I discovered Object Press via this entry on Chad Post’s Three Percent blog, and Post’s enthusiasm for the press and its latest book, a reprint of Christian Oster’s In The Train, convinced me to contact Richard di Santo, the founder. He sent me review copies of the two books he’s published so far and agreed to answer a few questions by email, which you can read below this introduction.

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Jacob Dahlstrup made this banana boat.

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Gestures from João Machado on Vimeo.

['The Effect of a Book, Extending Beyond The Form'] intends to construct an essay or open-ended process, embracing the participation of the reader as a producer of a book. It relates to the experience and performance of a book, looking beyond intended function.

(via Swiss Miss)

Composition With JavaScript: create your own Mondrian.

(via @Powell_DA)

Frederick Barthelme will soon leave The Center for Writers and the Mississippi Review, and it seems that he’s taking the Mississippi Review Online editorial staff and vision with him in order to create a new online magazine.

A few weeks ago, The Hattiesburg American ran this article about Frederick Barthelme’s leaving The Center for Writers and the Mississippi Review. There was a little bit of a spat in the comments section of that article, then Brevity picked up the news, as did the MFA blog, but that’s about all the coverage the story received (that I could tell from briefly clicking around yesterday). Then, several days ago, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a story about how Barthelme’s departure will directly affect the status of the Mississippi Review:

The Chronicle asked Barthelme via email what’s going to happen with the Review. “At present, then, there is no staff at all, and there is no one here who has actually run a magazine previously,” he responded. “The interim department chair has been talking to other English faculty (non-creative writing) about taking over the magazine.  He is also talking to the remaining CW faculty about the same thing, and it’s unclear which way the tree will fall.”

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John Jodzio has sent us three copies of his collection If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home for a quick giveaway contest. If you’d like to be eligible for the giveaway, tell us about the weirdest thing you or someone you know has swallowed. John will select from the comments section his favorite three later this week.

In light of the recent Tin House submissions controversy, maybe you’ll enjoy this brief exchange between ZYZZYVA editor Howard Junker and an anonymous author [my correction: she was not a former student of Junker's as I had previously posted, but rather a writer he had published at one time] who required her class to submit their stories to literary magazines.

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We noted when UT acquired David Foster Wallace’s papers here. And now we’ll note the purchase of Denis Johnson’s archive, which includes floppy disks and baby footprints.

I think I like the idea of archiving authors’ papers, but I wonder how these libraries will acquire their electronic materials? I remember one of my professors saying that UVA had passed on purchasing his email archive. Will such an acquisition be important in the future? How will those of us who are interested in that sidewise material access it? Who will look after it? What do you think about this impulse we have to sift through an author’s unpublished papers, and how will that translate to his or her electronic writing?

Click through for second video (nsfw).

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(via GizmoWatch)

I’ve finally gone through the 24 entries (forgive my slowness), double-checked them, emailed the winners, and then I also had to wash the dishes and do a few other things before I could get this post live. Anyhow, thank you for being patient; I now present to you the 20 Under 40 Pick ‘Em Winners:

1st place: James Tanner (13 correct picks); Tanner selected prize package #2.

2nd place: Snowden Wright (12 correct picks); Wright selected prize package #1.

3rd place: Georgia Cool (12 correct picks, submitted one hour after Snowden’s entry); Cool will receive prize package #3.

Last place: Marshall, who submitted the following list:

1. Tao Lin 2. Tao Lin 3. Tao Lin 4. Tao Lin 5. Tao Lin 6. Tao Lin 7. Tao Lin 8. Tao Lin 9. Tao Lin 10. Tao Lin 11. Tao Lin 12. Tao Lin 13. Tao Lin 14. Tao Lin 15. Tao Lin 16. Tao Lin 17. Tao Lin 18. Tao Lin 19. Tao Lin 20. Dave Eggers

Congratulations, again, to the winners, and thank you to everyone who took the time to submit an entry! I hope this was a bit of distracting fun for all. If you liked this contest, please help us spread buzz about our next pick ‘em: 10 Authors Most Likely to be Dropped by Their Publishers in 2011!

Thanks, especially, to all the authors and publishers and editors who donated products of their hard work to the prize packages. Please consider supporting them however you can.

(illustration from Dan McPharlin’s series Inland)

I love what Adam’s doing with IsReads now:

Last May, Blake posted a short meditation on video game art, particularly Jason Rohrer’s Passage, and how the constraints Rohrer and others write under can create new experiences in video games. If you liked that post, consider watching Simon Cottee’s pixel art documentary, which explores how and why the pixel style has moved beyond indie video games and into visual art, music, and so on. Makes me miss my NES.

Last week The New York Observer reported that on June 7th The New Yorker will name the top twenty American writers under forty, and we’d like to celebrate this really incredibly important event in the history of American letters by running a free March Madness-style Pick ‘Em contest for you HTMLGIANT readers. If you’d like to enter, all you have to do is email to htmlgiant [at] htmlgiant [dot] com your list of the twenty authors you think The New Yorker will select as “the key writers of this generation.” Then we all wait with baited breath until The New Yorker publishes their list! The top three entrants who have the most picks that correctly match the names on The New Yorker list will each receive a prize package. Should you wish to pay an ‘entry fee,’ please consider making a donation to any of the presses/publishers/people who have put up swag for the prize package; however, there is no requirement for an entry fee.

Details after the jump.

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