Upcoming Reading

Please help spread the word.

Ken Meisel, Carly Sachs and I will be reading at the Zeitgeist Gallery on Wednesday, October 17 at eight o'clock p.m. The Zeitgeist is a cool Detroit venue located at 2661 Michigan Ave. I'd love to see you there.

Check out the Zeitgeist at http://www.zeitgeistdetroit.org/

True or False

Community colleges and universities are seeing increased enrollment in their American Sign Language classes because I-pod users want to be able to talk to each other without taking out their headphones.

In Fiction

Who needs Truth or Vision?

Heck, we've got experimentation, hyper-stylization, and just out and out goofiness.

(oh, plus it's mostly our friends running the literary magazines . . .)

News and Thoughts

Couple quick things before class, which starts in seven minutes. As expected, I had a great time reading with Ken Meisel in West Branch. His poetry just keeps getting better and better. If you have an opportunity to hear him read, and you don't take . . . well, you're really missing out.

My reading at Kirtland Community College also went well. What a nice crowd they were. Carol Finke is a fine host. The college served hotdogs, chips, and lemonade before the reading. A very cool idea. I could see where that might lure some students to stick around for the reading.

Some thoughts I've been having. Why is fiction on the decline in America? What does contemporary fiction not offer readers? Or, have readers changed? Why are more and more agents going to non-fiction exclusively? Feel free to comment.

Also, as I'm reading Ulysses, I'm wondering if Joyce captured stream-of-consciousness or only his brand of it. Sometimes I think Bloom thinks too much. I just catch myself thinking, "He was able to think all of that before he answered her question? What does he do, pause nine minutes before he speaks." That novel has got me thinking about how my own brain works. It really is all over the place, and I'm wondering if stream-of-consciouness can really be captured in writing. Probably not.

Sorry I've been so lazy

I know I could be doing better at posting. Here are a few things that are happening. Well, my first slipstream story "The Neighborhood Division" was accepted for publication at Existere -- a Canadian magazine. That will appear in their February issue. I also recently finished a new slipstream/surreal story entitled "Lilac in October". My fiction might be taking a new turn. As for reading, I started Ulysses for the second time this year. I plan to finish it before Christmas. It's much better the second time through. I'm reading it at the same time my good friend Josh Maday is reading it, and it really helps to have someone to slog through it with. I highly recommend this approach.

Finally, I'm going fly fishing tomorrow.