Ted Dodson

Today is the official pub day for “Two Poems” by Jaime Saenz.

This book has had a long life, starting nearly 15 years ago when I would pick @kit_sch_ up from his cafe job in Bed-Stuy in a panel van to bring him along as an extra hired hand while I was doing an executive assistant gopher thing. We’d haul furniture and talk about poetry and translation. I was mostly working on vanguard writers from Spain, while he was just about to publish his first and incredible Schwob translation. Eventually, Kit put me onto Saenz and floated the idea that we work on this untranslated long poem together, Muerte por el tacto. I remember reading the poem one night for the first time and, being so bewitched, translating it before the sun came up. I apologized profusely to Kit, having just run away with the poem he wanted to work on together. 

This is the sheer intensity that Saenz conjures, however. His poems are incantatory, imbued with registers both conversational and otherworldly, mystical verses of death and oblivion seeming to float at just a barely perceptible distance from the page. I’m happy that Kit and I have been able to bring this volume together, pairing our respective translations of Saenz’s Death at the Very Touch and The Cold, two poems that were originally published in tandem during Saenz’s lifetime. As @materialismo_onirico notes in his incredible introduction, “[Saenz’s] circles [of friends]—diverse, contradictory, and deeply committed—formed the crucible in which his poetry was forged.” It feels only appropriate that this book emerge similarly. 

Deep thanks and appreciation go out to the whole @actionbooks team, Johannes, @pcunning1 , @hiwaterpress , Miharu, and especially @kmhedeen , whose editorial work on this translation was completely indispensable. 

Please pick up a copy, get one for your bisexual cousin who loves black metal and burns a lot of candles, get another for your friend studying to be a death doula, and another for your favorite person to take for a walk in the cemetery. Link is in bio to order.

Abrazos Saenzanos.

save the date! friday, 3-12-21, 7PM ET. @pioneerworks and @wonder.press are virtually launching my newest book of poems, “An Orange.” @ben_fama will be hosting, and @langue_pendue has a cameo. it should be fun! link to rsvp is in bio.

Our second set of poetry posters has just arrived from the printer and are now up on our site for sale now. Honestly so beautiful. Comes as a 2-pack for $10. Text by @ben_fama and @ted_dodson . We've been anticipating these and they didn't disappoint. Link in bio. 💙

jupiter in cancer

February 25: Volume 3 is now available for your reading pleasure. Collected in this year’s edition are versions, pastiches, and replicas of Lyn Hejinian’s “My Life.” With another beautiful watercolor from @rdh_monster on the cover, Volume 3 includes writing from @sophiadahlin , @nonfungibleclit , @cleanasyoug0 , @ashhka , @sindarknave , @badideasophia , @madeleine______rose , @bonks_etc , @casper_a_ghost , @nora_c_f , Alli Warren, @ted_dodson , @theroselinke , @alexisfarrisalmeida , @rebeccakosickpoetry , @_nohelpforthat , @postpoetpop , @joeyya , @henkaipantomime , @lacyjags , @lablevin , and @jeantreleaseday . Link in bio.

Northern Spy Reading Series April 18th, 6:30pm @leftbankciders Marie-Helene Bertino & Ted Dodson Marie-Helene Bertino @marie.helenebertino is the author of, most recently, Beautyland, a National Book Critics Circle Finalist and a New York Times Notable 100 and Time Magazine Top 10 Book of 2024.  She is also the author of the novels 2.am. at The Cat’s Pajamas (NPR Best Books 2014), and Parakeet (New York Times Editor’s Choice), and the story collection Safe as Houses, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Electric Literature, Tin House, McSweeneys, Granta, BOMB, Guernica, and many others. She is currently the Ritvo-Slifka Writer-in-Residence at Yale University. Exit Zero, her second short story collection, will be published in April 2025. Ted Dodson @ted_dodson is the author of An Orange (Pioneer Works / Wonder, 2021) and co-translator of Death at the Very Touch / The Cold by Jaime Saenz (Action Books, forthcoming 2025). He is a contributing editor for BOMB, an editor-at-large for Futurepoem, and a former editor of The Poetry Project Newsletter. Northern Spy Reading Series is supported by @magpiebookshop organized by @davesny_davesny @robspillman @schoonebeek and Paul Yoon and cofounded by @mark_wunderlich

I’m in LA for the week, first time since 2019. Have a couple of readings on Friday (@actionbooks ) and Saturday (@wonder.press ). They’ll sort of be the first reading for a new book and kind of a last reading for the previous. Also, a few weeks ago, @n04h_ross published a poem of mine in the final issue of BAEST, one of my all time favorite journals. Feeling very lucky to be alongside Bruce Boone, @juliantalamantezbrolaski , @szymszk , @ecdelj , @jay_jay_mull , @gabrielle_civil , @swervekotecha , @sophiadahlin , and @slyouxng among others.

Join us for Volume III - The February 25 Society

New poem up at @cpnhgnlit . It’s called “Dreams (2021) (2023),” and that’s pretty self explanatory, I think. I’ve also included a couple of photos of my dogs dreaming for good measure. I bet they have really nice dreams.

There has been a gratitude feeling and a pride feeling and an awesome feeling and a beauty feeling and a little bit of an “I knew it!” feeling and also a big letting go (relief?) feeling and a lot lot lot of beaming and (good, happy) weeping during the last month and a half that @marie.helenebertino ’s Beautyland has been in the world. Seeing this “shimmering masterpiece” take flight has been something to live for that I couldn’t have anticipated. Being proximate to joy of this book, having read it years ago in drafts, knowing that it was (even among Marie’s flawless other books) incredibly special, now seeing that specialness reflected back in an appropriately broad embrace, has been a genuine privilege. If you know Marie, you know that she has worked tirelessly, not just in putting worlds to page but in the other, extemporaneous work that comprises writing, the things that happen between friends in support of one another, the mentorships that are extended to anyone looking for advice, the example that one’s life models in the joys you magnificently, quietly bestow in others. Apparently Dakota Johnson also likes this book, selecting it as the very first installment in @teatime.pictures brand-new book club (join the broadcast channel!), which I’ve not said anything about for months and now I can. Marie deserves every bit of recognition and more for this book, what she has done, and what she’ll write next. I might be biased, as Marie does sometimes tell me, but I’ll say with whatever sincerity I can that this book is one of the greats, instantly, and that if you know Marie, Beautyland is only a small piece of the whole greatness that she has been tending to.

Contemplative, savvy, and spry, Mr. Merlin Wolf has joined our crew. Younger brother (at heart) to our dear delicate Marcello, who is still the family heartthrob (undethroneable in that regard), he is the wizened wizard of the two, already casting his spells of love and protection over us. Also, he plays fetch, which I’ve never had a dog do. Truly magical.

🌷 April Cool Memories courses are now enrolling. We’ve brought back our beloved “Long Poe intensive, as well as our regular online and in-person workshops. The sign up link is in our bio. Course descriptions: Over six weekly sessions, starting April 13, Cool Memories will host a long poem workshop led by Ted Dodson. This workshop looks to produce, as a group, a novel understanding of what a long poem is and could be, discussing several approaches to writing the long poem, and each participant will aim to develop a workable draft of a long poem of their own. There will be weekly readings and exercises meant to inform the development of our ideas around this form. Each workshop will begin with a short discussion of the readings or exercises before discussing individual work. Sessions will be on April 13, 20, and 27 and May 4 and 11. 7PM Virtual via Zoom Class capped at eight participants $200 Online and In-Person Workshops: in these weekly sessions, we will focus on writing new work, and discuss our weekly submissions in a focused setting. April is poetry month so plan to write new work! Sign up for classes through our link in bio, and DM with any questions. 🌷