Three Seattle Things
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBsmdMCwZjE
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWs8PX2kHUc
Prose poems by Seattle treasure, John Olson, read at Pilot Books during Small Press Fest. Go here to see Brandon Downing introduce Mr. Olson. I missed this reading. I hate that I missed this reading.
Suggested John Olson books: The Night I Dropped Shakespeare on the Cat, Free Stream Velocity, Eggs and Mirrors.
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In treasured writer slash treasure-hunting news, Ryan Boudinot’s geocaching story project “Found and Lost” continues. It appears that copies of the story “Juan” now exist in California and North Carolina. Fans of short fiction and fans of GPS device-based tracking games take note.
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Another Seattle treasure is the producer Vitamin D. To celebrate his birthday, he gave away a free 9-song EP called Bornday, much of which he says was recorded on his birthday. Go here for a link and grab it.
Which reminds me: I started A Jello Horse on my birthday. Anyone else feel a creative urge on their born day? Anything of note come out of it?
The next ten years, according to the NBCC
Here, you’ll find a panel discussion with some NBCC people on the “next ten years” of book publishing. Whereas the title of the panel misleads (you’d think the panelists would talk about book publishing but they end up talking more about being book reviewers/critics), it ends up being a fairly provocative discussion, one that both excited and angered me.
Some highlights:
1. Mark Athitakis begins the panel quoting DFW’s new book. The web is a seemingly egalitarian space. It offers “everyone” a chance to publish and review. This model engenders a “grassroots” or bottom-up opportunity, for the “people” to decide what is “good” and ought to be read, as opposed to our top-down model now, with a handful of publishers dictating what gets mass distribution. DFW argues, however, that the web ultimately will offer us too many opportunities, and that before long, we’ll be asking for “gate-keepers” to tell us what is good and where to find it.
2. Colette Bancroft, books editor of the St. Petersburg Times, extends the DFW conversation by arguing that the web enables EVERYONE to be a critic and the heyday of the gate-keeper is slowly going away. I like this idea, though I’m not sure I buy it.
3. Scott McLemee of Inside Higher Ed gives a shout out to the “youngins.” Apparently, he knows some young people who read, unlike most of the other panelists there. In particular, he mentions The New Inquiry and Rumpus, which I don’t need to link because everyone here probably reads it.
Uncategorized / 15 Comments
March 23rd, 2010 / 1:31 pm
March 23rd, 2010 / 1:31 pm
THIS HEALTH INSURANCE SHIT
can't go to emergency room, too expensive
After I lost/left my old job last summer, I went on COBRA for health insurance, which costs me a burdensome $200 a month. When my COBRA stuff expires later this year, it’ll go to a blistering $600 a month, at which point I’ll have to drop it and get something else. Or maybe circumstances have changed now that THIS HAPPENED. (Did you think it would? I didn’t.) Here’s a rundown of changes that go into effect immediately.
As a writer who had a day job for a long time and will have one again and hates the idea of it, I’ve been waiting for “universal health care” for a long time, and fervently, and I fucking hate insurance companies. This is how I would like to see the folks who run insurance companies end up:
This is a Formica table
1. @ The Guardian, Twin Peaks celebrates its 20th anniversary.
2. An excerpt from Johannes Göransson’s recently completed novel, Haute Surveillance (which is fucking incredible), presented by Andrew Lundwall.
3. A trailer for Ben Mirov’s Ghost Machine, forthcoming from Caketrain:
Win Wells Tower’s Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
The fine folks at Macmillan have provided us with three copies of Wells Tower’s much talked about collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned to give away to readers. (Check out an excerpt at the link)
To enter, comment with answers to any of the following: What’s the best fire you ever saw? Best tower you ever saw? Best thing you ever burned?
Two winners will be selected for their elaboration, one will be selected at random. Entries end tomorrow evening.
5 swank stalls of roaring!
1.This dork will grant you a Lorrie Moore book.
2. We don’t want your damn glowing buoy things in our river, arty-farty.
3. Oh no we copy edited The Broken Plate 7 full times and should have done 8. Sweet mag but we konked up some of the table of contents. Like the page #s might not match the author’s work. Uh, sorry.
4. Publisher Or Books has had enough of Amazon’s bullshit.
5. I almost forgot to mention Tao Lin. Whew. Hold up. Here’s a classical album on Ebay. Art work, something.
Nick Antosca—
If you could live one writer’s life instead of your own, whose would it be? (My picks: Nabokov and James Salter. Despite Salter’s melancholia over having missed out on going to the moon by quitting flying.) Alternately, whose life would you least like to live? (Malcolm Lowry. Alcoholic. Wife attacked by dogs.) Typing this just reminded me of that old list of 5 Writers More Badass than the Characters They Created.
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Alec Niedenthal—
Mega-congratulations to our own Roxane Gay on Ayiti, a collection of stories and poems about Haiti, which the folks over at Artistically Declined Press announced today they’ll be publishing this fall. Congrats also to Jereme Dean, HTMLG personality, whose collection of poems Of Many Departures has found a home with the same!
Pimpin’
I stumbled upon the St. John’s College Reading List and I find it fascinating. Readings cover the Greeks, the Bible, and much much more. A few universities do this sort of thing–a comprehensive reading program to serve as the foundation of a student’s education. I think it’s a wonderful approach but I agonize over how you decide which books to include. What would be on your reading list?
Mud Luscious Press is having a bookmark contest. Details here.
Another year, another Orange Prize fracas.
Frequent, lively commenter Amber Sparks has assumed the position of Fiction Editor for Emprise Review. Send her some great writing, won’t you?
Come April, Letter Machine Editions is reading manuscripts.
Offered without commentary: Robert Swartwood vs. Narrative, Part II.
I read a couple of great books this weekend and you may want to check them out—Congratulations! There’s No Last Place If Everyone is Dead by Matthew DeBenedictis (sold out, sadly) and Non/Fiction by Dan Gutstein. The former came with an odd packet of instant coffee and Yo! MTV Raps trading cards. I now know that there are trading cards for everything.
Submishmash is a great alternative to the CLMP submission manager (which is a fine product albeit a bit pricey) and its run by fine people who are very responsive to their customers. If you’re looking for a submission management option, you should check them out.