http://www.forewordmagazine.com/blogs/bookclub/

ForeWord Magazine has selected Les Figues title "A Happy Man and Other Stories" as a book club pick. Download the title story "A Happy Man" for free and join in the conversation online.

Hey, what's going on here? What's the excitement? Who are you? Oh, oh, okay, it's time to check out Give a Fig, the official Les Figues Press blog, with guest writers Jennifer Karmin, Sawako Nakayasu, Harold Abramowitz, and Jennifer Calkins, plus LFP co-directors, Vanessa Place & Teresa Carmody.

Les Figues Blog

Christine Wertheim, author of +|'me'S-pace, now has a blog by the same name. We can't wait to see how she develops this space --- right now, for those who haven't heard Christine read (or, for those who have, what a treat), she's posted a link from her recent performance at the Center for Arts, Eagle Rock.

Christine Reads

Book Release Party: The noulipian Analects

Please join Les Figues Press and editors Christine Wertheim & Matias Viegener, to celebrate The noulipian Analects, an alphabetical survey of constrained writing by some of today's most innovative writers.

Hosted by: Robert Fitterman

With readings by contributors: Christian Bök, Vanessa Place, Brian Kim Stefans, Rodrigo Toscano, Matias Viegener, and Christine Wertheim

Thursday, January 31, 2008
7:00 p.m.
The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction
17 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017

For more info see:
http://www.lesfigues.com
http://www.mercantilelibrary.org/events/readings.php

About the book, in the words of Charles Bernstein
[The noulipian Analects is] An Alpha Bestiary of Exogenously Exotic Essays and Dazzlingly Delectable Design, Complexly Charismatic Constraints and Occasional Oulipian Outrages, Thoughtful Theoretical Threads and Ludicrously Ludic Limits, Gutsy Gender Gaiety and Dantesque destinies Detourned, Quixotic Queneau Quests and Cocky Combinatorial Collisions, Real Rubber Roses & Radiantly Removed R's…What We Wanton Woeful Whimsical Wanderers Willingly Want.

About the People Performing

Robert Fitterman is the author of 9 books of poetry; 3 of which constitute his ongoing poem Metropolis. Metropolis 1-15 was awarded the Sun & Moon New American Poetry Award (1997), and Metropolis 16-29 (Coach House Books, 2002) received the Small Press Traffic Book of the Year Award in 2003. A new collection of various writings, rob the plagiarist, is forthcoming in Fall 2008 (Roof Books). Fitterman is on the writing faculty at NYU and at Bard College. He lives in New York City with his wife, poet Kim Rosenfield and their daughter Coco.

Christian Bök is the author not only of Crystallography (Coach House Press, 1994), a pataphysical encyclopedia nominated for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, but also of Eunoia (Coach House Books, 2001), a bestselling work of experimental literature, which has gone on to win the Griffin Prize for Poetic Excellence. Bök has created artificial languages for two television shows: Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict and Peter Benchley's Amazon. Bök has also earned many accolades for his virtuoso performances of sound poetry (particularly the Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters). His conceptual artworks (which include books built out of Rubik's cubes and Lego bricks) have appeared at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York City as part of the exhibit Poetry Plastique. Bök is currently a Professor of English at the University of Calgary.

Vanessa Place is a writer and lawyer, and a co-director of Les Figues Press. She is the author of Dies: A Sentence, a 50,000-word, one-sentence novel, and a chapbook, Figure from The Gates of Paradise. Her nonfiction book The Guilt Project: Rape and Morality is forthcoming from Other Press; her novel La Medusa will be published in Fall 2008 from Fiction Collective 2.

Brian Kim Stefans is the author of Free Space Comix (Roof Books, 1998), Gulf (Object Editions, 1998, downloadable at ubu.com), Angry Penguins (Harry Tankoos Books, 2000) and What Does It Matter? (Barque Press, 2003). Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics (Atelos Press), a collection of essays, poetry and interviews, appeared in 2003. His newest books are What Is Said to the Poet Concerning Flowers (Factory School, 2006), collecting over six years of poetry, and Before Starting Over (Reconstruction S.) (Salt Publishing, 2006). He is the editor of the /ubu ("slash ubu") series of e-books at www.ubu.com/ubu and the creator of arras.net, devoted to new media poetry and poetics.

Rodrigo Toscano latest book is Collapsible Poetics Theater, which was a National Poetry Series 2007 selection. Toscano's experimental poetics plays, body movement poems, polyvocalic pieces have recently been performed at the Disney Redcat Theater in Los Angeles, Ontological-Hysteric Poet's Theater Festival, Yockadot Poetics Theater Festival (Alexandria, Virginia). Toscano is originally from the Borderlands of California. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Matias Viegener is a professor at the California Institute for the Arts, and a member of the art collective Fallen Fruit. His criticism appears in the collections Queer Looks: Lesbian & Gay Experimental Media (Routledge), and Camp Grounds: Gay & Lesbian Style (U Mass). He is the editor and co-translator of Georges Batailles' The Trial of Gilles de Rais. He has published in Bomb, Artforum, Artweek, Afterimage, Cargo, Critical Quarterly, Framework, Oversight, American Book Review, Fiction International, Paragraph, Semiotext(e), Men on Men 3, Sundays at Seven, Dear World, Abject and Discontents and X-tra.

Christine Wertheim is a former painter with a PhD in literature and semiotics from Middlesex University, (UK). She teaches at the California Institute for the Arts and co-organizes an annual conference: Séance (2004), Noulipo (2005), Impunities (2006), Feminaissance (2007), ArtText (2008). Her writings on aesthetics include essays in Art History vs Aesthetics, Xtra and Open Letter. Her poetry has appeared in various journals, including La Petite Zine and Five Fingers Review, and her book of poetics +|'me'S-pace is published by Les Figues Press, 2007.

The "GIVE A FIG" Benefit Auction for Les Figues Press is happening soon!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Admission: $15-$25 Suggested Donation

Auction Items Will Include:
-"Kale for Stray Bunny" Print by Stephanie Taylor, valued at $1000
-Paintings by Yasmin Kashfi, valued at $300 each
-Consultation w/ intellectual-property attorney, Nabil Abu-Assal
-Psychic reading by Bhanu Kapil
-A personal item of Kathy Acker
-An Olsen Twins / Wertheim Twins Package
-Crocheted Hyperbolic Plane, courtesy of The Institute For Figuring
-And items from Susan Simpson and Eileen Myles, Sawako Nakayasu and Ken Ehrlich. Plus there's Janet Sarbanes, Anna Joy Springer, Ali Liebegott, Ara Shirinyan and High Energy Construct's Michael Smoler. We also have a Xena Warrior Princess poster, signed by Lucy Lawless to Vanessa Place (who wrote some Xena episodes), and a Bird & Bull Press original scroll, courtesy of Joe Milazzo. Allison Carter is donating a lesson in website development, and Elena Karina Byrne is offering both editing services, and PR for Poets. Deborah Lowe is going to make - which I believe, in this case, means bake - something special. (She makes very good desserts.)

For more details and interest in attending the event, please contact the press: info@lesfigues.com

Food! Friends! Figs! Fun!

For updates on the auction and new items:
http://lesfigues.blogspot.com/

Les Figues Press is pleased to announce the publication of The noulipian Analects.

http://www.lesfigues.com/lfp/index.php?id=133

The noulipian Analects is an alphabetical survey of constrained writing in modern English. Editors Wertheim and Viegener gathered and arranged critical and creative pieces from some of the most prominent and influential constraint-based writers—Caroline Bergvall, Christian Bök, Johanna Drucker, Paul Fournel, Jen Hofer, Tan Lin, Bernadette Mayer, Ian Monk, Joseph Mosconi, Harryette Mullen, Doug Nufer, Vanessa Place, Janet Sarbanes, Juliana Spahr, Brian Kim Stefans, Rodrigo Toscano, Matias Viegener, Christine Wertheim, Rob Wittig, Stephanie Young—adding the unknown variable n to the great legacy of Oulipo. The result: an excellent mix of introductory basics for those new to constraint-based writing, blended with in-depth exposition and critique for those already avid readers and writers.


PRAISE FOR The noulipian Analects

An Alpha Bestiary of Exogenously Exotic Essays and Dazzlingly Delectable Design, Complexly Charismatic Constraints and Occasional Oulipian Outrages, Thoughtful Theoretical Threads and Lusicrously Ludic Limits, Gutsy Gender Gaiety and Dantesque destinies Detourned, Quixotic Queneau Quests and Cocky Combinatorial Collisions, Real Rubber Roses & Radiantly Removed R's…What We Wanton Woeful Whimsical Wanderers Willingly Want. – Charles Bernstein

Edited by Matias Viegener and Christine Wertheim
Literature | $25.00
ISBN 13: 978-1-934254-00-4
ISBN 10: 1-934254-00-2
Size: 9 X 6.25
Pages: 256
Binding: Softcover, Perfect

http://www.lesfigues.com/lfp/index.php?id=133

Les Figues Press is pleased to announce the publication of Voice of Ice (Voix de Glace) by Alta Ifland.

http://www.lesfigues.com/lfp/index.php?id=132

Voice of Ice is a series of prose poems about the estranged self living outside of one's native land and away from one's native tongue. Eastern European poet Alta Ifland writes first in French, then translates her work into English before returning to the original French for further revisions, a process of linguistic reconciliation as much as translation. Published in a bi-lingual, French/English edition, Ifland repeatedly turns to remembered images of her unnamed homeland, animating her unfamiliar home and creating, what poet Gary Young calls, in the Introduction, "a brilliant collection of prose poems document[ing] the quest for a coherent self, an authentic identity born out of the chaos of language and history."

Wanda Coleman says Ifland's work "startles and disturbs, charms and exalts," while Terry Ehret calls the poems "fabulous in every sense of the word."

Alta Ifland will be reading from her work this Saturday, September 22, at Four-Eyed Frog Books in Gualala, California. For more information on the event, see http://www.lesfigues.com/lfp/index.php?id=54

Dear Readers,

Les Figues is pleased to announce a new student/artist/writer membership. For
$25, you can join Les Figues and choose any two regular titles from the current
TrenchArt series [Parapet]. As a member, you'll also receive announcements,
mailings, and other special invitations. This is a highly recommended option for
individuals who support Les Figues, want to buy the books, but can't afford a
$60 Subscription Membership.

Of course, students/artists/writers can still elect to become a Subscribing
Member ($60) and receive all five books in the TRENCHART: PARAPET series.

Become a member online at: http://www.lesfigues.com/lfp/index.php?id=101

*TrenchArt: Parapet (2007/08), titles include:
TrenchArt: Parapet (aesthetics)
Voice of Ice by Alta Ifland
God's Livestock Policy by Stan Apps
Chop Shop by Stephanie Taylor
A Happy Man and Other Stories by Axel Thormählen

Les Figues Press is pleased to announce the publication of +|'me'S-pace, doc
001b by Christine Wertheim and the society for cUm|n' linguistics (scUm) is now
availabe online at: http://www.lesfigues.com/lfp/index.php?id=114

+|'me'S-pace investigates a cross section of linguistics, psychoanalysis,
science, math and the body through a poetic examination of language. Part of a
larger project entitled _For Love Alone, Christina'S tead_, the book introduces
the reader to the method of litteral poetics, studying psychic structure in the
English tongue. Combining selected letters of the Roman alphabet with
non-alphabetical symbols, Wertheim allows the text to take on new forms, shapes,
sounds, and patterns. The result is a handbook of sorts that at once instructs
the reader and proposes its own methodology through experiments in litteral
poetics.

Of +|'me'S-pace, Juliana Spahr says: "[I]n a time when many are questioning if
we still need formalism and feminism, Wertheim's +|'me'S-pace is a spirited and
fun defense of both. Written in part as a didactic instructional manual that
cannot keep itself from constantly going astray into beautiful and challenging
language play, this is a book that asks crucial questions and reconfigures
recent histories. It is essential for its arguments. But even more, it is fun to
read for its word play."

Chris Kraus says, "Wertheim is 'wruptin‚ the space between' herself and another
until the 'I' erases itself, becomes love, becomes nothing. +|'me'S-pace is an
ambitious project, disclosing the spiral of language and being."

+|'me'S-pace
Poetry by Christine Wertheim, society for cUm|n' linguistics
Cover Art by Lisa Darms
Introduction by Dodie Bellamy
Published by Les Figues Press
Book 4 of 5, TrenchArt: The Casements Series
ISBN-13: 978-0-9766371-9-6
ISBN 10: 0-9766371-9-7
112 pp. | Perfect bound | $15.00 US
October 2007
Available through Small Press Distribution

Thanks for coming to the Museum of Jurassic Technology last night to celebrate +|'me'S-pace by Christine Wertheim and Academonia by Dodie Bellamy. The rooftop readings were excellent, the crowd jovial, and the MJT as strangely wonderful as the work being read.

Tonight, it's downtown to the Smell for the SMELL LAST SUNDAY READING SERIES, featuring: Coco Owen, Mathew Timmons, Cristiana Baik, and Oliver Hall.

THE SMELL
247 S. Main Street, between 2nd and 3rd St, downtown Los Angeles
(enter in the alley in the back)

Doors open at 6:30 pm
$5

COCO OWEN is a stay-at-home poet who has work forthcoming in 1913: A Journal of Forms. She has an M.A. in comparative literature from UCLA and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. She last worked for a paycheck at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, as a psychotherapist and assistant dean of students. Coco has two children and lives in Encino.

MATHEW TIMMONS is currently Guest Editor of Trepan vol 5 and Trepan vol 6 (http://trepan.org), is co-editor of Insert Press with Stan Apps (http://insertpress.net), and co-hosts and co-produces the internet radio show LA-Lit with Stephanie Rioux (http://la-lit.com). He co-curates various events series including Late Night Snack, an absurdist cabaret, at Betalevel (http://betalevel.com), an artists' space in Chinatown, Los Angeles. His writings have appeared or are scheulded to appear in Manufactured Inspiration, Greetings, Sleepingfish, P-Queue and Kootenay School of Writing's magazine W13: The Paraliterary Issue. He is the Program Coordinator of CalArts MFA Writing Program, and is an adjunct professor for CalArts School of Critical Studies.

CRISTIANA BAIK is a printer (::: the press gang :::), poet and current MFA candidate at the University of Alabama. Her work has been published by Black Dress Press, and realpoetik. ::: the press gang ::: is currently working on a chapbook w/ Juliana Spahr (_intricate systems_) and will be working with Karen Volkman in the fall.

OLIVER HALL is a musician and writer in Los Angeles. His writing has appeared in Arthur Magazine, an event in whose benefit he will host at the Silent Movie Theater on June 27th, and OC Weekly. He plays guitar in E.S.P.S. and will soon also play guitar in Megafuckers.