Introducing the Underground Library Writers Project
Shortly after I posted about the Underground Library on HTMLGIANT, Ravi Mangla emailed PH Madore and me with an idea to set up a writer ‘buddy system’ of some sort. His idea, as I understood it, was to encourage more personal interaction between those who might not have originally sought each other out. I liked this idea, and will be helping Ravi Mangla put this together.
Ravi Mangla has written up specifics after the break.
Richard Nash Leaves Soft Skull
Some old news was posted at Soft Skull in February, but thought I’d mention it today to officially mark Richard Nash’s leaving Soft Skull Press.
He writes:
Thanks for everyone out there for making Soft Skull what it is, above all the readers and writers whom we exist to serve and connect, along with my colleagues, paid and unpaid (!), who’ve put in vast amounts of hours, creativity, and intensity in order to bring those writers and readers together to create this thing we call culture.
Follow Nash online on his blog for post-Soft Skull activities.
My New Favorite Blog
Is Cake Wrecks the Literary Rejections on Display of food blogs?
Muumuu House ‘Care’ Package and a Contest
not ryan call
I received today in the mail a ‘care’ package from Muumuu House and in that package were several books: you are a little bit happier than i am by Tao Lin and Distortions by Ann Beattie and three copies of Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs by Ellen Kennedy. Thank you, Muumuu House, for the ‘care’ package.
And last night a friend and I found a bar in Houston that has ping-pong tables, and we played ping-pong for three or four hours, and I defeated him twice. He did not defeat me. The rest of the time we just hit the ball back and forth and impressed ourselves with our amazing skills. I think I am very good at ping-pong. I think it is the one thing I’m allowed to be good at, maybe. That and washing dishes. I think there is something very satisfying about hitting a ping-pong ball just so, having it do exactly what you want it to do.
To celebrate our finding this bar with ping-pong tables, I would like to offer two copies of Sometimes My Heart Pushes Against My Ribs by Ellen Kennedy, which, sadly, has no poems/stories in it about ping-pong.
Please post your poems/stories about ping-pong in the comments section to be eligible for a copy of Sometimes My Heart Pushes Against My Ribs by Ellen Kennedy. Be sure to include a real email address in the field where it asks for an email address, so I can email you if your poem/story wins. If you are shy, you may also email a poem/story about ping-pong to htmlgiant [at] gmail [dot] com, but if I select your poem/story, then I will post it for everyone to see. This contest is open until 2:00pm CST, Saturday the 7th.
Good work, Muumuu House and Ellen Kennedy, on your first book. I enjoyed reading it.
UPDATE: Winners of the two Muumuu House books are Miles and Darby Larson. Miles and Darby please email your mailing addresses to HTMLGIANT so I can send you your prize.
Thank you to everyone who emailed and posted ping-pong stories/poems.
Issue 15 of TQC now live
Scott Esposito has published the latest issue of The Quarterly Conversation, the contents of which are pretty fine this time around and include an editorial on the ‘demise’ of publishing, an intro to e-lit, a contest to give away $60 dollars worth of books, and many book reviews. Karen Vanuska’s review of Oblomov encouraged me to expand my Russian reading list.
I’m still reading the issue, but thought I should mention a personal highlight: HTMLGIANT friend Matt Bell‘s essay on Brian Evenson’s Last Days and Dark Property. Despite my having read little Evenson, the essay carried me along without giving away too much. I thought Bell neatly works through the two books, and his analysis made me wish I had more than The Wavering Knife and The Open Curtain sitting on my shelves.
Uncategorized / 8 Comments
March 4th, 2009 / 5:35 pm
March 4th, 2009 / 5:35 pm
Moustaches for DC Children
not mike scalise
I’ve already talked a little bit about the Capitol Letters Writing Center project in DC, so this shouldn’t be too confusing. Basically, the latest news is this: the staff/volunteers are growing moustaches for the month of March to get donations for the Writing Center. These donations will go towards helping the Writing Center accomplish its mission of offering free workshops and tutoring programs to DC students, much like what the 826 centers and the folks at Badgerdog Literary Publishing do.
Friend Mike Scalise is trying to grow a moustache – if he can get $10 from fourteen people, he will have met his goal for the project: $137.23. If you’d like to sponsor his facial hair, or the facial hair of any other volunteer, visit the Capitol Letters Donation page.
Thank you.
Duotrope’s sense of humor
For those of you who use Duotrope: ever notice how if you post an update of a ‘rejection,’ the program says Success! because you have successfully updated the fact that you’re a failure?
Uncategorized / 9 Comments
March 2nd, 2009 / 1:24 pm
March 2nd, 2009 / 1:24 pm
Shaman Drum
From Dan Wickett:
Shaman Drum is not doing well these days. There have been articles in the Ann Arbor papers recently and owner, Karl Pohrt, just sent out an open letter trying to explain, to those questioning the articles, just how the store has fallen into financial difficulties.
Having had the pleasure of getting to know Karl a bit over the past year and a half, I can say that his open letter didn’t contain much surprising material – he’s known where things were headed and has been trying to combat it in various ways. He, along with his lawyer, financial team, and others in the Ann Arbor area are pretty desperately trying to figure out the means to make the store still be a viable part of Ann Arbor’s just off-campus business district.
This is to take up Karl Pohrt’s and Dan Wickett’s call for help. If you’re thinking of buying a book soon, why not skip Amazon and order from Shaman Drum? You’ll have to do it special order and their email system appears to be currently disabled, so that means maybe a little bit of time on the telephone. But that can’t hurt, right?
This reminds me also of the 5$ Powell’s Gift Card giveaway that I posted the other week. I’d like to award that gift card to Michael, who posted a story in the comments about finding a draft of the foreword to Djuna Barnes Ladies Almanac tucked inside his Harper&Bros first edition of the book, complete with revision marks allegedly by Barnes. Michael, if you’re still reading, please email your mailing address to htmlgiant [at] gmail [dot] com so I can send you this card.
And finally, take a look at this bookstore finder from Indie Bound to see if you can find any stores near you worth checking out.
Where is my Oscar?
Zach Plague, author of boring boring boring boring boring boring boring, coeditor/designer of featherproof books, and mastermind behind Bleached Whale Design, said fun things about HTMLGIANT at Poets&Writers.
They call it ‘the internet literature magazine blog of the future,’ and I’ve decided joking or not, I think they’re right.
Thanks, Zach Plague, for the good words.