Kim Gek Lin Short, Eric D. Goodman, The Rag and more

An Evening of Literature with Alex Kudera: Starring Kim Gek Lin Short, Featuring Eric D. Goodman, and Introducing The Rag.

Please join us at Moonstone Arts Center on Wednesday evening March 21 at 7 p.m. for readings of original fiction and poetry from the Mid-Atlantic Region. Wine and snacks will be served, and signed copies of recent titles will be available from various authors.

Kim Gek Lin Short was born in Singapore and spent her childhood in places like Manila, Jakarta, and Calgary. She moved to the States during the wonderful terrible 80s and lived in Denver, San Francisco, and Brooklyn before settling in Philly where she co-curates the reading series General Idea, and is an editor at Coconut. Kim’s work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in numerous publications such as Absent, Caketrain, and No Tell Motel, and in anthologies like Narrative (Dis)Continuties: Prose Experiments by Younger American Writers. Her books include The Bugging Watch & Other Exhibits and the lyric novel China Cowboy, both from Tarpaulin Sky Press, and the chapbooks The Residents (dancing girl press) and Run (Rope-a-Dope), a 2010 Golden Gloves winner.

Eric D. Goodman is a full-time writer and editor. His novel in stories, Tracks, was published by Atticus Books summer 2011. He’s also the author of the childrens' book, Flightless Goose. Eric's work has appeared in The Baltimore Review, Pedestal Magazine, Writers Weekly, The Potomac, Barrelhouse, JMWW, Scribble, Slow Trains, and New Lines from the Old Line State: An Anthology of Maryland Writers, among others. His second novel, Womb, is currently with his agent. Visit Eric on Facebook, Twitter, and at his literary blog, Writeful. Learn about his latest work, Tracks, at www.TracksNovel.com.

Alex Kudera’s debut novel, Fight for Your Long Day, won the 2011 Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal for Best Fiction from the Mid-Atlantic Region. It is an original academic tragicomedy told consistently from the perspective of the adjunct instructor, and reviews and interviews can be found online at Inside Higher Ed, Academe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other locations. In 2012, Atticus Review is running Nathan Holic's graphic-novel interpretation of Fight for Your Long Day in monthly installments. Many of Kudera’s stories survive in slush piles across the continent or huddled together in unheated North Philly storage space, but The Betrayal of Times of Peace and Prosperity is available as a 99-cent single wherever e-books are downloaded. Alex received his masters in creative writing from Temple University and currently teaches writing and literature at Clemson University in South Carolina.

The Rag seeks the true grit of the literary world. Our writers never pull their punches; the results are unfiltered and sometimes disquieting, but this is contemporary literature--always fresh, always relevant. The way people are reading literature is changing. E-readers are rapidly replacing the demand for print, and some fear that a sinking print market will ultimately drown the future of contemporary literature in its undertow. We disagree. We see electronic publishing as an opportunity; it allows us to turn back time to an era of affordable distribution and open competition, one we believe will aid in putting the literary magazine back into the entertainment market. We view the changing market as a challenge, and we’re rising to the demands of literary consumers by bringing a print aesthetic to the digital world. Our readers are enjoying some of the best writing on the market, but on the screens of their Kindles, iPads, Smart Phones, and PCs. We invite you to join in experiencing the future of contemporary literature. We invite you to join The Rag.

Nathan Holic

I first learned of Nathan Holic as Lavinia Ludlow's partner in alt.punk, so this guy must be versatile. He can write fiction, edit and coach others, and draw shockingly handsome and svelte adjunct instructors with one arm tied behind his back and two fingers stuck in his mouth. But I suspect the fingers belong to his little bundle of sunshine, all he has to keep him going in this cold, relentless, backbreaking world!

Okay. Enough is enough. Here's Nathan's artistic rendering of some of the first chapter of Fight for Your Long Day. The plan is for new drawings to appear once a month at Dan Cafaro's other joint, Atticus Review.

Fight for Your Long Day, Nathan!

Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense

In the middle of my insomnia, I stumbled upon an informal but engaging review called "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense" and written by Black Man in the Cosmos. With candor, wit, and self-criticism, the writer considers both Fight for Your Long Day and Professor X's In the Basement of the Ivory Tower. The reviewer, a doctoral candidate at CUNY writing his dissertation on African American academic novels, is fair to both books and lets his wit shine through in a section on plagiarism. Here's an excerpt that I enjoyed:

17. One thing I liked about Fight For Your Long Day is that it feels very much like a 21st century novel. Kudera depicts a world of higher education where the aspirations of learning and self-improvement still exist, but they exist alongside a world full of the crass, crude, and pornographic, a world that militates against contemplation and learning, a world where everything from violence to paranoia to frivolous pop culture is filtered through the interactive screens that nearly all of the students carry around with them everywhere they go. The book is full of allusions to current events, politics and pop culture, and is probably oversaturated with too many references, but even in that sense it feels familiar.

I didn’t like the fact that the book had thinly drawn secondary characters. But then again, thinly drawn characterizations are sometimes all we are able to get from our students when they are being throttled through the higher education assembly line [italics mine]. I went to a small liberal arts college where I knew my professors and they became mentors. I went back to attend a retirement celebration for one of them last year. I haven’t seen any of the students I taught in my courses since the classes ended, and barely saw them outside of class when they were enrolled.

He numbers his sections of the review, and I also particularly recommend 9 through 12 on plagiarism, influence, and giving credit where credit is due. According to the blogger, this review was also printed in the GC Advocate, a CUNY online publication, but I could not find the September, 2011 issue online.

Psychology Today

Dr. Susan K. Perry at Psychology Today was kind enough to grant me this interview, and while I didn't have opportunity to explore all of my doubts and inadequacies, I did get that cathartic feeling when I sent my responses back. She's an accomplished writer currently shopping her own quirky novel. Also, the writer Michael Leone reviewed Fight for Your Long Day at When Falls the Coliseum. Thank you, both!

live at Moonstone Arts Center

Abeer Hoque, Alex Kudera, and Don Riggs will read poetry and fiction at Moonstone Arts Center, 110A S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, on Friday, January 6 at 7 p.m.

This event promises to be bigger than playoff football, or at least more affordable. Expect a few ounces of wine and a morsel of cheese, and that parched and annoyed feeling if you arrive a few minutes late and all the little plastic cups are gone.

Abeer Hoque is a Nigerian born Bangladeshi American writer and photographer with BS and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in writing from the University of San Francisco. She is the recipient of a 2005 Tanenbaum Award, a 2007 Fulbright Scholarship, and a 2012 NEA Literature Fellowship, and she has attended residencies at Saltonstall, VCCA, Millay, and Albee. Her writing and photography has been published in ZYZZYVA, XConnect, Nerve.com, Farafina (Nigeria), India Today, the Daily Star (Bangladesh), 580 Split, Wasafiri (England), and KQED Writers Block among others. She likes looking at gargoyles, eating at King's Wok, and watching you dance. Philadelphia was her first home in America. See more at olivewitch.com.  

 

Alex Kudera received his M.A. in fiction from Temple University in 1998. His debut novel, Fight for Your Long Day, won the 2011 Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal for Best Fiction from the Mid-Atlantic Region. It is an original academic tragicomedy told consistently from the perspective of the adjunct instructor, and reviews and interviews can be found online at Inside Higher Ed, Academe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other locations. Many of Kudera’s stories survive in slush piles across the continent or huddled together in unheated North Philly storage space, but The Betrayal of Times of Peace and Prosperity is available as a 99-cent single wherever e-books are downloaded. Alex currently teaches writing and literature at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Don Riggs received his M.A. in poetry in 1997, after already having completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from University of North Carolina. He has published several articles in the Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts, and is actively engaged in research and teaching in Science Fiction literature. His poetry has appeared in many publications, including 16th Century Journal, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Painted Bride Quarterly, xib and ixnay. He is the Co-Editor of and featured poet in the book Uncommonplaces: Poems of the Fantastic. He is the Editor of Lamont B. Steptoe's A Long Movie of Shadows and translated Chinese Poetic Writing by Francois Cheng. At Drexel, Dr. Riggs teaches several courses for the Department of English and Philosophy, including Science Fiction Literature, Philosophy in Literature, Renaissance and Enlightenment Literature, Creative Writing, Visions in Writing, and Freshman Writing.

devalued content

If you, or anyone you know, becomes burdened with the gift of an electronic reading device this holiday season, you're welcome to take a crack at this sizzling e-single, my only publication of 2011 (or at least the only one that folks are invited to pay for). In Australia, a guy I don't know compares it to The Brothers Karamazov, and, well, even though it's only thirty-five pages, I hope that means it could be worth 99 cents. Try here for kindle, here for nook, and here for everywhere else e-books are downloaded.