Hannah in Harper’s

Here’a a big FYI: the excerpt from Hannah’s novel-in-progress, Sick Soldier at Your Door, which was published in the Winter ’09 issue of Gulf Coast, has been picked up by the “Readings” section of Harper’s. It’s reprinted in the current issue, the one with the Vonnegut short story and the large roundtable with contributions from–among many others–Ben Marcus and Zadie Smith. I guess those are all pretty good reasons to pick the issue up. Actually, Harper’s is one of those magazines you’re better off subscribing to than buying on stands. It’s under 20 bucks for a year subscription, compared to something like 7 bucks per issue if you buy them one at a time. Basically, if you feel like you might want to buy a Harper’s twice in a given year, you’re better off just subscribing, and letting it come right to you.

Author News / 16 Comments
May 28th, 2009 / 8:51 am

Excerpts & Reviews

I LIKE THE BOOK “UNDER MILK WOOD” MORE THAN I LIKE MOST OF MY FRIENDS BUT LESS THAN I LIKE FRUIT ROLL-UPS

mwood

i don’t remember when i first read dylan thomas’ UNDER MILK WOOD. but i have read it three or four times. which means it’s tied for most-read book with the instruction manual for the nintendo game BUBBLE BOBBLE. i don’t really like dylan thomas’ poetry but UNDER MILK WOOD is trill fucking good. i think if i took a picture of my face while reading it, i would look a lot like Squeaky Fromme when she was in court. UNDER MILK WOOD is a play about a small town and all the people in it. in order to account for things that can’t be shown, dylan thomas institues random voices to help narrate shit. i don’t want to spend a lot of time coming up with a review because that might ruin the book for me. so here are some random excerpts and my reactions.

(reactions after jump, take a peek!)

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30 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 10:57 pm

Review of Matthew Simmons’s ‘A Jello Horse’ (by Christopher Higgs)

ajellohorseI see this text consisting of a heart and appendages.

The heart = the funeral.

The appendages = the memories (of what it’s like to be a kid & of previous dating experiences) – plus the experiences at the roadside attractions.

Oddly, the heart (the funeral section) seemed to be of tangential importance.  What seemed to hold the most significance, for me anyways, were the appendages.  But perhaps that observation says more about me as a reader – and what I see as a tension between reality and imagination – than about the text itself.

As a reader, I generally tend to dislike conventional realism because I find it uninteresting to read a transcript of a situation that could feasibly occur in the ordinary reality in which I live: in the case of A Jello Horse it would be what I am calling the heart — the transcript of driving to a house party, playing pinball, going to a funeral, going to a health clinic, etc.   And to be honest, I can’t really understand why other people don’t feel the same negative reaction to this kind of realism.  I mean, we already share this ordinary existence, why would I want someone to tell me about their version of it?  That would be like someone giving me a running commentary while I’m watching a Lakers game.  It’s like: dude, I’m watching it with you, I don’t need you to tell me your version of it – I already have my version, which I will always value greater than anyone else’s version.  What I don’t have is whatever strange imaginary things other people hide in their heads, which is one of the primary reasons I turn to literature in the first place.

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Uncategorized / 34 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 7:57 pm

Seriously Not Safe For Work! Ernie Conrick’s GOLDEN HEMORRHOIDS

This is my second inappropriate post in a row. I feel like a fifteen year old boy with a constant hardon who skips school to look at porn magazines behind the 7/11. Any day now, I’m going to write a nice book review, but in the meantime….what follows is a video of the writer Ernie Conrick reading a very outrageous story called “Golden Hemorrhoids”. I had the great pleasure of hearing him read the story that night- it was very much the highlight of the evening in a “Holy Shit” sort of way. Mixing politcs and anal sex, man. I had a drink with him afterward- I love this guy. He also has a fucking brilliant, different story in the Susie Bright edited anthology, X: The Erotic Treasury (click here to go to the incomparabe Susie Bright’s blog and to learn more about her latest book). Oh, and he’s also the author (under a different name) of The Upside Down Tree: India’s Changing Culture, which you can read more about by clicking here.

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Web Hype / 15 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 1:22 pm

I Like Caketrain a Lot and interviewed them about it

caketrainWhen I say Caketrain never ceases to amaze me,  what I mean is that Amanda Raczkowski and Joseph Reed are always amazing me. Even when I’m not doing anything but trying to fall asleep, even when I’m doing tons of stuff like negotiating printer maintenance costs for the Stamford office, I marvel: how do they do everything they do so well? The things they publish in the journal are continually new, smartly readable, and surprising. Their books are fun to hold. Their design is consistently impeccable. And they’re making it happen so affordably that anyone can buy and read them. What a great way to save literature, to not overcharge for it.

So one day, when I couldn’t take my publisher’s envy anymore, I sent them a few questions that first rattled to mind. They responded generously, taking my trivialties and forming from them genuinely interesting subjects. And even better than that, they included pictures and captions and links that fit seemlessly into the HTML Giant archives. Read the interview below the fold. READ MORE >

I Like __ A Lot / 39 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 12:35 pm

Rumpus/Giant/6word Contest: WE HAVE A WINNER

Congratulations to JENNIFER, for her winning entry in yesterday’s contest. Here’s what she wrote-

I have always been my opposite.

[Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides]

Runners up, honorable mentions & other details after the jump, but first: TO ALL THOSE OF YOU WHO DID NOT WIN / ENTER: WHY NOT COME TO THE EVENT ANYWAY? TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE, AND THE LINE-UP KEEPS GETTING BIGGER AND MORE AWESOME. THIS MORNING THEY ANNOUNCED THE ADDITION OF AMANDA PALMER FROM THE DRESDEN DOLLS.

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Contests & Web Hype / 4 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 11:41 am

Video Game Art: ‘Passage’

There’s been a lot of discussion of video games and their influences on literary art.

Here, then, is a rather rare and interesting entity in the realm of conceptual gaming: Jason Rohrer’s ‘Passage.’ (Free to download and very little time required in the playing, give it a try, you’ll see).

passage

Because the point and nature of the game are not immediately apparent, you should download and explore it, paying attention, and then, if you are interested, follow for more thoughts after the break.

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Technology / 18 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 1:40 am

WINNER of Dead Eye Dick Contest

01backdoorThank you everyone for entering HTMLGIANT’s Dead Eye Dick contest — such creative takes on Vonnegut’s drawing! Most memorable ones, for me, include Drew’s sunburnt nipple, Jake’s self-inflicted bullet wound, Clapper’s ear hair, cobweb’s entropy of vectors, Chris East’s surrogate swastika, Ben Brooks’ hilarious Sarah Jessica Parker, and Ronnie’s erased web of crosses; all of these are worthy of a prize, and have seriously delighted me — though Ben Blum takes the prize with his brilliant cunnilingus tongue technique, not just for its creativity, but the adroitly executed letter of proud dramatic indignation:

Dearest Marjorie, your repeated usage in letters to me of the words “short” and “powerful” is unnecessary, as these are widely understood to be the essential qualifications of a jockey, and I and half the neighborhood are well aware that that is the profession of the man you have run off with. I have nothing but respect for your decision. But in spite of myself, I think I would like you to know the kind of power growing in your own, abandoned home (although as yet I am no shorter), and it is with this aim in mind that I now dip my tongue in the fatmouthed collectible inkwell your mother bought me last month as consolation for your behavior and show what I can accomplish in one and one quarter seconds, to the benefit of countless women unknown to you:

Congratulations Ben, Dick Eye Dick will be mailed shortly after I receive your mailing address. To everyone who entered, you’ve all made my day. I am only sorry I only have one book to give away. It’s true, life is no way to treat an animal, so let’s all just pet each other, quietly.

Contests / 26 Comments
May 26th, 2009 / 11:57 pm

Word Spaces (12): Amelia Gray

Amelia Gray is the author of AM/PM (featherproof) and Museum of the Weird (forthcoming from FC2). She recently won the FC2 Fiction Prize. I’ve linked to a page on her website that lists many publications online that you may read over. Also, here’s an audio recording of Amelia’s reading from AM/PM in Tucson for a reading thing at Congress, I think.

Various information about her and her work can be read here:

AM/PM reviewed at Literary License

Interview w/ Ryan Manning

AM/PM reviewed by PH Madore

Amelia Gray’s favorite novellas

Below is her word space. Enjoy.

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Word Spaces / 40 Comments
May 26th, 2009 / 4:31 pm

Ya’ll Don’t Need No Yates or Denis Johnson, Ya’ll Need Problemz

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Random / 18 Comments
May 26th, 2009 / 2:01 pm