Source of Lit - Unsaid - David Ohle

David Ohle - Ruthie

 

So, this is an excerpt from one of the novellas that I just ordered from Calamari Press, which makes me even more excited that I've ordered them.  I also read Motorman by David earlier this year and he amazes me in how he creates these worlds that are seemingly very similar to our own, yet have their own vocabularies, their own quirks, but in a manner that still allows me as a reader to believe I'm right there with his characters.

 

This particular piece is broken into lists, cantos, some straightforward (or close to it) narrative, etc.  What drew you to this particular piece and in a case like this, an excerpt from a novella, is it similar to the Sam Michel excerpt, had you read the entire piece?  Are you an active participant with the author in finding the right excerpt for Unsaid, or are you publishing what David submitted to you?

 

David McLendon:

First, let me applaud all that Derek White is doing at Calamari. His tireless enthusiasm is a great example for anyone to follow. I picked up a copy of Motorman fifteen or so years ago. For years I kept looking for new work by Ohle. He is such a great and fearless writer. I found his contact information and began corresponding with him. He was still writing strong work, and eventually those pages became two books that completed the trilogy he began with Motorman. The forthcoming work that Ohle is publishing with Calamari is perhaps his strongest. The excerpt in Unsaid affirms this. To answer your question, yes, I read an early draft of the book. He had published excerpts elsewhere, and offered me what was available. Ohle is very generous and easy to work with. He is affable and modest and a true artist who has remained untainted by the marketplace.  The excerpt I chose for Unsaid is Ohle at his best. He creates a strange world that is very convincing. His details are some of the best imagined in the language, and each detail is a multiplicity unto itself. He carries that great rare ability to balance content against structure. He is an experimentalist, but a great storyteller as well. His forthcoming titles from Calamari constitute nothing less than a great event in American literature.