Archive for the 'Featherproof Books' Category

AWPed

Published on April 12, 2010 in Adam Robinson, Blake Butler, Dan Wickett, Featherproof Books, geeking out, Justin Sirois, Matthew Simmons and Readings. 4 Comments

Denver happened. I yelled about driving an Iroc-Z in New Mexico for a restaurant reading with Matt Bell, Elena Passarello, Kevin Sampsell, Matthew Simmons, and Rachel Yoder. I marveled at Molly Gaudry‘s perfect twin braids and she said it was the work of her training as an only child. Mary and I bought the biggest dreamcatcher we could find and I read with it in an elevator. Lindsay and I drank milk out of jugs while Patrick played the banjo and Zach slapped his thighs and sang along.

I just woke up from a dream I had about the breakfast place where I went with Sarah, Nick and Michael. There was a sizable Austin crowd and I felt at home in scenes fancy and non-fancy alike. I hugged Dollar Store tour friends and read with them, put faces to names/said hello again to Kyle Minor, Justin Taylor, Brian Evenson, Jim Ruland, Justin Sirois, Roxane Gay, J.A. Tyler, Dan Wickett, and Elisa Gabbert. I walked the bookfair floor with Adam Robinson and spent a chunk of cash.

excitement

I caught the shuttle and avoided making eye contact with a trio of lovely poet ladies from California who spent the trip to the airport talking about a panel they saw on poetry saving the world. The ladies were wrapped in golden shawls. I considered writing a story about chapped lips. I graded on the flight all the way home and navigated the damp community college campus to teach for three hours about the departmental exam. At the grocery store I bought turkey sausage, turkey breast, lean meatballs, and egg whites. I went home and made a glass of chocolate milk with extra egg whites. I unpacked my books and photographed them.

home.

Things I ain’t mad about

Published on November 3, 2009 in Featherproof Books, Hank Williams Jr. and Work. 10 Comments

Maud Newton gave Featherproof a little blurby on mini books.
I’m in charge of the turkey for Thanksgiving. Has anyone ever grilled a turkey?
Publishers Weekly chose men for their Best Books of 2009. So what if the aesthetic of this panel of editors happened to involve only men this time? I would find it insulting to be the token female placed on the list for anything other than the strength of my words.
There is a new gender issue you can get mad about every day if you want.
Some of the people complaining about this PW thing are suggesting books by women that they loved. Everybody wins in the stretch.
Massive deadline day. I wrote 4,000 words and learned about what it really means to earn a PharmD. My brains feel poached. Tomorrow I’m going to knock out some educational writing–you know, for kids–and clean this cold place. I’ll make a dust nest and fall asleep inside.
Congratulations to ameliagray.com reader “Sasha,” who won a copy of Annalemma 5 by claiming that his favorite Hank Williams Jr. song was his guest vocals on Kid Rock’s “Cadillac Pussy” wherein the honky tonk pioneer’s son sings, “She had a Cadillac pussy.” I’ll send a second copy of Annalemma 5 to Hank Williams Jr. for that line.
The phone was stressing me out so I hid it.
All I can do anymore is write lists, watch football and update my fake Twitter.
I keep coming back to this Absent. Kim Gek Lin Short, Marc McKee, and Reb Livingston.
They’re still filming Cheaters. Someone over there updates the Official Cheaters Blog twice a month. This all happens whether you regard it or not.

Well day

Published on October 16, 2009 in Cooking, Featherproof Books, Kyle Beachy, Teaching and Zach Dodson. 3 Comments

I’ve got meatloaf in the oven. It’s making the house smell nice.

The Chicago trip was crazy fun as anticipated. On Monday, I got in early and took one of those naps that divides one day into two. When I woke up, Blake was there and Zach took us to Mr. Pollo where we ate good chicken and two different types of plantains. We met Ally at No Coast and friends began to filter in, Angeline and Johnny and Jac and Mary and Lindsay among them. I met Kathryn Regina and Sam Pink, who each read funny and good words. It was a small room and a standing crowd, which gave it a party feel, like everyone just happened to stop talking to listen to someone tell a story. The mic was doing some reverb stuff the whole time, but my story was supposed to be kind of awkward and overloud so I tried to work with it. Blake read from “The Ruined Child,” one of my favorites from Scorch Atlas. A band played, a dance party broke out, a hole appeared in my jeans. We went to a late-night Mexican place that served a small plate of meat with a corn tortilla warm over top as an appetizer, and brought us a dish of limes when they saw we had beers. I leave Texas and eat nothing but Mexican food, go figure.

The next day, I went to H&M and Kyle Beachy‘s class at the Art Institute, where I read from AM/PM and a new story and his smart students asked me good questions. We talked about artists and the Internet, blogs, David Foster Wallace, Wittgenstein, and ritual. I could tell that Kyle is a smart teacher and a good one. Then I went back to H&M, then Angeline and Johnny took me to eat the greatest chicken pot pie made by human hands and then it was off to Quickies, where I read with a whole host of excellent folk and nearly all of the Dollar Store Tour roster, including Aaron and Caroline, plus Richard Thomas, who I had met the night before. Lindsay Hunter read a hilarious story and made everyone excited that Featherproof is doing her book next year. I read over the allotted five minutes and they whistled me off the stage but I fought hard and took Hunter’s whistle away and threw an elbow at Hamilton.

In the morning, I had brunch with Zach, Mary, Blake, and Aaron. I ate salmon and regretted it later when I sat on an airplane next to a man wearing a weightlifter’s tank top and shorts and smelling distinctly like a squat rack.

I’m glad to have an excuse to go to Chicago more often than once a year. I do think that if I lived there, I would spend all my money on good food and all my time at the gym, working it off. Speaking of, it turns out that cumin in the glaze is a nice touch for meatloaf.

A drum circle seems to have broken out under my window. I think it’s important for me to write some fiction tonight.

Sick day

Published on October 7, 2009 in Cool and Featherproof Books. 6 Comments

I’m sick today. That aching feeling where things could go either way. My body says don’t you dare step outside. I will listen. I need to finish writing a story. Unfortunately, writing is hard.

Do bean sprouts have any nutritional value? I am going to eat a bunch of them.

I’m pretty sure everyone gets sick from touching the handles of shopping baskets in grocery stores. When I worked retail, I was always bothered by the fact that my managers called the rolling carts, the carts on wheels, “baskets.” They would ask me to go get a basket and I would come back with an actual basket with two handles and they would look at me with pity and disdain.

you're right, this is obviously a basket

I had a conversation about many things with Molly Gaudry for Writers Respond. I finally reveal the world’s fastest land animal, which is a secret I was planning on keeping to myself until somebody asked. Thank you, Molly. I hope to see you in Chicago.

Speaking of, I will be reading in Chicago next week at the following events:

Scorch Atlas Release Party!
Mon, Oct 12th, 2009, @7:00pm – No Coast
Quickies! FUNdraiser!
Tue, Oct 13th, 2009, @7:30pm – Innertown Pub

Check out this article about how nonsense sharpens the intellect:

Brain-imaging studies of people evaluating anomalies, or working out unsettling dilemmas, show that activity in an area called the anterior cingulate cortex spikes significantly. The more activation is recorded, the greater the motivation or ability to seek and correct errors in the real world, a recent study suggests. “The idea that we may be able to increase that motivation,” said Dr. Inzlicht, a co-author, “is very much worth investigating.”

A Contest.

Published on September 22, 2009 in AM/PM and Featherproof Books. Closed

A little feather-ruffling over at Featherproof:

“Have you read AM/PM? Cleverest review on Powells.com or Amazon.com in the next 48 hours wins the featherproof novel of your choice! You have 48 hours from now, 9/22, 4pm, to do it. So do it.”

Hearts

Published on September 1, 2009 in Cats, Cooking and Featherproof Books. Closed

I sautéed a chicken heart for my cats: they were not interested. (It occurs to me that not everyone might want to see a sautéed chicken heart first thing in the morning. 1, 2. Don’t say I never did anything for you.)

Reading through one of my favorite magazine moments of every year, DIAGRAM‘s fiction issue, with winners from the $5 innovative contest. So far I’ve read Michael Agresta, Kristina Born and Jenny Zhang, each knocking it out of the park. I hope somebody is testing these kids for hormone-enhancing supplements. Perhaps women concerned with the idea that they see gender-based discrimination from editors should spend more time submitting anonymously to contests? The playing field seems level, if that small but respected sample size is any indication.

Just realized you can’t spell “supplements” without supple.

I bought a small bag of cherries for $10 at the grocery store the other day. Not even the fancy grocery store. I’m missing the easy berries of the Pacific Northwest. They grow on trees out there.

Featherproof’s TripleQuick app is coming soon, and a story of mine with it. I can’t wait to read all of the little eggs.

Funny essay on hipsters as fertilizer at the MostModernist. Worth a click if just for the image caption at the top.

All quotes should hereby be appended to include exclamation points. As Louis Pasteur said, “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal! My strength lies solely in my tenacity!”

West coast dates &c.

Published on July 24, 2009 in Featherproof Books and Matthew Simmons. 1 Comment

I got an excellent package full of art in the mail from Andrea Burk over at Spork Press (click that link ASAP and be rewarded with a great story duo from Matthew Simmons). She has sent me lovely paper adorned with lovelier art, on which I have been asked to write some stories. If I touch them today they’ll end up all half-burned and coffee stained. I’d really like to sew some of these soft pink rose petals into them, but that kind of thing doesn’t last. Trying to decide what will.

Here’s the scoop on the west coast mini tour:

Portland: Monday, Aug 3: Powell’s Books with Suzanne Burns at 7:30 PM
Seattle: Tuesday, Aug 4: Neptune Coffee with Lotte Kestner and Evelyn Hampton at 7:00 PM
Eugene: Saturday, Aug 8: Eugene with Meagan Evans at the Wandering Goat, 7:00 PM

The west coast, as the angels say, is the best coast.

Here’s a gem from Featherproof:

TripleQuick stories are specifically tailored to the modern mobile attention span, they say. 3 screens, 333 words, 3 minutes to read. The challenge of devastating in 333 words. Sublimity.

Publishers Weekly.

Published on June 22, 2009 in AM/PM and Featherproof Books. Closed

AM/PM Amelia Gray. Featherproof (PGW, dist.), $12.95 paper (144p) ISBN 978-0-9771992-7-3
A series of brief, anecdotal episodes featuring occasionally recurring characters marks this delectable debut from Gray. Numbered from 14 to 133, and appearing on facing pages marked AM and PM, these vignettes explore the love tangles of characters like Betty and Simon, listening through the window to a screaming argument by neighbors on the street and discussing whether they should react as Raymond Carver or Superman, or Martha and Emily as they test glass tabletops (and each other) while shopping for furniture. Muted, humorous epiphanies occur: Carla, a woman with two daughters, is moving out on Andrew and trying to pack up her glassware in newspaper (“softened by the humid air”) without waking him; later, she dates the Amazing Chet, who makes his living guessing people’s weight. Friends Missy and Chastity do yoga and debate the attributes of attractive men, while Hazel, on the facing page, ponders her universal “need to express something inside of her.” At moments screwy, prickly and pleasantly surprising, Gray’s short shorts deliver youthful snapshots about being nuts in love. (Aug.)

Tour Dates Announced.

Published on June 11, 2009 in AM/PM, Blake Butler, Featherproof Books, Interviews and Zach Dodson. Closed

Featherproof Books is excited, no, totally pumped, to announce our biggest event the year: The Dollar Store Summer Mega Tour! That’s right, we’re taking this renowned reading series on the road: packing 7+ of our beloved writers in a van, buying tons of dollar store junk, and hitting 11 cities in 14 days.

For three years, The Dollar Store has sold out its hometown venue with its blue-collar literature, absurdist humor, and a circus of junk. This summer, Zach Dodson, co-founder of featherproof books, will host a month long Dollar Store tour that kicks off June 28th, and will hit Austin, on Sunday July 5th at 8 PM , at Scoot Inn.

Austin, Sunday July 5th
8pm, $1
Scoot Inn
1308 E. 4th Street @ Navasota
Austin, TX 78702

Stealing from the improv community’s bag of tricks, The Dollar Store uses a “suggestion” for the pieces performed in the show. Each writer or comedian is given an item purchased at a local dollar store (mundane to insane) and a month to craft a story that involves the item as directly or obliquely as the performer wishes. The show has been featured on National Public Radio and in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.

The tour will include the following authors: Amelia Gray (AM/PM, Featherproof, 5 Things Austin reading series) Aaron Burch (Hobart), Caroline Picard (Green Lantern Press, The Parlor reading series), Zach Dodson (boring, boring, boring, Featherproof, the Show ‘n Tell Series), Mary Hamilton, (Quickies! reading series) Jac Jemc ( My Only Wife, Dzanc Books), and Blake Butler (Scorch Atlas, Featherproof, Ever, Calamari, Lamination Colony). It will also feature local Austin writers Ryan Markel and Owen Egerton.

These performers can’t wait to hit Austin as they spread dollar store junk throughout the United States. Zach Dodson, as well as the other touring performers are available for interviews. More information for the Dollar Store reading series can be found at www.dollarstoreshow.com.

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:”Bookman Old Style”; panose-1:2 5 6 4 5 5 5 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

Austin, Sunday July 5th

8pm, $1
Scoot Inn
1308 E. 4th Street @ Navasota
Austin, TX 78702

The tour will include the following authors: Amelia Gray (AM/PM, Featherproof, 5 Things Austin reading series) Aaron Burch (Hobart), Caroline Picard (Green Lantern Press, The Parlor reading series), Zach Dodson (boring, boring, boring, Featherproof, the Show ‘n Tell Series), Mary Hamilton, (Quickies! reading series) Jac Jemc ( My Only Wife, Dzanc Books), and Blake Butler (Scorch Atlas, Featherproof, Ever, Calamari, Lamination Colony). It will also feature local Austin writers Ryan Markel and Owen Egerton.

Austin, Sunday July 5th

8pm, $1
Scoot Inn
1308 E. 4th Street @ Navasota
Austin, TX 78702

AM/PM on sale.

Published on May 31, 2009 in AM/PM and Featherproof Books. Closed

AM/PM is on sale! Clicking the button below gives you a chance to purchase the book and support a local business. That statement only applies if you live in Chicago or have a very broad world-view.

The book will officially be out August 1, at which point you can buy it on Amazon and in a bookstore and illegally on the black market. The bootleg copy is a brick wrapped in newspaper.