2013–2017: Sonnets Will Be Published by LJMcD Communications in July 2024

Fest, Bradley J--Cover for 2013-2017--600 resolution--coverI am absolutely thrilled to announce that 2013–2017: Sonnets, the first volume of my ongoing sonnet sequence, will be published by LJMcD Communications in July 2024. I’ll update this page with more information when I have it, but for now, here’s a description of the book:

2013–2017: Sonnets is the first volume in Bradley J. Fest’s ongoing sequence of American sonnets, a project concerned with how the distributed networks of the twenty-first century construct and filter time. Continuing the program of poetic assemblage explored in his first two books, these poems were composed consecutively as emergent temporal snapshots documenting certain experiences of what it was like to live precariously in the overdeveloped world between 2013 and 2017. Over the past decade, this ongoing experimental sonnet sequence has become: a complex encounter with time and its twenty-first-century rhythms; a document of artistic maturation; a personal archive of occasions, moments, days; a continually refreshed confrontation with the global computational hyperarchive; a discography of popular music; an extended reflection on contemporary literature, art, and culture; an increasingly multiplex meditation on the sonnet; an historical record of the troubling national situation in the United States; and a work of mourning for a world disappearing into climate emergency. The second volume, currently in progress, begins in 2018.

Also, thanks much to my very good friend Taylor Baldwin for the amazing cover image: The Interpreter (2010).

“Archives of Spring” in The Decadent Review

The final poem in my “Archives” series, “Archives of Spring,” is out in The Decadent Review. The whole series can be accessed hereEnormous thanks to Dimitri Kaufman, editor of The Decadent Review, for presenting these poems in such a wonderful fashion over the past year. And if you want links to each individual other poem, here they are: “Archives of Summer,”Archives of Autumn,” and “Archives of Winter.”

Reading at Bushel

At 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, I’ll be reading poems—including some new ones (never before heard!)—at the Bushel Collective as part of a release event for the State University of New York at Delhi’s literary journal, Agate Literary and Arts Magazine. Bushel is located at 106 Main Street in Delhi, New York.

Update

Here’s a picture of my reading at Bushel. Thanks to Peter W. Brusoe for the pic.

Fest, Bradley J--Picture of Reading at Bushel, April 26, 2023

“2021.05,” “2022.03,” and “2022.04” in The Kitchen Sink

As I mentioned in my last post, my work appeared in two different publications today. The second: More sonnets from my ongoing sequence, “2021.05,” “2022.03,” and “2022.04,” are in The Kitchen Sink, a brand-new publication based in Oneonta, New York (where I currently reside) run by recent graduates of the State University of New York at Oneonta. Thanks to Alexis Ochi and the other editors for accepting my work. I’m also thrilled to have these poems published alongside work from one of my students at Hartwick College.

“2021.06,” “2022.01,” and “2022.05” in IceFloe Press

My work appeared in two different publications today. First, I’m thrilled to have more recent sonnets from my ongoing series, “2021.06,” “2022.01,” and “2022.05,” as part of a series of pandemic “Dispatches” at IceFloe Press. Thanks especially to Robert Frede Kenter for championing these poems and for the amazing visual poem collage he made to accompany my work.

Fall Semester 2022: Syllabi

Hartwick Fall 01This coming fall semester looks like it will be as close to “normal” as it’s been in some time. I’m teaching some familiar creative writing classes that I usually teach in the fall (syllabi below), and filling in for the first half of the semester in our ENGL 101 Writing Tutorial class (syllabus not included). I will again also be teaching our methods course for senior theses in creative writing (ENGL 489).

ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing

ENGL 312 Intermediate Poetry Workshop