From Spools of Thin Wire by Kate McGill-Wyre
A new PDF Chapbook was released by Publishing Genius today, a set of really odd-in-their-own-way poems from Kate McGill-Wyre called FROM SPOOLS OF THIN WIRE.
Here are Adam’s words about the book:
It is with great pleasure that I finally introduce Kate Wyer’s new chapbook of poems, FROM SPOOLS OF THIN WIRE. Here are thirteen deceptively complex poems. By that I mean that on the face of it, Kate’s taut language and strange, sometimes religious imagery comes off as detached and passive so that it seems natural to employ some esoteric set of reading tools to the work. I think this misses what’s really happening in the poems, though, and I’m most satisfied when I take her foxes for foxes and the sins of the world as the sins of the world.
As always, you can view the book at Issuu by clicking the file below, and you can print it off in chapbook format at The PDF Chapbook website. Also at the website you can request a copy be printed and mailed to you.
Having read the first few poems so far, I really like the offset tone of them, kind of a dry reportage of really weird shit. ‘100-Year-Old House’ kicks ass.
Righteous. Read.
New Hobart WebContent and MiniBook
You probably already got this info in your email. Hobart just posted new content at their website: stories by Ravi Mangla, Lindsay Hunter, V. Ulea, and Sara O’Leary. Also, there is an interview up: our own Matthew Simmons asked questions of Michael Kimball. This new issue is the first curated by new web editor Stephany Aulenback. Hooray!
Also, the people at Hobart‘s minibooks division have officially announced their next release: Mary Miller’s Big World. Congratulations to everyone on another successful thing.
They’ll have more details soon about ordering info.
Daniel Bailey’s EAST CENTRAL INDIANA
Daniel Bailey has just released an ebook EAST CENTRAL INDIANA, which is a slick sick puppy of the gray variety and contains a nice contained set of poems creeped with inner-absurdity, meth smoke, & the bizarre made back-porch familiar.
Here are a few examples lines:
i’ve tried selling all of my belongings: my flame pants,
my fire couch, my incineration chamber,
but everything is obsolete here, even the expression
you used to show enjoyment when you ignited bats
Daniel does a certain mode of poetry I think more innovatively and with a stranger cull of images and lines than others that could be associated. This is a great read, and BEAR CREEK FEED is a great new source of ebooks.
Left Hand Reading Series & Brian Evenson
I feel too tired to be mean on Mean Monday.
Will someone be mean? Be mean to me if you want, anything.
Here’s something not mean: the website for PENNSOUND (center for programs in contemporary writing), contains an archive dedicated to the Left Hand Reading Series, which goes back as far as 1998. The archive contains mp3 clips of several great people reading such as Brian Evenson, Lisa Jarnot, Jeffrey Deshell, Rikki Ducornet, and tons of others.
In particular I was excited to find Evenson’s reading of one of my favorite stories of all time:
The Intricacies of Post-Shooting Etiquette, which you can also read online in text form here.
In other Evenson news, his new book LAST DAYS is coming very soon, and is surely a thing to be salivated over. It includes the ultra-rare chapbook THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTILATION, which I often take off of my bookshelf in the night to scratch my face with.
National Book Awards 2008 shortlist
Meh. Hemon is pretty good, I suppose. And I saw Gibbons get into a pretty amusing argument with a couple of other poets during a Warren Wilson lecture.
Otherwise, why waste time? I think I’ll wait for Underwhelmed Week. When’s that one, Blake?
Peter Markus is a monk I think
Brother Markus’s interview on Detroit radio WDET is now posted in its entirely with a backup photo montage have now been posted on Youtube for our enjoyment.
Peter talks a lot about writing his new novel BOB, OR MAN ON BOAT from Dzanc Books, including inspiration, rejection, and an excerpt read in Peter’s highly incantatory speech.
“Nothing’s conscious for me, Greg.”
I really enjoy listening to Peter talk, on paper on from the mouth, I think he would be capable of hypnotizing babies in a way that made them smarter, if I ever have a baby I will ask Peter to come down and make the child’s head fattened in the good way.
Peter Markus
Always looking forward to what Peter Markus is doing with his words, I decided to ask the man himself what we can expect from him in the future. A few great things to get everyone pumped:
-A new book of brother stories to be published by Dzanc in 2011.
-A limited edition book from Cinematheque Press called “The Moon is a Fish” that he describes as “a sort of novelty project that will have illustrations, maybe even maps, other odds and ends and assortments—fish bones, fish teeth, fish scales, a broken off piece of the moon, etc” to be published sometime next year, but not definite yet.
-A manuscript of three long stories where “every word is monosyllabic.” One of these will appear in the next issue of Unsaid.
And if all that is too much of a wait, Peter will be on Detroit radio this morning at WDET 101.9FM on the show Detroit Today at 11:00.
Contests
Here’s a useful link to folks who don’t think they pay enough entry fees:
Go out there and win some contests, people. And remember to thank <htmlgiant> when you do.
Free for Magic For Beginners for all
Kelly Link, in celebration of her new collection just released, PRETTY MONSTERS (of which I am stoked), has released to the reading public and online freakshow free digital copies of her incredible collection MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS.
MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS is one of my favorite story collections ever, so if you haven’t read it yet, maybe this will give you the push. ‘Stone Animals’ is easily in my top 5 stories ever, for its weird magical listmaking and supreme creeps, but all of the stories in MFB are pretty damn fantastic.
The newer PRETTY MONSTERS book also has a website which makes me excited for the book. Here is what it is said to contain:
# A phone booth in Las Vegas
# Aliens
# Unhelpful wizards
# Possibly carnivorous sofas
# A handbag with a village inside it
# Tennessee Fainting Goats
# Dueling librarians
# A statue of George Washington
# A boy named Onion
# Pirates
# An undead babysitter
# A nationally-ranked soccer player
# Shapeshifters
# An unexpected campfire guest
Kelly Link can eat you. Read free then buy.
Tao Lin Rates a 9.4-9.8 on the Push-Down Worthiness Scale
In a suprising announcement today, casual blog commenter and fan of Tao Lin ‘when.parents.flee.the.country’ awarded Tao Lin a 9.4-9.8 on the Push-Down Worthiness Scale at 5:44am this morning after two hours of steady deliberation in front of a blank computer screen. In his/her comment, which can be read attached to Tao Lin’s post ‘victory in japan,’ he/she congratulates Tao on eee‘s recently being published in Japan, calls Tao Lin’s second novel Richard Yates, which has not yet been released, a “masterpiece,” and then types the word “really” a lot. I mean, really, probably more than necessary. When.parents.flee.the.country then announces Tao Lin’s Push-Down Worthiness rating, saying:
“and for the mother of all coincidences, i saw you on the l-train monday night. you’re very short, probably 5’6″ or so; i would describe your gait as existentially slackerish; and, given how you carry yourself, on a scale of 1-10 i would rate your push-down worthiness a 9.4-9.8.”
No word yet as to how useful such a scale will be, nor has when.parents.flee.the.country revealed what factors affect his/her calculations when he/she manipulates the scale (this blogger, however, believes height to have some importance).
Oh, also, uh, congrats to Tao on his book thing, I guess. That’s cool and stuff.