Joe Milazzo's Blog

A new, revised edition of Crepuscule W/Nellie is coming February 2018 from Civil Coping Mechanisms.

Learn more, read an excerpt and access a teaching guide at http://copingmechanisms.net/portfolio/crepuscule-w-nellie-by-joe-milazzo/.

In celebration of Thelonious Monk’s 99th birthday (October 10), all proceeds from this week’s sales of Crepuscule W/Nellie: a novel will be donated to The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Learn more about the Institue here: http://monkinstitute.org/about-us/our.... And purchase your copy of Crepuscule W/Nellie: a novel here: http://crepusculewnellie.com/

"City of _______: Dispatches from 16 Dallas Poets," a portfolio of responses to the events of and surrounding July 7, 2016 here in Dallas, has been published in the pages of Entropy. Contributors: Christie Bingham / Dan Collins / Mark Crotty / Sean Enfield / Rosealynne Gbelawoe / Chris George / Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi / Amanda Huynh / Paul Koniecki / Paul Koniecki & Joe Milazzo / Leo Martin / Robin Myrick / Marcos Moses O'Sirin / Carlos Salas / Opalina Salas / Leah Tieger. Read these poems here: http://bit.ly/2az5DEq.

Charlie Scudder of The Dallas Morning News spoke with both myself and several of these contributors about the work that went into creating this portfolio; you can read his reporting on our efforts here, http://bit.ly/2atGeZQ.

I’ll be reading during both the Pegasus showcase and the Pink Drum showcase of the inaugural Deep Ellum Lit Hop, Saturday, July 30. You can learn more about Lit Hop and all the evening’s activities here, http://artandseek.org/calendar/event/....

I’ll also be reading from The Habiliments as part of The Writer’s Garret’s 21st Anniversary celebration, Saturday, August 6 at The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. You can learn more about this event, and the other writers who will be presenting their work, by visiting https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-21-t....

If you live in the DFW area, please consider coming out and supporting to the two fine local literary non-profits that have worked very hard on organizing these events championing #literarydallas: Wordspace and The Writer's Garret.

I also have some exciting news regarding a couple of events in the works for September. Keep watching this space for an official announcement.

Greetings all.

Please join us the evening of Tuesday, June 28, at The Wild Detectives in Dallas, TX, for the official launch of THE HABILIMENTS.

http://thewilddetectives.com/events/j...

https://www.facebook.com/events/17199...

Looking forward!

Crepuscule W/ Nellie is a novel of many subjects: a marriage, the artist’s lot, jazz as both American history and American aesthetic. But it is also a novel about race, and was always conceived of as such. As I learned more and more about what it means to be a novelist by putting hours in the book’s woodshed, I was surprised to discover that one of the ways in which Crepuscule W/ Nellie was most about race was by virtue of the authorial choices (and assumptions) exercised in its composition. “Problematic” is one of those terms that suffers from being as widely circulated as it is, but it is still the best bit of vocabulary I have at my disposal in terms of thinking about the whys and hows of my own position with regard to the African-American lives on which Crepuscule W/ Nellie ’s improvisations are based. The book is open to suspicion, and those suspicions aren’t alone, nor are they unhealthy – as I trust the afterword my editor, Janice Lee, asked me to write for the book attests. Because some readers may benefit from encountering this content before reading the novel itself, I’ve decided to go ahead and make a PDF of the afterword freely available via my website.

http://www.slowstudies.net/jmilazzo/w...

As noted in those pages: “Maybe my last and therefore most abundant hope is that this novel may lend an ear to what could have been, some ‘new past’ therefore more apt to inspire a reinvention of our present. In short, that this novel may listen as much as it babbles, warbles, and squalls out of its multiple mouthinesses.”

Q's and A's with fellow #RECURRENT series authors Jason Snyder (Family Album) and Jordan Okumura (Gaijin).

http://entropymag.org/recurrent-round...

With big thanks to John Venegas!

"At a time when our highest grossing movies are neatly trimmed escapist fantasies involving superhumans and when much of the American populace seeks another celebrity athlete upon which to pin their idolatry, I find this book particularly resonant. It is an examination of brilliance and humanity, an acknowledgement of the coexistence of what we label as flaws and beauty."

http://www.angelcityreview.com/crepus...

Upcoming Events

I'll be co-curating and participating in a literary program showcasing fellow Texans and CalArts MFA Writing program alumni in conjunction with CentralTrak's "It Came From CalArts" exhibit. Other participants include Jon Lindsey, Alana Macias, Robin Myrick and Allie Rowbottom. The program runs from 2 PM – 5 PM, September 12 2015.

The evening of Thursday, September 24, I'll be giving a talk on "Writing Inside and Outside of Identity" at the Allen Public Library, Allen TX.

Recent Happenings of Another Nature Altogether

I have three new poems featured in BOMB Magazine. Thanks to editor Andrew Bourne for bringing these works to a wider audience.

I recently spoke with Justin Raden of Don't Do It re: Crepuscule W/ Nellie and The Habiliments, among other matters. You can read the result of our conversation here: http://dontdoitmag.co.uk/issue-9-them.... Also in this issue (9; "Themes"): 7 poems from The Habiliments, with their palimpsesting foregrounded. http://dontdoitmag.co.uk/issue-9-them...

You can read another new poem of mine, “Love Song With Eclipsed Objects [Copla Unificada Con Los Súbditos Sacrificados]” at Enclave. Thanks to Editor Janice Lee for finding room for these stanzas in the #finalpoems series. http://enclave.entropymag.org/finalpo...

The Collagist requested that I answer a few questions using only excerpts from my most recent publication (Crepuscule W/ Nellie). You can now access the outcome of this experiment via The Collagist‘s blog. http://thecollagist.com/collagist-blo...

At Literary Hub, Will Evans of Deep Vellum Publishing celebrates the burgeoning literary scene here in Dallas. And he’s kind enough to include mention of yours truly. http://lithub.com/at-the-wild-detecti...

Earlier this year, I spoke with the great Mexican novelist Carmen Boullosa about her (new-to-the-English-language) novel Texas: The Great Theft, translated by Samantha Schnee and published by Dallas’ own Deep Vellum. You can now enter the flow of our conversation in the pages of Entropy. http://entropymag.org/a-way-of-belong...