MiPOesias & GOSS 183 just published my mini-chapbook, Pink Narcissus. The poem is about the 1971 film which is considered to be the first American "gay" art film. If you notice a similarity between the model on the cover of Pink Narcissus and the poet Matthew Hittinger, they are one in the same. Pink Narcissus is dedicated to Matthew and in honor of the publication of his new chapbook, Narcissus Resists. 
ANDREW DEMCAK'S BIG 23 BLOG
Saturday, February 21, 2009
PINK NARCISSUS BY ANDREW DEMCAK FROM GOSS 183
MiPOesias & GOSS 183 just published my mini-chapbook, Pink Narcissus. The poem is about the 1971 film which is considered to be the first American "gay" art film. If you notice a similarity between the model on the cover of Pink Narcissus and the poet Matthew Hittinger, they are one in the same. Pink Narcissus is dedicated to Matthew and in honor of the publication of his new chapbook, Narcissus Resists. 
Monday, February 16, 2009
GRADY HARP'S REVIEW OF ANDREW DEMCAK'S 672 HOURS @ ORANGES & SARDINES
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2009
Andrew Demcak's 672 HOURS reviewed by Grady Harp
This brief but pungent collection of five poems may be an isolated work reflecting the thoughts experienced in 672 hours (or 28 days) the standard course of drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Or it may be an excerpt from a yet to be released larger collection of poems by American poet Andrew Demcak. And again, it may be reportage from the author’s personal experience or simply another crown in the intuitive mind of one of our most interesting poets writing today. But here it is, 672 HOURS, as a chapbook and to attempt to ignore the power and depth of involvement in these poems is impossible.Demcak’s alchemy with words is present in everything he writes and he seems at his best when writing about topics or situations or submerged feelings/prior pains few other poets dare touch. And Demcak has the courage to make these danger zones like personal revelations. Reading the five works here creates the sense of beginning with the psychotic delusions or mind alterations of the admitted patient still imaging strange visual input stimulated by toxins and ending with a suggestion of incipient recovery. In the first poem there are descriptions of ordinary things turned extraordinary and yet he ends that poem with the insight ‘I have no time, nor acquaintance with health.’
In the second poem our observer shares his perception of his cellmate, blurred with the realities of detoxification. By the third poem we are beginning to see his pre-morbid state that began his descent into rehab.
‘He threw me out like wine glasses flying.
Now, my sad jacket hangs there on a hook,
a fine silver corkscrew in its pocket.
We drank waist-deep, handed our fat livers,
the coronation of local drunkards
with daily liquors…..’
And in poem IV memory begins to focus:
‘A blazing kiss, my lover who put me here.
My tidy partner
Who revisits his checkbook,….’
Until in the last poem the harsh reality of our patient’s place suggests acceptance and insight:
‘Alcoholics collected, made public,
a display of bottled fetuses.’
Once again Andrew Demcak, with the briefest, almost haiku amount of space, manages to sweep us away to places strange yet familiar. Whether reporting or imagining, these poems are electrifying and offer further proof that Andrew Demcak is an artist of importance.
Review by Grady Harp
PRAISE FOR ANDREW DEMCAK @ THE FURNACE REVIEW
February 16, 2009
Andrew Demcak, whose work appeared in our Fall 2007 issue, seems to be all over the place these days–and that’s a very good thing. He’s promoting his book, Zero Summer, which was just picked up in paperback by Amazon.com. He was featured on the Joe Milford Poetry Show; you can listen to him reading his recent work in their archives. And his chapbook 672 Hours was noted as a favorite by Emma Trelles atThe Best American Poetry. Congratulations on your many successes, Andrew! We can’t wait to see what’s next.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
ANDREW DEMCAK READS ON THE JOE MILFORD SHOW - LISTEN HERE!
Here's the link to the archive of my interview and poetry reading on The Joe Milford Internet Radio Show. As a special BONUS I world premiered my chapbook 672 Hours which has never been read aloud in public!Friday, February 13, 2009
672 HOURS BY ANDREW DEMCAK AT THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY
fROM tHE BEST AMERICAN POETRY BLOG:
FEBRUARY 13, 2009
Big Love, Little Books [by Emma Trelles]
I've been pretty smitten with chapbooks as of late. They are, for the most part, so lovely to look at, so meaty to hold. I especially admire all the effort put into the original artwork, the linen covers, the pages layed out at night on living room computers. Fonts with names like spells or the creatures who cast them: Garamond, Trebuchet, Zapf Humanist, and Medusa. I love how chapbooks are stapled/glued/stitched together, or how POD services have gifted the littlest of presses with the power to put more chaps out into the world. Good, I say. We need them.
In his blog at Pecan Grove Press, Palmer Hall describes the best of chapbooks as "excellent short stories or like a one-person art exhibit at which each painting informs the next and the one before." I also like to think of them as a rocking E.P., something yourfavorite band might put out between full length records just so you can hear what they're up to.
In his survey on chapbook history, Noah Eli Gordon says the term chapbook most likely came from the rogue peddlers that sold them (and sundry bits) while travelling through towns in the 16th through 19th centuries. Chapmen could frequently be found "bedding in barns, fleeing from dogs, and fending off thefts from other road scoundrels. Yet the visit of a chapman to a rural village, though tinged with suspicion, was a welcome occasion, as he provided many with their sole link to the rest of world, both in his wares and his gossip, a kind of Johnny Appleseed of early literary education."
Booksellers as outlaws. Sounds sort of...sexy.
Here's a list of chapbooks well worth the read. If anyone has their own picks they'd like to share, please post them.
I Give You this Ghost, by Jesse Millner. Pudding House Publications
Bud Break at Mango House, by Jen Karetnick.Portlandia Group
First Things to Hand, by Robert Pinsky.
A Merciful Bed, by Lisa Glatt & David Hernandez.Pearl Editions
Behind Our Memories, by Michael Hettich.
Narcissus Resists, by Matthew Hittinger.
Jane-in-the-Box, by Rita Maria Martinez.
Hesitant Commitments, by Pris Campbell. Lummox Press
The Night Tito Trinidad KO'ed Ricardo Mayorga, by Kevin A. Gonzalez.Momotombo Press
257 More Reasons to Have Sex, by Denise Duhamel & Sandy McIntosh.Otoliths
Passage to America, by Elisa Albo. March Street Press
This Is What Happened In Our Other Life, by Achy Obejas. A Midsummer Night's Press
672 Hours, (e-chap) by Andrew Demcak. Gold Wake Press
Mangrovia, by Campbell McGrath. Short Line Editions
Superman, by Dorianne Laux. Red Dragonfly Press
Visionware, by Caridad McCormick. Finishing Line Press
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