Work
Moonbit (punctum books, 2019) is a hybrid work comprised of experimental poetry and a critical theory of the poetics and politics of computer code. It offers an extended intellectual and creative engagement with the affordances of computer software through multiple readings and re-writings of a singular text, the source code of the Apollo 11 Guidance Computer or the “AGC.” Moonbit re-marks and remixes the code that made space travel possible. Half of this book is erasure poetry that uses the AGC code as the source text, building on the premise that code can speak beyond its functional purpose.
half-fabulous whales (Little Dipper, 2019), a chapbook of erasure poetry that uses Moby-Dick as the source text published in a limited-edition letterpress edition and digital edition.
Rena J. Mosteirin’s poetic novella "Nick Trail's Thumb" (Kore Press, Tuscan, 2008) won The Kore Press Short Fiction Award, judged by Lydia Davis. Davis writes:
"What a fresh and engaging story Mosteirin has written--with its unusual setting, interesting form, arresting specifics, captivating insights, strong dialogue, and rhythmic prose. The writing and the vision alike are utterly persuasive."
You can buy "Nick Trail's Thumb" here at the Kore Press website or on Amazon.
The Common published "All Night in the Tuberculosis Room" on April 1, 2020.
"Katherine and Petruchio" appeared in Literary North's Constellation: Ekphrasis in April, 2020.
No Tokens published "The Encrypted Latina" on September 11, 2019
The Woven Tale Press awarded Mosteirin an Honorable Mention in their 2018
Awards and published four of her new poems here:
http://online.flipbuilder.com/eovs/kjan/#p=61
Mosteirin wrote about ghosts for White Heat.
Eduardo Corral selected Mosteirin's poem "Chango" for the Summer 2018 (Issue 42) issue of The Puritan.
The first stanza of Mosteirin's poem "Milkweed Coat" appears as the epigraph in Hannah Howard's memoir Feast. Read the full text of the poem here.She teaches at Dartmouth College and is an editor at Bloodroot Literary Magazine.
Upcoming Engagements
Ditmas Lit. December 18, 2019 Hinterlands. 739 Church Ave. Brooklyn, NYBennington Writers. December 17, 2019 KGB Bar. 85 E. 4th Street. New York, NY
Poetry & Pie
August 3, 2019
Sweetland Farm
No Tokens Issue #8 Launch Party
June 12, 2019
Books are Magic. 225 Smith Street. Brooklyn, NY
Lunation: A Good Fat Anthology of 114 Women Poets
March 8, 2019 at 6:30PM
South Church
Portsmouth, NH
Bloodroot Vol 11 LAUNCH PARTY
April 9, 2019
Left Bank Books
Hanover, NH
SIGCIS 2018: STORED IN MEMORY: The 10th Annual SIGCIS Conference
October 14, 2018, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Bloodroot Vol 10 LAUNCH PARTY
May 4, 2018
Left Bank Books
HaPoP 2018: Fourth Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming
March 23, 2018, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Hanover, NH
Biography
Rena J. Mosteirin teaches poetry at Dartmouth College in the Master of Arts in
Liberal Studies program. She loves the formal language of poetry and sees many
connections between the languages of computer programming and more traditional
formal
poetics. In learning to write programming code in Python (a computer language
similar to Java and C++) Rena developed a software tool that helps poets create
sestinas with a sort of end-word "map" and end-word "generator"
the compliable code for this tool is itself a sestina. Check that out here.
Rena is using Twitter in an attempt to build a line-a-day relationship with the Great American Novel: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. This project is estimated to take somewhere between twenty and thirty years, most likely outlasting the popularity of Twitter itself.
Rena J. Mosteirin is a graduate of Dartmouth College (AB) and the Writing Seminars at Bennington College (MFA). Mosteirin's father is from Cuba and her mother's family is from Gottschee, a region of Slovenia. Before falling in love with and settling down in New England, Mosteirin lived in New York, Chicago, Indiana, New Hampshire, Vermont and Hawaii. She is married to James E. Dobson.
Contact Information
Rena.J.Mosteirin@gmail.com
PO Box 375/ Hanover, NH/ 03755