A new "Huncke"
 

Exot Books (Nemo's venture with Julio Perea) has published a tenth anniversary second edition of my long poem, Huncke. It's reworked to a great extent and expanded with the "discovery" of a lost canto (it's written in ottava rima, which may be of interest here). This book is illustrated by 17 of my paintings and includes essays by Paul Christian Stevens (originally a review of the first edition published in the Shit Creek Review) and Siham Karami. There are portraits in the book of both of them.

One of the incentives for this "reconsideration" of the poem, as I call it in my foreword, is the demise of its original publisher, which has made the original edition unavailable since shortly after its debut. Nemo and Julio, you may already know, publish beautiful books, and I'm really glad they agreed a second edition made sense. They worked me pretty hard, which was a good thing.

Thanks folks.

It is hard to exaggerate how good this book is. If you haven’t read it before, or if you have in the under-edited Seven Towers version, you must get this one. It is the yardstick against which all other contemporary long poems will be judged by anyone who isn’t a Bozo.

That's great news! It will be a pleasure getting re-acquainted with this supreme Beat adventure, newly decked out in your own paintings. Congratulations. The cover alone knocks you back.

Just ordered it. With the paintings and the poetry it's a two-fer. Match it with Exot Books (I didn't realize you were still publishing) and it's a collector's item!

Congratulations, Rick! The added paintings and the prose by Paul and Siham will make the book even better. Ten years is serious longevity in poetry publishing!

Excited to get my copy.

Thanks folks.

Nemo will be announcing a Zoom launch that will occur late February. It will be a worldwide event.

Meanwhile, I will likely read a canto from the book when I feature at the Great Weather for Media event on January 31. It will be a worldwide event, etc.

RM

Mine just arrived. What a feast! It brings it all back--how daring it was to go with ottava rima, and how impressive to put such a definite stamp on the form. And to work it at such length and to such a high finish. The new paintings are a big bonus, especially the self-portrait of the poet as a beat Melville. You don't want to miss this poem, if you haven't read it, and if you have you will love the new edition.

Couldn't possibly miss this. Ordered. Congrats, Rick!

Thanks Bill and David.


An online book launch is planned in the weeks ahead, folks. "Watch this space."

RM