Nothing in Common
David Duhr writes about Steve Almond’s DIY approach to publishing for Publishing Perspectives.
At Mother Jones, a primer on how to start your own country. I had no idea micronations existed. They seem similar to micropresses.
Aubrey Hirsch has some advice on what you can do with your novella. (No, not that.)
Why do writers abandon their novels? It’s a good question.
It is time for the Tournament of Books. Who are your favorites? I am rooting for Bad Marie.
Lady Journos is featuring lady writers.
Speaking of ladies, I Don’t Respect Female Expression, a chapbook of 11 stories by Frank Hinton, will be out at the end of April.
Joel Johnson wrote an article for Wired about Foxconn, iPhones, and the suicides of 17 employees.
Here’s a list of words that don’t exist in English and here is a similar list. (Thanks, Fiction Writers Review)
Kelly Davio offers some thoughts on writers and self-presentation.
The Wall Street Journal is doing such great literary coverage these days. Meghan O’Rourke writes about cadence in prose.
Roxane Gay—
There’s a new literary/culture blog called Plumb and contributors include Charles Dodd White, Laura Ellen Scott, Sheldon Lee Compton, Robert Kloss, Lavinia Ludlow and others. Check them out. Charles, Laura and Sheldon, in particular, are wonderful and wise writers and I look forward to their contributions in particular.
16
Matthew Simmons—
Charles Baxter on “Owl Criticism”: “To say that something is ‘boring’ is not a statement about a book, although the speaker may think that it is; it’s a statement about the reader’s poverty of equipment.” (That’s the pithiest line. Many less pithy, more fiercely argued and substantial lines are included in the essay, as well.)
What is Experimental Literature? {Five Questions: Debra Di Blasi}
Debra Di Blasi (www.debradiblasi.com) is founding publisher of Jaded Ibis Press and president of Jaded Ibis Productions. In addition to her publishing role, she is a multi-genre writer and artist whose books include The Jirí Chronicles & Other Fictions; Drought & Say What You Like; Prayers of an Accidental Nature; What the Body Requires, and Skin of the Sun (forthcoming). Awards include a James C. McCormick Fellowship in Fiction from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, Thorpe Menn Book Award, Cinovation Screenwriting Award, and Diagram Innovative Fiction Award. She teaches and lectures on 21st Century narrative forms.
while we’re at it…
Shoplifting from American Apparel is being made into a movie. Here is a link to the kickstarter page. All of the information is there. It’s being done by the same people who did Noah’s The Human War and I think it looks pretty exciting. I’m going to donate. I suggest you do the same if you want to. Don’t donate if you don’t want to. Smoke weed if that’s your thing. I’m disabling comments because I don’t care.
Syd Barrett on acid
Interview by Meatball Fulton (1967)
Transcription by Mark Jones
SYD: Well I’ll, I’ll say… for example, painting at an art school. Or painting, say, in infant’s school. The initial desire to paint or initial suc-first successes at painting arised, I think, out of a very genuine basic, um, drive one way or another. So, an-and because of family and social set ups are channeled into success or otherwise and, er, er, through schools and such like and one gets different things. And I think un-and, course, one comes across teachers and people like that, teaching and, sort of, instruction and to talk to and there came, and I feel now that having left art school that there are a lot of things… um… that I could do. A lot of things I see now, a lot of things went in to me, into my head and thinking that these would, perhaps, changing and altering things. For instance I made a painting the other day… and… it’s, I could see and hear very clearly, sort of, different instructions and different criticisms going in to the picture which were in fact p-um-criticisms that I could relate back to art schools and teachers and various things that’d come at that time. So… maybe… this would be very valuable, this break. I don’t know… and, er, sort of, to… try painting again after a break of going in to pop music and going to… playing this sort of music… just might work out that, get more, sort of, basic freedom. I don’t know, it’s something to d-, just things like shape of the paper and, er… seem to be a lot of assumptions taken place. READ MORE >
Rebecca Solnit on a Deficit of Language
I’m a writer, so I spend a lot of time alone at home, but I also spend a lot of time as an activist in the streets, in gatherings and things like that, and following revolutions around the world: the Velvet Revolution, Tiananmen Square, the Zapatistas … In those moments, I’ve discovered in myself and in others a deep happiness, an unknown desire that’s finally fulfilled to be purposeful, to be a part of history and society, to have a voice.
One of my arguments in A Paradise Built in Hell is that we have almost too much language for private needs and desires and not nearly enough for these other things. This need and desire is so profound that when it’s fulfilled, you find these weird moments of joy despite everything in disaster. The whole world is falling apart, but I am who I was meant to be: a citizen, a rescuer, a resourceful person who belongs to and is serving a community.
Try + Mechanics Giveaway
Try by Dennis Cooper and The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse by Lonely Christopher are up for grabs. These are courtesy of the super talented & friendly Joel Westendorf, whose photography and design work are wow. Email satorpress (at google’s mail thing) your address and I’ll pick one winner for each. NOW CLOSED.