colin bassett

A story of mine from the Mississippi Review was selected for the Best American Short Stories list of "100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2008." I would have a link but I can't find the list anywhere online. The list is printed in the back of the Best American Short Stories 2009 edition and includes stories by "major authors" like Mary Gaitskill, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Yiyun Li, Nam Le, Ha Jin, Joshua Ferris, Richard Ford, Rivka Galchen, Mary Gordon, Jeffrey Eugenides, T.C. Boyle, Steve Almond, Wendell Berry, Ron Carlson, Jean Thompson, Annie Proulx, Steven Millhauser, and Wells Tower.

2009-10-12T14:31:00.002-05:00

Rachel B. Glaser's collection Pee On Water to be released by Publishing Genius Press summer 2010.

2009-08-12T01:02:00.008-05:00

FALLING STARS TO SMASH MOTEHRFUCKERS IN THEIR FACE has been published by Bearcreekfeed. Buy the limited print edition here.

2009-07-21T13:42:00.007-05:00

"Estimated percentage of all existing blogs that have not been updated in four months: 94" (Harper's Index). Seems descriptive of what I feel like almost all of the time.

2009-07-20T13:47:00.004-05:00

Boring Meadows is sold out. Thanks for buying it. There will be a reprint at some point.

2009-06-23T09:45:00.008-05:00

The new issue of Fence magazine is now available. It can be purchased online here.

mfa bitches

2009-06-05T00:55:00.000-05:00

At various points reading Brandon Scott Gorrell's DURING MY NERVOUS BREAKDOWN I WANT TO HAVE A BIOGRAPHER PRESENT I pictured myself sitting in a restaurant and feeling the same kind of emotions these poems are describing, except that in my real life these moments are experienced in more confused, unstated ways. Brandon's poems seem like accurate descriptions of common, daily feelings that make up large portions of my life but usually become vague and forgotten soon or immediately after they happen. Situations can seem exceedingly awful and then very quickly become neutral or even okay feeling in a way that diminishes the extreme despair of the initial feeling. It seems important to describe these kinds of experiences from the point of view of being inside them and experiencing how awful they seem; it seems like most depictions of this type come from a displaced emotional state that is extremely detached from the actual experience of normal, daily awfulness. These poems seem full and extreme in a way that is accurate in reality.

Brandon's poems are often concerned with large-scale destruction and I think often describe a kind of calm, personal apocalypse. The poems feel like being on a sidewalk and watching clouds that are maybe a storm and continually picturing the storm's potential for various levels of mild, isolated destruction and then feeling that this is simultaneously depressing, relieving and difficult to care about.

The book also portrays a struggle with "sincerity" in writing that is expressive of something. There is an open difficulty with what can be meant and what can't, what can be a meaningful last line of a poem or if nothing can be a meaningful last line of a poem, and so on. This comes across sometimes as self-consciousness or self-awareness but also sometimes just "purely" as content of a poem. Sincerity, I think, is more genuinely achieved in this book than in books that are both more and less self-referential.

Some of these poems are obvious in a way that feels comforting and honest (like "gmail"). Sometimes the poems are surprising and startling and make me think about Brandon spending time typing and editing the poems. I think a lot of people might not expect this from this kind of book.

There is a nice way in which a lot is accomplished with these poems, so that it does not feel like the poems are repeating themselves, even though there is a nice feeling of continuity in terms of what type of reality and depression is being described. I liked the two poems about John and the space alien. Reading them felt like reading the last poem in Raymond Carver's All of Us. It's called "Late Fragment":

And did you get what

you wanted from this life, even so?

I did.

And what did you want?

To call myself beloved, to feel myself

beloved on the earth.

Except somehow more honest and depressing because of whatever is too "poetic" about Carver's version.

At various points reading/looking at this book I thought things like "Chelsey Minnis" or "you are a little bit happier than i am" or "Sometimes My Heart Pushes My Ribs" and I felt good thinking about these things. The back cover of the book features the words "anxiety" "low self-confidence" and "alienation" in the same way the back of Chelsey Minnis's Bad Bad features the words "DECADENT!" and "CHILDISH!" For some reason I got out all the books this book reminded me of. They make a pile of books that I really like having next to me. Feels good to add this one to it.

DURING MY NERVOUS BREAKDOWN I WANT TO HAVE A BIOGRAPHER PRESENT

by Brandon Scott Gorrell

Muumuu House

poetry series

2009-05-29T00:09:00.002-05:00

SAFE TOILET SYNDROME has been published by Bearcreekfeed. See more information here.

Jimmy Chen posted a review at HTML GIANT.

bsg story contest response

2009-05-26T22:52:00.001-05:00

This is a response to the controversy resulting from Brandon Scott Gorrell's story contest.

I first heard about Brandon's story contest as an idea he posted on Twitter, to which I replied that it was a good idea to have a story contest on his blog. After the contest began I paid the $7 entry fee to Brandon and entered a story called "Joy Williams" (the story made it to Brandon's "maybe" list for stories he was considering to win the contest). I also donated a copy of Boring Meadows and a copy of Sam Pink's Yum Yum I Can't Wait to Die as prizes for the contest winner.

I thought Brandon's idea to host a story contest on his blog was absurd and interesting and I felt happy that it actually happened. I felt that it would be something interesting to pay attention to and to watch "play out" or something. I honestly feel that the main reason the contest appealed to me was that I knew it would be controversial even though "in reality" it was just boring and inconsequential. That people seemed genuinely "fed up" when the contest began was entertaining. I thought about how people were getting angry over something they had no reason to feel compelled to pay attention to. This is something that happens continuously on the internet. Despite their apparent dismissal of people like Brandon and their writing, these people seem obviously quite invested in it. I think Brandon pointed out that the majority of people commenting/shit-talking on his blog were not actually people who had entered the contest and felt like they had been treated unfairly; instead these were people who would, it seems, claim to dismiss Brandon's contest/Brandon's writing/Brandon's internet presence for various reasons, including things like being a "carbon copy" of Tao Lin, or having no "actual literary talent" or something. But instead of actually dismissing Brandon and his contest, these people seem to put a lot of energy into responding to it, as if it is something they actually care about very much. I don't understand this process. These people seem invested in "correcting" something they don't even care about. Did they want Brandon to have a different kind of contest? Do they want Brandon not to have a contest? Do they want Brandon to pick a different winner for his contest? All these cases would seem to be predicated on the idea that these people care about Brandon and his contest and what he is doing on the internet.

I have written a little before about being confused about the motivation of shit-talkers. I think this is the same issue and that my confusion continues. I think that I am genuinely interested in a real explanation about why people behave like this around things they intensely dislike. I do not understand people's motivations, but it is funny and entertaining. I feel glad that Brandon's contest has resulted in semi-widespread controversy. I feel good about the winning story and that Sarah Schneider will get the prizes/entry fee I donated to the contest.

varying levels of anxiety depression & humor

2009-05-03T17:53:00.027-05:00

CORRESPONDENCE

I read your book this morning. I liked it a lot. It made me feel good. There was this great balance between the heartfelt images and the surreal and funny ones. Maybe that sounds odd. It had a "cooling" affect on me. Very fresh, modern, and well done.
-Shane Jones

I like it ... I like this "style" of poem. With the line breaks like that and everything. "You know what I mean."
-Tao Lin

I liked reading your poetry book. I feel like you express a unique feeling in your book. I mean that I feel like I haven't read something that made me feel this way before, and I liked it. I felt varying levels of anxiety and depression and humor while reading it, but they were all of a "unique slant" or something. I don't know. It is a calm, good book. I like the book.
-Brandon Scott Gorrell

SAFE TOILET SYNDROME

an ebook by PRATHNA LOR

with artwork by JEFFREY HEART

available now at BEARCREEKFEED

read a REVIEW

read an EXCERPT

add it on GOODREADS

notable story

2009-04-20T11:06:00.004-05:00

Kim Chinquee's Happy Birthday to Me was selected for the Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2008.

jean follain

2009-04-18T13:57:00.005-05:00

Here is another short "prose poem" story by Jean Follain. I like his book. It is funny; I think some parts of this are "meant" to be in quotation marks, like "unwritten rules of etiquette" etc. He is writing about situations I think I would write about/be in but how these things were in a different time period/a different country maybe. I feel like this same story about a person going into somebody else's apartment would be the subject of a "contemporary" story that I would enjoy reading. The stories in his book don't have titles; they are just single paragraphs on a page; this is one of the paragraphs:

In houses one approaches carefully there are stairs to be climbed, once the door's open, before reaching the one room that's lived in. From below, the woman who's calling inquires, "Are you there?" And the woman who's up there alone answers, "Yes, I'm waiting for you to come up." The visitor takes off her clogs so she won't track in dirt. The wooden stairs groan under her weight. That's what it's like to go out in society: one has to observe unwritten rules of etiquette. When the two women are sitting face to face, they speak guardedly and their shadows almost touch on dead white walls. A vegetable aridity takes hold of the space around them: wicker breadbaskets, some other summer's nuts, yellowed bunches of beans hung up to go to seed. Nothing out of place.

books

2009-04-14T00:55:00.010-05:00

I got Chelsea Martin's book in the mail. Also, Daniel Bailey's The Drunk Sonnets is now forthcoming at Magic Helicopter Press. And preorder Brandon Scott Gorrell's book from Muumuu House (or from Brandon's blog). Good job to independent publishers.

kathryn regina

2009-04-04T19:24:00.008-05:00

I am really excited about Kathryn Regina's new book out now from Greying Ghost. I really like the poems in it, and I also really like this video Greg Lytle made with Kathryn. ORDER NOW and add it on Goodreads.

I Am In the Air Right Now from Greg Lytle.

jean follain

2009-04-01T00:43:00.011-05:00

This is from A World Rich in Anniversaries by Jean Follain. I really like this book; it is a collection of "short shorts"; I will write more about it soon maybe.

"We're lost," the husband says to his wife in her flowered hat; they no longer know which way to go. The night comes on. Birds fall silent. They make a wild guess. A clearing turns up, a peasant woman sitting there gives them directions. They're saved. The countryside is full of life again: cows and mares are calm. "Let's hurry up," one of them says, "It's not getting any earlier." "I know," the other replies. They come to houses at the edge of town. The windows are full of staring people saying nothing. For the couple this is a new kind of fear. They blanch and quicken their pace. So goes the story of their life.

support free literature

2009-03-22T22:13:00.008-05:00

NOO Journal is doing a RAD POETRY fundraiser in which Mike Young et al. are making personalized poems/videos for people who donate some money to help NOO continue publishing its free print journal. The fundraiser seems to be "extremely worthwhile" and "doing well" and the video poems are being posted here.

Chelsea Martin's video/poem called "Sometimes it feels like being in a gigantic room and being only one person" is posted here. I really like it. Thank you, Chelsea.

Donate to NOO if you can.

reviews

2009-03-19T18:31:00.009-05:00

Shane Jones said nice things about Boring Meadows here. I also added a couple new "blurbs" to the website; I stole Shane's from his post and Adam Robinson's from his review on goodreads.

Also, new things have been posted at generalized social anxiety; they are called "shoplifting from whole foods" (here) and "maybe for some reason" (here).

chapbooks

2009-03-17T14:45:00.006-05:00

I feel like I have "apologized" "excessively" for not sending/sending late copies of THIS FEELS LIKE NORMAL to people who asked for it. I am still "sorry" that some people have not received copies. Mostly these were international orders, I think. Also maybe some people who just recently asked for it. I have a list of everyone who asked for it and still feel like "Yes, this list will be completed some day" but also "I don't know when I am ever going to do this."

I feel like lots of people got copies of this chapbook and people seemed to like it. "Good." I feel good about that. More people ordered it than I expected, and also I didn't do a good job preparing everything ahead of time. I should have done a better job of that, but still I think 70-80+ copies were sent. Also I think ~20 copies sent to Seattle were lost in the mail. Does a postal worker somewhere have ~20 copies of THIS FEELS LIKE NORMAL? Good, that would be fine; that would be better than if they are just sitting in a box lost in a warehouse or something. I hope someone stole the box and was "thoroughly disappointed" that it was poetry.

The bearcreekfeed "press" website will be updated soon I think. I will probably list THIS FEELS LIKE NORMAL as "out of stock" instead of "free to anyone" but maybe not. I anticipate new chapbooks forthcoming. BCF Press will maybe publish 1-2 this summer. If so, they will be "limited editions" and cost 3-6 dollars. I feel that they will be of "superior quality" in terms of materials and binding, etc.

This turned into an update about "BCF Press" which is something I don't think I totally realized "existed." I will type more about this at some point. Sooner than new chapbooks will be new ebooks at POETRY SERIES. Forthcoming poets include Prathna Lor, Jillian Clark, and Kendra Grant Malone.

fence

2009-03-12T00:12:00.007-05:00

I have a new story coming out in the next issue of Fence magazine. I don't know when it will be out, maybe by late April. It will be the spring/summer 2009 issue, I think.

Is it too early to mention this? Yes, probably.

I feel like I like Fence a lot. They publish reading lists instead of contributor bios. I think I only mentioned books published by independent publishers in my list; it felt "right" to do this.

ebook

2009-03-09T13:22:00.005-05:00

Matthew Savoca rewrote all of the poems in When People Talk To Me I Want To Close My Eyes. The poems are now an ebook called When People Look At Me I Want To Close My Mouth. Matthew did a really good job; I think he improved the poems.

"Something special" is an accurate thing to say, I think.

If you have read the original poems I think you will like these. If you have not read the original poems read these and that will be like you read the originals.

Matthew Savoca and I are obviously involved in a secret plan to read each other's work and like it and talk about it and make blog posts about it to the blatant exclusion of other people who do not care about us and who think we are silly like kids in kindergarten. This sort of mutually-delusional behavior will continue. We will make probably more things together until eventually maybe we are the only people who read the things we make and everyone else has forgotten who we are. This is maybe an agreeable future and Matthew Savoca's When People Look At Me I Want To Close My Mouth is I think a part of this.

american short fiction

2009-03-06T00:38:00.005-06:00

I have been reading the current issue of American Short Fiction. I had always seen this magazine on the shelf in bookstores but never "considered" it. When I saw that Kim Chinquee and Rachel Glaser were in the new issue I thought "Oh that is that magazine, I have seen it a bunch but never thought about it." I bought it and I think I like the journal. I like how it is designed. It has a nice shape, sort of tall and thin so it's not book-style like some journals but also not magazine-shaped. I like the title pages for each story a lot; they are simple but nice looking.

Kim's story is good; I liked reading it. I also liked reading the excerpts from Amelia Gray's AM/PM. I don't know if I will buy that book or not (I feel confused about how you are supposed to buy it; the new featherproof book selling "method" is mysterious, I don't know what to do), but I liked these sections. Rachel Glaser's essay-story had a nice calming effect. It is a lot of information (some real and some made up I think) about art and history and music. I really liked reading it. There is also a story by Joe Wenderoth but I have not read it.

I feel like American Short Fiction is a journal that is affiliated with a lot of things. The Michener Center, I think, and other things. I might be wrong. They charge two dollars to submit stories online which is strange. There is also a short short contest they are having now until maybe May I think. Anyway, it is maybe strange to post about this journal because maybe everyone knows about it / doesn't care. But I like this issue and maybe will buy other issues.

Mike Young, this was on the American Short Fiction blog. It says being funny in the NEA application is okay. That is probably good.

minor robberies

2009-02-27T13:48:00.007-06:00

Does someone want to sell me Minor Robberies by Deb Olin Unferth? I have strong feelings of opposition about buying the collection it comes in, "I don't know why."

It feels impossible to own a copy of Minor Robberies. I feel that anyone who has it will not want to get rid of it, but maybe someone bought the collection for one of the other books?

I would paypal money and/or send free things like other books or chapbooks.

Also, if someone would maybe even lend me a copy I could return it "promptly" I think. that would work. Can someone lend me a copy of Minor Robberies?

This feels desperate. Sorry for making this post.

UPDATE: Manuscript attained. Thanks Deb.

generalized social anxiety

2009-02-25T22:05:00.004-06:00

I have things here and here at generalized social anxiety, which is a new thing I am doing with Ryan Manning.

free copies

2009-02-24T22:42:00.006-06:00

Are there people who want a copy of Boring Meadows but do not want to paypal six dollars to get it?

Are there people who thought they might like reading it but not enough to pay money for it?

Are there people who just want to read things for free online and not pay for them to be printed?

Are there people who don't have a strong enough sense that they will like this chapbook to buy it?

Are there people who aren't sure what this chapbook is but would like it if they knew what it was like?

If so I will mail 1-3 copies to people for free. You will get to read it, but will not have to experience anxiety about whether you wanted to spend money on it. Please email csbassett at gmail dot com and I will mail a copy to you.

Here is an excerpt from one of the five stories; it is representative of the style of writing in the book. Email me to get one of the free copies or go here if you would like to buy a copy.

UPDATE: 3 copies sent. Thanks.

rich, amazing

2009-02-24T19:03:00.004-06:00

i am really excited about this new book that i didn't know was going to exist. also, i liked this no point in not being friends video contribution. preorder the book here. hello, chelsea martin.

claire donato

2009-02-19T23:24:00.007-06:00

i got claire donato's new chapbook SOMEONE ELSE'S BODY in the mail today from cannibal books. i didn't know where cannibal was located so at first i didn't think it was her book, but then i was really excited when i opened it. i like how the book is designed. it's simple but 'high-quality' and seems 'durable' or something in a strange way. like i could maybe pour water on it and it would be okay.

i felt very good reading the poems in this chapbook. they're beautiful and everything in them was surprising and new in different ways. this is maybe my 'favorite' poetry chapbook that i have read. i don't feel like i've read poems like this before because even though they are the kinds of poems i'm used to reading by poets that i like, they are more 'visually aware' maybe, they seem more technical, i think, and 'more like professional poems' or something. some of the poems are like this but some are just broken into paragraphs almost. the book feels 'diverse' in this sense but the content is consistently good and nice, i think.

the first poem opens like this:

The walls are tearing / out of their paint. My legs / are crossed. I am not / listening to the TV / in the other room. I am not / listenting to television. The window next / to the television is / turning away. The window is / open.

it felt good how much this seemed like something matthew savoca would write about. i think that i kept thinking 'matthew savoca' as i was reading this. it was a nice thing to be thinking. matthew savoca, i think you would like this book.

another part of the first poem is:

I am never afraid / to layer my breath over yours-- / and when I ask you to plot your anger on a line, I am referring to fear, how / it is linear: see how mine moves / upward in a diagonal line? / See how it moves up to choose? / Why are you lying in a heap on the floor?

i really like these parts and the way i like them is the same way i like the rest of the book. SOMEONE ELSE'S BODY is only six dollars from cannibal. i think there are still copies to buy. claire donato is a nice poet. i am looking forward to reading more things by her.

there are sample poems here and a related awp video here.

poems

2009-02-17T14:36:00.008-06:00

i really like the new poems matthew savoca put on his blog.

i also like this poem by claire donato. i ordered her book but don't have it yet. i think it was available at awp but i didn't see it (except in this video).

also, order ellen kennedy's book from muumuu house. i am looking forward to it a lot.

awp

2009-02-15T14:36:00.005-06:00

i went to chicago for awp and it was very nice. i liked seeing everybody and meeting people.

i met bearcreekfeed authors kim chinquee and jac jemc. they both read at the quickies reading thursday night and i said hi to them briefly.

i also met bearcreekfeed poetry series superstar daniel bailey. daniel, hi. it was very nice hanging out with you. you are a nice person, i like you.

i also got to meet and hang out with shane jones and kathryn regina who are both very nice and sweet and lovely people. hi shane and kathryn, it was very cool meeting you, you are both great i think.

i also met mike young and adam robinson. they organized the eLit train/book cellar reading friday night. it was a nice reading, it was nice having lots of people on the train for the same reason and because they liked the same things. adam was very nice and bought people drinks and mike young is kind of amazing, i fell in love with him a little i think. hi, mike young, you are a great person.

i also met blake butler, ryan call, mary miller, gena mohwish, matt bell, jason jordan, justin taylor, peter cavanaugh, and molly gaudry. i saw/was around some other people who i accidentally didn't really meet like sam pink and gene morgan and some others. it was nice seeing them anyway and also meeting/seeing some people i didn't really know like john wang, aaron burch, sean lovelace, holly wilson, and deb unferth, who were all at panels and readings and doing important things.

i didn't take any pictures but kathryn posted some from the train reading. it is blake and shane, then me, and then mike and daniel on the right.

chapbook

2009-02-07T01:19:00.015-06:00

my chapbook BORING MEADOWS is now available from greying ghost.

go HERE to buy or read an excerpt. the chapbook is also on GOODREADS.

mail

2009-02-05T13:50:00.007-06:00

i got these two books in the mail:

BIG WORLD by mary miller

LIGHT BOXES by shane jones

i like the cover of light boxes and the size of the book. it feels right. big world is even smaller than light boxes and is maybe a little too small. it is less nice to hold than light boxes. i have read some of each book. the opening of light boxes has some very nice sentences that felt very good to read. the first couple of stories in big world are nice and i liked reading them a lot. these are nice books to have.

haircut

2009-02-04T22:39:00.002-06:00

i am going to AWP. who will give me a haircut?

fiction

2009-01-19T21:25:00.002-06:00

bearcreekfeed has published jac jemc's new story THE TACKINESS OF SOULS.

elimae

2009-01-15T08:39:00.001-06:00

i have three stories in the new elimae.

jac jemc

2009-01-09T20:00:00.001-06:00

i like things

2009-01-09T14:00:00.004-06:00

MATTHEW SAVOCA at robot melon

GENA MOHWISH at here explodes my giant face

KIM CHINQUEE at elimae

mary miller

2009-01-09T13:59:00.002-06:00

INTERVIEW by kelly spitzer

BIG WORLD available now

LESS SHINY on goodreads

mary miller's less shiny

2008-12-29T00:45:00.006-06:00

i feel like i liked mary miller's book LESS SHINY more than any other book i have read recently. it is a collection of eleven stories. the stories are very short, usually less than a page or less than two pages. the stories feel like a mixture of what i like about rebecca curtis (twenty grand) and kim chinquee (oh baby). i think that they are very similar to some short-short things i have read by rebecca curtis and to many of the short-short things published in NOON. mary miller is the next new writer i expect to appear in NOON, i think. somehow her writing is what i like about rebecca curtis and kim chinquee and NOON but combined and increased into something new that i like maybe even more than the other things.

i first read mary miller when noo published this boy i loved a rock, which is the last story in LESS SHINY. i really liked the story and thought about how i liked it in the same way i liked mazie montgomery's home says which was in the same issue of noo. the second thing i read by mary miller was her story in the mississippi review which i also liked a lot.

a lot of the time when i am reading i think about things i would change about the writing. a lot of times i will edit the last sentence or paragraph out of a story i am reading because i would like it better if the last sentence or paragraph were not there. for example, i would edit out the last scene in the movie nights and weekends and instead have the greta gerwig-character walk to the bathroom and then the joe swanberg-character move from the bed to somewhere else in the hotel room and then have the last shot be of the bed with the sheets all moved around. i like the movie a lot but that was maybe the first thing i thought about when the movie was over. i think i do this sort of thing a lot with short stories. or i will 'delete' sentences or parts as i am reading if they are not what i want to be in the story. i don't know. i have actually written new versions of short-shorts because i liked them but i wanted them to be a little different. i think probably lots of people do this and that it is not uncommon.

i don't feel like i had any of these feelings at any point in LESS SHINY. every moment i kept thinking 'yes' and 'i like it' and when i finished reading it this made me have the feeling that the book was 'perfect' in a way. i felt very happy reading the book and i think it is one of my favorite story collections even though it is very short and only a chapbook. i didn't get to the end of any story and wish that the last sentence or paragraph had been deleted. instead i felt impressed and calm and also defeated that i didn't write things that i liked as much as i liked these stories.

mary miller has a full-length collection coming out soon called BIG WORLD and i am looking forward to it a lot. i like mary miller as a writer and feel happy to support her and to buy and read anything that she publishes.

buy LESS SHINY from magic helicopter press. read another review here.

i don't know

2008-12-29T00:19:00.006-06:00

i really enjoy rachel glaser's writing: dream house, the kid, butt teen. i am very excited about her collection PEE ON WATER AND OTHER STORIES. here is an interview she did.

great magazine

2008-12-22T22:42:00.005-06:00

i remember thinking that the best part about chelsea martin and brandon gorrell's last magazine THIS IS STUPID I LOVE YOU was maybe the editor's notes. their notes were very enjoyable and honest and i think it was nice to think about them making the magazine and it being sort of uneventful and uninteresting but maybe they just kept going because it was boring not to or maybe for some other reason. i felt like the magazine would have been 'substantially inferior' if they had not included the note, and i think that maybe i've never thought that before about somebody's comment about the thing they made.

i feel all these same things about the editor's notes in GREAT, the new magazine by chelsea and brandon. the notes are 'substantially important' to the magazine, and i sort of had the feeling that maybe they could just publish all of their correspondence and various writing surrounding the making of a magazine and that that would be as nice or nicer than the magazine. maybe they could just write a nonfiction novel about them making a magazine together. i would be genuinely interested in that. it would be a very good novel i think.

i like the work in GREAT also. i like the things by chris killen and jillian clark and krammar abrahams and i really like the poetry excerpt from daniel spinks' the nature of love.

good job to everyone involved and thank you to brandon gorrell and chelsea martin. order GREAT.

new fiction, new writer at bearcreekfeed

2008-12-15T19:00:00.002-06:00

bearcreekfeed has published its fourth story: PASSENGER by tomas weber.

i feel good about poetry

2008-12-07T00:19:00.004-06:00

i feel very good about the poetry e-books at bearcreekfeed. they are by two poets who i like a lot. they have poetry that i feel very good about. i am glad they are e-books and that they are at bearcreekfeed.

matthew savoca's I AM BEING HONEST [video excerpt]

daniel bailey's EAST CENTRAL INDIANA [video excerpt]

sam pink on EAST CENTRAL INDIANA: "it is the best book of poems i have ever read. nobody does anything like daniel bailey."

blake butler on EAST CENTRAL INDIANA: "Daniel does a certain mode of poetry I think more innovatively and with a stranger cull of images and lines than others that could be associated. This is a great read, and BEAR CREEK FEED is a great new source of ebooks."

kendra malone on I AM BEING HONEST: "i am being honest has this tender sensibility about domestic life, but it’s still very dour and a little sad. It reminded me of small pale humans by daniel spinks. They both have this way of displaying the repetitive quality of relationships that is comforting but ultimately depressing as hell."

the newest e-book in the poetry series will be prathna lor's SAFE TOILET SYNDROME. i think some people read an early draft of this book and liked it. i read it and liked it a lot. SAFE TOILET SYNDROME will be available soon as a part of bearcreekfeed's poetry series.

miserable fish

2008-11-26T10:38:00.005-06:00

my story MISERABLE FISH is being published as a chapbook by ml press. the chapbook is only two dollars including shipping and can be pre-ordered here. it will be released soon, december 15 i think.

the chapbook is strange and funny, i think. i think if you read it you will feel okay and a little strange. it is a little funny, you might laugh, i don't know. i think you will feel calm when you have finished reading it.