Category: book

Midnight Grotesques announcement

I am excited, surprised, befuddled – but mainly excited – to be able to announce that Midnight Grotesques will be published by Sublunary Editions in 2023.

What is Midnight Grotesques? MG is a project that US-based artist Michelle Lynn Dyrness and I worked on in a hallucinatory, cross-border collaboration in year two of the pandemic, which will manifest next year in book-object form. In these strange and uncertain times, it really does feel like a small miracle when something like this comes together in the way you’d secretly hoped for.

I don’t delight easily, but I can say I am absolutely delighted to be working with Josh and the Sublunary family again – my book 926 Years, co-authored with the great Kyle Coma-Thompson, was published by Sublunary at the beginning of 2020; they also produced a postcard featuring a poem by Kyle and I with Michelle’s work on the front, and my first major collaboration with Michelle, A Personal History of Attention, was published in Vol. 1 No. 3 of Sublunary’s print journal Firmament. Everything Sublunary does is done with care, professionalism and the weight that each work deserves – MG could not have been given a better home.

More soon.

926 Years review + more III

Equus Press reviews 926 Years

Firstly, 926 Years by Kyle Coma-Thompson and I has been reviewed at Equus Press by David Vichnar. It is part of Vichnar’s fairly comprehensive look at Sublunary Editions‘ output in the first half of 2020. We have had some lovely and lively reviews of our book, and this one is no different. This line was especially appreciated: Another kind of cohesion is the pragmatic one: the “effect” of this stories leaves one humbled, aware that “there are 7.8 billion live people in the world, each with their own story” (Jyoti Verma). With thanks to David and Equus for taking the time and the head space.

Secondly, Vichnar’s thoughts on the book were nice to see, of course, but it was especially welcome because, unbeknownst to him, it almost perfectly coincides with the first birthday of our little book. I can’t really comprehend where and how the time has gone since January 2020, but it’s hard to argue against the calendar. To make matters more baffling, Kyle and I worked on the text all the way back in 2019, a period which now seems to occupy some obscure spot on the time-space continuum – our email exchanges seem like they were both a million years ago but also just last week. Peter wrote: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Maybe we are all gods now.

Full Stop Podcast – 926 Years Episode

Full Stop MagazineBack in December last year, Kyle Coma-Thompson and I recorded a podcast episode for Full Stop. I was dialling in from a hotel room in Melbourne, Kyle from his home in Louisville, morning where I was, evening where he was. We were recording the episode to talk about 926 Years – the book we co-authored for Joshua Rothes’ Sublunary Editions, due out in January 2020.

The invitation from Full Stop to be on the podcast was a thrill to receive for a few reasons: firstly, talking about our new little book would be a delight; secondly, it was partly through Full Stop that Kyle and I originally connected; and finally, Kyle and I had not only never met but we had also never spoken before. The writing and all of our many exchanges over a few years took place strictly via email – chatting with Kyle after all that time was a very exciting prospect.

I think you’ll understand me when I say: that seems like a lifetime ago. After the recording, I met my partner for coffee and cake in a busy inner-city cafe, still very much buzzing from my chat with Kyle. Lordy, life seemed so simple back then.

So, it was a pleasant surprise to see the podcast appear, now on the Full Stop Patreon page, and soon for public consumption. If you’re so inclined, you can sign up to support Full Stop and listen to the episode. Otherwise, I will post an update when the podcast is live to the public.

Listen at the Full Stop Patreon page

With thanks to Max and Jesse.

926 Years reviews + more II

Couple of recent reviews have appeared and both really get to the meat of 926 Years.

Read That Nevertheless Sky We All Live Below by Edwin Turner.

Read An Obscure Constellation by Daniel Davis Wood.

Turner and Davis Wood follow different paths but come to similar conclusions. From David Wood: “To all intents and purposes, the two authors might as well be one.” A real thrill to be written on by two readers I admire a lot.

Sublunary’s publisher Joshua Rothes has also been interviewed at Splice by Davis Wood about the press, how 926 Years came together and on editing Kyle and I. Read Literature More Like Jazz.

Buy 926 Years.

926 Years reviews + more

Medusa

Heartening to see a couple of reviews appear for 926 Years within a few days of its release.

Read Wonder Years by Frank Garrett.

Read Older Than Yesterday, Younger Than God by Joe Schreiber.

Read That Nevertheless Sky We All Live Below by Edwin Turner.

Sublunary’s publisher Joshua Rothes has been interviewed at my old stomping ground, 3:AM. Read The Mail Never Stops.

And – inordinately excited about this one – last but not least, Kyle and I, in collaboration with California-based artist Michelle Dyrness and Josh, have created a postcard, the first of its kind for Sublunary. The front features art by Michelle and the back a poem by Kyle and I. Order the book or subscribe to Sublunary’s mail-outs to receive one.

See more of Michelle’s artwork.

Buy 926 Years.

Pre-order 926 Years

Pre-order 926 Years926 Years by Kyle Coma-Thompson and I can now be pre-ordered straight from the Sublunary Editions shop. It’ll cost you eight American dollars and releases on 21 January 2020.

Again, it’s a serious pleasure to have this on the way – with Kyle, published by Josh, in such a stylish little package and so soon after the release of my first book, Letter to the Author of the Letter to the Father. Any and all support for this and us will be very much appreciated.

Pre-order 926 Years

More soon.

On ‘Shelly Valentine’ – an excerpt from 926 Years

Shelly ValentineSo the 926 Years release officially begins with the November 2019 mail out from Sublunary Editions, on the way to subscribers now. The November letter takes a cut called ‘Shelly Valentine’ from the book I co-wrote with Kyle Coma-Thompson. Should give you an idea of the vibe of the thing and the games Kyle and I are playing. Anyway, super excited that a sliver of it is out in the world. More soon, obviously – 21 Jan 2020, to be precise.

We share the edition with ‘The Bakelite Telephone’, a piece by Imogen Reid. Good news, too, because Imogen and I have been following each other around for a while now – Gorse, 3:AM, Felt: Aesthetics of Grey, and elsewhere I’m sure. More reason to take a look.

Thanks to Josh for this one and, of course, Kyle – it’s a pleasure to be part of the monthly editions. Be sure to subscribe to Sublunary Editions to get fresh literature in your postbox every month and… buy our little book.

On the occasion of the announcement of the forthcoming publication of 926 Years

926 YearsA few years ago (I’m being coy here, the internet doesn’t forget), I posted on social media my reaction to a story I’d read by Kyle Coma-Thompson, a writer from Louisville, Kentucky. The global literary community is small and beautiful, like something you’d discover on an empty beach. Kyle’s wife Marie saw the tweet, told Kyle, and Kyle emailed me to see if I wanted to read the collection the story was pulled from. Soon, Kyle was one of my favourite writers, and I was fortunate enough to be penpals with him.

Life – and literature, too – works in strange ways. Kyle and I continued our correspondence, emailing sporadically, then writing some poetry together. For fun, to keep the mind sharp, to explore ideas, to challenge – writers do these things, I guess. This turned into prose writing, trading pieces across the planet while the other slept.

In parallel to this, Joshua Rothes started Sublunary Editions, a small press which mails literature to subscribers every month, as well as chapbooks and small books. The opportunity to put something together for Joshua came up and our collaborative poetry writing suddenly seemed like training for this larger, more serious thing. We had an idea, set the rules and started writing. Soon, by some small miracle, a book-shaped thing materialised.

Now, I’m pleased to announce that 926 Years by Kyle and I will be published by Sublunary Editions on 21 January 2020. 

Of course, I’m excited and proud to have another book on the way, and reasonably soon after Letter. The work with Kyle began precisely because of the slump I was in after the work I’d put into the debut – the desire to write was extreme, but the ideas weren’t coming and it was bothering me. I was feeling drained, I should have rested, but writing is usually the thing that gives me energy. Catch twenty-two. But more than that, the work with Kyle has been thrilling – as I mentioned, Kyle is one of my favourite writers; the overriding feeling after reading ‘Spite & Malice’ was envy. I wished I’d written it. He is wise and creative and generous and holds fast to his values, so trading writing with him, waking up to his words, often being inspired and amazed and challenged, is something I will seriously treasure. It was a special way to start the day. Then we had Joshua join in on that – editing, sending cover ideas, talking literature. It almost makes no sense to me to write alone anymore.

I’ve written before on the best part of writing in the twenty-first century being the friends we make. This project just reinforces that. I hope you enjoy it.