Justin Taylor is the author of the story collection Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever, and the novel The Gospel of Anarchy. He is the editor of The Apocalypse Reader, Come Back Donald Barthelme, and co-editor (with Eva Talmadge) of The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide. With Jeremy Schmall he makes The Agriculture Reader, a limited-edition arts annual. He lives in Brooklyn.
James Yeh interviews Diane Williams at The Faster Times.
At The Rumpus, Elissa Bassist wonders, have I earned these cliches?
In a belated look at the NYTBR, the great Harold Bloom reviews a book about the history of anti-Semitism in English literature, Adam Kirsch looks at two books about Heidegger, and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein writes a satire on Theory, in the style of Borges.
io9 rounds up 35 titles for “The Essential Posthuman Science Fiction Reading List.”
The Nation has a new website! Learn about what’s different here, and about their decision to open source here. Kudos and congrats, guys!
Speaking of new websites, n+1 has one, too. The present feature is new fiction by Dy Tran “about” donuts.
A new issue of the Home Video Review of Books!
And last but absolutely not least, the new issue of Propeller features an interview with Kevin Sampsell, one with yours truly, a review of the latest Nicholson Baker, and a whole bunch of other treats besides. Check it out.
What exactly does [Andrew Sullivan] think is going to happen now? Does he imagine that Kagan, in an uncharacteristically un-butch moment, is going to break down in front of Orrin Hatch and tearily confess to having cloistered away a secret lesbian lover in some Cambridge bat cave because she was worried that Alan Dershowitz would be really really mean to her about it? Because that would go over really well for gay rights–what a role model!–never mind Kagan’s confirmation.
Any day with something new by Richard Kim is a good day.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2LtJ7AKUrc
Happy Saturday night! I’m going out into the wind.
GIANT alum Drew Toal thoroughly enjoys Joshua Cohen’s Witz, and says so in Time Out New York. Also, look for some concise praise of Witz in the Briefly Noted section of this week’s New Yorker (5/10/10 issue). I think things are looking good for my man, and I believe that this is only the beginning. Stay tuned. And, duh, get yours.
Yesterday Dennis Cooper honored a request for a re-print of an old blog post of his from ’06– “Writer vs. Artist #2, Comte de Lautremont, Salvador Dali.” Also in Coop-news, DC’s blog turns five years old on 5/15. Happy birthday to one of my bar-none favorite places on the whole internet!
Peter Orner posts his introduction to Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives (McSweeney’s, 2008) at The Rumpus.
CBS censored/retracted/denied/something’d their story about the use of military spy planes in the capture of failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, but The Nation‘s Jeremy Scahill is on it.
And last but not least, here’s Florida state senator Mike Bennett looking at pornography on his laptop on the floor of the senate while a debate about an anti-abortion bill which he favors is going on. Way to go, you hypocrite woman-hating fuck. Full story at Jezebel, but the video speaks for itself–and for the senator.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p_1E5d5bfE&
And hey, once you’re over at Jezebel, you might as well start “Rethinking Virginity–And Examining Our Assumptions About Sex.” It may also interest you to know that “American Apparel Lies about its ‘Real People’ Models.” And if you’re still not done, there’s “Miley Cyrus’s New Video: An Analysis.” I bet you’re done now, huh?
Hey friends. I’m freshly returned to the CITY THAT NEVER GETS CARBOMBED after a sweet Southern swing through Atlanta, GA and Sarasota, FL. In Atlanta I got to hang with Heather Christle, Chris DeWeese, Blake Butler, Amy McDaniel (who put me up and showed me around) and Casey McKinney. Then Amy and I roadtripped on down to Sarasota for two days of events at New College, where we stayed with Alexis Orgera and rolled deep with Alec Niedenthal. Skol shots with coconut pie chaser! A panel discussion on readings for models! Un-ironic dancing! It was college all right, and I loved it. But I love being back, too, and to prove it I will spend today in a windowless room with nineteen or so other “chapbook” publishers, selling small amounts of paper for small amounts of money. The Chapbook Festival is free and open to the public. It is in the ground floor of CUNY at 365 Fifth Avenue, at the corner of 34th street, right by the Empire State Building. The fair opens at 11:30AM and goes all day. There’s also free workshops and a Marathon Reading that will be running all day as a kind of parallel narrative to the rest of the festival. Yesterday I was traveling, but co-Agriculturalist Jeremy Schmall tells me that organizing poet Ana Bozicevic has really outdone herself this year, which must be pretty good since I had so much fun last year that I posted about it twice (2). So I’m pretty pumped that he has to go to work today and I get to go to CUNY and do this. I know Mike Young will be there, and I’m sure that further surprises will abound. If you’re around, you should come see us.
It’s HTMLGiant meatspace weekend (for me and four other people)! I’m heading down to Atlanta this afternoon to see Amy and Blake–then Amy and I will continue onward to Sarasota, FL where we’ll be reading and talking at New College with Alec Niedenthal and Alexis Orgera. But while I’m doing that, you can do this:
The Heart is Green from so Much Waiting by Sam Starkweather is now on sale from Immaculate Disciples Press.
There’s a new installment of WKE Story Time (episode 5) and it features Willy Vlautin, author of Lean on Pete, which I have heard nothing but the best and most enthusiastic things about.
The Spring issue of Sixth Finch, featuring Leigh Stein, Jackie Clark, Farrah Field, Dan Hoy, art by Glenray Tutor, and more.
The “metal flowers” ebay auction has ended. I am very proud to announce that the winning bid was a whopping $81, all of which will go to Girls Write Now. As this amount is greater than $76 (the so-called Doty-Lethem threshold), the winning bidder will get an additional prize package. (What am I talking about?)
Oh and last but not least, here’s a little more followup (via Crooks and Liars) on the “racist racists” post about Arizona from the other day. Here’s some information about AZ-State Senator Russell Pearce, author of the law, and his close friend, neo-Nazi J.T. Ready. Now here’s an avowed white nationalist bragging on his website about how he “helped” Pearce write the law. So, yeah.
NY’ers don’t forget that the Ag Reader event is tonight.
Here’s a sweet new review of Mathias Svalina’s Destruction Myth, which you might remember I liked a whole lot. I’m not the only one, it seems. Good.
There’s less than a day left to bid on my Metal Flowers at Significant Objects. (What am I talking about?) The price is up to $58, and the prize package (for whoever wins if the bidding goes over $76) is still on offer.
The Rumpus has got Jack Pendarvis on Wuthering Heights.
Coldfront’s Graeme Bezanson pointed out on my facebook page that I spelled the name AND url of his organization wrong on my AWP photo album post. He did not point out that I spelled his over-voweled, maple-syrup-drenched name properly. Anyway, I’ll go fix the other post in a minute, but for now, those of you who are interested in poetry criticism would do better to look for it at Coldfrontmag.com, ie here.
Upcoming for NY’ers: Sunday 5/2 is Nirvana Night at Cakeshop, in which “12 poets read original poems—each inspired by one of the 12 songs on this epic album.”
Here are some pictures I shot over the course of the AWP conference, which took place in Denver, Colorado, April 7 – 10, 2010.
From Chief Agriculturist Jeremy Schmall:
It’s been a year in the making, but the new issue is finally here! After all the letterpressing, stamping, stickering, and in some cases fingerprinting (you’ll see), the only thing we want now is to show it to you! That’s why there’s no better place to be than the wonderful KGB Bar this Monday night, as part of The Monday Night Poetry Series. Always at 7:30. Always FREE. The reading will feature Mark Bibbins, the author of The Dance of No Hard Feelings (Copper Canyon Press, 2009) and the Lambda Award-winning Sky Lounge; and Douglas Crase, author of The Revisionist, Both: A Portrait in Two Parts, and editor of The Library of America editions of Emerson’s Essays: First and Second Series.
Facebook invite is here. Jeremy and I will be hosting, and we’d love to see you there.
