Mud Luscious
Reader, go buy.
I did. I will tell you what I think of them when they arrive. And I read them. I will read them before I tell you what I think of them.
I will probably read them before I tell you what I think of them.
There is a 64% chance I will read them, or maybe at least skim them before I tell you what I think of them.
57% maybe.
Definitely I will probably read, skim, or at least open them before I tell you what I think of them.
Also, I am sorry that this post moved Kendra’s down the page a little. I apologize to you, the reader.
And Kendra.
And to…well, you know. Them.
I didn’t know Flannery O’Connor was a whore
In their manner of honoring the dead old lady from Milledgeville, GA, UGA Press, ever the pioneering visionaries, have ‘blindly’ selected Andrew Porter’s The Theory of Light and Matter, which comes, blindly, from an Iowa grad who has published stories in One Story, Epoch, the Pushcart Prize anthologies, and so on.
Those factors certainly don’t have to add up to a boring book, if a slightly predictable one, but then the copy on the book’s win already has the thing looking like it will be on the shelf next to all those books we could have read in its place:
In the tradition of John Cheever, ten stories that explore the loss and sacrifice in American suburbia: These ten short stories explore loss and sacrifice in American suburbia. In idyllic suburbs across the country, from Philadelphia to San Francisco, narrators struggle to find meaning or value in their lives because of (or in spite of) something that has happened in their pasts. In “Hole,” a young man reconstructs the memory of his childhood friend’s deadly fall.
Sure, O’Connor wrote narrative stories with development and all, but she did that years ago, before a lot of others, and I can’t imagine what she’d be doing now, years later. I honestly think this kind of repetitive story blandering is a knock on her name more than a praise.
‘Don’t shit in my mouth and call it a cookie.’
Even Barry Hannah’s blurb seems a little stilted: “I’ve known of Andrew Porter’s genius for ten years. He’s a born storyteller. Every page of The Theory of Light and Matter will change something in your life and refresh you. Yet it is an easy read, nothing like classroom lit. He makes his own space instantly and invites you in. Hats off!”
So here’s to another win we could’ve called from outside the stadium. Another contest rewarding mimicry. Can’t wait to read more Cheever. Yay.
new work at muumuu house includes old work
Tao Lin has posted three short stories by Matthew Rohrer and reprinted a Tara Wray story from Pindeldyboz 3. Plus don’t forget R.B. Glaser’s modern classic: “Butt Teen,” which has been up since the site launched I think.
Bateau Press
Bateau Press has just launched a new version of their website, with way more access to info than they’d had before, including contents of their current issue, info chapbooks and current submission and contest guidelines.
They are currently running their 3rd annual chapbook contest, which has electronic submissions, nice:
OPEN TO ALL WRITERS
Winner receives $500 and copies of the winning chapbook.
Manuscripts will be read anonymously by staff of Bateau.
Please, no submissions from students or close friends of the editors.
Age and previous book publication are not considerations for eligibility.
Check out the site for more info, Bateau is really doing something cool. I like the handmade style of Bateau and the book object style they represent, there should be more places like this, even more than there currently are.
barry graham’s “not a speck of light is showing” just beat me up and i am on the ground trying to put my teeth back in my mouth using the tip of my tongue
i just read barry graham’s chapbook “not a speck of light is showing” and halfway through reading it i found myself motioning with both hands upwards, as if attempting to raise the roof from a lower altitude to one much higher. i suspect that was consequent to barry graham locking his chapbook in the basement and forcefeeding it awesomeness. i am being serious. it costs four dollars. buy it. you will laugh and feel a little sickened. when i was done reading it, i felt like barry graham was mr. miyagi and i was daniel-san and i was lying on my back and he was showing me how “paint the fence” could help deflect the shit that barry graham was shitting into my mouth. and i kept trying to swat the shit away, but at a certain point, i just stopped and lay motionless, eyes and mouth open, and there was no light.
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October 18th, 2008 / 7:28 pm
October 18th, 2008 / 7:28 pm
Brandon Shimoda’s THE INLAND SEA
Now available for preorder from Tarpaulin Sky Books is Brandon Shimoda’s THE INLAND SEA, which is 40 pages of poem with a killer cover (covers, like teeth blood, do matter). I’ve always liked Brandon’s work I’ve seen around, and so am interested to see how this one comes together in palpable form.
Here’s the jacket description:
In remembrance of and in thinking through the grand and generative compromises of birth, migration, dementia, sacrifice and ancestor worship, The Inland Sea is a raveling entreaty for the life of both a family departed and a family spectrally present in both complex breath and body. Spiritually addressed to Midori Shimoda, as well as factually to the inland seascapes of his birth (Hiroshima, Japan, thrice, in 1909, 1910 and 1911) and death (Lake Norman, North Carolina, the United States, once, 1996), The Inland Sea navigates the substance between origination and departure, in an attempt to find a relic of responsible and radiant life outside of benighted time. Composed of doubts, dissolutions, laments and a widening circumference of water and hope, The Inland Sea is a soft, yet urgent, ceremony, through which the ruptures of the past might find celebratory echo, and keep—
I like TSky’s books, this should be no exception.
Next post is mean, promise.
The Sunnyoutside Expanding Empire
One small press I don’t hear much about but is very very good is Sunnyoutside, run by David McNamara in Buffalo, New York. David does an amazing job – producing beautiful little chapbooks from writers you may haven’t heard of.
Recently, David’s been doing paperbacks, which he plans to do more of in 2009. For next year, in paperback, we can expect books from: Tim Horvath, Nathan Graziano, William Taylor Jr., Chelsea Martin, Curtis Smith, Brian McGettrick, and Rebecca Schumejda. Also, a plan to get solid distribution to get more of these great books in people’s hands.
David keeps everyone up-to-date on Sunnyoutside happenings at the website.
Chapbook Publishers E-Panel at EWN
Dan Wickett is getting it done over at the Emerging Writers Network.
He’s just posted a great Chapbook E-Panel, participants in which include Kevin Sampsell of Future Tense Press, Ander Monson of New Michigan Press, C.M. Mayo of Tameme, Kristy Bowen of Dancing Girl Press, Carl Annarummo of Greying Ghost Press, and Justin Marks of Kitchen Press.
It’s a lengthy post, but worth the read. Dan asks the particpants questions about the history of each small press, production details (business and design), submissions policies, the chapbook as a form, etc.
fc2 Blog
In the world of blog competitors, fuck, we might have one here now: FC2 is blogging live live. Mostly about their authors and new releases and the like, all of which remain good news in my book. Worth a bookmark? Fo sho.
It also seems a brother to the Now What blog, run by similar company, Lance Olsen and crew.
If someone can convince Gary Lutz to start blogging, I will cry a baby doll that will stand on America.
Please?
Muumuu House
Tao Lin had been talking about making a press for a long time, he had a post once discussing the name, what should he name it, one of the names then was Muumuu House, and now MUUMUU HOUSE has sneakily snuck a website onto the web.
The site, sneakily snuck onto the web, is pretty chock full of stuff already, featuring new fiction, poetry, and Tao’s favorite-artform Gchats, featuring many of the likely suspects from a Tao-run press.
Most awesomely, the press has also announced their first two titles to be published in perfect bound print next year, Ellen Kennedy’s SOMETIMES MY HEART PUSHES MY RIBS in March 09 and Brandon Scott Gorrell’s DURING MY NERVOUS BREAKDOWN I WANT TO HAVE A BIOGRAPHER PRESENT in June 09.
This was all discovered in a post on Brandon’s blog, in which Brandon announced his retraction of the book from its previous acceptance at Greying Ghost press, which may or may not result in a promotional snafu for the book, if people decide to fuss about the switch or not.
Here is the very Tao-like ‘submission policy’:
To submit to Muumuu House find a person who has been published by or is associated with Muumuu House and read their blog. If you like their blog make a comment in their comments section in a sincere and natural manner, expressing your feelings. Eventually someone associated with Muumuu House will probably read your comment and click your name and find your blog. If that person likes your blog, to a certain degree, then they will probably tell other people in emails or in real life and then at some point you will probably be emailed, not necessarily about Muumuu House, but maybe about Muumuu House. I think this is more natural. It supports a ‘there is no good or bad in art’ mentality, is probably much faster and more efficient than emailing submissions and having people read them and respond to them, and I think it decreases loneliness, boredom, and despair more effectively than with ‘normal’ submissions, based on my experiences with the internet, I believe.
The MUUMUU HOUSE site is nice and calming to look at, the blue/black/white no photos feel is pleasant, it seems a very good thing.