Countdown to AWP: What I’m (not) looking forward to
One thing that gets me through this awful thing called my life is reading the (dis)likes feature that Aaron and Elizabeth do at the Hobart website. I find myself anxious for the month to pass just so I can see what new things are making their way onto the lists. I feel like I ‘know’ Aaron and Elizabeth that much more, I feel a little involved in their lives (maybe in a creepy way), and I too saw Four Christmases and hated it.
So, with a little nod their way, I’d like to list what I’m (not) looking forward to about this year’s AWP Conference in Chicago. AWP is in a month, so we have plenty of time to think about it.
ALLEVIATE CHRIS KILLEN’S ANXIETY
here is the man who, according to amazon reviewers, wrote a "dismal effort" that "an eight year old" could have "done better and more interesting"
chris killen is giving away copies of THE BIRD ROOM. visit this post to see the details for the giveaway. i have read THE BIRD ROOM. it is worth paying for so getting it for free, inferentially, is better. i used to really like THE BIRD ROOM but then i read some reviews of it on amazon about how it is maybe not that good. now i am confused.
But What Will We Tell The Kids!?
Storyville Radio is a new(ish) radio show and free podcast that you can find here on their blog. This month’s episode is titled “What Will We Tell The Kids.” This show’s format is comparable to This American Life and/or Radio Lab and is equally awesome, evocative and funny. Go Listen.
Our Internet Cousins
by Andrew McComb
Stuff-makers of all kinds are lurking around the internet these days and my second favorite group of stuff-makers are photographers. Tons of emerging photographers are posting their stuff online, some even going so far to publish their pictures online almost exclusively and saving printing costs for their favorite pictures or ones they’ve sold.
A good place to see some of the best photographers online is this website for a thing called FJORD. The above photo is by Andrew McComb, a member of the Fjord collective.
New at Publishing Genius
The wonderful cover of Shane Jones’ novel Light Boxes is now posted over at Publishing Genius. Also, Adam Robinson has redesigned the site and it looks very nice. Scoot on over to have a look. Or go to the blog to see what Adam has to say about the cover. Pre-ordering information here.
Shane Jones blogged more about the book here. Most importantly, he blogged that the book has been sent off to the printer.
Shane Jones looks like a nice man.
THE STUYVESANT BEE
here is the issue to prove i am not lying
i have received another issue of THE STUYVESANT BEE. THE STUYVESANT BEE is a short publication that someone named MIKE TOPP emails to me once in a while. i read this issue the whole way through and i liked it. i didn’t read the first issue because i thought it was one of those contest promotions from some journal, with a famous judge, and an entrance fee that would feed me for two whole days. but now i will read THE STUYVESANT BEE whenever i get it. it is weird. if you want it, here is MIKE TOPP’S email:
toppmiketopp@gmail.com
thank you mike topp it was nice of you to make something and then give it to me for free.
The Internet: Serious Business
The image is facetious, but I think we – you and me and everyone we don’t know – are onto something. The internet’s constraints and agilities are being used in wonderful and inventive ways. I’ve noticed writers and editors either reappropriating online aesthetics or its practical functions. Here are three examples that kind of show a spirit to this point:
I. Mark Baumer’s everydayyeah will post a 365 word story this year, running one word at a time. He chose Jesse Ball, who just published The Way Through Doors. [Blake Butler’s review forthcoming in The Believer, April.] One simply could not ‘distribute’ or publish in this form without the easy accessibility of the internet, made more so with the advent of RSS feeds and Google reader. Baumer seems obsessed with finding beauty in the redundancies of every day. True, it will take a devoted fan to check in every day, but let’s compromise: how about every week? We might even learn something about Ball’s structure.
II. Jillian Clark’s brilliant poem (haiku?) untitled under her “so i go in alone” blog post, wherein the entire poem is comprised of wikipedia picture captions.
an okapi cleaning its muzzle with its tongue
an okapi at bristol zoo cleans itself
okapi at chester zoo
an okapi reaches for some leaves
new from Mud Luscious
In my email (also probably in yours?), a message from JA Tyler, editor of Mud Luscious:
readers & the like.
look, look, look:
mud luscious issue six is live & death-defying. new work by brandi wells, jamie lin, jared ward, charles lennox, laura hirneisen, lauren becker, tim jones-yelvington, m.d. kempis, ryan dilbert, howie good, kyle hemmings, & drew kalbach. this issue also includes a review of every online & print work available from publishing genius press.
go here to view the issue: www.aboutjatyler.com
ml press also opens today for pre-orders of the jan. trio:
LIKE IT WAS HER PLACE by kim chinquee
A HEAVEN GONE by jac jemc
SOME OF THE LETTERS THAT WERE CUT by michael kimball
each volume is $2 (includes shipping), is limited to a single run of 50 copies, & will ship jan. 15.
five-month subscriptions are also available. $30 / 15 volumes.
go here to support ml press: www.mudlusciouspress.blogspot.com
also the new flash collection by j. a. tyler EVERYONE IN THIS IS EITHER DYING OR WILL DIE OR IS THINKING OF DEATH is available now from the achilles chapbook series. this collection will only be available in a signed, limited edition of 50 copies. $5 (includes shipping).
go here to order: www.aboutjatyler.blogspot.com
read up & share out.
happy 2009.
JA Tyler has reviewed the entire Publishing Genius catalog. That is exciting.
Someone should review the entire Dalkey Archive catalog.
Secret Santa Results and Thank You
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s Secret Santa Gift Exchange for Indie Lit. One hundred and forty people took part in the exchange, and if everyone followed our suggested $15-$25 gift range, I feel like saying that we exchanged around somewhere between $2,100 and $3,500 worth of gifts – so that is exciting, I think, for everyone. Also, several participants kindly donated their own work to others, as did editors of various presses, which is another fine way to spread word about new writing.
Below I’ve posted the Santa pairs and the gifts that I know were sent, and as far as I can tell, everyone played fair – for those who haven’t emailed me what you purchased, please let us know what you sent/received in the comments. Please email me if you have had any trouble with the exchange, but keep in mind that some gifts may arrive after today, some are subscriptions that will also take time to kick in, etc. Pretty soon we’ll have an HTMLGIANT sort of marketplace to trade gifts around if you’d like.
Also, if you still haven’t received your gift and don’t want to know because you’re waiting for the surprise, be aware that spoilers come after the break.
Thanks again to everyone who participated; I think this was good fun.
MASSIVE PEOPLE (8): Cast of Apostrophe Cast
I exhausted myself with end of the semester stuff and did not have a chance to take care of an interview for this week’s MASSIVE PEOPLE post, so I instead would like to direct you to Apostrophe Cast.
From the website:
The concept is simple. Apostrophe Cast is a bi-weekly online reading series, delivered as a podcast. Every other Wednesday evening we post a new reading from a different writer. One author, one reading. Come back often to listen, or, better yet, subscribe to the podcast and have MP3’s of our readings delivered to you automatically.
Recent contributors include Michael Kimball, Ben Tanzer, our very own Josh Maday, Celeste Ng, and so on.
Rather than read an interview today at HTMLGIANT, you are encouraged to take ten or fifteen minutes out of the time you’d usually spend reading blogs and looking at DOS and DONTS at Vice in order to listen to one of the many readings over at Apostrophe Cast.
And in the near future, we’ll hear from our next MASSIVE PERSON, Reb Livingston of No Tell Motel and No Tell Books.