CAUSE & EFFECT - ben biesek

Check out this interview with Ben Biesek, editor of Cause & Effect Magazine, a monthly journal dedicated to promoting literature and art. Here's a piece from the interview, a good summation of C & E's intent:

" Part of my agenda is to provoke a reaction, to inspire thought. I’m interested in printing work that is provocative or unusual, but which also says something meaningful. Some of the content can be a bit edgy or incendiary, but that’s what I gravitate towards; I’m not going to censor my zine, or myself, for better or for worse. The words and images in C&E tackle love, sex, drugs, drink, relationships, parenthood, death, birth, philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, art, and more. Ultimately, I want to document the human condition, as told by poets and academics and artists and everyday people. I feel that there’s a shift that’s taking place. I can’t deny this shift, we can’t deny that it’s taking place. It’s here, it’s happening now. Artwork and literature are caught up in this shift. The future is now. This shift is upon us—it’s exhilarating to be a part of it. Because we are, I am, you are, part of it. "

Read entire interview HERE
conducted by Aleathia Drehmer
on The Guild of Outside Writers

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PETER SCHWARTZ - the nowhere glow & amnesia diary

Please check out the latest chapbooks, THE NOWHERE GLOW (trainwreck press), and AMNESIA DIARY (Barnwood Press), from DOGZPLOT contributor and friend Peter Schwartz.

Complete chapbook description for The Nowhere Glow is HERE. Ordering info is HERE

Amnesia Diary is part of the Great Find ebook series from Barnwood Press. It is available for FREE HERE.


"Peter Schwartz is a painter, poet and writer. He's also an associate art editor for Mad Hatters' Review. His artwork can be seen all over the Internet but specifically at: http://www.sitrahahra.com/. He's had hundreds of paintings, poems, and stories published both online and in print. His last exhibition was through Aesthetica Magazine and featured a projection of his digital painting 'Terminal 4' on a busy street in York, UK. This December his work will be featured at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in Chelsea." - Publisher's Note

JAMIE JONES in PRICK OF THE SPINDLE

DOGZPLOT poetry editor, Jamie Jones, has two new poems up at Prick of the Spindle, May Day, and Unscrewed, please stop reading this blog and check them out.

While your there check out, Hoarding the Brain, a poem by DOGZPLOT contributor and friend, Ray Succre.

MATT BELL in JUKED

DOGZPLOT contributor and friend Matt Bell has a new story, Like a Giant Beacon, up at Juked.

While you're there check a few stories in the same issue from other DOGZPLOT contributors and friends, Scott Garson, and Jimmy Chen, who by the way, seems to have a piece in every fucking journal I've checked out in the last two months. Nice.

STORY SOUTH - MILLION WRITERS AWARD - nominees

March is the month to nominate stories for storySouth's Million Writers Award

CONGRATULATIONS to this year's nominees:

MATTHEW LONGO
"Two Left of Center"

STEVE GILLIS
"Felipe on the Curve"

ELIZABETH MARTINEZ
"Organically Grown"

Other Dogzplot contributors receiving nominations this year include: (links to stories provided)

J.A. Tyler
http://www.niteblade.com/september-2007/shine-on1.htm
http://ravingdove.org/j.a.tylerfallwin07-08

CL Bledsoe
http://www.bloodorangereview.com/v2-6/bledsoe_bath.htm
http://www.pindeldyboz.com/clbworst.htm

Dawn Corrigan
http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/january/corrigan.html

Shaindel Beers
http://www.sub-lit.com/horse.html
http://www.ignaviapress.com/winningadate.html

Jimmy Chen
http://www.prickofthespindle.com/fiction/1.3/chen/the_unrealistic_philosopher.htm

Claudia Smith
http://www.storyglossia.com/27/cs_hook.html

Steve Gillis
http://www.mendacitypress.com/7.2007Gillis.html

Matt Bell
http://www.storyglossia.com/23/mb_alex.html

Andy Riverbed
http://thievesjargon.com/workview.php?work=1028

Barry Graham
http://www.storyglossia.com/24/bg_edge.html

Mikael Covey
http://storyglossia.com/24/mc_panama.html

THE SICILY PAPERS - MICHELLE ORANGE

"IN THE SPRING OF 2003, Canadian writer Michelle Orange boarded a plane bound for Italy. The Sicily Papers is a series of letters she wrote while traveling alone throughout the region. Though originally meant to reassure an anxious correspondent, over time the letters, both high-spirited and frank, searching and satisfied, grew into something larger than the sum of their parts: a love letter to Italy, to an uncertain future, and to the lost art of letter writing itself." - publisher's note


"So in these moments you become acutely aware of yourself, every hour that has passed before you, your exact age and the perfection of this moment that is doomed to end and will never happen again and you'll look back on fondly until you die..."

"It just occurred to me that at times you come off as cynical but you are more of an optimist at heart. I am a cynic at heart and as such a hopeless, scandalous and, underneath it all, dreadfully romantic loser."

What I loved most about The Sicily Papers was filling in the blanks. Michelle gives B, the gentleman to whom the letters were addressed, part of the story. She describes her journies to find fresh fruit, her dreaded downtime waiting on roomates and tour guides, her impatience with American boys and their obsession over which women, from which countries, were the "hottest," her dealings with perverts trying to sneak peaks at her in the shower, her responses to B's letters, her reactions to the books she was reading, her lost underwear, her jealousy of a naked girl sunbathing on the beach, her evaluation of the Italian landscape, art, language, and cathedrals, and her love for Italian boys and shipmen. Michelle's letters reveal a woman infatuated with the Italian way of life, self-imagined or otherwise. This, in and of itself, is beautiful; it's enough to read the book and enjoy it on its own merit. This will provide the reader with a bad ass way to fill up a Sunday afternoon and you will set the book down feeling satisfied. But this is not what I loved the most.

I was blown away by the part of the story not being told to B, a gentlemen obviously vying for her affection. There are blanks, gaps in the story, contradictions, downtime, holes that I found myself jumping into and not wanting to leave. They were deep, muddy, murky, Michelle would meet a mysterious Italian stranger presenting her with flowers and her story would cut off. She spent time waiting on her Italian roomate and when he finally arrived the story spaced out. She was in love with Italian boys, she told B that much over and over and over again. She inquired after a few of them, but never mentioned what happened after the inquiries. She mentioned one of her Italian boys loved to hug and kiss and expressed jealousy towards B. This is when I found myself most curious. I wanted to hide in the bushes when she didn't think anyone was looking and tag along behind her and her companions on a Vespa. I wanted to pop up in unexpected places and find the story she wasn't telling in her letters, the nitty gritty she would never write home about.

All of this news, or lack there of, had to be killing the poor fucker at home. She was fucking with him bad, teasing, twisting, pouring it on, for no other reason, seemingly, than to satisfy her own intentions. Wait a minute. I'm not altogether convinced that what I just said was true. I'm not sure whether or not she had any idea what she was doing. I honestly couldn't tell. Women often misunderstand, or perhaps, overestimate a man's constitution. If she knew what she was doing I was partially fooled. She played the innocent, in love with life card.

B's stomach had to be in knots. The object of his affection is absolutely gorgeous (I met Michelle, she is gorgeous), parading through Italy, most of the time in a bathing suit top, in love with Italian boys, and he is stuck at home, angry, pissed off, nervous, wondering who has his woman bent over on all fours, sticking it in her ass. These letters possess an undertone of sadism, torment, that I find beautiful, engaging, and irresistable, even if it wasn't intended. I wish I knew. Buy the book, read it, love it, reread it, embrace it.

Released - October 24, 2006

Short Flight/Long Drive Books

ISBN / 0-9749541-4-4

$12.95 US

160 pages

ORDERING INFO HERE