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.

The five stories in A Great Dark Sleep: Stories for the Next World  explore death and what follows. These stories are by turns gothic, sweet, funny, fanciful, tragic, playful, and even gruesome. Whatever the tone, whatever the tune, these stories are all written in the language of loss: that ancient tongue the dead have left their loved ones to make sense of.

So anyway, you should definitely order this book because holy shit is it good. These writers will eat your bones and read them back to you like the I Ching. So here you are. And you are welcome.

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!

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.

John Sevier
Aubrey Hirsch

Gilly the Goat-Girl
Julie Innis

Karen The Temp
Jason Jordan

The Irradiated Man
Ken Poyner

The Wolf Who Cried Boy
Sam Rasnake

The Kimono Tailor
Eric Dreyer Smith

POETRY

Vanessa Blakeslee

Christopher Dungey

Brett Elizabeth Jenkins

James Silas Rogers

REVIEW

Fragmentation + other stories
Reviewed by Nathan Huffstutter
]]> http://ambernoellesparks.com/2011/08/02/have-you-read-emprise-review-20-yet/feed/ 0 emprise20 anoelle emprise20 http://ambernoellesparks.com/2011/08/02/issue-four-of-a-genius-mag-arrives-zine-scenes-the-reprint/ http://ambernoellesparks.com/2011/08/02/issue-four-of-a-genius-mag-arrives-zine-scenes-the-reprint/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:54:49 +0000 Amber Sparks http://ambernoellesparks.com/?p=1874 ]]>

Image by Joe Scarano

I think the Reprint is one of the best ideas in indie lit today. I think it’s brilliant. Take stories, that let’s face it, probably most people haven’t read because not a lot of people are buying print mags nowadays, and reprint them in their own beautifully illustrated online magazine. Voila! Genius.

This, the fourth issue, is as fantastic as the last three and features stuff from top-notch writers like xtx, Brandi Wells, Meg Pokrass, Kirsty Logan, Aubrey Hirsch, Roxane Gay, Adam Moorad, and Travis Hessman; creepy-great artwork that made me think of nothing so much as Ren and Stimpy (also genius, still) by Joe Scarano; a kick-ass intro by Sarah Rose Etter, and interviews with Travis Hessman and Annalemma Editor Christopher Heavener.

I know, right? Get to reading! Seriously, this is one I read cover to cover every time because not only is it a great idea, but editor Richard Mocarski is an amazing curator with really terrific taste in fiction and in writers of fiction. This one should always be on your go-to list for great fiction, on and offline.

How can you not love this picture? Taken from the Tumblr blog linked here, Awesome People Hanging Out Together.

Jen Michalski has an amazing new story in the latest issue of Bluestem. In fact, lots of people have amazing stories in the latest issue of Bluestem, so you should definitely read through it.

You probably noticed–since there so many great things posted and written there–but Matt Bell, at his blog, spent the entire month of May writing about short stories for Short Story Month. And I mean WRITING. There was so much good stuff, both from him and his guests, that I’ll be taking stuff away for a long time to come.  And now he’s written a beautiful essay about the experience which makes me so proud to be a part of this writing community, and he’s put his writing into an e-book that you should certainly download, and he’s put up links to all the posts as well. Bookmark this! Get the ebook! It’s free, dummies! Why wouldn’t you? Matt retains his title as the Hardest Working Man in the Indie Lit World and ups the ante for anyone else who’s gunning for that title.  Seriously.

The always excellent Roxane Gay has a really, really good story in The Fiddleback. You should read it here .

The Lit Pub has launched into being! What the hell is the Lit Pub? Well, it’s Molly Gaudry, Chris Newgent, Mike Young’s press Magic Helicopter, and a whole bunch of other hardworking indie writer/publisher/editor/publicist types. It’s great literature. It’s support. It’s a community. It’s a conversation. It’s a bunch of really really good books and people who feel passionately about them. No need to say more–I’ll let Lit Pub explain itself, here.

Finally, perfect for Friday, how great is this Tumblr blog? Awesome People Hanging Out Together? I could look at these for hours. I kind of did. Your turn.

Have a great weekend wherever you are and hope the weather is what you want it to be. Inside and outside.

Tyler Gobble and Layne Ransom have put together this unbelievably cool little magazine as an offshoot of Stoked Press, and have launched it into the atmosphere with an excellent first issue that I am honored to be a part of. My story, “Some of Our More Useful Planets” appears, with awesome graphics that I most certainly did not, could not create. Thanks, Tyler and Layne–your enthusiasm and dedication to indie literature is pretty much boundless and you deserve some serious props for that.

Finally, trnsfr Issue 4 is out and it is one hell of a gorgeous magazine. I have a story in here, too; thank you to Alban Fischer for including “The World After this One” in this issue. You should get this baby now and also you should help out with funding for Issue 5 at this Kickstarter project because this really is a labor of love and a work of art, every issue.

By the always jealousy-inducing, extremely brilliant xkcd, of course.

Which is where I will be for the next five days. I won’t be much in pocket online, as this is a detox from work, and my work involves all things internetty. I’ll be checking in from time to time, of course, probably a few times a day still (okay probably more since I’m a sad, sad addict) but I will NOT be blogging. Because that really does take work.

But since I love you all, I’ll leave you with some nice things to look at and read while I’m gone. I hope to come back a sweeter, gentler person. But I believe in that about as much as I believe in an actual Heaven, so, uh, yeah.

Look! Things!

I love Hyperbole and a Half.  And we all love, or have loved, a very “special” animal like this. Oh, dear, yes. Read this but don’t blame me if you fall down while you are laughing. Maybe be sitting while you read it.

Enter a Google search terms contest at Dark Sky and win Brian Carr’s new and most excellent book, Short Bus. DO IT!

The Civil War changed literature, you know. And it wasn’t just Whitman who was moved to write about it.

Erin Fitzgerald’s “The Mage in the Tower, the Wizard in the Sky,” at >kill author

Mel Bosworth’s “When Smiles Stretch Translucent,” at Night Train

xTx’s “The Littlest Superman” at The Good Men Project

Enjoy your weekend, kids!