5 things you should know about Octopus, including the fact that Issue #12 is now live.

1. Octopus Magazine #12
2. Heather Christle's The Difficult Farm
3. Open reading in August for #13 (the Recovery Projects issue)
4. Forthcoming 2009 titles
5. Update on 2009 April Reading Period

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1.

Issue 12 of Octopus Magazine is now online. 

The issue features eight poets, each introduced by a peer. 

Lynn Xu
Heather Christle
Jennifer L. Knox
Tony Tost
Cathy Park Hong
Christopher Stackhouse
Amanda Nadelberg
Kristi Maxwell

Introduced by

Katie Peterson
Lisa Olstein
K. Silem Mohammad
The Lucipo Poetics List
Arda Collins
Rebecca Wolff
Chris Fischbach
Ann M. Fine

The issue also contains reviews of

Farrah Field, Dobby Gibson, Thomas Hummel, 
Carrie Hunter, Ellen Kennedy, Melissa Kwasny, 
Helena Mesa, Vanessa Place & Robert Fitterman, 
Robyn Schiff, Jeremy Schmall & Justin Taylor 

Reviewed by 

Dan Magers , Ben Kopel, Sommer Browning, 
Kathleen Rooney, Dave Madden, Steven Karl, 
Karla Kelsey, David Carillo, & David Sewell

2. 

We are happy to announce that our third full-length book, Heather Christle’s The Difficult Farm, is available for pre-order at the Octopus Books website. 

3.

In August we will be reading for issue 13 of Octopus Magazine. In addition to reading submissions of poetry, we are making a call for Recovery Projects. 

Recovery projects are celebrations of a single book that you feel people should be reading but are not reading--books and poets off the radar. They should be about 1000 words, about a book that is at least 20 years old & out of print, but all those are flexible. The only real requirement is that the recovery inspires a reader to want to track down that book and read it asap. If you have an idea for a recovery, first pitch it to the editors. 

4. 

Octopus Books forthcoming titles in 2009:

40 Watts by CD Wright (chapbook)
Expected Release Date: Sept 1, 2009

Boris by the Sea by Matvei Yankelevich
Expected Release Date: Nov. 1, 2009

5. 

The editors (Mathias and I) are still diligently and anonymously reading April manuscripts. We expect to make an announcement regarding 2010 publications by late August. Thank you for your patience.