Boudinot! An Appreciation by Aaron Burch
[Massive Novel Alert #2! Here's a Boudinot appreciation, a little bit of online journal history, and a "This Is Your Life," sort of piece by Mr. Aaron Burch, the man behind the unstoppable Hobart journal. The occasion for this appreciation? The publication of Ryan Boudinot's stellar new novel, Blueprints of the Afterlife.]
In 2003, I think it was, I still lived in Seattle. I’d moved away, and then moved back, and had been doing Hobart for a couple of years. I’d just put out #3, a joint issue with Monkeybicycle, because they (Steven Seighman and Shya Scanlon) were also on their third issue, and we were all in Seattle, and none of us really knew what we were doing, but we were figuring it out and everything seemed new and exciting. And readings! Steven and Shya started a Monkeybike reading series and brought together people in and around the northwest (Kevin Sampsell! Matthew Simmons! Ed Page! Sean Carman! Matthew Stadler! Adam Voith!) and we formed something of a lit community, reading with each other, hanging out and drinking, seeing one another at other readings – at Elliott Bay or University Bookstore or various cafes and bars and even a makeshift garage or warehouse or someone’s living room. READ MORE >
Officially Released: NowTrends by Karl Taro Greenfeld
Big whoa to Hobart for this amazing addition to their Short Flight/Long Drive series — it’s Karl Taro Greenfeld’s collection of short stories, NowTrends, and it’s officially released today.
The book in total neatness features three different covers, and it’s designed to resemble a travel guide.
I had a chance to travel with Karl this weekend, as he read in Baltimore and DC. Here’s the dirt: He ate pizza with chicken on it. Then, at the Baltimore reading he read a story about a guy who had to come up with a propaganda cartoon for the Japanese during WWII. He prefers whiskey to beer. In the morning he turned away the wrong Eggs Benedict, the ones with crabmeat. Later he didn’t eat pizza but did eat a few wings and stood several rounds while we watched the Bills play the Cowboys. There, he told me about an article he’d recently written about Scott Norwood. Norwood is the guy who shanked the Superbowl-losing fieldgoal for the Bills back in the time that I lived for Andre Reed and Don Beebe. Then at the DC reading he plied me with more beer and read part of a story about a boss who joins a soccer team with his underlings. Both stories that he read in these two nights worked for me. Then he took a train back to NYC.
At the DC reading he said he thinks his publishers are playing a joke on him, making him read in rooms that are constantly getting smaller. That’s because the reading for the Three Tents series in DC is held in a small room. Coincidentally or not, in that room he read with Megan Boyle, whose book also just came out today (as Blake noted).
In conclusion, Karl Taro Greenfeld is a good guy and his book is an impressive addition to the Hobart catalog (and if you buy it directly, you can get the ebook versions free).
Diner Interview with Mary Miller
Enormous snowflakes stirred, shifting the Wednesday reek. A lumpy yellow package arrived at my door. Inside were a flask and a one short story, “Diner” by Mary Miller. I dabbed at the folded pages. An enormous fox squirrel appeared at the window and whined. I filled the flask and finished the story and opened the oven door and dumped in tortillas from the pantry and sat back down again and hit the flask and emailed Mary Miller with some questions:
(Exciting spoiler! This interview debuts an awful Mary Miller poem.)
1. Diners fascinate. They seem archetypal to me. I think of Hopper’s Nighthawks or Hemingway’s “The Killers” and naturally Hollywood’s many diners. It is your title and setting. Could you knock around this idea of the diner?
14 holding backs of diatribes on the 2011 radio
3. Mud Luscious Press goes all web update, all Heidi Blair Montag with a touch of Birdman. It detaches the retina in a kind way. Go look.
3. A get-off-my-plot-of-lawn-quote:
55. Harmony Neal uses repetition at January 2011 Hobart. You know, repetition, like this, via BHR:
3. The Girard Perregaux 925 Silver / Celluloid “Tourbillon” Fountain Pen goes for $1785.
14. Off The Internets for 8 days and what does that do? Doesn’t make you write, I say. I didn’t, sans two checks and an entry in a running journal. But it do refill the synaptic bathtub, me thinks, possibly with bubbles. Things brighten, shard, slow. I would like to write today, I’m saying. So. I ponder what happens when you leave The Internets?
go upstairs gallimaufry 5
5. There is a new Hobart. It be quench, yo.
17. Seventeen Andy Warhol audio files (thanks, test)
33. Fascinating:
There’s crazy, avant-garde, weird, experimental novels going back almost to the very beginning.
7. The Independent asks: Is popular fiction getting more literary, wiser, good?
122. From flash to novel: Tarah Masih reviews Sherrie Flick.
Two Things I Recently Read and Loved
I am not a fan of the outdoors, camping, nature, or the wilderness even though for the past five years I lived, basically, in a forested wilderness and now I live, literally, in a cornfield. It was with a bit of trepidation that I approached Hobart 11: The Great Outdoors for no reason other than that because I don’t love the outdoors, I am not likely to want to read about the outdoors. Then a trusted friend said you have to read this story, “Evitative” and so I found renewed enthusiasm for the issue, which, conveniently, happened to be next on my To Read list. I’m glad she gave me a kick in the ass because Hobart 11: The Great Outdoors issue is so damn good. (So is the movie starring John Candy.) I never cease to be impressed by how meticulously Hobart is edited.
Evitative by B.C. Edwards is a post-apocalyptic story that isn’t annoying as such stories are sometimes wont to be. There’s a man (JoJo) and a woman living in the trees and the man has lost his words and she has lost her food memories and they are being menaced by men in canoes and she’s pregnant and there is a whole lot going on in this dense and incredible story. What I found even more interesting than the story was how the narrative voice felt very true to the circumstances and made everything that much more believable. Throughout the story there is a yearning for a different life, for food, for normalcy that is tangible.
16 Comments
July 21st, 2010 / 11:00 am
July 21st, 2010 / 11:00 am
Sean Lovelace—
Another arrow into February’s skull. New Hobart is out. All good, and this Laird Hunt interview (part two) amazing.
8
January HOBART live
From HOBART email:
Happy New Year one and all!
As is pretty much our way, we’re running a little late, but the January issue of Hobart web is online now. We’re kicking the year off strong, including:
* Fan Fiction in the voice of Kobe Bryant, by Karl Taro Greenfeld
* Sad, Sad, Sad, by Stace Budzko
* Three Stories, by Amy L. Clark
* The Turtle, by Matthew Lansburgh
and the first half of an interview with Laird Hunt, by Jim Ruland.Dig in and enjoy and thanks, as always!
http://hobartpulp.com/website/
Uncategorized / 4 Comments
January 5th, 2010 / 5:52 pm
January 5th, 2010 / 5:52 pm
Mary Miller
As a subscriber to Hobart, I recieved a litte gift package, which included matches (thanks, I have yet to open up that box of nicotine patches I bought in September), a cute little coaster, and a “special sneak-peek chap for subscribers” of Big World by Mary Miller. Big World will be out this year by Hobart’s Book Division, Short Flight/Long Drive Books. The mini-chapbook has two stories in it: “Fast Trains” and “Even The Interstate Is Pretty“. The stories are very good. Very, very good. They also happen to be very much to my taste, as well as what I often try to do as a writer. After reading them, I went online and read most everything I could find of hers there. I loved her flash works on Storyglossia, which you can read here, or here.
Hobart back issue special
what aaron burch's office would look like if it were the womens 1500m at the 2005 prefontaine classic
Aaron Burch has announced a back issue special over at the Hobart blog. Here’s what he has to say:
We have way too many back issues in our “office” — piling up, getting in the way, making it hard to move much less find anything. That said, we aren’t very good at knowing what incentives would make these back issues more enticing. So, until we figure something better out, here are two options:
1) Subscribe and we will send you any back issues you want.
2) Send us as much money as you think is fair and tell us which back issues you might want.
Available are issues:
3 (no link with more info!), 5 (travel), 6, 7 (art), and 8.
So yeah, that sounds like an excellent deal to me, one I would have taken advantage of if I hadn’t already had sitting on my shelf issues 3-9.
(thanks to Matt Bell for the tip)
Uncategorized / No Comments
January 14th, 2009 / 1:29 am
January 14th, 2009 / 1:29 am
Bozipede
Bozipede: a type of famous, old-guard internet literary magazine insect, commonly called a “pindle” or a “pindle bozz.” The bozipede is also called a “pin del dee boz” by the brave, a “pee bozz” by people who spend too much time on their hair, and a “pin diddily boss” by the same people who think it’s funny to mix Kool-Aid and hydroplaning. Bozipedes are well-regarded for being interesting and awesome and spinning out six stories of varying forms, styles, and effects every couple months or so.
That’s right: a new PBoz is out.
Gawk the new fictive dreams from Digby Beaumont, Kristin Fouquet, Chelsey Flood, Tai Dong Huai, Patti Jazanoski, and Lydia Copeland.
What I’ve always liked about Pindeldyboz is how so many of the stories they publish seem small at first–scenes, Christmas muzak, malls, mice, lunch, a few teetering emotions–but always turn irrevocably weird. This isn’t categorical: lots of stuff gets published there that has nothing to do with this feeling of mine. But I feel like Pindeldyboz has an eye for chewy realism in the way that Eyeshot does chicanery or Hobart does mathematician truck driver humor.
All of these magazines have RSS feeds to which you should subscribe, so you won’t even need me–your hot yogurt man, your lumberjack-in-the-rain–to tell you these things. Yes: what I aim for is ultimate dispensibility, also known as “the opposite of sugar” or “not the new Pindeldyboz.”
Secret Santa Special Offers
With Indie Press Secret Santas being assigned today (massive props to Ryan Call for going through and organizing all that and emailing everybody, holy shit), we’ve received a couple special offers from publishers with Santa-only deals lined up.
1st off, Hobart is offering half-price subscriptions. Usually they are $18, so for $9 you can get your gift recipient a year’s worth of a really excellent lit mag. That even leaves room for two gifts. Can’t beat that. In your paypal order, just mention that you are ni the SS program, and make sure to include your recipient’s address (which will be coming with your assignments, half of which have already been sent. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, it should be coming soon).
2nd, from Dzanc Books:
Dzanc Books is excited about the HTMLGIANT Secret Santa program and will happily gift wrap any books ordered through our website for the Secret Santa program. We will gift wrap the book(s), place the gift wrapped books inside a postal envelope (we typically ship things priority) or box, as well as a half sheet page designed by our Art Director, Steven Seighman, which will announce that the accompanying gift wrapped package is arriving as a result of the Secret Santa program, and that their Secret Santa ordered them something from Dzanc Books, and that they should hold off opening the package until Xmas.
http://www.dzancbooks.org/store/index.html
All a Secret Santa will need to do when they order directly from us, is add a note through the Paypal order that it’s for the HTMLGiant program. We will also accept checks/orders via email as well. Those can be sent to dan@dzancbooks.org.
With these deals, you can get a pretty hefty present for $20, not to mention all the other sales going on now (such as the Word Riot bundles).
If publishers would like to extend other Santa promo deals for customers, the comments section is wide open.
MASSIVE PEOPLE (4): Aaron Burch
I first met Aaron Burch at AWP two years ago. I had read some issues of Hobart before and really liked the stuff he’d published, so it made sense to me that I should talk to him. I anxiously introduced myself to him at the Hobart table and babbled to him, asked him many questions about the journal, and felt very sweaty the whole time, especially after I ran out of things to say. I’m glad that he did not punch me in the mouth.
Not that he would have, for Aaron Burch is a kind and gentle human. He grows his beard and keeps it tidy. He smokes cigars and drinks whiskey. He publishes the fine literary periodical Hobart, and he administers the web version as well as the mini-books division.
Aaron Burch lives up north somewhere.
Aaron Burch also does some of his own writing. He is a fine fine writer. His work can be read both online and in print at various publications: Eyeshot, Pindeldyboz, Storyglossia, Phoebe, elimae, MonkeyBicycle, etc. He’s currently reading/writing in the MFA program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also teaches composition.
I emailed him some questions when I was drunk. They seem ‘aggressive’ now that I’m looking at them again, so I have edited out some of the aggressiveness.
1. Lots of people shit on the MFA. You’ve decided to go for it at UIUC. Why? Tell us some pros and cons you’ve noticed about the program, if you can.
New Hobart WebContent and MiniBook
You probably already got this info in your email. Hobart just posted new content at their website: stories by Ravi Mangla, Lindsay Hunter, V. Ulea, and Sara O’Leary. Also, there is an interview up: our own Matthew Simmons asked questions of Michael Kimball. This new issue is the first curated by new web editor Stephany Aulenback. Hooray!
Also, the people at Hobart‘s minibooks division have officially announced their next release: Mary Miller’s Big World. Congratulations to everyone on another successful thing.
They’ll have more details soon about ordering info.
Hobart Oct ’08
Those always massive kids over at Hobart have once again proven their ability to stay on target despite supposed ‘slacker’ status. In addition to the brand new Games issue, which just came out and made me renew my subscription (which also has a series of deleted scenes style stuff on the web for your perusal, if you haven’t already, here), they continue in their monthly reams of goodness today for October with a new update featuring work by Tai Dong Huai, Ed Meek, Jill Widner, and Glen Pourciau, as well as an interview by the always ferocious Matt Simmons with Leni Zumas, which by the second paragraph had me wanting to buy her book.
Their other web feature, the always fun likes/dislikes section, well, I gotta disagree with this month’s dislikes. What’s wrong with BURN AFTER READING? And who doesn’t like watching a couple break up in public?
I am excited, though, about the new Hobart minibook forthcoming, Mary Miller’s BIG WORLD. Not mini at all.
