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.
Blake Butler—
How many drafts, on average, do you go through between the first “full” version and the final thing you consider publishable or done? Does this number increase or decrease with longer works?
100
Interview with Mike Topp
Mike Topp is somebody else. He wrote, among many other things, Shorts Are Wrong, a small compendium of jokes, scenes, pictures, stories, one liners, musings, words, as well as Happy Ending, about which Jonathan Lethem said, “I’m sorry, Mike, you know I love your work, but I’m just not whoring myself out for anyone else’s jacket copy anymore.” You can read Mike’s work all over the place, including these here and here.
More like a Kaufman than a Kundera, but somehow a mix of both, Mike is somehow often both funny and fun, and mind-moving. He gets up in that noggin good. Last month or so I did some e-talking with Mike, throwing words back and forth about his moves, his mind, and his forthcoming book from Publishing Genius, among other things.
– – –
Q: Mike, I read an interview last year with Gary Lutz where he referred to you as, I believe it was, “A writer’s writer’s writer.” That seemed a nice way to say it.
A. Gary’s someone I admire, and I was really pleased when I heard he said that. Unfortunately, he’s a stutterer and you have to factor that in. But Nat, who lives downstairs, says I’m a writer’s writer, and that’s almost as good. Plus I know for sure he doesn’t have a speech impediment.
Q. So… how do words appear inside your head?
A. They don’t–they appear in my hall closet, which makes things easier for me.
Uncategorized / 42 Comments
February 16th, 2010 / 1:18 pm
February 16th, 2010 / 1:18 pm
Blake Butler—
Our boy Justin has a nice long podcast interview at Breakthru Radio, regarding mostly his on-fire Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever. He also reads a full story from the book for your listening pleasure. If you haven’t caught wind of Justin’s firestorms of praise, and by god, picked up a copy of this beautiful thing, well, you should think about it. It’s every inch the hype portends.
Ronald Sukenick Video Interview 1997
RE: FC2, 98.6, small press longevity, obscenity, “experimental” vs. “innovative,” etc.
Blake Butler—
From the 1st edition of the original, 1771 three volume set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: “SENTENCE, in grammar, a period or set of words, comprehending some perfect sense or sentiment of the mind.” Thus, by prior definition, many sentences are never sentences at all…
Blake Butler—
(1) Dalkey Archive reupped their website into a stare-machine. (2) They are also offering a special sale of 100 books for $500. Give the gift of a whole library, to yourself, or to your mom. (3) They have also announced a few new forthcoming releases, including new by Jean-Phillipe Toussaint, Patrik Ourednik, John Hawkes, Joshua Cohen, and more. Bamm.
Michael Kimball Guest Lecture #3: The Rough Parts
Here’s a quote from Rachel Carson: “The discipline of the writer is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to tell him.” I always read “still” as “sit still,” which makes me think of this quote from Harry Crews (via Opium): “Sometimes you need to affix your ass to the chair.” That is, sometimes, sitting down and doing the work can be the most difficult part of being a writer. Sometimes, it’s the other parts of life that get in the way. Other times, it is the fiction itself, how we think about the fiction at different points in the process.
So how does the writer get through the rough parts, the blank parts, the parts that we know suck? Virginia Woolf says it is determination: “It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.”
Blake Butler—
Winners for the Artifice Magazine contest (belated in announcement on my part, as I’ve been across the map) are:
Daniel Powell for “1 fiction in the form of a Wikipedia article that’s been e-vandalized”
Mark for “1 Game Genie”
mjm for “0 honeybees framed as the plight of the working man”
To collect their winnings, folks need to email Artifice their addresses at editors@artificemag.com.
Meanwhile, I received issue 1 and gotdamm is it beautiful. Do a look.
Blake Butler—
Fence is looking for a new poetry editor to join its current three editors (Katy Lederer, Charles Valle, Max Winter), who all report to editor Rebecca Wolff. Responsibilities include: Vetting approximately 500 submissions per year through an electronic submissions manager; participating in group editorial meetings (online and/or in person); sporadic soliciting; correspondence with accepted poets and with Fencemanagement. This position is unpaid. A two-year commitment is required. Interested parties should send a six-page writing sample, resume, and letter of interest to associate editor Colie Collen at: iwannabeyourpoetryeditor@gmail.com. Women and persons of color are strongly encouraged to apply.
Exercising with Exercises in Style
One of my favorite places to read is while running on a treadmill. Seeing as reading is powerful in its ability to render time null, and exercising is a space where time seems to stretch the longest, the most against the frame (though sometimes that is part of what makes the experience nice, in a wholly other way, other times you just want to get it done), reading, then, can create an amazing mental blank over the focus of physical exertion, separating, in its best moments, the body from the mind, while putting both to maximum work in enhancement of a kind. The ecstasy of reading, I mean, can cancel out, or at least sure as hell distract you from the bitchmaster that is fleshy exercise.
