Proteotypes’ Libellulæ series brings creaturely new texts to life, and we are very proud to have A Subset of Chance as our latest and fifth. A far-flung, full-frenzy poem, A Subset of Chance dips a web woven of geography and philosophy into the polychromic vat of language. In it Martin Nakell obeys two constraints you might think hard to combine. The first, derived from Chaos Theory, posits that “any arbitrarily small perturbation of the current trajectory will lead to significantly different future composition.” The second is the rigorous Kabbalistic procedure of gematria, whereby letters are given their numerical value. Martin will read, explain, and sign copies.

Please join us this Friday evening to meet Martin and send this new Libellula whirring out into the world! There will be wine and snacks.

Martin Nakell is an award-winning poet and novelist who believes that the experience of art is energy – in literary art an energy achieved by discovering a language new to each work, a discovery which can be achieved by submitting the language to a turbulence. His books includeThe Library of Thomas Rivka (Sun &Moon), The Myth of Creation (Parentheses Writing Series), Ramon (Jawbone Press), Two Fields that Face & Mirror Each Other (Green Integer), Goings (Margin-to-Margin Press), Form, Settlement, and Tautological Eye (all Spuyten Duyvil). He is married to the writer Rebecca Goodman and lives in Orange, CA.