And also check out everything there. CJ Press publishes the best fiction and nonfiction across the literary landscape.
There's been a lot going on over the past couple of weeks. A new book, Runaways, out from Alien Buddha Press, my Collected Stories out from Cowboy Jamboree Press, and a third book in the early stages of promotion and one I've worked on for the last three years, The Orchard Is Full of Sound, also coming out this spring from CJ Press.
During all this, I posted briefly about something I want to talk more about here this morning.
Cody Sexton, publisher and editor of A Thin Slice of Anxiety, nominated my poem "Another Cure for Boredom" for a Pushcart Prize. This is my first for poetry, so it's special to me. I have had good luck with these nominations, though, with seven now over the past decade.
I told my wife the day Cody announced his nominations that in the indie lit world the nomination was the win because the big swinging egos of the literary world at large were never going to include one of our pieces in the big book. Sadly, and stupidly, those people won't recognize A Thin Slice of Anxiety or Cowboy Jamboree Magazine or Alien Buddha Press or any of the other indie journals because they don't follow the old lines and the old ways and the old kinds of stories and poetry.
And thank god for that.
Here is the finished product of that work, the poetry collection Runaways. Please go buy a copy. I really think you'll enjoy it.
To have a collection of poetry out there in the world is a great feeling. I've been told by at least one infuriated detractor the following "Please, though, no more occasional tries at modernist stanzas, you gumpy trinity of names, or Jean Toomer’s coffin will bench press you." I don't care who you are, that right there is hilarious. I won't say who this was, but his essay trying to destroy me was so well written, to be honest. I'm almost tempted to link to it, but I'm not going to.
I won't lie, the first time I read the essay, it hurt my feelings. I laughed, but it hurt some. So I did what I do and kept writing poetry even harder than before. After a bit I had this bunch of prose poems (no modernist stanzas, detractor!) I thought were good enough to collect and submit.
Like I said, I couldn't believe Alien Buddha Press liked it and has now published the book. It's a nice, 87-page collection of all my poetry to date, which is pretty cool because it comes in the same week that my publisher Cowboy Jamboree Press put out my Collected Stories, a 630-page book of a every short story I've ever had published for the past decade.
All my stuff in just a couple books. It's pretty amazing.
It's all my short stories in one place.
Some 650 pages of solid work over the course of more than a decade.
That Time In a Writer's Life an interview with Sheldon Lee Compton
Made a reconnection I'm really excited about.
My great friend Peter Schwartz and I have bumped into one another again along this cosmic interstate. Peter and I have been writing and corresponding since 2014 but had hit a long lull - too long - and then there he was, right there on Twitter.
We talked on all the subjects and, of course, writing was included, if not the centerpiece most of the time. In fact, we wrote a few poems together in collaboration. One was published way back when. Here's a link to that one:
Poor Road Trip by Peter Schwartz and Sheldon Lee Compton — NAILED Magazine
What's next? Who knows. But it's going to be fun.
For now, go have a look at of his merchandise.
Conceptual art to make you think and feel. by ParadoxBoxArtStore (etsy.com)
Here are my favorite lines/pieces.
1. It's one paragraph with a single, repeating sentence that put me in mind of Michael Ondaatje's famous, reoccurring line, "Passing wet chicory that lies in the field like the sky," from Coming Through Slaughter.
Chadwick's sentence repeats 14 times to complete the piece. It is: "The girls kiss the sky and the sky laughs." It's a bold decision and shows a conviction of vision I also appreciate every time I see it in good literature.
2. "Sad girls touching light with their tongues pressed against the sun."
3. "The girls dream their bellies full."
4. "They dream the pantry is so tall it goes starling."
5. "When the girls wake up, they open their mouths and birds fly out. They don't know how long the birds were there."
6. "The seconds between the lightning and thunder shorten. The girls hold their breath. They wait for their faces to explode..."
7. The following passage I love for its specificity. And accuracy: "She'll tell you about the time she ran out of meth, so she peed on eight slices of Wonder Bread, waited for the bread to dry, and then ate the slices while chugging a 2-liter of Pepsi, all to keep herself high. She'll tell you about how she ate her own scabs to keep the fix."
Daughters of the State is a worthy read. Buy a copy here and enjoy.
I've been lucky to have a lot of pieces published the past two months. Two of the most recent have been "The Scout" and "The Thing about a Brain."
"The Scout" was published at Schuylkill Valley Journal Online on July 15. It's my experiment in trying to get into the head of a man who nearly kidnapped me (and probably would have raped and murdered me) one summer day in 1985 while I tossed a baseball to myself off a brick wall near my home. He just walked right up and told me he was a scout with the Cincinnati Reds. Most of the rest, not all but most of it, is in the piece.
"The Thing about a Brain" was published at Triggerfish Critical Review for its Issue 26. I've wanted a piece published there since 2009. They consistently publish good pieces and also good critical reviews of those pieces. It's a really unique approach; contributors volunteer to write short critical reviews on two or three other pieces in that issue. This means that most of the contributors will have their piece looked at and written about several times for the issue. Truly a generous and creative way to fully engage people in your journal. I also love the name of the journal.
They also asked me a few questions that were pretty nicely stacked for good answering.
I'd recommend getting into all the issues at this journal. They have an incredibly cool aesthetic, unique artwork, a keen eye for original fiction, poetry, and hybrid pieces.
Just trust me; go partake.
The last time I had writing in Gone Lawn was for their Issue 16 with a piece called "Other Ears Look Fine."
Read both, if you'd like.
I just finished another today called "I Want to Be Like Mark." The next will be "I Want to Be Like Italo." These are so much fun.
Thanks again, Alban, for being generally awesome.
Sledgehammer Lit was awesome and published a poem of mine today. It's called "It Was a Sword Made of Light" and was rejected a bunch of times before they saw what I was trying to do with it all along. I'm always so grateful when a journal finally gets it. Go HERE and see if you agree.
I submitted a short story called "Shimmer" to a short story contest that ended a couple weeks ago. Soon after learning that I didn't win, I started sending the story out to other journals. It's what we do, writers. We keep sending.
And it was a good thing that I did. The journal Nauseated Drive published the story last week. You can find it HERE. I hope you read it. It's one of my favorites.
My prose poem "A Nostalgia" appeared today at Rusty Barnes's journal Live Nude Poems. Rusty has been reading my submitted work for more than a decade now.
Rusty published one of my first stories back then at his journal Fried Chicken and Coffee but, more than anything, he's always been straight with me. When I was submitting to Night Train (the renown publication Rusty founded, edited, and made into a stellar journal) he gave me the best rejections. The one I remember most was a short and perfect: "Not this one."
I've always loved that rejection. I've even used it myself more than a few times over the years with journals I started and edited. It was straight forward, no bullshit, but it also reserved just a little bit of encouragement. Not this one? Well he must be okay if I send another. Maybe that'll be the one.
Two of my prose poems - "A Bad Wreck" and "Triumph of the Young Man Against a Pagan God" - were published today at Call Me [Brackets]. They can be found in the issue on pages 70 - 73, along with some really really fantastic artwork. Have a look and see what you think.
Grace Pulliam, EIC of the online journal Openwork Magazine, published a creative nonfiction piece of mine called "Night of the 3-D Creature" today.
She sent me by far and away the best acceptance letter I've ever received. Just know that it made my day.
The piece is beautifully featured there now, and I would love if you went and read it. And read as much as you'd like while there. Openwork is doing it the right way. Reward them with your readership.
Here's my piece:
There's a journal that has blown my mind for its vision and design and, most of all, its content. A Thin Slice of Anxiety is not only a beautifully - I mean beautifully - designed journal but also full of great fiction, poetry, interviews, and other features. It's a well thought out mix that has something for every reader.
Editor, publisher, and founder Cody Sexton's note from the editor is remarkably humble for all he's put into the journal.
Yesterday he published three of my poems - "Another Cure for Boredom," "Sad Love," and "I Want to Be Like Shirley." I'd love if you'd read the journal and my pieces. And let Cody know what a good job he's doing.
But check out all the good pieces there at Stymie, and thanks again, Erik!
So Joe Young's online journal Everyone Quarterly just put out a second issue focusing on architecture. It's a beautiful issue and has a great lineup. I have a story in there called "In a Meditation" and my friend Barrett Warner has a memoir piece called "I Had Been Feeding Leeches for a Month." Joe really has put together a fantastic journal. Go read it.
My short story " I Am War, Mr. Tolstoy " was published today on my author's page at Cowboy Jamboree Press. I pull from some p...
