Matt Bell, Matthew Derby & the Best of the Web
Did everyone else already know that Matt Bell is going to be the series editor for Dzanc’s Best of the Web series, beginning with the 2010 book? I didn’t, but aren’t I glad to know it now? Yes. Anyway, I learned this information in a note Matt posted to facebook about also-Matt Matthew Derby, whose story “January in December” from Guernica will be anthologized in BotW2009, edited by Lee K. Abbott. (Disclosure/chest-beating: I am a proud alum of the BotW series; my story “The Jealousy of Angels” appeared in the 2008 edition, which was edited by Steve Almond.) After the jump, MB’s full facebook post: his explanation of what BotW is, his introduction of Derby, and then a long guest-post by Derby himself about the writing of “January in December.”
Nick Cave Reads from ‘The Death of Bunny Munro’
Pretty stoked on this forthcoming new novel from the dark dad, Nick Cave. Here’s him speaking tongues from Chap 3 of his new forthcoming novel The Death of Bunny Munro:
Musicians who can actually write are pretty rare, for sure. Nick ain’t no joke. (On a side note, would someone please rerelease Michael Gira’s The Consumer? Why hasn’t that happened yet? Derek, Calamari?)
See more videos and a whole lot more at the book’s website.
I’ll tell you what you can do with your review, buddy
Alain de Botton, sardonic author of How Proust Can Change Your Life and, more recently, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, positively flipped his shit when the NYT Book Review made some unglowing remarks about his latest book. The line “I will hate you until the day I die” was used. Take that, brainless critic! We need more hate in publishing, far as I’m concerned. Who wants to take a Louisville Slugger to James Frey? Anyone?
NYC: Tony O’Neill & Rob Plath @ KGB
NYers, this Wednesday July 8 from 7-9 PM, two of the realest of the real will be reading at KGB Bar: Tony O’Neill and Rob Plath. You should be at this.
While you are at it, check out Tony on 52 Stories, and his latest book Down and Out on Murder Mile.
In case you didn’t know:
In a previous life Tony O’Neill played keyboards for bands and artists as diverse as Kenickie, Marc Almond and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. After moving to Los Angeles his promising career was derailed by heroin addiction, quickie marriages and crack abuse. While kicking methadone he started writing about his experiences on the periphery of the Hollywood Dream and he has been writing ever since. His autobiographical novel DIGGING THE VEIN was published in Feb 2006 by Contemporary Press, in the US and Canada. Wrecking Ball Press released a UK edition April 2007. SEIZURE WET DREAMS, a collection of short stories and poems was released in the UK on Social Disease January 2006. A volume of poetry, SONGS FROM THE SHOOTING GALLERY was released on Burning Shore Press, Spring 2007. DOWN AND OUT ON MURDER MILE, his new novel, will be released in October 2008 by Harper Perennial. He also is the co-author of HERO OF THE UNDERGROUND, the memoir of Jason Peter [2008, St Martins Press]. He lives in New York.
Rob Plath is a 39 year old poet from New York. He is a former student of American poet Allen Ginsberg. Rob has published 7 books of poetry: Ashtrays and Bulls (Liquid Paper Press 2003), An IV Bag Full of Bile (Scintillating Publications 2007), Whiskey and Clay (Pudding House Publications 2008), Squeezing Blood from the Alphabet(erbacce press 2008), Tapping Ashes in the Dark (Lummox Press 2008), There’s A Little Hobo In My Heart Who Forever Gives The Finger To Humanity (d/e/a/d/b/e/a/t press 2008) and Nicotine Stained Scribblings From A Hammock In The Void (Good Japan Press 2009). He has a monster collection of new poems 300 pages in length called A Bellyful of Anarchy (Epic Rites Press 2009) coming out in April. Rob has also published hundreds of poems in nearly 200 different magazines and journals both nationally and internationally. He is co-host of infamous blogtalk radio poetry show ‘Rob & Jack America’ and is editor and creator of an online zine called The Exuberant Ashtray.
Wish I was in the house. Go and come back and tell me how it was.
Featherproof Dollar Store Tour
Hey friends. Leaving this Friday to hit the road for the Featherproof Dollar Store Summer Tour, which if you are on the east coast or nearby, is likely coming to or near you… would seriously be awesome to see faces, meet faces, drink drinks on faces, eat faces. Come out! Please? We have a lot of crazies peoples, crazy guests (check each city below to see who in yr city will be there), surely to be drunk fun, I have early copies of my new book Scorch Atlas, there are things going to happen. Consider putting it on your schedule? Dates/more info after the break:
Lowbrow Reader post #2
The other day, I posted some junk on the long-lost Gilbert Rogin from the latest installment of the the Lowbrow Reader. Today, I will share a brief email correspondence with the equally reclusive editor of that journal, Jay Ruttenberg.
Good day sir. Would you mind talking a bit about the genesis of the Lowbrow Reader? Did you always know that it would become the phenomenon it has?
We started the Lowbrow Reader in the fall of 2000 and published the first issue the following year. At the time, the smart people of the world were all conceiving online things, so what did I do? Started a print publication. The original concept was to mix comedy and commentary about comedy—specifically the kind of “lowbrow” fare that so often gets condemned by traditional media. I’m a big Adam Sandler fan, and could never understand how “Billy Madison”—which I consider to be a masterpiece—would be reviled by critics. In some weird way, it seemed akin to elements of the mainstream ’60s press treating the Beatles or Bob Dylan as some kind of passing teen fad.
Did I always know it would become the phenomenon it has? Our publication is blessed with eight readers. When we launched, never in my wildest dreams did I think we would surpass five. I guess some people just have a special gift.
Read the rest of this offensive tete-a-tete after these messages.
The Failure Six is now available for pre-order
Former Giant contributor and author we love Shane Jones will have his book The Failure Six published by Fugue State Press in January 2010, but those who pre-order now will receive the book and a “surprise” in October.
the surprise is similar to the surprise in those boxes of popcorn
could be a chapbook, could be edited pages not included in the book, could be signed copy
could be a picture of gene morgans mom—Shane via a gmail chat
The Fugue State Press site also includes an excerpt from the book here.
See also:
Chris Pell’s Failure Six illustrations.
Personally, I can’t wait to read this.
Etgar Keret adapted to clay film
For you Etgar Keret fans out there, Tatia Rosenthal has adapted the short stories of Etgar Keret into a stop motion animated film titled $9.99. I’ve little information about it – it just debuted yesterday in Los Angeles – so I’ll let you do that research on your own. Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia do some of the voice acting. I wasn’t as familiar with the other actors, but you can check credits at the film’s site. There are also some ‘the making of’ pages, a list of bios, news and reviews, the trailer, and so on.
For the trailer, click over to Design Related and scroll down (sorry I can’t get it to embed).
Bay Area Reading Tour
Contributors Mike Young, Chelsea Martin, and myself, along with ‘associate’ Brandon Scott Gorrell will be reading at some places in the Bay Area. This is what is known in the internet world as “irl” (in real life). If you’re around, please come and say hello, but be nice, we are not ready for irl altercations. Mike is coming from Massachusetts [follow his tour]; Brandon is coming down from Seattle [follow his tour]; Chelsea and I live in the area.
Jeremy M. Davies’s ‘Rose Alley’
Just out (today!) from the wonderful Counterpath Press is Jeremy M. Davies’s debut novel, ‘Rose Alley,’ a book ostensibly about an obscure blue film made during the 1968 Paris riots. The book consists of a series of chapters each based on one of the film’s crew and cast, chaining the mostly by turns gristly and sex/violence addled lives and whereabouts in their intersection with the film’s strange creation and resulting aura.
Davies’s prose sings from paragraph to paragraph in that way of Pynchon and Hannah, in that each could stand alone in its music, and each contains multitudes, packed into syllables clearly fought for and refined for their finest parts.
For a more thorough review of the book, please check out my post in this month’s edition of Bookslut, including my claim: “Here is a debut novel full not only of sex and violence, alternate histories, layerings of will, but also in sentences designed to entertain as much as dazzle, making Jeremy M. Davies a great new brain trust for the page.”