MAKINGnews

JOE MENO (#10, #2) the Chicago writer has a new book out entitled Office Girl.  Read the review by Time Out Chicago here.  And his bio here.

NICK TWEMLOW (#7) was interviewed by a fellow Canarium writer and featured in the Best American Poetry blog.  Read it and watch the video here.

CARYL PAGEL (#9) had a book of poems entitled Experiments I Should Like Tried at My Own Death reviewed and praised by the Writing University.  Read the review here.

JENNY BOULLY (#9) was interviewed by coldfront magazine on her new book, not merely because the unknown that was stalking toward them.  Read it here.

STEPHEN GILLIS (#8) responds to five questions from HTMLGIANT.  Read the interview here.

TOM BISSELL (#7) reviews Spec Ops and maps out why we play shooter games in an article he wrote for Grantland.

AMY LEACH (#6) published a new book of essays, Things That Are.  Read her bio on Milkweed here.

ISH KLEIN (#8) was interviewed for a podcast by BOMBLOG about his second book of poems, Moving Day.  Read the interview here and Klein’s bio here.

TOM BISSELL (#7) published a collection of essays under the title Magic Hours: Creators and Creation. Bissell writes on a diverse range of subjects and treats each with a penetrating intelligence.  Check out the review by Brain Pickings here.

MARY RUEFLE (#9) was praised by the Kenyon Review for her book of poems, Selected Poems.  Read the review here.

BLAKE BUTLER (#8) reviewed books by Dodie Bellamy, Jon Leon, and Tomaž Šalamun for VICE magazine.  Read the reviews here.

SARA LEVINE (#1) was featured for her new book, Treasure Island!!!, by NPR’s Nancy Pearl in an article on summer reads.  Read the article here.

DAN BEACHY-QUICK (#8) published a new collection of essays entitled Wonderful Investigations: Essays, Meditations, Tales.  Read a review here.

BRANDON DOWNING (#9) was featured in the Southeast Portland literary journal, Poor Claudia. Read his two poems and see his two collages here!

GABRIEL LEVINSON (#4, #9) is highlighted in the February issue of NYLON magazine! Levinson is the editor of A Brief History of Authoterrorism (ANTIBOOKCLUB).

DOROTHEA LASKY’s (#8) poetry is included in the project, BUMPERS from Cuneiform Press– various poets, including Lasky, wrote poems to be displayed on 12 genuine, crack-and-peel bumper stickers. BUMPERS suggests that an alternative medium has the power to bring poetry to the streets. Buy the collection here.

PATRICIA LOCKWOOD (#11) was highlighted on The Poetry Foundation‘s Poetry News for her skills at sexting. See the blurb here and spice things up with her list of sexts on Rhizome here.

ALISSA NUTTING’s nonfiction piece, An Appointment With Dread was featured on the New York Times‘ Opinionator, an exclusive online commentary from the Times. The piece discusses our anxiety-filled lifestyles. Read the piece here.

ALEX KOTLOWITZ (#3) produced “The Interrupters” last July, a documentary following three Chicagoans who struggle to end street violence. The film will be screened at various locations in Chicago throughout February, and will be shown worldwide throughout May. See more details here.

STEPHEN ELLIOTT’s (#8) memoir, The Adderall Diaries was praised on NPR’s All Things Considered as a stellar example of a memoir done right. Listen to the full story here. Elliott also runs The Rumpus: probably the coolest literary site out there.

PHYLLIS BRAMSON (#10) was recently inducted into the Union League Club of Chicago’s Distinguished Artists program. Read the full story here.

NAT SUFRIN (former MAKE intern) has two poems recently featured in TriQuarterly Online‘s newest issue! Check them out here!

KATE ZAMBRENO’s (#9) personal literary blog, Frances Farmer Is My Sister inspires her latest book, Heroines: a collection of essays centering around the women of modernism, and is set to be published by Semiotext(e)’s Active Agents series in Fall 2012.

IDRIS GOODWIN (#3) will debut his full-length play, How We Got On, at the 36th annual Humana Arts Festival in Louisville, KY from March 2nd to April 1, 2012. The play seeks to depict and pay homage to the Midwest’s hip hop culture of the late 1980s– the very culture Goodwin says shaped his career as a writer. Check out his website here.

JOE MENO’s (#2) writing will be featured in a new collection of stories, Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury. (William Morrow Paperbacks), set to be released July 17, 2012. The revealed list of contributors includes such literary and science fiction giants as: Margaret Atwood, Dave Eggers, Neil Gaiman, Dean Koontz, and Harlan Ellison, to name a few.

ANTHONY MADRID (#9), author of The 580 Strophes, a chapbook published by Cosa Nostra Editions in 2009, is releasing his first collection of poems, I Am Your Slave Now Do What I Say, (Canarium Books) in April 2012.

KATE GREENSTREET’s (#7) writing was recently chosen as a component of Fire On Her Tongue, (Two Sylvias Press) a 460-page eBook anthology of poems from contemporary women poets. The anthology features over seventy women poets, and is available for purchase here.

BLAKE BUTLER’s (#8, #10) collection NOTHING: A Portrait of Insomnia (Harper Perennial) appeared on January 1st in The New York Times’ Sunday Book Review’s Editor’s Choice section as a “Recent book of particular interest.”

SARA LEVINE’s (#1) first novel, Treasure Island!!! (Europa Editions) was featured on Oprah’s “16 Books To Watch For In 2012” list. You can find that list here and also read her novel’s NYTimes review here.

John Beer (#6), author of Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award winner The Waste Land and Other Poems (Canarium Press) will appear Loggernaut Reading Seriesin Portland with Apricot Irving, Riley Michael Parker on December 7, 2011.

Tom Bissell (#7) has a new book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter (Pantheon), which delves, for the first time in his literary career, into the pop culture of it all. Read reviews on Extra lives on Slate and The LA Times Blog.

Daniel Borzutsky’s (#2) newest collection of poems The Book of Interfering Bodies (Nightboat Books) has received extensive praise, including by Kevin C. Moore on this site. Read more about Borzutsky on his site.

Blake Butler (#8) has two new books out this year entitled There is No Year, more recently, Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia (Harper Perennial). You can read his Q & A with Impose Magazine and a review in Creative Loafing. He is editor of HTMLgiant, and keeps up his own blog.

Jenny Boully’s (#9) new title Not Merely Because of the Unknown that was Stalking Toward Them (Tarpaulin Sky Press) is a dark collection of poetry that rings of fairy tale appeal. Read a review here.
Also take a gander at her blog.

Kevin Coval (#3) is a seasoned Def Jam Poet on HBO, and published a novella, L-vis Lives!: Racemusic Poems, that features a collection of his highly relevant poetry. Check out his website for more info, or read about him on New City.

Tyler Flynn Dorholt’s (#10) The Point or What I cannot Recall was picked up by April Greying Ghost last April. The book is forthcoming, but in the mean time, you can check out another one of his chapbooks Dog the man a star. He has a blog, too.

Stephen Elliott (#8), author of most recently The Adderall Diaries, sends “overly personal emails” as The Daily Rumpus.  Sign up at The Rumpus is recommended.

Alvilde Falck (#10) has joined the staff of one of our favorite local lit mags, Artifice.Their fourth issue is now available.

L.C. Fiore (#3) published a new book Green Gospel (Livingston Press) in September, in which an environmentally minded protagonist who reveals herself to be both impressively determined and capable of striking violence. Read Southern Literary Review’s piece on the book here. Fiore manages his personal blog and has published in Folio, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Wascana Review.

Gina Frangello (#9), author of My Sister’s Continent (Chiasmus Press), Slut Lullabies (Emergency Press), and co-editor of Men Undressed: Women Writers on the Male Sexual Experience (OV Books) has a forthcoming novel A Life in Men (Algonquin).  Gina is the Fiction Editor at The Nervous Breakdown and Executive Editor of OV Books.

Idris Goodwin (#3) has a new album Break Beat Bars, and you can download it for free here. Goodwin also recently a collection of essays on race, identity, and hip hop titled These Are the Breaks (Write Bloody Publishing). Goodwin is currently on tour–find out more on his website.

Rae Gouirand (#7) first collection of poetry, Open Winter, was recently published by Bellday Books after receiving their 2011 Bellday Prize for Poetry, judged by Elaine Equi. Alice Fulton writes that “Open Winter offers a shimmering geometry of cognition in visionary poems that witness the erotic ligatures between self and world. It is a generative—and deeply generous—book.”

Lily Hoang’s (#9) most recent work, Unfinished: Stories Finished by Lily Hoang (Jaded Ibis Press) is nothing if not unique. She gathered unfinished stories from over 20 writers and, just at the title suggests, she wrapped them up. Read a review of her project here. Or this one, which includes a trailer.

Daniel Khalastchi (#10) has already been recognized his first book of poetry, Manoleria. It’s been awarded Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Prize. You can learn more about the book on Tupelo’s site. For more on the man himself, check out this interview he did with Thermos Mag.

Alex Kotlowitz (#3) and director Steve James’s film The Interrupters was recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. The film “tells the moving and surprising story of three “violence interrupters” in Chicago who with bravado, humility and even humor try to protect their communities from the violence they once employed.”

Adam Langer’s (#2) The Thieves of Manhattan, published in 2010 under Spiegel & Garu. Take a look-see at his website for more on his writing process. You may also be interested in reviews here, or his interview with the Huffington Post.

Gabriel Levinson (#6) lent his editing skills to A Brief History of Authoterrorism out this year from his new imprint (which MAKE co-founder Mike Zapata also contributes to) ANTIBOOKCLUB. Gapers Block reviewed the book, and this trailer will give you an idea as to whose work you’ll read in the collection.

Anthony McCann (#11) I ♥ Your Fate came out this year under Wave Press. Coldfront Mag wrote a detailed review of McCann’s book of poems, and you might also want to check out this review, full of some lovely excerpts.

Kembrew McLeod (#7), along Peter Di Cola released Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling (Duke University Press) and upon reading this timely and insightful book, internet superblog Boing Boing rightly asked how the hell did sampling get so screwed up and what the hell do we do about it?

Shailja Patel (#4) recently published Migritude (Kaya Press), her foray into book publishing in the United States. Characterized at once as a memoir and a historical work, centers around migrant women’s encounters with violence. Find reviews of Migritude at Pambazuka News. Read more about her on her website.

Nate Pritts (#11) will have a fifth book Sweet Nothing (Lowbrow Press) out by the end of this year. He is the creator and editor of H- NGM-N- BKS, an online poetry and prose journal. Check out reviews of his book to learn more and his personal blog.

Kathleen Rooney (#9, #6, and MAKE Contributing Editor) has a new book out under Greying Ghost Press entitled, After Robinson is Gone, about the disappearance of Poet Weldon Kees. Read an interview with her from Small Doggies Magazine, or check out more about her past work.
She’s a poet herself, and also the founder of Rose Metal press. Her blog is also chocked full of her work and reviews.

Mary Ruefle (#9) has published numerous books of poetry over the years. Her newest, Selected Poems (Wave Books), is a collection of works extracted from nine of her books. You can read reviews of this seasoned poet’s newest publication, here. The Rumpus reviewed it, too. For more on the lady herself, check out her site!

Tomaž Šalamun (#8) published Blue Tower (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) this month.  Michael Biggins translated the work into English. Šalamun has been called a bridge between the traditions of American poetry and that of his native Europe. Read more about Blue Tower here and more about Šalamun from The Poetry Foundation.

Timothy Schaffert (#11) Published The Coffins of Little Hope, this year under Unbridled Press, which tells the story of a small town crime through the eyes of a lady in her mid eighties! You can read this New York Times review of the book, or check out his website to learn more.

Luis Sepúlveda’s (#9) newest book The Shadow of What We Were (Europa Editions) got rave reviews from the Huffington Post. The novel takes place in Chile, the author’s home, and offers a fictionalized account of political abuses of power. You can also check out a review here And learn more about Sepúlveda’s career and a film writer and director.

Mathias Svalina’s (#11) novella I Am A Very Productive Entrepreneur (Mud Luscious Press), released this past July, consist of 67 pages all beginning with “I started this one business…” Read reviews of this inventive text at LitStack and HTMLgiant. Svalina maintains his own blog, too.

David Unger’s (#11) The Price of Escape, new this year from Akashic Books. The book begins in Nazi Germany circa 1938, and moves, when one of its characters does, to Guatemala. For more on the book, read a review here, or at this excerpt from Guernica Mag.

David Yoo (#10) who was interviewed by Gina Frangello, has had quite a year, with two books published since June. Find out about his work on his website. His new novels The Detention Club (Balzer & Bray) and A Fistful of Feathers (Grand Central Publishing) are available now, and another Chronic Underachiever (Grand Central Publishing), is forthcoming and slated for a 2012 release. Read a review of his young adult novel The Detention Club here.

Kate Zambreno (#9) just is currently on tour in support of her new book Green Girl (Emergency Press). Read reviews of Green Girl on Bookslut and HTMLgiant. She blogs at francesfarmerismysister.blogspot.com.