(fleeting)

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Last, next.

106: Shenandoah (Birch)
107: Shenandoah (Maple)

Two Field Notes memo books side by side: one used, one new
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My author copies of Vessels have arrived! I guess it’s a real thing now.

You can preorder a copy here. Publication day is in exactly one month.

A copy of my book lying on an ottoman; a fire in the fireplace in the background

Finished in October

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I was recently interviewed by the lovely talking about strawberries all of the time. Read it here.

The experience led me, in the newest issue of my newsletter, to brood over the nature of story and self, and how we think about our own origins. Subscribe here if you want.

Finished in September

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Last, next.

105: Nat’l Parks (Arches)
106: Shenandoah (Birch)

Two Field Notes memo books side by side: one used, one new
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In about 31 minutes, I’ll be one of the readers at Unsolicited Press’s Literary Nights series.

Tune in here!

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I’ve just sent out the next issue of my newsletter. Subscribe if you’d like, or just prowl the archives. Most issues aren’t terribly informative, and I’m almost never as funny as I think I am.

Finished in August

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Last, next.

104: Great Lakes (Superior)
105: Nat’l Parks (Arches)

Two Field Notes memo books side by side: one used, one new
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Parmenides in Minneapolis in St Paul.

Henry Gould's chapbook, Parmenides in Minneapolis, lying on a table, with a small cobalt-blue mug neaby
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Had I been born about sixteen minutes earlier, Walden and I would have shared a birthday.

The ragged, broken spine of a very old mass-market paperback of Walden

Finished in July

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Last, next.

103: Kraft Plus (Berry)
104: Great Lakes (Superior)

Two Field Notes memo books side by side: one used, one new

Finished in June

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Volume 8 of my newsletter: incoming!

Detail from the cover image of my book, Vessels, showing reddened veins and pale green veins of a decaying leaf
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My book, Vessels, will not come out until right before the southern Summer solstice.

But today, just after the northern Summer solstice, it is now available for preorder.

And will you look at that cover.

the detail of a leaf, mostly pale green with darker green veins, fading to deep red at its spine, and the text 'VESSELS Robert van Vliet' printed vertically on one side

Finished in May

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Last, next.

102: Signs of Spring (Quaker Ladies)
103: Kraft Plus (Berry)

Two Field Notes memo books side by side: one used, one new
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Tonight at 7:30 (in about 6 hours), I’m one of the readers at Literary Nights, hosted by my publisher, Unsolicited Press.

I’ll be reading from Vessels, and I promise to be as inarticulate, bristly, & stand-offish as you’ve come to expect. It should be an extremely awkward trainwreck of an evening!

Finished in April

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Now playing:

Album cover for Fripp & Eno: No Pussyfooting. Brian Eno is holding a deck of what may be tarot cards. Nine colorful cards are dealt on the table beside him, in three rows of three. There is a small framed painting lying nearby. Eno's pale hair is long and straight, and he is made up with eye shadow, lipstick, and blush. Robert Fripp, wearing glasses and with a neatly trimmed beard which matches his curly head hair, sits facing Eno. They are in a mirror-lined room, so their reflections repeat a dozen or more times into the distance, growing progressively dimmer. A glass shelf is visible over Eno's head, holding a small collection of old leather-bound books. There are many other elements in the small, shiny room that seem indescribable.
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Five poems of mine just appeared this morning at talking about strawberries all of the time. Many thanks to Malcolm Curtis for giving them a home.

(One of them had already been rejected twenty-five times. Is it weird that I was secretly disappointed that I’d finally broken that streak?)

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Another bookmark has turned up. Curiously, this bookstore has the same address as Blue Whale. Now, I’ve only been to Charlottesville once. Google Maps says Blue Whale is there now, so I must have visited when it was still Seanchai and the Blue Whale came to me later, tucked inside a used book.

A bookmark from Seanchai Books in Charlottesville VA. The text reads, Selling new, used, and rare books of and about Ireland. We Buy Books.
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Now playing:

Cover image of Julian Lage's album, Speak to Me, showing a black and white photo of Lage looking out at us with a calm expression