LAUNCH THANK YOUS

So, I think I am officially over my weekend-long love hangover following the launch on Thursday of Anarchists in the Academy. Honestly, you guys were the best friends and family I could have ever hoped for. This book took a really long time. A really long time. And you guys helped me through all of it: with research, writing workshops, editing, proofreading, chatting over drinks about ideas, supporting me emotionally when I wanted to bail, supporting me emotionally when big-time poets say jerk things to me on Twitter, supporting me emotionally when my employer refuses to bargain, and supporting me financially when I was working shitty precarious labour for too long (okay, that one is just my dad). THANK YOU. Poetry and criticism are both about conversation. We really did do this together. BUT, let’s take a break before we do another one.

Anyway, here is the video Jesse was trying to get working all night:

AND, after not one but TWO requests, I am posting my list of thank-you’s here to make sure all those people feel the love once again, or for the first time for those who didn’t make it:

FIRST AND FOREMOST, this book is because of and for two people who are actually a hell of a lot more like each other than either of them would care to admit: my mother, Marie Spinosa, director of the 1997 Knole Haven production of Wizard of Oz, and Dr. Andy-Pandy Weaver, who supervised this when it was a dissertation at York, formerly a university and now a neoliberal plunderground with a subway stop! They both did a lot of the same work with this book, too, which was largely saying “I guess this sounds nice, but I have no idea what you mean.”

This book is because of and for Jesse Pajuaar, who said that a bunch, too, and who read, edited, and listened to me complain, and agonized over the sound of my nails on various keyboards for years. And it’s for Karma and all the other kitties.

This book is because of and for my examiners and committee members: Stephen Cain, Art Redding, Richard Telekey, David Goldstein, and Craig Dworkin.

This book is because of and for the authors who kindly read my work, answered my questions, and supported this project in various ways: Juliana Spahr, Mark Sutherland, Jesse Cohn, Mez Breeze, and Jim Andrews.

This book is because of and for the greatest writing workshop of all time: Samantha Bernstein, Thom Bryce, Melissa Dalgliesh, and Jonathan Vandor.

This book is because of and for everyone who commented on the blog, including: Sean Braune, Matt Carrington, Caitlin O’Kelly, and some bitch named Kate Siklosi.

AND OH YEAH, this book is because of and for Kate motherfucking Siklosi and everyone involved in Gap Riot Press including Stace Schmidt and Priscila Uppal.

This book is because of and for the Electronic Literature Organization and the Electronic Literature Directory and the electronic book review, especially Joe Tabbi, Dene Grigar, and Davin Heckman.

This book is because of and for University of Alberta Press, especially Peter Midgley, Duncan Turner, Cathie Crooks, Monika Igali, and my editor Lesley Peterson.

This book is because of and for Eleanor Nichol for granting permissions for free.

This book is because of and for an OGS and a SSHRC who didn’t know what they were paying for.

This book is because of and for CUPE3903, who supported it financially and much beyond that, and who usually supports all its members in the same way. This book is an apology to units 1 and 3, who we abandoned.

This book is because of and for all of you who came out tonight, but it’s especially for my family. For Smal, who does my marking in secret and picks favourites, for Leaky, who is AA’s CFO and is running the merch table, for Noodle, who is the only other one of us fluent in drag, okkkuuuurrrr. AND it’s for Jerry, who is still fuming that I dedicated this book to my mother and not my father, even though he spent the most money on it.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU. You guys, we made a book!

And thanks especially to Goldie and everyone at Unlovable who have been great to me. Please be good to them, please buy drinks, please dance, and in the wise words of Glassjaw, tip your bartender!

Now, I already feel like this has been too long, and I just wanna dance, but let me just say one more thing:

This is a book about poems and about the digital, but it is also, of course, about insurrection. So, I’m gonna tell you the one thing I really learned while writing this: the internet is for poems and the internet is for finding each other, but the work, the real work, of making this world a better, more loving, more caring place, that happens off-screen. So, my friends, for tonight and for as long as we can, get off the internet – I’ll meet you in the streets. There are poems there, too.