Blake Butler
http://www.gillesdeleuzecommittedsuicideandsowilldrphil.com/
Blake Butler lives in Atlanta. His third book, There Is No Year, is forthcoming April 2011 from Harper Perennial.
Massive People (6): Cooper Renner
Knowing of the existence of Cooper Renner in the world makes me feel a little better a lot of days. For all the baggage that comes along with certain types of figureheads or editors, Cooper is not only one of the quickest and most likable sorts of people around, he also has carried the aesthetic of the online lit journal elimae into a benchmark not only for great online writing, but for post-Lish, sentence-driven new work. Elimae, created and launched by Deron Bauman, has been under Renner’s care since the end of 2004, and continually updates once each month with slews of the new. Cooper also is involved with Ravenna Press, who has released books by Kim Chinquee, Norman Lock, Brandon Hobson, and many others important language-driven authors.
In addition to all this, Cooper is also a writer doing the new, with a recent book out of his own poems, Mosefolket, some of which appeared in Lish’s the Quarterly.
A truly massive person (fit in a small frame) I talked to Cooper about a lot of the above, including his editorial leanings, correspondences, future works, and so on.
1. You were in the Quarterly years ago and I believe had mail correspondence with Lish at points? How did his enterprise or presence or etc. affect you as a writer? Who else has affected you?
I am still in contact with Lish. In fact I had a postcard from him either yesterday or Monday. We write back and forth pretty much all the time. I’ve talked to him a few times on the phone, but we’ve never met in person. Most of our contact is on the page. Gordon and Deron Bauman are the two folks who really showed me how to edit my own stuff, zeroing in on the strong language rather than what I ‘wanted to say’. They taught me how to divorce any sociological idea of content from the artistry of how the words work.
More after the break…
Winners of the Nick Antosca ‘Midnight Picnic’ Contest
Here are the winners of Nick Antosca’s Midnight Picnic Contest, as chosen by the author:
Winners:
Ben Spivey (points for picture) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v719/truettdietz/MScontest.jpg)
Ken Baumann (chill of truth) (http://htmlgiant.com/?p=1936#comment-3436)
Honorable Mentions:
pr ( http://htmlgiant.com/?p=1936#comment-3470 )
barry ( http://htmlgiant.com/?p=1936#comment-3447 )
jereme ( http://htmlgiant.com/?p=1936#comment-3481 )
crispin ( http://htmlgiant.com/?p=1936#comment-3701 )
Honorable mentions winners can email me (brothercyst@gmail.com) their mailing address and whether they would like to receive a copy of FIRES or a randomly selected book off my bookshelf. (I will not be offended if they choose the randomly selected book. I will politely assume they already have FIRES.)
Thanks to all who participated, may they die peacefully in their sleep.
All else, you can pick up your copy from Word Riot Press, and really should: it’s a wild book.
Now, to counteract the psychic violence of the photo that accompanied the original contest post, here is a ‘compromise’ video accompaniment: cute meets curdled. It’s as far as I’m willing to go.
THE INTERUPTION: “Ok… I understand.” :)
The 1st 3:00 minute scene in this montage from the Shining gives me such a mind erection: I think I am going to buy a blood red iPod with one button on its face which when you press it just plays this scene at damage volume inside the head of who I have handed it to to listen and to know. I would use it every day:
God, it makes me punch the air the air in joy to see to see to see Jack nail that shit so hard. That smile of exasperation. Days and days and days.
This post is mean spirited but only by semantic
I think I realized yesterday that all people really need in a forum is a placeholder under the illusion of an idea so that they have somewhere to argue and get their big O open.
Hmmm.
So, like, does Bret Easton Ellis suck ass or what?
Absent open for subs
This is not Leigh Stein, nor is it Absent Magazine.
from Absent:
We are now reading submissions of poetry for our next issue. Please spread the word! Send up to 10 pages of poetry, in the body of an email or as a .doc or .rtf attachment, to absentsubmissions [at] gmail [dot] com. Simultaneous submissions are fine, just let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. We do not accept previously published poems. We will attempt to respond to all submissions within a month. If you would like to submit in another genre (prose, sound, image, etc.) please query.
Absent is a beautifully designed journal of poetry, some prose, essay, sound.
I like this poem by Leigh Stein from issue 3 (though I liked it even better before I found out Rattawut Lapcharoensap is a real person).
Uncategorized / 22 Comments
December 7th, 2008 / 10:48 pm
December 7th, 2008 / 10:48 pm
I like Stanley Elkin’s ‘The Magic Kingdom’ a lot
Originally this was going to be a post about my admiration for Stanley Elkin. But seeing in that I’ve read only 2 out of his 10 novels and 1 of his several collections, many of which had been rather heard to come by until thankfully Dalkey Archive made them available en masse. Many of the books are massive in their gait (small font, long graphs, big page counts) and therefore something that I will maybe move to one at a time over the years, unless I get really wrapped up in him again at some point and launch on.
Anyhow, the book of Elkin’s that has slayed me and stayed with me since then is ‘The Magic Kingdom.’
The premise of this book alone I think is enough to get most people interested, as it truly is one of the more wild and meaty premises I think I’ve ever heard: basically, ‘The Magic Kingdom’ is the story of a man whose son becomes terminally ill. In his reeling, he decides to petition the Queen of England to pay for him to take a large group of terminally ill children to Disney World as a sort of ‘last romp.’ The book, then, follows him and what becomes a rather colorful and bonkers set of sick kids in their ‘field trip’ as it were to the land of Mickey.
More after the break:::
Krammer Abrahams might be serious
If he is, it’s a great day for everyone with eyelids and bees.
I like Krammer Abrahams. If he had written two 500+ page bricks, I would write a long post explaining why I like him. Instead, I’ll just say: he is making the new weird.
Here are some stories you can read by him online:
They Fucked Behind the Blue Curtain @ RobotMelon: This story has a character named ‘Boots Walking in America,’ and is presented with the above picture wherein the author wrote the title of his story on his chest.
Something About a Present Day Jesus @ Lamination Colony: (This story came with a title-chest photo also, though it aroused too much livelihood in me to post it in my post-coital leisure.)
Out of Africa @ Titular: it’s a story about Africa and prostitutes (kind of) and herpes, what else do you want?
And now, here is a press release from this man about a new journal with a new name:
is now accepting submissions. Stories will be published on a yearly basis. I am not sure when that year will start. Submissions should either be 16 words long or over 30,000 words.
Actually, I am not being serious about the ‘publishing on a yearly basis’.
I am serious about submissions being 16 words or 30,000 words long.
If you submit a work 30,000 words long I will probably read it and choose my favorite 16 words. If it is really good I will publish the whole thing on sticky notes. I do not know how I will do this. It might be impossible, but if the work is good enough I will find a way. I will be Gilbert Arenas and become a hibachi and say, “Nothing is impossible” and jump out of the upper deck and your work will be published on sticky notes.
It will be very limited. Only one or two copies will be made. More will be made for $.
I think that is all. Publishing schedule coming soon.
THANK YOU,
Eat these words and vomit them on other people who don’t want to listen but then have to think about the words you threw up on their shirts.
Dzanc Half-off Holiday Sale
From Dzanc:
In the Devil’s Territory
Kyle Minor
Based on a True Story
Hesh Kestin
Best of the Web 2008
Steve Almond
Nathan Leslie
BOOK BUNDLES
Bob, or Man on Boat
Peter Markus
In a Bear’s Eye
Yannick Murphy
All Over
Roy Kesey
GIFTS and CLOTHING
Nothing in the World
Roy Kesey
Unending Rooms
Daniel Chacón
Black Lawrence Press
While in Darkness There is Light
Louella Bryant
Black Lawrence Press
The Last Game We Played
Jo Neace Krause
Black Lawrence Press
Signs of Life
Norman Waksler
Black Lawrence Press
Monkeybicycle
Issue six
Monkeybicycle
Issue Five
Monkeybicycle
Issue Four
David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund
from McSweeney’s:
Illinois State University has established the David Foster Wallace Memorial Reading Series and Award. Created to bring to their campus writers who will energize and challenge the community, the fund will also periodically honor a graduate or undergraduate student whose writing engages its subjects from an original, committed, and humane perspective. Tax-deductible donations may be mailed to Illinois State University Foundation, Box 8000, Normal, IL 61790-8000. Checks should be made out to “ISU Foundation, David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund.” Donations may also be made online, here. Gifts should be designated as being for the David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund.
David Foster Wallace was a member of the English Department faculty at Illinois State University from 1993 to 2002. During his years there, he completed Infinite Jest, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, and Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. He was an outstanding colleague and teacher whose contributions to Illinois State University and to the world of letters this award will honor in perpetuity.
This is one I’ll be donating to.
Boobs Friday: A Trio of Pairs from Google
In the absence of the palpable, I googled ‘writer boobs’ to fill in the gap of boob friday, which seems to be waning into the days of Christmas past here in hopefully light of new gifts made of other stuff and stuff.
Here is (almost) J.K. Rowling’s boobs (via Metro.co.uk) with some ex-senator palpating the swell as if inside it is a child:
Here are two writers of unknown origin. I would make a pun, but I am just now drinking coffee. Jim? Barry? Peanut gallery?
+ + + + Bonus Project Pat video:
Enjoy the weekend. Wake up clean.
Uncategorized / 16 Comments
December 5th, 2008 / 2:11 pm
December 5th, 2008 / 2:11 pm