Pluto: Never Forget

I have a new chapbook out, which is the second installment of The Nines. This one’s called Pluto: Never Forget, and I feel deeply honored to see it published by one of my favorite small presses: Interbirth Books, run by Micah Robbins.

Micah made both hardcover and softcover editions, and they are–like every book Micah puts his hands to–exquisite. There are 26 of the hardcovers, lettered A-Z and signed by yours truly. There are 50 of the pamphlet editions. The cover, an original silk screen print by Clifton Riley, positively glows.

Author, publisher, and musician duncan b. barlow wrote a thoughtful and expansive review at SeenAllOver.com.

Peet’s scientific, linguistic, and cultural intertextuality continually branches out, inside, and around the book. The collection of stories requires the readers to engage themselves, follow trails, research, and enjoy. . . . .

Barlow also explores what Micah Robbins is doing with Interbirth Books (via “hand-stitched books with hand-cut pages. Unlike digital media, these books are one of a kind. Not to be swapped, torrented, downloaded, or linked.”) and what we “olde” publishers of paper-books (+ digital, mind you) are up to in general, in the face of the changing landscape of not only art but all things that can be digitized (unlike soup).

Barlow also seems nearly psychic in his ability to suss my concerns regarding not only The Nines but also Big American Trip, which, in some ways, makes The Nines seem like easy reading.

I won’t go so far as to say that Peet has a working class agenda, that he views the academic world with contempt; however, I will say that he seems to have a sensitivity to this in his writing. . . . Considering that Peet’s work is, in the broader scale of today’s publishing “norms,” regarded as experimental (a label too easily tossed about as a term of endearment or dismissal), his fiction is not something easily accessible to an inexperienced reader. Thus, his audience tends to be relatively well-read. He seems to recognize the lack of routine critical reading and the socio-economic-educational divide present in America. He poses a questions to his readers: Does an author conform his or her language to reach the masses? Does the author write regardless of reception? Does the author purposefully challenge reading norms and hope the reader catches up? More importantly, has the academic writer become so isolated from the world that he or she no longer participates in it?

Read the full review, here.

You can read a little about the book and see more pictures at Interbirth or at Micah’s website. I hope you’ll do yourself a favor and buy one now, before I’m terribly famous and these collectibles cost thousands.