Portland, Oregon's Orange Lining Art Project

“Hi Jason, We had over 1100 submissions of lines for the Orange Lining project and have chosen 103 for potential use.  Your line, EVERY RUIN IS A THING WE HAVE MADE, was selected, during our second round of reviews.”

I’m pleased to announce that a line from my book Salty as a Lip has been chosen “for potential use” for an art installation that will accompany a new light-rail (metro) extension deep into SE Portland, Oregon.

Other authors include people I’ve read with in Portland (e.g. Hurricane Katrina Benefit, Wordstock/Poetland) or whose work and professionalism I’ve admired over the years, and I’m honored to be listed among them:

Anatoly Molotkov, David Abel, Jules Boykoff, Kaia Sand, Laura Winter, Paulann Petersen, B.T. Shaw, and David Biespiel.

More info: http://orangelining.net/

2010 in Literary Terms

In terms of English-language literary endeavors in Prague, 2010 was a flourishing year, seeing multiple launches and events surrounding:

• GRASP Journal 
• the Rakish Angel Poetry Pamphlet Series
• the Czech issue of Ekleksographia (which I edited)
• The Return of Kral Majales: Prague's International Literary Renaissance 1990-2010 anthology
• VLAK Magazine
• and many other notable publications I am currently forgetting.

Czech Literature Portal interviewed me (in English) early in the year (Czech-language version of the interview here), followed by a an interview with Black Heart Magazine at summer's end.

Haggard & Halloo Publications (Austin, Texas, USA) released the first printing of my own first book, Salty as a Lip, which SOLD OUT by the end of the year!

After various readings during the year at Shakespeare & Sons (Rakish Angel and Prague Microfest), Globe Books (GRASP), Anglo-American University (AAU Library - Spring Series), and Radost (Kral Majales launch), I was invited to read at Ostrovy bez hranic (Islands Without Borders festival, in conjunction with Palacky University), in the Moravian city of Olomouc (eastern Czech Republic), an experience that has turned out to be loosely connected with my poetry starting to be published in Czech (e.g., January 2011 issue of KAM v Brně, as well as an upcoming dual-language anthology of "self-exiled" poets in Czech Republic). Hopefully, my work will eventually make its way also into Slovak and Polish.

Social Networking for Book Lovers

I didn't know social networking sites for book lovers existed before a friend sent me an invitation to Shelfari. I was pleased. A typical list-making (over-analyzing) Virgo, I've been tracking the books I've read in an Excel spreadsheet for over 10 years. I was more than glad to have a way to share that information with friends, a way to see what they might be reading, and to answer any questions they might have about the books I've read.

So I signed up with Shelfari, and it was only later that I found there are several similar sites to choose from. So I did some digging around, and here are a few more I found:

http://www.goodreads.com/
http://www.gurulib.com/
http://www.librarything.com/

If you want to know which is right for you, there's a fairly in-depth review and comparison of Gurulib, Shelfari, and Librarything at the librarytwopointzero blog. Also, here's an article/review at Publishers Weekly.

Google, never to be outdone, launched their own version in Sept 2007, called MyLibrary. You can read more about Google's version on the Wired Blog.

And if you're still undecided, a few other sites are available:
http://www.whatsonmybookshelf.com/
http://www.bookswellread.com/
http://www.revish.com/


As for me, I'm glad I didn't research this earlier, before joining Shelfari, or I might've gone crazy with all the options. Overall, my Shelfari page is perfect for what I need it for, and it's got other features I don't even use (such as book reviews and book groups).

If you know of other sites, or would like to comment on any of the above, please leave it in the comments section.