Alex Lemon

We just want to take a moment here to thank Alex Lemon (Issue 1) for acknowledging us in his newest book of poetry, Hallelujah Blackout (Milkweed, Feb. 28). His poems, "It’s Hard to Tell Who Will Love You the Best" and "Spotless" first appeared in these pages, and it says so right in Hallelujah Blackout. Very cool.

Thanks for everything, Alex.

Check out Alex's review of Li-Young Lee's knew book of poems.

Issue 4

If you haven't been to the site in a while you should return, because Issue 4 is up. We've got new poetry from Ingrid Chung and Rebecca Porte, new art from Travis Lindquist, new Bedside Stacks and new Dorkolopogous. Look for the rest of issue 4 to be online very soon, it will include a brand new column to the magazine, new fiction and an interview with director Robert Stone. Thanks for continuing to read InDigest.

Whistling Shade Winter Issue

An interesting Editor's note from Whistling Shade Editor, Joel Van Valin (Click on "From the Whistler" in the top left of the screen once you get to the site). Although I can't say I agree with his take on Joyce and creativity, this is still an introduction to the Winter issue that preps one's brain to dig into the content that follows.

And look: Whistling Shade will be publishing books soon, too.

-David

What Light

For readers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area there is a great event happening on Sunday. Magers & Quinn and mnartists.org are hosting the What Light reading, celebrating the third year of the What Light poetry series. Past winners Margaret Hasse, Jen March, Todd Pederson, and Greg Watson will be reading, Chris Osgood Director of Artists Services at Springboard for the Arts will "wax poetic on the topic of wine and offer samples from his portfolio of wines." This will be a good time: poetry and wine on a Sunday, how can it go wrong? It's taking place at Magers & Quinn in uptown at 5:00 Sunday. Go support local artists and exercise your right to drunk on a Sunday afternoon.

The Kindle

Do any of you own, or use, the Amazon Kindle? If you do we've got a couple of questions for you, if you would be so kind please leave a comment with your e-mail address or you can e-mail us at indigestmag@gmail.com. Thanks everyone...

New interview in Issue 3

Hello all, just a little reminder that we have a new interview up in the InDialogue section of the magazine. Charles Green interviewed filmmaker Valarie Kaur about her documentary Divided We Fall. The film takes a look at Sikh life in America after 9/11. To get the full story go to InDialogue.

If the interview interests you check out this clip, it's the first seven minutes of the film:

Stupid, stupid, stupid

If Dustin and I get around to it we're going to write more about the stimulus package being proposed and just how stupid it is and how it proves that "trickle-down" economics don't work and, how, after years of spending wildly beyond my means, I may be "unpatriotic" and put my government check in the bank and...well, just read this for now.

Wholphin Mag

So it's maybe weird to advertise for another magazine on our magazine, but I'm going to go ahead and recommend that you check out Wholphin. It's a digital mag (there is stuff online or you can subscribe and get the whole magazine sent to your home on DVD) that showcases rare and unseen short films. It's run by McSweeney's and has a similar slant. Stuff you haven't seen from people that everyone has heard of and then some great stuff from people no one has heard of, and the mag is very good. There that's all I guess, I'm a fan, check out their site, I just bought an issue and I love it. One of my favs is a short film from a Minneapolis filmmaker (who is making some waves on the festival circuit this year), Coleman Miller. The film is called "Uso Justo," it's an "experimental" short (oh that word sends shivers throughout my torso, it's a dirty word, I apologize), he told his friends that he was going to make a foreign film and sometime later this is what came out.

Watch this:
Baby Squid, Born Like Stars:

A Poet You Should Read

I was thinking about the links we have on this blog and that readers of InDigest may not really know why all of these are linked. Some, well most, were previously published in InDigest and we like them so that's why it's there. Others are blogs or sites from people who work relentlessly to bring you new issues of InDigest. But some are just there because you should read them. I thought I would clarify on one of these right now. (Links are at the bottom of the page).

Meggie Elder is a poet that most of us from InDigest are good friends with. She was originally form our neck of the woods up here in frigid Minneapolis/St. Paul, but now she lives in Germany (we miss you). Her blog, Little Lost Causes and Little Relaxed Minds, is essentially just poems of hers, and little else. Which makes it many times more tolerable than most blogs. Beyond that the poems are great. Since we only publish new poetry every so often I thought I would highlight her here, she's a poet you should give a chance. Great sense of place and beautiful imagery that always seems to take draw you into a collage of imagery before you realize where it's going and realize you're already there. You're online reading a blog anyway, doesn't reading poetry online give you a great sense of accomplishment anyways? Go read.

Here are a few of the poems that you could start with, happy reading:
All Day
A Whole Kitchenette of Cigarettes
Vomitice
Farming

APB: Issue 3 Exists

Hello Faithful InDigest Readers,
InDigest forges on...new content for the first time in the new year. There is new poetry, fiction and art at the site. In Poetics we have 3 new poems from Brad Liening. Brad has a chapbook called Ker Thunk from H_ngm_n B__ks that you should check out through their site h_ngm_n dot com, they've got some great chapbooks available and online poetry.
In Narratives we've got a flash fiction-esque piece from Tao Lin, accompanied by a lovely paint drawing of a disappointed ant done by Tao. (he's got a bunch of great collections you should have already read)
And in the Gallery we've got paintings from artist Kara Hendershot. Which you will like - ergo you should go there.
New stuff. More to come.
That's all.

Guernica Poetry

So I was turned onto this poem by David and Erica Wright (who we published in Issue 2). It's a poem by Peters Bruveris who I had never read before. But this poem (in translation) is just beautiful. So I had to post a link to this and gives dues to Guernica for publishing a great poem.

The poem opens:

"I am given ten cubic meters of darkness
every night I pace over them obediently"

It's just beautifully written (and translated).

Now go read the whole thing and bathe in the silky words.

mmm...french silk pie...mmm

InDigest Launch Party

Last Sunday night some folks got together at the Turf Club in St. Paul, MN to celebrate the launch of this little magazine. A good time had by all*. And although my Dad didn't buy a t shirt, he donated to the magazine in the form of a pint of Summit Winter Ale for yours truly. Thanks, Dad. Seriously, every little bit helps.

Here are some artistic interpretations of the evening brought to you by our good friend Kristie Minke, who also designed our beautiful business cards...for free! (see above comment on every little bit). The highlight, as usual: Chris Koza's crooning. Oh, and by the way, where's Jesse?









*possible exception to good-time having: JoAnna James while Dustin read Jess Grover's poem "Sweetest Own" ("Joanna / James I’ve been brushing / my teeth with / bathtub /
bleach for a week I love you.") and Chris strummed his guitar. JoAnna so sufficiently tucked herself under a table that I think she actually disappeared for a moment.