Linda Besner Down South

On February 19th, Linda Besner—author of The Id Kid—visited UNC-Wilmington as the first participant in the "The °C / °F Reading Series," curated by Alessandro Porco. "It was a wonderful event," Porco writes on his Facebook page, "students and faculty filled—and even spilled out of—the venue."

Look No Further

Rob Winger celebrates Linda Besner's first book, The Id Kid, for "dis­play­ing a wry matur­ity and aes­thetic self-awareness most debut poets can only dream of":

"If you’re seek­ing 'a tiger rodeo,' 'de futuro ducks,' or 'stone­henge for black flies,' you’ll find them here. If you’re look­ing for inter­tex­tual nuance and ter­rible puns, they’re here, too. And if you’re seek­ing res­ol­u­tion for the sup­posed con­flicts between high and low, base and super­struc­ture, petty and pro­found, look no fur­ther."

Wunderkind

Danielle Janess praises Linda Besner's The Id Kid for, among other things, it's "mindbending boobytraps."

Holiday Recommendation, Ctd

The Id Kid gets more praise. This time from poet Amanda Earl, who compares the mouth-music of Besner's poetry to "pop rocks." You can read her plug here.

The "It" Kid

Michael Lista raves over Linda Besner's The Id Kid. I'm delighted that he mentions nearly all the themes that drove our decision-making during the editorial process (life as performance, self as artifice, confession as mask-wearing). It's always nice to have a reviewer point out undetected patterns in the carpet. But it's especially satisfying when a reviewer sees exactly what you hoped he would see.

Besner

Linda Besner has been doing a bunch of readings from The Id Kid, but photographic evidence has been scarce. I grabbed the above, snapped May 4th, as soon as it surfaced on the Pivot Readings Facebook page.

I also found this fun video -- courtesy of the reliably entertaining blog How Pedestrian -- featuring Linda reading her poem "Moonlight on Komatsu Extractor."

Tomfoolery

Over at Maisonneuve, Natalie Thompson speaks to Linda Besner (self-portrait above) about her "attraction to accidental slippages of tongue":

"When I find those unintentional language slips I enjoy creating something intentional around them. Like putting something that is broken back together with the half it didn’t know it had."

Signal Poet Gets TV Show!

Just kidding -- but it's a start.

They're in!

Our Spring poetry titles: The Id Kid by Linda Besner and Skullduggery by Asa Boxer.

Sunday Poem

WATER GLASS

Sure fooled me.

Had me right up

to the tinselly scraping

when I downed

the last mouthful

and the ice cube turned

out to be glass.

Arrowhead.

Shark's fin.

Lifting it out

nearly cost me a finger

never mind

the carnage it

could've caused

in the throat.

Awe around the table

as if I'd gone

inadvertent skydiving

or breezed through

a tiger rodeo just while

sipping, squeezing in

a lime. See

how the trick is turned.

Thrilling to be fooled so,

like when I went to check

the time in Paris

and a thief's hummingbird

caress left me gaping

at my naked wrist.

That was a touch

I never felt, but this time

I'm suffered to see

how I'm spared.

Everyone wanted to touch it, tap,

test their fingers on the edge.

Makes you want

to try your luck again,

the way a carnival bohunkus

gawps at the stage;

then jets his hand

in the air with ballooning

faith. Me, me,

pick me, mister.

Saw me in half.

I believe.

From The Id Kid by Linda Besner, which will be launched April 17, 2010.

The Reason Artists Jump Out the Window

Kevin Spenst interviews Signal Editions poet Linda Besner on the subject of revision.

The thing about revision for me is that it’s at this stage that you struggle most mightily to make a poem into something it’s not. And then you have to decide what else it is, and whether you can still feel—if not the same way about it, then feel something for it. I just finished Salvatore Scibona’s novel The End, and there’s a line in it I loved: "Disappointment was the result of an idea’s attempt to miscegenate with the visible world." The poem in my mind and the poem on the page are never quite the same poem, and it’s always painful to accept that.

Read the rest here. Linda's debut, The Id Kid, is ready to drop next month.