February 2010 Archives

With all these poets from Copper Nickel showing up on Verse Daily and so forth, you might say "What about the fiction?

Well, here's a little horn.

Alyson Hagy, a contributor to Copper Nickel 11, has a new collection of stories, Ghosts of Wyoming, out, featuring the novella "The Sin Eaters" that appeared first in our pages, and that novella is getting special attention in the reviews, including this one from the Boston Globe:

Hagy's final and most powerful tale, "The Sin Eaters,'' captures the bewildering clashes of an earlier, wilder Wyoming through the eyes of an outsider. In 1889, a young Protestant missionary from Iowa is traveling to Fort Washakie, where he will compete with Roman Catholics and Episcopalians for the souls of the natives. Riding from one homestead to the next, he finds a gruff hospitality everywhere. Yet the people who give him berth turn out to be a complicated lot: cattle rustlers, whores, and killers, locked in unnavigable feuds with each other. Even the mixed-race mule driver who takes the young man under his wing - a hallucinatory figure with mules named Terpsichore and Betsy Ross - is far from pure of heart. He can only warn his Midwestern guest that this is no place for him.

Hagy renders this tale as vivid and surprising to readers as it is to the young preacher. She offers little explanation, simply letting the players and the landscape unfurl before us. Her Wyoming is a harsh world, but one shot through with transcendent moments, as when the traveler and his hosts raise their eyes to the night sky: "The silver hook of the moon seemed poised to lift them all into the net of heaven's stars.''

Maybe you read it here first.

Did you know Copper Nickel 13 had so many good poems in it? Michael Dumanis's "Natural History" is today's poem of the day on Verse Daily.

Verse Daily present's Jericho Brown's poem "Contrast" today!

Another in our series of entries, our guide to AWP Denver... and an editor's favorite

Open for breakfast and lunch. Mainly organic, eco-friendly, and tasty. $9 will get you a delicious sandwich and side; we highly recommend the salmon burger, the B.L.A.S.T. (bacon, lettuce, avocado, sprouts, and tomato), and the baked tofu sandwich. The dining area has a bright, cheerful ambiance, and the owner himself busses tables with a friendly smile. Top this all off with some complementary cucumber water, and you've found yourself a welcome respite when you've had one too many hours of sunless AWP gladhanding. 1520 Blake, between 15th & 16th (take the 16th Street shuttle to Blake).

Read the Westword review.

Organixx: http://www.organixxrestaurant.com/

Noah Eli GORDON (with Bhanu KAPIL and David BUUCK) will read at the Dikeou Collection, Downtown Denver with musical guest Edward ALMOST in the first reading of the relaunched Dikeou Collection Reading Series 7pm on Saturday, February 20th 2010.

"There will be beers, treats and access to the Dikeou Collection of artwork.

The Dikeou Collection @ The Colorado Building, 1615 California Street (at 16th Street), Suite 515. Take the elevator to the 5th floor ...

The folks at Verse Daily have done it again, featuring A. E. Watkins from CN13 on their site today. Congratulations to A. E., and thanks to everyone who's tuning in.

There's no better place to look than Denver's own locally owned and operated Tattered Cover.

The LoDo location is a brief ride from the conference site down the 16th Street Mall on the free shuttle, but the main Tattered Cover location, at Colfax and Elizabeth, is a little further out---a 5 minute cab ride or 10 minute bus trip on the famous Route 15.

There is a Barnes & Noble near the conference site, in the Denver Pavilions, but you really want to support your local bookstore.

There are a number of used bookstores within walking distance as well, including Capitol Hill Books, though they still won't carry Copper Nickel on their shelves.

More bookstore listings coming soon...

NB: This is from a series of articles presenting our own guide to Denver for visitors to AWP 2010. For more information, go here.

Scotch enthusiast? Looking to drop somewhere between $10 and $1000 for a glass of whisky?

There's no better place than Pint's Pub, a local fixture for more than 15 years, only a short walk from the conference area, and home to more than 250 single malt scotches as well as a menu full of craft brews all made on site.

Pint's has, through the years, been the site of Copper Nickel editorial meetings and celebrations, burger- and hot-wing-fests, and impromptu limerick composition (dedicated to the Scotches, of course).

On 13th Avenue between Bannock and Cherokee, half a block from the Denver Art Museum, (less than six blocks from the conference site) you'll find this by looking for the phone box.

NB: This is from a new series entitled "Copper Nickel's Guide to AWP Denver. Find out more here.

You've heard Denver called The Mile-High City, and you know that means we're a mile above sea-level, but you may not know yet what this means for you.

For one it means less protection from the sun. Even if you're not prone to burn, it's a good idea to bring some sunscreen with you and put it on even if you think you won't be outside. You can start to show signs of sun exposure in less than 10 minutes, even from exposure through cab windows...

It's very dry here. We're in the "rain shadow" of the Rockies, which means that the mountains lift up the air as it passes over and usually wring out the water, leaving us with very low humidity. Great, you might say, but if you're used to a wetter climate (Seattle, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston &c), you can very quickly get dehydrated and get an altitude headache. Altitude headaches are very sharp and persistent. The best remedy is lots of water and aspirin. Painkillers other than aspirin may treat the pain, but aspirin will help relieve the pressure that's causing the headache. So pack up your Bufferin and carry a bottle of water with you at all time.

Alcohol packs a stronger punch. There's less oxygen in the atmosphere here, which means less oxygen in your blood, which means alcohol works faster on you. Basic rule: first few days, 1 drink here = 2 drinks in most other parts of the United States. Take it easy.

Because of the oxygen-level, if you're coming from closer to sea level (pretty much everywhere in America), you may find that you can't walk as fast or that you're getting tired more quickly or that you can't easily lift as much weight as you're used to. This is especially going to be felt by those working the bookfair. If you're athletic, you may not notice much of this, but in a day or two, you'll be up to speed.

This is all a lot of warming, but if you get too down, there's always the oxygen bar...

As you probably already know, AWP's annual conference will be in Denver this year, April 7-10, and we're major sponsors.

As the conference date approaches, we'll be posting information about Denver—what to prepare for, weather-wise; where to find a good bite to eat, a good beer, a good single-malt scotch; and so forth.

These entries will appear in the regular update stream on the front page of our website and will be collected on the page linked here (you can also navigate to it using the AWP Denver link in the navigation bar, above).

Krista Franklin, the cover artist for Copper Nickel 13 presents her "A Natural History of My Drapetomania" over at The Owls.

Here's a preview:

The radio is a bad influence, lures me further away, summons me to Salem Mall, through its heavy glass doors to feast on the hallucinogen of consumerism. Here garments beckon me to try on, be transformed, but Camelot Records spins a sticky web, offers a hundred shrink-wrapped escape plans begging to be bagged. I leave sweaty-palmed with something to take home, my allowance pick-pocketed by the record industry.