milk-to-the-weed and Katrina Vandenberg and more

Katrina Vandenberg will be reading here at 7 p.m. on Tuesday June 5th with her friend Michael Downs. Downs' collection "The Greatest Show" won Louisiana State University Press' Yellow Shoe Fiction Prize.

Katrina's second collection of poems "The Alphabet Not Unlike the World" is a wonder in terms of its design, structure and writing.

Here is a quick one titled "Detroit."

So here we are--white tablecloth and a window,
the sweat of our water glasses, shy twirl of noodles

against a spoon. His body, ten years later, now
thickened into a stranger's. I hear, in the heart

of my old hometown, Detroit, some buildings
and blocks have been abandoned so long, wildness

is coming back to the city. I hear men
have begun to stalk pheasants again in the vines.

Milkweed Editions has also been putting up some great stuff on their blog lately. You can read about Deni Béchard, which you should, and his two cool new books. And you can read about the art behind Amy Leach's book(she reads here 7/18 at 7 p.m.)which is amazing. And you can read about the Milkweed staff and their bike plans for the summer.

Please do join us for Katrina's event.