Open Call for Thoughts about Submitting Work to Online/Print Journals – via Dennis Cooper’s Blog
Sometime last week, Alan, a distinguished local in Dennis Cooper’s The Weaklings blog community asked DC a question about the relative virtues of submitting work to online and/or print publications. DC put the question to the community, but for whatever reason few took the bait, so DC told Alan that it might be a better question for a blog like ours. Of course this was all happening in the daily-epic “p.s.” section of DC’s blog, so I saw it, and offered to make that notion a reality. Here’s the question Alan asked. After the jump you’ll find the answer I posted on DC’s blog. And please do leave your thoughts in the comments section here on this post.
THE QUESTION: Is there a big difference in readership or prestige these days between print publication by a journal and web-only publication (by same journal)? I notice a lot of outlets for submitting my story are asking me to choose which one I’m trying for. I’d love to know what other people here think.
We Turn One
Today is the official 1 year anniversary of HTML Giant.
Thanks to everyone, contributors (past and present), commenters, lurkers, snarkies, all: together who have made it even better than we imagined. For me it’s been fun, inspiring, and a pleasure to be a part of. I hope so for you too.
Let’s make some more.
IT DID SMASH ME
I went to the New York screening of Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro‘s film I WILL SMASH YOU (caps are obligatory) and I can now confidently say that you will want to see it also.
The premise is this: Michael sent out a call last year for people who wanted to smash something that carried a meaning or burden they wanted to rid themselves of. The people came to Michael’s house in Baltimore where he had a smorgasbord of smashing implements laid out on a table in his backyard. Michael interviewed them a little about why they were destroying what they were destroying and then they dismantled the object using an ax, sledgehammer, crowbar, chunk of concrete, etc.
By now I think everyone has seen the trailer featuring our man, Adam Robinson, in which he metaphysically destroys the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. (If you haven’t, please, for the love of no God, click here.) This was one of my favorite parts of the movie because there are a number of Hymns I would like to destroy also, but I was also surprised and delighted by how much of an impact that the other performances and stories had. Michael and Luca did a phenomenal job in selecting the right quotes and facial expressions and gestures to reveal something really intimate about each person.
Not one but two computer monitors are savagely axed; a teenager mutilates a blood-filled pinata of her teacher’s head; a be-scarfed man destroys ‘procrastination‘; and a woman in high heels and a velvet dress destroys a car she believes is cursed, axing every window and even ripping out the steering wheel.
I hear that Ken Baumann is putting together a screening in LA, and the good folks of Detroit and Toronto will also soon get a chance to see it. Contact Michael or Luca to arrange a screening in your town. You need to be smashed.
GIANT Excerpt: from The Dance of No Hard Feelings by Mark Bibbins (#5)
Suicides of the ’90s,
you don’t need me to tell you we needed you and you were not nothing to us. Mimicking into stupor was a better guess at how to play ourselves–even I was on TV so I shouldn’t have to recount that either. We tried to say heathen but our mouths ended up spouting a music better suited to driving through a star-tarted desert. Creepy cowboy got an era, crossword lothario got years, but we do we call this shit? Might makes maybe, to put it mildly. Branches of science we haven’t invented or gotten around to suppressing would alter the hideous tides, keep us from killing what keeps us alive. The whole world, to the extent that we can name such an invention, we have sliced open–I never did make it to physics class but with luck it’s not too late, the last so slow to leave so leave on all the light.
you don’t need me to tell you we needed you and you were not nothing to us. Mimicking into stupor was a better guess at how to play ourselves–even I was on TV so I shouldn’t have to recount that either. We tried to say heathen but our mouths ended up spouting a music better suited to driving through a star-tarted desert. Creepy cowboy got an era, crossword lothario got years, but we do we call this shit? Might makes maybe, to put it mildly. Branches of science we haven’t invented or gotten around to suppressing would alter the hideous tides, keep us from killing what keeps us alive. The whole world, to the extent that we can name such an invention, we have sliced open–I never did make it to physics class but with luck it’s not too late, the last so slow to leave so leave on all the light.
All this week, HTMLGiant posted poems from The Dance of No Hard Feelings (Copper Canyon) Mark Bibbins’s eagerly and long-awaited followup collection to 2003’s Sky Lounge. Day #1 is here. Day #2 is here. Day #3 is here. Day #4 is here.
Push Ups for Poetry
A Special Poets House Fundraiser
from Black Ocean founder: Janaka Stucky
What is Push Ups For Poetry?Push Ups for Poetry is a fundraising project I began on Monday, August 10th 2009. I decided to set a goal for myself: in one month’s time be able to complete 100 push ups without taking a break. This is not a herculean task by any stretch of the imagination, but it is also something decidedly difficult for most of us who aren’t in solid athletic shape. On my first trial run, I was able to complete 40 push ups in a single set. I will train for the next four weeks, and plan on completing a single set of 100 push ups by the end of that time. All the money raised will then be donated to Poets House, in New York City.
What’s Up, Rumpus?
Random snag from the website of Ian Huebert, genius.
Last night I was introduced to Ivy Pochoda at a bar. Very, very smart, that one is. She spoke of the difficulties of translating Egyptian hieroglyphs (tell me about it!) and knows quite a bit about James Merrill beside. Maybe it’s because she was a James Merrill House fellow last spring? Maybe… Anyway, this morning, the Rumpus greeted me with Kate Munning’s glowing review of Pochoda’s debut novel, The Art of Disappearing, which is just out from St. Martin’s Press. Cheers, Ivy!
Elsewhere at the Rumpus, Rozi Jovanovic runs down the Brooklyn Book Fair.
Porter Shreve interviews Donald Ray Pollock (Knockemstiff).
And there’s a new installment of Ian Huebert’s rad comic, Pornographic Barn Owl.
Special Ian Huebert Bonus: visit his site: The Milk Machine.
Bat Segundo interview of Brian Evenson
Ed Champion of Ed Rants/ The Bat Segundo Show has posted an interview with Brian Evenson. If you’ve never listened to the Bat Segundo show then it might be worth checking out the archives. Bat (an alter ego of Ed Champion) has interviewed tons of people, from David Lynch to Nick Antosca to Oliver Sacks to Amy Sedaris to 306 other people.
Click the picture to listen to Brian and Bat.
Three Cheers for Blake!
Hey remember when Blake posted about how major publishing houses have basically stopped taking on challenging, innovative fiction? Well it looks like big publishing has Struck Back. From Our Man’s personal blog, posted last night-
Sign of good times, indeed. Blake joins a team that already includes Dennis Cooper, Tony O’Neill, Kevin Sampsell, uh me, The Great Short Works of Tolstoy, the Six Word Memoir series, and all those amazing philosophy re-issues originally published in the Harper Torch series. Welcome to the family, brother!
Special Butler+Harper Bonus Reminder: “The Copy Family” at Fifty-two Stories. Remember back when this happened? I think it’s when HP’s love affair with Homebutler began. Which incidentally reminds me that it’s been way too long since we touched based with Fifty-two Stories. Cal, if you’re reading this- I’m on it.
Malkmus for the People! at Volume1
Do you think it's gonna make him change?
The great Jason Diamond of Vol 1. decided to celebrate the announcement of next year’s Pavement reunion by asking a handful of people to cite their favorite of the band’s lyrics. Those polled included Ari Messer of The Rumpus, Jens Carstensen from The Giraffes, and a few other notables, including Gigantic-editor (and Giant frequenter) James Yeh and yours truly. In fact, James and I both went a little apeshit, so you’ll find our annotated selections down at the bottom, below the civilized metered discourse.
