Avant-guarde and a little bit trippy, the works of Michael Rothenberg frequently cross the line between poetry and prose. With them, he tells the stories that he's collected over a lifetime of strange parties, long depressions, and ill-fated passions. We are proud to present his poems and a chapbook here.
His poems have appeared in many journals including 2river View, Beehive, Berkeley Poetry Review, Bolinas Heresay News, Blue Book, Cafe Review, The Cortland Review, The Duct Tape Press, Exquisite Corpse, Ironwood, Jacket, Isibongo, Lungfull!, Limestone Magazine, Light and Dust@Grist Mobile Anthology of Poetry, Lynx: Poetry From Bath, Melic Review, Moveo Angelus, Mudlark, Mungo vs Ranger, Octavo, Pearl, The Poetry Kit, Prosodia, Pyrowords, Riding The Meridian, Rolling Stock, Southern Ocean Review, Sycamore Review, Ygdrasil, Zuzu's Petals Quarterly Online and Zyzzyva.
He has published several poetry books: What The Fish Saw, Twowindows Press, CA 1984; Nightmare Of The Violins, Twowindows Press, CA 1986; Man/Woman, Big Bridge Press, CA 1988; Favorite Songs, Big Bridge Press, CA 1990; and Lindsay's Book, (which also appears below), Big Bridge Press, CA 1999.
His first book of poems, What The Fish Saw, was awarded The Rounce and Coffin Award. His broadside Elegy for The Dusky Seaside Sparrow was selected Broadside of the Year by Fine Print Magazine. His poem Angels was produced asbroadside in limited edition by Hatch Show Prints as part of the museum resources of The Country Music Foundation.
His poetry books and broadsides are archived at the University of Francisco, and are held in Special Collection libraries including Brown University, Claremont Colleges, University of Kansas, New York Public Library, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, and UC-Santa Cruz.
His songs have appeared in Hollywood Pictures' Shadowhunter and Black Day, Blue Night, and most recently, TriStar Pictures' Outer Ozonoa. Other songs have been recorded on CDs including: The Darkest Part of The Night by Bob Malone, Difficult Woman by Renee Geyer, Global Blues Deficit by Cody Palance, The Woodys by The Woodys, and a soon to be released CD by Johnny Lee Schell. His most recent editorial project is Overtime: Selected Poems of Philip Whalen, which you can check out at the Unlikely Stories bookstore. Drop him a line at walterblue@bigbridge.org.
Michael's works here at Unlikely Stories are:
July 1999 - July 2000:
August 22
October 20, 1999
Lindsay's Book
Lake Effect