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Sana Krasikov wins Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

Okay. In a totally non-sequitur comment on the post below this one (which is about Mathias Svalina’s iPod) some person identified only as ‘j’ (no link to website or email add’y) had a little freakout, the point of which seemed to be the sentence that is the title of this post. I couldn’t figure out whether ‘j’ was happy or sad that Krasikov just won the Rohr Prize, which carries a purse of $100,000–pretty sweet stuff for a book of short stories (One More Year, Random House)–and I also don’t know Krasikov’s work, so I am in a singularly uninformed position on basically all aspects of this story. But it seems to qualify as “literary news,” so what the hell? here’s a link to the Jerusalem Post, who has the full story, which really isn’t much more than what I’ve already said. Thanks to ‘j’ for the tip.

Author News / 15 Comments
March 26th, 2009 / 4:54 pm

Justin Taylor

More fun with Mathias Svalina’s iPod

It’s really obscene that I still have this thing in my possession. Well, supposedly I’m going to see him tomorrow at a reading at Pete’s Candy Store, so I figured I should make the most of what time remains. Today instead of focusing on a letter, I’m going Onion-stlye and SHUFFLE IT. The little machine tells me it’s got 11387 tracks on it, so this should be pretty good. Seatbelts on?

Haut or Not: 3 balls in a sack

bookstacksmall1

Ravi Mangla

Thing Things They Carried: all the crap on the floor because there wasn’t a table. Catch-22: there’s no table and all the books are on the floor. A Farewell to Arms: how about a farewell to crap on the floor? Independence Day: forget about pastoral America, first get your shit off the floor Ravi. The Tipping Point: it don’t matter if anything tips over cuz everything is already on the god damn floor. Introducing Derrida: are you serious Ravi? You actually care about post-structuralist linguistic theory? Dude, here’s a pre-structuralist theory: If Ravi gets his ASS to IKEA and gets himself a fucking table, he can put his lame shit books on it one day and not be such a carpet whore.

Rating: Not

Happy Birfday, Dear Millions

I stole Max's books cuz he's a boy and he is dumb n ugly.

Popular book blog The Millions turned six yesterday. I really enjoy reading The Millions and think it’s a hell of an achievement to consistently provide entertaining and intelligent content for six years. Also, pretty much everyone on the staff that I’ve spoken to has been cool, helpful & genuinely nice. Head over and show them some love.

Web Hype / 4 Comments
March 25th, 2009 / 9:42 pm

Jimmy Chen

MONKEYBICYCLE No. 6

mb6 Monkeybicycle No. 6 is available for pre-order here. From the editors:

In this edition of Monkeybicycle’s print version, we move back toward the traditional style of fine literature that we so recklessly abandoned for issue five. Loaded with dozens of incredible stories and poems from the likes of Ryan Boudinot, Kim Chinquee, Curtis Smith, Laura van den Berg, as well as so, so many more, this book is sure to please. Check out the full line-up below, and then pick up your copy today!

Contributors: Shane Allison, Sheila Ashdown, Richard Barrett, Matt Bell, Ryan Boudinot, Kim Chinquee, Martha Clarkson, Michael Czyzniejewski, Daniel O. Harris, Drew Jackson, Jason Jordan, Jing Li, Frayn Masters, Corey Mesler, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, CS Reid, Nora Robertson, Sarah Salway, Curtis Smith, Tyler Stoddard Smith, John Spiers, Joe Sullivan, Matthew Summers-Sparks, Twixt, Laura van den Berg, Cody Walker, Brandi Wells, and Jay Wexler.

It comes out April 25. [Reasons why April is the cruelest month: T.S. Eliot said so, taxes are due, Hitler’s birthday. Reasons why April is the coolest month: Monkeybicycle No. 6 is released, Kind of Blue is recorded.] Big props to Kim Chinquee, who is in the current/new American Short Fiction, Bateau, and NOON.

Also, check out these [this & this] one-sentence stories which I’ve been enjoying.

Uncategorized / 12 Comments
March 25th, 2009 / 5:54 pm

Adam Robinson

Play eShame and Win or Lose UPDATED UPDATED

I will probably laugh at you.

Do you know that game called “Shame,” in which participants name a book they haven’t read and if everybody else has read it the unreader gets a point? And whoever gets the most points is the winner but in real life the loser? How’s that go again? It’s really fun to play, right? Like, on car rides? READ MORE >

Contests / 367 Comments
March 25th, 2009 / 5:09 pm

Sam Pink

AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN CLEMENTS FROM “FIREWHEEL EDITIONS”

sentence6_cover1 brian clements from firewheel editions was nice and did an interview with me. feast yo eyes nah children.

(interview after break yo)

Tyrant 6: !!!

ty6

Um, what the hell: the line up for the new issue of New York Tyrant has just been released, and, well, if you still have eyes, you might get ready to lose them:

300 pages of the best one yet.

A whole new batch of art from Mr. Atticus Lish!

Kevin Sampsell interviews Diane Williams

fiction from:
Thomas Bernhard
Rachel Sherman
Justin Taylor
Christine Schutt
Cooper Renner
Daryl Scroggins
Scott Garson
Anthony Luebbert
Christopher Kennedy
Jesse Ball
Daniel Grandbois
Michael Hemmingson
Darby Larson
Karl Taro Greenfeld
Ken Sparling
Robert Lopez
S.G. Miller
Kim Chinquee
Jason Snyder
Jessica Blau
Michael Leone

I think I would listen to the Thong Song for a week straight if I had to to get a hunk of this. I don’t know what made me just think of the Thong Song.

You can preorder the issue now on the Tyrant website, which is also currently running the Sampsell/Williams interview in full for your enjoyment.

Every new issue of the Tyrant is a spectacle of power and light. If not yer eyes, this one might take yer lungs out. Or your ovaries. Or you might get ovary-implanted. Either way, go get, before it sells out, as they always do.

Uncategorized / 59 Comments
March 24th, 2009 / 6:34 pm

Justin Taylor

Today at Coop’s Place: Modern & Contemporary English Language Fiction Judgment Day

Here’s something everyone here should be able to get down with fighting about. Today at The Weaklings, Dennis put up a long list of writers and invites you to name each of their best and worst work. You can add your lists to his comments section if you want his response, or to ours if you want ours–or both, I guess. He’s smarter and better-read than all of us put together (that’s a guess) but there’s more of us and we have cat-like reflexes (those are science facts). Anyway, here’s his list:

Burroughs: B, The Wild Boys. W, The Western Lands
Faulkner: B, The Sound and the Fury. W, The Town
D. Williams: The Stupefaction. W, This Is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate
Vidal: B, Myra Breckinridge. W, Hollywood
De Lillo: B, The Names. W, Cosmopolis
Woolf: B, Mrs. Dalloway. W, The Waves
Foster Wallace: B, Infinite Jest. W, Oblivion
Ellis: B, Lunar Park. W, Rules of Attraction
Amis: B, Money. W, Yellow Dogs
Wharton: B, The House of Mirth. W, The Glimpses of the Moon
Joyce: B, Ulysses. W, Dubliners
White: B, Nocturnes for the King of Naples. W, The Farewell Symphony
Morrison: B, Beloved. W, Love
Sotos: B, Selfish, Little. W, Special
Roth: B, Portnoy’s Complaint. W, Everyman
Gaddis: B, JR. W, Agape Agape
Brautigan: B, Revenge of the Lawn. W, An Unfortunate Woman
Updike: B, Couples. W, Gertrude and Claudius
Rechy: B, City of Night. W, Marilyn’s Daughter
Beckett: B, Watt. W, Ill Seen Ill Said
McCarthy: B, Blood Merdian. W, Suttree
Moody: B, Purple America. W, Garden State
Nabokov: B, Lolita. W, Ada or Ardor
Tillman: B, American Genius: A Comedy. W, Cast In Doubt.
Dick: B, Ubik. W, The World Jones Made
Palahniuk: B, Fight Club. W, Lullabye
Hemingway: B, The Sun Also Rises. W, The Garden of Eden
Acker: B, Great Expectations. W, Kathy Goes to Haiti
King: B, Pet Sematary. W, Hearts in Atlantis
Vonnegut: B, Slapstick. W, Hocus Pocus
Capote: B, The Grass Harp. W, Summer Crossing
Didion: B, Play It as It Lays. W, Run, River
Pynchon: B, Against the Day. W, Vineland
Barth: B, The Sot Weed Factor. W, Sabbatical: A Romance
Mailer: B, The Naked and The Dead. W, Ancient Evenings
Welsh: B, The Acid House. W, Porno
Gibson: B, Neuromancer. W, Mona Lisa Overdrive
Delaney: B, Hogg. W, Madmen
Ballard: B, The Atrocity Exhibition. W, The Kindness of Women

Selby Jr.: B, Requiem for a Dream. W, The Willow Tree

Barker: B, The Books of Blood. W, Coldheart Canyon

Brite: B, Exquisite Corpse. W, Plastic Jesus

Oates: B, them. W, Bellefleur

Author Spotlight & Web Hype / 63 Comments
March 24th, 2009 / 5:09 pm

Matthew Simmons

Today in Big Publishing’s Dying Shudder

the-dying-gaul

Oh, hey! Another editor has managed to convince his bosses that his internet addiction is not a huge drain on company time and bandwidth by getting a freely accessed photo blog turned into a book!

Harper Big Wig into phone: Nelson? Get into my office. Now.

Nelson, entering: Yes boss?

HBW: Nelson, I don’t know if you are aware of this, but all the office computers now have spyware on them. According to our records, you spent all of last week surfing the internet.

N: Uh. Well, sure. I was…doing…research?

HBW: Research? Why weren’t you reading the slush pile? Did you find anything?

N: [Pause.]

HBW: Well?

N: A blog with pictures of fried foods?

HBW: Nelson, you’ve done it again! Let’s get a contract drawn up.

And scene.

Keep throwing shit against the wall, fellas. Something is bound to stick.

Behind the Scenes / 39 Comments
March 24th, 2009 / 1:02 pm