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September 3, 2019

2019 Nightboat Poetry Prize!

Starting on September 1st, Nightboat Books invites submissions to the 2019 Nightboat Poetry Prize. The winning poet receives $1,000, a standard royalty contract, and 25 free copies of the published book. Finalists are considered for future publication. Judges:…

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November 21, 2019

The Language of Alisoun: In Conversation with Caroline Bergvall

"The pleasure that people feel about that character, the Wife of Bath, is that voice, that just marches through with the knowledge and the inventiveness that she has at her disposal."—Caroline Bergvall   On October 16, 2019, Caroline Bergvall celebrated her now-launched Alisoun Sings at the NYU Department of Social & Cultural Analysis, hosted by The Colloquium for Unpopular Culture. After a brilliant introduction from S.S. Sandhu, she read from the work, "a ghost" before its official publication date, and presented some of her films, a rare treat in the States. In conversation with Nightboat's own Stephen Motika, Bergvall expands on her…

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November 13, 2019

HULL: An Interview With Xandria Phillips

Someone recently asked me about contemporary queer poets that I would recommend—a considerably hefty question to ask a person, since there are just so many great queer folks truly spearheading poetry scenes everywhere right now—and one of the first that came to mind was Xandria Phillips. Their debut, HULL, out last month, was one of my favorites this year. In 80 pages, Xandria packs in everything a reader could want, seamlessly bridging formal play with thematic substance. The anti-colonial never wavers, adamant and dynamic in its deployment by Phillips throughout HULL, as it's woven through historical contexts and pulled towards…

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September 25, 2019

SPEECH: Jill Magi on Method

Abu Dhabi-based poet and artist Jill Magi furnishes SPEECH, her new book-length poem published earlier this month, with layered textures of language, subject, and object, calling at the delineations of border and sending her subject through them. That subject, however, "won't be indexed precisely," Magi asserts in the books appendix, "Painting a bibliography."  She asserts further that SPEECH is as much an archive, of painting-- of movement-- of place, as it is a poetic engagement. In the interest of highlighting that pervasive materiality of this new text, Jill Magi has given us a photographic opening into the creative spaces…

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News | Blog |
September 19, 2019

Tour Dates! A Little More Red Sun on the Human

We're thrilled to share that Gillian Conoley is going on the road! She will be touring through the fall and into the spring in support of her newest book, A Little More Red Sun on the Human to be released in October. This collection of poems is also available on Consortium. Be sure to catch Conoley at one of these magical events.     October 12, 2019: Reading, Grace Cathedral, Litquake San Francisco, CA, 8 pm: October 13, 2019: Reading, Napa Valley Writer's Conference 20th anniversary, 5 pm, Napa Bookmine, 964 Pearl St., Napa, CA October 22, 2019: BOOK LAUNCH and Reading  for A Little…

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News | Awards |
September 5, 2019

Aditi Machado’s book Emporium (Nightboat Books, 2020) has won the JAMES LAUGHLIN AWARD, which is given to recognize and support a second book of poetry forthcoming in the next calendar year. Offered since 1954 and endowed in 1995 by the Drue Heinz Trust, the annual award is named for the poet and publisher James Laughlin, founder of New Directions. The winning poet receives a cash prize of $5,000 and a one-week residency at the Betsy Hotel in Miami; the Academy of American Poets also distributes copies of the book to thousands of its members. Past recipients include Donald Hall, Sharon Olds, and Vijay Seshadri. The judges were Gillian…

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August 5, 2019

Summer Reading List: Borders

  With mass ICE raids of major U.S. cities promised by an ever-intensifying racist administration, major protests at the nations detention centers after reports of astonishingly inhumane conditions and newly devised asylum restrictions, along with…

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July 24, 2019

Andrew Durbin Remembering Kevin Killian (1952-2019)

Last month, the poetry community lost a dear friend and comrade, an important voice and mentor, with the passing of Kevin Killian, novelist, poet, editor, and reviewer. Killian, along with his partner Dodie Bellamy, played an undeniably central and indispensable role in both the San Francisco and national literary scenes, giving boundlessly to others with special care to younger emergent writers. In 2017, the two edited the first anthology of New Narrative writers, tenderly entitled "Writers Who Love Too Much," which we had the pleasure of releasing here at Nightboat. Andrew Durbin, fellow Nightboat author, editor, and good friend…

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