The winner of the drawing for Firework by Eugene Marten is JONAH. Congratulations! Firework is an enthralling read, just like Marten's other novel that I read, Waste.
The winner was selected by a drawing (not involving a cat, though). It was completed using a random number generator several times until all numbers were eliminated but one, the number 5, which correlated to Jonah's comment number (subtracting my own comment, which I did before ascribing comment's numbers in an Excel spreadsheet).
I think I know who Jonah is, but it would be good if Jonah emailed me his contact info just to confirm where to mail to. The book is wrapped up and ready to go.
I also included a copy of WORDS, by Andy Devine, in the package.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saturday Morning Book Giveaway by Eugene Marten
The deadline to leave a comment to enter is tomorrow, Sunday, Aug 29 at 11:59pm. Make sure that I can contact you somehow to let you know if you won.
Here is an excerpt from the book. Thanks to the Tyrant for sending me an extra copy.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Blog Post About Everyday Genius and a book giveaway
Today at Everyday Genius, editor Luke Goebel is presenting a selection from Firework by Eugene Marten. It's a cool book, and I have an extra copy, so tomorrow I'm going to start a giveaway contest for it at this blog. Check back for details on how to win.
A big hearty Everyday Genius thank you to Luke Goebel for putting together another excellent month of the magazine. His tenure won some great praise from PANK's blog. Everyday something new to look forward to. He's going to wrap things up on Monday and Tuesday, but who knows how? What's next?
Next after August is September, and Phu Pham is planning to change things up a bit by presenting not just writing, but fascinating, overlooked web curios. Phu Pham is a book artist and also other kinds of artist who lives in Baltimore.
A big hearty Everyday Genius thank you to Luke Goebel for putting together another excellent month of the magazine. His tenure won some great praise from PANK's blog. Everyday something new to look forward to. He's going to wrap things up on Monday and Tuesday, but who knows how? What's next?
Next after August is September, and Phu Pham is planning to change things up a bit by presenting not just writing, but fascinating, overlooked web curios. Phu Pham is a book artist and also other kinds of artist who lives in Baltimore.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Everyone was working it out
I just invented Podcasting for myself. I mean, I just found out what it is. So I guess I discovered it. But anyway, in case you are the way I was and don't know what Podcasting is, I'll tell you.
So basically Podcasting is where you can get radio shows automatically set up to get into your computer or, in my case, phone. People record these shows with their friends and put them somewhere so when you "subscribe" you can hear them. What I do is I plug the tape adapter thing into my phone and the other end into my car's cassette player and listen to: Car Talk, This American Life, and The Orange Alert Podcast.
So now that I've told the people who don't know what one is, can the people who do know please tell me what are some good podcasts to listen to/subscribe at?
In return, I'll tell you that this video, which I saw at Montevidayo, is pert huh:
I read through a bunch of my old blog posts. It's different how I did it before and how I do it now. I used to write about Bruce Springsteen a lot more.
Most likely you'll go your way and I'll go to an open mic tonight. I am excited about that out of all proportion. I used to talk about the Boss but now it's always about the books and now I want to say that for a little while there including now I am against creativity.
==BREAK==
OK, it's tomorrow and I went to the open mic last night. It was awesome. There were people who played songs on guitar and were working it all out and there were people who read poems they wrote earlier in the day. There were a lot of rhyming poems that rhymed words like "way" with "say."
It felt really good to get in the mix a bit, see people working it out for themselves. Everyone was working it out. Like, liking poetry maybe or just talking.
I went with Joe and Justin and I might start a blog called EveryOpenMic. My holy grail is to go to a reading and hear three poets make the same rhyme. When that happens, I will stand up, arms raised over my head, and yell, "Done!"
The thing I like about bad poetry is that no one is wrong about what it is. Most people, though fewer, know what good poetry is, too. But then there is the other majority of poetry, which is difficult to agree on. Some people like it and some don't.
In the presence of a mediocre poem, everyone gets nervous. Do I like it? What is it about?
Then maybe there is a line in the poem that is funny, and the sighs of relief come out sounding like laughter.
Or perhaps the mediocre poem is written by a friend, and thereby becomes a good poem. Perhaps the mediocre poem is written by a mediocre poet! who has sweater-wearing friends.
I am afraid that many books are not so good but are books because of friendliness.
But I am not afraid that this means anything! It doesn't!
My book is mediocre-at-best, fuck. Why worry? I still want many people to read it and I think many people will enjoy it. Some of the poems, like "It's Down to MOM or CLAUDIIIIIINE" are great.
The Seinfeld rerun last night was merely okay.
Nicholson Baker, or more accurately Paul Chowder in Baker's novel The Anthologist, maintains that great poets only have a couple great poems. The rest of their work is supporting material. It shows that the great poems weren't flukes.
That's making too much of it, I think.
I want to make less of poetry. It's good to enjoy it when an enjoyable poem comes around. Poets though some of them make it their lifework to nail it down, lock it in.
I guess we have to go out searching for poems we like. Somehow this seems drearier than looking for TV shows we like.
The thing to do
I mean the thing for me to do is to let poetry happen naturally. I've read only a handful of poems in the last year or whatever that I really, really, like wow Mom check this out, liked.
I mean a handful of poems that I didn't have to work however hard at liking.
Which I don't think is a bad thing. I mean, that's awesome. That's a lot. My mom anyway will tell me sometimes that not only does she love me, she likes me too.
I want to understand everything and own it, but that happens In Due Course.
Here's a poem by Paul Celan from Guernica. We'll work it out.
So basically Podcasting is where you can get radio shows automatically set up to get into your computer or, in my case, phone. People record these shows with their friends and put them somewhere so when you "subscribe" you can hear them. What I do is I plug the tape adapter thing into my phone and the other end into my car's cassette player and listen to: Car Talk, This American Life, and The Orange Alert Podcast.
So now that I've told the people who don't know what one is, can the people who do know please tell me what are some good podcasts to listen to/subscribe at?
In return, I'll tell you that this video, which I saw at Montevidayo, is pert huh:
I read through a bunch of my old blog posts. It's different how I did it before and how I do it now. I used to write about Bruce Springsteen a lot more.
Most likely you'll go your way and I'll go to an open mic tonight. I am excited about that out of all proportion. I used to talk about the Boss but now it's always about the books and now I want to say that for a little while there including now I am against creativity.
==BREAK==
OK, it's tomorrow and I went to the open mic last night. It was awesome. There were people who played songs on guitar and were working it all out and there were people who read poems they wrote earlier in the day. There were a lot of rhyming poems that rhymed words like "way" with "say."
It felt really good to get in the mix a bit, see people working it out for themselves. Everyone was working it out. Like, liking poetry maybe or just talking.
I went with Joe and Justin and I might start a blog called EveryOpenMic. My holy grail is to go to a reading and hear three poets make the same rhyme. When that happens, I will stand up, arms raised over my head, and yell, "Done!"
The thing I like about bad poetry is that no one is wrong about what it is. Most people, though fewer, know what good poetry is, too. But then there is the other majority of poetry, which is difficult to agree on. Some people like it and some don't.
In the presence of a mediocre poem, everyone gets nervous. Do I like it? What is it about?
Then maybe there is a line in the poem that is funny, and the sighs of relief come out sounding like laughter.
Or perhaps the mediocre poem is written by a friend, and thereby becomes a good poem. Perhaps the mediocre poem is written by a mediocre poet! who has sweater-wearing friends.
I am afraid that many books are not so good but are books because of friendliness.
But I am not afraid that this means anything! It doesn't!
My book is mediocre-at-best, fuck. Why worry? I still want many people to read it and I think many people will enjoy it. Some of the poems, like "It's Down to MOM or CLAUDIIIIIINE" are great.
The Seinfeld rerun last night was merely okay.
Nicholson Baker, or more accurately Paul Chowder in Baker's novel The Anthologist, maintains that great poets only have a couple great poems. The rest of their work is supporting material. It shows that the great poems weren't flukes.
That's making too much of it, I think.
I want to make less of poetry. It's good to enjoy it when an enjoyable poem comes around. Poets though some of them make it their lifework to nail it down, lock it in.
I guess we have to go out searching for poems we like. Somehow this seems drearier than looking for TV shows we like.
The thing to do
I mean the thing for me to do is to let poetry happen naturally. I've read only a handful of poems in the last year or whatever that I really, really, like wow Mom check this out, liked.
I mean a handful of poems that I didn't have to work however hard at liking.
Which I don't think is a bad thing. I mean, that's awesome. That's a lot. My mom anyway will tell me sometimes that not only does she love me, she likes me too.
I want to understand everything and own it, but that happens In Due Course.
Here's a poem by Paul Celan from Guernica. We'll work it out.
IN LIZARD
skins, Epi-
leptic,
I bed you, on the sills,
the gable
holes
infill us, with lightsoil.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Good Stuff
The Moschops by Jim Trainor
I'm Finna Start All Conversations Like This From Now Until Forever by Sasha Fletcher and Daniel Bailey
Mike Young is on a blorgic frenzy.
Matt Cozart takes really great pictures surreptitiously.
At PANK, there is this great story by Beth Thomas which begins: "Is that your head? It’s missing things. The lighting in here is for shit, this bar, but still."
Via Carrie Murphy in Google Reader, check out these Baby Dad Shoes:
Also, what is Tumblr? Is that like a blog for short blog posts?
I'm Finna Start All Conversations Like This From Now Until Forever by Sasha Fletcher and Daniel Bailey
Mike Young is on a blorgic frenzy.
Matt Cozart takes really great pictures surreptitiously.
At PANK, there is this great story by Beth Thomas which begins: "Is that your head? It’s missing things. The lighting in here is for shit, this bar, but still."
Via Carrie Murphy in Google Reader, check out these Baby Dad Shoes:
Also, what is Tumblr? Is that like a blog for short blog posts?
Monday, August 16, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Pee on Water by Rachel Glaser Now Available
I just approved the proof for the official edition of Rachel Glaser's book, Pee On Water.
The "early edition" went out a couple months ago -- here are some things people said about it:
Pre-orders are $12 and include shipping. They'll go out in a few weeks, 2.5 weeks.
Purchase here.
The "early edition" went out a couple months ago -- here are some things people said about it:
“The Monkey Handler” is a story about long-range space travel and is quite possibly the most satisfying story I have ever read, in a literal sense, since I have maybe been obsessed with long-range space travel for a long time, the way that its symbolism is sort of blissfully appealing and terrifying and achingly accurate. It is a story that I have been subconsciously seeking out and I think it seems perfect to have found it here in this book. Pee On Water is another great, important independent press story collection. Having it feels like having another Bed or Big World. Rachel Glaser is a scientist and she wrote this book.And at Rumble, they called the book
-Colin Bassett
a guide for a trip elsewhere, an intricate and delicate balance with the unseen or unknown or unrealized. Reading Pee on Water is easy (and fun and good and light). Understanding Pee on Water is hard (and deep and fraught and gloriously coarse).Anyway, so, I'm going to be sending this new version of the book to everyone who already ordered and received the "early edition." Those people will then have two copies. And I will also send two copies to the next ten people who pre-order the official edition.
-J. A. Tyler
Pre-orders are $12 and include shipping. They'll go out in a few weeks, 2.5 weeks.
Purchase here.
Monday, August 09, 2010
All Always Absolutely Unique
Blake Butler, who awesomely interviewed me at Bookslut, wrote a fascinating meditation on influence over at htmlgiant.
This pennies bit seems like a much better maneuver to heighten attentiveness than the other things I've heard of, like writing left-handed (like, if you're a righty) or reading upside down. I want something small and slow-witted to take over me, like myself.
Another week some months later L. told me to put three pennies in an unused corner of an empty room in the basement I was living in. Every day or so, when it occurred to me, he said, I should go into the room and move the pennies. Move them a little, one or all of them, or do not move them at all. Do what came to me. Then leave the room. At night I slept in the room adjacent to the pennies.
As I did this, throughout the day, I would find myself thinking about the pennies. Thinking about how small ways I might have moved them and how those other movements might have affected something else outside the room. Attention to the air as more distinct. I would also, in association, think about the smaller elements of my surroundings.
This pennies bit seems like a much better maneuver to heighten attentiveness than the other things I've heard of, like writing left-handed (like, if you're a righty) or reading upside down. I want something small and slow-witted to take over me, like myself.
Friday, August 06, 2010
Trying to Read a Poem
(NB: Most of the links here are ridiculous.)
I’m trying to find a poem by a particular poet. Any poem of his will do, but I can’t remember who it is. Here’s what I know about him:
He’s male. I think he’s British. I think there is an “A” in his name, though maybe not the first letter. I read a poem by him once, it had perhaps three stanzas, and I liked it. Perhaps he is from the late 19th century.
I’m pretty sure he isn’t A.E. Housman, although I often confuse Housman with almost everyone. I thought his “When I was one and twenty” poem was by Hardy. I like that poem in spite of the fact that it makes fun of youthful conviction, which is a mean thing to do. Kids have to make their own mistakes, even in matters of love.
And anyway, how old was Housman when he wrote it? No more than 37, which is when he self-publishing it in his book, A Shropshire Lad.
Self-published! See, the manuscript was rejected several times. This I know from Wikipedia, where I also learned that the book’s success is due in part to musicians who set melody to the words.
But I cannot think of a way to effectively Google, “Who is that poet I’m thinking of,” so instead what I’ll do is wander attentively through the writers who spring to mind, and perhaps by the end of this essay I’ll connect to the one on the tip of my tongue.
Relatedly, and inexplicably, I can never remember the actor who plays in The Prince of Tides. It isn’t that I confuse him with Gary Busey; that’s dumb. And I have a very good knack for remembering the names of celebrities. And I like this guy and admire him as a great actor. But that I always flounder when mentioning him is a true thing.
This is not a problem that I typically have with this poet. It’s only been a couple days that I can’t remember his name. Prior to that, though, I may never have tried.
I can’t remember why I read that poem of his. Perhaps it was for a class, though I doubt it. My poetry education is bad. It is regrettable. In the course of earning my MFA, I purchased fewer than ten books of poems for my classes.
One of the books was an uninspired anthology. Most of the poems were American, light verse. One of the books was about the various forms available, with explication and examples. One was Robert Pinsky’s The Sounds of Poetry. The most ambitious syllabus, for a class I ended up accidentally not registered for, included collections by Anna Swir, Yusef Komunyakaa, Carolyn Forché and a couple others I can’t remember. I have them on my shelf and I’ll read them one of these days.
I’ve read that Plath poem, “Daddy,” like four or five times. “You do not do you do not do” or whatever, but I don’t really like it. I only say this to show how bad my poetry education is: we never once read Plath in school, anywhere.
For me, working diligently consists of sliding a mouse around on a small pad. Efficiency means you barely move your hands as you type. I have grown distracted, so I Googled “poetics.” Aristotle is not who I am trying to remember, but it is fun to let the Internet think for you. I do it all the time.
I tried to read “Daddy” again. Couldn’t. Where will I stop next on this adventure? Might as well look in on Hardy, as I confused him with whom I confuse who it is I’m trying to think.
“The Darkling Thrush” includes the line “In blast-beruffled plume,” which wholly justifies my day. But the poem doesn’t smack of this day, August 6, 2010. It’s hot outside, and sunny.
Maybe the guy I’m trying to remember is very Catholic. I’m tempted, as I heap word upon word, to scour the contents table of some Norton Anthology, but it is too soon, too soon.
Yesterday I copied into a notebook that hammock poem by James Wright. The one where he describes his surroundings with lines like, “The droppings of last year’s horses/Blaze up into golden stones” and concludes, “I have wasted my life.” It is extraordinary. Perhaps now I will try to find out what Harold Bloom thinks about that trope.
Nothing, apparently. At least, not from my cursory research. However, in Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (sheesh), Bloom does reference Wright’s statement that Fernando Pessoa is “the true heir of ‘our father Walt Whitman’,” though it isn’t clear from Google Books if Bloom is referencing Wright’s statement in terms of Whitman or Pessoa.
And at any rate, who is William Duffy—aside from the guy who owned the farm that brought James Wright to such crisis? I know his name. It’s right there in the title of the poem, which, okay, is “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, MN.”
It’s cool when poetry things happen in the American Midwest, as opposed to New England. But probably, after New England, then San Francisco, the middle states are the US’s most poetry-concerned.
William Duffy, it turns out, was a pretty awesome dude that got chastised for mentioning prostitution to his middle school students, and ran a poetry magazine with Robert Bly called The Fifties. He wrote rejection letters that would make Lee Klein, the Eyeshot editor proud, saying things like, “Your poems remind me of false teeth.” I got this from a website with the URL, RobertBly.com, and if you care about poetry or friendship, you’ll look it up right away.
In the Sewanee Review, James Wright’s first book was compared to Keats, and Wright decided then to quit writing poetry. He didn’t though.
Which reminds me of that chestnut from Rilke about a poet being a person who must write. I’ve always hated that. Flannery O’Connor said a writer is a person who can write, and that makes more sense to me.
I am no closer to remembering the name of the poet whom I want to read now. This net is too wide, perhaps, so I’m resigned to using “British poet” as my search term. He is not there. He is not Blake or Byron, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth. He is not Rosetti, though I ought to read her. Why not? Her name is Christina Georgina Rosetti, she must be good.
I’m back. I read her. I like her. I like how those people back then used to make points. I mean, arguments. There are four stanzas in “I watched a rosebud.” In the first, the speaker watches a rosebud bloom. In the second she watches a bird’s nest with anticipation, but the birds orphan the eggs and they don’t hatch. In the third, the conned speaker breaks the branch and nest from the tree, but in the fourth stanza she feels bad and reflects “what if God,/Who waited for thy fruits in vain,/Should also take the rod?”
Rosetti factors in Nicholson Baker’s fantastic novel, The Anthologist, but my elusive poet doesn’t come up once. That is odd, because Paul Chowder, the protagonist, prizes rhyme most highly, and this poet has complicated rhymes all over. Slant rhyme and end rhyme and all that.
My friend Joe just emailed me a new version of the song, “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine,” this one by The Dirty Projectors. I emailed him back about what I was doing, and that I was getting frustrated. I’ve been Googling all willy-nilly for a while but without result—except to learn that Bruce Springsteen may be the greatest Catholic poet.
Joe named my poet in two guesses, though.
At first he said Browning. I’ve not read Browning, at least not that I can recall. Or, in fact, I recall reading Browning as an undergraduate student, but it would be impossible for me to name one of his or her poems.
How exciting, though, finally, to have the mystery solved, and to be rewarded that all my clues were accurate. And how great to have a friend to help in the chase. That, I think, is the best part. Poetry ought to happen with friends.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Awesome Machine Press
**UPDATE/CLARIFICATION** I want to be clear that I Really Do like reviews. I'm not trying to say that I don't. **End Update/Clarification**
I just posted an announcement about Awesome Machine Press below, but I am really excited about it and want to say more.
Here's the "About" page at AMP:
Two things. 1) For my MFA thesis I had to self-publish a book, and part of that assignment was to label the book with a name for the publishing house or whatever. So I decided to call mine Awesome Machine Press.
2) I met Timothy Willis Sanders at AWP and he is so awesome and I really liked hanging out with him and later I was like, so what do you write and he sent me a link to his story at Japanese Baseball and I was like, haha that is funny and goodhearted what else do you got, do you got a bunch of stories? and he did and yesterday he sent them to me and I put them into a really good layout.
The AMP motto is "we ARE the most fun" because that's what it's about.
I'm giving away 20% of the books in hopes that people will read them and say whatever about them, then I can sell my 40% and recoup the cost of producing them. (The authors get the other 40% and can sell them easy when they do readings and stuff. That is their payment, which can equal $400.) (The press doesn't make any money, in fact I will lose a little more than $100 this way, but I often lose that much by forgetting to pay parking tickets, so no big whoop, and honestly I'm hoping that this whole thing will raise the exposure of Publishing Genius and I'll make up the money that way. I might be a freaking idiot, but so far it's been fun, what.)
Anyway, I want to talk now about the discussion copies. They aren't review copies, they are discussion copies. Perhaps some of the chatter will take the form of a review, and that's cool. But really the focus for me is kind of on unempowering our notion of reviews.
That's not to say that I don't like reviews. I like reviews okay. But I think very often something happens like a very talented, experienced, accomplished writer does a book that is good or bad or whatever, and then an intelligent, eager, well-meaning young writer writes about it because that's part of the game, and that person says some interesting things about the book, and perhaps offers a bit of a criticism and I'm often thinking -- well, but, who cares? When David Denby writes about movies it's usually pretty good, but it's a closed loop. There's no point discussing the movie with your copy of the New Yorker. But when youths are writing reviews for the Internet I find it disappointing that they are themselves trying to close the loop by offering their judgment like a final judgment.
So like I read a David Denby review and I go to my friend, "Oh David Denby said Angelina Jolie was pretty good in Salt" and my friend goes, "Sure, why not, but the movie is for shit." To which I respond, "Well, I liked it but I really like spy movies and it was like a stupid Jason Bourne movie."
But sometimes I read reviews on the Internet and I go to my friend, "" -- no just kidding. I don't go to my friend at all.
So rather than have the game be about reviews, which everyone thinks are so smart, I'd rather just have a bunch of friends going to each other.
I guess my point is that reviews are great -- for the NYer. But we're all friends here on the Internet so rather than get authoritative, let's just hang out and discuss and I don't care if you're a reviewer or just a person, your talk about a book will be awesome.
I just posted an announcement about Awesome Machine Press below, but I am really excited about it and want to say more.
Here's the "About" page at AMP:
Awesome Machine Press was founded in 2010. It is an imprint or a series or something from Publishing Genius.How did this come about?
Books are printed in one run of 125. 25 copies are for discussion (want one? Keep reading). 50 go to the author to sell and 50 are for sale from the press.
After the book sells out it will be available online and for the Kindle and probably the Nook later.
The entire point is fun. Fun writing, fun book making, fun reading, fun talking.
All the other stuff, like work, or caring about stuff, that is not a part of it.
Awesome Machine has fun fast and doesn't accept submissions, though sometimes submissions through Publishing Genius will make it over to Awesome Machine, probably.
If you have any questions, or would like a discussion copy, contact adam at publishinggenius dot com. The first 25 people in the USA to request these copies will receive them as long as they have at least a blog or whatever to say something about the book or whatever at. (Sorry to people not in the USA. If you want one and want to Paypal about $6 USD for shipping, then all systems go.)
People who pre-order AMP books get free shipping. Then it will cost $1 extra to help defray shipping costs. . . .
Two things. 1) For my MFA thesis I had to self-publish a book, and part of that assignment was to label the book with a name for the publishing house or whatever. So I decided to call mine Awesome Machine Press.
2) I met Timothy Willis Sanders at AWP and he is so awesome and I really liked hanging out with him and later I was like, so what do you write and he sent me a link to his story at Japanese Baseball and I was like, haha that is funny and goodhearted what else do you got, do you got a bunch of stories? and he did and yesterday he sent them to me and I put them into a really good layout.
The AMP motto is "we ARE the most fun" because that's what it's about.
I'm giving away 20% of the books in hopes that people will read them and say whatever about them, then I can sell my 40% and recoup the cost of producing them. (The authors get the other 40% and can sell them easy when they do readings and stuff. That is their payment, which can equal $400.) (The press doesn't make any money, in fact I will lose a little more than $100 this way, but I often lose that much by forgetting to pay parking tickets, so no big whoop, and honestly I'm hoping that this whole thing will raise the exposure of Publishing Genius and I'll make up the money that way. I might be a freaking idiot, but so far it's been fun, what.)
Anyway, I want to talk now about the discussion copies. They aren't review copies, they are discussion copies. Perhaps some of the chatter will take the form of a review, and that's cool. But really the focus for me is kind of on unempowering our notion of reviews.
That's not to say that I don't like reviews. I like reviews okay. But I think very often something happens like a very talented, experienced, accomplished writer does a book that is good or bad or whatever, and then an intelligent, eager, well-meaning young writer writes about it because that's part of the game, and that person says some interesting things about the book, and perhaps offers a bit of a criticism and I'm often thinking -- well, but, who cares? When David Denby writes about movies it's usually pretty good, but it's a closed loop. There's no point discussing the movie with your copy of the New Yorker. But when youths are writing reviews for the Internet I find it disappointing that they are themselves trying to close the loop by offering their judgment like a final judgment.
So like I read a David Denby review and I go to my friend, "Oh David Denby said Angelina Jolie was pretty good in Salt" and my friend goes, "Sure, why not, but the movie is for shit." To which I respond, "Well, I liked it but I really like spy movies and it was like a stupid Jason Bourne movie."
But sometimes I read reviews on the Internet and I go to my friend, "" -- no just kidding. I don't go to my friend at all.
So rather than have the game be about reviews, which everyone thinks are so smart, I'd rather just have a bunch of friends going to each other.
I guess my point is that reviews are great -- for the NYer. But we're all friends here on the Internet so rather than get authoritative, let's just hang out and discuss and I don't care if you're a reviewer or just a person, your talk about a book will be awesome.
Everyday Genius, JMWW Reviews Mike Young, Bookslut Interviews Me, Stephanie Barber, MFSFO, AMP/Timothy Willis Sanders
If I were a more consistent blogger, this post wouldn't have to be so long. But a lot is going on.
First of all, Kate Zambreno's month at Everyday Genius wrapped up this weekend. She put together a fantastic and diverse list of writing. There is enough in there to mull over for a long time; it could make for a year's worth of reading. She basically made a desert island website -- if I could only bring three online journals when I get marooned, this would be one of them. Normally I like to link to a few pieces that I liked best, but in her month, I think everything stands out. Check it out at www.everyday-genius.com. (Okay, dang, here are a few fave faves from a month of faves: Rebecca Loudon, Caroline Picard, Vanessa Place, Roz Ito.)
Now Luke Goebel has taken over the helm. I met Luke at a meeting with some other presses at AWP when we were discussing a buying group with a printer. Later, at a conference at UMass Amherst, I was tired at a bar, falling asleep, and Luke was like "what would help you wake up" and I was like "do you want to go stand up over there" and we did and it was nice talking to him. He works as an editor for NY Tyrant.
So that's the that for Everyday Genius for now.
At JMWW, fresh today, there is a review of Mike Young's immanent book, We Are All Good if They Try Hard Enough. Patrick Trotti writes:
I'm reopening pre-orders now for Mike's book, since it should be back from the printer in less than a month. Go here, and you can even order it now with Mike's fiction collection and get a discount. Thanks to Jackie Corley at Word Riot for going in on this deal.
Blake Butler interviewed me for Bookslut. You can read it. Thanks Blake.
Reports from Stephanie Barber's shows at Anthology Film Archives are good -- at least in terms of pre-orders. Lots of people must have liked the films because there was an influx of orders from the website that night. I picture people rushing home after the screening to get their order in.
This is an amazing article on her work, and this other good one is in Artforum.
The book should be shipping by next week. Pre-order it now and save $6.
Sweatpants played a couple shows this weekend with the Tucson, AZ band Mr. Free and the Satellite Freakout. Wow, they are good. The bass player played bass and keyboard simultaneously. The guitar player is ferocious. At our show in Doylestown, PA, the singer almost got into a fight with a guy he later referred to as his "inbred cousin" -- through the mic. I'd say "from the stage" but he didn't really spend any time on the stage. He performed much of the show while sitting at the bar. They are lots of fun and frenetic and if they're coming to your town, definitely go. Here they are in your computer:
Here is some news about Awesome Machine.
Awesome Machine Press announces the release of Orange Juice and Other Stories by Timothy Willis Sanders. This is his first book. It's a collection of short shorts and short stories. Timothy Willis Sanders (b. 1980) lives in Austin, TX. He is or has been an assistant editor at American Short Fiction and his work has appeared in Nano Fiction.
[More Info on the book]
(More info on the press is here and also coming in another post)
Ethel Rohan, who herself now has a book to get excited for, interviewed Michael Kimball at Dark Sky Magazine.
I don't feel like this post scratches the surface of what I want to talk about, but I'm stopping now. There's got to be something for everybody here.
First of all, Kate Zambreno's month at Everyday Genius wrapped up this weekend. She put together a fantastic and diverse list of writing. There is enough in there to mull over for a long time; it could make for a year's worth of reading. She basically made a desert island website -- if I could only bring three online journals when I get marooned, this would be one of them. Normally I like to link to a few pieces that I liked best, but in her month, I think everything stands out. Check it out at www.everyday-genius.com. (Okay, dang, here are a few fave faves from a month of faves: Rebecca Loudon, Caroline Picard, Vanessa Place, Roz Ito.)
Now Luke Goebel has taken over the helm. I met Luke at a meeting with some other presses at AWP when we were discussing a buying group with a printer. Later, at a conference at UMass Amherst, I was tired at a bar, falling asleep, and Luke was like "what would help you wake up" and I was like "do you want to go stand up over there" and we did and it was nice talking to him. He works as an editor for NY Tyrant.
So that's the that for Everyday Genius for now.
At JMWW, fresh today, there is a review of Mike Young's immanent book, We Are All Good if They Try Hard Enough. Patrick Trotti writes:
If the barometer of a great poet is his ability to create an alternate reality so true that the reader is transported there upon opening the book than Young is a top-notch wordsmith with a bright future.Thank Patrick. Thanks JMWW. JMWW's blog is a powerhouse these last few months, with so much amazing content
I'm reopening pre-orders now for Mike's book, since it should be back from the printer in less than a month. Go here, and you can even order it now with Mike's fiction collection and get a discount. Thanks to Jackie Corley at Word Riot for going in on this deal.
Blake Butler interviewed me for Bookslut. You can read it. Thanks Blake.
Reports from Stephanie Barber's shows at Anthology Film Archives are good -- at least in terms of pre-orders. Lots of people must have liked the films because there was an influx of orders from the website that night. I picture people rushing home after the screening to get their order in.
This is an amazing article on her work, and this other good one is in Artforum.
The book should be shipping by next week. Pre-order it now and save $6.
Sweatpants played a couple shows this weekend with the Tucson, AZ band Mr. Free and the Satellite Freakout. Wow, they are good. The bass player played bass and keyboard simultaneously. The guitar player is ferocious. At our show in Doylestown, PA, the singer almost got into a fight with a guy he later referred to as his "inbred cousin" -- through the mic. I'd say "from the stage" but he didn't really spend any time on the stage. He performed much of the show while sitting at the bar. They are lots of fun and frenetic and if they're coming to your town, definitely go. Here they are in your computer:
Here is some news about Awesome Machine.
Awesome Machine Press announces the release of Orange Juice and Other Stories by Timothy Willis Sanders. This is his first book. It's a collection of short shorts and short stories. Timothy Willis Sanders (b. 1980) lives in Austin, TX. He is or has been an assistant editor at American Short Fiction and his work has appeared in Nano Fiction.
[More Info on the book]
(More info on the press is here and also coming in another post)
Ethel Rohan, who herself now has a book to get excited for, interviewed Michael Kimball at Dark Sky Magazine.
I don't feel like this post scratches the surface of what I want to talk about, but I'm stopping now. There's got to be something for everybody here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
