FUTURE TENSE NEWS
February 1st, 2010
Hi Friends,
It's a new year and I promise some cool Future Tense stuff heading your way this year--including the very soon-to-be-released collection by
Zachary Schomburg and
Emily Kendal Frey. You can even pre-order it now on the
books page!
Ever since I discovered Zach's poems via
The Man Suit a couple years back, he has been my favorite poet, and his collaborations with the great Emily Kendal Frey add a whole other level of poetic power and mystique. We're excited to unveil OK, Goodnight later this month. In fact, we're hoping to have finished copies before they read together in the bay area (see those dates & details on Zach's website, linked above). They also have this book,
Team Sad, together!
As many of you know, I've been busy with my own book these days.
A Common Pornography was just released by Harper Perennial and I've launched
my own separate website for the occasion. Please go there if you want to see where
I will be reading (San Fran, LA, Seattle, Boston, NY, Baltimore, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Spokane, Denver/AWP) and to also read news updates and some of the killer reviews coming in (Harper's! Penthouse!). There are also some really fun videos to watch.
In other Future Tense news, the Claudia Smith chapbook continues to
wow people. And Riley Michael Parker keeps getting
attention. He has a mini-chapbook out with
Mud Luscious Press now.
That's it for now! Off on my book tour. Please come out and say hello if I'm coming to your town. It's very rare for me to get out of Portland. ;)
xo Kevin
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November 9th, 2009
Hi Everyone,
Just a quick update to say that the
Claudia Smith chapbook is heating up the small press scene and
getting great
reviews already.
Get your copy now!
And I'm currently working out some tour dates for my book, A Common Pornography, which hits stores on 1/19/2010 (from Harper Perennial!). Here are the dates so far:
2/4: Books Inc in SF
2/8: Rumpus Reading Series in SF
2/9: Skylight in LA
2/17: Harvard Books in Boston
2/18: In the Flesh in NY
2/19 or 2/20: TBA in NY (w/ Justin Taylor)
2/26: Book Cellar in Chicago
2/27: Great Lakes, Great Times in Ann Arbor (w/ Blake Nelson and Chelsea Martin, hosted by Elizabeth Ellen)
Then in April:
AWP in Denver! April 8-10
The Get Lit festival in Spokane April 15-16
Also--this Thursday night (Nov 12th), Riley Michael Parker, is competing in the Literary Death Match. Come on out and cheer on my guy!
Also also--please welcome my new intern, Bryan Coffelt!
Alright gang. Talk to you later.
Kevin
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September 30th, 2009
Hey Readers!
After a bit of a delay--embarassingly, the Future Tense car was towed a few days ago and that cost us a pretty penny--I am happy to announce that Claudia Smith's chapbook is now available (go to the Books page)!
For those of you who pre-ordered, your copy will go out this Friday (10/2) in the mail. There are a few Suzanne Burns chapbooks available as a bonus gift to most of you who pre-ordered. And buttons too! Thank you!!
In other news--I'll be at Wordstock! First, we're having a Portland Noir reading and party to benefit p:ear on Wednesday, October 7th (other readers are Jess Walter, Dan DeWeese, and Zoe Trope). And then I'll be part of a DIY panel on Sunday, October 11th at noon (moderated by the IPRC's Justin Hocking). I hope to see y'all there.
Welcome back to school!
Kevin
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August 25th, 2009
Hey Readers!
Claudia Smith's chapbook is now available to pre-order on the Books page! Buy it now and you'll get it by the end of September. If you live in the Southern part of the U.S. and want Claudia to read near you or if you want to review her book for your blog, journal, or magazine, just let us know. We're very proud of this fine book (and check out that awesome cover art by Hayley Barker).
In other news--I'm now on Twitter! Come follow me @kevinsampsell
Until next month, happy reading!
Kevin
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August 18th, 2009
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that the next Future Tense release, Put Your Head in My Lap by Claudia Smith is still due out in September. We had some tinkering to do with the front cover art that delayed getting the book on our site for pre-orders but that problem will be fixed soon. Before September 1st, I promise! It's going to be a beautiful little chapbook.
Other quick notes:
If you're in NY, go see Gary Lutz this Thursday night at the St. Mark's reading series at Sola's. He's reading with Jim Krusoe and my favorite poet, Zachary Schomburg.
I also wanted to announce that the next Future Tense book after Claudia's will be a collaboration between the aforementioned Schomburg and Emily Kendal Frey. It will be out in early 2010. More info to come on that one.
Riley Michael Parker is getting his small press and web site ready to launch full throttle. Here's a nice write-up of his little book, Boys, as well as the info about submitting your work to him!
Oh--and I almost forgot: I will be at Bumbershoot this year in Seattle, doing a talk (and reading) with some other northwest greats on Saturday, September 5th at 3pm.
I should also mention that I'm judging a flash fiction noir contest for this year's Wordstock in Portland (which happens on Oct. 8-11). The contest is a benefit for p:ear. Please submit something if you're so inclined. I look forward to reading all the entries. The winners will be announced at a reading for Portland Noir, which seems to be the hot-selling book in Portland this summer. Crazy.
That's all for now.
So... Look for Claudia's book to pre-order on our books page by 9/1.
And we have some new colorful pins for people who order books from us. Hot pink anyone? Purple? Yellow?
Thanks for reading.
KS
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July 27th, 2009
I've been a little sidetracked with promoting Portland Noir lately but I am hoping to have Claudia Smith's book up for pre-order on the FT site soon. It's looking really great though and should be ready for a September release. Book reviewers: let me know if you want a copy.
There are a lot of really cool events happening soon in Portland. First off, Riley Michael Parker and Suzanne Burns read with G. Xavier Robillard at Voodoo Doughnut Too (the Sandy BLVD one) on Saturday, August 1st. Then Suzanne reads with Amelia Gray at Powell's on Monday, August 3rd.
In case you didn't know, Suzanne Burns has a new book out from Dzanc and it's getting a lot of attention. Her new book, Misfits and Other Heroes, features the two stories we published in Double Header last year as well as a bunch more show stoppers. We want to help spread the word about her great work, so if anyone orders a book from the FT site before Labor Day, we'll gladly throw in a free copy of Double Header. It's sort of a gateway drug to her new collection.
Also--we have new summer color buttons to throw in with your book orders right now. These are made by one of our favorite multi-tasking zinesters, Alex Wrekk. Fun!
On Thursday, August 6th, our friend Aaron Burch is in town to introduce the newest Hobart author, Mary Miller at the Powell's on Hawthorne. She's joined by Kevin Canty. Both Kevin and Mary are among our current favorite authors.
In other news--Elizabeth Ellen fans will be happy to know that she has a new little booklet as part of the Mud Luscious Press series. The whole series is really interesting. You should look them up.
And an update--we're out of signed copies of Chelsea Martin's book, but you can see her at Modern Times Books in San Francisco on September 9th and at the Rumpus Reading Series in San Francisco on Nov 9th. She can sign your copy there!
That's it for now. Stay cool.
KS
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June 27th, 2009
Some quick announcements!
First off, our next book will be Put Your Head in My Lap, a collection of flash fiction by Claudia Smith, a wonderful writer I've loved ever since reading her award-winning chapbook, The Sky is a Well (Rose Metal Press). This new collection is full of emotionally taut and sweetly melancholic stories that evoke the pain of lost love and broken families. Cover art will be by the awesome Hayley Barker. Look for it in September.
Also, Chelsea Martin is touring. Check her web site for further details on upcoming dates. I know that she's in NY for a July 3rd reading at the PPOW Gallery.
And for those of you who didn't know, I recently edited the Portland Noir anthology that was just published by the great Akashic Books. It's been a surprise bestseller here in Portland and we (me and some contributors) have been doing some fun events for the book. Our next one is this Thursday, July 2nd at the Blue Monk.
In other event news, Haiku Inferno will do their first show in nearly a year, on July 25th, at the JAW Playwrights festival. More info here.
Also--look around the links page. I finally updated with a few new places. Thanks, everyone!
Kevin
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March 31st, 2009
The Chelsea Martin book is here! And holy baby, it's a beauty. Maybe our best thing yet. Order it now on the books page and we will send it right away. And don't forget her readings in Portland on Tuesday, April 7th at The Maiden (8pm, with Matthew Simmons and Brandon Scott Gorrell) and in Seattle on April 8th at Neptune Coffee (7pm, with BSG and Frayn Masters, and more).
If you work at a bookstore, you can order directly from us or Ingram (and we're also trying to work out a new deal with Small Press Distribution).
That's it for now. Happy April Fools Day.
Kevin
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February 25th, 2009
The Chelsea Martin book is shaping up real nice and it'll be here by mid-March. You can pre-order your copy now. Just go to the books page. Those doing the pre-order action will get a special surprise gift. You can see some more fun stuff about her book on her web site.
And you can look forward to possibly seeing Chelsea in your town this spring. She's already scheduled for Portland on Tuesday, April 7th at The Maiden (with Matthew Simmons and Brandon Scott Gorrell) and in Seattle the next night at Neptune Coffee (with BSG, Zachary Schomburg, Emily Kendal Frey, Frayn Masters, and more).
In other event news, I'll be hosting the 2nd Smallpressapalooza at Powell's on Monday, March 16th from 5pm-10pm. I hand-picked a bunch of great small press writers for this fun marathon of readings. Check out the schedule.
Haiku Inferno's Frayn Masters is reading at the fun "Favorite Show" multimedia show this Saturday, February 28th. It's a cool event with lots of stuff happening. Check it out and support another cool Portland series.
Bob Gaulke's Embrace Your Insignificance is getting some nice attention. Recent reviews were in the Portland Mercury and PDX Magazine.
That's your quick update. More soon!
Kevin
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January 10th, 2009
Happy New Year!
We still have our two-for-one bonus going on for anyone who wants to order Embrace Your Insignificance from us. If you go to our ordering page, and put one of those beauties in your shopping cart, leave a message in the Notes box and let us know which of our other 2008 books you'd like for free--that's your choice of Riley Michael Parker's brutal office comedy Our Beloved 26th (which made this fun year-end list) or Suzanne Burns's magical and strange flipbook, Double Header. Thank you so much for your continued support.
Bob will be in Portland for a book release party on Saturday, January 17th. It's at The Press Club (2621 SE Clinton) at 7:30pm. He'll be joined by Chuck Thompson, the very funny travel writer and author of "Smile When You're Lying." It's a free event so come on down and get a signed book.
Gary Lutz (author of my favorite chapbook ever, Partial List of People to Bleach) has been the talk of fiction geeks everywhere with his awesome new essay in The Believer.
Elizabeth Ellen has a new story up at Lamination Colony. She's also in the new, stupendously good issue of Keyhole Magazine (I have a weird thing in that issue too).
My story, "Swimsuit Issue" is included in the cool new anthology Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth. I'll be reading with contributors Jess Walter, Samuel Ligon, and the legendary Katherine Dunn (Geek Love) at Powell's on March 25th.
Thanks for checking in. Watch out for our next book, Everything Was Fine Until Whatever by Chelsea Martin in the very near future. This will also be a paperback release and it will be pure joyful madness!
Until later,
Kevin
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December 13th, 2008
Hello friends,
We thought we'd throw in a bonus for anyone who wants to order Embrace Your Insignificance from us. If you go to our ordering page, and put one of those beauties in your shopping cart, leave a message in the Notes box and let us know which of our other 2008 books you'd like for free--that's your choice of Riley Michael Parker's brutal office comedy Our Beloved 26th or Suzanne Burns's magical and strange flipbook, Double Header. Thank you so much for your continued support.
In other news, Elizabeth Ellen was spotlighted recently on my favorite litblog, HTML Giant.
Suzanne Burns has two cool pieces in the new Dogzplot.
I have a fun batch of brand new things in the new Portland Review.
Thanks for reading. Before I wrap up, since this is probably the last news post before 09 rolls around, I will leave you with my favorites of 2008...
Fave books: Knockemstiff, Things the Grandchildren Should Know, The Flying Troutmans, A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness, The Film Club
Fave movies: Man On Wire, Snow Angels, The Auteur
Fave CDs: Against Me!, She & Him, Vampire Weekend, Deerhoof, Rilo Kiley
Fave new Portland eatery: Pine State Biscuits
Until next year,
Kevin
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December 10th, 2008
Hey everyone!
Bob Gaulke's Embrace Your Insignificance is now out and it turned out beautifully. Special thanks to cover designer Pete McCracken and book designer Jenn Lawrence for their hard work on making it happen. Go to our BOOKS page now to order a copy. It's the perfect gift for anyone who has ever taught English overseas. It's both very funny and illuminating. The book is also available through Powell's, Amazon, and most other bookstores can order it from Ingram. There will be a book release reading and party on Saturday, January 17th at 7:30pm at The Press Club (2621 SE Clinton) in Portland. Bob will read along with our other favorite funny travel writer, Chuck Thompson.
We had a lot of fun at our last two events (Shock of the New and Booty Call). Riley Michael Parker actually read at both events. And so far, all the brave people who have read his book are really enjoying it. To learn more about the Our Beloved 26th author, an interview with him just went up in our AUTHORS section. Head on over there.
And we have a new book to announce! Chelsea Martin's debut is due out on Valentine's Day, 2009. We planned it that way because she's such a weird and lovable little sap. We're not sure what it'll be called yet. It might be I LOVE MY MOM or Your Secrets Are Funny or Some Mean Wishes or Really Though, You're Welcome or Nice Syntax Kind Of
or Everything Was Fine Until Whatever or Here?s Some Awkward Tension and Transparent Compliments. This book will also be a paperback, so brace yourself for more fancy stuff. My stapler is getting jealous.
That's our update for now. See you in 2009! Ho Ho Ho Ho!
Santa K
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October 27th, 2008
Hi friends,
It's almost Halloween and suddenly there's a whole bunch of fun times to be had.
This week, I've found myself with not one, but TWO shows to host. The first is this Thursday (10/30) at The Maiden (639 SE Morrison) at 6:30pm. This is a special night for me because it's basically a hand-picked batch of newer Portland writers that I have been wanting to see read for a while (so I just thought--alright, I'll throw them into one reading together!). Patrick deWitt, Sarah Royal, Zachary Schomburg, and Future Tense's Riley Michael Parker will each read at the "Shock of the New" reading. It's free and you can discover some new dynamic writers in town, so come on down!
Then, just two night later (11/1), I'm hosting Booty Call #6. This time, we're back at Disjecta for this 8pm event that will feature readings by 3 fantastic folks: Kevin Keck (making a special rare trip out from North Carolina, he is one of my favorite dirty/funny writers--check out Oedips Wrecked), Shanna Germain (probably Portland's most widely published young erotica writer), and Magic Garden legend and writer Viva Las Vegas.
In other news, I'll be reading at Wordstock on Saturday, November 8th and I hope you'll come see me there (the vast open area of the Convention Center can feel kind of lonely). I'm appearing on the Community of Writers stage at 12:30. Some of my favorite writers (Aimee Bender, Willy Vlautin, John Hodgman) appear that same afternoon, so there are plenty of reasons to come by.
Also, I am hoping to have finished copies of Bob Gaulke's Embrace Your Insignificance to show off. The cool kids at Time and Skin Media are allowing me to share a table with them. They're the ones who are republishing Kurt Eisenlohr's cult classic novel, Meat Won't Pay My Light Bill (which Future Tense originally released in 2000). For more info on these and other events, go to my Goodreads page and see what I'm up to.
Links? Sure. There's a bunch.
Part of my memoir-in-progress (first draft due next week!) was recently up at the great Smith Magazine.
I interviewed Diane Williams in the new Believer.
I reviewed the awesome new Miriam Toews book for the Oregonian. (also she was here for a reading recently and I told her that I was going to make a Miriam Toews fans page on Facebook. Watch for that!)
I was in Smokelong Quarterly!
I am interviewed on this fun new interview blog, Thunk.
I really like this new small press book blog, HTML Giant.
Suzanne Burns not only has a book out next year with Dzanc, but she also scored big in the Pudding House Chapbook contest and will have a poetry collection out from them as well.
Elizabeth Ellen is showing off her two minute mind.
That's it for now. Thanks for hanging out.
And GO OBAMA!
Kevin
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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 November--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 Klein, 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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