FIREWHEEL CONTEST
complete information after break.
Win Joanna Ruocco’s The Mothering Coven
I received an extra copy of the wonderful Joanna Ruocco’s new novel The Mothering Coven, which has just been released from Ellipsis Press.
Robert Coover said, “Ruocco’s Coven is an engagingly whimsical tale, graceful and inventive, with its own distinctive lexicon, reminiscent of the works of such writers as Ronald Firbank or Coleman Dowell. It toys with language and knowledge somewhat like an emerald-eyed black cat in the book toys with a large bird. Batting it about playfully. Coaxing something new out of it.” Nice. Having read Joanna’s work in many other places, and thrilled by it, I couldn’t be much more excited to dig into this.
On page 22 of the book, there is this sentence: “Neck pimples,” yells Ms. Kidney.
Ms. Kidney seems to me a great character name. Nothing like a good character name, don’t you think?
Leave a comment on this post with your favorite or one of your favorite character names, from any book ever. The name that tickles best, to me, will win a copy of Joanna’s radical new book. Contest goes till Friday morning. Thanks!
In the meantime, you can still buy Joanna’s book, along with the new title from Norman Lock, and the amazing two first releases by Ellipsis (Eugene Marten and Eugene Lim!), each individually, or for a limited time all together for $40, shipping included. Too good.
Win Zak Smith’s Book of Illustrations of Gravity’s Rainbow
Scott Esposito of The Quarterly Conversation is giving away a copy of Zak Smith‘s Pictures Showing What Happens On Each Page Of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow.
If you want to win this book, all you need to do is be a member of our Facebook group and write on our wall telling us why you should get the book. Out of all the entrants, we’ll pick the winner the week of September 7.
Give TQC some of your time, everyone. There’s an interesting excerpt in the latest issue from Macedonia Fernández’s The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (forthcoming from Open Letter). The editors of TQC write:
Museum is a collection of prologues to a book that is not yet written, and, reminiscent of Viktor Shklovsky, part of Museum’s logic is to frustrate the readers’ expectations with continual digressions, as well as to challenge their attempts to predict what kind of a book will follow this series of prologues. That all is to say that Museum is one of those books that makes practically no sense at first and then slowly gets better and better as the reader acclimates to its sensibility.
Justin Taylor—
As part of the myriad activities planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1, the normally staid National Bureau of Statistics is letting its hair down a bit.
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Win a copy of Amelia Gray’s AM/PM
Oops!
I accidentally ordered two copies of Amelia Gray’s AM/PM from Featherproof . Write a vilanelle about your htmlgiant contributor of choice and I’ll send my extra copy and some other books to my favorite entry. Post your entries in the comments section.
A Different Notion of the Critic: some excerpts
A while ago I received the first issue of Rooms Outlast Us, a small poetry journal run by Ethan Edwards, J.E. Kielsgard, and Danika Stegeman (I worked Ethan and Danika on Phoebe over a year ago). Anyhow, I wanted to give you a quick look at their project. This first issue is very simply designed. Here’s the cover:
The issue is thirty six pages long and contains poetry by Julie Doxsee, Eric Pankey, Jack Collom & Lyn Hejinian, Matthew Savoca, and Laura Sims. The issue also has a collaborative essay titled “The Function of Criticism” by a group of Berkeley writers: Mia You, Brooke Belisle, Javier Huerta, Megan Pugh, Eleanor Johnson, Marques Redd, Liz Young, Colin Dingler, Jasper Bernes, Swati Rana, and Lyn Hejinian.
It might be hard to discuss this essay without posting it in full (you’ll have to buy the issue in order to read it, or contact the authors or editors at roomsoutlastus [at] gmail [dot] com); however, I’d like to give you a sense of the authors’ argument with some excerpts I’ve picked out. So keep in mind, I guess, that this isn’t the complete essay?
Anyhow, if this is something you’re interested in, have a go.
Summary/excerpts after the break.
Literature of the golden gophers
I’ve got Minnesota on my mind. This contest—an ongoing, weekly Minnesota-themed trivia melee and scavenger hunt beginning this October—looks like a lot of fun, and the Twin Cities sound like a pretty awesome and cold place to be. Apparently, one has to actually be in town to take be able to win fabulous prizes (Vikings era Randall Cunningham jersey? Jesse “The Mind” Ventura autograph?), but they are, until August 14, taking submissions for questions which will be the engine for the lit hunt. Email your esoteric questions concerning dissenting opinions from the Warren E. Burger court to twincitieslit@gmail.com. Contest winners will receive a grab bag of books from Coffee House, Graywolf and other sweet presses.
Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, The Loft Literary Center, and Milkweed Editions are celebrating our anniversaries and Minnesota’s thriving literary community by hosting a grand scavenger hunt: Around the Literary Twin Cities in (Almost) 80 Days. Each week, from mid-October through December 24th, we will be releasing a Minnesota-themed literary trivia question with prizes awarded for correct answers presented at local venues and a grand prize drawing at the end.
Black Warrior Review Fifth-Ever Contest
BWR is awesome and you know it. Extra bonus, check out those judges! Sexxxy!!! (with three xs and three !s)
READ MORE >
Chelsea Martin Rips
I love Chelsea Martin.
Somebody had said to me, What does Chelsea Martin smell like? & I said, she smells like Chelsea M.
I haven’t met her, but I know.
For real, I have an extra copy of her book Everything Was Fine Until Whatever. I want to give it to someone.
Post a comment in this thread, somehow involving the word ‘Chelsea’ and I will enter you into a drawing for the book. This will go on until whatever.
If you don’t know love, here’s how to find out: I $ You. I have employed some of the ideas here and they have vastly altered the trajectory of my life.
You can also purchase the book with your own $ here: Future Tense Books
The MLKNG SCKLS Is Not A Callous Video Game Contest
Today is the last day to submit an entry for Publishing Genius’s contest to win a copy of MLKNG SCKLS, a fake video game, and some drawing by Justin Sirois that I haven’t seen, but I have seen some other drawings he’s done, they’re great.
To win the contest you have to write 50 words about the video game, 6 Days in Fallujah, as if you were writing a blurb for the back of the video game. More info here.