Issue 11 Now Online

Issue 11 is now up, and our contributors in the Narratives section find, through their fiction, new and interesting ways to deal with relationships gone south, and our Poetics section contributor expresses his joy at your appearance in that crown! We also bring you the beautiful work of Sougwen Chung in our Gallery, and welcome back our series InDialogue, where writers and artists talk to each other about, well, anything they want to talk to each other about. Here, two long-time members of the InDigest family, Meakin Armstrong and Sam Osterhout, discuss, among other things, the fate of the funny man, growing old, and why Meakin’s characters don’t have enough sense to get themselves out of the damn basement.

And remember, if you're in New York stop by (le) Poisson Rouge the first Wednesday of every month for the InDigest 1207 reading series, where in June we will be welcoming Stephen Burt, Angela Ball, Rodrigo Toscano, and Giao Buu (and later this summer, John Wray, Marlon James, Ronaldo V. Wilson, and Geoff Herbach).


Narratives
Nicole Callihan's delightfully odd story about a man who sees his friends' relationship somewhat differently than they do.

"One Fish, Two Fish"

&

Peter Bognanni's wild ride into the mystical world of swords...and how they can spice up your love life.

"Historical Replicas Unlimited"


Poetics
Three poems by Michael Ogletree:

"Look at You in That Crown!"
"The Thread"
"Anything Goes, I Guess"


Gallery

Beautiful, swirling prints with muted colors and surprising depth by Sougwen Chung.


InDialogue

Past InDigest Narratives contributors Meakin Armstrong and Sam Osterhout InDialogue.

Summer Literary Preview

STL Today has just posted an article previewing some of the most exciting literary release coming up this summer.

Some of the ones that have me excited out of the lot:
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
My Father's Tears and Other Stories by John Updike

Some of the major authors of the summer, I know, but how are you not excited about Updike's final collection or the prospects of Pynchon writing a noir novel? Awesome.

Updated lineups for InDigest 1207

We've added some new readers to our lineups for the upcoming InDigest 1207 readings. I'm listing them below. Also, you should check out our new event pages at lepoissonrouge.com, they're pretty slick - photos, videos, and on and on.

June 1207:
Rodrigo Toscano
Angela Ball
Stephen Burt
Giao Buu

August 1207:
John Wray
Marlon James
Ronaldo V. Wilson

Hope you can come out and have some drinks with us, and enjoy some fantastic authors.

Deadline for miniStories Competition Extended to May 15

Call For Submissions from Magers & Quinn and mnartists.org

For all Minnesota InDigest folk: Magers & Quinn and mnartists.org continue their fantastic flash fiction contest miniStories (and I'm not just saying that because one of my stories was a finalist). If you're a MN resident, what are you waiting for? Details below.

miniStories FLASH FICTION COMPETITION

miniStories is a flash fiction competition series which spotlights original short-short stories by Minnesota writers. Twenty pieces will be selected for publication by a panel of noted authors, editors, and publishing industry veterans from across the country. We're pleased to announce that novelist Geoff Herbach is returning for a second year as lead juror in the miniStories competition. From the pool of 20 winning authors, 3 grand prize-winners will be selected to receive a paid commission for a second short story (which may or may not be flash fiction) to be published by mnartists.org. Grand prize-winners' commissioned pieces will go through a full editing process and will be illustrated for publication with specially chosen artwork from the vast database of mnartists.org artists.

THERE WILL ONLY BE ONE CALL FOR MINISTORIES SUBMISSIONS FOR 2009:

DEADLINE THURSDAY, APRIL 30

Eligibility and Submission guidelines:

Any Minnesota resident may submit up to three previously unpublished pieces of flash fiction, in any genre; each submission should be no longer than 500 words in length. Stories should be submitted as email attachments to stories@mnartists.org (preferably formatted as Word documents) or pasted into the body of an email. Please put "miniStories flash fiction submission" in the subject line of your email.

You must be a resident of Minnesota and become a member of mnartists.org to have work published in this contest. At the time entrants to miniStories submit their flash-fiction for consideration, they should also submit a low-res (72 dpi) photograph of themselves, a brief bio (no more than 150 words). With this biographical information, entrants should also include links to any relevant personal websites or blogs they would like mentioned should their story(ies) be selected.

Guernica Magazine Sponsors a PEN World Voices Event

To all InDigest readers in New York: As part of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, Guernica Magazine (where I am the blog editor) is cosponsoring the following event this Saturday, May 2 from 1-2:30pm. Hope to see you there.

May 2, 2009 | Standing Before History: Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa

Introduction by Larry Siems, with Ken Wiwa, Richard North Patterson, with a reading by Steve Connell and Sekou; moderated by Okey Ndibe

On November 10, 1995, Nigeria’s military dictatorship hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa, one of the country’s most acclaimed and popular writers and the leader of a grassroots environmental movement in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta. The region still seethes with unrest and many of the issues Saro-Wiwa gave his life to raise will be the subject of a lawsuit opening in New York this week against oil interests for complicity in his murder. Join Ken Wiwa Jr. and author Richard North Patterson for a discussion of Ken Saro-Wiwa's literary and political legacy, with readings from Saro-Wiwa’s work by Steve Connell and Sekou.

When: Saturday, May 2, 2009: 1–2:30 p.m.
Where: Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue [directions]

Free and open to the public
Cosponsored by Guernica magazine and the Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Big Thanks to Deb Olin Unferth and Sam Osterhout

Thanks to Deb and Sam for making April's installment of InDigest 1207 an unforgettable night.

FYI: Sam read "Gold" from Donald Hall and an excerpt from the story "Gazebo" by Raymond Carver, while Deb read "Marriage and the Family" from Diane Williams' book Excitability.

Thanks to all who came out. If you couldn't make April, make sure to check out the schedule for the next few months. We have some great readers joining us, including Jennifer L. Knox, Dorothea Lasky, and Wayne Miller in May; Rodrigo Toscano’s Collapsible Poetics Theater, Angela Ball, and Giao V. Buu in June; and John Wray in August.

Deb Olin Unferth is Not a Fuck Up

This Wednesday, April 1, InDigest is extremely excited to welcome Deb Olin Unferth and Sam Osterhout to InDigest 1207. Here's a clip of Deb reading one of her stories, entitled "Deb Olin Unferth," followed by all the details you'll need for the reading.

See you there.



04.01.09
Deb Olin Unferth
Sam Osterhout

(Le) Poisson Rouge
New York, NY
6pm doors | 7pm reading
Free

Deb Olin Unferth & Sam Osterhout @ InDigest 1207

On Necessarily Skeptical Poetry Reviews

Jason Guriel has written a really great prelude to his reviews at the Poetry Foundation. The article, titled "Going Negative" highlights the importance of negative reviews of poetry and how those types of reviews are necessary for poetry. A small taste:

when a book of poetry receives a tough verdict we often label the review “negative” and speculate about the reviewer’s motives, the agenda behind the takedown. Indeed, behind words like “negative” and “agenda” and “takedown” lurks the sense that the reviewer is the one making the trouble, and the book of poetry—whether it deserved a kicking or not—is being bullied. We’re far less paranoid about motives when, say, a movie receives a tough review in the New Yorker or Slate or Rolling Stone, even when we disagree with the verdict—even when we’re so outraged we fire off an e-mail to some editor’s in-box. This is because negative reviews of movies (and LPs and TV shows, etc.) represent the norm, and aren’t usually labeled “negative.” Movie critics with whom we disagree are merely wrong; poetry critics (and politicians) go negative.

After all, how many volumes of new poetry published in the last calendar year will still be jarring us in five years? In one? Shouldn’t the negative review, if we’re honest and adult about it, be the norm? And if so, shouldn’t we retire the adjective “negative” in favor of something far more accurate, if a little awkward, like “necessarily skeptical,” as in, “Man, William Logan sure has gone necessarily skeptical on that poet?”

March 4, 1207

Thanks to everyone who came down to the InDigest 1207 Reading Series this week. It was a fantastic reading with great work from both Paul Dickinson and Jibade-Khalil Huffman.

In InDigest 1207 we ask readers to, along with their own work, bring in some pieces by other writers who have influenced them and read those as well. Just like the last reading, we're going to make it a habit of ours to post what the readers read up here. So here you are:

Paul Dickinson read a letter he wrote to Virginia Woolf. It was mostly about how sexy she is.

When in St. Paul be sure to check out The Riot Act Reading Series, Paul hosts, it is great.

Jibade-Khalil Huffman read a short story called "The Worm in the Apple" by John Cheever. 

Khalil also read from19 Names for Our Band, his newest collection of poems.

David read a poem by Seamus Heaney.
Dustin read a poem by Alex Lemon.
Oh, and then David read "Plum" by Alex Lemon.

InDigest 1207 Reading tonight

Wednesday 03.04.09
InDigest 1207 Reading Series
Jibade-Khalil Huffman
Paul Dickinson
6pm doors | 7pm reading
Free
Strictly 21+
This is a General Admission, Gallery Bar event.

Jibade-Khalil Huffman was born in Detroit and raised in Florida. His poetry, fiction and photography have appeared in Boston Review, Court Green, NOON, Aufgabe, and Encyclopedia, among others. Educated at Bard College and Brown University, his awards include the Grolier Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Ucross Foundation. “19 Names For Our Band” is his first book.

Paul D. Dickinson is a poet based in Minneapolis/ St. Paul. His work has appeared in City Pages, The St. Paul Pioneer Press, Request.com, and Conduit. Dickinson has read on Minnesota Public Radio, 93.7 "The Edge", KFAI, and 89.3 "The Current". He currently hosts the "Riot Act Reading Series" , a cutting edge literary event that features national and international writers. His latest spoken word CD is "Lord Byron Gets Busted" on Speedboat Records . He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UMASS Amherst.