City Bird: Selected Poems (1991 – 2009) by Millie Niss Edited by Martha Deed

I’ve known Millie Niss since 2001, and she was one of the most intelligent and interesting people I have ever met. I enjoyed the enthusiasm and seriousness with which she made poetry, and, in particular, electronic poetry. All of her work expresses her intelligence, deep sense of humor, and humanity. “City Bird” will make readers think and ask for more.

—Regina Célia Pinto, web artist and creator of Museum of the Essential and Beyond That

Millie Niss was probably best known as a blogger, video-maker and new media artist, but this collection – compiled by her mother and long-time collaborator, Martha Deed –  demonstrates that she wrote poetry of great originality and inventiveness both before and during her new media career. She died in 2009, at the age of 36, and struggled with the effects of Behcet’s disease for many years before that: yet the overwhelming impression left by this collection is one of vigour and high spirits. It’s one of the few books of poetry I can call to mind without a dull page in it. It also consistently manages to combine experimentalism with entertainment. There is a wide range of styles – from mock-epic to prose poetry to picture poems – but Millie’s personality suffuses them all: outspoken, politically radical, satirical, rude and funny; quirky, sometimes whimsical, sometimes wildly digressive; yet always down to earth and sharply observant.

—Edward Picot, web artist and critic

Millie Niss draws from so many different poetic influences and writes in so many different tones – wistful, sneaky, sincere, outraged, outrageous, sweet and funny and snide – that it makes me nearly dizzy. This is a wonderful, whimsical compendium of a mind on fire, devoted to poetry, mad for malarkey. In rants, e-mails, poetic forms, collaborations, school notebooks, mock epics, found text, imitations, concrete poetry and intercepted letters, Millie calls it like it is and we are so lucky for it!

—Kazim Ali, poet, author of The Far Mosque (Alice James Books)

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Millie Niss (1973-2009) lived in France, New York, and New England where she earned an Honors Baccalaureate in Physics and Math in Compiegne, her BA magna cum laude in Mathematics from Columbia University, and undertook graduate mathematics studies at Brown University followed by an MFA program at Emerson College before Behcets Disease caused her to abandon her formal education. Her earliest publications consisted of innovative mathematical proofs and research papers sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Best known as a widely published web artist, she created http://sporkworld.org in 2000 and her Sporkworld blog http://sporkworld.tumblr.com/ in 2007 with her mother, Martha Deed. Millie’s graphics, videos, and web installations have been exhibited in galleries, including SCOPE 2006, huffingtonpost, Dvblog, Iowa on the Web and in many other venues. Her poetry has appeared in dozens of print and online publications: Beehive, Big Bridge, The Buffalo News, Museum of the Essential and Beyond That, New Verse News, and Unlikelystories.org. Millie died November 29, 2009 from hospital-acquired infections following a bout of Swine Flu.

Book Information:

· Paperback: 170 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books]
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-008-8
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