Self Assessment by Brian Foley

+ by Dan Kaplan

from CANDIDA: A Translation by Elaine Castillo

Amoeba & Ape by Julia Cohen and Mathias Svalina

Sometimes Harmful Never Helpful by Natalie Shapero

No Memorial by Nate Pritts

The Big Metal Stomach by Michael Lars

epitaph 45 by Matthew Vollmer

Taiwo and Kehinde by Wendy Thompson Taiwo

Paintings by Edward Mullany

Mixed-Media by Ark Codex

Photographs by Christopher Woods

There Exists Now a Book — the air in an empty gallery by Zach Savich

Because It’s Winter You Need Something to Do by Staff

The new Barrelhouse is out now and contains my story, “Them at Their Worst,” culled from a short novel of the same title. It’s not noir, just sad. There’s a bit of crime in there but it’s pretty soft-boiled. The issue also has new writings by Barrett Travis, Christine Sneed, Jen Fawkes,  Melissa Broder, Steve Kistulentz, Christie Ann Reynolds, Chad Simpson, Mary Biddinger, Michelle Dove, Art Taylor, Tara Laskowski, Stewart O’ Nan, Stephen Graham Jones, Craig Clevinger, Brian Evenson, Paula Bomer, and Randall Brown.

I’ve got a new short, “Craft Hut,” in the new 600-page Gargoyle Magazine. Thanks to Richard Peabody for including my work in the issue! Also in there is Ben Loory, Susan McCarty, Corey Mesler, Ethel Rohan, and many others.

Lit Mechagodzilla Todd Dills is heading to the northeast to celebrate the release of ALL HANDS ON: THE2ND HAND AFTER 10 and we’re joining forces for a pair of readings. Please join!

Brooklyn, Friday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m.
@Book Thug Nation, 100 North 3rd Street
info@bookthugnation.com
w/ T2H editor Todd Dills, longtime contributors Tobias Carroll, Philip Brunetti and Mickey Hess as well as Gabe Durham and Matt Cahan. Facebook Invite

Northampton, Mass., Saturday, Nov. 19, 8:00 p.m.
@MEF Community Room, 60 Masonic St., lower level (next to Woodstar Cafe)
w/ T2H editor Todd Dills, All Hands On contributors Matt Cahan and Ben Stein, Gabe Durham and Ted Powers. Music by Gale Thompson. Facebook Invite

WHAT?? New issue of Dark Sky Magazine with writing by Katie Jean Shinkle, Blake Kimzey, Jason Larson, Corey Eastwood, Katherine V. Seger, Joseph Musso, Ryan Bender-Murphy, Brett DeFries, Friedrich Kerksieck, EC Belli, Thibault Raoult, and Zach Savich. Art by Sarah Pater. Edited by Christy Crutchfield, Brian Mihok, Sarah Boyer, Ted Powers, and myself. HERE.

AND LOOK: Already every water cooler is talking about Larson’s saucy BURTS.

Also in the issue is a new kind of book review Zach Savich and I invented after he described a book to me in great detail without ever mentioning the author’s name.

Here’s his: Sun Stuck Like Gum on a Chip of Brick

Here’s mine: “Love, Love, Lovin It” Says the Tree Canyon River Review

The next issue will feature some more of these reviews, so if you think you might like to write one, email me at gabe AT darkskymagazine DOT com and I’ll fill you in.

Also out is the newest of NOÖ so LETS SETTLE IN and READ UP.

I picked the day beforehand, and not for any significance the day held for me, but because it was just a day, any day. And then the day came and, turns out, a number of interesting things happened.

So, in the brave tradition of radically shifting the tone and regularity of this blog to suit my whims, I will occasionally in the coming months link over to some of my more interesting 9/22 findings.

Finding #1: Monday’s post, which linked to a story about an old Japanese Star Wars Nintendo game.

Finding #2: 9/22/11 was the day we lost Vesta Williams, an R&B singer with a killer range whose career peaked in the late 80′s.

Here’s her 1989 signature hit, “Congratulations,” a ballad about hearing through a friend that a former lover is getting married:

And here’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” an uptempo hit with the opening line, “Your name is Dracula / You suck the life right out of me.” Even if you don’t watch the whole thing, make sure to check out the stop-motion “chase around the pool” sequence that begins at the 2:10 mark.

I wasn’t familiar with Vesta before I read her obituary, and now I’ve listened to each of these songs a few times each. Which brings me to one of the true motivators of the 9/22 project: I like having a professional excuse to root around through old music videos on youtube.

- Anne Holmes, Lily Laedwig, Gale Thompson: They have books coming out!

- Thanks to everybody who came to see me read with Matthias and Emily. After a year in Nashville, it was kind of miraculous to see a big room like the upstairs of Amherst Books fill up. FUN CAMP is going away for awhile so that it can return as a book in a year and a  half.

- This is my favorite piece Matthias read that night: The one on “Seeingers.”

- Liz sneaked over to Flying Object yesterday and filled out the James Hoag section of our home library.

- Have you heard this amazing new Wilco song, Art of Almost? Have you made sure to ignore the rest of the album? (That’s not fair, I haven’t even listened to the whole thing…)

- My favorite scene in Star Wars is the one where Luke Skywalker fights the shark.

I have begun editing Dark Sky Magazine.

Look at our masthead page. Also editing: Christy Crutchfield, Sarah Boyer, Brian Mihok, Ted Powers

Kevin Murphy and Brian Allen Carr and I talk about it a little. Then we lose our train of thought. Then we catch it. Nope, lost it.

First issue is due in about a month.

Kevin and Brian will focus on putting out books by Jensen Beach and Ryan Ridge.

If you are a writer of fiction, poetry, or essays, please consider sending some writing to Dark Sky. Here is our submissions page. If you are a visual artist, same deal.

Keyhole 11 is going to be great. Last week, Peter sent me a cover he’d designed. It looks awesome. But it is my last issue as editor. Someone else is taking over the magazine, I believe, but it’d be premature to say more than that.

Earlier this week, I ordered a “tall” coffee instead of a large coffee at Haymarket and I thought, OH NO, I AM TRAPPED IN AN ANECDOTE FROM 1997!