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.
Visit the Pequin, love the Pequin
The Better Non Sequitur folks (aka Steve Coy) have a new project: Pequin.org
It’s a mixed media site with a spiffy design. I’ll have a flash fiction piece coming out there in the next month or so. Soon-to-be-WRP-author David Gianatasio has a story there titled, “The Last Word.”
KGB Bar Reading, July 22
What: U.S. Launch Party for ‘The Flash’
When: Sunday, July 22 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Where: KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, New York, NY
Peter Wild’s “The Flash” is an anthology of flash fiction by 100 writers. (More info here.)
Word Riot Press is sponsoring the East Coast launch party for “The Flash” at the KGB Bar. Readers at the event include Andrew Lewis Conn, Nic Kelman, Nathan Tyree, Paul Blaney, Jackie Corley and a surprise guest or two.
The book will be on sale at the reading for $12 and all proceeds go to Amnesty International.
This is the first WRP-sponsored event since 2003, so come and we’ll make it a time.
—-
READER BIOS:
Andrew Lewis Conn is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, P (SoftSkull, 2003). Following a starred review in Kirkus, P was chosen as one of the summer’s best books by The Austin Chronicle, Nerve, The Oregonian, Salon, and Time Out New York, and was named one of the best books of the year by The Village Voice and The Austin Chronicle. P was translated into Greek by Electra Publishing and into Portuguese for publication in Brazil by Editora W11.
Conn’s other writing has appeared in The Village Voice, Film Comment, Time Out New York, and The Believer. He has been a resident at the Ledig House International Writers’ Colony and Yaddo.
A Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of Cornell University, Conn recently completed his second book, The Last American Novel and is at work on his third, O, Africa!
—–
Nic Kelman is the international bestselling novel, Girls, published by Little, Brown and Co. as well as Video Game Art, an art history of video games published by Assouline. His writing and photography have appeared,among other places, in Elle, Glamour, The Village Voice, and Black Book, as well as various anthologies. He holds a B.S. from MIT and an M.F.A. from Brown University.
—–
Nathan Tyree is a writer from Kansas. His fiction and poetry has appeared in places like Edifice Wrecked; decomP; The Beat; Doorknobsand Body Paint; Flesh and Blood; Problem Child; The Shallow End; Lightning Journal; Journal of Modern Post and too many others to list. In addition to The Flash his work has been anthologized several times. Nathan is the author of Mr. Overby is Falling. He has never mastered the oboe.
—–
Paul Blaney is a fortysomething British writer now based in New Jersey. He’s had short stories published in numerous UK magazines and journals, but so far America remains immune to his charms. He is co-founder and organiser of Tales of the DeCongested (www.decongested.com) a London-based short story reading event, and of Apis Books (www.apisbooks.com).
—–
Jackie Corley was born in 1982. She developed Word Riot in March 2002 with the help of Paula Anderson. Word Riot Press,an independent publishing press, evolved out of the magazine in January 2003. Jackie’s writing has appeared on-line at MobyLives.com, 3AM Magazine and SerialText and in print in BOOM! For Real and Consumed: Women on Excess (So New Media).
The Quietness
I’ve been plopping a lot of friends-only posts into LiveJournal and Myspace lately, hence the relative dead silence here.
Also, I’ve started a new novel manuscript and have been dutifully writing after work every morning (I work an overnight shift). I’m really, really loving this new manuscript and it’s flowing and I’m happy and all is well. I mean, I’m just in the beginning of the beginning of the process, but I’m in a nice groove with it and the ideas are pop pop popping. I’m tentatively calling this thing ‘Fine Creature.’
Pretend Space
I made a MySpace profile for my main character in At the Slaughter. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m doing it. If you read any part of the book and dug it, friend Miss Foster.
Just saying…
The new version of Sitemeter looks like ass. And you have to be logged in to check your complete stats, even if you set up your account to let anyone view it.
———-
I’m going to Book Expo America next week. If you see me at Book Expo, high-five me and I’ll give you a nickel. I like giving away money.
Book Expo has this Facebook/MySpace type Web site for attendees. I found it very entertaining for a couple of days. Now I’m indifferent to it.
———-
My new thing is writing in the super early mornings after work. (I work at home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.) I’ve also taken to writing facts on index cards from the non-fiction books I’ve been reading. My brain has atrophed since college. I’m trying to un-atrophy it.
———
There are kid-biting, pet-eating coyotes in my old hometown.
Million Writers Award
The storySouth Million Writers Award’s Notable Short Stories of 2006 is now up.
I was a preliminary judge this year and chose 10 of the stories on the list. Other judges included Jeff Bryant, Jeff Crook, Thom Didato, Nick Mamatas, Sean Merrigan, Jessica Schneider, Laurie Seidler, D. Antwan Stewart, Dan Wickett, and two who remained anonymous.
Here are the 10 stories I chose. You should google these writers and read more of their work:
- “Here’s What I’ll Give You” by Amy Havel
- “Go” by Cari Luna
- “Amphibian” by Nick Antosca
- “Chosen” by Elizabeth Ellen
- “Harvest My Heart” by Jeff Crook
- “All But Six” by Adam Cushman
- “La Difficulte d’Etre” by Richard Grayson
- “A Man” by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
- “Rhinoceros” by Michael Squeo
- “A Hard Truth About Waste Management” Sumanth Prabhaker
It’s kind of interesting that the judges’ choices didn’t overlap all that much. I guess there’s just a lot of great on-line fiction out there.
The following Word Riot stories made the list (obviously, I wasn’t allowed to select WR stories for my 10):
- “Driving Naked Westward After Midnight” by S. Melinda Dunlap
http://www.wordriot.org/template.php?ID=761 - “The Infinite Monkey Theorem” by Marshall Moore
http://www.wordriot.org/template.php?ID=893 - “I Wash, He Dries” by CP Chang
http://www.wordriot.org/template.php?ID=783
Order The Flash on Amazon.com
You can now order The Flash on Amazon.com. Yay!
Book description: The Flash edited by Peter Wild. 100 writers 100 stories. The authors of the book elected to have Amnesty International receive all proceeds from the publication.
Authors: Hiag Akmakjian, Steve Almond, Darran Anderson, Steve Aylett, Aimee Bender, Paul Blaney, Nicholas Blincoe, Dermot Bolger, Christopher Brookmyre, Rhonda Carrier, Matthew Cheney, Lana Citron, Christopher Coake, Femke Colborne, Andrew Lewis Conn, Jackie Corley, Simon Crump, Mitch Cullin, Matthew De Abaitua, Paul Di Filippo, Clare Dudman, Stella Duffy, Patricia Duncker, Katherine Dunn, Mark Dunn, Fred Dutton, Susan Elderkin, Richard Evans, Percival Everett, Michel Faber, Kitty Fitzgerald, James Flint, Jeffrey Ford, Ray Fracalossy, Damon Galgut, Avital Gad-Cykman, Sara Gran, Niall Griffiths, Matt Haig, Andrew Holmes, Laird Hunt, Shelley Jackson, Nick Johnstone, Nic Kelman, Danny King, Daren King, Joel Lane, Stewart Lee, J Robert Lennon, Jonathan Lethem, Samuel Ligon, Sam Lipsyte, Lila Lundquist, Kevin MacNeil, Emily Maguire, Scott Mebus, Carlton Mellick III, Stephen McCauley, Lauren Milne Henderson, Denise Mina, Rick Moody, Ewan Morrison, Nicola Mostyn, Erin C Murphy, Ben Myers, Patrick Neate, Arthur Nersesian, Gina Ochsner, Martin Ouvry, Shiromi Pinto, Kate Pullinger, Rebbecca Ray, Ben Richards, Nicholas Royle, Kevin Sampsell, Kevin Sampson, Ian Sansom, Matthew David Scott, Jeremy Sheldon, Robert Sheppard, Stav Sherez, Steven Sherrill, Shelley Silas, Kevin Spaide, Nick Stone, Brandon Stosuy, Chad Taylor, Matt Thorne, Bob Thurber, Nathan Tyree, Jeff VanderMeer, Willy Vlautin, Daniel Wallace, Jess Walter, Peter Wild, Charlie Williams, Conrad Williams, John Williams, Cintra Wilson, Barry Yourgrau
Rip-off artist
My book has a depressing title. But I contend that the book is not depressing, dammit, and the title should be viewed ironically. In fact, in an ideal world, you would close your eyes and see my title in pretty pink and green.
Ready.
Close ‘em.
Are they closed? Then how are you reading this, ay?
Okay open them.
Ta da!
Now you’re not depressed.
Now you’re happy.
Now my title is ironic.
I’ll PayPal $5 to whoever can guess first the TWO album covers I ripped that font and those font colors from.
