O Spam, Poams: Rob Read's new book of poems, which is a collection of the very best of the first two years of Daily Treated Spam, is available exclusively online from Apollinaire's Bookshoppe.

Contact: 519-666-0168
Prompt e-mail reply from: readrobread@gmail.com

Download a printable PDF of this media kit here.

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March 25, 2006 - Spam attack sends Chicago into chaos

April 2006 - Several foreign 'weapons of mass destruction' are scheduled to unleash one of the most insidious forces known to humankind on the greater Chicago area - poetry. Spam poet Rob Read is bringing his unique re-edits of spam e-mail to Lake Forest College on April 7th at 11:00 am as part of the annual Lake Field Literary Festival - this year combined with the University of Notre Dame's &NOW Festival of Innovative Art and Writing.

Along with poets mm cross of Kamloops, British Columbia, and Gustave Morin of Windsor, Ontario, Read (hailing from Toronto) will be reading as part of a panel on the phenomenon 'borderblur' in Canada. Borderblur is when one type of art blends into another - for instance, a painter including words or letters in a painting.

Little do the unsuspecting participants know that they will be exposed to something nearly all of them normally try to avoid - unwanted e-mail! Read will be doing a reading of poems from his new book O Spam, Poams, which is a selection from a project he's been working on for the past two and a half years.

"Basically, when I get lemons in my inbox, this is my way of making lemon meringue pie," says Read, whose book is designed to look a bit like a tin of the popular pork meat product from which junk e-mail takes its name.

Each poem in the book is based on a spam that Read actually received, and then altered into a dazzling array of insightful and absorbing poems which include allusions to literature from Socrates to Shakespeare. To try before you buy, Read also offers new Daily Treated Spam for free every day through his website www.dailytreatedspam.com.

Gustave Morin, an unpredictable and exciting loose canon poet, will reveal little about his anticipated performance in Lake Forest, other than that it will be called Macrowave. You can bet that the author of the hit collections of visual poetry A Penny Dreadful and The Etcetera Barbecue will surprise and enthrall festival participants.

Along with feature presenter, novelist William H. Gass, these volatile Canadian imports make the Lake Forest Literary Festival an event not to be missed.

Contact Rob Read directly:
Weekdays: 416-736-2100 ext 40635
Evenings and Weekends: 416-651-5450
E-mail: readrobread@hotmail.com
Website: www.dailytreatedspam.com
Gustave Morin's Etcetera Barbecue online: http://www.bookthug.ca/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=apollinaire&Product_Code=1884&Category_Code=BT2006A
&Now/Lake Forest Literary Festival website: http://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/engl/andnow/

Review copies and hard copies of the media kit are available on request.

Read is available for interviews about:

* Spam Poetry; found poetry; general views about poetry
* Growing up in rural Ontario; current life in urban Toronto
* Why O Spam, Poams isn't being sold in 'big box' mega-bookstores
* Prior publishing history and Read's own publishing house Produce Press

Keywords: culture, computers, technology, books/literature, poetry, reviews, arts, entertainment, spam, junk e-mail.