Moving Target 002 – Learning Italian and an Adam Revision
More roadside fun, yo. Enjoy.
Tag: My Life as Adam
October 21, 2010
Lambda Literary – Amos Lassen’s Top 11 Books of 2010
It’s an absolute honor to be included as part of Lambda Literary – Amos Lassen’s Top 11 Books of 2010. To quote Lady Gaga, “Oh friend you’ve left me speechless/You’ve left me speechless, so speechless…” I’m in incredibly good company - Armistead Maupin, Michael Cunningham, Justin Spring, Raymond Luczak, Emanuel Xavier, among others. It’s surreal and humbling. Amos, thank you.
I’ve posted a formal expression of my gratitude on the Lambda site in the comments section.
September 6, 2010
MY LIFE AS ADAM reviewed in POETS AND ARTISTS MAGAZINE
In a two-page spread in the October issue of Poets and Artists, Grady Harp says:
“Bryan Borland’s first book of his poems, MY LIFE AS ADAM, is his life and he owns it, a life of sensing, noticing, yearning for the bite of the forbidden apple where the fruit has been distorted by religions and codices of human behavior in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent him from acceptance of what he intuited would be beautiful. It is this journey to date he sensitively shares – like that little beggar along the path who smiles at our sheckles and says thank you in a way that changes us – permanently.”
Thank you Mr. Harp and Poets and Artists!
July 6, 2010
SUPPORTING MY HOMEBOY – NEW JERSEY EMERGING ARTISTS SERIES FEATURING SETH RUGGLES HILER
Seth Ruggles Hiler, who painted “Aaron,” the portrait on the front cover of My Life as Adam, is the next big thing. I mean, I guess that’s what you call someone who’s listed in the Metro section of New York Times, right? Check out this press release about Seth and the New Jersey Emerging Artist Series. I know I’ve got peeps in Joisey and the surrounding areas. Go show Seth some love, but not too much. I want him to do the cover for my next book and I can’t have his price skyrocketing.
LINCROFT, NJ – The New Jersey Emerging Artist Series at the Monmouth Museum continues this summer with an exhibition of colorful and dynamic portraits by artist Seth Ruggles Hiler, a resident of Boonton, NJ. His subjects include friends and family, and his goal in each work is to express both the likeness and also his emotional connection with each subject.
He states, “I am passionate about creating and recording connections to other people through portraiture. The challenge of translating the human face and figure from life and digital photography to canvas intrigues me. My ‘Twenty-Something Series’ is made up of oil and acrylic paintings of men in their twenties. I choose my subjects from the people who contribute to my own history, whether they are family, friends or members of my extended community.”
He continues, “In my work I combine my drive for expression with the knowledge gained from my training. The result is a classical sensibility with a contemporary understanding of color and composition. I illuminate my canvas with dynamic marks of tone and pigment, recording my view of person and place. Yet each painting goes beyond creating likeness or surface description to expressing a momentary relationship to my subject, informed by a collection of past xperiences. Ultimately, the main goal of viewing the final work is to share that intimate exchange.”
Gallery Talk – Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 7 to 8:00 pm
Seth Ruggles Hiler will share insights on his work in a discussion at the Museum. Opening Reception & Gallery Talk are free and open to public.
The New Jersey Emerging Artists Series at the Monmouth Museum features six exhibitions held each year and provides a unique and exciting opportunity for New Jersey artists to showcase their work. The artists selected for this series represent the diversity of talent in the State and demonstrate their creativity in a wide variety of media, including drawing, painting, watercolor, pastel, handmade paper, collage, photography, mobile art, clay, mixed-media sculpture and glass art. Gallery talks scheduled during the exhibitions offer artists the opportunity to share insights on their work.
For more Seth, get your hands on Ganymede Unfinished, a forthcoming release from Sibling Rivalry Press.
July 3, 2010
IN APPRECIATION OF RAYMOND LUCZAK
Let’s say you’re a writer or poet. Let’s say you come across an amazing book of poetry. Let’s say it’s from A Midsummer Night’s Press, and it’s called Mute. Let’s say it’s by a fantastic writer named Raymond Luczak. Let’s say you carry it around with you for weeks, memorizing lines of his poetry like, Do not worry whether you should/continue buying CDs or downloading music/or listen to the radio in the morning./Your ears and voice are a gift/as much as his eyes and hands are from “How To Fall for a Deaf Man.”
Let’s say the poems remind you of people you weren’t brave enough to befriend and of shadows and angels in your own past. Let’s say the poems make you hear your heart in a different way. Let’s say the poems make you want to be a better poet yourself. Let’s say that when you read Mute, you said out loud, “This is an example of how a collection of poetry should be done.”
And then let’s say you get an email a few months later. It seems Mr. Luczak has purchased your own book and has written you to say:
I lay out in the shade on my towel in Lowry Park while my dog nibbled at clovers. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but whoa. This is one of the very best debut collections I’ve seen in a long, long time. I mean this seriously. It isn’t just another collection in which poems are shoehorned to fit a certain theme; they flow together organically. As a recovering Catholic, I appreciate your mixing spirituality with sexuality. It’s always a potent mix, and it works beautifully here. You have every right to be proud of the book.
Let’s say that you do backflips in your home. Let’s say that you immediately show your husband the email. Let’s say that you call your mother and read it to her. Let’s say that you forward the email to a few of your friends. Let’s say that you can’t even sleep that night because a hero, a person whose writing you admire so much it hurts, has complimented you on your own work.
Let’s say that you don’t know how to say thank you, but you’re damn sure gonna try.
