KALI'S DAY excerpt

"Candice hears the sounds of birds. The last traces of light stain the cave’s entrance far from where she sits in full lotus covered only in the ashes of the dead. She drifts in and out, sometimes jolted from a vast emptiness by the grumbling of her stomach. So far she can silence hunger by simply focusing and re-focusing on her breath. But the stomach is a dumb animal and its indifference to “mind over matter” is becoming more apparent in the increasing volume of its complaint. It clenches itself like a fist and it’s all she can do to keep her eye closed, though she hears something scratching along the ground somewhere to her left. She’s conquered fear, never feared the dark until right before she conquered it. In another lifetime, there was a longing that she barely remembers. So it’s not fear or need that distracts her now. It’s the knowledge that, other than herself, something animate, something alive is within reach. Most likely it’s one of those large succulent beetles, thickly armored against what she is now in most danger of becoming—a predator, since she hasn’t really conquered appetite, has only concealed it, and despite having risen above the desire for even the simplest bowl of rice, is about to succumb to defeat for the taste of something that until now has been far from tempting or even remotely relevant to the satisfaction of any desire, let alone hunger—especially hunger.

She doesn’t open her eye. But she imagines it crawling heavily over the various obstacles in its way: pebbles and clumps of damp earth, a random search for whatever nourishment, dirt, dead insects, bits of excrement, it might stumble upon."


KALI'S DAY available from

Amazon U.S.:http://www.amazon.com/Kalis-Day-BonnyFinberg/dp/1570272816

UK, NZ, Australia & Europe:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kalis-Day-Bonny-Finberg/dp/1570272816

SAINT MARK’S BOOKS (signed copies) 31 3rd Avenue NY, NY

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BOOK CULTURE (signed copies) 536 W 112th St, NY

BLUESTOCKINGS 172 Allen St. NY, NY

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

RON KOLM'S NEXT BIG THING


                                      RON KOLM  
                                    Photo by Bonny Finberg
              

What is the working title of the book?
Divine Comedy.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I wanted to do a collection of my newer poems for awhile.  I got the idea of using Fly By Night Press from George Spencer; I really liked his book, Unpious Pilgrim.  I also admire Steve Cannon, and the other books he's published.

What genre does your book fall under?
Poetry.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
It's always Hollywood in this culture; celebrities.  This time period is the worst of the fucking fifties; not the Beats, but the fear of being different -- everybody with their short hair; all ready to go off to war, or away to summer camp -- this culture is awash with kids; shallow immaturity -- jeez, fuck Hollywood.  Watch Tarkovsky, Bunuel... something with some depth... Jarmusch even.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Wow, ok -- This sequence of poems is an attempt to delineate, not understand, the sequence of emotions involved in falling into and out of love. along with a bunch of other stuff.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Fifteen years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Peter Handke.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The sex bits.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
No and no.

What is it that you want of a book?
I was a dipshit fascist growing up in Pennsylvania when I stumbled upon the Beats and Catch 22.  Those writers (and books) made me realize, among other things, that Vietnam was immoral, and so I volunteered to work in Appalachia as a community organizer.  I sincerely hope that my tiny texts reach some kid out there in the hinterlands and steer him, or her, to a different shore -- maybe evern more than one person -- one tries to amplify as best one can.


Ron Kolm is one of the founding members of the Unbearables literary collective, and an editor of several of their anthologies: Crimes of the Beats, The Worst Book I Ever Read and The Unbearables Big Book of Sex! Ron is a contributing editor of Sensitive Skin magazine and an associate editor of The Evergreen Review.  He is also the co-author, with Jim Feast, of Neo Phobe, and the author of The Plastic Factory.  A new collection of his poems, Divine Comedy, is forthcoming from Fly By Night Press.  He’s had work recently published in Jeff Wright’s LiveMag, and Steve Cannon’s Gathering of the Tribes Kolm’s papers were purchased by the New York University library, where they’ve been catalogued in the Fales Collection as part of the Downtown Writers Group.  He has worked in most of New York City’s independent bookstores, including the Strand, St. Mark’s Bookshop and Coliseum Books.  He currently works for Posman Books in Grand Central Station.
You can see him interviewed on Poetry Thin Air.

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