NYC: Multi Lit Magazine Benefit
New York dwellers and New York visitors should know that this Wednesday (that’s tomorrow) there is going to be a cool fun thing to do. Opium, Gigantic, and Bomb Magazine are having a benefit/party. There will be micro-readings, plays, musical acts, video art and more.
Six bucks will get you in the door at 8 pm and 10 bucks will get you in the door for a “VIP” cocktail hour and bonus entertainment.
-VIP performance from Kalup Linzy
-Short plays directed by Ben Greenman and Bob Powers
–The Dog House Band, featuring bluegrass David Gates
and Sven Birkerts and John Wesley Harding
– performances by Joseph Keckler, James J. Williams III, and the band The Library Is On Fire!
New Friend! Also, Party!
Last night I was out with some people, and one of them was Erica Plouffe Lazure, singer in The Dog House Band (pictured above), which is the Bennington MFA-based country-rock outfit whose membership also includes David Gates and Sven Birkerts. Unsurprisingly, the woman in the all-writers-band is herself–wait for it–a writer. Here’s “Evisceration Line,” a sweet (read=”sad”) short story at Keyhole magazine. And here’s a short-short at SmokeLong Quarterly, “Green Monster,” accompanied by a Q&A with Erica. Also, “Cadence,” in the thoroughly un-link-to-able (because it exists in the actual physical world) McSweeney’s #29. Finally, this is as good a time as any–better than some–to remind you that if you’re in New York, you should come see The Dog House Band play the Opium/Gigantic/Bomb Party at Bowery Electric this Wednesday, August 26th. Special guests will include John Wesley Harding, one of the Pierce Sisters, a short play directed by Ben Greenman, and other stuff that I can’t remember off the top of my head. But here’s the thing you click to get yourself a ticket. They’re ten bucks in advance, fifteen the day of, and “all pre-sales get free VIP access”–whatever the eff that means. Anyway, I bought mine, so I guess I’ll find out.
Matthew Simmons—
I forgot to mention this: Michael Martone’s 4 for a Quarter twitter feed is brilliant.
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Michael Martone’s Reading List for “American Short Fiction of the 70’s and 80’s”
Recently in the comments section of this post, DD mentioned Michael Martone’s workshop reading list. Dear Leader responded by asking for the full list. DD didn’t have the list handy.
So I wrote to him to see if he would share it with us. First, he said his recent workshops don’t have a book list except, “Hyde’s The Gift and a baby name book called Beyond Jennifer and Jason. Also The Mac is Not a Typewriter and sometimes Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder.”
But, he teaches a class called American Short Fiction of the 70’s and 80’s, and was happy to share the reading list. It—and more—appear after the jump: READ MORE >
Justin Taylor—
Here’s a fun toy! Translation Party translates your English sentences to Japanese, then back to English, then back again, until it achieves equilibrium. Naturally, hilarity ensues.
TripleQuick Fiction
Featherproof is creating an iPhone app for flash called “TripleQuick Fiction.” Each story will be 333 words long or fewer, and from looking at the part of the image underneath Shane Jones’s barrelchest, I gather that readers can vote on each piece’s quality by choosing either “Good Egg” or “Rotten Egg.” To me that’s the coolest thing about the idea. Let’s let the techie dudes have a say in what works for li’l lit.
You heard it at the Examiner first, with this keen and clunky description of short fiction: “Because the stories are so short they may seem simple and disposable but writing good flash fiction is challenging because you only have so few words–333 in this case–to create, or at least suggest, a world, to take the reader there and let her experience it.” Now with mobile technology, you can let TripleQuick take you to one world while the bus takes you to work.
I’m really excited about this, even though I don’t have an iPhone. I have a G1. What are the chances some ebookish developer gets motivated enough to set this up for Android? What about people with just regular cell phones, the kind with the hinge? Are they gonna get illiterate?
What’s next? What the hell is going to happen next?
A Book Lover’s Guide to IKEA seating
Say what you will about cookie-cutter culture, IKEA offers affordable furniture that doesn’t smell like the 1970’s. When enjoying your favorite book, it’s important to be seated properly — or at least in a way that compliments your reading experience. Here is a guide to what to read, and in what chairs.
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I.
Expensive couch
This is a really expensive leather couch, ideal for books which reflect the opulent lifestyle, like American Psycho and The Great Gatsby. We learn in literature that money is not good, like all the bad people are rich and all the good people are poor. I don’t think this is a healthy attitude — now there’s some artistic nobility to being unemployed. I know I’m not your dad, but “get a job.” If I were the guy in American Psycho, I would not “freak out” (murder, crying into voicemail, etc.) and just keep my kick-ass job and eat good filet mignon at lunch and have sex with a lot of models.
What’s Up, Rumpus? Looking for Funny Women–PLUS–Stephen Elliott Explains Why He Writes
OPEN CALL: The Rumpus is looking for funny women:
Elissa Bassist talks about the under-representation of women in humor. Her consideration of this trend happily includes links to all seven (only seven!) female-authored Shouts & Murmurs columns of the past year. After you’ve read about the problem, you, too, will likely be hankering for a solution. Well, be your own solution! That is, if you’re a woman, and if you’re funny. Read the Guidelines for Funny Women Submissions to the Daily Rumpus . It says the deadline is September 15th, and then the “additional deadline” is never, because you should never stop writing. I’m not sure if that means this Funny Women thing will recur at Rumpus or if it just means you should love and believe in yourself–but stop bothering Elissa about it after September. Seems like the easiest thing to do would be to write something funny now, and not have to worry about it later. But that’s just me–and I don’t qualify.
Also, this is less by women, and less funny, then above, but it’s still really good. From “Why I Write,” by Stephen Elliott (click thru quote to essay).
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August 24th, 2009 / 10:09 am
August 24th, 2009 / 10:09 am
Racist Book Covers: An Update
Last month Justin Taylor posted about the Justine Larbalestier cover controversy. (Recap: Larbalestier is an Austrailian author who’s YA novel is about to be released in America by Bloomsbury. Despite having a dark skinned heroine, Bloomsbury was all “Black people on book covers make them not sell” and they put a white girl on the cover. Larbalestier posted on her blog something like “Can You Believe These Chumps?” Instant controversy.)
So now Bloomsbury has changed the cover, despite having sent the white girl galleys out. There’s the new cover with a slightly European-looking dark-skinned lady on the cover. Now when I think of Bloomsbury I will just imagine Justin Timberlake with cornrows, trying to rap or prove that when called upon to do so, some white people can dance.