Mary Miller
As a subscriber to Hobart, I recieved a litte gift package, which included matches (thanks, I have yet to open up that box of nicotine patches I bought in September), a cute little coaster, and a “special sneak-peek chap for subscribers” of Big World by Mary Miller. Big World will be out this year by Hobart’s Book Division, Short Flight/Long Drive Books. The mini-chapbook has two stories in it: “Fast Trains” and “Even The Interstate Is Pretty“. The stories are very good. Very, very good. They also happen to be very much to my taste, as well as what I often try to do as a writer. After reading them, I went online and read most everything I could find of hers there. I loved her flash works on Storyglossia, which you can read here, or here.
ALLEVIATE CHRIS KILLEN’S ANXIETY
here is the man who, according to amazon reviewers, wrote a "dismal effort" that "an eight year old" could have "done better and more interesting"
chris killen is giving away copies of THE BIRD ROOM. visit this post to see the details for the giveaway. i have read THE BIRD ROOM. it is worth paying for so getting it for free, inferentially, is better. i used to really like THE BIRD ROOM but then i read some reviews of it on amazon about how it is maybe not that good. now i am confused.
TriQuarterly and the Poet Jana Harris
Yesterday, I actually left my house and went to the bookstore to try to buy a 2009 calendar (my choices, since most were gone, were between Harry Potter and one with a 3D skateboard on the cover). I also bought TriQuarterly, which I pick up from time to time, but not with any regularity, and NPlusOne, which I think I get a bit more regularly. Then I skimmed them both. Then I settled deeply into Jana Harris’s poems, (she teaches at University of Washington online), in TriQuarterly. They are gorgeous things. Here is the beginning of “Feeding My New Son With An Eyedropper, I Remember Coming to This Country with My Parents, One Trunk, and Seven Words of English”:
Gert Jonke 1946-2009
Austrian novelist, playright, poet, etc. Gert Jonke died this past Sunday, of cancer, at age 62.
The author of more than 17 books in German, not to mention countless other texts for TV, the stage, and elsewhere, I would call Jonke one of the most important writers that more people in English should know about. So far 2 of his books have been translated in English and published by the ever-vital Dalkey Archive, including the absolutely incredible ‘Geometric Regional Novel‘ and the more recent ‘Homage to Czerny,’ with 2 more on the way, and hopefully more to come in the future.
I wrote about Jonke and his work more extensively here, if you are so inclined.
FLESH FEAST: THE HUMAN BRAIN by socrates adams florou mad me happier than the movie LITTLE GIANTS with RICK MORANIS
socrates adams florou sent me his chapbook FLESH FEAST: THE HUMAN BRAIN a couple days ago. after reading it left to right and assembling the relative meanings of each of the words both singly and in conjunction with each other, i found myself pleased. socrates is a strange man and i think if he were to be in the same room as me i would call him a “vato loco.” the chapbook is in short chapters. it is about a man who lives in a flat. an old man moves in above him. i won’t say too much but the younger man becomes paranoid about the older man wanting to eat him and the younger man stays inside for long periods of time. my favorite line is about the younger man staring at the tv and trying to control it with a nintendo controller after having not left his flat for weeks. the chapbook is cleanly written and it made me feel uncomfortable. if you email him he will send an electronic copy to you.
socratesadams@googlemail.com
there are no more print copies.
that last line seems too severe to end with so:
i like you all a lot.
Harold Pinter, RIP
Harold Pinter, who used his Nobel Prize win lecture to really give it to U.S. foreign policy, has died.
A few minutes from The Birthday Party:
Tao Lin’s “All Purpose Promotional Video”: Reviewing the wrong one
Tao Lin offered me $2 to review an ‘all purpose promotional’ video which would be uploaded in 1-3 days, then said ‘just kidding.’ I was moved by the initial spirit behind the request and have done so (though I am reviewing the ‘wrong’ one. I will try to review the correct one too.) Please read this before viewing the movie. It will make you more excited for the movie, I hope. [I just spent five minutes trying to embed the source-code but it didn’t work, so what follows this review is a mere link.]
REVIEW: This review will not have a point, because I don’t think the ‘all purpose promotional’ video had a point, other than being an ‘all purpose promotional’ video. I will simply describe what I saw in the order of when I saw it, with light commentary. Also, I only watched the video once, taking quick notes, so I may be wrong at points. The ‘narrative’ might not make sense due to choppy avante garde editing. READ MORE >
2 Huge Newses from Small Anchor Press: SALE on Books You Can Buy; And the Release of Another Book Which You CAN ONLY FIND IN THE WILD
PART 1: HOLIDAY PRESS SALE
Because we need literature in this recession
Dear Patrons,
Now through the end of the year all Small Anchor chapbooks are $5.00 (plus $2 s/h per book) and free shipping on purchases over $20. Sale titles include:
Close to Home by Joshua Furst
Start Here by Betsy Wheeler
The Viral Lease by Mathias Svalina
X^2/Y=0, but Potential Energy Still Remains by Jake Severn
Two Tribal Stories by Joshua Cohen
Olivas Road EP (songs by V.C. Massimo)
*Sale does not include Mike Heppner’s Talking Man
+
PART 2: MAN
For Immediate Release
12/01/08
12/01/08
Mike Heppner and Small Anchor Press announce Man, the third in a groundbreaking series of four novellas by Mike Heppner released in multiple formats in 2008 and 2009.
Man cannot be purchased anywhere, nor can it be read on-line. Instead, five hundred copies have been left in random locations across the country. Readers will be asked to read the novella and send an email through mikeheppner.com, telling about themselves, where they found Man, and what they thought of it, even if they didn’t like it. These comments will then be posted on mikeheppner.com.
Go to mikeheppner.com to see a PDF of the note included with each copy of Man.
The four novellas in the Man Talking series are Talking Man, Man, Man Talking, and Talking.
Man Talking can be read for free and in its entirety at mikeheppner.com. It has received nearly three thousand hits since being posted in April 2008.
Talking Man can be purchased exclusively from Small Anchor Press, a New York based independent press specializing in limited editions of finely crafted, handmade books. A first edition, published in September 2008, has nearly sold out, and a second edition is planned.
Talking will be released in early 2009.
copy of Man left at CRUNCH gym in West Hollywood, CA.
DATELINE, NYC: Diane Williams to offer private fiction workshop through Mercantile Library Center for Fiction
awesome awesome awesome sexy awesome
[this post is just a press release, but it’s an important one. also, hat tip to Shya Scanlon.]
FOR THE WRITER WITH THE COURAGE TO PRODUCE HIS OR HER OWN MOST VEHEMENT VOICE.
The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction is pleased to offer a new writing workshop with author, Diane Williams this January and February. Fine-grained attention to the drama of the sentence is offered as well as to the drama of the whole text. First look to NOON or to Williams’s own fiction to consider if you share the aesthetic values represented.
Diane Williams’s most recent book is IT WAS LIKE MY TRYING TO HAVE A TENDER-HEARTED NATURE. She is the editor of the acclaimed literary annual NOON which she founded in 2000. She was co-editor of StoryQuarterly for twelve years. She is considered the foremost advocate of the genre dubbed flash fiction and has been called by Jonathan Franzen “…one of the true living heroes of the American avant-garde.” Winner of two Pushcart Prizes, she has taught creative writing at both Bard College and Syracuse University and has been an invited reader at colleges and universities nationwide.
8 sessions
Tuesdays: January 6 through February 24
6:30pm-8:30pm
Fee is $500.00 (Special financial needs considered.)
To sign-up please e-mail info@mercantilelibrary.org or call 212.755.6710
Some freelancer for Time Out New York thought Diane’s last book was awesome sexy awesome.