I am so happy.
My second book of poems, Meat Heart, will be coming out from Publishing Genius in 2012.
More than anything, I think, I am excited to work with publisher Adam Robinson and his magic cranium.
Publishers Weekly wrote about the deal.
I have five new poems in rad online journal Action, Yes.
I reviewed Jamie Iredell’s reallyfuckinggood book The Book of Freaks for The Rumpus.
Also, can we just discuss the peyote montage in Young Guns. The peyote montage is that special something I’ve been searching for my entire life.
I have a new poem at beautiful online journal The Collagist.
I have an acutely vaginal new poem at The Morning News.
Gonna throw down some Tarot at this mofo at AWP.
Reviewed Travis Nichols’ See Me Improving (good shit!) at The Rumpus.
The lovely Katarina Hybenova came over to my apartment and took pics / asked some questions for Brooklyn 365.
Lots of readings coming up…
That being said, 2010 confirmed for me that no amount of happy externals will ever fill me up. Peace of mind is, annoyingly, an inside job. In 2011, it’s likely I will continue to seek external approval to feel A-OK and continue to bottom out on said external approval (or lackthereof–depending on the day) on a daily basis. But I still proclaim 2011 the year of the inside job.
The best thing I got for Chanukah was a bling sleep mask. Thanks Rose!
Mother made the SPD poetry bestseller list again for December and Ampersand is going back for a reprint. Holla.
Here’s me coolin’ out on the AM NY xmas list.
I talked with Ryan Call, one of my fave internet friends, about lit blogs over at Electric Literature.
I reviewed Nate Pritts’ Big Bright Sun for The Rumpus and forgot to tell you.
I’m doing lots of readings in 2011 and would luv if you would come to one.
That’s the story, mornin glory.
When you write you get to be with anybody you long for in any dimension.
Thank god.
I couldn’t take this life otherwise.
In related news, my book-crush right now is Mary Ruefle’s Selected Poems. Here are some nouns stolen from the text. Rather than using them and then throwing them away like I usually do, I’ve been using them and re-using them.
aspen popcorn cologne parentheses cloth mercy rot marrow serpentine monsters fungi mosquitos lavender dagger plow stone musk igloo curtains eyeballs spear fat psalms lap pottery helium camellia crutches ape footprints lord sorrow pineapple spine grocer motorcycles bluebird hairs click goblet birth nutmeg chalk needles pearl roses machines spider glucose lemon knowledge seaside carnival pencil pail logs sailor pod foam root envy crowd mirror fruit jacket wardrobe mask field siren steam kettle fly breasts ear bleach pistil replica pulp horns tongue coals oysters rest spaghetti hospital crickets bear balloon shakes psychic candy
For some ideas on how to use stolen nouns, I wrote this thing.
Here are some nouns stolen from Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea + the Dec 1 issue of People mag (Michael “I feel stronger every day” Douglas) for my poetry-writing pleasure. And yours.
heart dragon blister piston constellation piano roses semen lamb vinyl cats spirals medicine flames opium porcelain prom fetuses massage envy princess milk circus stains secret church brains fruits guns makeup demons guts chocolate road holiday village cheek indentations bridges river enemy ashes shoulder wings tower parade serum screen dream trees fingers silhouette neckline mountaintops holes wrinkles jesus christ dress garbage lipstick afternoon espresso leaves caramel dogs face gloves smoke swan robe
For more ideas on how one might use these nouns, peep this.
Here are some nouns I recently thefted from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s The Leopard and used for my poetry pleasure.
rosary acacia hum parrots milk ceiling hill cigar fat forks fires mirror guerilla waistcoat oils drawers tonic honey driftwood cemetery mint earth cabbages manure vomit vapor zenith sash jelly potion guts human august saints sanctuary eyepiece lilies seaweed water palliative luncheon mittens wig cicadas pistachio bitch thorn fountain peasant doctor jelly charm lemon soil intestines bones piano palace petticoat pig voice braid scream tureen clay goddess pudding monkeys room portrait sneer lichen liquids booby riot guardian sweets maid rubble creature cherry skirts ribbon potion jupiter priest calculations puff fluff
"Milk Fed is a romp…a pageant of bodily juices and exploratory fingers and moan after moan of delight."
–Los Angeles Times
"A dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt."
–Vogue
"A revelation…Melissa Broder has produced one of the strangest and sexiest novels of the new year..."
–Entertainment Weekly
"A thrilling examination of hunger, desire, faith, family and love."
–Time
"Milk Fed bravely questions the particularly female lionization of thin and loathing of fat, landing on fresh explanations…deliciously droll…a celebration of bodily liberation."
–The New York Times
"Melissa Broder’s Milk Fed is a delectable exploration of physical and emotional hunger."
–The Washington Post
"A sensuous and delightfully delirious tale… Filled with an unadulterated filthiness that would make Philip Roth blush, Broder’s latest is a devour-it-in-one-sitting wonder."
–O, the Oprah Magazine
"A modern-day mythology for women on the verge — if everything on the surface stops making sense, all you need to do is dive deeper.."
–The New York Times
"The Pisces convincingly romances the void."
–The New Yorker
"Explosive, erotic, scathingly funny…a profound take on connection and longing that digs deep."
–Entertainment Weekly
"The dirtiest, most bizarre, most original works of fiction I’ve read in recent memory…Broder has a talent for distilling graphic sexual thoughts, humor, female neuroses and the rawest kind of emotion into a sort of delightfully nihilistic, anxiety-driven amuse bouche…"
–Vogue.com
"A page turner of a novel…funny and frank."
–Washington Post
"The Pisces is an intellectual, enthralling voyage into one woman’s swirling mind as she brushes with the extraordinary."
–Refinery29
"Get ready to laugh-cry over and over again...a perverse romance that captures the addictive and destructive forces of obsessive love. The Pisces is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking."
–Vulture.com
"What separates Broder from her confessional cohort...is that she doesn’t seem to be out to shock, but to survive."
–Elle
"Broder presents a dizzying array of intimate dispatches and confessions…She has a near-supernatural ability to not only lay bare her darkest secrets, but to festoon those secrets with jokes, subterfuge, deep shame, bravado, and poetic turns of phrase."
–New York Magazine
"A triumph of unsettlingly relatable prose."
–Vanity Fair
"Her writing is deeply personal, sophisticated in its wit, and at the same time, devastating. SO SAD TODAY is a portrait of modern day existence told with provocative, irreverent honesty."
–Nylon
"At once devastating and delightful, this deeply personal collection of essays…is as raw as it is funny."
–Cosmopolitan
"Broder writes about the hot-pink toxins inhaled every day by girls and women...and the seemingly impossible struggle to exhale something pure, maybe even eternal...there's a bleak beauty in the way she articulates her lowest moments."
–Bookforum
"Broder may be talking about things like sexts, Botox, and crushes, but these things are considered alongside contemplations about mortality, identity, and the difficulty of finding substance in a world where sometimes it’s so much easier to exist behind a screen."
–The Fader
"…So Sad Today is uplifting and dispiriting in seemingly equal measure. It’s a book that’s incredibly human in the way it allows for deep self-reflection alongside Broder, which speaks not only to her powerful writing but also the internet’s magical ability to foster connections."
–A.V. Club
"...delightful...Broder embarks on an earnest, sophisticated inquiry into the roots and expressions of her own sadness...deeply confessional writing brings disarming humor and self-scrutiny...Broder's central insight is clear: it is ok to be sad, and our problems can't be reduced to a single diagnosis. "
–Publishers Weekly
"Broder is probably the Internet’s most powerful merchant of feelings…"
–GQ
"Vividly rendered and outspokenly delivered essays…Sordid, compulsively readable entries that lay bare a troubled soul painstakingly on the mend."
–Kirkus Reviews
"Broder manages to conjure a psychic realm best described as one part twisted funhouse and two parts Catholic school, heavy on libido and with a dash of magick. This gritty, cherry soda–black book...is bizarrely sexy in its monstrousness."
–Publishers Weekly
"I don’t know what a book is if not a latch to elsewhere, and Scarecrone has pressed its skull against the hidden door. It is neither drunk nor ecstatic to be here—it is a state unto itself."
–VICE
"Lushly dark and infused with references to black magic, Broder's work often feels less like a book and more like a mystical text."
–PAPERMAG
"Out to 'crucify boredom,' her poems show us how any relationship with the divine is no less at risk of engendering grotesque lust...What makes Broder such a pleasure on the page is her insistence that these dramas play out on a workaday stage infused with surreal Pop and imaginative muscle..."
–Publishers Weekly
"With a title recalling Yeats...Broder risks the divine in her second book...shrewd, funny, twisted, sad poems..."
–The Chicago Tribune
"Meat Heart...is unbelievable and overwhelming for its imaginative power alone, but if you listen past the weird you can hear all sorts of things: sadness, seriousness, life, death, and a whole lot of laughter....Broder is a tremendous talent"
–Flavorwire
"...Meat Heart embodies that strain of sustenance, that sort of psychosomatic excitement most valiant art more or less tries to pull off…Her poems don’t bore or bear down. They beam oracle energy. They pump a music of visions for the life-lusty death dance."
–BOMB
MOTHER
“This debut from Broder is as funny and hip as it is disturbing… a bright and unusual debut.”
–Publishers Weekly
"…obsessive, energetic and pop-culture-infused poetry…"
–Time Out New York
"Broder’s insight and honesty will make your brain light up and your hair stand on end.”
–The San Francisco Examiner
"Broder’s verse is acrobatic and whip-smart… its own creature."
–Bomb
