ROBIN'S BOOKSTORE CLOSING AFTER 73 YEARS

The oldest independent bookstore in Philly is calling it quits after 73 years. Too bad. This is from their site:

"DEAR FRIENDS:

DEATH

After 73 years ROBIN'S BOOK STORE, Philadelphia's oldest independent book seller, is about to: expire, perish, pass away, be taken, resign our being, end our days, breathe our last, depart this life, be no more, pop off, give up the ghost, pay our debt to nature, shuffle off this mortal coil, go the way of all flesh, hand in our chips, come to dust, cross the Stygian ferry, go to Davy Jones' locker, go out like the snuff of a candle, come to an untimely end, catch our death, go off the hooks, kick the bucket, buy the farm, hop the twig, turn up our toes. Operating a book store was always a better hobby than a way to make a living, but now it is impossible. Blame it on the Economy. Blame it on the Chain Stores. Blame it on the Internet. Blame it on Reading Habits.

In the meantime, on November 24 all new books and calendars in stock will go on sale at 20% off, and the sale discount will increase 5% each week until January 5 when it will reach 50%. The discount will remain at 50% until we close on January 31, 2009."

ADDITIONAL INFO HERE

DANIEL CHACON. UNENDING ROOMS

I've been reading and reading and rereading and rereading the stories from DANIEL CHACON's newest collection, UNENDING ROOMS, available from BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS. Chacon keeps tugging me in different directions, everytime I think I know where I'm being taken I'm wrong. This book is a place where Mexican gangstas, gorgeous red heads that disappear and may or may not have actually existed, retards, gay policemen, gringo tourists, holes in the sides of mountains, beggars, and street vendors, all peacefully coexist; symphonies get orchestrated, people get decapitated by moving objects, insinuations get made, conspiracies theorized. Read this shit now. Here's what other people have said:

“Unending Rooms is a visit to the hidden recesses of the mind, a place where Jorge Luis Borges and Stephen King sit down for coffee while a cello plays a bittersweet melody you can almost remember. Once you enter, you will emerge a different person.”
— Kathleen Alcalá

“Daniel Chacón’s distinctive storytelling, with its defiance to linearity and closure, with its leanings toward metafiction, gestures south to the Latin American greats like Borges, Cortázar and Paz, but his sensibility is puro Chicano—the hero and anti-hero of the twenty-first century who sinks and swims through libraries and barrios, politics and passions, tradition and innovation. “Unending Rooms” is a testament of identity as experienced, not on the margins, but at the center of the beautiful and terrifying cycles.”
— Rigoberto González

Additional info is HERE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING folks. Here's a little creative non-fiction piece from award winning humor columnist and stand-up comedian BILL BARR. Enjoy.

EXPECT RESISTANCE FROM YOUR TURKEY THIS YEAR

LESS SHINY. MARY MILLER. MAGIC HELICOPTER PRESS

MARY MILLER's new collection, LESS SHINY, is now available from MAGIC HELICOPTER PRESS.

Additional info HERE
MARY

Mary also has a little something something coming soon from Hobart's mini-book division, BIG WORLD.

MILLER

Info is HERE.

MC BREED. GOD BLESS

MC Breed, died Saturday at a friend's home in Ypsilanti, about 30 miles southwest of Detroit, a Washtenaw County medical examiner's spokesman said Monday.

Toxicology reports were pending, but no foul play was suspected in the 37-year-old's death. Breed had suffered from kidney failure, according to The Detroit News and The Flint Journal. "More than just an artist, we mourn the loss of a beloved father, son, brother, and friend," his family said in a statement. "We are thankful and blessed to have been in his presence and want him to be remembered for his creative, caring, talented, and hardworking spirit."

Breed released 13 albums from 1991 to 2004, and collaborated with artists such as Tupac Shakur and Too Short.

HOW MANY STORIES...

12

That's right, the debut issue of 12 STORIES is ready to be devoured. Here's the lineup:

Steve Almond
J.R. Angelella
Rusty Barnes
Matt Bell
Jimmy Chen
Timothy Gager
Richard Garcia
Kathryn Good-Schiff
Jim Hanas
Jeff Landon
Jennifer Levin
Dan Moreau


http://www.readtwelvestories.com/

HOWIE GOOD. TOMORROWLAND. ORDER NOW

"Howie Good's newest collection, Tomorrowland, offers the essential element of prose poetry: tight, moving language, and amazing imagery. From a firing squad who listens to the ball game on the radio to the heart's museum of stained glass and a wooden boardwalk, Good gives entire scenes in a matter of a few words. They are scenes of both starkness and beauty, or - to quote the poet, himself - "the birdsong, as sometimes happens, full of primitive grief."With both the mastery of storytelling and the dance of poetry,

Tomorrowland is a writer's envy and a reader's delight."

Susan Culver

"A fascinating series of vignettes, flashes, stories, each one incredibly focused, incredibly powerful, and surprising to the point of being scary."

Krishan Coupland

HOWIE GOOD

TOMORROWLAND

FLASH FICTION

24 PGS.

12 - 1 - 2008

$4.00

excerpt from TOMORROWLAND:

THE PARABLE OF SUNLIGHT

It’s a rare sunny day, but the streets are strangely empty, as if arrests are about to be made, or already have been. Head down, heart revving, I start across the square. The fountain is dry, stained with dead leaves. An old man, with the drab, diligent face of a lifelong student of numbers, scatters bread crumbs for the pigeons. I pretend not to notice – it’s safer – and in seconds, reach the far side, where bodies in the early stages of decay hang like gray rags from the trees. I glance back at the old man. He’s watching me, and I wonder why and whether tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice as today.

ORDER HERE

ALL ACHILLES CHAPBOOKS ARE BUY ONE GET ONE FREE

DOGZPLOT REVIEWED at NEWPAGES

Very cool. I didn't even know this was going down.

This from MICAH ZEVIN:

"Dogzplot is an amalgam of eclectic and varying styles of literary excellence publishing fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, artwork, opinion pieces, poetry and even photos (which are requested to be works that are not necessarily “good” or polished as polished can be, but works that will “blow our fucking minds”). When you read this journal, you will quickly realize that it is an energetic environment where the humorous and the serious artwork, writing and photography can coexist with the ironic, sardonic and satirical pieces that dominate this daring journal. And you may not know where the bones are buried in this unique universe, but rest assured you are one happy dog."

They also made mention of:

Stephanie Johnson - Dirty Laundromat
John Biando - Twenty-five Ways of Looking at Jeff Parker's Balls
Sam Pink - Advice Column

Very cool. Thanks a lot folks. Read the review in it's entirety here:

http://www.newpages.com/magazinestand/litmags/default.htm#dogplotz

MIRIAM WINTER. TRAINS

I just finished reading MIRIAM WINTER's memoir TRAINS. It is a devastating look into the life of a Holocaust survivor. I heard her read from it Thursday night and I was blown away.

"Trains: A Memoir of a Hidden Childhood during and after World War II, is a collection of Miriam Winter's fragmented memories of hiding. Winter recorded her memories in short vignettes that are heavy with sorrow, misfortune and anger. Her reactions are well-founded: in a desperate attempt to save her life, without explanation, the eight-year-old was given to her cousin, who then passed her to a complete stranger on a train. In exchange for a place to hide, Miriam was treated like a slave..."
- Tobin Belzer

ADDITIONAL INFO HERE

WIGLEAF. KEYHOLE. ABJECTIVE

Here are a few pieces I read recently that I like a lot:

CHARLES LENNOX
THOSE WHO LOSE THINGS
WIGLEAF
http://wigleaf.com/200811those.htm

CHARLES LENNOX
COMMANDMENTS
KEYHOLE
http://www.keyholemagazine.com/charles-lennox/commandments

MOLLY GAUDRY
COME SEE THE MONKEY
WIGLEAF
http://wigleaf.com/200811monkey.htm

TED POWERS
THE POSTMAN RINGS A THIRD TIME
ABJECTIVE
http://www.abjective.net/

DOGZPLOT READING. EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

DOGZPLOT hosted a flash fiction reading at Eastern Michigan University on November 21. We kicked a lot of ass. Thanks a lot to everyone who came out and read and listened and showed their support. DOGZPLOT contributors who attended and/or read include:

BILL BARR
MATT BELL
ALYSSA DAVIS (who represented her sister ANGELA DAVIS who could not be in attendance)
BARRY GRAHAM
JAMIE JONES
BRANDON POTTER
ANDREW POWERS
HANNAH SMART (who was going to read, but I read her piece before she had a chance, sorry Hannah)

Also, I read a few of my favorite pieces from the 2008 anthology even though the authors were unable to make it. Those contributors include:

CL BLEDSOE
AARON BURCH
ROBERT A. DOLLESIN
ELIZABETH ELLEN
JOSEPH GRAHAM
JR PEARSON


Thanks again to everyone for showing up and reading and listening and hanging out and blah blah blah. I love ya'll.

HOWIE GOOD. PUSHCART PRIZE NOMINATION. TOMORROWLAND

Congrats to HOWIE GOOD. His piece, TINY FUGUE FOR TOMORROWLAND, which will be included in his forthcoming chapbook, TOMORROWLAND, from our chapbook series, was recently nominated for a PUSHCART.

excerpt from TINY FUGUE:


THE PARABLE OF SUNLIGHT

It’s a rare sunny day, but the streets are strangely empty, as if arrests are about to be made, or already have been. Head down, heart revving, I start across the square. The fountain is dry, stained with dead leaves. An old man, with the drab, diligent face of a lifelong student of numbers, scatters bread crumbs for the pigeons. I pretend not to notice – it’s safer – and in seconds, reach the far side, where bodies in the early stages of decay hang like gray rags from the trees. I glance back at the old man. He’s watching me, and I wonder why and whether tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice as today.


Check it out in its entirety HERE

and if you like what you read, please order the chapbook HERE.

BARRY GRAHAM. INTERVIEW

I was interviewed by SCOT YOUNG on his MIDWEST POETRY blog. We talked about a bunch of different shit: the future of online journals, my chapbook and story collection, Monica Lewinsky, etc. Here's a small piece of the interview:

Scot:

What do you see online publications developing in the future?

Barry:

I may be wrong on this, but I think 2009 is gonna be a big year for returning to print. I think people want to hold books / objects in their hands and look at them, smell them, touch them. I think print on demand technologies are affordable and the quality is much improved, chapbooks are cheap to make. I see a big return to those types of printing. DOGZPLOT has branched out and started a small chapbook series: ACHILLES. Great things are on the way from lots of places: ML Press, Future Tense, Keyhole, Calamari, Hobart’s mini-book division – Short Flight / Long Drive. Misti Rainwater-Lites has some sexy publications I like a lot, the Instant Pussy series. All that to say I think the future is a grassroots return to cheap but aesthetically pleasing print.


Take a peek at the rest here:

http://midwestpoet.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/interview-with-barry-graham-at-dogzplotcom/

BLACK TICKETS. JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS

Holy fucking shit. I just reread Jayne Anne Phillip's BLACK TICKETS and I was blown away all over again. I have no idea why she isn't in more discussions of contemporary flash fiction. This flash collection, written in the 1970's, is unreal. I don't have the words to do this book justice.

"An exquisite and terrible insight in the hands of one who fakes nothing - the best short story writer since Eudora Welty."
- Nadine Gordimer

"These stories of America's disenfranchised are unlike any in our literature. She's an original, and this book of hers is a crooked beauty."
- Raymond Carver

I met Jayne Anne Phillips at the Rutgers-Newark (she is the director of their MFA program) reception last year at AWP. She is amazing. I really wish I was at Rutgers but I'm much too big of a slacker. But for anyone looking for an MFA program on the east coast, there are big, amazing things going on there. Put in your apps early.

Read this tiny flash from BLACK TICKETS, then if you don't click this LINK and order the book there is something wrong with your goddam brain:

UNDER THE BOARDWALK

Her name is Joyce Casto and she rides our school bus. The Castos all look alike. Skinny, freckled, straw haired. Joyce's is the color of broom sage, dried out by some heat in her head. She walks the halls of the junior high with a clipboard of ruffled papers, transistor radio beating in her hand.

Daddy is a fire-and-brimstone preacher at a church out the dirt road. Music is the work of the devil that licks at her legs. She stands, radio pressed to her face, lips working. Undah the boardwalk, down by the see ee ee ye eh eh, Ona blanket with my baybeh's where I'll be.

She walks into class fumbling to turn it off. Stays close to the wall and watches the cement floor. She never talks to the country kids. The town kids never talk to her. The gym teacher finds out she is pregnant. Yes, she confesses, It was my brother. He's went off to the mills.

She disappears from school but comes back a month later, having had it in a bloody way. She rolled up a horse blanket and walked to the field. Daddy thundering I won't lay eyes on your sin and big brother in Youngstown, holding a thing that burns orange fire. She rolls, yelping, dogs come close and sniff. They circle. The sky circles. Points of light up there that sting. Finally she sees they are stars. Washing herself in the creek she remembers the scythe against the grass, its whispering rip.

Next morning she sits in the house alone while the others shout and sweat at the the revival in Clinger's Field. The dogs come in with pieces in their mouths. She stands in the kitchen shaking while the Drifters do some easy moanin.

SARAH JO PENDER. AMERICA'S MOST WANTED. # 15

SARAH JO PENDER

From the America's Most Wanted site:

"Since her expertly-executed prison escape on August 4, 2008, officials have been hot on the trail of Sarah Pender. Now, after a few short months on the lam, U.S. Marshals Service officials have turned up the heat on Pender, and made her the newest addition to their notorious 15 Most Wanted Fugitives List."

I have no idea why I'm posting this. She's the most wanted woman in America. She escaped from prison and they can't find her. Good for her. Dirty ass punk ass bitch ass police.

Plus, she's a red head.

REVIEW of THE ZEN OF CHAINSAWS AND ENORMOUS CLIPPERS

There is a very good review of

DREW KALBACH's

THE ZEN OF CHAINSAWS AND ENORMOUS CLIPPERS

"His work seems to be based mostly on randomized fantasies and very dreamed-up, coked-up melodies; things he may have said out loud that sounded good, and so were written down late at night, perhaps while hallucinating. This is how it comes off, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Things that most writers only manage to harness every now and then, when truly on top of their game, Kalbach seems to take very much for granted, as if they were as simple as writing grocery lists for him. After reading this, I am two things: addicted to his style, influenced heavily, wanting to tell the world about this chapbook, jealous, and enamored."

Read full review HERE

Also. Order CHAINSAWS anytime between now and Thanksgiving and receive a free ACHILLES chapbook of your choice:

BARRY GRAHAM - not a speck of light is showing

JA TYLER - everyone in this is either dying or will die or is thinking about death

HOWIE GOOD - tomorrowland


Thanks.

STORYGLOSSIA 31

STORYGLOSSIA 31 is now live.

Featuring:

David Borofka
The Secret Life of Engineers

Anne Leigh Parrish

Peter Sheehy

Laura Ellen Scott
Felly Stories

Jason Jordan
The Man with the House in the Sky

Robert Miltner

D.L. Zahler

Erica Naone

Tom Fillion

Gretchen McCullough

ELIMAE. NOVEMBER.

November issue of ELIMAE is now live. Check out work from:

Brandon Hobson
Jimmy Chen
Shellie Zacharia
Kim Chinquee
Elizabeth Ellen
JA Tyler
Stefanie Freele
Barry Graham (this is mine so read it first, I won't feign modesty, my flash is great)

http://www.elimae.com/new.html

and others. Enjoy

THE GEORGE FOREMAN TRILOGY. UNICORN PORN. MALIALINDA

ACHILLES CHAPBOOK SERIES. JA TYLER. HOWIE GOOD

We are pleased to announce the third and fourth chapbooks in our series:

JA TYLER
EVERYONE IN THIS IS EITHER DYING OR WILL BE DYING OR IS THINKING ABOUT DEATH


HOWIE GOOD
TOMORROWLAND


Both will be available to order later in the month. More info is coming soon. Thank you.

MEG POKRASS. POUNDS ACROSS AMERICA - 1990. WIGLEAF

MEG POKRASS

POUNDS ACROSS AMERICA - 1990

WIGLEAF

http://wigleaf.com/200811pounds.htm

DOGS: WET AND DRY

From humorous to heartfelt to quirky - an anthology of short short stories about DOGS.

Foreword by Rick Bass, Introduction by Bruce Holland Rogers.

Call for submissions:

1000 words or fewer flash fiction pieces - Dogs: Wet & Dry - A Collection of Canine Flash Fiction.

These stories will run from humorous to heartfelt to quirky. The topic range is open: from dog rescue, training, and adoption to companionship, communication, and behavior.

Accepted pieces will receive $50 when the book is published, plus one copy of the anthology.
Send submissions (please, no profanity or animal abuse) in the body of the e-mail along with a short bio (100 words or less) in third person to: submissions@dogswetanddry.com

Submission period - 9/15/2008-12/1/2008
Deadline: 12/1/2008

Check out the new Dogs: Wet & Dry blog:

http://dogswetanddry.blogspot.com/

NICK ANTOSCA. MIDNIGHT PICNIC. WORD RIOT PRESS

MIDNIGHT PICNIC

NICK ANTOSCA

WORD RIOT PRESS

An eerie story about the nature of death, Midnight Picnic is a non-traditional ghost story in which a vengeful child searches for his murderer on the deserted roads of the American countryside, drifting in and out of the afterlife.

“If there’s a real Hell out there in the American heartland, and real ghosts, I suspect Nick Antosca has seen them. Midnight Picnic reinvents the ghost story for our unsettled times—it’s a riveting and terrifying 21st Century Book of the Dead that’s one of the most frightening novels I’ve read in years,”
- Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation Loss, Mortal Love, and Winterlong.


MORE INFO HERE

KYLE MINOR. IN THE DEVIL'S TERRITORY. DZANC

This is the first line from the first story:

"I hate Christmas, but this year is different because there is a small chance my wife will die and take our unborn child with her."

With an opening line that fucking great, nothing else really needs to be said, but I'll give you a few blurbs from people who have written great things, just to seal the deal.

“In the Devil’s Territory is a brilliant, electrifying debut by one of America’s best young writers. Filled with grace and wisdom, Kyle Minor’s bold, compassionate stories burn deep into the eternal mysteries and violent truths of the human experience with the force of a welding torch cranked to the max. I would walk through Hell to be able to write like him.”
—Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff

“Who is Kyle Minor and how does he know so much about the dark caverns of the human heart? What whispered spells does he cast to make me laugh and weep and gasp and clench my jaw all in the same page? From what secret river does he pull his sentences, glittering and sinuous? Faced with such captivating writing, I have only amazed questions—because Kyle Minor has all the answers.”
—Benjamin Percy, author of Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk

THE BEST BLOG POST I'VE READ IN QUITE AWHILE

from SEAN LOVELACE

http://seanlovelace.com/2008/11/06/venison-chili-diagram-characters-in-fiction-amy-winehouse-is-falling-snow/

KEYHOLE 5. HANDWRITTEN ISSUE

KEYHOLE HANDWRITTEN ISSUE is live and ready to order.

http://www.keyholemagazine.com/

ML PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

This from ML PRESS website:

our new babies are ready for pre-order.

blake butler: IN THE RAPE YEAR OF THE GHETTO TODDLER THE HOUSES WILL AWAKEN

brandi wells: PATIENCE

nick antosca: RAT BEAST

this new trio will ship beginning nov. 15th &, as always, will be $2 each (includes shipping in the u.s.) & will be printed in a very limited run of 25-50 copies only. & though we sold out of shane jones' BLACK KIDS IN LEMON TREES, we do still have a few copies of ken baumann's Y2K & jimmy chen's FOOTNOTE1 left - get them while they last.

also, we have officially added more authors:

ml press is glad to announce that we have volumes forthcoming from:

sam pink
james chapman
michael kimball
kim chinquee
norman lock

exciting. stay tuned.

DEAR OHIO

GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME DOUCHE BAGS

BARACK OBAMA

GOD BLESS

HOBART. NOVEMBER ISSUE. LINDSAY HUNTER. RAVI MANGLA

UPDATE:

I just read this. HOLY SHIT.

UNPREPARING

LINDSAY HUNTER

http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/november/hunter.html


Check out the new HOBART. Excellent as usual. Another excellent story from RAVI MANGLA who seems to be in every fucking journal there is right now. Ravi, if you're working on a flash collection hit me up if you're interested in putting together a chapbook.

Here's the link to HOBART and to Ravi's story, MY STORE:

http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/november/mangla.html

UNDERGROUND VOICES. ROBERT A. DOLLESIN. HEATHER FOWLER

UNDERGROUND VOICES


HEATHER FOWLER

THE ROSE LAMP

http://www.undergroundvoices.com/UVFowlerHeather.htm


ROBERT A. DOLLESIN

ENTANGLEMENTS

http://www.undergroundvoices.com/UVDollesinRobertAquino.htm

STEFAN KIESBYE. UNDERWEAR I'VE WORN. KEYHOLE

STEFAN KIESBYE

KEYHOLE

UNDERWEAR I'VE WORN

http://keyholemagazine.com/stefan-kiesbye/underwear-ive-worn

PINDELDYBOZ. RAVI MANGLA. FINDERS KEEPERS

I strongly recommend heading over to PINDELDYBOZ and checking out the latest issue. The story FINDERS KEEPERS by RAVI MAGLA is great. Easily one of the best flashes I've read online in some time, along with the three BETH THOMAS stories over at FRIGG that I mentioned a few days ago.

PINDELDYBOZ

FINDERS KEEPERS

RAVI MANGLA

http://www.pindeldyboz.com/rmfinders.htm