should you find yourself in the cross-hairs of a Water Cannon:

1. LOWER YOUR CENTER OF GRAVITY.

2. Protect your ribcage by keeping your ELBOWS CLOSE AGAINST THE BODY.

2. “Duckwalk” out of the area along the nearest wall.

What to do in case of Rubber Bullets

Other than a full suit of Kevlar body armor, there is very little defense against a rain of rubber bullets and/or beanbags. They hurt. Plain and simple. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that riot control procedures prohibit cross-fire among friendly personnel. Therefore, despite the demands of natural instinct, one of the safest places in any “civil” unrest is BETWEEN TWO ARMED UNITS!

[IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: While following the above procedures will, by no means, guarantee your well-being in the event of a riot, they should (if properly employed) make for a safer, happier, and more productive demonstration for all involved.]

This public service announcement has been brought to you by your friendly local literary magazine: Fact-Simile (for more about us, please visit www.fact-simile.com)

Pre-Orders of The O Mission Repo Now Available @ Fact-Simile.com

2008-08-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends of Fact-Simile:

We are excited to announce that our first perfect-bound book, The O Mission Repo is scheduled for release on September 11th, 2008!

This provocative, four-act erasure poem is composed solely from the semi-obliterated pages of The 9/11 Commission Report and will surely prove a scandalous addition to your already extensive collection.

In order to promote the upcoming release and to provide some fiscal reprieve for our loyal literary supporters, we are now offering a SPECIAL PRE-ORDER DISCOUNT PRICE OF ONLY $9.11!

So stop by the website sometime during the next 30 days, check out the introduction and be sure to reserve your First Edition copy of this historic publication. Just follow the link below or copy and paste the address into your browser to view sample pages.

http://fact-simile.com/books.html

For those of you without a PayPal account, please send along a check or money order for $9.11 (plus $3 S/H) to the physical address below and we will be happy to send along a copy as soon as the book is released. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards,

The Editors @ Fact-Simile Editions
Travis Macdonald & JenMarie Davis
1258 Pennsylvania Street, #1
Denver, CO 80203
WWW.FACT-SIMILE.COM

PS- If you want to help us get the word out, please feel free to pass this offer along to any friends and/or colleagues who might be interested!

28th Birthday Aquarium Haiku

2008-07-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

It's hard to tell the difference
between surprise and solidity
in a fish eye.

James Belflower & Anne Heide Reading Friday, July 25th

2008-07-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this post and live in the Denver area, you should come check out what promises to be a great reading:

James Belflower & Anne Heide at the Dikeou Collection (http://www.dikeoucollection.org/)

The Colorado Building
1615 California Street (at 16th)
Suite 515
Denver, CO 80202

Show starts at 7pm. We'll be there. Will you?

Another Naropa Summer Writing Progam Comes to a Close

2008-07-22T12:44:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that we of the blog have been largely absent from our electronic abode over the past few weeks. That is because we were finishing up another word-filled summer writing program at Naropa (my fourth, Jen's second) and enjoying a week of well-deserved rest afterwards. As always, it was a 4-week maelstrom of literary intrigue and we are only just now starting to recover.

Indeed, as I write this post, JenMarie is diligently transcribing our interview with Linh Dinh which will be appearing in the Fall issue of Fact-Simile. In addition, we are on the verge of a major web-revision that I will be announcing via e-mail in the coming days. Items of note will include:

Fact-Simile "Avant Guard" Baseball Tees
Apothecary Week 3 "Belladonna"
& Michael Koshkin's "Om Folk Came"

So if you're not on the Fact-Simile Email list yet and you'd like to know more about these and other new releases, please drop us a line at the email below:

travis@fact-simile.com

Faux-Vintage-Original Baseball Raglan Tees Now Available!

2008-07-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot to mention the most exciting news of the day:

Faux-Vintage-Original Baseball Raglan Tees are now available from Fact-Simile!

With any luck we will have pictures up on the website tonight, but Kristin Prevallet and Selah Saterstrom are reading up in Boulder this evening, so...no promises. I will, however, be advertising these jazzy numbers at the reading and we will have them available at our table this Friday at the Naropa Book Signing.

Apothecary: A Success

2008-07-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce that our weekly summer journal, Apothecary has continued to be a success. Week 1 (laudanum) is officially out of print and their are only 2 copies of Week 2 (snake oil) left for purchase. So if you're on the Naropa Campus this week, find JenMarie Davis in the smoking area and ask if you can buy one of these limited edition literary supplements!

In the unlikely event that we have leftovers after the SWP, we will make them available through paypal on our website, so check back in August.

Also, as the print-edition pill bottles sell out, we will make their contents available on the "Issues" section of our website (www.fact-simile.com)

Thanks for all your support!

2008-06-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

And Ryan Clark...

2008-06-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

Please enjoy a video of Susie Huser reading at the Fact-Simile release party:

Fact-Simile Presents Apothecary!

2008-06-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends, enemies and the indifferent-

We here at Fact-Simile are pleased to announce that the launch of Apothecary was a resounding success. Thanks to some great content from our contributors and a great crowd at the Naropa SWP, the first issue is officially out of print!

Never fear, however...in order to help get the word out on this endeavor, we are currently working to get the first (and subsequent) issue online over at www.fact-simile.com We'll keep you posted on this front in the coming days.

And, of course, we will continue to offer the limited edition hard copy pill bottle in the coming weeks for all you lucky Naropa folks.

For those interested in submitting to this unique publication, please send up to 5 pages of original, previously unpublished work to frenchpresspublishing@gmail.com

Sincerely,

The Editors
Apothecary/Fact-Simile

2008-06-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hi there again. Here's Nick Morris' reading. Others soon to come...

Apothecary summer series

2008-06-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Dear everyone,

This is Jen, not Travis. I write on this blog, too. This is my first post. My diction, sentence length, and blogging tone will be different from his. That will be how you know it's me.

Anyhow, Partner-in-crime and I have decided to release, during the Naropa Summer Writing Program, a seasonal journal (a series of four) in theme (it's called Apothecary).

A note on origin:

Travis wanted to call it Viscera and have themes like "The Liver Issue" and "Pancreas." There was even talk of disease. I was driving the car through the mountains during this discussion (we had just passed the Stagestop Inn, nearer to lakes and train tracks) and he was my passenger). When I said "No. I will not theme a journal 'pancreatic cancer,'" he did not argue (my driving strikes fear in his heart, and he had a grease-full belly from hamburgers and macaroni with cheese and we were approaching cliffs and passes). (This is not entirely true, he argued a little and laughed a lot at my abhorrence of his crass suggestions).

I am not as controversial and therefore not as cool as Travis. So, the journal is called Apothecary. You should submit! Please send your submissions to me at frenchpresspublishing@gmail.com.

Also, an unrelated note on videos:

Travis and I purchased a video camera for Fact-Simile event and activity posterity.

If you would like to, you may view videos that I took of the Fact-Simile release party readings and festivities. Caution: I've a shaky hand.

Go here:http://www.youtube.com/FactSimileMagazine

That's enough. Have a good day, okay?

Take care,

JenMarie

Tomorrow's Poets TO...morrow

2008-06-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

This is another friendly reminder: Hear Tomorrow's Poets Read TODAY!

Well, actually its tomorrow...5pm at the address below:

1258 Pennsylvania Street
Denver, CO 80203

I hope you can join us!