MASSIVE PEOPLE(7): Derek White
I’ve never actually met Derek White in person, but I have read a few issues of sleepingfish and I’ve got a small stack of Calamari books next to my ugly reading chair that need to be read. I did email him once to buy a few books from him this summer right before he moved out of the country. I also emailed him to say that I had liked the novel excerpt he had sent to Phoebe (we had finalized our Fall 2008 issue, my last issue as Fiction Editor, and so I was absentmindedly shuffling through our drawer of submissions and recognized his name and read the thing – had I been around for another issue, it would have been cool to publish). The novel in question? Marsupial. Now Derek lives in Narobi, Kenya with his wife, Jess. The following are some questions I emailed him, and he was kind enough to take some time to respond. Thanks, Derek.
1) In July, you posted at 5cense a 10 day countdown to your move to Narobi. I thought that your paragraph on ‘space’ was really interesting. You wrote, “I’m more about adapting to or exploring public space, not creating my own personal space. Jess is too. Adaptation is key, as is yearning for a new backdrop.” Based on what I’ve read on your various blogs, it looks like you’ve adapted well to the public spaces of Narobi. I’m curious though, could you share a little bit about your personal space? Any photos? Journal entries? Thoughts?
Funny you should ask. When I received this I was posting a piece about just this topic.
[Derek’s blog post is long, but well worth the read]
2) Having left the print remains of Calamari in Michigan with Peter Markus, you shifted publication of sleepingfish to an online format. What have you found different or exciting about that shift? And what do you miss about print, about holding sleepingfish in your hand?
“Print remains.” I like that. I’m picturing carcasses collected in brother Markus’ fruit cellar (where the books are literally living). I miss book objects. That was the biggest sacrifice I had to make moving here. But as far as literary journals, even before I moved here I considered putting Sleepingfish online. It’s cheaper and more timely, and gives more visibility to the writers, which in the end is probably the most important thing about lit mags is showcasing people’s works. You also have more flexibility with formatting online, not that I have taken advantage of that flexibility yet, but you have less constraints on posting color art, videos, sound, longer pieces, etc. And rather than have an “issue,” I like the idea of being able to post pieces on a revolving and evolving basis. It’s also a more environmentally sound model, no paper, no postage, and none of the consequences that come with it. It’s a cleaner more efficient way of doing things, but yes, nothing beats the feel and smell of paper.
Fence Holiday Subscription Deals
In my email from Fence:
Dear Friend,
This year, give the gift of Fence.
Subscribe a friend (http://www.fence.fenceportal.org/subscribe.html) and we’ll send a gift-wrapped issue with a card indicating this is a present from you. We’ll even use your return address so they’ll never guess what’s in the package.
$17 = one year
$30 = two years
$300 = a lifetime of FenceMake sure to write “gift” in the “Special Instructions” field of our merchant interface, in the Shipping Address section.
It’s fast, easy, and cheap, and we promise to get it there in time, if you subscribe by 5 pm on December 17th. (http://www.fence.fenceportal.org/subscribe.html)
Secret Santas, do work.
Uncategorized / 56 Comments
December 15th, 2008 / 5:33 pm
December 15th, 2008 / 5:33 pm
Matt Bell Interviews JW Wang of Juked
Matt Bell, who has a solid presence online and often points up cool things around the place, has an interview up with Juked founder JW Wang. It’s a pretty extensive interview and I haven’t yet read all of it, but I’ve learned a few things already, such as the fact that Juked started out as just an idea scribbled out on a napkin.
Other things that first began as something scribbled on a napkin? The Dick Rutan Voyager. The seat-belt adjuster for short people. Southwest Airlines. Etc.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview. JW Wang says:
When we started it wasn’t meant to be anything more than a hobby. I just figured I’d get a bunch of fun people together and we’d write for each other. So we started with a bunch of real-life friends, people who were spending a lot of time online and whom I thought were interesting and had fun things to say. Four of them went to my high school; a couple were friends of these friends. Very creative people. One of them works with film, now, one works for American Idol(haha), one wrote TV episodes for Dawson’s Creek and The Guardian. One’s a doctor, I think, one a university admin of some kind, a couple of them are designers (web, graphic). And then there’s me; I went from marketing to writing. No, my parents are still not happy with the decision.
Oh, here’s a little trivia: one of the people originally involved in that student start-up left the company and formed Rotten Tomatoes. Now he’s sitting on an island somewhere, under palm fronds, sipping mai tais.
Enjoy.
Uncategorized / 5 Comments
December 14th, 2008 / 5:06 pm
December 14th, 2008 / 5:06 pm
Dan Wickett Previews 2009
I used to think Dan Wickett was an auto mechanic. I think I thought that for several months when I first heard about the Emerging Writers Network.
Anyhow, here’s his massive preview of 2009:
I know, I know. 2009? What about reviewing a few more 2008 titles? I hear you and, at least in my own mind, have that all under control. You’ll see more of those soon, as well as varying lists of my favorite books, novels, story collections, poetry collections, non-fiction titles – well, you know the deal.
In the mean time, I’ve been looking at catalogs and getting emails from authors and am already a little terrified that there’s no way in hell I’m going to be able to read every title published in 2009 that I already know I want to read. One interesting thing to note – some of these were submitted to Dzanc Books and, well, since I’m not going to include the Dzanc titles publishing in 2009 in this post, obviously were not accepted by Dzanc Books. However, it is absolutely possible to find yourself both receiving a no thank you note from myself in regards to your book, and then finding out I am anxiously looking forward to it when published elsewhere.
You can see the entire list here: What Books I’m Looking Forward to in 2009.
Orange Alert Holiday Guide
not alicia pernell or ben segal
From Ben Segal:
Dear HTML Giant,
I admit a bit of self-promotion here, because I wouldn’t have found out about this probably if they hadn’t included my book, but I thought you might be interested in knowing about this:
What to Wear During an Orange Alert, which as you know interviews and writes about a lot of the people regularly contributing/featured here, just released their ‘Holiday Guide.’ It has a nice little write up of Sam Pink, plus also 4 other emerging writers, plus a list of the favorite 10 books of the year, 10 small presses doing cool things, and a bunch of art/music/random recommendations as well. It’s a nicely laid out guide to a lot of very exciting small press/general independent media releases from the last year and I thought that it might be of use to Secret Santas and also public Santas and Jews like myself who never actually do Secret Santas because they only make purchases for ex- and/or possible future girlfriends, but still like to buy those gifts from small presses.
Best,
Ben
I downloaded the ‘Holiday Guide’ last night (took me about ten minutes or so), and I’m slowly picking through the PDF file. Lots of recommendations for those looking for gift ideas and for those just interested in seeing what’s new.
Take a look.
Thanks to Alicia Pernell of Yippee Magazine for the tip as well.
McSweeney’s Announces Sale, Makes Up Clever Word
is this real? i dont know. is it too big? yes.
In my (and probably your) inbox yesterday was this from McSweeney’s, bless their hearts:
M c S W E E N E Y ‘ S C R A Z Y
E X C E S S I V E
S A L E
Apparently something’s going wrong with the economy. An econopocalypse, we heard. Thus, we have put together an emergency bailout package for the book-buying public. Once again, almost everything on our site is half-off, or even cheaper, for just a few more days — soon it’ll be too late to guarantee Christmas delivery, so now is the time.
And once again, we’ve got everyone on your list covered. We’ve restocked the immediately beloved “What Happens in La Brea Tar Pits, Stays in La Brea Tar Pits” t-shirt, and we’ve piled high the stacks of Comedy by the Numbers for your insufficiently funny friends. For all the hungry nondenominational holiday-enthusiasts in your life, there’s Lemony Snicket’s Christmas story The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming, and for the impatient McSwys newcomer we’ve got the Instant Gratification Subscription. There’s lots more on the site, and everything’s cheap, so click here.
And still the bonus: if you order more than $60 from our site, you’ll get your choice of either Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends or Nick Hornby’sShakespeare Wrote for Money, as a free reward. All you have to do is spend $60 (not including shipping); then, at checkout, find the promo code field and enter:
– MC01 if you want MAPS AND LEGENDS
– NH05 if you want SHAKESPEARE WROTE FOR MONEYMaybe you missed your chance before, or maybe you just want to stuff even more stockings. Either way, do not deny yourself these simple pleasures, the joy of giving and/or hoarding. Please go now: http://store.mcsweeneys.net.
The Second Crazy Excessive Sale ends this Friday.
Remember, here’s some more stuff to buy if you’re a Secret Santa.
Robot Melon wants your sentences
This from Stephen Daniel Lewis:
ROBOT MELON is opening special submissions for issue eight.
Issue eight will be smaller in comparison to other issues. We are asking people to send one sentence, or a few sentences focused intently on language. Make it interesting, think economy of words, think diction.
We will take the words we choose and do something with them involving jpegs and various Kansas locations. Yes we will be messing with what you send and you will have little say about it.
We’ll accept sentences for issue eight until December 21st. But keep sending sentences after that date if the sentences are magnificent.
Think you’re a ‘master’ of the sentence? An ‘innovator’? A ‘crank-turner’? A ‘hhsfjadfg;kjadg’?
Write a sentence and send it.
Uncategorized / 22 Comments
December 9th, 2008 / 7:56 pm
December 9th, 2008 / 7:56 pm
Administrative Email to All You Secret Santas
Here’s the email I just sent out to you Secret Santas in case some of you have insane spam filters (if you’re not a Secret Santa, please disregard or something, I don’t know):
Hi Everyone,
Thank you for signing up for our Secret Santa thingy. I have finally gotten all of the Secret Santas assigned. I used a fancy random number sorting system in Excel. I typed random numbers very quickly into a column and then sorted everyone’s names by those random numbers in an ascending order and then pasted that list against the master list.
I will begin sending out those assignments later tonight.
So, the purpose of this email is to go over a few things. I will try to keep it as clear as possible.
1) Because the main idea behind this exchange was to support independent presses/journals/authors/etc, we strongly encourage you to choose a gift from that ‘world.’ If you’re unfamiliar with the small press world, then have a look at the links over at Newpages.com or check the HTMLGIANT archives for various presses/journals that we’ve spotlighted. Many of these presses/journals are also running holiday specials at this time. We’ll try to spotlight more of these in the coming weeks. Also, feel free to email me back (SECRET SANTA ??? in the subject field) if you have a question.
I Like Gogol A Lot
Here are some thoughts I typed out about Gogol and did not edit or revise.
Before I get into the stories, I have to admit that I haven’t read Dead Souls. I like to write short stories, so it goes that I also like to read short stories. This doesn’t mean that I don’t read novels, honest (Beckett’s Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable are novels I often pick up to read random passages whenever I have a brain problem); instead, I mean that I’m constantly attracted to short stories, collections, and complete works over novels because it’s just what I’ve done so far. I could write more on this, I guess, but that’s not what this post is about.
Gogol’s collected tales, published as a Vintage Classic and translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, is a wonderful book. I’ve been reading it slowly, very slowly, over one year. I just finished it this past month. Well, I can’t really explain why it took me so long to read. I could try, I guess, and say that one story of his was enough for several months. I could also say that I am lazy, and that life happened, and that other things happened. Whatever. It is a book I wish that I had read all at once, but also I have enjoyed suddenly remembering it and putting off everything else to pick it up again. Does this make sense? I don’t know.
I usually have trouble talking about the language and sentences in translated works. I don’t know translation well enough to understand what goes on between the original and translated version to critique it, nor is my Russian up to quality (read: no Russian whatsoever). So, I’ll move away from that and leave it to the experts, as much as I would like to focus on his sentences.
So, what do I like a lot about Gogol? What is the point of this post? I like that he can make me feel terror. Put aside his great sense of humor, his imaginative ways, his self-aware narrative style, and let us focus on his ability to terrify me. I have talked with several people about this already, but I’d like to share it here. In what little contemporary fiction I’ve read, I struggle to think of work that really terrified me, that made me get up from my chair and turn on the lights late at night all throughout the apartment, that made me feel frightened, not in a realistic way, but in a supernatural way. Does this make sense? I think that some of Evenson’s work does it and I think that “The Pederson Kid” by William Gass did it. Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas did it.
Secret Santa – Time to Buy Stuff
So we’ll stop taking new Santas now. 129 of you signed up, which broke my last goal of 125.
Good work.
Look out in your email and on this site for more stuff. I’ll have the random assignments out soon. My plan is to do that by this Monday. That way everyone will have plenty of time to purchase and send things.
For now, relax, go play.
I’ll take care of everything.