5 STAR LITERARY REVIEW - featuring DOGZPLOT

Check out TJ Forrester's 5 STAR LITERARY REVIEW. In the past he has featured such journals as: Storyglossia, Zoetrope: All Story Extra, Hobart, Smokelong Quarterly, and others. This week it's DOGZPLOT's turn. I chose to feature a story from Angela's Birthday issue 2008, FISTFUL, by Elizabeth Ellen.

Here's an excerpt from FISTFUL:

"I turned over, got up on my hands and knees. There was a mirror on the headboard. As he fucked me I stared into it, stared at my black eye and the asshole who’d given it to me. His face was puffy and red, his black hair matted and drenched in sweat. He didn’t look much like the boy I’d fallen in love with. He looked like one of my mom’s asshole ex-boyfriends, one of the ones who beat her and told her she had a spoiled, little bitch for a kid. I didn’t look much like myself either. My stomach was elongated and swollen, my tits veiny, the areolas that centered them darkened and textured. I looked like something out of a goddamn National Geographic magazine; like a strung out, pregnant Courtney Love smoking a cigarette in the pages of Vanity Fair."

Here's an excerpt from my review:

"We are more interested in good storytelling than precision, than fancy words and metaphors and concepts that sound real pretty but don’t necessarily inform the reader. We like subtle, seemingly simplistic writing that blows your fucking head apart when you take the time to excavate below the surface. We like to dig in and get dirty."

CELLA'S ROUND TRIP

"A Hybrid Type Literary & Visionary Journal for the Good of Creative Humankind"

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check out the debut issue of CELLA'S ROUND TRIP. The web design is amazing, the kind of design that leaves me feeling completely inadequate. The issue itself is gorgeous, the graphics, the art work, the writing, the obvious amount of TLC that was put into bringing this journal to life. Thank you to Rachel Hartley-Smith and all the other dedicated folks at Ball State for putting this thing together.

Go take a peek at what's inside

A few DOGZPLOT contributors and friends even found their way in, including CL BLEDSOE and PETER SCHWARTZ. There's even a few words from myself:

"2008 in online literary publishing seems like the 2003 World Series of Poker where an amateur player took first place and $1.5 million after earning his seat into the tournament (cost for a seat is $10,000) by winning an online poker tournament that only cost him $40. After that, Texas Hold’em poker exploded. It’s on at least three TV stations on any given day of the week, and any old knucklehead with access to a home computer can play and possibly win a million bucks. The number of WSOP contestants continues to rise every year. When will the bubble pop? I have no idea. Thus with online publishing, dot-coms, blogs, whatever the medium, anybody with access to a home computer can write something and stick it online, taking the gamble, hoping for the payoff, whatever that means to them. New online zines, journals, blogs go up almost every week and likewise, I have no idea when the bubble will pop and how it all will end, or transform rather. I’m not a trendsetter. I simply reshape existing trends to fit my own personal likes and dislikes and hope people dig what I’m doing."

Thanks again CELLA'S ROUND TRIP for an extraordinary debut issue. Can't wait for #2.

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE - ravi mangla, anne germanacos

Please check out the latest offerings from DOGZPLOT contributors and friends Ravi Mangla and Anne Germanacos in the latest issue of Prick of the Spindle. And while you're there please take the time to scroll through the archives. I really like what Cynthia Reeser is doing with this journal.

Ravi Mangla
HOW TO BE A BAD ASS (JUNIOR EDITION)

Anne Germanacos
HIS MOTHER'S CATS

While you're there please check out some great stuff from other DOGZPLOT folks:

Amandine Williams-Abraham
WILD ANIMAL KINGDOM

Corey Mesler
I NEED A LITTLE POEM
MY FATHER IS A FRANGIBLE GOD
WRITING MY ANGEL

Kristine Ong Muslim
FEAR BOX
VERSION 9; BREAKFAST

Jimmy Chen
THE UNREALISTIC PHILOSOPHER

Ray Succre
HOARDING THE BRAIN

Jamie Jones
MAY DAY
UNSCREWED

Barry Graham
TOOTHBRUSH
THE NATIONAL VIRGINITY PLEDGE

HANK & TUPAC

BOB, or MAN on BOAT - peter markus

BOB, or MAN on BOAT

"Markus has a remarkable ability to strip life down to its basics, to the point where the metaphors we manufacture as the looking-glass for our existence end up standing in for existence itself. Fish, mud, night and river come to stand in place of family connections as fathers and sons, by giving themselves to fishing, give themselves over to a lone search and to loss.”
—Brian Evenson

“Peter Markus, who wrote of brotherhood with rare wisdom and purity of style in the linked stories of The Singing Fish, now trains his extraordinary powers on the heartaching relationship between fathers and sons with even more enchanting results. Bob, or Man on Boat is a marvel of thrillingly limpid prose—a profound and unforgettable first novel.”
—Gary Lutz

Order info from DZANC

ACHILLES CHAPBOOK SERIES

Do you have a flash fiction or short story chapbook manuscript, 26-48 pages in length?

Check out:

ACHILLES CHAPBOOK SERIES

We are looking for writers seeking immortality through words, who breathe fire, who wish for "no man to forget how menacing we are. We are lions." - Achilles

JUNE 2008 aka MATT BELL month

Congrats to DOGZPLOT contributor and friend MATT BELL.

In addition to his story, Creating a Radio, appearing in elimae, Matt has recently published another amazing piece, The Folk Singer Dreams of Time Machines, with an accompanying interview (from Kelly Spitzer), in the latest issue of SmokeLong Quarterly 21. Both of these stories come from his forthcoming novel. This book is gonna blow your fucking head apart. It's that great.

Here's a quickie from the TFSDOTM:

"When he closes his eyes at night, everything he sees is dynamite and mustard gas and time machines he wants to build for saving little girls lost in foreign wars. He wants to write music to gather these people up and keep them safe. Songs like bomb shelters, like air raid drills, like preparations for tragedies."

I also want to mention (not that you don't already know) that this is SmokeLong's 5th anniversary issue and features work from so many amazing writers that I can't even list them all here. Congrats to SmokeLong for five years of outstanding literature.

And finally, check out the storySouth Million Writers Award top 10. Included among those ten finalists is Matt's story from Storyglossia, Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken. Congrats to all the finalists, now do your part and get your asses over there and vote.

DOGZPLOT FOLKS in ELIMAE

Check out the latest offerings from a few DOGZPLOT contributors and friends in the latest issue of elimae.

Barry Graham
Thumb's-Up-Seven-Up
http://www.elimae.com/2008/June/Thumb.html

Matt Bell
Creating a Radio
http://www.elimae.com/2008/June/Radio.html

Greg Gerke
The Coming of the Steppe Peoples
http://www.elimae.com/2008/June/Steppe.html

Sean Ruane
Tonic
http://www.elimae.com/2008/June/Tonic.html

Brandi Wells
Six Thirteen Sixteen - Three Fictions
http://www.elimae.com/2008/June/Wells.html

JA TYLER in LAMINATION COLONY

Check out the latest offering from DOGZPLOT contributor and friend JA TYLER in LAMINATION COLONY, described by LC editor Blake Butler as "a creepy sequence of serial texts." SIX THINGS HAPPENED.

RAY SUCCRE - TATTERDEMALION

Please check out the latest offering, TATTERDEMALION (Cauliay 08), by DOGZPLOT contributor and friend RAY SUCCRE.

publisher's note:

"This is the amazing story of a man trapped in a mad, fantasy world that begins to change against his will... At times, hysterically funny, at other times, incredibly moving. You will have to decide if it is the story of a madman coming to terms with the real, uncaring world, or that of a caring, sane man, in a world gone completely mad."

FLASHQUAKE - JAMIE JONES

Check out the Summer 08 issue of Flashquake. It features a poem from DOGZPLOT poetry editor, Jamie Jones. Read Embers. It's amazing.

LOS ANGELES TIMES - HOBART / MATT BELL / SHANE JONES / KELLY SHRIVER

Congrats to Matt Bell, Shane Jones, Kelly Shriver, and HOBART for their mention in the Los Angeles Times. The LAT ran an article on the storySouth Million Writers Award and of the 167 stories selected as long list finalists, they chose to mention only three of them. I imagine this is due to their excellence. Congrats:

Matt Bell
Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken
Storyglossia

Shane Jones
I Will Unfold You With My Hairy Hands
Hobart

Kelly Shriver
The Ethical Dilemma of a Sandwich Down the Pants
Pindeldyboz

Additionally, I am honored to have had fiction published in all three of these journals:

Storyglossia 24 & 28
Hobart 9
Pindeldyboz Holiday Home issue 2007

MORE STORIES - MONKEYBICYCLE / DIAGRAM

A few more stories from May that are worth reading. I'm gonna give a shout out to Monkeybicycle here even though I am currently banned for life from submitting or contacting their journal. I suppose the ban is all my fault, it has very little to do with one of their editors acting like a dickhead.

TIME MACHINES CAN BE DANGEROUS
pete reynolds

MY PERFECT YEAR
todd kelly

Not from this month but I stll want to mention them:

MY COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED SEXUAL HISTORY IN 60 SECONDS
shayn nicely

REUNION
scott garson

13 TIMES I'D RATHER NOT REMEMBER
brandi wells


The DIAGRAM Innovative Fiction Contest results have been posted. Congrats to this year's winner, Quell the Mayhem Night, by Debra Di Blasi. Finalists include: Elisabeth Benjamin, Kea Wilson, Amanda Goldblatt, Blake Butler, Mark Leidner, and Amelia Gray.

NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH V

PENTHOUSE PET OF THE YEAR 2008

ERICA ELLYSON

Time is running out to celebrate NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH. I would like to draw your attention to the brand spanking new issue of PENTHOUSE, featuring the June 2008 PENTHOUSE cover girl - Daisy Marie.



Also, please check out some thought provoking and inspirational photography, featured on:

Divini Rae

Jeska Vardinski

Barely Legal

Suicide Girls

Bunny Ranch

RANDOM PHOTOS - CIRCA 2008 - EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE / OLYMPIA

Read about my experience as a guest panelist at Evergreen State College's PRESS: Cross-Cultural Literary Conference.

NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH IV

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH III

Yeah, I know there is more in this anthology than just short stories, but nonetheless, it's an anthology that's worth owning. Here's the note from the publisher:

"Dzanc Books is excited to announce plans to publish an annual The Best of the Web anthology series starting in 2008. This print anthology will compile the best fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that online literary journals have to offer in an eclectic collection in the manner of other broad-ranging anthologies such as The Pushcart Prize anthology, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and Best American Short Stories."

"The Best of the Web anthology will be the first comprehensive print anthology to represent the vast array of contemporary online literature on an annual basis, bringing the world of web journals to a greater audience. Nathan Leslie, Fiction Editor for The Pedestal Magazine, Editor-in-Chief of The Potomac, and the author of five short story collections, and will serve as the series editor. In addition, each year a guest editor will be selected by Nathan and Dzanc's publishers, Dan Wickett and Steve Gillis. Nathan has sent emails to editors of every conceivable online literary journal, asking for nominations of what they consider their three best works by September 15, 2007. Nathan and the publishers will also be scouring for exceptional writing on the web. Nathan Leslie will answer additional questions from journal editors at Nathanlesliedzanc@yahoo.com."

"Though publishing online provides us the opportunity to present fiction free from economic imperative, permitting us, our authors, and our readers to relish in the experiment of expression, one of our great regrets is forgoing the sensation of binding it, printing it, holding the work we proudly select in our hands. Then along comes Dzanc Books, and this gift of a book, Best of the Web, that feels, to us, like the presentation of an award."- Aaron Petrovich and Alex Rose, editors, Hotel St. George

WIGLEAF TOP 50 - THE CHAD

Check out this year's WIGLEAF top 50 (very) short fictions 2008, guest edited by Chad Simpson.

Congratulations to everyone who made the list, including a few DOGZPLOT contributors (not for stories in DOGZPLOT):

KIM CHINQUEE

DAWN CORRIGAN

ELIZABETH ELLEN

COREY MESLER

CLAUDIA SMITH

So thank you to Scott Garson and Chad Simpson for doing this damn thang. Very nice.

Notables (no repeats, you're great... we get it)

CL BLEDSOE

JIMMY CHEN

JAMIE LIN

CHAD SIMPSON

NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH II

In honor of NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH, I am posting a link to the new: MAXIM HOT 100 LIST

TOP 10

10. Ashley Tisdale

9. Lindsay Lohan

8. Christina Aguilera

7. Eva Mendes

6. Elisha Cuthbert

5. Sarah Michelle Gellar

4. Eva Longoria-Parker

3. Jessica Biel

2. Scarlett Johansson

1. Marisa Miller

NOTABLES

66. Christina Ricci

61. Isla Fisher

60. Taryn Manning

46. Amanda Bynes

40. Drew Barrymore

39. Sofia Vergara

34. Jessica Alba

29. Shannon Elizabeth

25. Hilary Duff

16. Megan Fox

12. Vanessa Hudgens

pictured above:

Divini Rae

Jeska Vardinski

Christina Aguilera

NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH

In honor of NATIONAL SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH I'm gonna post a few links to some of my favorite stories published this month:

"The Peephole Cleaner"
Rene Georg Vasicek
Wigleaf

"Funny Face"
Greg Bardsley
Storyglossia

"Sky Miles"
Caroline Kepnes
Thieves Jargon

"Declawed"
Brandi Wells
Ghoti

RANDOM PHOTOS - CIRCA 2008 - YPSI / ANN ARBOR

1 RANDOM SHEETS OF ACID / LSD

2 JEFF PARKER / TRACY LEE

3 JEFF PARKER / AMANDINE WILLIAMS-ABRAHAM

4 KYLE MINOR / JEFF PARKER

CL BLEDSOE's debut poetry collection

Check out the debut poetry collection

______(want/need)

from DOGZPLOT contributor and friend CL BLEDSOE, just released from Plan B Press.

"CL Bledsoe is the author of Anthem and an editor for Ghoti Magazine http://www.ghotimag.com. He has published work in many journals, newspapers, and anthologies, including Barrow Street, The Arkansas Review, The Cimarron Review, The Potomac Review, Margie, and Nimrod, and been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes as well as winning the Blue Collar Review's Working People Poetry Prize. He currently lives with his wife near Baltimore."

To view the poem, Weight, or to order the collection CLICK HERE