Categories for Bennu's Library
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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
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
AUTHOR COPIES
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
The Erotic Space Around Art Objects, 2026
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
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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.
SELECTED BOOK ACQUISITION NOTES (April 1, 2026-Present)
4/16/26
Neo is expected to come home with one leg less and one head cone more. But at least he’s coming home this afternoon. Meanwhile…
One of my favorite actions is appearing in the inaugural issues of poetry journals. Because there can never be enough poetry in the world. So I’m pleased to share I have poems in the first issue of a journal with an interesting premise: UNENDURABLE. The first three images relate to it, including the start of the journal’s first poem; you can see issue through its Home page which also includes a Call for Submissions: https://duresspress.org/unendurable
Speaking of literature (and I am always talking about literature even when I say seemingly unrelated things like “Please pass the salt”), I’ve read three of the dozen books that are newly entering my library. These include George Myers Jr.’s haibun conversation with Basho, THE NARROWING ROAD from Sandy Press, which I liked well enough to provide a blurb.
I was also delighted by what is my second anthology appearance this year, REMEMBERING OUR DIVINITYpainstakingly, lovingly, and faith-fully edited by Harold Legaspi and coming out of Australia’s Papel Publishing. I have five poems innit but prefer to share the image of the first poem, a powerful opening by Michael Caylo-Baradi that also hearkens the blurb I’d provided George: “tender, evocative, and luminous.”
And last but never least since we’re talkin’ the brilliantly musical Sheila E. Murphy is her Unlikely Stories book I WANT TO BE YOUR RADIO. While referencing her poetic music, I share an image of a poem, “My Sole Excuse,” whose message resonates with me. I, too, have been on the receiving end of that phrase “Be kind to yourself” after some people read my poems or observe my commitment to the literary arts. This poem (last image) is my response.
So with my library’s target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire), this acquisition means 1,848 books down, 13,668 books to go.
4/15/26
Good news is that puppy Neo’s surgery went well. Unless something comes up, he’ll come home tomorrow. Chemotherapy then will start in two weeks. So far, so good.
We’re bolstering our spirits by the arrival of new-to-us books. That is, I’ve always planned that in my “retirement,” I’ll obtain a Harvard education. I won’t be moving to Cambridge, Mass. I’ll be reading through the books I hadn’t yet read by the time I get to “Dr. Eliot’s Five-Foot Shelf of Books.” Dr. Eliot was Harvard’s president who created a 50-volume series of classic works of world literature and historical documents. He believed that reading the series—a guide is available for doing so for 15 minutes a day—would provide the equivalent of an excellent liberal education (Wiki has a useful summary of the project, with the contents, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics
We were lucky to acquire a set in its original (1910) printing. Except for the Reader’s Guide, it is in stupendous condition. It came from the library of the original owner, some gentleman in Pennsylvania; we acquired it from one of his relatives (who put it up for sale only because by the time he inherited it, he’d already owned his own copy of the series). Apparently, the original owner read every book and then put them behind a glass-walled bookcase, hence the great condition. The seller’s caveat to the condition was that his relative put a penciled check mark at the back of each book every time he finished reading one. We said we didn’t consider that a flaw—in fact, to us it’s a very moving souvenir of a devoted reader and we appreciated it.
So with my library’s target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire), this acquisition means 1,836 books down, 13,680 books to go. Good Evening.
4/14/26
My beloved dog Neo has cancer. We have a conference call in about an hour with surgeons/doctors to discuss.
Holding myself together and too distract myself until then, I'm logging books I acquired during vacation into my library. I got so many books that there's a box being shipped by friends to me, but these made it into my check-in luggage. So with my library’s target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire), this acquisition of six normatively-sized and four miniature books means 1,785 books down, 13,731 books to go.
4/6/26
Another book unpacking post before I go inflict myself on another state. And it’s a 74-title gift! Grateful to the Brookline, Mass. Poet Laureate Emeritus Zvi A. Sesling for this gift… that includes 70 Dover books. If you know Dover, they’re the publisher that revolutionized the paperback market with its focus on creating accessible and budget-friendly books from classics.
What I appreciate about this, mostly poetry-related grouping, is that Zvi apparently found the Dover books (with their light weight) useful for carrying around with him, so that unexpected spare time during a day gave him the time to read and learn about poetries for which he hadn’t previously budgeted time for attention.
I did/do this, too. I usually have a book—usually a poetry book when I was a younger poet—at hand so as to maximize reading time. It’s a respectful attitude to one’s craft because one can’t be a good writer without reading. In poetry, it’s also homework to know what’s been written before because to be a poet is also to join a tradition.
It’s good to structure habits that support what you love and want to do.
Anyway, I appreciate this gift and with my library’s target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire), that means 1,775 books down, 13,741 books to go! Good morning!
4/5/26
Good morning, Sunday! Nothing like unpacking gifts from book dealer/collector Lee Maderazo. I was delighted by this gorgeous edition of a book I'd lugged around in middle school to earn the honor of being called "nerd"--that would be Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO. I did some cringey moments in my youth, but that was not one of them. Thank you, Lee!
Lee's prior gift made me reach the 1,600-book threshold. This gift leads me to reach the 1,700-book threshold. With Lee's help and with my library’s target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire), that means 1,701 books down, 13,815 books to go!
4/4/26
This post-wildfire library is being created with a community of writers and readers, and I’m grateful for your gifts! You’ll see in the first image two bankers’ boxes and brown box from book collector Lee Maderazo and poet-fictionist-editor Zvi A. Sesling. I haven’t yet opened them (but wished to confirm receipt) as I focus first on the gifts of writers sending copies of their works: Raymond de Borja, Andrew K. Peterson, and Julie Rose Lewis/Lydia Davis.
I highlight two of the five poetry pubs sent by Andrew since one will be a Christmas gift to Tom (who doesn’t pay attention to Facebook so I can out it): FAN POEMS which focuses on Red Sox fans. I asked Andrew to inscribe a personalized message to Tom, from one RS fan to another; I present “To Jarren Duran” as a sample poem because its ending couplet epitomizes the at times dire life experience of a RS fan over the past few decades: that one might be led “against all better judgment—reeling towards optimism.” From witnessing Tom’s angst, I’m amused… and also note the extensive 5 pages of note at the back of the book. I show image of first 2 pages of Notes since it should indicate why this book is perfect for baseball fans.
I haven’t read all the books Andrew’s sent but I’m impressed by ERASURE FOR HOLY GHOST. I share “vibrato” as an example of the collection’s meticulous music and excellent ending (plus that line on “misjudged Sweden” inexplicably tickles my funny bone). Thanks for sharing, Andrew!
So with my library’s target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire), that means 1,643 books down, 13,873 books to go!
4/1/26
A neighborhood without a Little Free Library lacks soul, to paraphrase what's often said about homes without books or towns/cities without public libraries. Anyway, found two LFLs while walking the dogs. Picked up a novel by Sujata Massey which I'll log in with a book I unpacked but discovered I hadn't logged into my library files, Julia Rose Lewis' and Paul Hawkins' gorgeous collaboration of photographs and poetry.
So with my library’s target of 15,516 books (a number that replicates the number of books lost to a wildfire), that means 1,635 books down, 13,881 books to go!
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Categories for Bennu's Library Click on Links to go to Book Lists Eileen R. Tabios' Author Copies Miniature Books Art Autobiographi...
