Poets/Artists 72

Reb Livingston (painted by Debra Livingston) from Poets/Artists 72

Lighthouses & Ebook Sale!

I'm writing from the Outer Banks with a fractured ankle. Brutal dog walking accident from the week before. I can't believe they let me do such dangerous work.

Kind of a bummer, but it's not a tragedy. It hasn't dampened anyone else's time.

I was able to walk last month when we were in Iceland and Prague, so I won't complain. Too much.

I've been offline a lot this summer and it's been wonderful. I owe lots of folks emails but I will respond. Soonish.

If you haven't got a copy of Bombyonder yet, this is your lucky day. The ebook is on sale for only $1.99 (limited time). It normally sells for $7.99 so it's quite the bargain.

* * Amazon * * B&N * *  Apple * * Kobo * * Indigo * *

If you're not sure you want to plop down two Washingtons, you can read what some smart reviewers have written about it to better convince yourself that it's a sound investment.

Finally, Chris' shed update:

(Very) slowly, but surely.

summertime

Have you been keeping up with the Misfit Documents over at Queen Mobs Teahouse? I've been having a lot of fun editing the department.

If you have a "misfit document," here's the submission guidelines.

A few weeks ago there was a "violent micro burst" in our neighborhood.

At least 10 homes were hit by trees, several so severely they're now uninhabitable. Luckily for us, our home was spared.

The shed was spared too. Here's the latest progress:

G is a rising 5th grader, 5 feet tall and size 8 shoe. Can you believe we let him stay up late to watch Conan the Barbarian (original)? We didn't remember Conan being such a lothario. Awkward.

And he fell asleep right before the big ending!

In a couple weeks we're going to Iceland and Prague. We're excited.

I'm enjoying my summer by limiting my time on social media. So far a good bit of enjoyment.

building a shed

John Parras Reviews Bombyonder at Rain Taxi

Today has been a pretty good day!

Mentioned in the same paragraph as as Teju Cole, Ben Lerner, Rachel Cusk, Knausgaard and Heti and Bombyonder compared to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.

Woo-hoo! Here's an excerpt:

In contrast, many contemporary responses to the so-called death of the novel take the form of what is sometimes called the non-novel—works by writers such as Teju Cole, Ben Lerner, Rachel Cusk, and the aforementioned Knausgaard and Heti. In most cases these autobiographical novels attempt to solve our dissatisfaction with the stilted fabrications of plot and character by steering fiction toward the realm of memoir. But Reb Livingston's extraordinary novel, Bombyonder, shows us how timid such a solution is. One doesn't heal the ailing novel form by disguising fiction as memoir, Bombyonder forcefully suggests; one heals the novel by fearlessly transfiguring long fiction. Rather than assuaging supposed readerly anxieties, Livingston reinvents fictional character and narrative pattern while embracing the perplexities of prevarication, the imaginative value of absurdity, and the delights of wild artifice. 

Despite its avant-gardism, Bombyonder bears an uncanny resemblance to Gillian Flynn’s runaway bestseller, Gone Girl. Both books feature a female protagonist trying to find herself, suppressing some aspect of her personality, and navigating complicated amorous relations with men. Both books incorporate diary entries as a central device, reflect on the questionable influence of parents on their children, and involve complex mysteries of disappearance and reappearance. And both books contemplate murder, though in radically different manners. While Gone Girl adheres to the conventions of the realistic thriller, Bombyonder teeters on the opposite end of the fictional spectrum: it is innovative in the extreme.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW AT RAIN TAXI

Learn more about Bombyonder

Indie Terrorists

I co-authored this essay with Rauan Klassnik at Queen Mobs:

Today’s terrorist may well be tomorrow’s revolutionary hero. But—

“I stopped writing this fall, for the first time in my life, out of this silencing fear of being attacked by them.”

“I was attacked for making a vague statement.” 

“I worked for a rape crisis center for years, was involved with founding a network for survivors, was sexually abused for years as a kid — and people call me a rape apologist.” 

“I friend requested most of them so that I can keep an eye on things. It’s scary.”

READ MORE

Submission Call for Misfit Documents at Queen Mob's Teahouse

I'm the new (and first) Misfit Documents Editor at Queen Mob's Teahouse.

WHAT IS A MISFIT DOCUMENT?

That is a very good question. My definition of a misfit document is a text that doesn’t easily fit into any genre or category. It’s not quite a poem or short story or novel excerpt or essay. Or if it is one of those things, it doesn’t quite qualify as “literary” or sci-fi or mystery or memoir or whatever. Or maybe it’s all of those things and more. It’s something you wrote that you believe is amazing, but you have no idea what it is or where it belongs in the world. It’s something that when people read it they say, “What the hell is this?”

It’s something that doesn’t really have a label, or at least not one that is widely used.

WHAT KIND OF MISFIT DOCUMENTS AM I LOOKING FOR?

Lots. I want to be surprised and delighted. I want to read things that are nothing like I’ve ever read before. I want to scratch my head. I want to struggle trying to describe it.

I don’t want to narrow what would fall under a category called “Misfit Documents” because I’m not ready to rule anything out. At least not yet.

I lean towards work that is quirky, strange, fucked-up, etc., but my tastes do run fairly eclectic. Some of my favorite authors: Leonora Carrington, Alice Notley, Joyce Mansour, Bhanu Khapil, Philip K. Dick, Octavia Butler, Joy Williams, Rikki Ducornet, Fanny Howe (especially her essays), Kim Hyesoon, Frank O’Hara, Harryette Mullen, Marie-Louise von Franz, Lindsay Hill, Helen Oyemi, Flannery O’Connor, Marosa Di Georgio, Hannah Weiner and Amy Gerstler.

TO SUBMIT!

I’m not saying I want work in the vein of any of the above authors, just giving you an a sense for some of the styles that I’m drawn to. Not doubt I’m drawn to others as well.

Obviously, I’m looking for texts that are well-written, interesting, compelling and work as stand-alone pieces. Misfit doesn’t mean throw away or unfinished. I’m not looking for leftovers.

Not sure if what you have is right? Just send it. The worst that will happen is that I’ll say no thank you and you’ll say (TO YOURSELF!): That moron wouldn’t know a true misfit document if one fell out of the sky and danced on her face!

I think that’s a risk worth taking, don’t you?

READ MORE ABOUT SENDING WORK