Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 128
November 20, 2012
November 19, 2012
There will be ADP contest.
The Deerbird Novella Prize. And The Twin Antlers Prize for Collaborative Poetry. December 1st. Details forthcoming yo.
November 18, 2012
November 17, 2012
These Books Will Change Your Life - Every Laundromat In The World by Mel Bosworth and Hank & Jules by Jason Fisk.
The books arrive at the same time. Landing as it were in our mailbox as if traveling together. And we quite dig the synchronicity of that. We don't know that Mel Bosworth and Jason Fisk even know each other. But in our head they go together regardless. It seems that they entered our lives at the same time, full bore and intimate. That we were all getting started and trying to do something else and new. That they were, and are, so good and right, and so attractive with their joy and intensity, short hair, big grins, and bearded mugs. They are both full of love as well, but with an endless roiling history lurking behind their eyes. And they of course are write. Always write. Telling stories that search for things, love and understanding, and relationships that want to cohere in some fashion, despite the damage, abuse, confusion and distance that their characters struggle with and through. To say then that their writing is them is clear and true, and to say we love them for who they are, what they represent to us, and how they do what they with story would be understatement. 
So here we are then, Every Laundromat In The World by the Bosworth, a collection ridden with short, tight, bursts of poem about how we live from moment to moment as small things become big things that look like a life, and all this from a writer we have thought of in terms of fiction, and Hank & Jules from the Fisk, who we once thought of as a poet, despite his protestations otherwise, continuing to work more directly in the realm of short fictions as he tells his knowing stories of lives full of pain and love, and things slowly gone wrong even though should not need to, should they? We'd say not, but to do so is to ignore what life is, compromises and sadness, punctuated by moments of insight and love. To also say that we are unabashedly Bosworth Fisk completists is understatement as well, but we are thrilled to see both of them continue to write and push and grow, and possibly, maybe yes, even change lives along the way.
November 16, 2012
November 15, 2012
November 14, 2012
These CCLaP Books Will Change Your Life - solo/down by Lauryn Allison Lewis and Famous Drownings in Literary History by Kevin Haworth.
We are certainly as CCLaP completist as anyone, which is less to speak to some unique position we may hold as readers in the independent lit firmament and more about our desire to look at the themes or tropes that CCLaP is drawn to as it picks the work it wants to share with the world. Over the years CCLaP's has leaned towards journeys and self-discovery, small towns and coping. Themes we love, and are endlessly drawn to as readers and writers, and yes CCLaP authors, ourselves. So, with solo/down by Lauryn Allison Lewis and Famous Drownings in Literary History by Kevin Haworth, we have to ask ourselves whether and how these books might fit into what CCLaP has done so well to build an established identity. In one regard CCLaP has done some things with these books to mine some of the sub-themes they've hit before, science fiction with solo/down and nonfiction with Haworth, and this is important, because to build something is to expand what you do even as you stay true to your vision of yourself. 
That said, something else is going on here as well, and even with solo/down's sci fi bent, and Famous Drownings overt shout-outs to that which it means to be Jewish and the impact of literature on our lives, all of our lives, and how we live, both books speak to a theme CCLaP has only somewhat focused on in the past, parenting, and predominantly, not exclusively, but predominantly, on the fears and panic that grip us as our children grow-up and grow away from us. Whether its the parents in solo/down who have created children they cannot protect, control, or hope to understand, despite their genius for science and grasp of what makes the universe tick, or Famous Drownings, where we are faced with raising, protecting, and controlling children we don't quite understand in a world we don't quite understand, even when we have a culture to draw on, literature, or our ability to save people from drowning. And this of course is parenting, never quite knowing what's right, or how to get from here to there, you hope and you try and you push. Which in this way, parenting is like publishing, certainly small press publishing. Pushing, hoping, building, and regardless of how things are going, panicking, always panicking, even as your changing lives, yours, your readers, and yes, on good days, maybe even those of your children. [image error]
November 13, 2012
We are Writer in Residence Day Thirteen. And J. Bradley is Interstellar.
J. Bradley reads the Derrick Brown poem "Pussycat Interstellar Naked Hotrod Mofo Ladybug Lust Blaster". from J. Bradley on Vimeo.
And not just Interstellar. But Naked. Also, in case you missed the Collin Kelley, Dave K., or Ryan Bradley, please do hit those as well, they just might change your life. [image error]
November 12, 2012
The Rob Reid is Prairie Shanties of the Landlocked Mariner.
No really, there will be Prairie, and there will be release on November 29th at the Cafe Mustache, and then maybe, just maybe, there will be some lives getting changed. For real.[image error]
November 11, 2012
Happy Birthday.
"So it goes." Kurt Vonnegut[image error]
