The illustrated Walt Whitman and way behind on the catching up

It's been a few months since I have posted any updates on here,
but it's because I was so busy
doing lots of things that were worthy of updates!

So even if nobody reads these anymore, I am committed to bringing this blog back up to date over the next few weeks. I have lots of posts I want to make and I refuse to cave in and admit that short little soundbytes on Twitter and Facebook are all that matters, nowadays.

My only excuse is that my book was released 3 moths ago and I have been caught up in the whirlwind that I was happy to be carried away by. I've been lucky that it has received a modest amount of attention and incredibly grateful for examples like these:


Devil's Advocate: Orion's 'The Existentialist Cookbook' merges humor and beauty

Then one of ASU's Cronkite School journalist students came along to one of my readings and wrote this article for The Downtown Devil


But here's one of the things I've been meaning to post about:

I recently tagged along with one of my poet friends Jia Oak Baker, to a presentation at the Phoenix Art Museum (in partnership with the University of Arizona Poetry Center) by Allen Crawford who discussed his new book Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself.

From the Tin House Books description "Crawford has turned the original sixty-page poem from Whitman’s 1855 edition into a sprawling 234-page work of art. The handwritten text and illustrations intermingle in a way that’s both surprising and wholly in tune with the spirit of the poem—they’re exuberant, rough, and wild."

 

 Jia and I were both lucky and excited to win cool limited edition tote bags printed with the above image.

Allen Crawford was engaging and informative and his work is beautiful.