Book: My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Works of Jack Spicer
Casey McKinney01.14.09
Spicer’s one of the last San Francisco beat poets to avoid the seeming universal praise his bones are now swimming in, forty plus years after his…
2666 by Roberto Bolano: a review
Andy Beta12.26.08
Roberto Bolaño, Chile’s own prodigal poet has been getting an expansive amount of respect since his novels began being translated into English over a year ago. Bolaño, the longtime junky and self-affirmed outsider, passed away from liver failure in 2003; but we now fortunately have the translation of his last great unfinished novel, 2666, a sprawling, beefy, gruesome and enigmatic hunk of prognostication for where mankind may soon be headed. Best read of 2008? You decide. Review by Andy Beta.
Dennis Cooper & Gisèle Vienne on Bookworm
Casey McKinney12.13.08
KCRW’s Michael Silverblatt interviews Dennis Cooper, author of many books including The Weaklings published by our own Fanzine Press, along with…
Digging for Dirt: The Life and Death of ODB
Michael Louie11.25.08
We all miss Big Baby Jesus, and no we ain’t talking about that little December squirt of joy, hell it ain’t even Thanksgiving yet. Y’all can start shopping on Friday. And if you do, pick up Jamie Lowe’s new book, Digging for Dirt: The Life and Death of ODB (that’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard, R.I.P., of the Wu-Tang Clan), a biography that’ll make a great stocking stuffer for anyone’s grandma. Michael Louie reviews, while Mr. jock draws Mr. Dirt McGirt in kind.
Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth: a review
Adam Ganderson10.29.08
Fanzine basically took the month off, so we get this review just in time for the remaining days of October – a month of nippy nights that creep up early and announce the Halloween season; behold here Adam Ganderson’s review of Daniel Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal. You may have read the Norwegian side of things in Lords of Chaos, or got a taste of other non-Norwegian death metal bands in the excerpt "A Blaze in the North American Sky" from Brandon Stosuy’s forthcoming book that ran recently in The Believer. Here we get the Swedish death metal story, an instant classic, and required reading for music lovers and fanzine fans of varied yet discriminating tastes.
David Foster Wallace (1962-2008)
Casey McKinney09.14.08
We are saddened to learn the news of David Foster Wallace’s death. It’s been reported that he committed suicide on Friday by hanging himself. …
Review of The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball
Richard Parks08.05.08
Baseball is best viewed live, though it’s also a comforting respite on a lazy day spent sprawled out on the living room couch. Speaking of couches, have you ever talked baseball on the couch at your shrink’s office? Did that baseball talk give you the answers you needed to reconcile a painful love/hate relationship with your father? Well probably not. But if so, or if you at least find the baseball-as-psychological lens interesting, you should check out Nicholas Dawidoff’s latest memoir The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball, reviewed here by Richard Parks.
Review of Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary
Ben Bush08.04.08
Hypertext Lit is no longer a fad but a fact. From the earlier experiments of Shelley Jackson and Robert Coover on to today’s ebooks on iPhones and Kindles, electronic literature is here for the long haul, making its mark in more ways than you’d think. Ben Bush reviews a thorough study of the subject – Professor N. Katherine Hayles’ Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary.
The State of N.C. …Poetry (pt. 1)
Brian Howe07.25.08
The legendary Black Mountain College produced such avant-garde poets as Robert Creely, Denise Levertov and Paul Blackburn in under a quarter of a centurty. Now what remains of the BMC is a small museum and arts center. North Carolina poetry is not in trouble, however; here, Brian Howe celebrates three fellow modern North Carolina poets: Chris Vitiello, Tony Tost and Ken Rumble. The poetic spirit of this southern state lives on.
Review of Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser
Mark Asch03.07.08
Worlds within words within worlds. Mark Asch tackles the infinite regression of Steven Millhauser’s latest short story collection.
