Moon Milk Review

Some pimpage, first: Rae Bryant did a fantastic job with the Moon Milk Review anthology. The book is such a beaut. I got to share the pages with these fine individuals: Lisa Marie Basile, Jennifer Hollie Bowles, Alexandra Chasin, Feng Chen, Alexis Covato, Francis DiClemente, Jim Fuess, Luisa María García Velasco, Roxane Gay, Christine Herzer, Karen Heuler, Scott Alexander Jones, Ben Loory, Jim Meirose, Kristine Ong Muslim, Gary Percesepe, Mark Reep, Laura Ellen Scott, Serena Tome, J. A. Tyler, David Wagoner, Luke Wallin, Ian Watson, Vallie Lynn Watson, David Wolf and Shellie Zacharia.

I graduated Bennington in January. There is some truth to all the MFA smack talk out there, but going to Bennington was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. There aren’t Gordon Lishes and Max Perkinses with gloves up to the elbows, ready to birth your ugly babies. You have to scrub those bloody suckers to gold all by your lonesome these days. With a couple exceptions (you slay me, Cal Morgan!), editors aren’t editors the way they used to be. (Not that I know anything about “used to be,” but I… whatever…) I just learned how to revise myself into another universe–that’s what the MFA did for me. And I got to study with Tom Piazza, Amy Hempel, David Gates and Alice Mattison, each kicking my ass in profound and wonderful ways. And our class bonded tighter than cannibals (that’s taste-likes-chicken tight). And Sven Birkerts stood at the podium at graduation and told us and our families and friends that Jan. 2011 had the best lectures and readings of any class that’s come through Bennington. And I can’t believe next month I won’t be back in Vermont chain smoking, singing at the End of the World, talking about Chris Adrian or Breece D’J Pancake or whoever was the writer blowing our collective minds that term.

Other things… I got a new job as a local editor at Patch. With the newspaper industry dying off, I never thought I’d be a reporter again. And I love reporting. Not necessarily the J-school idea of what journalism should be, but going to the chicken dinner fundraisers, the 5Ks, the planning board meetings and shaking hands and introducing yourself. The “small” stuff, which isn’t small at all. There’s a whole narrative behind a town, and you collect the bits and pieces of it until the history and landscape becomes whole for you. It’s similar to the feeling you get when you’re six months to a year into a first draft of a novel and you’re just living in it. It’s a great place to be.

I have a novel excerpt appearing in the Fall 2010 issue of Fourteen Hills. I’m a longtime admirer of theirs so I’m hyped to be joining to the party.

You can subscribe to Fourteen Hills through their submission form or order individual issues from Small Press Distribution.

More info at Word Riot.

Eyeshot was definitely a big inspiration for me as Word Riot was getting started, so I’m sad to see it go.

The piece is an excerpt of the novel manuscript I’m working on now. I’m tentatively calling the novel Fine Creature. We’ll have to see what it becomes.

Thinking about all the awesome books I should read next term. I’ll be studying under Amy Hempel. Rock.

There’s a decent amount of dirty Jersey politics in this book. I needed some distance from the intense reporter days to really reflect on the politics so as not to let it subsume the other elements of the book or correlate too closely to actual events. I think I’ve acquired that distance. At least, I hope I have. I’ve got a little under 25k words to the book so far. I’m aiming for 60k though it looks like this will wind up being longer. I’m hoping to have a first draft done by the end of the year.

I haven’t done a workshop session since college and never on any substantial work. Anybody want to scare me with workshopping horror stories or links to horror stories? Just trying to expel the demons.

Oh, and Word Riot Press got name-checked in GalleyCat for picking up Nick Antosca’s Midnight Picnic. I keep wanting to call it Midnight Panic for some reason. I don’t know why. At least one person found Word Riot by googling “Nick Antosca” and “Midnight Panic” so I’m not alone.

Readers: Larry Doyle, Jackie Corley and Linda Franklin

The 510 Reading Series is hosted by Michael Kimball (author of Dear Everybody) and Jen Michalski (author of Close Encounters).

Check it out.

Nick edits RAGAD, a literary broadside and online magazine.

“A fiercely original debut. Corley is a talent to watch.”

-Scott Snyder, author of Voodoo Heart

I think Amy Guth is some sorta marketing genius (in addition to being a fantastic writer). The list of attendees is a who’s-who of the small press world. Pilcrow is probably going to grow up into some mega festival in years to come, so I decided I have to be there when it all goes down in ’08. (I’m going to be on a couple panels at Pilcrow, so drop by if you’re in Chicago.)

There are so many writers and publishers I can’t wait to meet. A lot of us know each other through email, Facebook, web sites or whatever but haven’t gotten a chance to meet face to face yet. I’m really looking forward to that.

Donate to Pilcrow:

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While in Chicago, I’m going to be doing a reading with Kevin Sampsell (Future Tense Publishing) and James Stegall (So New Publishing) at Quimby’s. Check it out.

Sampsell, Stegall & Corley Read at Quimby’s
We’re not just publishers. We actually write stuff too.
Date: Saturday, May 24, 2008
Time: 7:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: Quimby’s Bookstore
Street: 1854 W. North Ave.
City/Town: Chicago, IL

Summer 2008

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

“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

Timothy Gager‘s Dire Literary Series
THE OUT OF THE BLUE ART GALLERY
106 PROSPECT STREET,
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

5, 15 minute open mic slots at 8 p.m., sign-up at 7 p.m. followed by features

Dire #82 January 4, 2008
Rusty Barnes, Jackie Corley and poet Harris Gardner

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.

Stain Bar
766 Grand Street
Brooklyn, NY
Thursday, November 8
7:30 p.m.

More info on the mega-hot P.E.E.L. Flyer (no, the map’s not real)

I’ll be reading an excerpt from the new manuscript I’m working on.

[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.

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.”

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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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).

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.’

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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.

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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.

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There are kid-biting, pet-eating coyotes in my old hometown.

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

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

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.

I have some vague notion that my choice of reading materials will inform my next novel. Geography, history play a role in modernity. I want to look at circumstance and setting and how they take a sledgehammer to an ordinary life. That’s what I’m thinking, at least. I want the characters to be an inevitable result of the constitution of their surroundings. …or something.

Anyway, local lore about Northern Monmouth:

• In the early 17oos or so, Penelope Stout got gutted by Native Americans who left her for dead, hid in a tree stump, was rescued by a Native American and went on to get married and have 13 kids (which makes me doubt the whole gutted part).
• Pirates used to dock near Highlands and Capt. Kidd hid treasure on Sandy Hook. A lot of pirates wound up settling in the area. Aargh.
• One day a year, all of Middletown would gather for a community celebration. During the celebration, grievances from the entire year were settled verbally or physically until everything was resolved.

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In other writing news, I’ve started to get my first manuscript rejections. Yee-haw. My book is too literary for the editors who have rejected it, which I kind of anticipated. Hopefully, it’ll click with some editor soon.

I’m trying to organize a launch party in NYC. It’ll probably be at the KGB Bar some Sunday night in July, but the details are still getting worked out.

Should be getting my contributor’s copy soon. Can’t wait to see what it looks like.

Trying to kill space to justify the big image.

blah.

Blah blah.

Map o’ Readings.

That is all.