PRODUCT PLACEMENT: McSweeney’s Field Recordings Vol. 3 now on emusic
I just got an email from HTMLGiant BABY-NAMING CONTEST alumnus Rachel Sherman, announcing that her short story “The Neutered Bulldog” appears on McSweeney’s Field Recordings Vol. 3, a new audiobook which also features Jack Pendarvis, Claire Light, Jonathan Ames, Keith Pille, and Jessica Anthony. The link she sent takes you here, to emusic, which if you don’t know is a music/audiobook subscription service, which gives you a set number of drm-free mp3 downloads based on a monthly rate that you choose.
Rachel says “I think you can download it free” but the site seems to suggest you need to sign up for a free trial to do that. For me, though, that’s not actually a consideration, since I’m already an emusic subscriber. (I get 75 downloads a month for about twenty bucks- it’s delightful.) Speaking of which, if anyone is seriously considering joining emusic, you should email me via my website and let me “sign you up” because if you let me do that (Columbia House Records style, like the old mail-order days) then WE BOTH get 50 more free downloads on top of whatever their regular offer is–plus no shipping and handling.
Dude, whatever. Free stuff is free stuff.
The Vicarious MFA
The Vicarious MFA: all the fun of an MFA, without the embarrassing degree!
I had a sad realization last Monday in the Non/Fiction seminar. We were discussing Beauty Before Comfort by Allison Glock. This book came out in 2003 and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year but just six years later it’s out of print. Benson said this is another good reason to go with an independent publisher, since they tend to keep their stock in print for as long as possible. Even so, it’s a little depressing that your work can get lots of gold stars on minute and be marked way, way down at The Strand the next minute.
We started class with a writing exercize (not a normal practice in a seminar, but a welcome deviation.)
“Describe someone you know in third person, but in the way you think that they see themselves. A paragraph or so into it, add something that they might not nesscessarily know about themselves– your perspective/interpretation of their behavior or personality.” Good fun.
Read David Markson’s Reader’s Block for next Monday. Read Kathleen Norris’s Dakota for Thursday and give a presentation about the transgenerational epigenetic effects of endocrine-disruptive chemicals on mate selection in female rats for Friday. (yikes!)
Also on Friday, Jonathan Safran-Foer is coming to do a talk titled “Intersections” for a small group of grad students (which is neat because usually these lectures get a little crowded and/or infultrated with eager, bad-question-asking undergrads.)
Michael Cera
Michael Cera is in McSweeney’s issue 30.
Uncategorized / 80 Comments
March 4th, 2009 / 11:57 am
March 4th, 2009 / 11:57 am
Sir! Vol. 2
S I R ! M A G A Z I N E issue 2 is live as hell…
I S S U E 2
Featuring work from
Chris Tonelli
Sara Guest
Carrie Hunter
Aaron Burch
Sarah Bartlett
Mark Leidner
Ryan Bradley
Reb Livingston
Jen Pieroni
Paul Siegell
Corey Mesler
Spencer TroxellCover painting and site design by E.B. Goodale
One of my favorite new compendiums of wild, please believe this shit is tight like nuts n bolts, sluts n hoes that get evicted…
Do the read!
Uncategorized / 8 Comments
March 4th, 2009 / 1:17 am
March 4th, 2009 / 1:17 am
“Castle” ABC TV Series! It’s about WRITERS and MURDER!
I love the television show LOST! (no, really! the show’s title is actually in all-caps! this isn’t part of my MEME or my writerly VOICE which you are trying to STIFLE! what is this an undergraduate poetry workshop?) If you haven’t heard of LOST it’s about people who are LOST on an island! They also might be LOST in their own LIVES, but I’m not sure!
Anyway, during LOST they’ve been showing promos for a new TV show called CASTLE which stars the guy from the last season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar STAND UP!) and I am sooooooooooo excited for it because another one of my favorite TV shows is HOUSE which is also a show where the main character is also named after a shelter or building that is a dwelling or place for habitation by human beings and is ALSO the name of the show! Wow! I feel at HOME already! LOL (did you get that joke?)
Get this! RICHARD CASTLE is a WRITER who helps solve MURDERS! Whaaaaaat? What do writers know about MURDER? (except for street poet SHYNE, FREE SHYNE Y’ALL SKIDDLY WHOAAAA)
WAYYYBACK MACHINE: Updike & Cheever on the Dick Cavett show
I found this earlier today. Who even knew that Cavett had an NYT blog? Anyway, he somehow got the Times to post a full episode of his show from October 1981, with Cheever and Updike as his guests. I’m not a huge fan of either man–dig Cheever, as far as it goes; basically have never read Updike–but there was something really fascinating about this, and I wound up watching the whole 28-minute clip. Cheever’s voice is amazing. They really don’t make ’em like him anymore. In the post itself, Cavett writes-
True, but that notwithstanding–or perhaps because of it–Cheever is the one to watch for. I love the part where he talks about church, and Cavett tries unsuccessfully to get him to recite the Apostles Creed.
Updike is mostly quiet, and I think very conscious of his role as the young up-and-coming writer. (How could he not be? Cheever points out “I’m old enough to be John’s father.”) He sits back trying to look comfortable for a few long stretches, while Cheever lavishes praise on him, his work, his talent, etc. They also talk about several things we still argue about more or less daily on this website: can you / should you live and write in NYC? What kind of public profile should a writer have? How does reviewing books fit into writing books? Even though you’re famous, will the New Yorker still reject your story if they don’t like it? (Updike: “they should.”) Etc etc. And plus there’s the sheer joy of watching this kind of televsion, delightfully stone-age, with no commercial breaks, cuts to new segments, and almost no graphics. Nothing but smart, decent people talking about stuff smartly and decently: an idea so out-moded and archaic it might just be revolutionary again.
storySouth 2009 Million Writers Award Now Open For Nominations
Every year since 2004, Jason Sanford of storySouth has curated the Million Writers Award, a contest designed to promote online fiction. Here’s how it works: editors and readers nominate their favorite online stories of 1000 words or more, then a team of judges whittle these nominations into a list of Notable Stories. Sanford then selects a Top 10, and people vote for the final overall winner, who this year will receive a $100 cash prize. Here are a couple paragraphs from Sanford explaining and advocating the award:
As the old saying should go: If you can’t join them, beat them. The storySouth Million Writers Award for best online fiction of the year will help all internet-based journals and magazines gain exposure and attention … The Million Writers Award takes its name from the idea that we in the online writing community have the power to promote the great stories we are creating. If only a few hundred writers took the time to tell fifteen of their friends about a great online short story–and if these friends then passed the word about this fiction to their friends (and so on and so on)–this one story would soon have a larger readership than all of the stories in Best American Short Stories.
Last year, HTMLGIANT friend Matt Bell won the award for his story “Alex Trebeck Never Eats Fried Chicken”, published in Storyglossia. Since Storyglossia is an excellent magazine, “Alex Trebeck” is a great story, and Matt is a terrific writer, something must be going right.
To be fair, the 1000 word rule is controversial. Some editors of online magazines believe the rule marginalizes sub-1000 word stories, which many proponents of online literature believe to be the form that the internet serves best. Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions award is a different and equally excellent showcase effort that helps somewhat alleviate this issue.
The important thing: celebrating online fiction. Which the Million Writers Award has done for 5 years now, so kudos. And remember: it’s up to you. Nominate your favorite stories, or Barack Obama’s going to win this thing too.
HEY YOU, STOP THINKING ABOUT THE BEST WAY TO WORD SOME LAME SHITTALK AND READ THIS FUN INTERVIEW!
yo yo yo everybody! how’s everyone doing! sweet, just trying to look less insecure by arguing on the internet!? aw yeah! well, here’s another random interview. david peak emailed me after i posted about doing interviews. we finna be democratic! keep emailing me and i will keep interviewing. (INTERVIEW AFTER BREAK Y’ALL!+BONUS HEIDEGGER REFERENCE!)
Omniamare
We don’t post a lot here about food writing, mostly because the house we all live together in is sponsored by Chef Boyardee and Captain Morgan, so all we ever eat is canned ravioli washed down with straight warm light rum. But sometimes, something comes across our collective eye–or in this case, just mine–and you want to mention it.
Yesterday I was in my neighborhood coffee shop, and overheard a girl talking on her cell phone to somebody who seemed like a relative, about her day job (PR, of some kind, possibly book-related) and about a food blog she’s been working on for about a month now and feels really happy about. So before she left I aked her for the address of the blog, and went over there to check things out. Now I think you should check things out. The blog is called Omniamare, and the one I met is Lena, who posts as L. Day. Their site motto comes from a Robert Haas poem, and they seem to be pretty good at what they’re doing. Many of the posts come with recipes. Here are some of my findings:
Uncategorized / 10 Comments
March 3rd, 2009 / 1:31 pm
March 3rd, 2009 / 1:31 pm