Press + Press + Press = Success (heh heh)

Please excuse the cheap rhyme, but believe me when I tell you that Press: A Cross-Cultural Literary Conference was an incredible success. As far as first ever Olympia Poetics Conferences and first ever Lindsey conferences go, I can't imagine a better outcome. It's hard to know where to start so let's start with pictures and work from there shall we? True to form, my digital camera crapped out at several points and besides that I felt shy at several other points so please know that the photos here do not represent the full spectrum of that which caught my eye during the conference. For one, the pictures are heavier on male-poet than I would've liked, partly because us ladies were so well represented at this conference. Note: if anyone has photos from the conference and no ridiculous blog of their own to post them on, please send them my way and I would be happy to host them and give you all the due credit.

So, on with it:
David Michael Wolach greets us on Day 1, Reading 1 of the conference. Mr. Wolach, a surprising and talented poet and professor at Evergreen, bears much of the responsibility and credit for organizing the conference. It was a sincere pleasure meeting this fellow.
Here's Steven Hendricks reading on Friday. This guy, lemme tell ya. This guy. Steven is also a professor at Evergreen and author of the fantastic novel Finn which is a wonder of book arts and meta-style-fiction. He once told me, when I was about 17 and a student in his Writing 101 class at an Olympia Community College whilst I was in high school, that I would be "cursed by my potential." I've been trying to reconcile that statement ever since.

Next, you will not see a photo of Zhang Er reading or Kaia Sand reading Susan Schultz' translations because I was feeling too shy. The camera is old and makes a heck of a grinding noise when you turn it on. I'll just say that the reading was worth a thousand pictures and I got to hear it and you didn't.

Next, you will also not see a photo of Laura Elrick reading on Friday night. Same as above, you missed out. She's a rock star.

Ah ha, and here, would will not see Jules Boykoff reading on Friday night. Hilarity ensued and the socially aware kind too which impresses me to no end. I especially appreciated his use of language from the media's coverage of the Seattle WTO protests. Hats off to you Jules!
Here,
is the charming Tung Hui Hu, a San Francisco poet who I swear I'd seen around the bay area before this conference. You may not recognize him in this picture as his face has been smeared beyond all recognition. Hui Hu and I later enjoyed a panel entitled, "Mind Parasites" that I'll have more to say about later. Excellent reading by Hui Hu.
Here's Tom Orange who suffers from the same schmear problem as Hui Hu and Steven. Mr. Orange also performed with Rodrigo Toscano's Collapsible Poetics Theater on Saturday night, hilariously and exuberantly. I'm a fan.
Here's Mr. Wolach again, this time presenting his multi-media piece. I love this. If you can't read it, he's listed various forms of poetry for sale.

Okay, so that's Round 1 of photos and commentary and it only covers Day 1. So, chew on that and I'll get some more ready for you.