By Nathan C. Martin Michael J. Lee denies any connection between his work and the Southern Gothic tradition, despite characteristics in his stories that might suggest one. This is not only because he’s originally from California—which disqualifies him in the first place—but because he feels too perpetually unmoored to align with any regionalism. “My time … Michael Jeffrey Lee’s Uncomfortable Gothic: An interview
Poet and theorist Craig Dworkin, who edits the fantastic Eclipse website, randomly showed up as a professor at my college during my senior year and taught a class of baffling writing that I barely understood (or didn’t understand!) and that I’ve never quite recovered from, in the best way possible. We discussed pataphysics, read Lyn … The inimitable Christian Bok at the Delta Mouth Lit Fest
By Michael Allen Zell Bill Zavatsky is a New York poet who has had two of his own books published since 1975. Why so few? He’s been busy running SUN press and magazine for fifteen years, translating Surrealist poets, teaching, and playing jazz piano. Zavatsky graciously took time to answer a few questions last week … “You publish too much!” An interview with Bill Zavatsky
Stephen Rea, author of Finn McCool’s Football Club, is following up the successful community writing workshop he hosted at Loyola this fall with … you guessed it: another community writing workshop! Former student Rachael Henderson had this to say about the last session: “The quality of my writing coming out of the class is much … Community writing workshops at Loyola soldier on
Author Jami Attenberg attended the Jonathan Franzen event last night at Tulane, and wrote a blog post based on her notes that’s getting trafficked around the interwebs, particularly because of Franzen’s negative comments about Twitter. From Attenberg’s post: [Franzen] on social media: “It’s a free country. People can do whatever they want within the law, … He has a publicist who probably dreams about him every night
Read the Room 220 interview with Michael J. Lee by Nathan C. Martin. Read the Room 220 interview with Dean Paschal by Pia Z. Ehrhardt. Room 220‘s Live Prose at the Antenna Gallery reading series is pleased to present the book launch for Michael Jeffrey Lee’s Something in My Eye, which was selected by Francine … Michael J. Lee Book Launch, with Dean Paschal
By Nathan C. Martin Discussed in this essay: To Live in the South One Has to Be a Scar Lover by Maaike Gouwenberg and Joris Lindhout (eds.), published by 1646. A long and varied body of literature, film, and theory exists that addresses the United States from a European standpoint, and selections can often be … A scarred love letter from abroad: A Dutch art collective’s smart book on Southern Gothic
A commendable effort to promote literacy.
Okay, okay, I feel some shame. But I’m posting this anyway. Pick up a copy of the next issue of McSweeney’s venerable literary quarterly to read a little baby story written by yours truly, along with lots of better writing from people like Saïd Sayrafiezadeh and Rick Bass, and a compendium of writing that inspired … Shameless self-promotion: McSweeney’s
M’Bilia Meekers reads with accompaniment at the Columns Hotel; Room 220 editors refrain from editorializing for fear of seeming creepy; Meekers will perform at the next Black Widow Salon. The Black Widow Salon continues its monthly literary event series at Crescent City Books in February with a group of “emerging” local writers: Christopher Hellwig, Jenna … Writers “Emerge” at the Black Widow Salon
What should Antenna carry forward? What can evolve? What does our creative ecology need from Antenna now & what pathways can we build together to get there?
This October, Antenna invites artists, writers, culture bearers, cultural workers, neighbors, partners, and audiences to join a series of Critical Response Process (CRP) sessions around our emerging Values + Pathways Framework.