http://www.christopherhiggs.org/
Christopher Higgs recommends Tierra Whack's WHACK WORLD, Otomo Yoshihide's ANODE, Marlon James's BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF, and a lunch of cucumber, tomato, red onion, feta, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Since I did a Nonfiction Shopping Guide and a Fiction Shopping Guide, it seems only fair to offer a Poetry Shopping Guide as well.
Same guidelines apply here as with the other two: 20 titles published in 2012, randomly arranged, omitting publications by HTMLGIANT crew, and skewed toward my own aesthetic interests.
Without further adieu…
Last week I did a Nonfiction Shopping Guide. Now I’ve got this list of fiction titles published in 2012, for all you last minute shoppers.
Like the previous list, I’m going to select twenty titles. And I’ll present them in no particular order.
These obviously represent my own interests and therefore omit plenty of titles I’m sure were great.
Also, I omitted titles by HTMLGIANT crew, despite the fact that a bunch of us have really awesome works of fiction out this year.
An absolute ton of killer nonfiction titles got published in 2012. In fact, when it comes time to reveal my “Ten Best Books of 2012” it’s likely that half (if not more) of my choices will be nonfiction.
For the purposes of this post, I’m going to select twenty titles. And I’ll present them in no particular order. These obviously represent my own interests (film, philosophy, fashion, art, music, and literature) and therefore omit plenty of titles I’m sure were great, but fall outside my purview: politics, economics, etc.
If you’re like me and haven’t even begun shopping yet, hopefully this list will help you find something for someone.
I don’t recall how I came across Andrea Rexilius’s “excerpt from New Organism,” published at this rad looking journal called Timber, but I’m glad I did.
At first glance I saw the word “séance,” which instantly transported me back more than a decade, to a time when I had the privilege of studying séances and mirror gazing and other such wonders with Dr. Raymond Moody (the guy who invented the phrase “near death experience”) at the Consciousness Studies Center at UNLV. But that’s a whole other story. What matters here is that Rexilius got my attention. So I eagerly read her excerpt and was so impressed I felt compelled to look for more of her work.
Here is a passage from that excerpt:
Author/editor Zack Wentz (The Garbageman and the Prostitute, newdeadfamilies.com) has teamed up with Taj Easton and Shelby Gubba to create a new multi-media project called (Charles)Book&Record. “Tradition” is the third video in a triptych, part of what they call “sci-fi-surrealist-soul.” The first video, “Pointing South,” premiered at Juxtapoz, and the second, “Sentimental Ape,” at Geek.
Their debut album, Leftover Magic, was recorded and mastered at Singing Serpent studios in San Diego, CA., and will be released digitally by the band in January, 2013.
Remixes are forthcoming from Rafter, Xiu Xiu, and FUNERALS, as well as a serialized movie, related to the band/album, entitled Bad Dreamer. Taj Easton and Zack Wentz were also commissioned to create a soundtrack for the short Andy Mingo film Romance, based on a short story by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), which debuted in London at the Raindance Film Festival in the fall of 2012.
Helpful suggestions greatly appreciated. I’m trying to put together a research list, and thought others might also be interested.
I posed this question on Facebook last week, and I got some good recommendations. I also got a sense that there’s some confusion over what constitutes “third wave.” (Does Camille Paglia “count”?) While I have a general idea about the distinctions between first, second, and third wave, I’d like to be more familiar with the important works that contribute to this specific conversation.
So here are the suggestions I received via Facebook…please help to increase and/or complicate the list…many thanks…
a.k.a. “Playing catch up with the stacks [4].”
In this series, I share with you a stack of my recently acquired and most anticipated reading materials.
I did a version of this in August, and March, and also back in May of 2011.
Once again I have a heaping pile of awesome-looking unread materials just waiting to be experienced…
I recently interviewed Kate Zambreno about her new book Heroines
(And for those of you in Philly, Kate will be reading at Penn Feminism/s November 1, and then in New York sponsored by The New Inquiry at BookCourt November 2 and Segue series November 3, Meghan Lamb’s reading series with Suzanne Scanlon November 4, and many other readings you can find out about on her website katezambreno.com)
Ready, set, go…
So, I’m late to her work.
I kept meaning to give it a try, to check it out, to purchase her book Normally Special from Roxane’s cool-looking micro press Tiny Hardcore, to pay attention to her blog, to order her chapbook He Is Talking To The Fat Lady, but I got behind and I dropped the ball.
And then Dennis Cooper mentioned reading (and loving) her forthcoming Nephew imprint Billie the Bull, which caught my eye. So I decided to listen to the new Death Grips album while motoring around cyberspace checking out her work.
In the process I came across this e-book called Nobody Trusts A Black Magician. Holy heaven. It’s mesmerizing, sinister, passionate, potent, over-the-top, excessive, relentless, indecent, reckless, and utterly amazing. You can also listen to her read it, which adds a level of awesome. I paused Death Grips to listen to this, from the titular piece:
I mean, seriously.
If you haven’t entered into her work yet, take this chance to experience it. Perhaps like me you will become an admirer.