Aldon Nielsen blog

 I recently visited poet/editor/publisher Susan Schultz at her home in Kane'ohe, Hawaii. That's Susan with her back turned taking a cell phone photo of a dragon fruit, and this is the very dragon fruit she is shooting. Back there in the kitchen you can see husband Bryant putting the finishing touches to a wonderful dinner.  Daughter Radhika is keeping an eye on the Olympics for us.

 I first became aware of Susan's work when I read some of her poems in journals years ago, but I think our first meeting was at a reading we did in D.C. organized by Rod Smith and company.

One of the great customs among traveling poets is the exchange of books.  I left that night with copies of two recent volumes from Susan's TinFish Press, The Revolution Happened and You Didn't Call Me, by Maged Zaher (easily one of the best titles of the year), and my friend Tim Yu's intriguing 15 Chinese Silences, without a doubt the best thing ever to come from reading Billy Collins. You can learn more about TinFish editions here.

My journey was also rewarded with a copy of Susan's own Memory Cards: 2010-2011 Series, pieces composed to fit on a time card or index card (some flexibility in that form -- back when I was using index cards for lectures, I favored cards the size of a paperback book) -- including my own favorite, Susan's "George Oppen Series."

Reading so well worth a journey of a thousand miles is hard to come by.  You can find out about Susan's Memory Cards and other Singing Horse titles here.