:: totemic ::

Postcard Fiction Collaborative: "Evening"

2012-02-08T21:51:00.000-05:00

Dig into a tasty experimental offering of Flash Fiction at this month's PFC, featuring all us usual Collaborators.

LSC 2011

2011-09-20T19:35:00.000-04:00

I'll be presenting my story "Three Hundred-Mile House" for the "Looking into Louisiana Short Fiction" panel at the 2011 Louisiana Studies Conference this weekend at Northwestern State University, which originally appeared on-line this year in the April edition of elimae.

HAM Literature

2011-07-21T20:00:00.003-04:00

The inaugural issue of HAM Lit is now available for pre-order, featuring work by Betsy Birdsall, Chanel Dubofsky, Craig Reishus, Howie Good, J. Bradley, Jack Waters, Ken Taylor, Mike Maher, Sandy Day, Sarah Green, Travis Kurowski, and William Kenderson, as well as "Tanpopo," my story of a young Japanese woman's doomed love affair with the ghost of Nat King Cole as she tries to become the next Billie Holiday.

Mud Luscious

2011-06-29T20:00:00.006-04:00

Mud Luscious no. 16 is posted with my brief "Nocturnes," including work by Parker Tettleton, Robert Kloss, Ethan Joella, Thomas Patrick Levy, Russell Jaffe and others.

Rougarou

2011-04-28T08:50:00.003-04:00

The Spring 2011 issue of Rougarou, the on-line journal of the English Department at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, has gone live...

San Antonio Current

2011-04-23T23:05:00.004-04:00

The arts and culture weekly San Antonio Current has posted on-line my story "Only If We Had Lived Here," a flash remix of original material from Blake Butler's Scorch Atlas done for Featherproof's contest a couple years ago. Thanks to Blake and SA Current Editor Lyle Rosdahl for hosting the work.

PCA / ACA 2011

2011-04-19T19:00:00.004-04:00

I'll be presenting tomorrow for the one of the education panels at this year's PCA/ACA National Conference in San Antonio, Texas. My paper is "Language of the Obscure(d) Author: Race, Education, and the Rules of Writing in Finding Forrester," a topic addressing Gus Van Sant's movie and how it creates a neo-slave narrative paralleling Frederick Douglass' Narrative concerning writing in and out of the classroom, especially when a reclusive Salinger-esque author is thrown into the mix.

elimae

2011-03-31T08:49:00.003-04:00

My story "Three Hundred-Mile House" has been posted for the April issue of elimae, along with excellent work by Kirsten Kaschock, Elizabeth Ellen, J. Michael Wahlgren, Mel Bosworth, Meg Pokrass, and many others. Thanks to Cooper Renner and Brandon Hobson for having me back in (yet again).

Hello, Debussy

2011-03-30T14:36:00.000-04:00

Caketrain Re-Issue

2011-02-18T17:09:00.005-05:00

Caketrain is now offering the sold-out Issue Six as a PDF file for free download, which includes my prose poem sequence "As His Pastoral Desires" as well as work by Kim Chinquee, Ben Mirov, Norman Lock, Kathryn Rantala, Jac Jemc, Sara Levine, Kate Hill Cantrill, Kim Parko, Joshua Ware, Ryan Call, and many more. A great issue of Caketrain at the best possible price...

MPA 2011

2011-02-15T21:41:00.004-05:00

With my head full of On Moral Fiction, The Art of Fiction, et al., I'll be presenting my panel paper "Ideal and Potential Readers: Addressing Reader Response in John Gardner's Freddy's Book" this week for the Mississippi Philological Association 2011 Conference at Jackson State University. Smoking pipes, blonde wigs and deep, ponderous looks are optional for attendance but will be considered very amusing.

On Reading Series

2011-01-27T08:06:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Shome Dasgupta for asking me to contribute to his On Reading Series, which features some excellent writers ruminating about the why's and how's of what we read...

Ekleksographia

2011-01-04T16:54:00.006-05:00

An all-Louisiana affair for the "At the Atchafalaya's Edge" issue of Ekleksographia, featuring work by UL-Lafayette faculty members Kate Bernheimer, Marthe Reed, Skip Fox, Dayana Stetco, Daniel T. Smith, and Jerry McGuire, as well as current and former UL'ers including Meagan Cass, Alan Jones, Rebbecca Brown, Patrick Crerand, Michael Jauchen, Justin Thurman, and a couple of flashes from yours truly.

SAMLA 2010

2010-10-31T11:55:00.007-04:00

Off to Atlanta this week to contribute to the Textual and Bibliographic Studies panel at the South Atlantic MLA Conference (as well as take in some interesting Cormac McCarthy panels while I'm there). I'll be presenting my paper, "Eros With Absence: The Changing Cancer Iconography of Henry Miller," a study of how different phases of cover art for Tropic of Cancer over the decades have ironically devalued Miller's image in favor of contemporary erotica to potentially help the next generation of Miller readers create a more open text of one the 20th century's most infamous novels.

Rougarou

2010-10-29T19:44:00.003-04:00

The Fall 2010 issue of Rougarou, ULL English Department's on-line literary journal, has been posted...

Anemone Sidecar

2010-10-08T21:23:00.004-04:00

An Anemone Sidecar so good, Kathryn made it a double. Eclectic offerings in the theme of Corporeality featuring my prose poem "Field Communion," along with work by Louis Bourgeois, Harold Bowes, Ed Taylor, Cooper Renner, and others.

Postcard Fiction Collaborative

2010-10-02T19:28:00.003-04:00

What happens when an innocent family on vacation in Nogales, Mexico snaps an equally innocent photograph of themselves with a painted mule? Find out in this month's PFC.

Pinstripe Fedora

2010-09-22T13:33:00.005-04:00

The latest Pinstripe Fedora is available for download and lookin' snappy. Check out this special prose / hybrid issue featuring Nin Andrews, Andrew Borgstrom, Peter Conners, David Ohle, David Olivas, Mark Tursi and many more, which includes my "Until Spiderweb Memento..." a sequence excerpted from a manuscript in (perpetual) progress.

Casa Azul

2010-08-15T19:48:00.003-04:00

Anyone passing through Grand Coteau, Louisiana this Thursday night is welcome to come out to Casa Azul for a reading featuring myself and fellow UL'er Katie Manning.

Postcard Fiction Collaborative

2010-07-26T17:21:00.003-04:00

Late-July stories concerning windmills in the hazy blue distance now posted for the PFC, featuring the usual collaborators and guest writer Claudia Smith.

Ecoburgers...

2010-07-16T21:13:00.003-04:00

...the breakfast of Ph.D. champions (courtesy of May Stone).

Quick Fiction

2010-07-03T23:01:00.003-04:00

Quick Fiction #17 now available for purchase, featuring very very short stories by Thisbe Nissen, Gary Young, Stefan Kiesbye, Michael Thurston and many others, including my "Clean Dead Leaves."

Letters With Character

2010-06-28T15:12:00.003-04:00

My (brief) open letter to Robert Jordan of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls posted at Ben Greenman's Letters With Character.

RIP, JD

2010-01-28T13:56:00.002-05:00

Staccato

2010-01-27T10:03:00.006-05:00

My flash "Tender Spoils" has been posted for the Winter 2010 issue of Staccato, which also features stories by James Tomlinson, Alexandra Reisner, Jennifer Gravley, Bruce Pratt, and Nicole Perez.

My New A

2010-01-14T21:30:00.004-05:00

The Postcard Fiction Collaborative has posted its last batch of stories for the inaugural cycle, all of which are inspired by a big, angry neon letter that won't play nice with others. Check out the contributions, including my "Anti-An." More collaborators and stories to follow in the very near future...

Improbable Object

2009-11-07T16:51:00.002-05:00

New work now posted at Improbable Object, including my two prose poems "Tibetan Couture" and "Wooden Chair Sitting Alone in Library."

Happy Hell-O-Ween, Y'all

2009-11-01T12:16:00.015-05:00

Postcard Fiction Collaborative

2009-08-28T22:11:00.005-04:00

Dead Rats Press hatchetman and regular San Antonio gadabout Lyle Rosdahl has started his Postcard Fiction Collaborative here in the ebloggerverse. Check out the first offerings, "When We Murder," from a mostly anonymous group of writing folk and some morbid guy named Forrest. Further installments coming once more nonbelievers are brainwashed. Could you be next? Just make it easy on yourself: drop Lyle a line so he doesn't have to play rough... it's hot enough in Texas these days, I hear.

elimae

2009-08-03T11:45:00.003-04:00

August issue of elimae now posted with one of my "saints," also pieces by Ann DeWitt, Robert Lopez, Josh Maday, Meg Pokrass, and many others.

Bienvenue a Lafayette

2009-06-22T10:34:00.009-04:00

Dogzplotters!

2009-05-09T17:15:00.002-04:00

Dogzplot's 2009 Flash Fiction Anthology is now available for pre-ordering, and I have a story gracing a fairly tall list that includes work by Rusty Barnes, Spencer Dew, Kathy Fish, Sean Lovelace, Jennifer Pieroni, and Claudia Smith just to name a few.

Sein Und Werden

2009-04-29T12:19:00.007-04:00

Sam says: "Go check out that Cinematique issue of Sein Und Werden, angel-- it's the stuff dreams are made of." Maybe some nightmares, too. Hitchcock, Bunuel, Cronenberg, Cocteau and all the usual suspects are cracking jokes in the line-up. A cool little homage to the silver screen, which includes my treatment of film noir dialogue, "Noir Noir."

elimae

2009-04-15T08:29:00.004-04:00

April '09 incarnation is up and running with many excellent authors as usual--including Elizabeth Ellen, Shya Scanlon, Ed Taylor, Derek White, Kathryn Rantala--and my little poesie.

Au revoir, Beau-fleuve

2009-04-02T09:58:00.006-04:00

With bittersweet tidings [cue violin] I bid farewell to Buffalo: I'll be entering the University of Louisiana-Lafayette as an English Ph.D. student in Fall 2009. Been a fine run these last five years and I've enjoyed everyone's friendship in the literary community here, but I'm off to get academic chops worthy of a Ragin' Cajun. It will be a long good-bye in the meanwhile. Of course, sincerest thanks to those who supported me during the wait. Mardi Gras 2010 is just around the corner...

Naked Kitchen Yoga

2009-02-26T11:16:00.003-05:00

It's good and good for you. It also features--count 'em--seventeen Buffalo authors reading in support of National Small Press Month, with Starcherone honcho Ted Pelton as emcee. Our little cabal gathers at Rust Belt Books on Friday, March 6, and starts 7-ish. $5 donation at the door makes everything better. For more info, check out the Just Buffalo literary events page.

AWP Chicago 2009

2009-02-16T15:24:00.021-05:00

...is in the books. I promise I'll be much more aphoristic for it. Great to (finally) meet up with everyone, shake hands, spend downtime. Already feeling the nostalgia? Some quick hits below.

Moody hotel room shot of John Hancock Building

Know where: RUI vs. AWP @ Sheffield's

Would you care for a drink, Mr. Torrance?

The loneliest discoball: Grand Ballroom @ Hilton Chicago

"Blue Horse Ass with Water Cooler"

Bookfair-O-Rama

Going solo: Quickies! crowd @ Innertown Pub

"Yearning" with Robert Olen Butler, et al.

Holding court for PANK: She-Devil @ Quimbey's

Oh Metra Line, you'll say anything...

Stuart Dybek

Otoliths

2009-01-31T16:24:00.009-05:00

Issue no. 12 of Otoliths is out on-line with a few of my prose poems, also featuring Denise Duhamel, fellow BlazeVOXers Mary Kasimor and Felino Soriano, and some serious knob action.

Exhibit X Fiction

2009-01-22T18:53:00.004-05:00

I'm reading with Kim Chinquee at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Buffalo, Wed. February 4, for UB's Exhibit X series. We'll be starting at 7. Come get flashy.

More info at: http://www.hallwalls.org/.

Inaugural

2009-01-20T07:32:00.000-05:00

For wearing it somewhere close to the sleeve.

In Memorium: Andrew Wyeth

2009-01-16T13:22:00.001-05:00

Corduroy Mtn. with ephemera

2009-01-15T21:33:00.010-05:00

First issue of The Corduroy Mtn. from Carl Annarummo's Greying Ghost Press in hand, featuring Blake Butler, Brandon Shimoda, Joshua Ware, Jac Jemc, and many more.

For those who already have their copy, you may have noticed my selection, "Trade," is missing that little something at the end. Here's the complete version, on the house. Feel free to scribble in...

Trade

Brought Miss the last of the girls and it was time to settle. More's the pity, she objected, a few crocodile tears diving into her change purse. From these modest earnings I purchased, among other filterables, some black tea in bulk that might fit square into a Korean hatchback. It was then I noticed scratches from their painted fingernails against the back window. Guess I had stopped listening to them since San Simeon: the hotel water shortage put me in a bad mood while I showered. An ocean begging right in front.

Miss could pick these places blindfolded. The view tried importing from Greek seas-- supposed to copy Hellenic cliffs, so the receptionist wanted selling me. Her office had iffy wallpaper. Running squirrels. Not much safer in our double room. The girls had gone ahead and already pinned their faces to the pillows. Judging by the activity on our balcony, the town was getting touristy that night. I opted us to stay in. They suggested holding a seance for the dinner we were supposed to have, drawing the blinds. Ghostly knives and forks and plates arrived, they claimed in the dark. Maybe I saw a spoon, but that was it. Switching the lights back on, the fresh blue-haired one said I looked irate enough to start breaking legs. I camped outside in my Daiyoon just in case.

Next morning they were snug, sleeping in the same bed without a care. My neck was cramping. Let's go, I chopped at them, she's waiting and I'm hungry. While dressing they asked me to buy them stamps. For postcards later. As instructed I didn't promise. They got their boots laced up and marched hardly moving, as if they liked stepping on their own toes. Out the door slow they went. Quiet. Single-file down the stairs. I sat on the corner of their bed. Mine was still made.

Always happy as horny clams in the end, Miss reminded me. She asked if I'd care to travel.

I decided, after a big lunch, the passenger windows didn't need cleaning.

Took a few miles to sink in. Almost screwed myself over in Reno, of course. Then watched a fine smash at an intersection there. Oil and antifreeze spattered-- yet smelling that toasty tea hiding in the dashboard. The light changed when I felt lucky for ignoring the excitement. Seems I knew it was heading all Alabama from there on.

Thought I'd drive right by, no rubbernecking.

Didn't want any trouble keeping my posture up.

Welcome...

2009-01-10T00:18:00.000-05:00

...and please find your perch.