Dark Sky Books published Stephen Sturgeon’s terrific debut collection of poems one year ago. To mark the occasion, all month long Sturgeon will be talking about the book, its individual parts, and fielding questions about his poetry on Twitter. Find out why a poem is titled a certain way, what a specific line in a poem means, and how, now more than one year out, the author feels about a particular poem(s). Those inclined can follow Sturgeon at: twitter.com/stephensturgeon.

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The amazing Justin Sirois’ amazing book Falcons on the Floor is available for pre-order.

We ask him some questions.

Michael Kimball, Adam Robinson, Double Dagger, Dan Deacon, Joseph Young, Mary Pulcinella, Chris Toll, Joan Sullivan, Shaun Preston, Jamie Gaughran Perez, Margaret Gebauer, Rupert Wondoloski, and Peter with the Moustache all make cameos.

Enjoy!

An earlier me would have read poems that referenced micro-shorts and text messages and immediately written them off. That earlier me would have lost out. The speaker in Lily Ladewig’s debut poetry collection The Silhouettes won’t let me pigeonhole her. She refuses to be predictable. These poems are fashion previews, but they are also history lessons. They are sometimes yoga meditations, and they are sometimes adventures in free diving. They are often French. And while they usually show us the silhouette, they always show us the body.

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Order your copy of Ark Codex as a pay-what-you-want PDF or a $40 full color book.

And check out an excerpt we published in DSM 15.

Alan Rossi’s story, “Blackberries,” appears in Issue 15. Here he discusses the story, the fruit, and tells us not to take field trips.

“Black or white, it didn’t matter, they were all pale.” Do you think this relates to an innocence, a lack of experience?

I think that’s a really cool way of seeing it. I can’t say exactly what I meant by this line because I don’t remember writing it. I remember seeing it many times when I was again looking over and working the thing, but I don’t remember writing it. I see it as, yes: that these little beings haven’t been out in the world. Maybe better: they are in the world but don’t know it. They are in the world but asleep to it.

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