Jonathan Ball's Blog, page 78
June 20, 2011
"The Genre Traveler" podcast interview
The delightful Carma Spence was kind enough to interview me regarding my view of myself as something of an avant-garde genre author, seeing Ex Machina as science fiction and Clockfire as fantasy/horror. You can check out the podcast here–if you like genre fiction at all I recommend subscribing.
June 14, 2011
95 Books — moved to GoodReads
I've become enamored of the GoodReads site, and so have moved my public reading over there, while taking control of my author page. I'll post here also, but for my mini-reviews and to see where I'm at, visit my GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/... Up to 60 now, which according to GoodReads puts me 18 books ahead [...]
June 9, 2011
Best Dialogue Ever . . .
. . . From DELTA FORCE 2, starring Chuck Norris. Keep in mind that this is a fairly serious scene: "Ramon shot her husband, murdered her sick baby, and used the baby's body to smuggle cocaine. And then he raped her. [beat] Best not to bring it up, she might be a little sensitive."
June 6, 2011
derek beaulieu reviews Ex Machina
Thrilled to see that derek beaulieu has reviewed Ex Machina on his website (click quote for full article): William S. Burroughs notoriously postulated "language is a virus from outer space" and that we are simply hosts for the spread of this linguistic extraterrestrial disease. Ball's novel articulates the nature of the parasitic relationship between book, [...]
31 – 40 of 95 Books
My next 10 books in the 95 Books Challenge for 2011: 31. The Inquisition Yours (Jen Currin) I previously read Currin's Hagiography, and this book is, to me, a great leap forward for Currin. Her surrealistic imagery seems more anchored and necessary — sometimes in Hagiography I found myself wondering if the poems would be [...]
Interview on Kevin Spenst's site
An interview with me, conducted by Kevin Spenst, is up on his site: I'm not interested in collecting poems. I write books. Single poems don't need to be collected. Why bother? Why force them into some vague, bland frame? My most recent manuscript, The Politics of Knives, is close to a collection, in that I [...]
Sina Queyras on Clockfire
Some kind, wonderful words on Clockfire from Sina Queyras, writing at the Harriet blog: I consider Jonathan Ball's Clockfire to be in the top handful of poetry titles last year in this country. No prize for him, alas, but lots of buzz and engagement and, for this reader in any case, the sense of a [...]
The Winnipeg Review interviews on the future of books
The Winnipeg Review was kind enough to interview me on the future of books: The basic problem with ebooks is that they result from emulation technology. They act like paper books. To me, there is a place for this kind of emulative tech, but in essence it's a fundamental misapplication. The publishing industry's approach to [...]
"To the Reader" by Charles Baudelaire
This poem prefaces Baudelaire's 1857 collection Les Fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil). To the Reader Folly and error, sin and avarice, Labor our minds and bodies in their course, Blithely we nourish pleasurable remorse As beggars feed their parasitic lice. Our sins are stubborn, our repentance faint, We sell our weak confessions at high [...]
Short Fiction: "As We All Should Lie" in Atmosphere Magazine
My short story, "As We All Should Lie," was recently published in Air Transat's Atmosphere and is available for reading online, in English and French translation. The story starts on page 92.
