'Snowing Fireflies' to be Published by Folded Word Press

I recently learned, and it was announced today, that my chapbook manuscript, Snowing Fireflies, was selected for publication by Folded Word Press (Big Big Big Thank You, Jessi and company…). Slated for publication in summer 2010, the manuscript contains 15 stories, among which 8 have been previously published, 2 are forthcoming in PicFic, and 5 are previously unpublished. The pieces in this collection, to me, feel innocent yet mature, much different from my usual work. I'm not really sure what that means.

It feels good and a little scary to say, “I have a chapbook coming out.” This gives me a little hope, though, as it seems very hard to find good publishers willing to take on new authors. I often feel like a ‘marginal writer’ whose work is readily dismissible, but this makes me think maybe I do have something to offer the writing community—something to contribute to the culture, however small or insignificant.

Here is the title story, “Snowing Fireflies.” Thank you for your time…

Pear Noir! #3

I received my contributor's copy of Pear Noir! #3 today (thank you Daniel, Eileen, Patty, and Molly). In this issue I have a chapter from my novel Lepers and Mannequins called "The Well." I'm big happy to be in there with Audri Sousa, Roxane Gay, Andrew Borgstrom, Christopher Higgs, Jimmy Chen, Kendra Grant Malone, Lily Hoang, David Fishkind, Russell Edson...

And so many others...

I've read a lot of it already, avoiding reading for my classes, I guess. The postcard series for this issue includes a poem from Audri Sousa and a poem from Kendra Grant Malone. I want to post Audri's postcard poem here, because it's wonderful, and actually a little different from her usual work (which is also wonderful):

A Little Known Fact

martin scorsese has two
caterpillars over his eyes
a rare venomous species
from the amazon
they eat lemon seed

periodically
when martin scorsese
does not feed them
by sprinkling lemon seed
on his face they get restless
and he expresses himself
by accident

That's awesome. I feel a little inadequate with my silly little chapter from a silly little novel surrounded by and compared to all the great work in this issue. I'm just big happy to be in there at all...

Preliminary Thoughts on Rap Music and Warrior Culture

I’ve been wanting to write an essay on the correlations between rap music (as opposed to hip-hop, which is the culture the art of rapping emerged from) and warrior cultures in works of European medieval literature, like Beowulf and Arthurian legends. Rap music portrays a patriarchal shame-honor (as opposed to our patriarchal guilt-innocence) culture in which masculinity, reputation, plundering and boasting are the values one lives by in order to survive, and the cyclical irony of perpetuating that lifestyle in an effort to survive the very lifestyle being perpetuated...



Beowulf and the Arthurian legends were originally based on oral traditions, just as rapping is an oral art form. So, I want to view rap music through the lens of literature, despite what its surface content appears to advocate. I want to consider cultural context and the gap between our time periods, but, really, nothing’s changed. Humans are and have always been inherently violent and territorial, and, given the fact that humans will find any excuse to wage war on others for the purposes of gaining power and resources, the American military (the 'strongest' in the world) serves as a role model for America’s disenfranchised lower class (while frequently recruiting potential soldiers from that class)—in essence, the military could be considered just a really big gang...



Anyway, the above joints are by Styles P from The Lox. I want to focus most of the essay (if I ever get going on it) on him, because he’s pretty much the hardest rapper out there, and, at least as far as 'hardcore' rap, he's probably my favorite...

I should be reading for my classes...

>Kill Author Issue Five, and Some Immortals

>Kill Author Issue Five is up, and it contains two chapters from The Immortals Act Their Age, “Innocuously Unstable” and “To Make Matters Worse.” This issue also contains (though, I shouldn’t say contains, as the work is practically bursting through the pipes) some wonderful work by Adam Braffman, Adam Gallari, Adam Marston, Alan Rossi, Clayton T. Michaels, Donald Dunbar, Greg Gerke, Heather Napualani Hodges, Howie Good, J. Bradley, Louise Norlie, Marvin K. Mooney, M.E. Parker, Molly Gaudry, Neila Mezynski, Ricky Garni, R L Swihart, Ryan Ridge and Scott Riley Irvine. Word…