Archive for the 'Interviews' Category

DANG

Published on April 4, 2011 in Adam Robinson, baking, Gene Morgan, Grace Krilanovich, Interviews, Jenny Schlief and Timothy Willis Sanders. 3 Comments

I’m beyond honored to be on the Indie Booksellers’ Choice Award longlist with Grace Krilanovich, Robert Lopez, Eugene Marten, Geroges Perec and more. I’m so proud and happy to play my small part in the vibrant, passionate independent bookseller world, which is so full of people who care deeply about writers and readers and books.

Also, please find Vol 1. of the What is Experimental Literature? project with Chris Higgs, which is becoming the first of a series I can’t wait to read.

I had an excellent past week, well worth this chest cold deal I’ve got going on today. The NYC trip was constant movement, both alone and alongside dear friends. I met my goal of coffee and pie with Sasha and Skyler, wine with Emily and Claudia and a few good, windy walks with Ryan. I signed a contract and went to two parties and met new friends Alex and Jayson and Ben and felt tempted for the first time to move to a city that has otherwise freaked me out for over ten years.

Then, I flew home, sat at my desk for half an hour and made the drive to Houston, where I met up with Adam and Tim and Gene and Jenny, and read at the good-time Houston Indie Book Festival. It was nice and warm and there was a hammock and I felt at peace and declared that I will never move away from the South.

(I’m feeling a little conflicted.)

Now I’m home-again home-again, eating tapioca and finally baking that loaf of bread I’ve been threatening to bake for weeks, getting back to the draft, making a grocery list, experiencing chest congestion, figuring stuff out, continuing correspondence, looking for a good yoga class &c.

Interviews & upcoming

Published on December 2, 2010 in Interviews and Kim Jong-Il. Closed

I was interviewed by Tobias Carroll for YETI 10 and by Blake Butler for HTMLGIANT, talking about books, fate, routines, America, etc. Thanks to both for the good talks.

If you’re in Austin or you know someone who is, check it out:

December 10-12, Austin hosts a weekend-long series of shows at The ND at 501 Studios (501 N. I H 35, Austin, TX, 78748) culminating in a day-long reading and bookfair. Join us on Friday, December 10th at 7:30pm for The Encyclopedia Show; Saturday, December 11th at 8pm for Teleportal 2.2; and Sunday, December 12 from 12-9pm for the mashup reading and bookfair. It’s a weekend of readings followed by a best-of show bringing Austin’s most exciting readers, authors, presses, and booksellers under one roof.

More info here, pass-it-on Facebook invite here.

I feel like Kim Jong-Il looking at things.

Baking & driving

Published on November 9, 2010 in driving and Interviews. 1 Comment

Last night I made white cake properly for the first time, which was kind of a crazy miracle because I was measuring out the flour and sugar and milk into this huge 4-cup Pyrex deal and, now that I think about it, put the Pyrex on the floor for the milk measure, because I didn’t want to get too far from the fridge. I cook slow but bake fast because I’ve got in my head that I’m not a good baker and the slower I go the more failed it seems. But the white cake came out really well, and that’s a hard cake to make. Thanks Martha Stewart for your freaked out complex recipe and thanks to Pyrex for making a magic 4-cup measure that allows for accuracy. Now I’ve got ten cupcakes making a Maginot line between me and the microwave.

I made you and I will destroy you

In plugging in the camera to upload the picture I took, for some reason, of cupcakes, I see there are still pictures from the ABQ to AUS drive.

oh, there it is

I wish I had a better shot of the Owl Bar & Cafe mural but the sun was working against me. My phone’s crummy camera is full of Texas murals and New Mexico has some cool ones too.

New Mexico rest stop

celebrated suffrage on this sign

I’ve been feeling lately like there’s an unlimited number of things that must be done in a too-limited amount of time. The problem with this feeling is that any scope of time (1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 life) isn’t enough time for the xyz that must be done. I can’t stay in bed because there’s work, but then I get up and can’t do any work. It’s causing some general elevated heart rate. Violent dreams too, which seem to happen whether or not I have three cupcakes before bed. I’m living in a Cathy strip this week.

I don’t know if all this means I need to get on the road again. I might go see my girl Sarah in Dallas later this week. She will give me a hug and pour me a glass of wine and we will sit in her father’s house and she will tell me that I’m not having a low-level heart attack that has lasted for a week, and she knows this is true because her mom is a nurse.

Hey speaking of talks, I’m doing Writers in a Room Wednesday night with Doug Dorst and James Hynes. Come by and ask me for the secret to a good white cake. I will tell you but first I will act like I am the only one who knows.

Please find a short Q&A on The Story Prize blog, wherein spare statistics get spat. Thanks to Larry Dark for the Qs.

provisioning

Published on July 31, 2010 in Interviews and team discovery. 1 Comment

In Tucson. Last night we hung out with Spork makers Andrea and Drew. A thunderstorm surrounded us and we ate lemon ice. Aaron and I are heading out in a couple hours, after sourdough pancakes. This home is my home.

We set up a Twitter. I got an interview up at Black Heart. Sass in the grass. Looking forward to seeing Lindsay and friends up the coast.

Everyday live

Published on May 11, 2010 in Adam Robinson, internet and Interviews. Closed

I took over the factory at Everyday Genius this week. Adam Robinson assigned me five constraints, each of which I completed immediately after opening my eyes each morning for maximum confusion/focus effect. Here are the pieces listed by constraint (please note, each day has an autoplay sound file embedded):

Day 1: Write under the table.
Day 2: Do you have a couch? It would be funny if you tried to squeeze yourself between the couch and the wall. If you don’t have a couch, your biggest chair would do.
Day 3: Standing in the shower, clothed, trying not to be hit with water.
Day 4: In bed, with your head at the other end (if you can sleep this way the night before, too, that would help a lot).
Day 5: While sitting on a small stack of AM/PM.

It is not always fun to write with constraints but the results are sometimes interesting. More info on the project here. Check over there each day this week and collect ‘em all. Thanks for being so great, Adam.

Interview and a little freewrite up at Dark Sky Magazine. Thanks to Ethel Rohan for the time and questions.

You know what’s cool? Bilingual homophonous poetry.

Holla back, Kyle Beachy

Published on July 2, 2009 in AM/PM, Interviews and Kyle Beachy. 2 Comments

last book to make you laugh out loud

Amelia Gray’s AM/PM. What I thought was going to be a collection of clever little things revealed itself to be much much bigger and better and just downright hilarious.

Thanks, man. Check out the rest of his interview here. I feel exactly the same way he does about The Master and Margarita.

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.

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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

Largehearted Boy Book Notes.

Published on June 10, 2009 in AM/PM and Interviews. 1 Comment

Check out my Book Notes for AM/PM at Largehearted Boy.

When I listen to music, I usually end up looping one or two songs for months. I’m trying to get out of the habit because it makes me kind of boring to talk to about music, but for the purposes of this playlist it comes in handy. For this I took the songs I listened to a lot during the writing and editing and assigned them to characters they might represent.

Interview at The Scowl.

Published on June 4, 2009 in Five Things, Interviews and Teaching. 2 Comments

Today at The Scowl you will find a conversation between Tobias Carroll and myself. I talk about teaching, writing, and Five Things. It was fun; thank you, Toby.

Another squirrel ran by the window with a pancake in its mouth. Somebody in this neighborhood is handing out pancakes.

About a month ago, a few nice folks wrote me long, polite letters referring to my position on the stimulus bill. I think I just figured out why.