Performative Speech

performative |pərˈfôrmətiv| adjective Linguistics & Philosophy
relating to or denoting an utterance by means of which the speaker performs a particular act (e.g., I bet, I apologize, I promise).
Often contrasted with constative.

Are the best poems performative speech? Is there an aesthetic that prefers performative speech?

Examples of poems that function as performative speech?

Examples of poems that function as constative speech?

Funny

The Onion Radio News

Matter Has a New Web Site

Here's Todd at one of the Matter events. Looks like he's at the New Belgium Brewery.

(Or maybe he's just out drinking.)

This picture is from the Matter web site.

June Rejections Trickling In

Conduit 12/19/05, rej 6/3/06
Hunger Mountain 4/29/06, rej 6/14/06
Indiana Review 10/3/05, rej 6/26/06
Chattahoochee Review 3/20/06, rej 6/26/06

Starry Night Cafe in Fort Collins, CO

Journal Seeks Submissions

Here's another exercise for you: write a poem that would fit in a journal whose theme for the next issue is FUEL.

I just received this from Todd at Matter. Matter is a beautiful print journal that's been around for several years now. FUEL will be issue #9. Plain and simple, all of the paragraphs below aside, besides wanting the world to be a better, more liveable place, Todd really likes to publish good writing:

MATTER 09 FUEL

Now Seeking Submissions!

The flagship publication of Fort Collins based Wolverine Farm Publishing, Matter Journal, is now seeking submissions for their FUEL issue.

Matter’s Areas of Interest: Agriculture, Bicycles, Wildlands Conservation, Do-It-Yourself Culture, Humor and Exuberance, Surreal and Magic Realism. Surprise us! People are rarely radical enough, either in their art, or their actions. Does this mean we want to be shocked, burnt, tortured, jailed, or depleted by your submissions, by your ideas? Most certainly not. Some of the most radical ideas arise from the most plain places or faces. Reject the hip and the hype. Be honest, be bold.

All submissions due 1 September 2006. Submissions received after this date will be considered for Matter 10.

GUIDELINES:
Fiction: Up to 5,000 words
Non-fiction: Up to 5,000 words
Poetry: Up to five pages
Interviews with artists/activists: Up to 3,000 words
Visual submissions: Photography, illustrations, collage, found objects, etc; 300 dpi; grayscale (unless submitting for cover, then CMYK); tiff or jpg; files larger than 10mb, please burn to a CD and mail to us.
Audio submissions: Now accepting songs, spoken-word poetry, sounds, and field recordings for the 4th Matter CD, to be released with Matter 09 Fuel. Send CD’s to mailing address below, or inquires to: Johnston.Elliott@gmail.com.

Electronic submissions to: wolverinefarm@yahoo.com
Mail submissions to: Wolverine Farm Publishing, PO BOX 814, Fort Collins, CO, 80522
Please include a SASE if you would like your manuscript returned.
More info: www.wolverinefarmpublishing.org

Back from NE with a Writing Exercise

At the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference last week Mark Doty suggested an exercise for creating a long-ish poem. I think he said that Keats did something like this exercise when he was working on "Endymion." The exercise is to take a piece of writing which you want to expand or that "needs" expanding and to pluck a line from it. Use the plucked line as the first line to create a new piece of writing. Leave the new piece of writing alone for a day. Then repeat the process. Pluck a line from the second piece as a starter. Create a third piece. Leave it alone a day. Then repeat the process repeatedly. Mark Doty suggested doing the exercise for a week, or so, to create multiple sections of a single piece. Of course, when you go back and review everything you've written, some of it will need to be cut.

I can also imagine doing this exercise using prose. However, instead of plucking a line, you might decide to pluck a sentence--like in Finding Forester.

As Don Illich says, "Remember what happened in Finding Forester."

Looking Out a Window at Univ of Nebraska

Plugged in at the Crescent Moon Coffeeshop in Lincoln, Nebraska

Home of some poetry readings.

Just Returned from South Carolina

Recent Photo

[Removed #1 and #3. Seemed too much. #2 is enough.]

June rejections

The June rejections have already started to pour in. A "NO!" from "the only magazine that risks annihilation" arrived yesterday.

School's Out

How long will it be before I forget again where I work?

Laurel has an exercise for you

Plan Z

By using Ariadne's suggestions I found this:

[removed]

Was that a Billy Collins-ish poem?
Except for the question in line 6, I thought maybe it was.

Glenn and Theo sort of agreed with me.

Now I'm going to go revise it.


(Ariadne's suggestions)