EILEEN R. TABIOS (1)

A BLURB PROJECT: The Secret Lives of Blank Lines
in THE SECRET LIVES OF PUNCTUATIONS, VOL. I
(xPress(ed), Espoo, Finland, 2006)

In my 2006 book THE SECRET LIVES OF PUNCTUATIONS, VOL. I, I articulated through poems what I imagined to be the "secret lives" of the following punctuations: the semi-colon, the colon, the parenthesis, the ellipse, the strikethrough, the question mark, as well as words out of poet/musician Jukka-Pekka Kervinen's book, cornucopia.  But I also chose to create a "blank blurb" project on the back cover of the book which I call "The Secret Lives of Blank Lines":

I loathe the blurbing process for many reasons too long to get into here.  I loathe myself for participating in the process (nowadays I try to avoid them but occasionally lapse when I have the chance to interact with poets I respect and would wish to read my work).  Thus, for this book, I avoided getting a pre-publication blurb and, instead, replicated the back cover's invitation for readers to create a blurb by writing on "blank blurb" section:

I noted beneath the sectioned out area:

The blurb ideally should be written with each new (unmediated) reading of a poetry collection.  Dear Reader, after engaging with this book, you are invited to share your "blurb" (positive and/or negative).  Send by email to GalateaTen@aol.com...

Among those who responded was another poet, Adrianne J Odasso.  Here is the blurb she wrote -- in the form of a poem! (Click on image to enlarge):

Finally, as regards blurbs, I plan in the future to rely mostly on Dan Waber's Blurbinator, a blurb generator; if you click on his link, you'll also see a useful summary as to why he doesn't like blurbs.  I share his sentiments there...  

Eileen R. Tabios loves books, and has released over 20 print, four electronic and 1 CD poetry collections; an art essay collection; a “collected novels” book; a poetry essay/interview anthology; a short story collection; and an experimental aubotiography.  Her most recent book is 147 MILLION ORPHANS (MMXI-MML). Her next books will include SUN STIGMATA: Sculpture Poems (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2014) and POST ROMANCE, a collection of art-related essays. Her poems have been translated into eight languages as well as Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Music, Modern Dance and Sculpture.  She’s also edited, co-edited and/or conceptualized ten anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays, the most recent of which is 2014's VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA: A Storm of Filipino Poets (a fundraising anthology for the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan).  She blogs at EileenVerbsBooks.  Last but not least, as a youngster she was a volunteer worker at her elementary school's library.