Media Kit
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.
Media Coverage and Reviews of O Spam, Poams and Daily Treated Spam
Praise: (Links to full reviews follow)
"The idea of turning spam into found works strikes me as a resourceful bit of 'if you’ve got lemons, make lemonade.' […] Hopefully, the mass success of [O Spam, Poams] won’t cause Read to shut down what has become one of the favorite moments of my day [ie. reading the Daily Treated Spam]."
- Ron Silliman, leading American poet and critic"Rob Read makes poems by treating spam messages, and the ones that elude my spam filter make for fascinating cultural interrogation."
- Bill Kennedy, Word Magazine"This book, like spam, has something for everyone [...] a must have for anyone who thinks poetry is boring."
- Kevin Thurston, Artvoice"I was struck by how Rob Read injected the human back into his treated spam."
- Mark Truscott, Civil Servant"Inside [O Spam, Poams] is a smooth, oddly purple meaty prose. So smooth, in fact, I dare call it ‘creamy.’ [...] Surprisingly, it was a little spicier than I expected."
- Neil Hennessy, creator of the website ‘PacMondrian’"Is it a collection of witticisms - no. It’s just [a] fairly unpretentious collection of short poems (and around here that is something)."
- Daniel F. Bradley, Study Controller"I have read plenty of the Daily Treated Spams on my computer screen, and I have laughed, shook my head, rattled lips and butt end elite. They have that resounding quality necessary for the modern."
- Kemeny Babineau, Publisher
Accolades:
Listed in Charlie Huisken of This Ain't the Rosedale Library's Top Ten Books of 2005
Full Reviews:
Ron Silliman's Blog: See Dec 1, 2005 (Also discussed on Dec 5, 2005)
"Some time back, I started receiving – pretty much daily – a series of emails whose header always included the phrase “Daily Treated Spam.” My first thought, before I deleted the message, was “Truth in Advertising.” After awhile, tho, that middle term “Treated” got under my skin & I actually opened one. Voila! Somebody was taking their spam and turning it into a poem of what appeared to be mostly found language. I still pretty much deleted them every day, but now I was reading them first. As somebody who can get 200 legitimate emails on a given day, the whole idea of spam makes me crazed with rage. The idea of turning spam into found works strikes me as a resourceful bit of “if you’ve got lemons, make lemonade,” maybe, an instance of what I take to be Kenny Goldsmith’s idea of “uncreative writing” & not-too-distant a cousin from flarf. But the whole idea of spam’s sleazeball sludge of discourse, the lowest rung of marketing, invading poetry seemed more like an instance of the invasion of the bodysnatchers than anything else.
But then I realized that I was liking these poems, against all my better judgment & deep instincts. Rob Read, of whom I’d never heard before, has a sense of humor that shines right through whatever material he has at hand:
>Subject: DISCOUNT BRAND CIGARETTES
DISCOUNT BRAND CIGARETTES
is the way outFleeing:
Harim catanzaro bemyfriend:
Navas lupus adelphi eatathome graftFriction:
Passover robgeider sap campervanSSince I hhad no moonney,,
and I didnn’t ffeeell liikke scrounging in garbage
I wwiished the sunn
would set sso I could ffalll asleep aand forget
hunger.. And maybe
wheen I woke upp,
I’d be outt of this crazy dream.Rob is right that this is how some of the language in our lives looks right now – the use of deliberate misspellings & psycho punctuation intended to throw off electronic spam catching programs. Here, however, it’s become a narrative of its own design. Others offer a more precise sense of construction:
>Subject: Freedom at last scamrnjyr
Will the company pay to relocate my horse.
Does your health insurance cover pets with a torch.
On display? I eventually had to go
Down to the cellar to find them.Others could remind you of Robert Creeley crossed with Ted Berrigan, such as this untitled work:
Lose
Wink
Look
arse
with
Hydro.Act
and
you
can
get
fine
lines.While others are almost sociological statements on the genre of spam itself:
>Subject: TraÒmadoÒl
StÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒneyStÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒneyStÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒney
StÒop wastÒing moÒneysyphilitic.u
slanderous.usBy now, I was saving all my Daily Treated Spams & had figured out somewhere that Rob Read was a Canadian poet, tho I still didn’t know much more until finally, this past week, I received my copy of O Spam Poams: Selected Daily Treated Spam from the inimitable BookThug, Jay MillAr’s press. The book’s “dust jacket” wraps around in the manner of a label on a tin can, so that you have to slide the book in & out (this is somewhat sensual & naughty if you don’t like having to bend a book to reinsert it). In addition to over 100 pages of bright work – these poems often remind me of “early Tom Raworth” – Read has added an excellent afterword that shows, among other things, that he knows about more spam poetry projects out there than I ever could have imagined. And he knows how to ask, in fact, the right question: What’s to make this book any better?
Well, for one this is not novelty verse, it’s verse that happens to have an aura of novelty around it. The poetry in this book is poetry.
In fact, Read is too modest: it’s poetry that will ensure that you’re going to read Read’s next book too. Tho, as always with BookThug, the production is impeccable, but the press run is ridiculous – 300 perfect bound copies. Hopefully, the mass success of this book won’t cause Read to shut down what has become one of the favorite moments of my day. In addition to buying this book, which you should, I suspect that if you drop a note to readrobread AT gmail DOT com, you could get added to Rob’s daily list."
Other Reviews and Media Appearances:
December, 2006 - Bird Flu in Paris - Hilton that is. 'The Weekly Spam: Paris Hilton Has Bird Flu, a large scale canvas work of 'glitch' art by the Prize Budget for Boys based on some of Rob's Daily Treated Spam has its gallery debut this month in New York City.
December, 2006 - Daily Treated Spam appear in French literary magazine Crashtest's No Log' issue.
December, 2006 - A recording of Rob reading from O Spam, Poams and other work in Buffalo in February, 2006 is now available thanks to House Press.
November, 2006 - An excerpt from Neologism, Rob's collaboration with Chris Fickling and AEM that adapts the Matrix series of films into an epic poem appears (appropriately enough) in Matrix Magazine's Fan Friction issue.
November, 2006 - O Spam, Poams is reviewed (twice!) in issue #36 of filling Station. Reviews are by derek beaulieu (also appears here) and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
October, 2006 - Some of Rob's non-spam poetry is featured in issue #20 of Carousel magazine.
October, 2006 - Rob reads from O Spam, Poams and other work at the Test Reading Series in Toronto, Canada. The Test website features some recent selections (PDF) from Daily Treated Spam. You can also listen to a recording of the reading or the question and answer session with co-reader Souvankham Thammavongsa.
August, 2006 - The talk Rob gave at the Speakeasy reading series in February, 2005 that initially convinced BookThug publisher Jay MillAr to publish O Spam, Poams, is printed in issue #34 of filling Station, which also features some some Daily Treated Spam.
June, 2006 - An engrossing podcast of Rob reading from O Spam, Poams is featured on Paul Toth's Toth World.
May, 2006 - from Descriptive Sketches, a chapbook of poetry Rob wrote while traveling in Europe is published by Laurel Reed Books. Contact the press to order copies: 206 Ellis Ave, Mt. Pleasant, Ontario, Canada, N0E 1K0 or contact them by email at alaric@rogers.com. Only 75 copies were produced, so order now.
April, 2006 - The most talked about reading of the year! Rob reads with other BookThug authors Gregory Betts, Daniel f. Bradley, gustave morin, and Jay MillAr in Ottawa and Kingston, Canada. In Kingston the 'thugs' are joined by master small press publisher jwcurry, and in Kingston they are joined by intrepid writers Jeremy Mcleod and Paul Hegedus. The fireworks are still flying from this one folks!
April, 2006 - The &Now Literary Festival at Lakeforest College, just north of Chicago is served some Daily Treated Spam as Rob reads alongside William H. Gass, gustave morin and mmcross.
April, 2006 - Article on Daily Treated Spam by Kelly Wagner, Junk e-mail turned poetic captures audiences, appears in The Depaulia (Chicago)
April, 2006 - O Spam, Poams reviewed by derek beaulieu, A new approach to poetics, in FFWD Weekly (Calgary, Canada).
March, 2006 - Rob is interviewed by Sarah Campbell, and reads from O Spam, Poams on New York Public Radio show Spoken Arts, WBFO 88.7.
February, 2006 - Rob appears at a blockbuster reading in Buffalo, NY with Kemeny Babineau and John Barlow as part of Just Buffalo’s Orbital Series. An article by Kevin Thurston appears in Buffalo art weekly Artvoice to promote the reading.
January, 2006 - Rob reads from O Spam, Poams in Ottawa and Montreal, Canada, Buffalo, NY, and Philadephia, PA as part of Shift & Switch book launches. Other readers include: Jon Paul Fiorentino, Max Middle, Angela Rawlings, Mark Truscott, Matthew Hollett, Gregory Betts, Jill Hartman, Geoffrey Hlibchuk, Trevor Speller, and Janet Neigh.
December, 2005 - O Spam, Poams reviewed on Ron Silliman's Blog. Silliman, a leading American poet and critic, says: Hopefully, the mass success of [O Spam, Poams] won’t cause Read to shut down what has become one of the favorite moments of my day [ie. reading the Daily Treated Spam].
December, 2005 - Charlie Huisken, owner of world-famous bookstore This Ain't the Rosedale Library, lists O Spam, Poams in his Top Ten Books of 2005.
December, 2005 - O Spam, Poams is reviewed by Kevin Thurston in Buffalo, NY weekly Artvoice.
November, 2005 - Rob is featured in the poetry anthology Shift & Switch: New Canadian Poetry, and appears at the Toronto, Canada launch.
October, 2005 - O Spam, Poams, a collection of Rob's Daily Treated Spam, is launched at Yammy the Cat in Toronto, Canada.
Contact
Rob Read directly:
Weekdays: 416-736-2100 ext 40635
Evenings and Weekends: 416-651-5450
E-mail: readrobread@gmail.com
Website: www.dailytreatedspam.com