WEST HOUSE

I love getting mail, especially mail from overseas. The carrier came to the gate yesterday with a package from Alan Halsey and Geraldine Monk's remarkable bookstore/press West House Books in Sheffield England. Here's what was inside:

Tom Raworth's chapbook Emptily published by The Figures in 1994 with drawings are by Suzanne McClelland.

Even if only out of, a new collection of Halsey's poems written between 2008-2010, just out from Veer Books. I couldn't agree more with Mark Scroggins when he admits that Halsey is "one of the 5 or 6 poets whose work I'll buy immediately on sight, no questions asked, without bothering to open the book or read the blurbs." Okay, maybe a few more than five or six for me, but not much. Halsey constantly delivers in ways you wouldn't expect.

Although not particularly rare, Haiku is a late addition to my collection of books from Trigram Press. Unlike Jed, I'm not a serious collector, but it would make me very happy to have the opportunity to look and learn from a complete Trigram collection someday. Here are haiku from John Esam, Anselm Hollo and Tom Raworth with each author's words printed on a different color paper.

Strange Faeces is a magazine that I would like to learn more about. This is the cover of number three, devoted to the work of Ron Padgett. Edited by Opal Nations, according to Secret Location, there are a total of twenty issues published between 1966 and 1988. Not a bad run! The only other copy I've see is the Larry Fagin issue, which was published in a similar side-stapled A4 mimeo format. 


As much as I do relish in packages from afar, it's unfortunate that the cost of postage has soared in the last decade. To ship a copy of Mimeo Mimeo to England costs as much as the magazine itself. In an effort to keep prices low for mimeo lovers throughout Europe, West House will carry Mimeo Mimeo as well as Cuneiform Books. Check it out, and while you're there, do observe their carefully selected, very reasonably priced, used book section along with books published under their own imprint. Did I mention that there's also a gallery? You can't do much better than than West House Books.

--KS