Year of the Ox
It’s that time again, the New Year. And while most people are probably waking up just now, wearing the stench of cologne mixed with champagne mixed with their last bad decision for 2008, here at RIOT Ink headquarters we are diligently planning out what is in store for the new year. 2009 is going to be a biggie, even more impressive and spectacular than the previous one. Remember those warm-blooded and cheery summer readings (even the hurricane came to one!), well more of that is in store for the spring time. Details are being worked out, mainly the location and the frequency of the readings, but DO be on the lookout. Fall semester was crazy with grad applications, teacher assisting, and the overall winter doldrums. BUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, we shall begin this new year with a bang. How, might you ask?
Well, aside from a brand spankin’ new reading series to quench your poetry thirst, the RIOT Inkers will be putting together their THIRD Maker, the Voyeur edition, which will be edited by the lovely Ms. Paula Mendoza-Hanna. It will feature work from newcomers and veterans, ranging from short stories to poetry to explorations into the nature of beekeeping. This new Maker should come out late January or early February! Just think! VOYEUR, and no not like those Girls Gone Wild videos, sheesh, who do you think you are! Classy and sassy and maybe a bit trashy.
Oh wait! there is going to be a FOURTH Maker, too. The COLLABORATIONS edition of Maker. Yes, we are allowed this. Basically, we will release a Maker with the poetry collaborations written and performed over the summer. But that’s not all! We will also explain the prompts, method, and overall process for creating poetry with multiple people who, let’s not kid ourselves, write in completely different ways. I mean, rhyming couplets meets Godzilla — how does that work?!?!?!? IT DOES! And we will enlighten you. Because nothing is more fun than writing, unless you are writing with people you really really like. And well, don’t be upset if there are a couple pizza stains and mentions of the infamous P’Zone throughout this Maker. It is full of love and…well, that other stuff. (BURNT PIZZA anyone?)
And if a freaking reading series and new litzine issues combo wasn’t enough for you in 2009, then get ready for this! One of the newest members of RIOT Ink, Runjini Raman, will be releasing her first chapbook of poems through our high-tech publishing house (aka the Hanna House, aka the best place for nutella and peanut butter sandwiches). Runjini was found in the barren lands of university poetry workshops one day and we have loved her ever since. BACK OFF SAN FRANCISCO.
Okay. Lemme guess. YOU STILL WANT MORE. That’s fine. Because if those four BIG things weren’t enough. Then be ready for poetry to explode in your veins and your heart and when you are on the bus and when you are craving Japanese food and when you are waiting in line at Amy’s Ice Cream. Yes, poetry postcards might creep into your napkins or your bus seat or that book about marsupial mating patterns that you have to read for ecology class. Just saying, what goes better with animal sex than a poem by Sylvia Plath or Robert Frost or Anne Carson or Kenneth Koch (“tigers in my genitals”!).
What I am trying to say is that RIOT Ink is alive and kickin’ like a baby about to shoot out of the womb. So, to loyal fans, friends, and family members. Stay on board with us as we look toward the new year, for 2009 will beautiful like a freshmen entering college or a pack of gum just opened from the wrapper.
OKAY. Fine. Go back to reading your Christmas presents or cradling that bottle of Alka-Seltzer. It was a great year. Let’s have an ever better one.
-bender
SPACEMAN:DADA:ROBOT