Duotrope Interview

I took the Duotrope 12-question challenge.

Sententia, a great journal, I'm giving it away

Sententia is a new journal edited by Ryan W. Bradley and Paula Bomer. There is some great work in there by Lindsay Ahl, Keith Nathan Brown, Charlotte DeAth, Elizabeth Ellen, Meg Files, Roxane Gay, Howie Good, Rose Hunter, Drew Kalbach, Jen Michalski, Mary Miller, Mark Mirsky, Geoffrey Nutter, B.L. Pawelek, Sam Pink, me, Shya Scanlon, Fariel Shafee, J.J. Steinfeld, Robert Swartwood, Serena Tome, Steven Trull, Brian Wilkins, and Scott Wrobel.

I have an extra copy and will send it to the first commenter who doesn't have one already. First commenter at publishinggenius.blogspot.com, I mean, not Facebook.

I don't normally give away my extra things, for some reason, but sometimes I will, going forward (as we say at work).

I have an extra B&W laser printer and if someone wants that they will have to pay me about $30 for shipping. I would love to get rid of it though.

Show Tonight

Maybe tonight I'll check out Fang Island?

Everyday Genius in the Wigleaf Top 50

Five Everyday Genius contributors were selected by Brian Evenson for the Wigleaf Top 50. Congratulations to:

Jensen Beach for "We Cannot Cross the River"
Blake Butler for "We Did Division in a Concrete Room"
Barry Graham for "September Gold, or Daisy's Song"
Stephen Graham Jones for "Modern Love"
David McClendon for "Penumbra"

Five other contributors appeared on "the Long Shortlist" of 200 stories:

Robert Bradley for "Insubstantiation"
Amelia Gray for "Questions Asked While Sitting on the Laundry Room Floor"
Tim Jones-Yelvington for "Unnecessary"
Laura Ellen Scott for "The Temple Dog"
Joseph Young for "Galaxy"

Andy Devine's WORDS via David McClendon at EWN (also, Matt Bell Week)

Today at the Emerging Writers Network, Dan Wickett talks with David McClendon about Andy Devine.  McClendon edits Unsaid, which is devoted to publishing really good, really fresh writing in a thick journal. Its publication is always an event, so it is rewarding to hear him praise Words, saying the book is like Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons. McLendon read Words straight through and describes a unique experience with the book, saying, "One enters a place from inside language that is both incantatory and oddly pragmatic. The repetitions found in Devine’s fictions build and grow over his pages and are pushed onward by a series of thoughtful cadences that strengthen both the magic and meaning of each sound." McClendon's explication of the book is remarkably kind and helpful in its clear description of what Andy Devine does, and how. Check it out, and check out Words, too.

In other nice attention news, Matt Bell's project at Everyday Genius has been written up at MediaBistro and Bud Parr's "Age of Sand." Read Matt's story in its current incarnation here at Everyday Genius, and click here tonight at 9 to watch Michael Kimball work on what Matt's got going so far. Here's the rest of the schedule:

Tuesday, 9pm EST: Michael Kimball works the story.
Wednesday, 1pm EST: Lily Hoang works the story.
Thursday, 9am - 9pm EST: The story is open to all comers. Get into the ether and enact your will.
Friday: Matt makes his final changes and completes the story.

Next Week at Everyday Genius: Matt Bell

Week 1: Christopher Newgent's sort of book, sort of CD: The Lion and The Lamb.
Week 2: Amelia Gray's constraint writing, with sound and video.

Now look out for Week 3, featuring a story by Matt Bell, which will be posted on Monday. On Tuesday, Matt will revise the story online, in real time, so you can watch. On Tuesday night, Michael Kimball will log in and edit the story, also before your eyes.

On Wednesday, tune in to see Lily Hoang take the red pen. And on Thursday, you can join and edit the story yourself.

On Thursday night, Matt will edit the story one final time, and the complete, edited version will appear on Friday. Don't miss week 3!

Heavener on Adam Robison

Wow, thanks to Christopher Heavener, who runs the amazing Annalemma Magazine, for buying ARAOP, losing it, then buying another copy. He said,

Robinson’s poetry hasn’t forgotten the reader. In fact, it’s shouting at the reader, asking, “Will you please live your life?” asking them “Will you please recognize the beauty that is around you? Will you please wake up and live and love and get hurt and laugh and then love some more?” This is why I’m not that upset I lost my first copy of this book. These are sentiments that need spreading. And the universe knows that.

I'm made very happy by this. Live and love and get hurt and laugh and love is pretty much the story of my life.

Light Boxes Giveaway

Don't forget to win the original Light Boxes b/w the new Penguin one. Buy an indie book and send the receipt to lightboxescontest@gmail.com. Longer post saying the same thing here.

Changing the game

I just set up Rachel Glaser's book for pre-orders.

The book is called Pee On Water. I fought to change the title to "The Totems Are Grand," but Rachel won out. She was right. Now I am glad it is called Pee On Water. It is my favorite story in the book. It's the grandest, and most epic. Also, it is funny and looks funny on the cover (which Rachel designed).

I read this manuscript and said, "Things are different now than they were before I read this." Do you ever feel that way? Probably not very often. There aren't a lot of books that change all of literature. They only come around once every hundred years. Maybe just slightly more often than that -- 90 years.

Pee On Water changes everything. I have never read anything like the story, "Iconographic Conventions of Pre- and Early Renaissance: Italian Representations of the Flagellation of Christ."

I was riding the Bolt Bus to NYC, sitting next to Joe, reading "The Magic Umbrella." I became giddy. I kept nudging Joe. I wanted to transmit the things that were happening in my brain straight into Joe's brain. I wanted my thoughts about Rachel's story to go into the thoughts of all the people on the bus.

Rachel does things in these stories that No One Is Allowed To Do In Literature, and she wins. Everything is different. Michael Kimball was the first editor for the book, and we talked about desperation. We wanted desperately to understand how Rachel was pulling out every rug from underneath every person.

If there is this book, then there must also be Santa and free lunches and eternal youth. The impossible is made real.

I am sorry, world, for what I am about to do to you.

Mairéad Byrne Interview at Harriet

Don't miss this conversation between Sina Queyras and Mairéad Byrne at Harriet, the Poetry Foundation blog.

SQ: . . . I have read your blog for a few years now, and noted threads–a lot of sadness, for one, but also joy. In fact I think you made a conscious decision to find joy in poetry did you not?

MB: What have I to be sad about? Nothing much. When I broke I broke into a smile. I don’t know how that happened but it did. Writing has always made me laugh. Even when I was a young journalist tramping around Dublin with my little wire-bound notebook I was often laughing at the ridiculous things I was about to publish. It’s a way of keeping yourself happy. It’s not exactly consciously chosen. It’s more of a visitation.

Help!

Is it possible to embed an mp3 player in Blogger?

Apparently the main one, ODEO, is down. And everything seems to require putting an .swf on my server. But I don't have access to the server, since it's hosted at Blogger. So, is it impossible?

Everyday Genius, April into May, through June

A huge wallop of thanks to Blake Butler for banging up Everyday Genius through April. Some mesmerizing pieces, and a great conversation starter in Sean Kilpatrick's doozy, "Fistfucking Rules" -- I thought the comments to the poem that happened at HTMLGIANT were great, both for questioning and answering on the topic of value in poetry. It's one of those rare online poetry discussions that sticks to the work and makes productive assertions.

Yes. Thanks Blake, and thanks to all the contributors. So much goodness.

Alec Niedenthal is putting together the issue for June. He'll be pulling almost all or entirely all the work from submissions, so get 'em in soon. And so you know what he likes, check out his stories over at the new Frigg. Dang, they are goooooood 'uns.

Normally I tell the editors that at least a third of the work should come from submissions, in case you're wondering.

For the May issue of Everyday Genius, I invited four authors to put together a week of whatever they wanted. I just asked that they explore what writing on the Internet should do, what it's capable of. This week there are a few poems from Christopher Newgent, which he's contextualized with music, art and an afterword by Joe McHugh.