Sam Lipsyte interview by Paul Constant of The Stranger. It’s a good one. Q: This book in particular felt Elkinish to me. And I was wondering if you were thinking about him a lot when you were writing… A: Well, I think that his example is always with me. The notion of doing it with language—whatever you’re trying to do—of doing it with language and the example he set with his books is always with me. If you are in Seattle, Sam Lipsyte will be reading tonight at Neptune Coffee.

Obama drops into Prairie Lights to browse. I’d like to see a picture of Obama and Paul Ingram hanging out.

Octopus 13. Featuring poetry by Sawako Nakayasu Daniel Lin Julie Carr José Díaz Chanel Clarke Cherise Bacalski Tim Van Dyke Ayane Kawata translated by Sawako Nakayasu Kristin Sanders Jenny Zhang Cathy Linh Che Justin Marks Jon Leon Christopher DeWeese Natalie Lyalin Alejandra Pizarnik translated by Jason Stumpf Bin Ramke Bhanu Kapil Lesley Yalen Jonah Winter Geoffrey Nutter Claire Donato Caroline Knox Takako Arai translated by Jeffrey Angles, etc.

Who is the greatest rapper ever? I mean total package: fun, lyrics, beats, power. If you say Jay-Z, say it to yourself under your breath so I don’t have to slap a dummy.

michael spielman, Seth, and rk, you are the winners of the Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned contest. Please email your address for the book.

I’m not sure what to think about this (NSFW) sort of disturbing account of a recent SXSM performance. A very unsettling phenomenon, to be sure. I have no interest in this guy–I had no idea who he was before I stumbled upon this write-up–but how do you react to this very, uh, performative performance? What is your visceral reaction?

What’s the difference between this type of performance (GG Allin we could place under this “criminal transgressor” rubric), and the same performativity in, to be timely–and because for both of these types the music itself is only a stage for the performance–someone like Lady Gaga’s project? I mean, assuming Lady Gaga is a “cultural transgressor,” what is the differing mechanism, if there is one, in Fat Mike’s performance? Or are neither legitimately transgressive? Blah blah. Just thought this was an interesting thing.

The tenth National Black Writer’s Conference is taking place March 25-28. Tayari Jones, Colson Whitehead, and Edwidge Danticat, among others will be participating. If you’re in NYC you might want to check it out. The conference is open to all and the panels look really interesting. Every time I hear someone say there aren’t many black writers I think, what on earth are you talking about?

I’m pretty sure most of these people will not be attending AWP. That’s worth talking about at some point.

Story by James Franco up over at Esquire. I can’t say it’s great–if it weren’t by James Franco, this 100% would not be in Esquire–but I can’t say it’s bad, either. Seems like a pretty typical “MFA story,” if that’s even a type of story.

Naked Lunch: The First 50 Years

As part of his “North American Hamsters” series, a forthcoming iPhone app, Tao Lin creates “HTMLGIANT Hamster.” [Previously posted with comment restrictions, but evidently people needed to comment — even if on the preceding post — and Tao himself expressed interest in comments; I respect both sentiments, so here.]