How about two metal posts today? This is from Terrorizer, an English EXTREME METAL magazine. Richard Hoak, drummer for Brutal Truth, has this band called Total Fucking Destruction. What follows is a synopsis of the concept around which they wrote their most recent album: READ MORE >
HL Mencken at last year's conference
If you’re anywhere near DC on April 11th, like within 250 miles I guess, you’ll want to sign up for the Conversations and Connections conference. It’ll be like AWP but with panels that are worth attending. There’s one about flash fiction and one about contests and I’m sitting on one that Reb Livingston put together about new ways to publish stuff. There’s a lot more, too, like craft lectures — but what I’m most looking forward to is the speed dating thing where I get ten minutes to be helpful talking face to face with people about their poetry. In such a short amount of time I’m sure I will be accidentally offensive, so this conference will be worth attending just to witness some lady kick the shit out of me with her purse.
Seriously, I recommend Conversations and Connections highly. It’s put together by the great people at Barrelhouse and a couple other journals and schools. A bunch of HTML Giant friends will be there. Plus you make the admission fee back in swag — a free book and a subscription to a journal.
Oh yeah, Amy Hempel is the keynote.
Millions crushed underneath.
Hello everyone. Pappy Blake Butler has allowed me to talk out loud a bit, and for that I am grateful. I hope to not bug the hell out of everyone here at HTMLG.
I’ve gleaned a lot of booktalk from the internet in the past week or so, and I’ll present it here, all at once. To start: Over at the Vroman’s Bookstore blog, Patrick Brown discusses the National Book Critics Circle’s recommended reading list. Patrick says:
…their recommended list leaves a bit to be desired. It’s not that the books on the list aren’t good — they are — it’s that they’re, well, a little obvious. My friend Cory, blogger at Skylight Books in LA, pointed out that Philip Roth made the list. Looking at the fiction list, I feel a little like Jack Black’s character in High Fidelity, “Philip Roth? Not obvious. No, not obvious at all. Come on, NBCC, couldn’t you make it easier? What about Hemingway? How about William Shakespeare? Why not recommend Hamlet?” I don’t mean to hammer on Philip Roth, who I love, but come on. Does he really need the readers?
Cradle of Filth, uh, Rock.
"dear new yorker, enclosed is my story, HIT A HOMERUN FOR GRANDMA, LITTLE BILLY."
i think everyone has or has had a method. what is your method? here’s mine for right now:
sit down on my bed (which has no box spring, sits on floor)
pinch my eyes closed to avoid crying (then use the one or two tears that fall onto my leg to twist up my leg hair into “dreads”)
inhale a beachball filled with nitrous
then just cut and paste babysitter’s club books and pantera lyrics
Reb Livingston recently posted over at her blog a tour of her office where she does a lot of her work on No Tell and other things. I asked her if I could link to that post here, and she said yes.
Anyhow, above is one of the pictures she posted. If you’d like to take the tour and see more, click on over to her blog.
I love these guys
Alan Horn
Alan Horn apparently really wanted us to read the spines, as he included a very high-resolution pic accompanying the ‘regular’ pic. A lot a blood and sex if you ask me (and I’m not talking about the Bible): Psychopathia Sexualis: An [unclear] Forensic Study, Locked Room Murders, Philosophy in the Bedroom, A History of Secret Societies etc. I feel like I’m looking at Jack the Ripper’s bookshelf. ‘Summer Bachelors,’ ‘What is that?’ and ‘Kiss your ass goodbye,’ none of which I know anything about, are amazing titles. This is probably the most interesting bookshelf we’ve seen. I’ve been criticized often for relying too much on penis jokes, so let me just say that Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India sounds like a castrati — I mean, captivating read.
Rating: [fucking] Haut
New from the always creation-forward Dzanc Books comes the DCWS, a pay-by-the-hour series offering 1 on 1 creative writing tutorials online with a wide range of incredible authors.
Dzanc Books is pleased to announce our newest program: the Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions. The DCWS is an online program that will allow writers to work one-on-one with published authors and editors to shape their short story/novel/poem/etc.
Yes. I speak of March Madness, which started about twenty minutes ago. Take a break from all the hand-wringing, keyboard headbutting and stylistic nose-picking. It’s a yearly dose of last-minute heroics and jingoistic chaos that is otherwise missing from our collective Calvinist nightmare, and I for one plan on ignoring work to ride the Golden Gopher.
And just to make this a book post, check out this recent reissued gem. It’s about the 1979 Portland Trailblazers, and it will gut punch your life. Also: I heard Blake can dunk.