Greetings, Powell's People —
I hope this missive finds you well. My name is Alex (Hi, Alex.) and I am this week's blogger. Thank you to the wonderful folks at Powell's for this opportunity. I've spent many an hour haunting the Portland store while visiting all of the lovely Oregon folks I know.
Before I tell you a bit about myself, I want to admit that I'm afraid that there is no one out there, that this calendar/blogging time is the digital epistolary equivalent of the tweenis. Tell me I'm wrong.
I'm the author of four books. Happy: A Memoir, which will be published tomorrow and the poetry collections Mosquito (Tin House Books), Hallelujah Blackout (Milkweed Editions), and the forthcoming Fancy Beasts. Here is an excerpt from Happy. (Yes, that google-eyed picture still freaks me out.) Here is a poem from Mosquito. Here is a poem from Hallelujah Blackout. Here is a poem from Fancy Beasts. (The poem is in the text box on the third page of the slideshow.) I live in Fort Worth, Texas, with my wife, who is writing a monograph about blood on the early modern stage. When I'm not teaching at TCU, reading (What, you ask? This, I say), writing, or jogging, I like to spend time looking for hummingbirds, bending coat hangers, and gluing bottles together and listening to music (Right now: Andrew Broder). While working on a number of prose projects and a collection of poems that are in dialogue with Emerson's essay on Beauty, I write reviews and essays and a monthly column for InDigest.
This is where I write.
For you — a gift.
This week, on this here blog, you may or may not find: money, thoughts on Happy, falafel, red cabbage, end-of-year lists, to-do lists, end-of-decade lists, what-to-do-with-your-life lists, the poetics of Mike Tyson, Faith Run, Anne Carson, excerpts from my brain, reflections on influences and admirations, and a photo essay of my t-shirts. But if anyone is out there — hello, hello! — and you want a say in this fake democracy, please drop me a note @ [email protected].
Thank you for being here.
--AL