WHO IS EATING ALL THE SWEETS?

WHO IS EATING ALL THE SWEETS? by Audrey Mardavich from Kuba Dorabialski on Vimeo.

While the rest of us go to work or get drunk like amateurs or waste hours on tumblr, Audrey Mardavich has been quietly and diligently kicking the shit out of the Institution of Poetry.

Every Sunday night we get the latest poem. We're currently at 31, with 21 more to go until the end of the year. It's a veritable fruit salad we've collected so far, but each one of Audrey's poems has the same electric thread running through it. There's this calm and slightly dazed current that her poems deliver, but there's some freaky gritty shit poking up all over the joint too. Her funny poems make you laugh and then wonder if you're the butt of the joke. Her love poems are heartbreakers but with a bounce-step. The seemingly light and frivolous poems are the Real Kickers.

Here's one such surprise package set to video.

We'll be previewing some more of Audrey's poems for the Fifty-Two Sundays Project in the lead-up to the book launch in early 2014.

Join our FB page or email desire |at| desirebooks |dot| com |dot| au to stay in the loop.

"Malibu Beach, Dorchester" by Audrey Mardavich

Here's one of the poems Audrey Mardavich submitted in her application. We love it very much:


MALIBU BEACH, DORCHESTER

I only love things no one else cares about

At night Savin Hill is a small mound of lights

The bridge operator drinks a lot of water and watches TV with the shades shut

Does he get excited when a boat comes
or is he all pissed off that he has to stand up?

Cormorants dance on other people’s kayaks

We like to keep each other updated on the geese growing up

Julia knew the names of all of the beach grasses
and it was at that moment I realized I’m unable to memorize facts,
like the names of most things

maybe I don’t try hard enough

maybe I’m capable of forgetting almost anything

Once I saw a group of teenagers smoking grass in the grass and I was jealous,
not because I cared about getting high, which I did
but because I hadn’t thought of it,
going in there, I mean

the grass cave, so green and so tall.

If you dive deep into the water headfirst you can feel the cold envelop your head,
otherwise it’s fine to float on the warm surface of the water
stay in the shallow end
pee a little.

The Chosen One! Audrey Mardavich!

We are thrilled to announce that the Fifty-Two Sundays Project poet for 2013 is Audrey Mardavich, from sunny Massachusetts.

We received a huge number of entries from all over the joint, and I must admit I was shocked that there wasn't a single crap one among them. Thanks to all you sweet poets who submitted and put Little Things in our hearts!

For those interested in digits, here are some interesting ones:
- 70% of poets who submitted were women.
- 70% of poets who submitted were from Australia
- 30% of poets who submitted were from North America.
- 100% of editors reading submitted poems were tearful at least once during reading sessions.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

I don’t know about you, but we fucken love Sunday afternoons.
We live for our Sunday afternoons.
Every year we have fifty-two of the suckers to celebrate, and we’ve decided to mark each Sunday afternoon with a new poem, written during that week.

But we ain’t writing the poems; you are.

Here’s what we’re thinking: We ask you, writers of writings, to submit a sample of your poems for us to chose one among you to be the first annual Fifty-Two Sundays poet. The selected poet will be required to submit one poem a week, for the whole calendar year of 2013. In return: we will pay AUD$10 per poem for the full 52 weeks, and then publish all 52 poems in a lovely little chapbook.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

- Interested poets should compile a selection of poems, no fewer than 8, and no more than 15, written over the last two years, and email them to: 

- We would also like a short biography (stating age and country of residence), and a little bit about your writing and practice would be nice too.
- Submissions must be received by no later than the 9th of December 2012.
- Submissions must be accompanied by contact email.
- Only apply if you are willing and capable of fulfilling all the requirements of the Fifty-Two Sundays poet as outlined below.
- Emerging poets are especially encouraged to apply.
- Selection of the Fifty-Two Sundays poet for 2013 will be carried out by a small team of talented judges, wearing tweed and corduroy, while smoking elegant briar pipes. Booze may, or may not be involved in the selection process.

IF YOU ARE SELECTED TO BE THE FIFTY-TWO SUNDAYS POET FOR 2012, THESE WILL BE YOUR REQUIREMENTS AND OBLIGATIONS AND REWARDS:
- Each weekly submission must be made by email. Ol’ school post, while still a valid and noble form of transmission, is too slow for this particular project.
- Poems can be written in any language, but each weekly submission must be an English translation, suitable for publishing.
- Our definition of a poem is quite broad. We’re open to all forms and styles. And while prose poems are fine, short stories are not... Polemic poems can be ace, but essays aren’t quite what we’re after.... (It’s a fine line sometimes, we know, but we think you know what we mean.) One requirement is that each weekly submission be under 500 words (more or less).
- Previously published poems will not be accepted as a weekly submission.
- Poems must be received, by email, by midnight of every Sunday in 2013.
- Should the selected poet fail to deliver the weekly poems, the project may be terminated, including all monies and the publishing agreement. We will also be very hurt and we may say some regrettable things.
- At the completion of the year, we will award the selected poet $10 per poem, in a lump sum of AUD$520 (subject to currency fluctuations). We will also publish the complete 52 poems in a small but pretty chapbook to be sold in Desire Books, and other bookshops around the world, and via the Desire Books webstore. The print run will be dependent on the total length of the poems, but rest assured, the selected poet will get enough copies to hand out to parents, teachers, prospective mates in nightclubs and to keep a few on their bookshelves besides. If all copies sell out relatively quickly, we'll print another run.