June Issue of DecomP: A Literary Magazine
I googled "happy day" and this came up.
Jason Jordan has put up another stellar issue of DecomP. Here’s the lineup and a hello from him:
Uncategorized / 39 Comments
May 29th, 2009 / 1:16 pm
May 29th, 2009 / 1:16 pm
A Poem is a Counterpunching Radio: Jack Spicer Better Late than Never
There should be no rules for this but it should be
simultaneous if at all.
Homosexuality is essentially being alone. Which is
a fight against the capitalist bosses who do not want
us to be alone. Alone we are dangerous.
Our dissatisfaction could ruin America. Our love
could ruin the universe if we let it.
If we let our love flower into the true revolution
we will be swamped with offers for beds.
– “Homosexuality and Marxism” (from Three Marxist Essays)
+
Several months ago Wesleyan University Press sent me My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poems of Jack Spicer (Peter Gizzi & Kevin Killian, eds). I got side-tracked and hadn’t really looked at it, until the other day when I read Language, a collection from later in Spicer’s life (he died at age 40, in 1965). It right about knocked me on my ass, and you’ll be hearing more about Vocabulary in the weeks to come, but for right now, here’s some of Spicer’s work that’s available online courtesy of the Electronic Poetry Center. Also: audio at PennSound. Also, if you’re feeling like you need a proper introduction to JS, here again is Jared White’s fine long essay on Vocabulary, which I linked to in passing several months back.
More on Golden Hemorrhoids and “Emerods in their secret parts”: The Bible
- Ouch! I posted earlier about Ernie Conrick’s wierd, pornographic story involving anal sex, hemorroids and, well, politics. On further, uh, digging, on the subject matter, I discovered Cornick’s not surprising, fantastic Biblical reference, quoted after the jump (King James Version):
INTERVIEW WITH DJ BERNDT, EDITOR OF “PANGUR BAN PARTY”
I sent dj berndt some questions. He was really nice and cool and his answers saved the interview. He is the editor of the website PANGUR BAN PARTY. Please submit to the journal.
(interview after break)
This is not not a Contest
Clearly self-serving, but it’s free (like self promoting contests should be), and there’s already a ton of prizes, so what the hay:
Lamination Colony is hosting a free writing contest, no entry fee, with prizes of publication, books (including html contributor Chelsea Martin’s everything was fine until whatever), handmade art, a picture of my ass, and a continuously increasing array of prizes donated from all around, including (so far):
* (1) copy of Shane Jones’s ‘Light Boxes‘ from Publishing Genius
* (1) copy of Molly Gaudry’s ‘We Take Me Apart’ forthcoming from ML Press
* the last hand edited manuscript of THE SELF ESTEEM HOLOCAUST COMES HOME and a printed copy of FROWNS NEED FRIENDS TOO (new two books from Sam Pink)
* a copy of William Walsh’s ‘Questionstruck,’ Thomas Cooper’s ‘Phantasmagoria’ and Issue 7 of Keyhole, all from Keyhole Press+ a ton more listed here
More prizes are being added by the hour (feel free to offer up your own), and again, it’s free.
This is a serious contest, there will be a winner, (at least 1-2) runner ups, everyone will get free shit, it will be free and people will read words maybe and talk about it not because there was a contest but because there are words.
For more info on what/how to enter, check the specs here. Thanks.
Books: Check ’em out
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWxaGqjQKvE
It’s like Sir Mixalot meets Philip Larkin.
Amy King: I’m The Man Who Loves You
I’ve been meaning to write about Amy King’s poetry for some time now and plan on a longer post at a later date. (Click here to go to her blog.) As a non-poet, I find writing about poetry intimidating and as a reader of poetry, I use very loose guidelines in my judgement of poetry. Here are my reasonings, and an Amy King poem:
Last book I loathed
Worst book ever?
I have really enjoyed reading through the Rumpus list of writers talking about their favorite books. Sometimes surprising, occasionally illuminating and eminently useful. And you know, it has been said by some that if you don’t have something good to say, you shouldn’t say it at all. Maybe. My Manichean outlook, however, demands that likewise a list of the last books that attentive readers absolutely despised would be an equally fruitful enterprise. I know we’re all about positivity here, but I, for one, would appreciate some timely warnings of books that will, if I’m not careful, make me bleed out of my eyes and rend my bathroom slippers in agony. The three least awesome books I’ve read recently are these:
1) The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb: I’m still dealing with the aftermath of this nearly 1,000 page bucket of swill. The Oprah-adored author uses the Columbine massacre as a jumping off point for his emotionally manipulative, clichéd slop bucket of senseless tragedy.
2) The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littel: I guess I just have a problem with books that demand a lot of my time and page-turning energy and don’t give anything but poop in return. Littel’s controversial novel of a sadistic, intellectual S.S. officer making his way through the various theaters and meat grinders of World War 2 seems like the type of thing I’d be into. Not so! The flat and unlovely prose (maybe what you’d expect of a book written by a Nazi bureaucrat) is only to be outdone by the author’s obsession with feces.
3) Break It Down, by Lydia Davis: Blasphemy! I kind of liked The End of the Story, and, to a lesser extent, Varieties of Disturbance, but this one just didn’t do it for me. For every story I liked, there were three or four that made me want to quit reading forever.
What books do you hate?
Hannah in Harper’s
Here’a a big FYI: the excerpt from Hannah’s novel-in-progress, Sick Soldier at Your Door, which was published in the Winter ’09 issue of Gulf Coast, has been picked up by the “Readings” section of Harper’s. It’s reprinted in the current issue, the one with the Vonnegut short story and the large roundtable with contributions from–among many others–Ben Marcus and Zadie Smith. I guess those are all pretty good reasons to pick the issue up. Actually, Harper’s is one of those magazines you’re better off subscribing to than buying on stands. It’s under 20 bucks for a year subscription, compared to something like 7 bucks per issue if you buy them one at a time. Basically, if you feel like you might want to buy a Harper’s twice in a given year, you’re better off just subscribing, and letting it come right to you.
I LIKE THE BOOK “UNDER MILK WOOD” MORE THAN I LIKE MOST OF MY FRIENDS BUT LESS THAN I LIKE FRUIT ROLL-UPS
i don’t remember when i first read dylan thomas’ UNDER MILK WOOD. but i have read it three or four times. which means it’s tied for most-read book with the instruction manual for the nintendo game BUBBLE BOBBLE. i don’t really like dylan thomas’ poetry but UNDER MILK WOOD is trill fucking good. i think if i took a picture of my face while reading it, i would look a lot like Squeaky Fromme when she was in court. UNDER MILK WOOD is a play about a small town and all the people in it. in order to account for things that can’t be shown, dylan thomas institues random voices to help narrate shit. i don’t want to spend a lot of time coming up with a review because that might ruin the book for me. so here are some random excerpts and my reactions.
(reactions after jump, take a peek!)
30 Comments
May 27th, 2009 / 10:57 pm
May 27th, 2009 / 10:57 pm