Poetry. Mel Nichols' first full-length collection, CATALYTIC EXTERIORIZATON PHENOMENON, takes its title from an early formulation of Jung's concept of synchronicity. Imagine an edgy cityish Niedecker--that kind of lyric sense, writing from the trash in the street, the storms among the power lines. Nichols seeks, like much good poetry, to illustrate and sing the porous, immediate, particular interchange betwixt inner and outer living. Rob Fitterman writes: "Maybe we had it all wrong. Maybe it's all exterior. Maybe certain hierarchies fall when everything--found and unfound--gets in. Maybe not as things, but as 'an octopus/on the porch/snow/still/now/a comma/a ticket/a timetable.' Or maybe 'We are going to get serious [page break] about project management/we are going to spend a lot of money on project/management software to prove it.' Maybe we are. Maybe Mel Nichols' CATALYTIC EXTERIORIZATON PHENOMENON is just that."

Author Hometown: WASHINGTON, DC USA



About the author: Mel Nichols is a member of the Flarf Collective. She lives in Washington, D.C., and teaches Digital Poetics at George Mason University. Her previous chapbooks include Day Poems (Edge), Bicycle Day (Slack Buddha), and The Beginning of Beauty, Part I: hottest new ringtones, mnichol6 (Edge).

Reviews:
http://www.thirdfactory.net/attentionspan2009-freq.html
http://stevenfama.blogspot.com/2009/11/mel-nichols-catalytic-exteriorization.html