Update: more Keith Nathan Brown on elimae-- "The Tongue"

(Another fantastic poem. Read it by clicking here. KNB on abjective, that would be.) And! New! "The Tongue", a wonderfully sensuous and trippy one, formally exquisite and juicy as can be-- just what we expect from the man.

"The Marriott Hotel, Downtown Brooklyn", a new story, up at JMWW

Click here to read "The Marriott Hotel, Downtown Brooklyn" at JMWW, edited by the amazing Jen Michalski. I'm very grateful to have this piece up on her literary journal, alongside Roxane Gay, Matt Bell, Kyle Hemmings, Christian Bell, Luke Tennis and many others.

"Mojo No Mo", "Diploma/cy" and more by Keith Nathan Brown at Word for/Word

Keith Nathan Brown has some poems at word for/word, an incredibly inventive poetry site. Infused in the visual and structural intelligence of these poems lies the fragility of our human existence. These are dark, beautiful poems that do not shy away from moments of clarity and straightforward language in the otherwise sea of chaotic fears and bone deep pain of life, all presented by molding language and form with a sense of geometric wonder. I thought of The Gold Bug Variations, the only book I've read by Richard Powers (and that was 19 years ago), and how math and language are the rudiments of our bipedal life that have continually developed in complexity while remaining to be the simple facts of how we express ourselves, see the world, reach out from our own skins. Brown embodies bothness--his nearly clinical approach to the mechanical aspects of language contains the soaring, anguished emotions of our hearts and souls. Truly remarkable- click here.

I'll continue with saying this: this is not language for language sake, which stains so much experimental prose, that hollow stuff that looks pretty or clever but reveals nothing. There is nothing juvenile in its showiness. Brown reveals plenty. It's as if he's tunneled back to the real reason that modernism sprung into existence approximately a hundred years ago: he turns language around, manipulates it, to better get at the exact opposite of cold, bloodless formalism (which is what experimentalism can become in the wrong hands, a new kind of cardboard cutout), turning it into the tool that it was always meant to be, a tool to open up the inner workings of our troubled, lush, unconscious minds. (This is not to say there isn't playfulness evident- there is. And playfulness has its place and purpose, but to only be concerned with play is an empty cleverness. And Brown emphatically is the opposite of empty. That said, I'm a huge fan of Alfred Jarry...but that would involve a lengthier discussion for another time.)

Easter Rabbit by Joseph Young

I am pre-ordering the new collection of very short fiction by Joseph Young called Easter Rabbit forthcoming from Publishing Genius. Click here to do the same.

New Books in the Mail

I just opened a bunch of packages. Alice, the Sausage by Sophie Jabes (with an accent over the e, thanks Steven Trull), an issue of Third Coast because it has a Scott Wrobel award winning essay in it, a Grievous Jones package that includes Last Days of the Cross by Joseph Ridgwell, Next to Guns by Lara Konesky, Baby, I'm Ready to Go by Melissa Mann and a Grievous Jones T-shirt! And lastly, the movie The Room directed by Tommy Wiseau (thanks Ron Baldwin!), the movie Let The Right One In (thanks Steven Trull again!) and the book, Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

An Interview by Roxane Gay

Click here to read where Roxane Gay interviewed me for the Pank blog.

"The Second Son" at Pank Magazine

A new story of mine is just live at Pank Magazine, edited by the amazing Roxane Gay. I'm very happy to be in this issue. (Click here).

New Plots With Guns

Plots With Guns, edited by the amazing Anthony Neil Smith, has a fantastic new issue live (and I may be late to have figured that out). Check it our by clicking here.

Puerto Del Sol

I just received the new issue of Puerto Del Sol, which contains the essay "Network Subrealism: Sketch of an Emerging Literary Trend" by Keith Nathan Brown. This essay is the most relevant and intelligent discussion of the influence of new technologies on writing. Buy it by clicking here.

Another Brandi Wells Review story!

Also, I have another piece on Brandi Wells Review (click here). I love her site and her own fiction so much, I have to stop myself from sending her everything I write. I initially wrote the piece for Colored Chalk's heaven/hell issue (which you can read by clicking here), but couldn't be more thrilled to havc it up at Brandi's review.

"Elizabeth York, Wife To Henry VII, The King Of England, Dies Shortly After Giving Birth To Her Seventh Child"

The very long titled, "Elizabeth York, Wife To Henry VII, the King of England, Dies Shortly After Giving Birth To Her Seventh Child", a revised, short section from my novel, Nine Months, is up at Crispin Best's excellent project, For Every Year.