The Sound of Surprise When those cheeks expand and he exhales his breath within notes, as his horn blows, I almost explode, Dizzy with enlightenment. There’s something about the rhythm, the heir of his playing, speaking with his mouth and expressing such beauty on his canvas of air, gripping his golden trumpet, and all of the treasures he gifts us, even when the vinyl is crackling back to the Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac eyes closed ears open, feeling the wind alone as Gillespie takes us, each slight return so adventurous, while reaching inside his melody lingers resounding this cheeky giant from his distance, sonically appearing even as the needle uplifts us, we feel closer to home.
Portland, Oregon— May 22, 2018 — Unsolicited Press announces the immediate availability of Adrian Ernesto Cepeda’s Flashes & Verses…Becoming Attractions, a poetry collection that taps into pop culture icons like Monroe and Bowie as he crafts ekphrastic poems inspired by Mona Lisa, composes bilingual odes to Cisneros & Felipe Herrera as his seductive love poems showcase the most original American Latino voice in modern poetry. Advance Praise “From Michael Jackson to Frank Sinatra, Cepeda spits out love rhymes like a “religion on free verse”.” Claudia D. Hernández, Recipient of the 2018 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. "The formal range and subject matter of Adrian Ernesto Cepeda's Flashes and Verses is wide and dazzling: from the songs of David Bowie to the poetics of stammering, from the exhilaration of desire to the disquieting joys of camping, from the infinite layers of childhood to the thingness of umbrellas--and that's just grazing the surface. Throughout, Cepeda's relationship to the poetic image is precise and exuberant. If you care about life and language, the eclectic richness of this book will give you great pleasure." Alistair McCartney, author of The Disintegrations “Adrian Cepeda's poesia will draw you in immediately- Eros permeates each poema, balanced with an intelligent awareness. Yet Eros, the erotic, remains his Goddess, his guide, and she'll become yours as you read. My advice- draw a warm/hot bath, sprinkle rose petals, perfume the water with rose essence- a glass of champagne with raspberries floating. Now read...float, drink. Read each poema out loud...another glass of champagne. Sip slowly. Let the words, Eros, fill your mouth." Alma Luz Villanueva, author of Song of the Golden Scorpion. “Adrian Cepeda’s explosive poetry collection overflows with undiluted passion for living – for eureka moments of brightly splashed colors in sound, sight, smell, taste and touch. If these poetic offerings do not awaken or reawaken whatever emotions have been sleeping inside the reader, I don't know what would." Barbara Moore, author of Dancing on Broken Glass. "This expansive, generous, collection is, at its heart, a love letter—it’s a love letter to movie stars and musicians, to poets and barbers, to art and margaritas and typewriters and birds; it’s a love letter to the English language and the Spanish language, to any language and its possibilities; it’s a love letter to Southern California and to the body, a love letter to longing and to doubt, a love letter to love and love and love and, always, love. With Flashes & Verses…Becoming Attractions, Adrian Ernesto Cepeda has written a beautiful, stirring love letter to us all." Gayle Brandeis, author of The Selfless Bliss of the Body More Information Adrian Ernesto Cepeda’s Flashes & Verses…Becoming Attractions is available for purchase directly from the publisher or through all major retailers. Booksellers can order copies from Ingram. If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
“I’d have to say William S. Burroughs, just because he’s so damned interesting. As for dinner, though, it’d probably be Raman noodles, because I’d have to save up all my money for drugs. It wouldn’t be an inexpensive evening.” What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? “I have a few self-esteem issues and often fear I’m a literary fraud waiting to be exposed. I fight it by writing more. Doubt, and even failure, haven’t stopped. Hell, prison didn’t stop me. When I’m at my weakest, I write more and more.” Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? “I’ve been in love with Kamala from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha since I first met her decades ago. There’s something about the idea of lover as teacher and guide that appeals to me.” What books are on your nightstand? “Right now, I’m reading Christopher Moore’s novel, Sacré Bleu and Kaveh Akbar’s Calling a Wolf a Wolf. There also is a stack of literary journals waiting for their turn in the queue.” Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? “Mostly from observation and contemplation. I observe the world as a sort of detached other, consider my place in it, describe my experiences, and try to share them in a way to which others might relate. What inspires me most is anything new, unusual, or completely absurd. Shared experiences do a lot for me, too.” Favorite punctuation mark? Why? “The question mark, obviously, because it pulls me (the existential me) into a sentence. If a poet or novelists asks an interesting question, I have to stop and think about it. I often will write it down and use it as the title for a poem.” What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? “The Catcher in the Rye.” What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? “A chair, probably in one of the movie theaters of my youth.” Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. “I have no choice. Obsession.” If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.” We are saddened to learn that Scott Hutchison, member of the band Frightened Rabbit, and the artist behind the drawings in Francis Daulerio's If & When We Wake has passed away this month. Our hearts go out to Scott's family, Francis, and anybody else who was deeply touched by Hutchison (which is so many). A few years ago, we were honored to publish his drawings alongside Fran's poetry, and we will continue to preserve Scott's memory through the book. To honor Scott, for every book sold, we will donate $2 to the Mental Health Foundation. Following multiple characters, What Must Go On is a poetry collection that delves into the art of live performance. From the lyrical decapitation of battle rap, to the pre-premier jitters of the theater, the collection swims its way through the various forms of entertainment and gathers up the many faces and feelings of each. It’s a variety show of dreamers, artists, and hustlers just using their gifts to get by. Chuck is a writer and Temple University graduate from the Philadelphia area. Captivated by storytelling led to his passion of crafting visual tales in various forms. His work can be found at Random Poetry Tree, 101 Words, Queen Mob’s Tea House, and Public Pool. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Rimbaud. Liver and onions with absinthe. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? I fear lying to myself. I combat this by letting poems remain unvisited for weeks or months or even years. Upon seeing them again, as if for the first time, falseness is usually clearly seen. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Mr Cogito, of Zbigniew Herbert. What books are on your nightstand? TJ Stiles, Jesse James. Walter Pater, The Renaissance. Richard Morgan, Altered Carbon. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? I hate to search for inspiration because I usually fail to find it. I hope that inspiration finds me. Lines or phrases that appear suddenly in my brain are often the germ of a poem. Biography of a Name began with the opening two lines: Jimmy Hoffa is buried/in this poem... Favorite punctuation mark? Why? No preferences, really. I avoid exclamation marks generally. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? The spent cartridge of a .38. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. Need, desire, fear, sorrow, joy. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? Don’t trust yourself. You don’t exist. Look at the words.
Bill Rector is the author of Biography of a Name, released on May 8, 2018. You can purchase it HERE and at all major retailers.
If you could cook dinner for any author, dead or alive, who would it be? What would you make?
Anne Sexton. I love her verses and I would make her my world famous, in my household, chicken tacos with plantains on the side. I would love to talk poetry, life, love, dreams and desires with Sexton. What scares you the most about the writing process? How do you combat your fears? Eddie Vedder said it best: “I just try to remember where that initial spark came from, and it’s like a pilot light, and I try to make sure that thing doesn’t go out.” I write every day. I once read that Leonard Cohen woke up at the crack of dawn, so I wake up early when it’s still dark outside and start writing. The thing is I usually have no idea what I am going to write. I just let my fingers hit the keys and let the magic happen. I feel like your creative mind is like any muscle in your body. You need to exercise it every day. And I write every day. Who is your biggest literary crush, author or character? Definitely Kim Addonizio! Her poetry is such an inspiration. I write erotic love poetry and she is one of the best most seductive love poets of this or any generation. Her essays are dazzlingly spectacular. The other night I was feeling stressed out and I picked up Bukowski in a Sundress and her essays gave me a sense of peace and splendor. It’s as if she has gone through all of this and she is giving advice and I want to listen and take it all in. I would love to meet her and talk craft and wax lyrical on poetry. She is the greatest. Just conversation, that’s all. She is wise and brilliant. A true literary inspiration. What books are on your nightstand? Just about all of Lidia Yuknavitch’s books, Dora and my favorite Chronology of Water. Bukowski in a Sundress by Kim Addonizio. The Guardians by Sarah Manguso. A couple of Anne Sexton out of print poetry collections, The Death of Notebooks and The Awful Rowing Toward God. I also have this amazing book called An Accident of Hope: The Therapy Tapes of Anne Sexton. Two of my favorite new books, one is Good Women by Nicole Myae Goldberg and Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends. I’m a Gemini so I go back in forth between left brain and right brain books. My idea of fun reading are usually devouring rock music bios. I have a couple of books on The Beatles: The Love You Make by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines and The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider Account of The Beatles & the Wild Rise and Fall of Their Multi-Million Dollar Apple Empire by Richard DiLello. Richard Blade’s World In My Eyes, Chrissie Hynde’s Reckless and my favorite: A Portrait of Bowie: A tribute to Bowie by his artistic collaborators and contemporaries. Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you? One of my creative joys is to explore tumblr. I love writing ekphrastic poetry, poems inspired by photographs and/or paintings. Since tumblr is very photo-centric I find a lot of inspiration spending hours on tumblr. I have also discovered some amazing poets and authors on tumblr. I love book and poem quotes. So on my timeline I am always finding these amazing quotes that inspire poems, becoming epigraphs or lead to me reading classic or new stimulating poets and authors. Photographs. Paintings. Quotes. Lines. Facebook posts. Instagram posts. My whole world is my inspiration. Douglas Adams once said: “Everything you see, or hear, or experience at all is specific to you.” So this is the way I live. Basically my motto is “When inspiration calls, no matter where you are or who you are with, you gotta accept her charges.” I always have a pen and paper with me. Or I use my notepad on my cell phone to write down lines. Favorite punctuation mark? Why? The ‘Long’ Em dash. I use it all the time in my poetry. It reminds me of that last drum fill that Larry Mullin Jr. resounds in the last note in one of my favorite U2 songs “Stay (Far Away, So Close)” it dangles, and it sort of mysterious, I love the way it looks on the page and it has this way that sparks the reader to be seduced by the very next line. What book were you supposed to read in high school, but never did? One that I never finished because I loathed the main character, Holden, is Catcher in the Rye. I’m a Kerouac hombre, I prefer On the Road. My wife and I have this never ending debate. She loves Catcher and I will always choose Road as the quintessential Great American Novel. Road and Huck Finn are my two favorites. Not that I have anything against J.D. Salinger. Love his short stories just not a fan of that book. What inanimate object would you thank in your acknowledgements? My Mami passed away in November. My Papi had her ashes put into these beautiful glass figurine. I have it on my writing desk. My Mami was always my champion and believed in my poetry. She is always looking over me. I wouldn’t be published if it wasn’t for her and the support and love of my Papi. My answer is my Mami rebirthed inside the beautiful blue glass figurine on my writing desk. Why do you write? The first 5 words that come to mind. Go. I Write Therefore I Am. If you could write an inspirational quote on the mirrors of aspiring writers, what would you write? When Inspiration Calls, No Matter Where You Are or Who You Are With, Always Accept Her Charges,. Being a writer is a 24 hour, 365 days a year gig. There are no days off. Usually when I am driving, out with my wife and not thinking about writing is when I have my best ideas. Always write everything down. Don’t miss any inclination. I’ve been exhausted wanting to sleep but instead I stayed out and write lines that turned out to be some of my best poems. Like Eddie Vedder says. “I just try to remember where that initial spark came from, and it’s like a pilot light, and I try to make sure that thing doesn’t go out.” Don’t let it go out. Write On! |
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