Members Only (that means you)
My name is Woody Allen. This is the opening scene from Annie Hall where I tell some of my morbid stand-up jokes. If you’re curious about what I said, many years later there will be this thing called youtube so you can check it out here. As for the tan brown color behind me, you’ll notice both my hair and jacket are brown, and I’m just that subtle. Anyways, check out my jokes, I’m really funny. I’m really looking forward to the future.
Massive People (10): Vanessa Place
At the end of last year, I read Vanessa Place’s mammoth novel of forms recently out from FC2, LA MEDUSA (linking Amazon because FC2 site is down, but buy from the press).
Though it is a monster of a book, in size in mind, I found I could not stop reading it once I started, blasting through all 616 pages in 4-5 days of continuous reading. Among its many forms and voices, it contains one of the most vivid scenes I think I’ve ever read: simply consisting of one of the main characters eating at a Mexican restaurant by himself, getting more and more drunk, and eating among a kind of mental fury, almost as if over the other pages of the book encasing him. It is truly a definition of how words can capture moments in a way no other art form is equipped for.
LA MEDUSA, I think, is a book of appetites, and cataloguing. There is something post-Beat in it in that way: lists (a list of strange barbies, a list of synonyms for vagina, though worked into the narrative thread somehow, a kind of shapeshifting that continually occurs in midst of the reading without managing to interrupt), and hyper consciousnesses, and combining the high with the low in these really rhythmic and syllabic and smart sentences. LA MEDUSA reminds me a lot of Lynne Tillman’s AMERICAN GENIUS, which is another of my all time recent favorites.
Anyhow, in the wake of my admiration, I spoke to Vanessa some about the ideas in the book, and her creative process, including ekphrasis, managing many voices, and craft.
Vanessa is also the author of DIES: A Sentence, which is literally a 50k+ word sentence, out from Les Figues Press (and is also a massive presence for innovative lit), which she co-directs. Her nonfiction book about sex-offenders and the morality of guilt will be published in 2008 by Other Press.
Do yourself a favor and check out her work: it is incomparable.
Interview after the jump.
MASSIVE PEOPLE(9): Reb Livingston
Reb Livingston is a MASSIVE person for two reasons: 1) I have a crush on her and 2) in an interview with Orange Alert in February of 08, she said, “I believe every ‘serious’ poet should, in some way, assist and cultivate other poets.” Reb lives by that belief. She co-edits No Tell Motel, in which appear a great variety of poets; she runs No Tell Books, a micro press that follows the print on demand model; she is very active online and off when it comes to supporting the community; and she is the author of Pterodactyls Soar Again (Coconut 2006), Wanton Textiles (w/ Ravi Shankar, No Tell Books 2006), Your Ten Favorite Words (Coconut 2007), and God Damsel (forthcoming No Tell Books 2009).
A personal bit from her website:
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she now resides in the greater Washington, D.C. area with her husband and son. Once she worked for America Online. Although that was a long time ago.
After the break begins the email interview. All pictures are taken from her own site or from her blog. I encourage everyone to check out her blog, as there are some great posts in the archives about the starting a journal, starting a press, publishing that first book, etc (look for the ‘publishing’ label). Also, don’t go away: there’s something special at the end of this post. The something special is FREE BOOKS.
MASSIVE PEOPLE (8): Cast of Apostrophe Cast
I exhausted myself with end of the semester stuff and did not have a chance to take care of an interview for this week’s MASSIVE PEOPLE post, so I instead would like to direct you to Apostrophe Cast.
From the website:
The concept is simple. Apostrophe Cast is a bi-weekly online reading series, delivered as a podcast. Every other Wednesday evening we post a new reading from a different writer. One author, one reading. Come back often to listen, or, better yet, subscribe to the podcast and have MP3’s of our readings delivered to you automatically.
Recent contributors include Michael Kimball, Ben Tanzer, our very own Josh Maday, Celeste Ng, and so on.
Rather than read an interview today at HTMLGIANT, you are encouraged to take ten or fifteen minutes out of the time you’d usually spend reading blogs and looking at DOS and DONTS at Vice in order to listen to one of the many readings over at Apostrophe Cast.
And in the near future, we’ll hear from our next MASSIVE PERSON, Reb Livingston of No Tell Motel and No Tell Books.
MASSIVE PEOPLE(7): Derek White
I’ve never actually met Derek White in person, but I have read a few issues of sleepingfish and I’ve got a small stack of Calamari books next to my ugly reading chair that need to be read. I did email him once to buy a few books from him this summer right before he moved out of the country. I also emailed him to say that I had liked the novel excerpt he had sent to Phoebe (we had finalized our Fall 2008 issue, my last issue as Fiction Editor, and so I was absentmindedly shuffling through our drawer of submissions and recognized his name and read the thing – had I been around for another issue, it would have been cool to publish). The novel in question? Marsupial. Now Derek lives in Narobi, Kenya with his wife, Jess. The following are some questions I emailed him, and he was kind enough to take some time to respond. Thanks, Derek.
1) In July, you posted at 5cense a 10 day countdown to your move to Narobi. I thought that your paragraph on ‘space’ was really interesting. You wrote, “I’m more about adapting to or exploring public space, not creating my own personal space. Jess is too. Adaptation is key, as is yearning for a new backdrop.” Based on what I’ve read on your various blogs, it looks like you’ve adapted well to the public spaces of Narobi. I’m curious though, could you share a little bit about your personal space? Any photos? Journal entries? Thoughts?
Funny you should ask. When I received this I was posting a piece about just this topic.
[Derek’s blog post is long, but well worth the read]
2) Having left the print remains of Calamari in Michigan with Peter Markus, you shifted publication of sleepingfish to an online format. What have you found different or exciting about that shift? And what do you miss about print, about holding sleepingfish in your hand?
“Print remains.” I like that. I’m picturing carcasses collected in brother Markus’ fruit cellar (where the books are literally living). I miss book objects. That was the biggest sacrifice I had to make moving here. But as far as literary journals, even before I moved here I considered putting Sleepingfish online. It’s cheaper and more timely, and gives more visibility to the writers, which in the end is probably the most important thing about lit mags is showcasing people’s works. You also have more flexibility with formatting online, not that I have taken advantage of that flexibility yet, but you have less constraints on posting color art, videos, sound, longer pieces, etc. And rather than have an “issue,” I like the idea of being able to post pieces on a revolving and evolving basis. It’s also a more environmentally sound model, no paper, no postage, and none of the consequences that come with it. It’s a cleaner more efficient way of doing things, but yes, nothing beats the feel and smell of paper.
Massive People (6): Cooper Renner
Knowing of the existence of Cooper Renner in the world makes me feel a little better a lot of days. For all the baggage that comes along with certain types of figureheads or editors, Cooper is not only one of the quickest and most likable sorts of people around, he also has carried the aesthetic of the online lit journal elimae into a benchmark not only for great online writing, but for post-Lish, sentence-driven new work. Elimae, created and launched by Deron Bauman, has been under Renner’s care since the end of 2004, and continually updates once each month with slews of the new. Cooper also is involved with Ravenna Press, who has released books by Kim Chinquee, Norman Lock, Brandon Hobson, and many others important language-driven authors.
In addition to all this, Cooper is also a writer doing the new, with a recent book out of his own poems, Mosefolket, some of which appeared in Lish’s the Quarterly.
A truly massive person (fit in a small frame) I talked to Cooper about a lot of the above, including his editorial leanings, correspondences, future works, and so on.
1. You were in the Quarterly years ago and I believe had mail correspondence with Lish at points? How did his enterprise or presence or etc. affect you as a writer? Who else has affected you?
I am still in contact with Lish. In fact I had a postcard from him either yesterday or Monday. We write back and forth pretty much all the time. I’ve talked to him a few times on the phone, but we’ve never met in person. Most of our contact is on the page. Gordon and Deron Bauman are the two folks who really showed me how to edit my own stuff, zeroing in on the strong language rather than what I ‘wanted to say’. They taught me how to divorce any sociological idea of content from the artistry of how the words work.
More after the break…
David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund
from McSweeney’s:
Illinois State University has established the David Foster Wallace Memorial Reading Series and Award. Created to bring to their campus writers who will energize and challenge the community, the fund will also periodically honor a graduate or undergraduate student whose writing engages its subjects from an original, committed, and humane perspective. Tax-deductible donations may be mailed to Illinois State University Foundation, Box 8000, Normal, IL 61790-8000. Checks should be made out to “ISU Foundation, David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund.” Donations may also be made online, here. Gifts should be designated as being for the David Foster Wallace Memorial Fund.
David Foster Wallace was a member of the English Department faculty at Illinois State University from 1993 to 2002. During his years there, he completed Infinite Jest, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, and Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. He was an outstanding colleague and teacher whose contributions to Illinois State University and to the world of letters this award will honor in perpetuity.
This is one I’ll be donating to.
MASSIVE PEOPLE(5): Interviewers Around The Web
It’s been really busy around here. I mean, not around HTMLGIANT, but around our lives that are not related to HTMLGIANT: some of us were eating too much food and giving thanks, others were editing forthcoming books, others were grading student papers, and others were researching remote control helicopters. As a result, we don’t have a specific interview ready today for our series on MASSIVE PEOPLE.
Also, we are bad at checking our email. Things are a little disorganized at the moment (except for Secret Santa, which is really really organized – I’m serious).
Apologies.
What we do have, though, is a small festival of links to other interviewers around the web, those who are doing the work we failed to do for today. Please have a look at their stuff, and please add more links in the comments section if we haven’t mentioned it here. If you are working on a project like this, comment on it too.
- Kelly Spitzer’s Writers in Profile project
- Keith Montesano’s First Book Interviews
- Interviews featured at Bookslut
- And don’t forget the Indie Heartthrob Interview Series
- Interviews at Identity Theory
- Tao Lin’s ‘I Organized My Interviews Into One Post’ Post
- The Paris Review Interview Archive
- Interviews at Ron Hogan’s Beatrice
- Reader Meet Author at Orange Alert
- Author Interviews at Powell’s Books
- Interviews at 3:AM
- The fascinating Anorexic Chlorine Sex Toy Museum of Sean Kilpatrick
- Interviews at The Quarterly Conversation
- Interviews every month at Hobart
- Thunk: Interviews conducted by Ryan Manning
- NOÖ Loves Everyone
That’s all I can think of so far – should be enough to satisfy people looking around for an interview at HTMLGIANT. We’ll get on things and get MASSIVE back soon.
MASSIVE PEOPLE (4): Aaron Burch
I first met Aaron Burch at AWP two years ago. I had read some issues of Hobart before and really liked the stuff he’d published, so it made sense to me that I should talk to him. I anxiously introduced myself to him at the Hobart table and babbled to him, asked him many questions about the journal, and felt very sweaty the whole time, especially after I ran out of things to say. I’m glad that he did not punch me in the mouth.
Not that he would have, for Aaron Burch is a kind and gentle human. He grows his beard and keeps it tidy. He smokes cigars and drinks whiskey. He publishes the fine literary periodical Hobart, and he administers the web version as well as the mini-books division.
Aaron Burch lives up north somewhere.
Aaron Burch also does some of his own writing. He is a fine fine writer. His work can be read both online and in print at various publications: Eyeshot, Pindeldyboz, Storyglossia, Phoebe, elimae, MonkeyBicycle, etc. He’s currently reading/writing in the MFA program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also teaches composition.
I emailed him some questions when I was drunk. They seem ‘aggressive’ now that I’m looking at them again, so I have edited out some of the aggressiveness.
1. Lots of people shit on the MFA. You’ve decided to go for it at UIUC. Why? Tell us some pros and cons you’ve noticed about the program, if you can.
Massive People (3): Lee Klein
If you don’t know who Lee Klein is, it’s time you knew. Let’s put it this way: if Lee Klein were a presidential candidate, I might have voted this year. Alas.
Anyhow, when he’s not busy editing Eyeshot (one of the oldest in-house literary mags still killing it), writing amazing rejection letters, he’s also one hell of a writer (recently on AGNI and in Black Warrior Review, both of which you can find linked at the first link in this post).
After the break, 5 questions for a very massive person.