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Ever wonder what I smell like? Want to know what my favorite scents are? Read an interview with me at Elizabeth Ames Staudt’s blog Nosy Girl.

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A poem from Impossible Gotham–”Charybdis Playground“–was selected by Queens poet laureate Paolo Javier to be featured in the Queens Poet Lore spotlight at Boro Magazine along with Jackson Heights poet Franklin Bruno.

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One of my book manuscripts, Smite & Spoon, was a semi-finalist for the Poets Out Loud Prize.  Great list of finalists and semi-finalists!  And congrats to the winners!

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(This post is inspired by the “bits” style of Eduardo C. Corral’s blog. Check out this great interview with him by Michael Klein. And buy his debut collection Slow Lightning, winner of last year’s Yale Series of Younger Poets!)

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I saw these plastered around Montreal this past weekend and took a liking to the design:

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See you at the book launch on June 1st!

One of the interviews culminated in a feature on the NY Daily News books blog “Page Views” which ran this past Friday: “Circe in Astoria: Matthew Hittinger Finds the Classical in Contemporary New York“.  It’s a nice piece that covers a bit of what’s to come in Skin Shift and a bit about Impossible Gotham which I’ve been writing since I moved here six+ years ago.

The other interviews to be revealed!  Most likely closer to the book’s release date.

Other news?  Assaracus, Sibling Rivalry Press’s journal, was named a Best New Magazine by Library Journal, which is great news for my publisher.  I’m happy to have been an issue 1 contributor.

I’ve been reading a lot of bp Nichol and Joe Brainard and have been sketching out an idea for a poem-comic.  Don’t want to say too much about it yet as I’m still in the gestation period where ideas and images are coming fast and furious.  But I hope to take the summer to get back to my drawing roots and see where this project goes.

Have you ordered your copy of Skin Shift yet? What are you waiting for? I’ve heard my book is giving lap dances to people who have secured early copies.

Here is the press release from SRP:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NOW AVAILABLE for PRE-ORDER from SIBLING RIVALRY PRESS Matthew Hittinger’s Skin Shift “PURE HOT GLORY”    Skin Shift by Matthew Hittinger Featuring Cover Art by Michael DiMotta $19.95; ISBN: 978-1937420-14-7 8 x 10 Perfect-Bound Paperback; 114 Pages Release Date: June 1, 2012 Now Available for Pre-Order Review Copies and Author Interviews Available Publisher Telephone: (870) 723-6008 Publisher Email: info@siblingrivarlypress.com Author Email: m@matthewhittinger.com   ABOUT THE BOOK Skin Shift, Matthew Hittinger’s first full-length collection of poetry, assembles a metamorphosis taxonomy in poems that spider spin, that nimbus twirl into Wonder Woman and leap with the Aboriginal kangaroo woman, that escape from a sub-trunk with Houdini and seduce like the Amazon’s pink river dolphin man. Traditional forms morph into experimental narratives, lyrics and dramatic monologues that present an invitation to slip inside the skins of others and to experience the mythologies that resonate in modern times.   ADVANCE PRAISE “Matthew Hittinger’s poems have all the cool of an exquisitely-chiseled statue, but the blood that charges through their veins is pure hot glory. Steeped in myth, yet grounded by artifacts of the present, Skin Shift delights us with a sensuous exploration of the body and its transformations. Even the poems themselves are shape-shifters, daring to branch across the page like tattoos, or unfolding into prose. Sumptuous and elemental, and forever quickening our pulse,Skin Shift is an unforgettable debut.”  - Mary Biddinger, author of Saint Monica and Prairie Fever “Drawing on myth and folklore, interrogating all manner of embodied identities, Matthew Hittinger conjures poems like spells, tells them like fortunes, metamorphoses material like magic in his stunning debut volume.  Figures swirl, twirl, dance, shape shift, and boldly, skin shift as the shimmer of language tracks, tacks, shadows, and catalyzes shifts in us.  Some of the poems break boundaries like taboos, shocking us with sass, while others cast their lines utterly into invention.” - Cynthia Hogue, author of Or Consequence “There’s no other way to say it: Skin Shift is a book of actual queer magic. Matthew Hittinger’s addictive incantations brazenly remix mythologies, both ancient and ultramodern. What results is a serious work of queer world-making: the forbidden homo-history of humankind in lusty, literary, lyric technicolor. Transformative in every way.” - Troy Dwyer, author of Caw and World Headquarters   ABOUT THE AUTHOR Matthew Hittinger was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Art History and English from Muhlenberg College in 2000, and his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan in 2004. He is the author of Pear Slip (2007), which won the Spire Press 2006 Chapbook Award, Narcissus Resists (2009), and Platos de Sal (2009). Matthew’s honors include a Hopwood Award and The Helen S. and John Wagner Prize from the University of Michigan, the Kay Deeter Award from the journal Fine Madness, and multiple Sundress Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations. He lives in New York City.   ABOUT THE PRESS Located just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas, Sibling Rivalry Press develops, publishes, and promotes outlaw artistic talent. Our aim is to cultivate literary and poetic rock stars. We are home to Assaracus, the world’s only print journal devoted to contemporary gay poetry.  We are excited to announce that in 2013, Sibling Rivalry Press will release The Talking Day, the latest poetry collection from Michael Klein.     Learn more at www.siblingrivalrypress.com.

FAQNP has just published a collaborative essay I wrote with my buddy Carter (B.C. Edwards) on two of my childhood idols, the twins He-Man and She-Ra.  Hatched over brunch and then a string of emails and drafts, it even comes with a comparison chart to track the major areas we consider: Seniority, Powers, Incantation (for the Power and Honor!), Transformation Special Effects (Filmation era), Steed, Villain (Skeletor trumps Hordak), and Purpose.  It’s a fun romp.  You can pick up your copy here (Issue_04: Science Fiction & Fantasy).

And as a bonus, some pics from my MOTUC collection:

They live in the “Eternia Cabinet” and are but a fraction of my vast plastic horde.  I dream of living someplace with enough space to have multiple cabinets, one for each faction.  One day…one day…

Also, super-excited DC is releasing a 6 issue comic arc for He-Man this summer.  It would be a dream to write plot for this universe.  The intricate adventures I took these characters on in my childhood filled many a day.

Lorraine Schein (Sunnyside), “Dreambox”
Norman Stock (Jackson Heights), “How to Become the Poet Laureate of Queens”
Jill Hoffman (Forest Hills), “10. Demeter”
Arlene Gay Levine (Forest Hills), “The Road”
Franklin Bruno (Jackson Heights), “Occupation”
Mark Lamoureux (Astoria), “Mysterons”
Matthew Hittinger (Astoria), “Golden Circe Sips Her Coffee”
Rigoberto Gonzales (Forest Hills), “Point It Out”
Hassanal Abdullah (Jackson Heights), “My Grave”
Rajiv Mohabir (Woodhaven), “The River-Son’s Betrayal”
Vicky Byron (Richmond Hill), “Sketch Artist”
John Rice (College Point), “Outside the Bar in Sunnyside, Queens”
Audrey Dimola (Long Island City), “Validation”
Maria Terrone (Jackson Heights), “The One Chosen”
Andrés Castro (Kew Gardens), “Ignorance Is Not Bliss In Jordan”
Nicos Alexiou (Astoria), “Astoria”
Kate Donohue (Astoria), “What With the Blue Flames Leaping Obediently From the Lungs of a Gas Stove”
Angelica Harris (Glendale), “Taurus Rising”
HaaJar “Hajee” Johnson (Astoria), “Journey Life”
Kevin Michael Wehle (Flushing), “The Boogeyman’s Accomplices”

Happy Poetry Month! Pre-orders for Skin Shift open next week!

• Muhlenberg College English Department Alumni Conference. Saturday, March 17th, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. 2400 Chew Street, Seegers Union, Allentown PA. Will be reading as part of a literary panel segment at 1:30 pm with former students and ’07 grads Brittany Ober and Daniel DiStefano.

• Assaracus: A Celebration of Gay Poetry. Friday, March 23rd, 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. CLAGS: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. Come kick off Rainbow Book Fair weekend with the Assaracus poets. Free & open to the public.  (Christopher Hennessy and I will be reading first.)

• Villanelles Anthology NYC Launch: Contributors’ Reading. Saturday, March 31st, 8:00 PM. Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, between Bleeker and Houston. $8 cover. The anthology will be available for sale at a discount.

More appearances coming later this spring, one for the Faces Anthology NYC launch in May at Cornelia Street, and Skin Shift‘s book launch at the Baryshnikov Arts Center on June 1st!  Details to come…

A bit about the issue: edited by Jameson Currier, it features ten short stories, six new poems, a never-before-published one-act play, a travel memoir, and several essays, interviews, book columns, and reviews on gay literature.  Contributors include Eric Andrews-Katz, Nicholas Boggs, Perry Brass, Tom Cardamone, Anthony R. Cardno, Lewis DeSimone, Michael Graves, Charles Green, Jonathan Harper, Matthew Hittinger, Wayne Hoffman, Lee Houck, Daniel M. Jaffe, Richard Johns, Michael T. Luongo, Raymond Luczak, Jeffrey Luscombe, Jeff Mann, Jon Marans, Stephen Mead, Jarrett Neal, Eric Nguyen, David Pratt, Trumbull Rogers, Robert Siek, Charles Silverstein, and Scott Wiggerman.

Print and digital issues are available from a variety of retailers.   A single copy print issue is $15. A single digital issue is $7.99 and available in pdf, epub, mobi, and lit formats.

Print and digital subscriptions are also available through the Chelsea Station Editions bookstore, located at http://chelseastationeditions.bigcartel.com/ .

I’m not going to do a play-by-play of each day, but here are some highlights, in no particular order (in which I plug new books by friends):

• Our relaxing Art Song panel organized by the amazing Rebecca Morgan Frank, with fabulous readings by Katie Peterson, Jill McDonough, and Morgan, and the ensuing shots at the bar and conversation with the composer boys: Eric Malmquist, Randall West, and Brian Baxter, who will be judging and selecting Memorious‘s next Art Song contest.  Check out Morgan’s new book Little Murders Everywhere:

• Meeting Ms. Julia Sugarbaker herself, Douglas Ray, and daily cocktail hour with him and Charlie Jensen.  And the cast of characters who visited our daily gatherings.  Check out Douglas and Charlie’s new books:

• My annual catch-up with the wonderful Emily Rosko, whose second book, Prop Rockery was just released.  It is sonically virtuoso, full of word play and lush language, and a fascinating conversation with Shakespeare’s plays:

• Getting to know Rae Gouirand a bit better and hanging out with Christopher Hennessy and Brooklyn Arts Press mastermind Joe Pan, and Wendy Pan (my co-worker in the day job world–small world in NYC!).  Rae and Christopher were just nominated for the Publishing Triangle awards, for the Audre Lorde and Thom Gunn prizes respectively.  Check out their books:

          

• Spending lots of time with my grad school pal Rachel Nelson, who is one of those people you just pick up with where you left off even if you haven’t seen each other in a few years.  I’m excited to read the new poems she’s been working on.

• The Villanelles Anthology launch.  I worried we contributors would just be reading to each other, but I think we were only a third of the audience.  I was humbled to read with such rock stars as Taylor Mali and Marilyn Nelson and Timothy Donnelly.  Kudos to Marie-Elizabeth Mali and Annie Finch for organizing the evening.  It was a great reading, great energy and pace and audience.

• Reconnecting with some Michigan peeps and faculty at the UM reception, and at a separate reading hearing Jaswinder Bolina read this awesome poem “The Tallest Building in America”.

• A gay pow-wow at Lawrence Schimel’s A Midsummer Night’s Press table where I rendezvoused with my publisher, Bryan Borland, and met a certain ginger-haired poet from Florida (hope we get to spend more time hanging out in NYC, Stephen!).  Go buy Stephen’s book:

And so many other sightings and run-ins and annual hellos. I’m sure I’m missing people (hi Saeed! hi Christian!), but it’s always such a whirlwind, especially when slogging through the book fair.  I was glad to see some cosplay introduced to the book fair this year by that dude dressed as a bird creature with the briefcase on a string.  I think if we got more like Comic Con and people started dressing up as their favorite characters or authors, or–hell, do you really need a reason?–the conference would be way more visually interesting.

Anyway, that’s my report.  I was able to show-off the galley of Skin Shift and read from it, and created some buzz for the book.  Next engagement on my spring buzz-building tour is my reading at the alumni conference for English majors at Muhlenberg College on March 17th.  I now have beautiful post cards to give out!  And next year AWP is in Boston, a quick train ride away and a chance to spend time with my little sister.

This is a print publication, and you can purchase a copy or subscription at Bloom‘s website here.