Categories for Bennu's Library
Click on Links to go to Book Lists
Eileen R. Tabios' Author Copies
Autobiographies, Biographies, Memoirs
Diaries, Journals, Correspondences
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Selected Book Acquisition Notes As the Library Grows:
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READINGS
Bennu /ˈbɛnuː/ is an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the Sun, creation, and rebirth. It may have been the original inspiration for the phoenix legends that developed in Greek mythology. Bennu's Library is a new library-in-progress to replace the Galatea Library destroyed by a California megawildfire. Since Galatea Library contained 15,516 books, Bennu's target is for at least the same number of books. Current Status: 1,400-1,500 books.
Categories for Bennu's Library
Click on Links to go to Book Lists
Eileen R. Tabios' Author Copies
Autobiographies, Biographies, Memoirs
Diaries, Journals, Correspondences
*
Selected Book Acquisition Notes As the Library Grows:
*
READINGS
FICTION
Behind The Blue Canvas, 2004
[Novel Chatelaine, 2009]
SILK EGG: Collected Novels 2009-2009, 2011
What Counts, 2020
PAGPAG: The Dictator’s Aftermath in the Diaspora, 2020
DOVELION: A Fairy Tale for Our Times, 2021
Simmering: a novella-in-prose-poems, 2022
Getting to One, flash fictions with art by harry k stammer, 2023
The Balikbayan Artist, 2024
POETRY
After The Egyptians Determined The Shape of the World Is A Circle, 1996
Beyond Life Sentences, 1998
[The Empty Flagpole (CD with guest artist Mei-mei Berssenbrugge), 2000]
Ecstatic Mutations (with short stories and essays), 2001
Reproductions of The Empty Flagpole, 2002
[Enheduanna in the 21st Century, 2002]
[There, Where the Pages Would End, 2003]
Menage a Trois With the 21st Century, 2004
Crucial Bliss Epilogues, 2004
The Estrus Gaze(s), 2005
[Songs of the Colon, 2005]
Post Bling Bling, 2005
I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved, 2005
The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I, 2006
Dredging for Atlantis, 2006
[It’s Curtains, 2006]
SILENCES: The Autobiography of Loss, 2007
[The Singer and Others: Flamenco Hay(na)ku, 2007]
The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes: Our Autobiography, 2007
Nota Bene Eiswein, 2009
Footnotes to Algebra: Uncollected Poems 1995-2009, 2009
[On A Pyre: An Ars Poetica, 2010]
[Roman Holiday, 2010]
[Hay(na)ku for Haiti, 2010]
THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems and New 1998-2010, 2010
the relational elations of ORPHANED ALGEBRA (with j/j hastain), 2012
5 Shades of Gray, 2012
THE AWAKENING: A Long Poem Triptych & A Poetics Fragment, 2013
147 Million Orphans (MMXI-MML), 2014
[44 RESURRECTIONS, 2014]
SUN STIGMATA (Sculpture Poems), 2014
I Forgot Light Burns, 2015
[Duende in the Alleys, 2015]
INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New (1996-2015), 2015
The Connoisseur of Alleys, 2016
[The Gilded Age of Kickstarters, 2016]
[Excavating the Filipino in Me, 2016]
I Forgot Ars Poetica, 2016
AMNESIA: Somebody’s Memoir, 2016
THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA: Prime’s Anti-Autobiography, 2017
[Post-Ecstasy Mutations, 2017]
[On Green Lawn, The Scent of White, 2017]
To Be An Empire Is To Burn, 2017
If They Hadn’t Worn White Hoods … (with John Bloomberg-Rissman), 2017
[What Shivering Monks Comprehend, 2017]
YOUR FATHER IS BALD: Selected Hay(na)ku Poems, 2017
IMMIGRANT: Hay(na)ku & Other Poems In A New Land, 2017
Comprehending Mortality (with John Bloomberg-Rissman), 2017
[Big City Cante Intermedio, 2017]
WINTER ON WALL STREET: A Novella-in-Verse, 2017
Making National Poetry Month Great Again, 2017
MANHATTAN: An Archaeology, 2017
Love In A Time of Belligerence, 2017
MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION: A Poetry Generator, 2018
TANKA, Vol. I, 2018
HIRAETH: Tercets From The Last Archipelago, 2018
One, Two, Three: Selected Hay(na)ku Poems (Trans. Rebeka Lembo), 2018
THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL: Selected Visual Poetry 2001-2019, 2019
The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku: Selected Tercets 1996-2019, 2019 & 2021
Witness in the Convex Mirror, 2019
Evocare: Selected Tankas (with Ayo Gutierrez and Bianca Nagac), 2019
[We Are It, 2020]
Inculpatory Evidence: The Covid-19 Poems, 2020
Political Love, 2021
La Vie érotique de l’art, une séance avec William Carlos Williams (Trad. de l’anglais (États-Unis) par Samuel Rochery), 2021
PRISES (Trad. de l’anglais (États-Unis) par Fanny Garin), 2022
Because I Love You, I Become War, 2023
Drawing the Six Directions, 2024
Engkanto in the Diaspora, 2025
PROSE COLLECTIONS
Black Lightning: Poetry-In-Progress (poetry essays/interviews), 1998
My Romance (art essays with poems), 2002
The Blind Chatelaine’s Keys (biography with haybun), 2008
AGAINST MISANTHROPY: A Life in Poetry (2015-1995), 2015
#EileenWritesNovel, 2017
Tiny Stickers: A Covid-19 Autobiography, 2020
THE INVENTOR: A Poet’s Transcolonial Autobiography, 2023
__________
Books within brackets are not (yet) in the library. They are not in library mostly for two reasons: they are e-publications or their print copies were taken by the 2020 Glass Fire.
1/26/26
Even my husband’s gotten into my library rebuilding. Twice now, as he walks the dogs and passes by local Free Little Libraries, he’s picked up a book for me. But he also picked up the Tennyson because it’s hilarious. When you open it, you’ll see that it’s a former library book that was borrowed 59 years ago. The Borrower, who obviously never returned it, then just dropped it off at a Little Library. I guess the fines for 59 years late return would be prohibitive.
I remember those borrowing slips. Borrowers would inscribe their name in a card that would be placed in the beige card holder. What this means, though, is that someone going through the library shelves would be able to pick up a book and know the names of readers who’d previously checked out that book. In middle school, I remember a “mean girl” who stalked my names on the public library shelves for books I’d borrowed. No doubt she was hoping I’d have borrowed some “controversial” book, like books with sex scenes.
So first of all, what kind of person has that kind of mindset, right? I took my revenge decades later by writing a poem about her (haha).
Anyway, with my husband’s largesse the library' target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire) that means 1,458 books down, 14,058 books to go.
1/20/26
Just read and appreciated George Myers, Jr.’s novel, WORLDS END. I liked its structure very much, about which you can read more at this interview of him at Sandy Press. I’m sharing Myers’ Table of Contents below because I ended up thinking they could work as poetry prompts, i.e. his text and the visuals could spur a poem per “chapter.” Perhaps this is for a poet who’s having writer’s block.
I also share recent additions to my personal library courtesy of master martial artist and poet Rene J. Navarro. Folks know I’m rebuilding a library and when some choose to share some books from their own libraries, it’s always interesting to see what they read behind the scenes. Thanks Rene!
So the library' target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire) that means 1,456 books down, 14,060 books to go. Good evening.
1/8/26
First book read for 2026 is Jason Mott’s HELL OF A BOOK—with a shooting, it is a “love story” for our times.
And the first book added in 2026 to my personal library is Michael Ondaatje’s DIVISADERO. With the library' target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire) that means 1,445 books down, 14,071 books to go. Good evening.
Categories for Bennu's Library Click on Links to go to Book Lists Eileen R. Tabios' Author Copies Miniature Books Art Autobiographi...