Why did nobody introduce me to Frank O’Hara
back then, when I was a poet,
or thought I was,
or wanted to be? Continue Reading »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged C.P. Cavafy, Edward Thomas, Edwin Muir, Frank O'Hara, George Seferis, James Simmons, Nelly Sachs, R.S. Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Yevgeny Yevtushenko | 8 Comments »
Make it mew
Hello,
I am editing fiction for 3am Magazine this summer. Guidelines
A couple of things I would like to add:
Ezra Pound’s poem “Portrait D’ Une Femme” was “rejected by the North American Review in January 1912, according to Pound, on the grounds that ‘I had used the letter ‘r’ three times in the first line, and that it was very difficult to pronounce.’” *
Line: “Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea,”
I don’t edit this way and frown upon those who do; in fact, the more difficult to pronounce, the better.
James Salter: “The secret of making [art] is simple. Discard everything that is good enough.”
I am not looking for toss-offs or something “good enough” for an internet journal. This is 3am Magazine, it’s been here for over thirteen years, that’s centuries in internet time.
If this is brusque, think of the process this way. Roughly 15% of all submissions (print, internet, and otherwise) never get replied to. I am replying to all because I take this seriously.
Here are two shorter stories that I was grateful to be an editor for:
Amber Sparks’s “May We Shed These Human Bodies”
Lance Olsen’s “Robert Smithson”
Best,
Greg Gerke
* Ezra Pound, New Selected Poems and Translations p.287
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 3:AM Magazine, Amber Sparks, Ezra Pound, Lance Olsen | Leave a Comment »
I’m happy to host the following writers at Unnameable Books on Friday, May 31st:
John Haskell is the author of a short-story collection, I Am Not Jackson Pollock (FSG, 2003), and the novels American Purgatorio (FSG, 2005) and Out of My Skin (FSG, 2009). Interview at Stop Smiling.
Robert Kloss is the author of The Alligators of Abraham, as well as the upcoming hybrid text The Desert Places, co-authored with Amber Sparks. His short fiction has been published in Crazyhorse, Gargoyle, Unsaid, and elsewhere. He can be found online at robert-kloss.com.
Gary Lutz is the author of Stories in the Worst Way, I Looked Alive, Partial List of People to Bleach, and Divorcer. Interview with David Winters.
Amber Sparks is the author of May We Shed These Human Bodies, released by Curbside Splendor in 2012, and the upcoming The Desert Places, co-authored with Robert Kloss. Her work has been widely published in print and online and you can find some of it at ambernoellesparks.com or follow her on Twitter @ambernoelle.
Ken Sparling has written six novels. His latest is Intention, Implication, Wind from Pedlar Press. His first, Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall, published by Knopf in 1996 was recently reissued by Mud Luscious Press. Interview with Sean Lovelace.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Amber Sparks, Gary Lutz, John Haskell, Ken Sparling, Robert Kloss, Unnameable Books | 1 Comment »
And she put down the phone, and drew the blinds.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bluets | 3 Comments »
A review in two.
It is not really diptych (not the result of hinged oppositions) when a conductor conducts in two-two time. The baton swings back and forth but not between two of anything: instead it swivels in an ongoing overlap. For this reason the back and forth of a baton (when in two-two) is more like conducting the candors of a smear. Please excuse (enjoy) an inherent back and forth shape as you move through my engagement with this marvelously pleasure-filled book.
A child (“beautiful[ly] unbearable body”) emerges from the curled spinal column of an ancient reptile which itself is protruding from the green of an old growth tree. Is green always mythological? A compendium of chlorophyll-like ducts keeps us in myth. “What was unknown/ becomes patterned” as the pages flip. Continue Reading »
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
I
In Canada there are two national newspapers. One, The National Post, runs a section called Afterword. On 28 March 2013 Chad Pelley, an award-winning Newfoundland author lately responsible for the novel Every Little Thing, offered readers a glimpse into his experiences as a writer, as well as rules. He doesn’t call them rules, and is careful to use that word only once (about others), but his commentary is filled with the words should and must. These are the sorts of words found in legislation, and that’s fitting, as he’s offering a bill for writers. Don’t you just think John Gardner when you hear about rules? It’s not as bad as that because Chad isn’t Gardner, but it still does make the heart sink.
Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments »
But A said, “No. I’m afraid. Not of you, but of the moon. Or of you and the moon when you and the moon are together.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bluets, New York City | Leave a Comment »
