Hello, Eugene

I’ll be reading with Kasey Mohammad this Saturday in Eugene, Ore. for Tim (“Wig”) Shaner’s new A-New Poetry series. “Poetry” and “Eugene” went together like sardines and orange juice for me—never really seen it, hadn’t thought to try it—until Tim started bringing poets like Bob Grenier, Kaia Sand, Laynie Brown, Maryrose Larkin, David Abel, and Jules Boykoff to read at the DIVA center late last year. I think Kasey’s coming with a minyan of the Ashlanders busy turning Southern Oregon into a kind of pillowy, cream-centered, high-speed connected Black Mountain. If you find yourself anywhere between Eureka, CA and Vancouver, WA with time on your hands, we’ll be here:

A-New Poetry presents
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21 at 7:30 PM
RODNEY KOENEKE & K. SILEM MOHAMMAD
DIVA (Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts), 110 W. Broadway
Eugene, OR

K. SILEM MOHAMMAD is the author of Breathalyzer (Edge Books, 2008), A Thousand Devils (Combo Books, 2004), and Deer Head Nation (Tougher Disguises, 2003). His work has appeared or is soon to appear in various journals and anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 2004, Bay Poetics, and A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years. He maintains the blog Lime Tree and edits Abraham Lincoln, a magazine of poetry. Mohammad teaches creative writing at Southern Oregon University.

RODNEY KOENEKE is the author of Musee Mechanique (BlazeVOX, 2006) and Rouge State (Pavement Saw, 2003). A new chapbook, Rules for Drinking Forties, appears from Cy Press this spring. His poems have been included in Abraham Lincoln, Jacket, New American Writing, ZYZZYVA, and other publications, and in the anthologies Bay Poetics and the forthcoming Flarf primer. He lives in Portland, OR where he curates the Tangent Reading Series with poets Kaia Sand and Jules Boykoff.