New blurb
Ian Spiegelman gave me an awesome blurb for my forthcoming short story collection, The Suburban Swindle (So New Media):
“Finally a 20-something author who is neither precious nor coddled. Finally a young writer who writes about life as it actually is instead of some trust fund prick’s fantasy of America. Jackie Corley is almost completely alone among the new set of writers in that she is actually telling stories about real humans. And she is telling them well, with the kind of immediacy that most young writers have had beaten out of them in MFA factories. Corley is original and unforgiving. I cannot say enough about Jackie Corley. She doesn’t flinch. Read this book.”
-Ian Spiegelman, author Welcome to Yesterday and Everyone’s Burning
Blurby
Kevin Sampsell gave me a great blurb for my short story collection:
“I am tempted to compare Jackie Corley’s writing to a strong cup of coffee. It wakes you up, it gets you addicted, and sometimes it’s burning hot. Or I could say it’s like whiskey–it’s strong, it blurs your vision, and gives you the guts to face the hard truths and bitter pains of life. But forget about those liquid comparisons, because Corley’s work is solid! The Suburban Swindle unleashes a new, bold, American voice that you’d be foolish to ignore.”
–Kevin Sampsell, author of Creamy Bullets
Old petition
Outsider Writers has a petition urging Amazon.com to create an “Alternative Literature” category for books.
The petition is a month old but I’m swift like that.
Happy Turkey Day to me
It looks like So New Media will be putting out a collection of my stuff in the spring. It’ll be called ‘The Suburban Swindle‘ after a story I wrote a few years ago. I still like that title. The collection will have short stories and a couple novel excerpts.
Still working out the details, and I have to edit and send off the complete manuscript to SNM publisher James Stegall, but I’m pretty excited about this. Should be fun.
Still naked, still dead
I’m still reading The Naked and the Dead, but I’m 480 pages into a 680 page book so I’ll forgive myself for it. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in years–really expansive and gorgeous and psychologically rich. I love any novel that’s brutal, brooding, full-fleshed Americana.
Some random googling says Norman Mailer was born in Long Branch, which while technically not a part of my beloved Bayshore, is close enough to add even more to my new found Mailer fondess.
When I’m done reading, I’m going to write Norman Mailer a rambling letter he will never get. That will be fun. I did the same thing with J.D. Salinger once. (And I call bull shit on Salinger getting commandeered for the literary hipster pandemic.)
Oh, benevolent dictator!
This WHYY radio interview with Karl “King” Wenclas of the Underground Literary Alliance and Carla Spataro of Philadelphia Stories in really good:
[Click for Real Media file] (via Timmy Waldron, via Philadelphia Stories)
(Judging by the commercials, it sounds like it’s from a month ago.)
King is in top form in the interview, so it’s well worth a listen. I don’t know Carla Spataro but she held up well against Wenclas and made some excellent points.
I like the ULA. I don’t agree with them all the time, but I like them. I did a ULA reading a couple years ago in this anarchist bar in Philly and it was probably the best lit event I’ve ever been to. All the readers varied in their writing and performance styles and that’s not something you see at most readings. Like, there were slam poets mixed in with short story writers, guys who were so sucked into their words that they spat and shouted their lines and guys who read in a straight monotone. There were just all different types of people. It felt very spontaneous, a little bit lunatic asylum. It was great.
Thank you muchly
I just wanted to thank the readers at last night’s launch party for The Flash. Nathan Tyree, Paul Blaney and Andrew Lewis Conn each did an incredible job.
Thanks also to everyone who came out to the KGB Bar. I was pleasantly surprised by the turn-out and the interest level in the anthology.
Copies of The Flash are now available for purchase at Word Riot. All proceeds go to Amnesty International.
Norman Mailer, you sexy beast
I’m reading The Naked and the Dead and I’m totally in love.
Mailer wrote when he was 23, which is kind of seismic when you start realize the psychological depth of the people, the situations you’re eavesdropping on. You start to feel like this ghost hovering around these bored, rundown soldiers kicking around sand on some hot, damp island off of Japan. And each character is made full in a couple of paragraphs of description or the brief memory of some seemingly dull and insignificant incident back home. Total grace, I swear.
Mailer wrote in the author intro that he drew on a lot of Tolstoy as he was writing it. The influence is pretty apparent as you read it.
Blurb-y
Caren Lissner, author of Carrie Philby and fellow rockin Jersey gal, gave me some advance praise for the book:
AT THE SLAUGHTER is as compelling a story as it is a feat of brillant writing. It’s a gritty story of the heartbreak and hope of a life-changing event experienced when young, a person who changes another forever.
