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.
Corduroy Mtn. in Print
Now available from Greying Ghost Press, the first print run of Corduroy Mtn. From their site:
We like hats. We like hats so much we threw ours into the literary magazine ring. When we all became embarrassed by our haircuts, what we found was some truly excellent, original, and eclectic material written by a bunch of strangers. First Print comes as a 5×7 chapbook with hand stamped covers (each one is different!), a broadsheet, a photograph, and a Jack Boettcher quote. Printed on high quality linen paper with color inserts.
Featuring: Peter Berghoef, Shane Jones, Brooklyn Copeland, Forest Roth, Blake Butler, Mandy Billings, Brandon Shimoda, Sommer Browning, Adam Maynard, Joshua Ware, Drew Kalbach, B.J. Love, Kevin Wilson, Kendra Malone, Jac Jemc, Eric Amling, and James Iredell.
I was rejected by them once saying my piece was ‘boring.’ They actually used that word. I’m not being spiteful or trying to start up shit (the piece was kind of boring). My only point is Editor Carl Annarummo seems to be in the business of only publishing fucking awesome writing, as exemplfied here. (Hit ‘start reading’ and ride it.)
Good Job everyone. Exciting.
MASSIVE PEOPLE(9): Reb Livingston
Reb Livingston is a MASSIVE person for two reasons: 1) I have a crush on her and 2) in an interview with Orange Alert in February of 08, she said, “I believe every ‘serious’ poet should, in some way, assist and cultivate other poets.” Reb lives by that belief. She co-edits No Tell Motel, in which appear a great variety of poets; she runs No Tell Books, a micro press that follows the print on demand model; she is very active online and off when it comes to supporting the community; and she is the author of Pterodactyls Soar Again (Coconut 2006), Wanton Textiles (w/ Ravi Shankar, No Tell Books 2006), Your Ten Favorite Words (Coconut 2007), and God Damsel (forthcoming No Tell Books 2009).
A personal bit from her website:
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she now resides in the greater Washington, D.C. area with her husband and son. Once she worked for America Online. Although that was a long time ago.
After the break begins the email interview. All pictures are taken from her own site or from her blog. I encourage everyone to check out her blog, as there are some great posts in the archives about the starting a journal, starting a press, publishing that first book, etc (look for the ‘publishing’ label). Also, don’t go away: there’s something special at the end of this post. The something special is FREE BOOKS.
MIKE TOPP TYPES WORDS THAT FORM PHRASES THAT APPEAL TO ME
yesterday i wrote about THE STUYVESANT BEE, a one page publication by MIKE TOPP. after i read the STUYVESANT BEE i researched MIKE TOPP using google and pure instinct. i really like mike topp’s writing. i read some poems at BALTIMORE IS READS. each one was really entertaining. he also has a blog that i visited and clicked through thoroughly. i like his style. he is funny and sad and the balance works well. he also has a book out from FUTURE TENSE PUBLISHING called HAPPY ENDING. i will buy it when i buy all the other books i am behind on because of FUCKING PAYPAL. chelsea martin has MIKE TOPP’S phone number. i want to call MIKE TOPP and then act embarrassed and talk to people in the background like when you were in eighth grade and girl who liked you would call. MIKE TOPP, i am an eighth grade girl who likes you.
here is mike topp sitting on a bed looking upset, most likely because he just fell into a puddle of ink and ruined his suit
Gert Jonke 1946-2009
Austrian novelist, playright, poet, etc. Gert Jonke died this past Sunday, of cancer, at age 62.
The author of more than 17 books in German, not to mention countless other texts for TV, the stage, and elsewhere, I would call Jonke one of the most important writers that more people in English should know about. So far 2 of his books have been translated in English and published by the ever-vital Dalkey Archive, including the absolutely incredible ‘Geometric Regional Novel‘ and the more recent ‘Homage to Czerny,’ with 2 more on the way, and hopefully more to come in the future.
I wrote about Jonke and his work more extensively here, if you are so inclined.
Mean Monday on Tuesday: 42 Opus, Are you OK?
-
I am not this frustrated
I like your journal. I have read some good poems and short stories at your literary magazine. I submitted something to you, using your great submission manager, in December of 2007. I have checked up repeatedly on your fantabulous submission tracker thing and I have read that two editors have read my thingy. One editor thing says this: January 2008 and then underneath, July 2008. The other editor thing says, January 2008 and then- nothing! And then there is your category- “final decision”. Nothing! Nothing in the final decision category!
Anyway, I am not totally being mean here. Because, you accept simultaneous submissions and so therefore you can hold onto it for a good long while, in my book. But I feel the need to give you a tiny bit of a hard time for taking OVER A YEAR. Also, I very politely queried you in November, at the 11 month mark. (I think, although maybe it was October, at the 10 month mark? You say in your submission guidelines that you welcome queries if we haven’t heard from you after five months). I have had no response to my query. Anyway, you slightly bug me that you have not gotten back to me. I still recognize that you are a quality literary journal. But, I am slightly irritated with you because of your no response thing. Maybe you are not well? If so, I hope you get better.
Yours Truly,
pr
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.
Excerpt: The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
I just finished reading this tragedy by an Irish writer (with a Catholic background, of course, for those who know my obsessions). It was recommended to me, but I can’t remember by whom. It was brilliant and relentlessly bleak. Here is a section where the protaganist begins to lose her faith:
Was there nothing to pray to? Was the confession she had just made a form, something you went through to ease your conscience? If it was, then how easy it was to explain all the miseries, the follies, all the useless novenas, the prayers that never got an answer. And if it was true, then all the priests, all the bishops, all the cardinals, are wrong. Deluded men, believing they are being helped by a God who is not there. An unhelpful God. Why does he make men suffer?…
Power Quote: Allen Tate (with SPECIAL BONUS FEATURE)
I take the somewhat naive view that the literature of the past began somewhere a few minutes ago and that the literature of the present begins, say, with Homer. While there is no doubt that we need as much knowledge of all kinds, from all sources, as we can get if we are to see the slightest lyric in all its richness of meaning, we have nevertheless an obligation, that we perilously evade, to form a judgment of the literature of our own time. It is more than an obligation; we must do it if we would keep on living. When the scholar assumes that he is judging a work of the past from a high and disinterested position, he is actually judging it from no position at all but is only abstracting from the work those qualities that his semiscientific method will permit him to see; and this is the Great Refusal.
– “Miss Emily and the Bibliographer”
(from Praising it New: The Best of The New Criticism; Garrick Davis, ed.)
**********SPECIAL ALLEN TATE BONUS FEATURE*********
Tate’s “Ode to the Confederate Dead”
and Lowell’s rejoinder, “For the Union Dead”
bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye
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.