Roxane Gay—
It looks like Open City is closing its pages—a real shame. Issue 30 will be their last and it’s only $10.
4
big press for a small press
What do Forbes Magazine and a super cool indie press have in common?
If a 21st Century equivalent of the Lost Generation’s Paris exists — a hotpoint where the novel is undergoing radical transformation to reflect its time — it seems to be lost in its own right. Maybe it doesn’t exist on a map, or maybe a site map.
[Warning: This is self-promotional, sure, but it’s also a pretty great interview.]
Go ahead. Agree. Disagree. Enjoy.
Madras Press: New Ben Marcus, Kalfus, Kaufman, Barthelme
Madras Press has announced the release of four new titles, each in short run, short sized book copies, sold with all proceeds going to the charity of the author’s choice.
Among these is the first new standalone work by Ben Marcus in a long while, a 72 page book called The Moors:
The Moors is the story of a man, Thomas, whose understanding of reality leaves him at the prospect of encountering an attractive colleague while refilling his coffee at work; more so of the contents of his mind over the course of those feet from his desk, and the ensuing minutes. Along the way, shadows loom and bend, backs are turned, walls seem to move, and the passage of time is marked by the sounds of living objects colliding just beyond the sight of those who are listening. A breathtaking and claustrophilic story by Ben Marcus, written at a terrifyingly close point of view.
Also available is A Manual for Sons, an excerpt from Donald Barthelme’s The Dead Father; a volume of three new stories by Ken Kalfus; and The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman. I have the first series of releases from Madras and they are beautiful little objects, and each toward a great cause.
$upermachine
For beautiful, high-quality design that’s built to last but doesn’t overshadow the content, in fact is some of the best, most exciting content being published with beautiful, high quality design that’s built to last, check out Supermachine and give them money. READ MORE >
I Am Intrigued by Chin Music Press
One of the things I love most about attending literary events is learning about presses and writers with which I am not familiar. At the Pop Up Bookstore in Chicago this past weekend, I found this gorgeous book, Oh, by Todd Shimoda with artwork by Linda Shimoda, published by Chin Music Press. As an art object, this book is gorgeous–heavy, textured papers, a gorgeous hardcover, and though I just started the book, I haven’t been able to put it down. I decided to look them up online and they have a lot going on. I was especially interested in this blog post, by Bruce Rutledge, about books as art objects and what it costs to publish beautifully designed books. Check them out.
Poor Claudia 4 ++
The fourth issue of Portlandian magazine and press Poor Claudia is alive:
More specs and info and purchase points are available here.
Or, if you are smart and thrifty, you can involve yourself in the PC Subscription Package, which includes for $30 everything PC will release in 2011, including two issues of the journal, chapbooks, nonbooks, broadsides, and more.
While you’re at it, the back catalog is teeming, and all beautiful crafted objects: James Gendron’s Money Poems and Emily Kendal Frey’s Frances are both in particular fantastic.
99% BLUSTER: AN INTERVIEW WITH JON LEON ABOUT THE FUTURE OF LITERATURE
Wrath of Dynasty is a boutique imprint of fine art objects that was established by Jon Leon halfway through 2010. If you’re not familiar with Leon, the best thing to do is check out his poetry, some of which is available online here. If you want to check out any of his many chapbooks, well, you’re pretty much out of luck, because they’re all out of print. In three days the final title from this season of Wrath of Dynasty, formerly Legacy Pictures, will also be out of print. In fact, in three days, everything Wrath of Dynasty has ever released will be out of print, at least until the next season starts and a new series of unique print objects are brought to light. I have been consistently impressed with Wrath of Dynasty, which has brought to light a lot of exciting and unique work that would undoubtedly be inappropriate for other venues, so I thought I’d send Jon an email and ask him more about it. Check out the interview behind the cut.
Caketrain 8 is $8
Issue 8. 276 pp. $8, postpaid.
Contributors
Joseph Aguilar, Nubia Bint Aqeel, E.C. Belli, Carrie Bennett, Amaranth Borsuk, Paul Braffort, Blake Butler, Jak Cardini, William Cardini, Jon Cone, Juliet Cook, Olivia Cronk, Kelly Dulaney, Laura Eve Engel, Géraldine Georges, Kristen Gleason, Sarah Goldstein, Adriana Grant, Hillery Hugg, Gabriela Jauregui, Sean Kilpatrick, Robert Kloss, Darby Larson, Tan Lin, Matthew Mahaney, Megan Martin, Gordon Massman, David Ohle, Brian Oliu, Kim Parko, Nick Ripatrazone, Kim Roberts, M Sarki, Kathryn Scanlan, Farren Stanley, Heidi Lynn Staples, Louisa Storer, Emily Toder, Ashley Toliver, J.A. Tyler, Maren Vespia, Danielle Vogel, Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Rosmarie Waldrop, Joel Weinbrot, Jess Wigent, Corey Zeller.
A Happy Decade
Happy birthday, Starcherone Books! One of the coolest, smartest indie presses turns ten today, and to celebrate, they’re having a party-reading in New York tonight, featuring kickass publisher Ted Pelton, Donald Breckenridge, Joshua Cohen, Janet Mitchell, our own Alissa Nutting, and Thad Rutkowski.
Starcherone (start-your-own) Books has published tons of beautiful, novel-pushing, genre-pushing, word-pushing books. They are a force. Love them, buy them, adore adore adore! They deserve it.
Show your thanks: buy a book, or, tell us what your favorite Starcherone book is. My favorites fill up an entire shelf…
Solar Luxuriance
The excellent David Peak and Mike Kitchell have new books from SOLAR LUXURIANCE, in an edition of 30 and 10. Grab one up before they’re gone. Here’s half a descriptor for Mike’s piece: One morning I woke up to find my browser open to an archive of an online Deleuze & Guattari mailing list. Scrolling through it I was struck by a narrative text by a user who went by the name of “rongrong.” Nobody at any other point in the archive made any reference to rongrong’s enigmatic post. I thought it was amazing, a hybrid theory/text that was interesting, distant, and intelligent. I decided, as an homage to the hidden mysteries of the web, that I would rewrite rongrong’s text, leaving occasional fragments verbatim.