HTMLGIANT is Secret Santa
Dear Readers,
We are pleased to announce our First Annual Secret Santa Gift Exchange to support independent literature.
Here’s how it works:
1) If you want to participate, email your name and mailing address to htmlgiant@gmail.com with the subject line: SECRET SANTA. The due date for this is Midnight on Friday, December 5th.
2) As soon as possible, we email you the name and address of your assigned gift recipient.
3) We assign your name and address to another Secret Santa.
4) By Christmas, you purchase for your gift recipient a wonderful gift and email us to let us know what you got him or her.
5) You simultaneously enjoy the gift that you receive from your own Secret Santa.
Frequently Asked Questions:
So why a Secret Santa gift exchange?
We at HTMLGIANT enjoy two things: promoting independent literature and surprising people. We figured a Secret Santa thing might allow us to do both. We hope that by doing this we can get independent literature into everyone’s faces, but in a way that would expose those faces to new, unheard of things. That’s the surprise part.
So what should I buy for my gift recipient?
Well sure, we have some suggestions. Buy a subscription to your favorite independent journal. Or buy a subscription to an independent journal you’ve heard good things about. Buy a book from one of the many small presses around the scene. Buy a book by an independent author. Buy a book in translation. Buy an anthology of work published by one of the many online literary journals. We can’t make you do any of this, really, but you should know that we certainly hope you’ll consider something of the sort. That was our intention. Maybe we’ll come up with a list of suggestions?
When should I buy and send my gift?
We don’t really know. We’re not very good at logistical problems. If you’re buying a subscription online, you could technically wait until Christmas Eve to pull out the credit card. But then your gift recipient wouldn’t have anything in hand to read and enjoy that morning. In this case, it might be worthwhile to send him or her an email and say, “Hey, guess what? I’m your Secret Santa and I just bought you a year’s subscription to such and such magazine.” If you’re buying him or her a book, maybe you should purchase it a week or two ahead and have the press/journal mail it directly. If you’re planning to mail it on your own, don’t wait until the last minute. There’s really no excuse not to. You have all you need to send the gift: a name and a mailing address. And remember, a late gift is better than no gift at all.
How do I learn the identity of my Secret Santa so that I can thank him or her?
Because HTMLGIANT will know who is paired with whom and what gifts everyone received, we will post a massive list on Christmas morning of all of the exchanges that occurred. Then you can comment on the list and post your thanks. Ultimately, we’d like to give everyone an idea as to how much cool stuff was received, how many independent presses and journals and authors benefited from your goodwill, how many people are into reading independent literature.
What if I already own what my Secret Santa purchased for me?
If you find out that you already own the gift, we encourage you to regift it to someone else. You might also consider commenting on our massive post to say how happy you are to receive such a wonderful gift, but that you already own it and would be willing to set up a trade with someone else. The idea here is to create some chaotic sort of gift exchange. In order to do that, we ask that you embrace the giving spirit of the holidays.
How can I avoid giving someone a gift that they already own?
Good question. We struggled over this one and came up with this: we recommend that you get people things they’d likely not have, such as a subscription to a small magazine you think you’ve discovered on your own, or a book just released by a small press. Check out catalogues to see what books have just come out.
So, that’s all. We really do hope you’ll consider participating. And spread the word. The more people, the better. If you have any other questions, please email us.
Small Press Traffic and other local writing centers
I was clicking around the internet, looked at Beeswax Magazine‘s website and saw that they had a link to something called Small Press Traffic. The name sounded ‘neat’ so I clicked on it and read this:
Since 1974 SPT has been at the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area innovative writing scenes, bringing together independent readers, writers, and presses through publications, conferences, and our influential reading series.
For a lengthy history of the center, read this article by Nikki Thompson.
Small Press Traffic appears to be a literary center in San Francisco that focuses specifically on small presses and independent writing in the Bay area. Reading through their website, I was impressed with their commitment to small presses, to creating a local literary community, and to supporting ‘innovative’ writing. I know many city’s have centers like this, though their focus and mission probably vary from one to another; since moving away from Northern Virginia, I have missed my occasional trips to The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland to look through their pretty nice library of small literary journals and books by local authors. The Writer’s Center seemed specifically focused on DC-area authors. And I haven’t yet been to InPrint!, the writing center here in Houston, though I’ll probably have a look sometime now that the semester is nearly over to see what’s going on. Based on their website, InPrint! seems to focus on bringing national authors to the city for their reading series. Obviously, both centers do more than that, such as community outreach programs and literary festivals, etc; I think I’m trying to say that each center has a distinct flavor, if that makes sense.
Now, it seems to me that these writing centers tend to be overlooked as possible resources for the online community. I could be wrong on that; I’m basing this on my own experience. So that sentence should maybe be: It seems to me that these writing centers tend to be overlooked by Ryan Call as possible resources. Anyhow, this post is just to say that they might be worth checking out (where ever you live), if only to see how what they’re doing might appeal to you. They also might be good opportunities to do some volunteer work, to get some face-to-face community, something we don’t often have online.
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November 22nd, 2008 / 4:32 pm
November 22nd, 2008 / 4:32 pm
Kathy Fish Fellowship now accepting applications
Sorry to bump the Boobs Friday post down, but Friday is nearly over and I’d like to post this before I forget. Also, I ate a really bad hamburger tonight, so I’m in a bad mood. It was one of those patties that are precooked and you just pull it out of the freezer and heat it up in the microwave. See, HEB was giving them away for free at one of their new stores here (they mailed out coupons or something) and I could not resist. I have three more left. I will probably eat those too and complain again. Sorry. I cannot control myself.
Okay, to the important information.
Smokelong has just announced that they are now accepting applications for the 2009 Kathy Fish Fellowship. You can read guidelines at their site, but here’s a nice excerpt:
We want to foster that sort of commitment to new writers, and in that vein, we created the Kathy Fish Fellowship. All writers previously unpublished in SmokeLong Quarterly are eligible to apply.
I like the idea for the fellowship. I wonder if other journals do this? I know The Southern Review has a fellowship (but it’s a little different), and maybe the folks at West Branch too?
Anyhow, the deadline is December 20th, so yeah. Send in your applications, people.
The Review Review
I don’t know if we’ve already mentioned this, but I’ll go ahead anyhow. The Review Review is a newish site that reviews literary journals. Pretty straightforward right? Sure. I like that they link to online essays by various editors of literary journals; sort of emphasizes the people behind these projects. I also like that they have organized their reviews into categories, such as “In The Grammar Gutter” and “Overwhelmingly Positive.” This seems funny to me; I mean this in a good way.
Becky Tuch started the project this past spring. Here’s her ‘manifesto’ or ‘editor’s note’ or whatever:
Wanting to get published in lit mags had started to feel like doing community service so that it would look good on your college application. That is to say, lit mags did not represent pleasure, engagement or intellectual growth, but merely a stepping stone toward recognition from book editors and maybe agents.
At first, this discovery was comforting. I’m not alone, I thought. No one reads these things! But the more I considered the situation, the worse I began to feel. How could we expect lit mags to care about our work, when we didn’t care about theirs? Why would anyone make time or pay money for our stories if we were unwilling to take a lit mag on our morning commute or shell out the twenty bucks a year for a subscription?
I like the idea of someone suggesting that we ought to care about the work that literary magazine editors do, the ‘discourse’ that literary magazines create. I like this idea. I haven’t had a chance to look through the reviews, so I can’t speak to the quality of writing on this site, but I like the idea. It seems similar to the kind of stuff going on at Newpages.com and Five Star Literary Stories.
Anyhow, have a look. Report back to us; I’ve done enough work today.
(Thanks, Cliff)
i am poor; oh i know, ill buy more stuff
I’m sure a lot of people are getting this in their mailbox. I received it twice, so I figured I’d add to the chaos of the universe and post it here. McSweeney’s is having a sale to promote being poor. It’s cute, just like potty training, and it’ll probably work. I’m seriously thinking about buying some books or something from them.
Here’s the email:
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
Crazy Excessive Sale through this Friday, November 21.
Cheap, fast, painless, mutually beneficial. Also, good books. Do not deprive your loved ones! Please go now: store.mcsweeneys.net
Want more? How about this: if you spend over $60, you get a FREE copy of either Nick Hornby’s new collection Shakespeare Wrote for Money or Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends. All you have to do is spend $60 (not including shipping) at our online store; then, at the bottom left of the first page of checkout, find the field for Promo Code. In this field, type in the code for the book you’d like:
– MAPS AND LEGENDS promo code: MC01
– SHAKESPEARE WROTE FOR MONEY promo code: NH05
You feel poor. We feel poor. Let’s feel poor together. This week only, almost everything is half-price at store.mcsweeneys.net. Escape the holiday rush and cross every name off your list in one cheap swoop.Angsty cousin? All Known Metal Bands. New fan? The Better of McSweeney’s. Paleontologist in the family? “What Happens in La Brea Tar Pits Stays in La Brea Tar Pits” t-shirt. Newlyweds spending their first winter together? The Secret Language of Sleep. Michael Cera fan? Wholphin No. 6. And so on — we’ve got all your bases covered, and it’s all excessively discounted, all right here.
Do it. And good luck. The economy can only get better.
Mean Monday: Christy Call Talks Shit About(3) the MFA in Creative Writing (for personal reasons)
This conversation did no go as I ‘hoped’ it would. I wanted Christy to talk shit about people who talk shit about MFA programs, but instead she just talked shit about MFA programs. She is hard to control, I admit.
Enjoy, I guess:
me: what should we talk about next?Chris: hmmi dont know/me: mfa programs?poeple who make fun of mfa programs?Chris: that sounds goodor programs that pretend to be mfa programs but arentlike my programthat now has an mfa programme: ?oh rightthey faked you outChris: haha yafake out!me: fake out!now give us your moenyagainChris: lots of itme: all of it
The situation at her university is this: she is enrolled in an MA program in creative writing, but the university has just started an MFA program very recently. I believe the MA program is in the continuing education department or something and requires less credits in order to complete the degree.
So, what do people think? Comment on stuff or something: talk shit about the MFA or talk shit about the shit-talkers. Complain about how boring such a discussion really is. Post recipes. I don’t know. Don’t do anything.
What tattoos do people have?
Tomorrow’s Hemingway? Submit to The Rome Review
Via some other lit blog, I found this article, titled “Finding Tomorrow’s Hemingway,” about a new literary journal based at George Washington University. The new literary journal is called The Rome Review. Its founder, junior English major Tarek Al-Hariri, says, “It’s like the New Yorker with 1/100th the circulation.”
Other quotations from Al-Hariri include:
You can print today’s Hemingway. That’s not an accomplishment. We want to print tomorrow’s Hemingway.
And:
We tend to not stick with a formalist writing style.
I first thought to post about this because Al-Hariri claims that The Rome Review is an “avant-garde publication.” He wants to highlight “writers who use language in innovative ways.” This sounded promising to me: an innovative journal based out of a university. The article even mentions Ninth Letter as one of Al-Hariri’s influences. Exciting, right? But the first issue will include pieces by Junot Diaz and Seymour Hersh, which doesn’t strike me as either ‘avant-garde’ or ‘innovative.’
Sorry if I am, like Andrew Rigefsky, current editor-in-chief of the George Washington Review, a little skeptical. Rigefsky writes, in a letter to the editor, the following:
…it seems as though “Finding tomorrow’s Hemingway” is an advertisement for al-Hariri, not his magazine.
Side note: I’d love to see a feud develop between those two journals.
I realize I’m criticizing a new literary ‘venture’ without having first read an issue, and for that I am sorry. And I’m all for new lit journals and stuff, but I feel like a lot of literary journals seek to publish innovative writing and then fall back on ‘safe’ and ‘famous’ names when they realize how hard it is to stay afloat. It’s hard for a new journal to ‘make it’ without having some sort of claim to fame (balancing budgets requires seling issues, selling issues means building up some sort of audience, audiences tend to respond to big name authors), which is why so many solicit famous authors. I think I am trying to say something about intentions versus reality, but I’m not sure.
Anyhow, I hope The Rome Review proves me wrong.
Here’s the website. Submissions are now open. Send innovative work.
I don’t know. What do people think?
Uncategorized / 236 Comments
November 16th, 2008 / 7:53 pm
November 16th, 2008 / 7:53 pm
New from Achilles Chapbook Series
I just saw over at the Achilles Chapbook Series site that they’ve announced two new chaps:
JA Tyler’s “EVERYONE IN THIS IS EITHER DYING OR WILL DIE OR IS THINKING ABOUT DEATH” and Howie Good’s “TOMORROWLAND.”
This may be old news, but it’s new to me.
Good work Barry and JA and Howie.
/nor now pays people
Yesterday I picked up a copy of /nor (issue two) from our English Department library and have been paging through it. I like the feel of the journal. I like the look of the inside of it: lots of white space and weird formats, etc. I will read it sometime.
The point is this: I checked their website today and it looks they have just begun paying contributors. See here:
Beginning with its fifth issue, New Ohio Review‘s contributors will receive honoraria of $10/page for prose and $15/page for poetry, $30 minimum, in addition to two copies of the issue and a one-year subscription.
That is nice, right?
Uncategorized / 2 Comments
November 13th, 2008 / 12:02 am
November 13th, 2008 / 12:02 am
First Glance: Sir!
New online journal Sir! is now live, bringing to you fine texts from lots of fine people, such as the short fiction “Margaret Atwood” by William Walsh. Below is a taste:
Margaret Atwood got into lots of fistfights as a young man. He wanted to like people, but people were not nice to him. One hundred percent of Margaret Atwood’s fights were about his name.
A list of contributors to the issue is here.
As you enjoy, send good thoughts to Brian Foley. It’s his fault.
Uncategorized / 24 Comments
November 12th, 2008 / 8:05 pm
November 12th, 2008 / 8:05 pm