CLH in Scotland

On Brexit lit

My contribution to the Daniel Dragomirescu's Contemporary Literary Horizon compilation of statements on the Brexit vote:

In many different ways and in different periods of history, the writer stands beyond the needs of any individual state or nation. We, as contributors to literature everywhere, know that a single day's vote, a "Brexit," cannot capture all of the nuances of all of the literatures to come out of, pass through, or in otherwise relate to England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or elsewhere. Indeed, literature will remain a transient, and we will celebrate it for that reason, whether we are thinking of James Joyce's discovery of Italo Svevo's novels in Trieste or all the famous migrations before or after--Kundera in France, Hemingway in Cuba, Bolano in Spain, or some of today's great European writers--Aleksander Hemon, Joseph O'Neill, to name a couple--who make part or all of their lives in the United States. The state may demand of us everything--our time, allegiance, taxes, prayers, and more--but, as writers, we always live beyond such temporal concerns, recognizing the humanity we share. Best to England, best to Europe, and, of course, best to Daniel Peaceman, living beyond the borders as always.

Alex Kudera, American novelist of Fight for Your Long Day and Auggie's Revenge

 

 

(Although I did not return to Ha Jin's The Writer as Migrant to prepare this statement, I read Ha Jin's  extended essay in 2009 and would consider it an influence among many other books on my thinking about Brexit and how it relates to literature and the lives of literary writers.)

Kafkas in Spanish

The Spanish translation of Over Fifty Billion Kafkas Served will go to press soon and features an English-to-Spanish rendition of the title story from Dr. Raquel Anido of Clemson University. Many thanks as usual to Dr. Daniel Dragomirescu of Romania.

Romanian hit

Over Fifty Billion Kafkas Served, with cover art by Nathan Holic, managed to sneak into the back cover (page 68) of a Romanian literary journal (left middle), but no one from the Carpathians has come to anoint, kill, or otherwise congratulate me on this success. . . so, tentatively, I'm uncertain of what this means or whether I should lay low, smile high, or merely continue with life's daily routines.

My Father's Great Recession, Part 2

Part 1 of "My Father's Great Recession" was included in the July-August 2014 issue of Contemporary Literary Horizon, and now Part 2 of the story will be included in the November-December 2014 issue.

Dad's selfie from the 1970s with his college copy of The Sun Also Rises

My Father's Great Recession

My print copy of Contemporary Literary Horizon arrived last week, and it included the first half of "My Father's Great Recession," a fiction based upon visiting the old man in Ponte Vedra, Florida when he was living in a studio by the beach but only had forty bucks in his pocket because a "backer" wanted him to have pocket change while his son was around. Perhaps it's not my best short story, but it's most meaningful to me, and it was great to see it printed on good paper in original English and Romanian translation. 

It will appear as the first story in the collection, Over Fifty Billion Kafkas Served.

Thank you, as always, Daniel Peaceman.

cover art by Nathan Holic

coming soon

Sonnets, Riggs, and Roll

Don Riggs is dynamic on video here for his book party for Bilateral Asymmetry, his first bound collection of sonnets. They are selected from his morning's work, the sonnet he writes daily before he does anything else. When you have a spare thirty minutes, watch until the end to see Dr. Riggs perform his signature closing poem, "Dialogue of the Hands." I happily received my inscribed copy of the book earlier this week.

Letter from China

I'm happy to report that Contemporary Literary Horizon has included "Letter from China," published online as "First Impressions of Xi'an, China," in its 2013 print anthology of poetry and prose from around the world. As always, I'm wishing Dr. Daniel D. Peaceman the best this year.

orizont, encore

A few days after I read that Philadelphia poetry will be well represented in a future issue of Contemporary Literary Horizons, my current print issue arrived from Romania. It features poetry and prose from Chile, Romania, England, Germany, America, and beyond.

Thank you, Dr. Daniel, for your contribution to global literature.

new issues, new horizons

The September/October print issue is out and about, sporting "A Scottish Dizzen," and much, much more! Thank you, Dr. Daniel Peaceman for everything you are doing in this transcontinental literary world.

In my own literary way, I've been living vicariously through The Paris Review's interview with the Italian writer and publisher Roberto Calasso. If only all of our writing lives could be as charmed as his. Here's an excerpt from Calasso on a Kafka in his library:

And this is the first book that Kafka ever published, Betrachtung. There were eight hundred copies. In one of his letters, he mentions having gone to a bookshop to see if anyone had bought the book and realizing that, of the eleven copies sold, only one had been bought by someone other than him.

I hope everyone has a relaxing and healthy weekend.

Contemporary Austerity Horizon

This essay on austerity and the illegal consolidation of power in Romania in included in the latest print issue of Contemporary Literary Horizon. That would be the one that arrived in my mail over the weekend, and it also features a Romanian translation of "The Bicentennial with Grandpa Andy."