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Dec 12

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All Kinds of Things are Happening

I’ve been horrible about updating this blog lately, so of course all the random everything that I want to tell you about has been piling, piling, piling up. This will be a very linky post, but it will be worth it because all of these things are things you need to know about. Promise!

I got a Pushcart nomination! I know, I know. I’m not supposed to be excited about this. I’m supposed to be all, me and everybody else, right? But fuck that. I am always happy to have validation that someone enjoys what I do. Anyway, this one is for my story  “Five Kinds of Human History” in the latest issue of Big Lucks (thank you Mark and Laura and all!) and by the way, you can also get that issue with all its goodness for the Kindle for ONE DOLLAR. How could you pass that up? You can’t, right? Here you go.

So, there is a VERY long awaited and spectacular issue of Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens available, and I have a favorite story of mine published inside: “Death and the People.” Thank you, Bradley Sands, for publishing this weird thing. (For those of you that saw the very first ever Three Tents reading in DC, this is the story I read there.) In addition to my piece, there are stories by Laird Hunt, D. Harlan Wilson, Cameron Pierce, Amanda Billings, Kirk Jones, Andrew W. Adams, Amber Sparks, and a novella by Kirsten Alene, as well as book reviews of Steve Lowe’s Muscle Memory and Shane Jones’s A Cake Appeared. You can buy it here (and sorry but Amazon’s the only place you can get it right now!)

If you’re looking for Christmas/Hanukkah/Whatever gifts, I compiled a great list of gifts over at Vouched. If you just want to get someone the perfect new book, I compiled a list of my favorite books of 2011 over at Big Other.

I guest-edited SmokeLong Quarterly last week and you all sent me some really great stuff. Dang. So now I’m busy trying to decide which story I love the most (and this is not an easy task.)

Ravi Mangla is an awesome writer/person. So I am very happy to see that, in another really terrific decision by Uncanny Valley’s Mike Meginnis and Tracy Bowling, the press is publishing Ravi’s collection of microfictions, Visiting Writers, as an ebook. There are 23 stories in the collection, some of which have appeared in Gigantic #2, Everyday Genius, >kill author, and The Outlet.

Brand new Bright Stupid Confetti, with 50 amazing pieces. It’s–indescribably good. Just curated like honey. Check it out here.

I like what Everyday Genius is doing this month. Where they have a contributor, instead of writing down the same blabbity bla bio that no one cares about, actually point out something else that’s cool online. Good on EG. As always.

Nov 1

Jonathan Lethem Says We Are all Sub-Cultures Now ( And I Agree)

I really, really like this interview with Jonathan Lethem over at Fiction Writers Review. There are lots of great parts, so you should read the whole thing, like his take on the supposed death of the novel or publishing industry or whatever. But I really particularly liked this:

And I think a lot of American life resolves into certain versions of subculture. The people I know in rural Maine will say to me, “Not only have I never been to New York but I would never wish to go.” It’s just an inconceivable world. Well, Mainers don’t go to conventions where they wear nametags that say “I’m from Maine and my name is such-and-such.” But they are also participants in a sub-cultural identity as Mainer—specifically, this flinty, caustic, sea-salty, coastal Maine identity is a subculture. It may not have as many love beads as being a hippie, and it wouldn’t be very willing to see itself in the framework I’m proposing as analogous to MFA programs. But it’s another kind of sub-cultural choice that’s been made.

There are only subcultures, in a way, is what I’m saying, and then an idea of a whole or outside. Even “mainstream” literary authority—let’s just say, to be able to isolate more or less what we mean—the people who are routinely asked to write reviews for the New York Times Book Review and therefore, and let’s please understand that it is therefore, guaranteed that their own books will be reviewed by the New York Times Book Review, among whom I will now number myself. As hegemonic and oppressive as the assumptions that go with that, the degree to which that subculture has the privilege and utilizes the privilege of pretending there are no other literary cultures besides itself, it’s also still a subculture, where social reinforcements and tribal ritual prevail. And where a limited number of people are executing maneuvers amongst one another as though it is a whole world, but it’s not.

YES. THIS.

Oct 23

3 Comments

Pre-Order Jason Jordan’s A Dying Horse from Main Street Rag

I mean. A novella full of bleak black humor about the apocalypse and cats that talk? Yes, please. I’ll be snapping this one up. Get it here.

This is from the same dude who wrote Cloud and Other Stories, so you know it’s going to be great. Just FYI.

 

Oct 21

6 Comments

New Work in Gargoyle and Smokelong Quarterly

So, there are two magazines that I’ve wanted to be a part of for ages because I admire them so much–and in the space of a month, I’ve been published in both! This is pretty much the most exciting thing ever, not the least because I’ve gone through a bit of a dry spell in publishing, since I’ve been working so much on the novel and some much longer stories.

Both these issues are remarkable, remarkable, remarkable. As always, as ever, artistry shining sharp and deep through. I am surrounded in both by too many amazing writers to put to pen (or pixel) here, but take it from me: you must read both these publications all the way through.

My piece in Gargoyle, “The Woman Across the Water Wore the Shape of Love,” can be found here.

And my piece in Smokelong Quarterly (which you might like if you’re a fan of Peter Pan–or not a fan at all) is called Never Never, and can be found here.

Enjoy! And seriously–read the whole thing(s.)

Oct 20

ACTION POST! Giant Exclamatory Roundup w/ xTx, R. Gay, Tattoli, Kimball, Fitzgerald, Becker, Reale, K. Logan, and L.E. Scott

THRILL…as Roxane Gay’s first book, Ayiti, finally arrives!

WEEP…to read Michael Kimball’s sad and creepy and lovely new flash, at Matter Press!

DIVE IN…to Chantel Louise Tattoli’s excellent, fascinating essay on the Little Mermaid statue and its anthropological history!

DISCOVER…interviews, articles and more, as The Lit Pub celebrates xTx’s amazing book, Normally Special!

GET PUMPED…and pre-order a book by Lauren Becker, Erin Fitzgerald, Kirsty Logan, Michelle Reale, and me called SHUT UP/LOOK PRETTY, published by Tiny Hardcore Press, the likes of which is going to rip your face off!

GASP…as you discover that you, yes, YOU, can get the brilliant Laura Ellen Scott’s new book, Death Wishing, on Kindle for exactly ZERO DOLLARS HOLY SHIT DO IT NOW.

Whew. Wipe brow. Exhale. Now go shopping.

 

Sep 29

The History of Avant-Garde Modernism in 30 Seconds, by Minji Aye Hong

This is fabulous. I just watched it like twenty times and I think I need to watch it again.

 

History of Graphic Design Avant Garde from Minji Aye Hong on Vimeo.

Sep 23

Matt Lee’s Photographic Series Inspired by Derrida

Manipulated photo from the "Structure, Sign, and Play" series by Matt Lee.

I love this. Artist Matt Lee, inspired by Derrida’s essay ‘Structure, Sign, and Play,’ has manipulated a series of photographs to create a dialogue and “a tension between what is known, assumed and thought.” Very cool stuff.  Worth taking a look at the whole series.

 

Sep 14

2 Comments

Big Lucks and Mud Luscious Press: Things for You to Buy and Love

I have a new piece, “Five Kinds of Human History,”  in the DC-based Big Lucks magazine, thanks to Mark Cugini and Laura Spencer, the fabulous editors of that publication. It’s a great issue, full of really good poetry and fiction by people like Ryan W. Bradley, Dawn Elisa Gabbert, Ricky Garni, Joe Hall, Kathleen Rooney, Nick Ostdick, Nick Ripatrazone, Justin Sirois, and, J.A. Tyler. Best get you some words today. 

And Mud Luscious Press is fast becoming one of the most consistently stellar presses out there. They keep pumping out these terrifically designed, beautifully and engagingly written small books and this makes me happy. What makes me newly happy about MLP? They’ve just released my friend and terrific writer Robert Kloss’s magnificent How the Days of Love and Diptheria, as part of their Nephew imprint. Buybuybuy!

Aug 17

Gorgeous Underwater “Shipwreck” Art Exhibit by Andreas Franke

Art by Andreas Franke

If you don’t scuba dive, then sorry–you won’t be able to see these exhibited. They’re underwater on a sunken ship off Key West! I’m in love with these beautiful images. The ballerina one? Want.

Aug 4

2 Comments

Okay for real, get your MLP subscription blind or miss out big time.

Because it’s not really blind, after all. You know that you are going to be getting a book from my friend and super talented writer Robert Kloss!  And a book from my friend and super talented writer Matt Bell! Plus Gregory Sherl and Ken Sparling (their books, not the dudes themselves) and hello, how could you ask for anything more?

That’s enough exclamation points for one post, but you should know that you’ll be getting all of this:

2012 MLP [blind] Subscription /// $40 + free shipping /// buy now
Save $20 off the cover price by subscribing blind (blind = before blurbs, covers, or excerpts are released) to the entire set of 2012 MLP titles: Gregory Sherl’s THE OREGON TRAIL IS THE OREGON TRAIL, Matt Bell’s CATACLYSM BABY, Ken Sparling’s DAD SAYS HE SAW YOU AT THE MALL, & Robert Kloss’ THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM. Once we release blurbs, covers, & excerpts the price will go up, so get in on it now.

Seriously. Get on that now. I plan to, soon as I get paid.

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