FUTURE TENSE NEWS

September 5th, 2008

Hello friends, buddies, acquaintances,
People are always interested to hear how a book comes to get published. And while I have promised a new travel memoir by Bob Gaulke (Embrace Your Insignificance) as the next Future Tense release--and it's still slated for late September--another weird little gem unexpectedly caught my attention recently. Riley Michael Parker, a young Portlander who looks to be 17 but is actually 24, asked me a few months ago for some book recommendations while I was working in the Blue Room at Powell's. He said he liked Richard Brautigan, Kurt Vonnegut, and the short short fiction of Dan Rhodes. I thought he'd enjoy Jonathan Goldstein's hilarious and fragmented "Lenny Bruce is Dead." It was a Litmus test.

He came in a week later, genuinely excited to get more recommendations. This kid's pretty sharp, I thought. I gave him Gary Lutz, Miriam Toews, and Sam Lipsyte. Eventually, he found out I was a writer and publisher. A couple of months ago, he dropped off some stories for me to look at. Not as a submission, he just wanted to show me. I picked up his stack of stories and started reading at random. Like a car crash, I couldn't look away. This particular story, that he was planning to make into a little zine, was funny, shocking, strange, brutal, and oddly sexual. I immediately thought to myself: I am going to publish this for him. I emailed him right away. We met and discussed the idea of a little book. And now... IT'S HERE!

For the first 26 copies of his book, Our Beloved 26th, Riley signed and numbered special edition copies for the annual Portland Zine Symposium a couple of weeks ago, but now the book is officially on sale. Starting next week, you can also find it at Powell's, Reading Frenzy, Floating World Comics, and elsewhere.

Other news:

Myself and several friends (Elizabeth Ellen, Chelsea Martin, Justin Taylor, Lee Klien, etc.) are in the new anthology, See You Next Tuesday: The Second Coming, published by Better Non-Sequitur. It's a really wonderful and perverse little book of sexual mayhem and malaise.

A few other reviews of Creamy Bullets have appeared. Read at your leisure.

Oh...and I guess I can officially announce this now: I sold my memoir, The Suitcase, to Harper Perennial recently. I'm not sure the exact release date, but it'll probably be around fall of next year.

That's it for now, friends. Talk to you later.

Kevin

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June 22nd, 2008

First off, I want to again thank everyone who came out to my Midwest readings (see last few Myspace blog entries). It was a super fun time and I feel like I have many more close friends now.

But now it's time to get local again! Portland folks--please come to my reading at the Powell's on Hawthorne today (meaning Sunday, 6/22) at 4pm. It's an afternoon delight. Check out the nice write-up for Creamy Bullets in this week's Mercury and in Bookslut.

Coming up in July, I'll be bringing back the Booty Call! The first Booty Call reading in more than three years is coming up at Plan B on Sunday, July 13th at 8pm. The night will feature dirty stories by Steve Almond, Jami Attenberg, Zach Plague, and Melissa Lion, along with bootylicious music spun by The Incredible Kid.

The Booty Call will be preceded by two other Northwest readings with Zach Plague, Thursday night, July 10th at the Monroe Street Cafe (7pm), and on Saturday night at the Hugo House in Seattle. I believe there are very special guests at these events as well.

In other Future Tense news...

Suzanne Burns' wonderful flipbook, Double Header, was recently featured in New Pages.

Frayn Masters of Haiku Inferno has two new fresh fictions out there--at Hobart (man, they have good taste) and Monkeybicycle. She has also started an exciting new storytelling series called Back Fence PDX. Their first show was this last week and it was sensational. Their next show will be in July.

Myriam Gurba, award-winning author of Dahlia Season, was recently interviewed on this podcast.

That's all for now, friends. See you soon.

xoxo Kevin

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May 9th, 2008

Hi Friends! I'm really excited to announce of truckload of good news. First off, I'm gonna be all braggy and tell you about my very own new book, Creamy Bullets, that is freshly released by the fine visionaries at Chiasmus Press. I'm doing some readings coming up and you can see the whole list here: Hello Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Los Angeles (and of course Portland)!

In the further adventures of Myriam Gurba, we are proud to announce that her book, Dahlia Season, won the Edmund White Award for debut fiction. Next up--we'll see how she fares at the LAMBDA Literary Awards!

is back with a new book, A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness, from Rose Metal Press. It's a collection featuring four of the most exciting authors working in the small press today. The other writers in this truly great book are Kathy Fish, Claudia Smith, and Amy L. Clark. Way to go, EE!

More news as it breaks in the near future. Thanks, everyone!

KS

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March 18th, 2008

Hello dear friends, This Thursday from 5pm to 10pm at Powell's I'll be hosting a huge small press celebration called Smallpressapalooza.I handpicked all the readers so you know it's gonna be a solid night of entertainment. I tried to pick people who hadn't read at the main store before including poets, zinesters, and fiction writers. Since it's a pretty long event (see the schedule for readers on that link) I don't really expect people to stay for the whole thing but I do hope you (Portland friends!) come down to see part of it at least. In other news, I've been really proud of Myriam Gurba and her book, Dahlia Season, after being nominated for two big awards, The Edmund White Award and a LAMBDA Literary Award. We're keeping our fingers crossed for some sweet trophies! Stuff to read!! One of the other Future Tense/Manic D alumni, Eric Spitznagel, has this hilarious piece up at the Big Jewel and this crazy shit at Fray. I got a new fancy pants story myself in the new issue of Yeti. It even has super cool illustrations by Alan Griswold (it's partially about how Internet porn can destroy a precarious relationship). Find this beautiful magazine at a fine bookstore near you. That story and this new flash fiction will be in my new book, Creamy Bullets, which is still slated for April!! I'm reading with Suzanne Burns on April 16th at the Someday Lounge. Details to come. UPDATE: I also have a story that just went up today at Night Train. It's one of my favorites from the past couple of years and it's about a strange family reunion (only partially based on real family events).

That's all I can think of at the moment. Be well. KS

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January 4th, 2008

It's a new year and there's a new book to celebrate too! I'm very excited to unleash the first book of fiction by Suzanne Burns, entitled Double Header. DH is a two-sided "flip book" with two amazing stories. An Acquired Taste and Tiny Ron are prime examples of Burns's unique style--if I had to tag them somehow I might call them Northwest Magical Urban Realism. How's that for a brainfull?
Check it out on the book page or order a copy through the usual sources (Powell's, Amazon, your usual cool indie store). Suzanne has a longer book of stories due out next year from the powerful new Dzanc Books, so I'm excited to give you an early glimpse at her powers. Suzanne and I will be doing a couple of readings together in April. Stay tuned for details. You can also send her a note on her Myspace page.

In Gary Lutz news: His chapbook, Partial List of People to Bleach was honored by Time Out New York as one of their top ten books of 2007, right up there with Bolano, Diaz, and Danticat! We're very flattered by this recognition. You don't see a chapbook on a list like that every day. You can also read great reviews of the collection in the new Rain Taxi, on-line at Small Spiral Notebook, and at The Quarterly Concern.

Myriam Gurba's Dahlia Season has made it onto a few Best of 2007 lists as well. Pride Source, The Q Syndicate and Latinadad and it also was touted highly on Rain Taxi's web site.

And look here! I have new work up at 3am Magazine. Did you ever want to know about my first sexual experience or what those marks on my first girlfriend's photo meant? No?! Well, read the stories anyhow.

I also have new fiction up at the exciting new web site, Mud Luscious. And how many times do I have to say I love goodreads?! Any serious reader should be on this site.

And what would a January update be without my own best-of list? Here are some of my favorites from last year:

CD: The Con by Tegan and Sara
Novel: The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin
Short stories: Hiding Out by Jonathan Messinger (I just wrote this review of it!) and Famous Fathers by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
Surprise small press find: I Was Never Cool by Joseph Musso, jr.
New Lit Journal: [SIC]
Memoir: Jubilee City by Joe Andoe
Poetry: Drunk By Noon by Jennifer L. Knox
Blogger: Ed Champion

Until next time! xoxo
Kevin

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