I am honored that Masque & Spectacle has nominated my poem “2016.19” for Best of the Net.
It’s also pretty great to be nominated by Masque & Spectacle along with the work of an old friend: Rachel Nagelberg’s “Do Androids Dream of Dick?”
Bradley J Fest
Reading at Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series on June 13, 2017
I recently read at the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series, and you can listen to (and download) it here. I read “We’re Just Like Yesterday’s Headlines,” “Throw Out Your Life,” and “The Shape of Things I,” all from my forthcoming collection, The Shape of Things, due out soon from Salò Press.
You can also hear the other poets here: Nikki Allen, Jennifer Jackson Berry, Jason Irwin, Sharon Fagan McDermott, Kayla Sargeson. It was a really nice evening filled with wonderful verse. Thanks all.
Poets who read at Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series, June 13, 2017. Back row, left-to-right: Jimmy Cvetic, Bradley J. Fest, Sharon Fagan McDermott, and Joan Bauer; front row, left-to-right: Nikki Allen, Jennifer Jackson Berry, Kayla Sargeson, and Jason Irwin.
Another Guest Appearance on The Jabsteps: Review of Return of the King
I made another appearance on The Jabsteps podcast filling in for Salvatore Pane in episode 57:“Jabsteps Book Review with Dr. Brad Fest! Return of the King (LeBron not Tolkien).” Geoff Peck and I talk about the 2017 NBA Finals and review Brian Windhorst and Dave McMenamin’s book, Return of the King: LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Greatest Comeback in NBA History (New York: Grand Central, 2017).
Photos of Recent Readings
I’ve given a couple of readings in Pittsburgh of late, and a few people took photographs (thanks Mike and Racheal), so here they are. The first is from my reading at the Bonfire Reading Series on March 4, 2017, where I read some sonnets from my ongoing series; the second two photographs are from last night at the release party for The After Happy Hour Review, no. 7, put on by the Hour After Happy Hour Writing Workshop. To mark the ten year anniversary of my first publication, last night I also read “Symphony of the Great Transnational” (2007), which originally was published in Spork and appears in The Rocking Chair (2015). It’s been a pleasure to get back to reading my poetry in public.
I’ll be giving another reading in Pittsburgh for Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series on June 13, 2017 at 8:00 pm at Hemingway’s Cafe in Oakland. I’ll be reading from my forthcoming book, The Shape of Things (Salò Press, 2017).
“2015.13,” “2015.16,” “2015.25,” and “2015.27” in Grain
Four more sonnets from my ongoing sequence were just published in vol. 44, no. 3, of Grain: The Journal of Eclectic Writing. The issue is titled “Relativity of Zen,” is edited by Adam Pottle, and can be purchased here.
Upcoming Readings on May 18 and June 13
I will be giving two poetry readings in Pittsburgh over the next couple months.
On May 18, 2017 I will be reading at Piccolo Forno at 7:00 pm to accompany the release of issue 7 of the After Happy Hour Review. Also reading will be Bob Hartley, Daniel Parme, Celine Roberts, and Daniel M. Shapiro.
On June 13, 2017 I will be reading at the Hemingway’s Summer Poetry Series. Also reading will be Nikki Allen, Jennifer Jackson Berry, Jason Irwin, Sharon Fagan McDermott, and Kayla Sargeson.
“Toward a Theory of the Megatext” Forthcoming in Scale in Literature and Culture
“Toward a Theory of the Megatext: Speculative Criticism and Richard Grossman’s ‘Breeze Avenue Working Paper,'” the first essay from a new project on what I have been calling megatexts, will appear in Scale in Literature and Culture, edited by Michael Tavel Clarke and David Wittenberg. The collection of essays will be published by Palgrave Macmillan and will hopefully come out later this year. More information to come.
Reading at The Bonfire Reading Series with Dan Thomas-Glass on March 4, 2017 in Pittsburgh
I will be reading at The Bonfire Reading Series with Dan Thomas-Glass on March 4, 2017 in Pittsburgh, PA. For more on the series, check out Guillermo Parra’s article and interview with the Bonfire Collective on The Best American Poetry blog. Landmark Tongues with Alan Lewandowski will also be performing.
“2015.17” in The Offbeat
“2015.17,” a poem from my ongoing sonnet sequence, just appeared in volume 17 of The Offbeat.
“The Shape of Things II” and Other Poems in Verse
A portfolio of my poems was chosen as a finalist for the 2015 Tomaž Šalamun Prize and was just published in Verse. Included in the portfolio are “The Shape of Things I,” “Architects and Their Books,” “What We Are Looking At,” “Tristeza,” “An Ode to 2013: We Are the National Security Agency’s Children,” “Throw Out Your Life,” and an eighteen-page long poem, “The Shape of Things II,” of which I am particularly proud.
The poems appear in volume 33 of Verse, along with poems by Felicia Zamora, the winner of the 2015 Tomaž Šalamun Prize, E. C. Belli, Alex Stolis, Beth Marzoni, Michelle Murphy, Dan Ivec, Gabrielle Hovendon, Todd Melicker, Keith Jones, Catherine Taylor, Lynn Melnick, and the late James Tate. I will post a link to where one can order the issue as soon as it becomes available, but in the meantime, individual subscriptions can be ordered from Verse‘s editorial office for $18/year (check payable to Verse):
Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki, Editors
Department of English
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173
The Hyperarchival Parallax 