Dear readers, dear writers, greetings from this side of the Year. I hope it finds you well.
MIEL has some Plans for 2015. We’ll be putting out a dozen or so books—art, poems, prose, things in between—and welcoming residents to Dickinson House (don’t forget: fellowship applications close on January 31—residency applications open until we’re booked up for the year).
Our offerings for this year will begin with a broadside by George Szirtes at the end of January and a chapbook by Megan M. Garr (editor of Versal) in February. We’ll be at AWP in Minneapolis (say hello) in April.
But first, to start the year, we’d like to offer you 50% off any books in the shop. Just use the code HAPPY2015 at checkout—it’s good until January 31 our time. This is not valid on stationery or on subscriptions, but you can use it to purchase more than one single book. The discount will apply to your entire purchase (except if it includes subscriptions or stationery—if you want to buy those, please make two separate transactions). Happy New Year!
“Coal Mountain Elementary is an imaginative and shocking reminder of what it means, in the most human and poignant terms, to be a miner, whether in this country or in China, or for that matter anywhere in the industrial world. It is also a tribute to miners and working people everywhere. It manages, in photos and in words, to portray an entire culture. And it is a stunning educational tool.” —Howard Zinn
Anne Carson’s The Albertine Workout is a charming and (relatively) approachable introduction to the poet’s work. Published as a chapbook by New Directions, The Albertine Workout contains fifty-nine paragraphs, with appendices, summarizing Carson’s research on Albertine, the principal love interest of Marcel in Proust’s novels.
Four from Japan, published by Litmus Press, showcases contemporary poetry and essays in translation by Japanese women. Edited by Sawako Nakayasu.
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This print, or anything by Cecilia Afonso Esteves. She makes absolutely beautiful things. I have a postcard and a business card of hers and they are among my treasured tiny art objects. Her blog is here.
Ann Wood, who makes birds, plants, ships, horses, and spiders out of very old pieces of cloth, has now made a pattern so that you (or someone you know) can do that. The patterns are in her shop.
Amy Karol makes perfumes and oils for skin and hair. Her Lovely would make, er, ahem, a lovely gift.
The Small Object is having a sale on all their rubber stamps (except custom ones), and these make really great presents—for kids and grownups.
Josh Ritter’s album The Animal Years is one of my favorite albums ever. You can get it on vinyl or CD in his shop—great songwriting, great lyrics, good for driving, trains, late nights, early mornings, afternoons.
And my perennial favorite Ben Weaver has a new LP out on vinyl with a digital download.I’d Rather Be a Buffalo is available only at Hymies’ in Minneapolis and online through Ben’s store, and is limited to 500 copies.
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I’d be remiss at capitalism if I didn’t also say that you could find presents in the MIEL shop. So maybe a calendar with drawings of birds and women, tea sets and foggy animals is for you or someone you know?
If you’re looking for a present for someone with a sense of humor, an interest in history, and a taste for puns, try one of George Szirtes’ chapbooks. For an artist or handmaker, Lisa Solomon’s monograph HAND/MADE is perfect (and on sale for €12!). A person with a sense of place, an interest in landscape, or an attachment to the dictionary will likely enjoy Josh Wallaert’s A Guide to the Northwest Territory. And Jonterri Gadson’s Interruptions combined with Kristen Case’s Temple and Shana Youngdahl’s Winter/Windows would make an incredible gift for parents, whether new or long in tooth.
When Dickinson House became a possibility, not just a dream, one of the first things I knew was that it would need quilts. I have so many friends who make quilts; my mother makes quilts. Quilts and blankets mean cosiness, warmth, care, and beauty all in one object. And the house does have quilts—this one by Blair Stocker, for example, who traded it to me for editing, and one made by my friend Melissa (in the photograph below), and another made by Neele Dellschaft, whose chapbook was one of the first three MIEL published. Writers and artists, come and be warm under these quilts! Come and feel the work their makers put into them to give you comfort!
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Anne Carson’s 
Josh Ritter’s album 
