Alternately bizarre, poignant, and unsettlingly funny, William Walsh’s Ampersand, Mass.—the titular town situated somewhere between Winesburg, Ohio and Yoknapatawpha County—brings Donald Barthelme’s darkly comedic compressions to mind. These fragmentary, non sequitur-filled stories, peopled by ne’er-do-wells, nincompoops, and priapic not-quite-post-adolescents, circumvent expectations, the seemingly desultory images and events actually carefully sutured together to evoke the sadness, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Matt Bell’
New Books Roundup #1
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Ampersand Mass., Big Other, Edward Mullany, How They Were Found, I Falter at the Gallows, John Madera, Joseph Riippi, Matt Bell, The Orange Suitcase, William Walsh on May 4, 2012 | 7 Comments »
I Shot the Moon, Calamari Press, 41 / 41, SLEEPINGFISH 8
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Amelia Gray, Ark Codex, Blake Butler, Calamari Press, Christine Schutt, Daniel Grandbois, David Ohle, Dennis Cooper, Derek White, Diane Williams, Gary Lutz, J. A. Tyler, julie doxsee, M. T. Fallon, Matt Bell, Miranda Mellis, Peter Markus, Rachel May, Sleepingfish 8 on March 15, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Click through to read the full review of SLEEPINGFISH, the forty-first (and final installment) in this full-press review of Calamari Press, and one in which I excerpt some tremendous work, praise Calamari Press one last time, give away copies of SLEEPINGFISH 8, and publicly offer a book contract to M. T. Fallon.
Exits Are: An Interview with Mike Meginnis
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged A D Jameson, Artifice Books, Artifice Magazine, Aubrey Hirsch, Blake Butler, Brian Oliu, Elissa Gabbert, Exits Are, james tadd adcox, Matt Bell, Mike Meginnis, new forms/old forms, text adventure, Tim Dicks on February 22, 2012 | 1 Comment »
“A conversation is a journey, and what gives it value is fear.” So says Anne Carson. Exits Are is a series of text adventures conducted by Mike Meginnis published on Mondays and Wednesdays by Artifice Books and Uncanny Valley. So far, adventures from Blake Butler, Tim Dicks, and Matt Bell have gone up, and the [...]
How I Wrote Certain of My Books
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Achilles and the tortoise, All Fall Down, Critique of Pure Reason, Everything Ravaged Everything Burned, fun with numbers, How They Were Found, Mary Caponegro, Matt Bell, Noemi Press, Sarah Rose Etter, Slow Writing, statistics, Tongue Party, Wells Tower, Zeno on February 17, 2012 | 5 Comments »
[In which I elaborate on an earlier post, "Slow Writing?"] In thinking about my earlier contention that writing ought to be slow, I decided to examine my own process. Specifically, I wondered if I, a man with two books coming out this year, was living up to my own lofty standards. I thus constructed a [...]
Welcome to The Lit Pub . . .
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Adam Robinson, christopher newgent, Corey Beasley, Dan Wickett, Dave Kiefaber, David Blomenberg, Elizabeth Taddonio, Erika Moya, Ethel Rohan, Fuzzco, Jacqueline Kari, Jordan Blum, Kevin Sampsell, Kristina Born, Lidia Yuknavitch, M. M. Wittle, Mark Cugini, Matt Bell, Michael Griffith, Mike Bushnell, Mike Young, Nicelle Davis, Ofelia Hunt, Richard Nash, The Lit Pub, Zach Dodson on May 31, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Before I say anything else, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chris Newgent for all of the time and energy he has put into our efforts to bring you the next nine words: WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE LIT PUB! I’d like to also thank Matt Bell for his excellent advice during [...]
Joseph Riippi’s THE ORANGE SUITCASE
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Adam Robinson, Ampersand Books, Joseph Riippi, Laura van den Berg, Matt Bell, Michael Kimball, Roxane Gay, The Orange Suitcase on April 9, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Amber Sparks already wrote a fantastic and comprehensive review of Joseph Riippi’s The Orange Suitcase for Big Other, which you can read here, but I want to dedicate a post to “Something About Maxine,” which is a short chapter in three tiny parts, and “Something About the Rest,” another short chapter in three parts. I [...]
Soda Series #2 this Sunday in Brooklyn
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Amber Sparks, Jeff Parker, John Madera, Matt Bell on July 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A conversation with: Matt Bell, John Madera, Jeff Parker and Amber Sparks at Soda Bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. 629 Vanderbilt Ave. Soda Series website Facebook RSVP. Upcoming readers include: Sasha Fletcher, Eugene Lim and Leni Zumas Matt Bell is the author of How They Were Found, forthcoming from Keyhole Press in October 2010. His [...]
A Sampler of First Lines from Best of the Web 2010
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Best of the Web 2010, Dzanc Books, Kathy Fish, Matt Bell on July 6, 2010 | 13 Comments »
Nola is splayed on the wooden floor, her skirt hiked up high above her knees, playing jacks. My son’s first-grade teacher doesn’t shoot heroin anymore. I went to a wedding reception at the house of a man who painted with his ass. When the war was over and all the shelling stopped, Dan Barley set [...]
Matt Bell at Everyday Genius
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Adam Robinson, Everyday Genius, Lily Hoang, Matt Bell, Michael Kimball on May 17, 2010 | 1 Comment »
We all know that Matt Bell, Lily Hoang, Michael Kimball, and Adam Robinson are all great writers, editors, and idea people (oh, and if you don’t know, just search around for any of these writer’s work and you’ll see what I mean). This week at Everyday Genius they join forces in a project that is [...]
Guest Post, by Matt Bell: A Sentence About a Sentence I Love
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Dennis Cooper, Guide, Matt Bell on May 8, 2010 | 2 Comments »
“It was like looking at a rock pile and trying to imagine an avalanche.” –from Guide, by Dennis Cooper
Partial Thoughts for a Partial Wolf
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged "Wolf Like Me", Fairytales, Keyhole Press, Little Red Riding Hood, M. Night Shymalan, Matt Bell, Molly Gaudry, Robert Coover, The Village, TV on the Radio, Wolf Parts on April 24, 2010 | 3 Comments »
I received my copy of Matt Bell’s Wolf Parts yesterday. Read it last night. It made me want to say things about it. I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve read a healthy dose of Bell’s work, but hadn’t read this piece. With a title like “Wolf Parts” so many things come to mind. [...]
storySouth’s 7th Annual Million Writers Award
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Alicia Gifford, Catherynne Valente, Jason Sanford, Jenny Williams, Matt Bell, Million Writers Award, Randa Jarr, Richard Bowes, storySouth on February 14, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Honoring online literature since 2004 with the Million Writers Award, Jason Sanford’s storySouth is open for 2010 nominations from editors and readers. Full guidelines here. The 2004 award went to Randa Jarr’s “You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved to Texas,” originally published in Eyeshot. The 2005 award went to Alicia Gifford’s “Toggling [...]
Reading Out Loud/Aloud/Loudly
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Christine Schutt, Matt Bell on December 21, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Matt Bell, writing a bit about his drafting process HERE, brought up that he reads out loud a lot when editing. I also do that. I don’t know of any essays that treat this aspect of editing in-depth. But Christine Schutt does talk about it HERE. An excerpt: Beyond the charge delivered by reading great [...]
Matt Bell’s Best of 2009
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Matt Bell, Michael Kimball on December 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Best Of What I Learned About Writing from Interviews Written by Michael Kimball, Ordered to Make a Collage About Sound
Dan Wickett’s Best of 2009
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Avett Brothers, Big Bang Theory, Chopped, Dan Wickett, Dzanc Books, Fringe, Hesh Kestin, Jim Jarmusch, Joe Henry, Laura van den Berg, Matt Bell, NUMB3RS, Paramore, Sons of Anarchy, Steven Gillis, The Limits of Control, Top Chef on December 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
First on my list for Best of 2009 would have to be seeing each of my three kids take another solid step forward with their lives, each maturing a bit, taking on different responsibilities than they had in previous years, etc.
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