Emerging Writers Network

AWP 2009 - The Loot - Literary Journals

As the antithesis to my loot/books, I realize that each and every one of these journals was given to me - in most cases by the editor(s), and in one case, by an author whose story could be found within.

Barrelhouse issue 7 is out and was handed to me outside the men's room on the main floor by none other than Dave Housley himself.  We had a fantastic five to ten minute talk about Bret Michaels and VH-1's Rock of Love Bus.  It's a great looking issue (yep, back to the lit journal, sorry to those of you arriving because you googled Bret Michaels) with fiction from Matt Bell, Blake Butler, and Michael Czyzniejewski for starters.

Black Warrior Review V 35 No. 2 was handed to me by BJ Hollars.  It's the DIY featured issue with pieces from great authors such as Laird Hunt,  Selah Saterstrom and Aimee Nezhukimatathil and Terese Svoboda - pieces that have blanks in them for you to fill in, or paper dolls to cut out, so that they can be completed.

Peter Cole's Keyhole table was right next to ours and issue 6, guest edited by William Walsh, is so hot off the presses I still can't find a cover photo online.  William Walsh solicited from authors like Matt Bell, Blake Butler, Kim Chinquee, Peter Conners, John Domini, Cooper Esteban, Sherrie Flick, Amelia Gray, Michael Kimball, Samuel Ligon, and Michael Martone - can't freaking wait to dip into this.

New Madrid's Intelligent Design issue (Winter 2009) was left at my table by Scott Doyle, whose story inside is quite good.  It also contains a story by Bev Jafek, a writer I've just begun to pay a little attention to, and is edited by Ann Neelon, whom I met at the EWN get together Wednesday night.

Sam Ligon swung by the EWN tables to hand me the last two issues (62 and 63) of Willow Springs.  Looking forward to these as well as there is an interview with Thomas Lynch in one, an excerpt from Robert Lopez's forthcoming Dzanc novel, Kamby Bolongo Mean River, a piece so good Mr. Matt Bell tried three times to get me interested in reading it, each time stopping himself halfway through his pitch with "Oh, yeah, you've probably read this already."

AWP 2009 - The Loot (books)

One nice thing this year, I walked out of AWP with some books, chapbooks and journals, and upon lugging them back to the hotel, or back home to the Detroit area, I can honestly say not once did I look at one of them and wonder why I had done the carrying.  I'm looking forward to each, and also realize, aside from a couple of journals which you'll read about in a separate post, I actually exchanged cash for each of the following:

Modern Love by Andrew Scott (sunnyoutside, 2006), a fine looking (and now signed) chapbook of a short story with art work.  Andrew was also kind enough to help me out, as I was swamped at our own table,walking the length of two entire tables to buy his book for me, and bring it back signed.

Two Tribal Stories by Joshua Cohen (Small Anchor Press, 2007), a nice looking chapbook with two stories in it.  Also picked up from Small Anchor Press were The Viral Lease by Mathias Svalina (2008), which doesn't look like this photo, as each of the 100 copies was made with a unique cover and mine wasn't the one chosen to be the website representative, and Close to Home by Joshua Furst (the reprinted version from 2008).  The folks at Small Anchor are putting out nice looking chaps from authors I've heard of, read before, and liked.

The Fire Landscape by Gary Fincke (University of Arkansas, 2009).  A full collection of poetry from Fincke, a writer whose work I've enjoyed in poetry, stories, and memoir form.  I had the pleasure of getting this one signed and talking to Gary about the band Breaking Benjamin, a favorite of mine, and perhaps not so oddly, his, considering his son is their lead guitarist.  It was nice meeting him for the first time after years of emails.

Quodlibet by Chloe Joan Lopez (New Michigan Press, 2009).  The latest in their chapbook series for 2008-09.  Really, that's all I need to say.  Order the subscription, buy them one at a time, but give yourself the enjoyment that is this series that Ander Monson has been publishing the past few years.  Nicely designed (the rare perfectbound chapbook), sharp covers, and always, great words inside.

Ohio Violence by Alison Stine (UNT Press, 2009).  This poetry collection, sold and signed by Alison, though from the confines of the New Michigan Press table, came with a cool little set of handcuffs.  This is the 2008 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry winner as selected by Eric Pankey.

American Prophet by Robert Fanning (Marick Press, 2009).  This is Robert's second poetry collection and one I would have bought Saturday even had I not embarrassed myself beyond belief trying to convince Robert he was Dzanc author, Roy Kesey, near the end of Thursday afternoon (I was tired, hungry, and whatever other bs excuse you can come up with).  It wasn't bad enough that I made the initial mistake but kept pushing, demanding Robert accept my congratulations for his winning the Missouri Short Fiction Contest.  Thanks to Dwayne Hayes for leaning over and whispering "That's not Roy" to me and cutting short the demands.  I've had the pleasure of hearing Robert read many of these as well as allowing me to include a couple in the 2007 EWN Holiday  Gift Email.

AM/PM by Amelia Gray (Featherproof, 2009).  Perhaps the book I was most looking forward to picking up while driving towards AWP and nearly done reading it, it hasn't disappointed at all.  Sadly, I didn't even know there was an Amelia Gray about two months ago and now I've scoured the web to find any publishings she's done.  This conveniently puts many of them together and is just a fantastic read.  Also caught her reading at The Beat Kitchen and had a bit of a chance to talk to her afterward and she's as nice as she is talented.  Rush over to the Featherproof site and you can get this one free if you subscribe to their awesome new subscription series.

Next up - AWP 2009 - The Loot (Literary Journals)

AWP

Okay, it's really sort of a tease headline.  Really only meant to note that I will indeed be doing some posting on this past week and my AWP experience.  I will state this much now though, well, it's really not so much a statement as a bit of excitement - while this picture probably isn't the one of my copy, I did get a copy of the book pictured!!!

Slacker?

Many apologies to my reader (s??) here for the seeming slacking as of late.  I'm off as of early this morning to Chicago for AWP 2009.  Traveling with the rising superstar, Matt Bell, and bunking up with the superstars on the scene already, Kyle Minor and Roy Kesey.  Dzanc Books will be sharing tables 741, 742, and 743 with imprints Other Voices Books, Black Lawrence Press, and Monkeybicycle as well as Absinthe:  New European Writing.  The awesome Keyhole Press will be next to us as well at table 744.

Many more great books have arrived in the mail since my last Source of Lit - The Postman! post and I've read another great book or two.  Some interviews are in process, some Dzanc announcements are around the corner, and some name-dropping posts (my specialty after all) are headed your way from, or just after, AWP. 

Dzanc to invade AWP 2009

We received word today that one of the panels we suggested, well, a reading, has been accepted!

EVENT DETAILS

A Dzanc Books Reading

Moderator: Dan Wickett

Participants: Allison Amend, Louella Bryant, Roy Kesey, Kyle Minor, Michael Czyzniejewski

So, we'll have Dzanc (Roy/Kyle/Mike), OV Books (Allison) and Black Lawrence Press (Louella) represented.

AWP - The Literary Journals

The following is hardly even a smattering of the literary journals that were at AWP, or even those that I had the chance to have nice conversations with.  For instance, I know I talked to the folks at Ninth Letter, Mid-American Review, Travis at Mississippi Review, Hobart and Juked, Failbetter, and so many more I just can't remember.  But the following, these are the ones that somehow convinced me to carry a copy home with me (though, in many of those cases above, I already had the latest issue, so had no need to carry anything home):

Blue Mesa Review - Spring 2007 - issue 19

This issue contains a story (plus two poems) by Anis Shivani, who I've been hearing some really nice things about from friends online, poetry from Hilda Raz, non-fiction from Bonnie Jo Campbell (seriously - how do read her opening line: "My mother Susanna's expanded interest in chickens started when a guy brought her four roosters because he was going to jail." and not continue to read that essay?), reviews, and some work in translation. 

ep;phany - Winter/Spring 2007-08

They actually brought this one over to the Dzanc Books table to give to me and I've been skimming through it - it posed the fairly unique scenario of having no names in the Table of Contents that jumped out at me as EWN'er or writers I was aware of.

The Hudson Review - Winter 2008 - Volume LX Number 4

I don't know what else is in it, but Holly Goddard Jones told me one evening that she had a story in it and I was waiting when they opened their table the next day to buy a copy.  It was well worth the wait.

Black Warrior Review - Spring/Summer 2008 - Volume 34 Number 2

Poetry from Kevin Prufer, stories from Stephen Tuttle and Steve Davenport, plus four new voices introduced by some voices I enjoy (Deb Olin Unferth, David McGlynn and Gary Fincke), a chapbook, and some comics - a truly fine combination from this journal that continues to churn out great, slightly offbeat, issues.

cream city review - Volume 31 Number 2

Forced into my hands by the fantastic Chrisi Clancy, this new issue has great new work from Yannick Murphy (In a Bear's Eye), Benjamin Percy (Refresh, Refresh), and Kelly Spitzer!  Plus more.

Worth Their Weight in Gold

Every great indie publisher seems to have a cast of great people working for them - how else could they handle the level of work they put out - but they also all seem to have that one person.  The one that's visible to the outside world.  The one who seems to be everywhere, doing great things, and with a smile no-less.

AWP served as a great reminder for me of two of these individuals - those worth their weight in gold.

First up is Emily Cook of Milkweed.  I bumped into her at the Milkweed table, at the Dzanc table, and a few times on the BookFair floor.  Knowing that she hadn't been in town only for AWP, but for also for an additional week for publisher meetings, I was amazed at how upbeat and excited she was each time I found her.  She talked up a couple of Milkweed's titles.  She had nice things to say about Dzanc.  She pointed me towards a couple of other indie publishers she thought I'd like. 

Friday, with only about five minutes before the Bookfair closed, I scrambled my way down to the Akashic Books table.  I had actually been hoping to bump into Aaron Petrovich (I was carrying his The Session, hoping to get it signed) or Johnny Temple (I had seen him on a panel Thursday and wanted to thank him).  Silly me - I had forgotten that if neither of them were there, it would mean I'd have the pleasure of seeing Johanna Ingalls instead!  Even having been at the table for the bulk of the day, Johanna had a big smile to greet me with and was very happy to chat about the new Akashic titles, wish me well about Dzanc, congratulate me about our signing with Consortium, and let me know exactly when Johnny and Aaron would be at the table on Saturday morning.

Both of these women should be held up as examples of what is right with the book business (and please let me also make clear, there are many, many like these two out there - were I to name them all it would take me hours to type - these are just the two I saw at AWP that made me think of this).  They do what they do out of a genuine excitement for the work their house is publishing, for a love of literature, and because they know every little effort they expound does a little bit to both help their authors and companies, and, as Richard Nash likes to say, does a little bit to change our culture for the better.

Ladies, consider this my personal thank you.

AWP 2008 - Not the Best Beginning

Apologies to anybody who was at the Hudson Bar right at 8 and even stuck around for 40 or 45 minutes, as I didn't roll in until about 8:48 p.m.

Seems there were near 50 MPH winds on Wednesday in NY and LaGuardia was shut down to only one landing strip.  So, our flight from Detroit was delayed over 2 hours, and then when they finally started to board the plane, they realized the door was malfunctioning.  More delay of about an hour waiting for another plane to come in that had no other destination we could borrow.

That meant I missed out on seeing one of my favorite people, Ed Champion, and whomever his four compatriots were that waited until probably 8:40 or so for me.

That aside, the evening was a true pleasure.  There were others still there when I arrived:  Clifford Garstang with a couple of friends (apologies here, and to every other name I forget or butcher) at the bar, Michael Czyzniejewski and a few BGSU folks at a table just inside the door, the great Robert Lopez introduced himself to me early and then I found a larger table of folks, some from OSU - Kyle Minor, Don Pollock, Mike Alber, and I know others (Val Vogrin, is that right?) too.  Anne Rushton and Kelly Shriver of Boundoff were there, as were Laura van den Berg and Peter Selgin.  Rachel Cantor was there with friends and came over to chat.  Aaron Burch and Elizabeth Ellen of Hobart (which sounds demeaning to the great writing they do beyond that), showed up, as did Dwayne Hayes of Absinthe:  New European Writing.  Christi Clancy, Suzanne Heagy, and Monica Rausch of Cream City Review showed up as well (they found Dwayne Hayes particularly fascinating, and to be honest, pretty much ignored me - Christi at least).  David James Poissant stopped by to say hi.  I know at least another five or six, and maybe more, individuals dropped in, kindly, just to say hi before running off to do something exciting - apologies for the aging memory going on here.  If I've ommitted your name, or butchered it, in any way, shape or form, please add it in the comments for me.

UPDATE:  It didn't even take me an hour to realize I'd forgotten to include Amy Koppelman, an e-friend for about five years now and partial accomplice on Visiting Hours.  Hopefully she waited until after I added the update before she reads this.

UPDATE II:  And then a few days before realizing I've snubbed Jason Lee Brown and his wife, who also showed up. 

AWP

It's that time of the year again, and this time around some 7000 writers and publishers will be descending upon New York City beginning tomorrow and then dragging their sorry hindquarters back home Saturday or Sunday.

Some things readers of this blog may want to know:

Dzanc Books is sharing a table with Absinthe:  New European Literature, so please look for us on the bookfair floor!

I'm on a panel Thursday.  It's from noon to 1:15 p.m. and details are:

Sutton Center Hilton, 2nd Floor

R143. Blog Form and Function in Writing Communities. (Wendy Sumner-Winter, Steven Church, Jefferson Beavers, Trevor Jackson, Dan Wickett) Going beyond the online journal, the multimedia web log - essentially a specialized nonfiction form with its own unique techniques and aesthetic sensibilities - can function as an integral part of creating and sustaining writing communities. Four writers discuss the form and craft of blogging, and consider the blog's potential role in connecting writers, social networking, MFA program development, book publicity, review and interview writing, and providing a forum for news, commentary, self-expression, and even informal workshops. the panelists will discuss the perceptions, assumptions, and realities of the interactive blog world, as well as the pitfalls and benefits of blogging for nonfiction, teachers, reviewers, and readers.

Lastly, following in last year's path (http://emergingwriters.typepad.com/emerging_writers_network/2007/03/awp_thursday_ev.html#comments), I'm suggesting another EWN informal get together - this time around on Wednesday night, say around 8 p.m.  I'm staying at the Sheraton, and discovered they have a bar/lounge where I believe we can bump into each other.  Similar to last year where we found a sports bar at the hotel we stayed at.  By informal, I basically mean that's where I'll be, and hopefully people will show up, and as it's a lounge/bar, I'm assuming they'll have beverages you may purchase to carry with you as you mill about.

Details are:

Wednesday night - 8 p.m. until you're sick of talking to me

Location:  Sheraton Hotel - The Hudson Bar (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/dining/attraction_detail.html?propertyID=421&attractionId=1000043790)

No RSVP's are necessary, but feel free to do so anyway.

Looking forward to seeing / meeting you there.

AWP - 2008 - New York City

Thursday - Noon to 1:15 P.M.

R143. Blog Form and Function in Writing Communities. (Wendy Sumner-Winter, Steven Church, Jefferson Beavers, Trevor Jackson, Dan Wickett) Going beyond the online journal, the multimedia web log - essentially a specialized nonfiction form with its own unique techniques and aesthetic sensibilities - can function as an integral part of creating and sustaining writing communities. Four writers discuss the form and craft of blogging, and consider the blog's potential role in connecting writers, social networking, MFA program development, book publicity, review and interview writing, and providing a forum for news, commentary, self-expression, and even informal workshops. the panelists will discuss the perceptions, assumptions, and realities of the interactive blog world, as well as the pitfalls and benefits of blogging for nonfiction, teachers, reviewers, and readers.