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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his)

@mongibeddu.bsky.social

660 followers 670 following 390 posts

Poet, editor, scholar in Maine. Now available: Nice: The Collected Poems of David Melnick (https://nightboat.org/book/nice/). Free 🇵🇸; end the genocide now!

nightboat.org

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · 2d

“‘The banana plant’…wears the autumn wind and is broken by the autumn wind”—Dōgen

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · 2d

Yikes!

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · 3d

Edited an article with a long passage attributed to the wrong person (and much made of that misattribution). Didn’t even get an acknowledgment when it later appeared in a book.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 6d

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 6d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · 21d

The Democratic Party: “When they go low, we go high. But when they go right, we follow.”

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Aug 1

I managed to reserve ten pounds of sour cherries from what I thought was a local farm, but it turns out they’re in Ohio (not Maine). The search continues…

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Jul 2

I’m going to start asking cashiers if they want to round down.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Jun 27

The cat gets so mad when she musters all her cuteness and yet I still don’t bend to her will.

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Jun 25

Lol

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Jun 25

The top ten movie lists aren’t convincing me to watch more movies. Has cinema become a mid art form?

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · May 21

Homer‘s Art is a perfect start. My own was How Spring Comes, but someone else’s copy—really wish I had my own.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · May 20

A powerful flame has gone out but not the light it shared with us.

Anselm Berrigan @wystandoll.bsky.social · May 20

Alice Notley passed away Monday night in Paris, where I'm writing from. This will come as a shock to many, but she was battling a number of maladies in recent months, and things had gotten difficult rapidly. Her work is out there. Please feel free to spread the word.

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · May 20

Deepest condolences—my love to you and all your mother’s loved ones.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · May 4

At my university, increasingly, books are discouraged for tenure. Articles are seen as the safer option. I have mixed feelings about this, as it slides into a devaluing of books, at least on committees that include faculty from fields where books are atypical.

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 28

I would say the first but then I’ve bought books I own because I can’t be bothered to search the boxes where I store them.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 27

Ha! I met Jim Brodey near the end of his life. He somehow ended up on Bob Grenier’s couch for a month. That was a strange pair.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 27

I thought I’d lost the thread but I see now it was the wrong metaphor: my thread’s been stripped.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 27

An improvement on this one!

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 23

Heard about an IRB request at my university turned down because it included the phrase “climate justice.”

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 16

Sad news.

Tom Hull @tomhull747.bsky.social · Apr 16

Renowned jazz critic Francis J Davis died Monday morning, 78, at home, in his sleep. I've added a notice to the website for his Jazz Critics Poll, which he founded in 2006 and has led for 19 years. I'll update the site as I know more: hullworks.net/jazzpoll/

Jazz Critics Poll

hullworks.net

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 7

I wonder what bookseller got the titles purged from the Naval Academy Library. I hope they sell at a premium, with part of it going to appropriate causes. He’ll, I’d buy from this list:

media.defense.gov

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Apr 1

I started grad school in my thirties so it’s strange to think that many of the comp students I taught back then are already in their fifties.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Mar 30

A book so awful I erased all traces that I’d read it.

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Mar 25

One of those days when I wish the students would meet me where I’m at, not the other way round.

Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Mar 24

Is there an antonym for Schadenfreude? The pain you feel when good things happen to those you hate.

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Ben Friedlander (he/him/his) @mongibeddu.bsky.social · Mar 20

Here’s a poem by Enslin from The Country of Our Consciousness (1971). You can tell from this he lived in Maine.

MORNING IN TOWN

Four old women
walk
in couples
along the road.
The sidewalk
(made of brick)
is as old
or older than
they are.
They avoid it,
choosing the gutter
which has felt less frost.