LIT 15/16 + OCHO 25

Playing catch-up hard. Email inbox like overgrown pubes. Went to life mailbox today. Jesus god. Got a lot to imbibe, talks on.

Starting where the start:

New 10th anniversary issue of LIT is fucking bajoinkers. One of the best looking thangs I've seen in a min., and at least 2x their normal size, fat with freaks:



LIT 15/16 Contributors Include:

Poetry and Prose by Cynthia Arrieu-King, Kate Baldus, A K Beck, Mark Bilbrey, Sommer Browning, Jennifer Bryan, Blake Butler, Tyler Carter, Jeff Chang, Jamison T. Crabtree, Mónica de la Torre, Christopher Deweese, Denise Duhamel, Brian Foley, Andrew Grace, Kate Hall, Casey Haymes, Chris Hosea, Christine Hume, Kirsten Kaschock, Sean Kilpatrick, Amy Lemmon, dawn lonsinger, Julianne Lynch, Anthony Madrid, Scott Miles, Ander Monson, Linnea Ogden, Shelly Oria, Jeffrey Pethybridge, Marie Ponsot, Brett Price, Justin Quarry, Kathleen Rooney, Catie Rosemurgy, Brian Russell, Michael Schiavo, Roy William Scranton, Craig Morgan Teicher, Brendon Vayo and Dean Young…

10 Years: An Editors’ Retrospective, with an introduction by Nicole Steinberg and Peter Bogart-Johnson, LIT co-editors, featuring work by Mary Jo Bang, Erin Belieu, Mark Bibbins, Liz Brown, Jenna Cardinale, Clifford Chase, Shanna Compton, Elaine Equi, Paul Feldman, Andy Fitch, Jonathan Franzen, Caroline Knox, Wayne Koestenbum, Thomas David Lisk, Justin Marks, Chris McCabe, Nancy Nalven, Kathleen Ossip, Angela Patrinos, Rebecca Reilly, Joseph Salvatore, Maureen Thorson, Chris Tonelli and Matthew Ulland…

Bars Across Sky Across Feeling: A Selection of German Poetry in Translation, curated by Liesel Tarquini, with work by Susan Bernofsky, E.H. Bottenberg, Marica Bodrozic, Katy Derbyshire, Catherine Hales, Victoria Hill, Wendy Ann Kopisch, Friederike Mayröcker, Alistair Noon, Veronika Reichl, Monika Rinck, Silke Scheuermann, Lutz Seiler, Tzveta Sofronieva, Donna Stonecipher, Matthias Traxler and Chantal Wright…

Mine's is a piece of Scorch Atlas, 'Water Damaged Photos of Our Home Before I Left It'

In few intro peeks inside, Sean Kilpatrick wins again.

It's got a $8 cover price dudes. You can get it from their forthcoming new website now.






For those interested, issue 25 of Ocho, edited by me, you can buy now in print version from Amazon here, I got a copy, it looks really rad with art by 12 yr old Jaycee Menendez, do a buy?, lots of freaks inside, including:

Matthew Simmons, Sam Pink, Jeff Johnson, Peter Davis, Hickory Assbags, Janey Smith, Rauan Klassnik, Dan Hoy, Michael Bible, Claire Donato & Leslie Patron, James Iredell, Conor Madigan, Adam Robinson, Mike Topp, Ethel Rohan, Kim Parko, Kendra Grant Malone, Jonathan Papas, Ravi Mangla, Christopher Higgs, A. Minetta Gould.



You can still also read it online here.

Dollar Store Pregnancy

Home. Feel kind of crazy, vanfever, vanced. I seriously think I gained 10 pounds in beer, booze, and tacos, as well as doughnuts, whiskey, and 3 am FEED ME shit. Simultaneously missing my Dollar Store freaks and glad to be home getting my run on, drinking water, home. Home.

Was pretty amazed at the quality and size of crowds that came out to the shows, I had been expecting many nights of slim pickins, but almost every night there was a nearly full house. Thanks to everyone who came out said hello bought books bought drinks got crunk, I really don't think it could have gone better than it did.

I'd like to post more about more cities following the first half but I don't think I have the head for this right now. Let me try.

In the van I read

Degenerescence by James Chapman
Jerusalem by Goncalo M. Tavares
Ray of the Star by Laird Hunt
God Jr. by Dennis Cooper
Death Sentence by Maurice Blanchot


In Atlanta:

Home friends, swimming in warm light, destroying several copies of Scorch Atlas in the street outside the show, setting them on fire, punching, jumpkicking, throwing copies under cars (one guy got out and looked to see if running over the book had fucked his shit, he didn't realize it really had, a baby is now in the gastank) (preordered copies of SA (option coming soon) will have the option of coming all beat up by hand), read drunk in front of my parents, said titties a lot probably, took the crew to the Clermont for weird strippers and more beer, actually got stopped by a cop driving home at 3 am which made my van-lidded heart go wah, but dat girl just said g'on.


In Baltimore:

Another long delirious haul, though I already miss the van under my butt, I think it was on the road to there that we ate at a middle school mixed with a old folks home that I laughed at, then got goodfed on ham and scramp and chickens, in day of Balitmore we went to the BMA and saw some like, contemporary sheeit, a woman who had handdrawn exact copies of pages from Proust book, fucking nuts, we went to a corner store and asked for 'the largest bottle of liquor you have,' bought 6 20ozs of Coke and poured them half off, drank most of that before the show even started, minus a couple cups we handed to some young entrepreneurs who saw us drinking and hurried to McDonald's so they could have some cups to get a swig of our drank. This might have been the most fun of all the readings, everyone was electrical and powered up, we proceeded to more fun rooms and hanging and everyone was so nice, and everyone was.


In New York:

Ate sushi dinner with Derek and Jess, tried sushi I had never tried and really enjoyed, showed up at the club for $9 jack and cokes and a house full of rad friends, talked some shit, said the hello, ate the pizza, had a cab decision, got my ass handed to me shooting pool against a hustla, I think Aaron hit top party level this evening while wearing a Mormon style backpack, Aaron is now named Snack Pack, understand. NYC went so fast it felt like, we could have used at least another day or two, bonus cash. In van next day I read a draft of Amelia's forthcoming FC2 and my brain went holy shit magic lives. The van the van the van. Friendses.


In Philly:

Went to Mutter museum of oddities, saw some cleft babies and ruined organs, basked in light, read at a large bar for many more friends, finally met Lee Klein who I think was my first ever internet-land book-related connective tissue bit, Lee was a kind and smiling man, I think the room went still after I made an Anne Frank joke, we opened for a transvestite named Needles who did a cover set of Nico songs more sniffing than singing, looked like somebody took Iggy Pop aged him 15 years made him a grandmother and covered him in powder, weird crowd good people, we walked across the city for cheesesteaks, it was worth it, I think at one point I ran off by myself up a road and made people worried, I peed on a dirt field looking at the cops, Sasha Fletcher drove us home kindly, a kind man indeed. This night I passed out the second the futon hit my head.


In Boston:

Only late-ish show up on the tour, we came in five past, having spent time at Zach's aunt/uncle's, which I could not stop thinking of as that French house in Apocalypse Now (they were French, it was a port in the storm, etc), another amazing packed house at the amazing Brookline Booksmith, seriously almost as many as Austin, Aaron and I took 5-8 shots of whiskey apiece in 10 minutes right before coming in with the books, I think I had a baby, I read a piece about redneck pussy written in two different voices that I wrote sitting hungover on a curb in Baltimore sun while waiting for the van to fill, "This pussy smells like America," I think I scared some people, I think I was most happy I'd felt ever reading, afterward I lurched into some books. Afterward Gene Kwak and crew threw down. Boston being my last night had a weird sense of loss and homecoming at the same time, I went a little looloo and cut my hand partypiling in a bush, again everyone was so kind and awesome, that reading tours could be like this I had no idea.



Though I am glad to be home now and resting and letting my body eat the caloric reservoir I have in 2 weeks acquired, building a visible gut I never had, so fast, Dollar Baby, and drinking water (I think in NYC I realized I hadn't had a glass of water the whole trip), coming out of the long light, I can't say enough how much it really lit me up being out there with my dear friends funning, "for reals."

Partygirlin

I was

Profiled by L Magazine.

Profiled by Willow Springs (2 new lists of mine appear in their new issue #64 along with Kim Chinquee, Dean Young, Jeremy Voight, etc, one of the lists is available online at the profile)




I

edited Ocho 25

Open publication - Free publishing - More mipoesias

had 12th Evenson Fugue State review appear at Dogzplot for 'The Third Factor'

review project also mentioned in interview with Evenson by Drew Toal at Bookslut





I am

in Atlanta on the near halfway mark of the Dollar Store, having too good a time to even begin to explain really, van of freaks! You can get a good feed of brief freakisms from our Dollar Store twitter.

Briefly:

In Nashville

read at a mall bookstore as a result of a late booking and a notreallyliterary town, it was still fun reading among $100 handbags, Peter Cole kicked it out, Todd Dills sang, we drank way too much and set the bar for drinking to the point of partygirlisms every single evening thus far, went to a honky tonk, watched a band play Johnny Cash and repeat between every song "this is real country music, can't hear this on the radio," tried to go to a live nude karaoke event, failed, 3 hrs of sleep, threw up on side of road on way out of town



In Austin

ate crazy good BBQ served by a guy who grunted like Sling Blade and wouldnt talk, went to best truck stop ever in the spirit of Willie Nelson, ate breakfast tacos in a full meal for $2.50, Texas wins in the food world, had a standing room only reading, saw some old friends, 2 day taco count = 9, 2 day beer count = ?



In Houston

Gene Morgan Ryan Call party, more tacos, another great reading freakshow crowd outside of the best artbook boutique I've ever seen, Gene read a prayer that has henceforth protected our barky asses, got crunk and screamed "Bicycle Birthday!" at girls in the bar carrying bikes, drank abstinthe, wished I had not drank absinthe, laughed a lot, debate over whether its Kool Aid Man or Kool Aid Guy, slept in a small room with 8 people



In New Orleans

best food of whole trip soul food yumm, great reading for smaller crowd but good one, listened to rap made by 11 year olds, switched to liquor over beer for feeling fatboy, went into French quarter late in the evening, drank quite a bit too much, screamed about eating babies next to a table of scared locals who transcribed, big red drinks, ended in assdancing club till 3 am, some male dude rubbed his dick on me in an attempted courting ritual, watched assshaking and weird dj woman, shitty thugrap makes the good dance



more on these things later, now we're here back in my hometown with the van's AC half out and enjoying it that way, tonight is Atlanta, if you are here please come, Atlanta Scorch Atlas release party n whatnot!

Dollar Store Tour + Ever 2.0

I am leaving town on Friday for the Featherproof Dollar Store Show, so probably won't be blogging much.

I will likely be drunkenly tweeting here slightly more often to keep the bug in my eyes, unless I decide to bring my laptop, which I am kind of scared to. Is bringing yr laptop on the road to bars a good idea? I can't decide.

Either way, we will have Scorch Atlases, which the best way to get one before Sept, if you'd like.

Here are dates I will be where, would be really great to meet see talk confabulate with some heads.

Friday JULY 3 : Nashville
Sunday JULY 5 : Austin
Monday JULY 6 : Houston
Tuesday JULY 7 : New Orleans
Thursday JULY 9 : Atlanta
Saturday JULY 11 : Baltimore
Sunday JULY 12 : NYC
Monday JULY 13 : Philadelphia
Tuesday JULY 14 : Boston

If you are those spots, please come out! For full info on where/when/with who, check the Dollar Store Show site.





The first printing of EVER is now sold out, except for I think some copies at Powells and SPD.

The second printing is already underway, so don't go paying $60.49 for it used on Amazon just yet.

Thanks again to everyone who has bought / talked about / supported the book, it is beyond appreciated, as always.





Ok, hope to see you.

List of 23 things I wrote yesterday that at the time seemed relevant to something

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8. I need to investigate people who have killed themselves by drinking water.

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11. The other day I helped a tanned man and his fake-breasted girlfriend carry a large oak table up to their second floor loft while I wore the shorts and was covered in sweat. The woman kept starting to say something to me, but did not. The man had small hands.

12. I want to write an essay on the first 42 minutes of Lost Highway but I don't know where to begin.

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16. ...always supposed to be doing something else...

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18. The last time I was at my parents' house my sister had left her bra laying wet out on the kitchen counter on top of a couple of paper towels. I ate some ice cream.

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22. The large security guard outside the 'Murder Kroger' last week, when I asked him how it's going, answered, smiling: "Ain't nobody dyin,' ain't nobody livin'."

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Location HFHIEUUUEIII

Last night flew across a field of solid noise using bloated leaves that puttered water. There were houses in the layers, but after we left the lip we were afraid to land. Everyone below us had knives and torn clothes.

We crashed down in some post-apartment complex and found a way to break into a glassed-in house, though another man, a skinny white man with dark teeth, followed us in as well and was trying to inject us with something he carried in a bladder underneath his arm in hair. We abandoned the room through a small door in the back and found way onto a pulley system that took us to a building where several ruined homes had been appended. We were granted admittance by a kid I grew up with into an area where all these people were sitting around drinking and sitting in stairwells that filled the house.

The man with the black teeth was not granted admittance, but he continued to linger outside the area, coming to stand at various locations on the complex's perimeter, watching, as from the inside the building was mostly open air. I would often see him looking in, watching me move.

I was worried about you and yet we were trying to relax so we went separate ways and I talked to people I had not seen in a long time. At the center of the complex there was a swimming pool with no matter in it that people were jumping into. I could not see what happened to them after they jumped.

There were a lot of leaves and kids from a black metal band who did not seem to want me there. They kept leering and seeming to be about to do something else. My friend who had given admittance kept telling them to be cool.

I ate a meat stick that tasted like wire.

You were in a far off area of the complex. I could see you where you were but not with my eyes. You were walking through the stairwell parts and looking for another exit as there was something about the man with the black teeth.

You were a different you than the you I flew across the noise with, as that person had disappeared when we landed, and now was you.

I wanted to go and find you so that you would not go back out into the parts where the man with the black teeth was, and despite being able to see you (not with my eyes) I could not find you in the house, though at the far perimeter of one section there was a window in a room where no one else was. I saw you (not with my eyes) go into that room and there was the man with the black teeth on the other side of the glass. You did not seem scared.



Today leaving the house, in this light, I felt the man somewhere nearby, I got into the car and it was hot in the car. I feel the man nearby as well here now.

Here are words.

Scorch Atlas is

Waited for UPS at my parents' house from 10 am to 530pm, trying to relax myself and could not. Finally decided to go for a run in the Georgia heat.

Ran 3 miles came back to find my dad standing on the edge of the street, where they've been ripping sod up to widen the road. A ridge of mud and soil.

Dad says, "They brought these 4 big boxes for you. Big boxes." He measures it out. "Boy they were heavy as hell."

I went inside and took the box back to the room where I stayed when the hurricane hit my apartment, sopping wet with sweat. I took my clothes off and opened the box.










I looked at the books a couple minutes then wrapped in a towel and took one down the hall to my mom. She told me congratulations and opened it also. I went outside and jumped in the pool. I jumped in at a good angle and stayed under as long as I could.

Scorch Atlas will be in stores in September from Featherproof.