your actions become more forgivable if you don’t know the rules: an interview with Harriet Alida Lye
I wanted to talk to Harriet on here because I like what Harriet is doing and I think people ought to know. What Harriet is doing is living in Paris as a Canadian expatriate, publishing a journal that keeps getting better, writing her own fiction, and essentially just doing it. In the last three years, I’ve watched her journal, Her Royal Majesty, grow from printer paper and staples to cardboard and printer paper and staples to letterpressed covers and hand-sewn binding to its most recent incarnation as a slick and perfect bound gem. Something I love about the journal is how fully-considered each issue is — unlike most “journals of the arts,” the art isn’t an afterthought in Her Royal Majesty. The layout and design — the way the thing functions and moves as a whole — seems prized above all, which makes each issue less a collection of contributors’ work and more like a large-scale collaborative project. The journal has recently expanded its online presence with a fancy new website and very nice looking blog called HRM Daily, which I advise people to look at. I’m thrilled that Harriet has kept the faith and never looked back. After the jump we talk about the journal, being a foreigner, James Franco, and European MFA programs (they don’t really exist).
Other People w/ Brad Listi
The excellent Brad Listi has booted up a new lit podcast, Other People, where he holds in-depth conversations with a variety of authors, at the same time rigorous and playful. Having just done one with Brad myself, I’ve spent the last week digging through some of the quickly growing archives, including Ron Currie, Jr., Jessica Anya Blau, Emma Straub, and many more forthcoming. Find more info and listen online here, or download for free from iTunes.
Play the Twin Peaks 8-bit Video Game
If you guys like Twin Peaks, like I do, then you’ll probably have fun playing this retro-throwback game.
You walk around as Agent Dale Cooper through the Black Lodge and there’s 8-bit music and all your favorite characters and I guess if you reach 5000 points before you die there’s some sort of easter egg.
Anyway, there’s something for your lonely, pathetic Sunday. Other options include slathering yourself in butter and running naked through Times Square or pretending to watch football while you get drunk on your mom’s couch.
And the winner is…
LANDAU EUGENE MURPHY JR.
This former car wash employee turned Sinatra-style superstar walked away with $1 million last night after winning NBC’s summer variety program America’s Got Talent.
The West Virginia native will be featured as a headlining act at Las Vegas’s legendary Caesars Palace®, hosted by none other than Jerry Springer.
Watch America’s favorite contestant perform his acclaimed rendition of “My Way” below, and remember, the American dream is not dead so FUCK ALL YOU GREAT GATSBY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD ZEALOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Roxane Gay—
Longshot Magazine (formerly 48 Hours Magazine), has announced the theme of their next issue. You have 24 hours (Deadline: 3PM EST 7/30) to submit something about debt. Details here.
ETA: And just like that, the issue has been published. Check it out.
“When This Time Is the Time That Comes” by J.A. Tyler
Some fine writing by the one and only J.A. Tyler now lives on my little online book concern, Happy Cobra Books. You should go read it.
And then, READ MORE >
Mark Leidner’s
BEAUTY WAS THE CASE THAT THEY GAVE ME
is now available from FACTORY HOLLOW PRESS!
If you live within 1,000 murders miles of Flying Object
you can see the book get launched with readings / things
by Leidner, Shannon Burns, Jacob Otting, & Ben Hersey!
If Wishes Were Fishes I Would Be Allergic
And now for a book trailer for Myriam Gurba’s Wish You Were Me from Riley Michael Parker, a trailer notable for its revolutionary use of pillow suicide, lampshade helmets, and slapstick vulgarity:
New From Guernica: Arab-American Fiction
The June issue of Guernica features a special Arab-American fiction section curated by Randa Jarrar. In her excellent introduction to the issue, “From Alienation to Belonging,” Jarrar writes:
When I first went on the academic job market a few years ago, search committees asked what my dream class to teach would be. Arab-American Fiction, I said. They smiled, then invariably asked, “And which writers would you teach in that class?” I would enthusiastically share a list of names—Diana Abu-Jaber, Rabih Alameddine, Alicia Erian, Mohja Kahf, Patricia Sarrafian Ward, Laila Lalami, Leila Halaby—and, usually, none of the names registered. “Do you teach your own book?” some of them asked. I do not. But I do teach short stories by Grace Paley, ZZ Packer, Alice Munro, Nami Mun, Jane Bowles, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Toni Morrison (well, “Recitatif,” Morrison’s short story, and a damn good one). “Why,” some committees asked me, “do you teach American literature alongside Arab-American fiction?”
“Because,” I would answer, “Arab-American fiction is American literature.”
The issue includes fiction from Diana Abu-Jaber, Patricia Sarrafian Ward, Laila Halaby, Youmna Chlala and Alia Yunis.
The Lit Pub, WTF is it?
The Lit Pub came out today, so I asked Molly Gaudry, it’s pioneer, what the fuck it is. Take a look at the website, then read our interview.
Can you explain what The Lit Pub is in 25 words or less?
Book publicity company / online bookstore.
Okay, how about in six words or more. What do you mean by publicity company?
This is hard to answer. What we (Chris Newgent and I) are trying to do, I think, is new and not quite like traditional publicity. It’s actually Matt Bell who helped make it all come together by suggesting focused, month-long discussion, to take place on TLP’s website, about individual books. Kind of like an online book of the month club, with individual publicists focusing on books they’ve selected. Actually, Matt once put it into this context: TLP is a bookstore, and for an entire month it will hold front-table events on its home page for three lucky authors/publishers.
This is hard to answer. What we (Chris Newgent and I) are trying to do, I think, is new and not quite like traditional publicity. It’s actually Matt Bell who helped make it all come together by suggesting focused, month-long discussion, to take place on TLP’s website, about individual books. Kind of like an online book of the month club, with individual publicists focusing on books they’ve selected. Actually, Matt once put it into this context: TLP is a bookstore, and for an entire month it will hold front-table events on its home page for three lucky authors/publishers.
Can I hire you to manage publicity for Sean Lovelace’s amazing book, Fog Gorgeous Stag?
Maybe. It depends on if I also think it’s amazing, and if you can afford me. If you can’t afford me, you can try Chris who has micropress-friendly rates, and hopefully he will think it’s amazing. If he doesn’t, or if you can’t afford him, then you can still be a guest publisher, which at this point is just a matter of securing a spot, and right now we’re booked through March 2012.
Franzen v. Internet v. Love v. Iskandrian
Someone I dearly love alerted me to this op-ed which ran yesterday in the NYTimes. At the grave risk of preaching to the converted I want to say a few things about it. READ MORE >
URBANOMIC SUMMER AUCTION 2011
Got this email from Urbanomic in my mailbox this morning. There’s some nice stuff available. If you’re feeling philanthropic, place some bids! Collapse is a great journal.
We are pleased to announce the opening of Urbanomic's Summer Auction, which will run from 26 May - 24 June.
All proceeds of the auction go to support Urbanomic's journal Collapse. The lots – including original work and exclusive signed editions – have been generously donated by artists, musicians and writers who have contributed to Collapse or been otherwise involved in Urbanomic projects over the past few years, including:
Kristen Alvanson, Amanda Beech, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Cut Hands, Detanico and Lain, FIELDCLUB, Renée Green, Florian Hecker, Kröõt Juurak & Mårten Spångberg, Nick Land, Sam Lewitt, China Miéville, Pamela Rosenkranz, Conrad Shawcross, Keith Tilford
The PDF catalogue, which contains images and details of all works, with links to higher resolution images, and details of how to bid can be found online at http://www.urbanomic.com/auction.php
Are you ready, or what?
All signs point to the apocalypse tomorrow. Have you heard?
Fuck: what if they’re right? (They’re not, but who would get the last laugh?)
What are you doing in preparation and/or celebration?
Seems like you should ‘read more’
i read canonical literature with my family when i was twenty-five
when i was twenty-five
i read canonical literature with my family
my dad read lolita
my mom read the bell jar
my brother read portnoy’s complaint
i read infinite jest
that night we read nabokov
the next night we read plath
the next night we read roth
the next night we read wallace
Forthcoming from Future Tense: Legs Get Led Astray by Chloe Caldwell
Future Tense has announced their first title for 2012—Legs Get Led Astray by Chloe Caldwell.
Legs Get Led Astray is a full-length collection of creative non-fiction. The connective threads throughout the book are love, relationships, obsession. The title alludes to getting lost looking for something that doesn’t exist: the perfect place to live, the perfect desk to write at, the perfect person to love, the perfect person to sleep with. There is no perfect anything and this compilation is about Caldwell coming to these realizations.
Pre-orders start at the end of the year but it is never too early to get excited about an interesting young writer. A couple excerpts from the book are below and you might also enjoy Chloe’s essay, at The Rumpus, a really moving piece about where she writes.
