Brooklyn Book Festival

Where I'll Be

Heading to the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival tomorrow to see readings by Ben Marcus, Sarah Manguso, Tao Lin, Lewis Lapham, and Heidi Julavits and panel discussions on DFW, rappers and upward mobility. It's free and going to be good. A lot will be happening. In several venues. But I'll be going here:

10:00am - The Legacies of John Updike and David Foster Wallace - a panel of distinguished critics discuss their work. (Borough Hall Courtroom)

11:00am - The Future of Literary Fiction - Keith Gessen and T. Cooper will discuss, among other things, how digitization impacts the creative process. (Borough Hall Community Room)

12:00pm - Real Surreal - Definitely don't want to miss Tao Lin and Ben Marcus reading from their latest work. Any rubric that brings together writers of dirty realism and experimental prose is one worthy of note. (St. Francis College Reading Room)

Alternate 12:00pm - Poetry Pop and Hip-Hop - A panel including Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) and Matthew Zapruder will discuss how poets, songwriters and rappers push language in new and good ways. (St. Francis Auditorium)

1:00pm - Editor as Author - Discipline and Freedom - Heidi Julavits and Hannah Tinti, who tower as both editors and authors, couldn't be more suited to discuss the roles that editors play in the lives of writers. (St. Francis College Reading Room)

Alternate 1:00pm - Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia - Emily Gould (formerly of Gawker) will interview Rasskazy contributor Dmitry Danilov. Dale Peck and Francine Prose read. (International Stage)

2:00pm - Movin' On Up - Don't miss Lewis Lapham, storied editor of Lapham's Quarterly, discussing the myth and reality of upward mobility. (Borough Hall Community Room)

Alternate 2:00pm - Life Stories - Sarah Manguso and Philip Lopate are among the authors who will be discussing bad breaks and tough choices in writing memoir. (Brooklyn Historical Society)

3:00pm - Literary Masters - Three highly-revered authors read: Paul Auster, Russell Banks and Francine Prose (St. Francis Auditorium)

4:00pm - Faith and Fiction - Chris Adrian, Rene Steinke and Benjamin Anastas discuss reconciling religion and the ambiguities of character. (St. Francis College Reading Room)

5:00pm - Happy Ending Reading Series - End your jaunt with some risk-taking writers and comedians Jonathan Ames and David Cross with music by Jonathan Coulton (Main Stage)

Good News

For Good People

Sasha Fletcher's collection Everything Here is OK, was a finalist in the open poetry reading by Octopus Books, the press started by Zachary Schomburg and Mathias Svalina. And this on the heels of recent news that Sasha's novella is being put out by mud luscious press.

Joanna Neborsky, the talented illustrator who of late has been working tirelessly to complete Gigantic's website (for which we're so grateful!) just got news that her collection of illustrations inspired by Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines (see above) will be published by Mark Batty Publisher in June 2010. Joanna's elegant and whimsical illustrations can also be found in Some Assembly Required, an essay in images of her experiences connecting with New Yorks hypnotists, Darwinists and toy collectors on meetup.com. And some of the Fénéon illustrations can be previewed in Gigantic's debut issue.

Congrats Sasha and Joanna!

Illustration by Joanna Neborsky

Postcards of People I Don't Know VIII

Glass

He talked. He paused like he was looking for a word. I talked. He looked at me. I stopped talking and he talked again. I talked over him and finished his sentence the way I thought it would be finished. He stopped talking. As I talked, I lifted my hand. I laughed. He gave me a serious look. He talked. I talked. We talked over each other for some time in a casual way. We both seemed tired and stopped. I looked at the table. I poured a glass of fizzy water. The bubbles were so loud that we looked at the glass at exactly the same time and looked away as if reminded that looking at glass was blinding.

Shya Scanlon's Forecast is Coming to Gigantic

Forecast 42 Project

Chapter 18 of Shya Scanlon's serialized novel Forecast will be published on Gigantic on September 14, 2009. Other great venues to check out chapters from Scanlon's novel are Flatmancrooked, HTML Giant, Lamination Colony and Keyhole among many others, 42 in total. To check out a full schedule for the publication of Forecast 42 Project visit Scanlon's site. Also, while the prologue will not be published with the selected chapters, you can watch Scanlon read it via video clip. Perhaps the most interesting venture in serialization since people waded in seawater for Dickens.

Postcards of People I Don't Know VII

A Person I Talked to Once and Still Think About

He held the book five inches from my face. "I liked it for many reasons," he said. "The smell of it being one." I lowered my head and smelled it careful not to make a sniffing sound in the quiet store.

Thinking I'll throw it out, I take it from a small stack on the floor from time to time. I end up smelling it instead. Some days I think it smells like leather. Other days I could swear it smells like mixed nuts.

Postcards of People I Don't Know VI

Collection

Like some people collect art objects or pearl necklaces, I collect gestures. The larger my set of gestures, the more interactions I can have because I will be able to handle a larger set of possible circumstances. Whereas once I could only handle a few and so spent so much time alone. Throwing both arms up at the same time, I just learned, makes people look in my direction, and it also makes me look like I am fun to be with. I can get people around me, but I don't know how to keep them there for weeks. Some setbacks: I will never master all possible gestures; when a gesture fails to produce the desired effect I don't know where to place blame; like an accessory I might also one day be out of style.

Postcards of People I Don't Know V

Persistent Good Moods

Through golf carts good moods are borne. More than any other small vehicle—how is the breeze always just right—a golf cart asserts itself as a deliverer from a life not-always-just-pure-fun. These strong good moods make even a fall from a golf cart feel unlike a fall. Once I did fall, and because everyone was distracted by his or her good mood, the cart didn’t stop right away. Of course, my head didn’t crack. A cracked head is incongruous with the good moods agreed to in silence by all involved in a golf cart tour. The cart stopped and whirred backwards. My brother, who is older, looked at me like I was a dropped pencil. I lifted my head and looked at the pink-and-white striped canopy over my brother's head. I thought I probably was not very hurt. My brother often made me think I was not as hurt as I thought I was. Later, this hurt me. I think. I got back in and we motored away between green hills.

Interview with Stephen Elliott

The Adderall Diaries Released

In conjunction with the release of The Adderall Diaries, Stephen Elliott's true crime memoir, released today by Graywolf Press, my interview with Stephen has been posted on my column at The Faster Times. Stephen talks about principles, porn and, of course, the pleasures of indie presses.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Elliott, pictured here with Elissa Bassist, Contributing Editor at The Rumpus.

Cabinet Experiment

Gowanus Pigs

On Saturday May 23, 2009, I went to the offices of Cabinet Magazine to take part in an experiment. The reason for the trip was an email Michelle forwarded to me headed "Fearless Cabinet readers needed for special project" (with that precise capitalization). Michelle said she didn't know anything about it.

I read the email. The email stated:

"Cabinet needs 20-30 intrepid readers to volunteer for a special project for our forthcoming issue with its themed section on “Testing.”

I do not know what it is to be an intrepid reader. I am not a Cabinet subscriber. I knew nothing else about this "test." Toting three sharpened number-two pencils to Gowanus, I crossed a river. A man tapped me on the shoulder. Following him in through an iron door, I was taken into a room where people already had their heads down.

The results of the test are in the latest issue.

Props for You Don't Know Me

Gigantic, Opium and Bomb Beat Back the Summer

The New Yorker, The Daily News, Black Book , HTML GIANT and The Rumpus (okay that was me) have all been writing about the benefit end-of-summer extravaganza being hosted by Gigantic, Opium and Bomb. It's sure to be a blast.

Where:
Bowery Electric
327 Bowery (bet. 2nd and 3rd St.)

When:
Wednesday August 26th
7pm - midnight

Why:
Because we like you

More Good News

Benefit Party Countdown...

A couple of things. It was just announced that my friend Sasha Fletcher's novella is going to be published by mudluscious. You can read about it on his blog, an ice cold coca cola. Congrats Sasha.

Some other great news is that the summer soiree in benefit of Gigantic, Opium, and Bomb magazines is three days away (VIP performance $10 in advance, $6 general admission at the door). We have a stellar line-up that includes:

-Short plays directed by The New Yorker's Ben Greenman and author/comedian Bob Powers!
-The Dog House Band, featuring bluegrass musician/writers David Gates and Sven Birkerts and special guest John Wesley Harding!
-Joseph Keckler's psychedelic fusion of blues, classic opera, text and film (Keckler pictured above).
-A DJ set by Catherine Pierce of the Pierces!
-A special VIP performance from Kalup Linzy!

Interview with Adam Robinson

"Can I make a t-shirt that says, "I read Light Boxes before you"?"

In an interview for The Faster Times, Shane Jones's former publisher, Adam Robinson of Publishing Genius Press, shares some details about the process of publishing Light Boxes, the excitement that came with its rapid-fire successes, and finally the relief of getting out from under its new found weight.

Picture courtesy of HTML GIANT

Postcards of People I Don't Know, IV

Self Possession

My mother often dressed me as a boy.

Shane Jones's Little Book that Could

Light Boxes


Shane Jones's Light Boxes, which is set to go celluloid by Spike Jonze who bought up the rights, was just picked up by Penguin. To read more about it, see the piece I published today for The Faster Times. I also wrote a review of the book for The Rumpus when the book was first published.

What is great about it is that it was an indie book, published by Publishing Genius Press, that got around through word of mouth and Jones's die hard determination. If you happened to have been at the Gigantic launch party, you may have picked up a copy of it. Shane, whose fiction was in Gigantic's debut issue, gave us a few copies to hand out. He's true blue.

You Don't Know Me

Gigantic, Opium and Bomb Party


On August 26, beginning at 6:30 and going on late into the night, Gigantic, Opium and Bomb Magazines will be hosting a summer soiree. In honor of the combined aesthetic of the magazines, it will be a night of short programs, readings, video presentation and musical guests. Some highlights are short plays directed by The New Yorker's Ben Greenman and a bluegrass band with musician/writers David Gates, Sven Birkerts and special guest John Wesley Harding.

Tickets on sale today. To purchase tickets or for more information, go here. If you buy tickets in advance, they're only $10...

Dalmation Coast: Island of Brac

Skrip

Dalmatian Coast: Island of Brac

South Side: Bol

Dalmatian Coast: Trogir, Croatia

Trogir Cathedral: From Bell Tower II

Dalmatian Coast: Trogir, Croatia

Trogir Cathedral: From Bell Tower

Dalmatian Coast: Trogir, Croatia

Trogir Cathedral I