I’ve been waiting a long time for the world to get their hands on this one, and now they can (order it, if not hold it). Johannes’s new book, a poem/play/whatever, called Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate, is now available from Tarpaulin Sky. Looking forward to talking to some people about this after they’ve read it.
Greg Dybec is hatching a new venture that involves short stories and t-shirts. He’s calling it Fix It Broken and I’m confident that it’s going to be the best possible kind of mess – keep an eye out for the first issue. He just posted an interview with me on the Fix It Broken blog. We talk about words, pictures, DC punk, that kind of stuff.
Got my contrib copies of Sententia #2 a couple of weeks ago, and have only now gotten around to reading it. (I drew the cover, didn’t actually contribute any content.) I loved the first issue of this journal and the second is a continuation of the first. Ryan Bradley’s (the editor) choices will last. These stories don’t often push formal boundaries or overwhelm you with waves of language. They are stories – narrative first. And they’re good. It doesn’t mean they’re not new, or innovative. They are. But it happens in the choice of story, rather than in the way it’s told. A few times reading it, I thought, “This is what The New Yorker could do, if they were willing to take even the slightest risk.” These are stories you can share with people who don’t spend four hours minimum each day looking at literary blogs. I’m going to keep reading.
A couple weeks ago this beautiful thing from Peninsulas Now Press arrived in the mail. It is a book of poetry by Serena Chopra, part of the Infinite Library series. I have happily read the collection, and since passed it on. Check your mailbox regularly with great anticipation.
This is our BIGGEST Soda event yet. We have FIVE writers in conversation. Usually there are only FOUR. That’s an extra writer. Do the math.
Stephanie BARBER, Mairead BYRNE, LADY Andy Devine, ROCKBOTTOM Dan Groves, Adam ROBI(N)SON
Sunday, Nov 14th, Soda Bar in Prospect Heights, 7:00 p.m.
My publisher Geoffrey Gatza just tipped me off to this new review of my novel over at Tarpaulin Sky. Lindsey Drager offers an exceptionally thoughtful analysis of the book. (Thanks for that, Lindsay.) She writes:
“Woods’s novel is a practice in the art of defamiliarization, outlining a world that is only vaguely recognizable…”
and
“The book functions as both ethnography of our-world-estranged as well as instructions for navigating it…”
Those descriptions seem accurate to me.
I’ve been writing about comics a good bit at Montevidayo. Just put up an interview with Blaise Larmee. Enjoy.
Janice Shapiro’s first story collection, Bummer, was released by Soft Skull today. It’s a great book. She’ll be reading from it on Thursday at Word Books. Come by the book launch if you can.
WORD Books (126 Franklin St. Brooklyn, NY 11222)
Thursday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.
