Weekly Reads: Siwar Masannat

This summer our Managing Editor Amber Allen has put together a series of weekly recommended reading lists. Contributors include CSU staff, students, authors, and friends. First up is Siwar Masannat, whose book 50 Water Dreams won the CSU Poetry Center's 2014 First Book Competition.

Siwar recommends:

Books:

Textu by Fady Joudah 
Copper Canyon Press, 2014

Sand Opera by Philip Metres
Alice James Books, 2015 

Western Practice by Stephen Motika
Alice James Books, 2012

& Chapbooks:

This is the One that Snowfalls You, That You Snowfall Out Of by Daniel D’Angelo
Outta Ink Press, 2015

The White Dog Year by Caitlin Scarano
dancing girl press & studio, 2015 

and nevermind the storm by Soham Patel
Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs, 2012

Eileen Myles: First Book Poetry Competition Judge

The Cleveland State University Poetry Center is thrilled that our forever-hero Eileen Myles will judge this year's First Book Poetry Competition. Eileen Myles is a New York-based poet who has published 18 collections of poetry, fiction, & nonfiction, most recently Snowflake/different streets (Wave Books, 2012) and Inferno (a poet’s novel) from OR books (2010). In 2014 she received a grant for her poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. I Must Be Living Twice (new & selected poems) & a reissue of Chelsea Girls (fiction) will be out in fall, 2015 from Ecco/Harper Collins.

Here are a few of our favorite of Myles’ poems: 

 "Peanut Butter"

 "15 Minutes"

"Today" and "To My Flowers"

"Our Happiness"

And a slew of amazing interviews:

With Morgan Parker at The Literary Review

With Kaveh Akbar at divedapper

With Whiskey Blue at Full Stop

With Stacy Szymaszek at Rattapallax

And even more of the wonder:

Eileen Myles' Website

Fuck Yeah Eileen Myles Tumblr

For more information on the Cleveland State University Poetry Center's First Book Competition see our guidelines.