By the Cover & the Coldfront Countdown

Oh hey, January was been busy and I forgot to mention here that I have a new gig! I'm writing about book design for the new lit and culture website Real Pants, edited by Amy McDaniel & Adam Robinson. (They're having a launch party tonight in NYC.)

Cayla Lockwood: Lick your own wounds. I'm on a diet.
Yolo Pages

The column is called By the Cover, and is more at-a-glance-plus-a-peek-inside discussion than the classic book review. In other words, I start by looking at the book, and then see how its design speaks to its content. I'll be doing these twice a month, on Thursdays.

My first two columns have already gone up.

In the first one, I take a look at deadfalls & snares by Samantha Giles (Futurepoem, 2014), and Living in the Love Economy, a chapbook by Patricia Spears Jones (Overpass, 2014).

In the second installment, Great Pretenders, I went a little bit nuts, because it's sort of a trend piece about faux finishes. So I cover more than I probably normally will be cramming into a single post, including: The Baltimore Atrocities by John Dermot Woods (Coffee House, 2014), Mimer by Lance Phillips (Ahsahta, 2014), The Yolo Pages anthology (Boost House, 2014), and a chapbook called many a holy and obsequious tear by Carolina Maugeri (Horse Less).

I also reviewed Claudia Rankine's book Citizen, for the #1 spot in Coldfront's Top 40 Poetry Books of 2014 countdown. (Scroll to bottom. But check out the whole list of 40—so many great books!)

As always, I'm working on a lot of overlapping projects for Bloof too. Did you see the announcement of our 2015 chapbook series? Subscriptions are available for the year's chapbooks, books, or everything.