Lincoln Michel's Tools for Teething

For Virginia Woolf's birthday

2012-01-25T22:18:00.000-05:00

Some quotes:

"Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title."

“Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.”

“I am rooted, but I flow.”

"It's not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it's the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses."

Renaissance Quiz (comic attempt #3)

2012-01-24T16:16:00.002-05:00

This is based on some dumb tweet of mine from December. (Previous comics here, here, and here.)

pre-order me, baby

2012-01-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

You can now pre-order Unsaid Six, which includes a story of mine called "Selections from a Sexual Survey." The new volume looks positively epic, featuring work from Brian Evenson, Diane Williams, Lorin Stein, Padgett Powell and many more. Very excited to be included.

In addition, I have two poems in the new PANK print issue, which should be shipping around now, as well as a story in the new NOON, which will be out in a few months. Great way to start 2k12.

Livin' Like a Bug Ain't Easy

2012-01-14T14:50:00.002-05:00

I would easily listen to this Kafka rock opera record if it really existed. "Livin' Like a Bug Ain't Easy" (starting 1:14) is such a tear-jerker!

Living like a bug ain't easy
My old clothes don't seem to fit me
I got little tiny bug feet
I don't really know what bugs eat
Don't want no one stepping on me
Now I'm sympathizing with fleas
Living like a bug ain't easy

(This Japanese animated adaptation of "A Country Doctor" is great too.)

dripping dark so dense

2012-01-13T15:44:00.001-05:00

When I was in middle school, I started listening to punk and hardcore. Easily the most important band for me at that age, and in high school, was the Dead Kennedys. The twisted collage art, the dark humor, Biafra's weird vocals, the surreal satire. An inordinate amount of my aesthetic can probably be traced back to this song in particular:

Now, I am become blog-Death, destroyer of words

2012-01-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

I just deleted all of my 2005 blog posts and most of my 2006 ones. I'll probably thin out the early years more too. Google+ deleted all of my old images last year and it is too much work to replace them. Don't worry, there was nothing juicy deleted. It was mostly just links to random things. (Maybe I'm lying but now you'll never know!)

Anyone notice Ben Roethlisberger is a Dick Tracy villain?

2012-01-09T10:47:00.000-05:00

Pirates and friendship

2012-01-07T23:41:00.001-05:00

It's funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure, and they never realized that the real treasure was the fond memories they were creating.

- Jack Handey

Comic attempt #2

2012-01-06T12:37:00.001-05:00

Here is my second attempt at a comic strip (or third really, but the other needs some revision). Check out the first comic here. This one may be a little obvious with its meaning, but I think the message is an important one in these trying economic times.

ever-shifting and contradicting blobs of absurdity

2012-01-05T20:50:00.000-05:00

The Collagist interviewed me today about about my story "Hike" that they published last October. Mostly we talked about forests and cramming dreadfulness into fiction.

I’ve always thought that escalation is essential in fiction, so I am glad you think it builds to something. Or maybe what I mean is acceleration. I like the effect of tumbling down the slope of the story, picking of speed, getting dirt on your clothes, and nicking your skin on exposed rocks, until you crash into whatever lies at the bottom. It doesn’t have to be something violent, of course. Perhaps you tumble out into a field of dandelions.

Boring personal reading habits 2k11

2012-01-03T11:32:00.000-05:00

Below are all of the 70 books that I completed in 2011. Only the books I finished, not all the ones I started or read most of. 70 is a pretty healthy number, except when I filter out the graphic novels and comic collections, I only completed 26 prose books. This is not to say that prose books are superior to graphic novels or anything like that (I read so many because I'm collaborating on one with the artist and writer John Dermot Woods) but I have to acknowledge that graphic novels take me almost no time to read. The shortest ones on my list were probably completed in twenty minutes and the longest ones were still likely quicker reads than the shortest novellas. So, I'm going to break things into two lists.

Prose: (* is a reread)

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Raymond Carver*
The Mezzanine – Nicholson Baker
Great Expectations – Kathy Acker
Hunger – Knut Hamsun
The Shadow over Innsmouth – H. P. Lovecraft
Baby Leg – Brian Evenson
The Late American Novel – Jeff Martin and C. Max McGee
The Baltimore Atrocities – John Dermot Woods (manuscript draft)
Stories V! – Scott McClanahan
Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck
Us – Michael Kimball
The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt
Antwerp – Roberto Bolano
Taking Care – Joy Williams
The Hundred Brothers – Donald Antrim
Waste - Eugene Martin
The Dog of the Marriage – Amy Hempel*
Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre – H.P. Lovecraft
The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories – Gene Wolfe
An Elemental Thing – Eliot Weinberger
Jakob Von Gunten – Robert Walser
Reflections in a Golden Eye – Carson McCullers
The Last Thing He Wanted – Joan Didion
Microscripts – Robert Walser
Beecher’s One
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids – Victor Pelevin

Favorites:

Hunger – Knut Hamsun
Taking Care – Joy Williams
Jakob Von Gunten – Robert Walser
An Elemental Thing – Eliot Weinberger

Graphic novels/comics:

Wilson – Daniel Clowes
The Clouds Above – Jordan Crane
Werewolves of Montpellier – Jason
Illustrated Three-Line Novels – Joanna Neborsky
1963 – Alan Moore
Supreme: The Story of the Year – Alan Moore
Supreme: The Return – Alan Moore
The Killing Joke – Alan Moore
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 1 - Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 2 - Warren Ellis, Adam Kubert, Mike Carey
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 3 – Mark Miller, Greg Land
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 4
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 5
Love and Rockets New Stories No. 3 – The Hernandez Brothers
Understanding Comics – Scott McCloud
World War Hulk
Ultimate Iron Man – Orson Scott Card
Silver Surfer: Parable – Moebius and Stan Lee
Bottomless Belly Button – Dash Shaw
Congress of the Animals – Jim Woodring
Weathercraft – Jim Woodring
Y: The Last Man (deluxe book 1)
Y: The Last Man (db 2)
Y: The Last Man (db 3)
Y: The Last Man (db 4)
Y: The Last Man (db 5)
Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi
Wally Gropius – Tim Hensley
The Bulletproof Coffin – Hine and Kane
The Living and the Dead – Jason
David Boring – Daniel Clowes
Prison Pit Book Three – Johnny Ryan
I Never Liked You – Chester Brown
It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken – Seth
Ghost World – Daniel Clowes
Une Semaine de Bonte – Max Ernst
The Man Who Grew his Beard – Oliver Schrauwen
The Frank Book – Jim Woodring
Cave In – Brian Ralph
Climbing Out – Brain Ralph
Why Are You Doing This? – Jason
The Three Paradoxes – Paul Hornschemeier
Mother, Come Home – Paul Hornschemeier
Is That All There Is? – Joost Swarte

Favorites:

Wilson – Daniel Clowes
Weathercraft – Jim Woodring
Une Semaine de Bonte – Max Ernst

The above is a pretty fiction heavy list. I only read two non-fiction prose books--and Weinberger's book is quite poetic and fictional for a non-fiction book--and I think four non-fiction/memoir comic books. I read no poetry books. Of course, the above list is only what I 100% completed, so does not include the myriad books and literary magazines I read large chunks of (or any of the article reading done online or it magazines).

Hey, I told you this was going to be boring in the title.

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents

2011-12-29T14:05:00.003-05:00

Although I get annoyed by people who blog/tweet/facebook about the food they cook, I wanted to share with you the fact that when I cracked open my egg this morning there was a grotesque, half-formed second egg inside of it!

ovum in ovo

I've decided to quit writing...

2011-12-28T14:46:00.000-05:00

...for a career drawing body horror comic strips. Here is my first attempt at one:

the little boy that lives inside my mouth

2011-12-12T14:00:00.000-05:00

I was asked by Vol. 1 Brooklyn to write about my favorite Stephen King adaptation and obviously picked The Shining. I wrote a few hundred words about Kubrick's use of Freud's concept of "The Uncanny" as well as his mastery of "terror" over "horror."

The creepiest and most haunting parts of The Shining are moments of pure Radcliffian “terror,” filled with ambiguity and tension. Danny flinching his finger and squeaking in the voice of Tony, “the little boy that lives inside my mouth.” Jack staring eerily into the model hedge maze and seeing, somehow, his wife and child. The ghost butler telling Jack in a slow and deliberate voice, “I corrected them, sir, and when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I corrected her.” And the final ambiguous shot of the film, a slow zoom into the image of Jack Torrance smiling in a photograph that was taken decades before he was born.

The ten greatest Stephen King adaptations

status of the year's statuses

2011-12-05T13:32:00.001-05:00

According to some random application, the above represent the frequency of words in my Facebook status updates for 2k11. I suspect this is more of a random picking of words than a true weighted representation. I doubt I used the word "buffoon" as often as "the." Either way, the words I immediately see--crotchety, crushing, uncaring, existence, despair, surreal, etc.--speak for themselves.

2011-11-28T17:11:00.001-05:00

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much.

- Eric Cantona's entire press conference after jump kicking a fan

Game narratives

2011-11-21T13:05:00.001-05:00

HTMLGIANT has, for a little while now, run a magazine club. Members read a lit mag together and discuss the various themes, stories, design, etc. I think this is a great idea. Far too often lit mags feel disposable. You can pick them up, read a few stories or poems you want to read, and ignore the rest. But the best magazines work more like books. They need to be read in their entirety. I think here of magazines like NOON or McSweeney's (and, hopefully, Gigantic).

The most recent lit mag club has been examining Beecher's #1. In addition to being an extremely beautifully (and minimally) designed magazine, and a brilliantly edited magazine, Beecher's includes a few stories of mine as well as stories by several close friends of mine like John Dermot Woods, Rozalia Jovanovic, Joshua Cohen, and James Yeh. The latest lit mag club entry, by Daniel B. Cecil, talks about interactive/game narratives and has some very nice comments about one of my stories:

Second person narration is used throughout the journal to back the reader into a corner as well. In Lincoln Michel’s “A Question of Commitment,” you are asked as a participant to imagine both a lover and murderer in the same story. The murder, however, isn’t clear, and that uncertainty, paired with the second person narration that draws you into the story, begs you to imagine two terrible possibilities. It is a horrifying take on the “choose your own adventure stories” we’re so familiar with from our childhood.

Anyway, check out lit mag club and check out Beecher's!

2011-11-20T17:03:00.003-05:00

Some people have a way with words, and other people, uh... not have way.

— Steve Martin

PANK it, PANK it real good

2011-11-11T12:30:00.001-05:00

You can order PANK #6 now, which includes two pieces from me (a poem and a prose poem) as well as work from John Warner, Sherman Alexie, Christopher Newgent, and others.

2011-11-05T17:13:00.004-04:00

I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.

- Flannery O'Connor

stream of consciousness search engine optimization

2011-11-02T11:53:00.001-04:00

I am not getting enough hits on this blog, so let me tell you about how Kris Humphries was attacked at occupy wall street by zombie corpse of Steve Jobs walking dead with Gaddafi and reciting 10 ways to get hot body this winter while Zooey Deschanel used people's microphone to give student loan reduction tips to Greek debt crises where economy collapsing like Rick Perry presidential campaign but with less drunk speeches, possibly high quality Breaking Bad methamphetamine, and Herman Cain delivered "artisinal" pizza to police brutality seeking wall street bankers short selling stocks of free pornography, iPhone 5 prototypes, fall fashion trends for Williamsburg singles, Groupon grey poupon coupons, organic gluten free vegan locavore head cheese home recipes, The-Dream new single wifi download hipsteraes a;dkfjdskf;jadsjfkad;skfjask;kjfads

2011-10-31T11:43:00.005-04:00

There are ten thousand superfluous heads at work in the world. It's clear, clear as day. The generations of men are losing the joy of life with all their treatises and understandings and knowledge...I like running down stairs. What a lot of talk!

- Robert Walser

A NYC-area Halloween message from Dracula

2011-10-29T17:26:00.003-04:00

I have a grave message for everybloody going out tonight. There is a spooky storm outside that will send shivers up your spine and make your cheeks turn blood red! Unless you are as hairy as my pal the wolfman, wrap yourself up as tight as my other friend, the mummy. Put on your BOO-ties before venturing through the cold, slimy sludge of the streets. If you don't, you may end up shivering and moaning like an undead ghoul! If you think my warning is chilling, go outside without a scarf. Your exposed neck may notice a real BITE to the air. MUH HA HA HA HA!

the usual

2011-10-26T17:27:00.004-04:00

‎...intoxication, sexual license, absorption by the primal horde, in short, dissolution of the individual (occasionally, actual dismemberment) and re-immersion into a common organic whole.

- disembodied Wikipedia quote.

Triple Threat

2011-10-24T10:32:00.001-04:00

I have a poem out in the newest issue of Harpur Palate, which also has work from Sherman Alexie, Tim Jones-Yelvington, and many others. The poem is titled "Drift Ice in the Foreground." Haven't seen a copy yet, but the line-up looks great!

Along with new stories in BOMB and The Collagist, that is three new pieces for me in October.

GIGANTIC BODIES

2011-10-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

We have a new online issue up at Gigantic. The issue features new prose from Brian Kubarycz, Dan Bevacqua, Lynne Tillman, Lena Bartone, James McGirk, Matt Dennison, Daniel Borzutzky, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Anelise Chen; a conversation between Gary Lutz, Mary Caponegro, and Tim Horvath; and gorgeous artwork from Maria Kondratiev. Check it out, if you'd like.

October Twofer

2011-10-17T11:17:00.000-04:00

The October issue of the always fantastic The Collagist is up and I'm very happy to say I have a new story titled "Hike" in it. The issue also has work from friends Blake Butler and Kate Lorenz, as well as plenty of other rad things.

My story in there pairs nicely, I think, with my short story in BOMB magazine that went up one day before.

Filling Pools at BOMB

2011-10-15T13:11:00.001-04:00

Very excited to so say that I have a short story called "Filling Pools" up at BOMB Magazine. It is the second installment of their Page Break series "showcasing original works of fiction by emerging literary talents."

Opening lines:

People say I have a baby face. You can look at me and pretend I’m drowning; I do this watery thing with my eyes. How you work the face is important in this line of work.

.

2011-10-14T11:54:00.001-04:00

‎"Reality is not always probable, or likely."
- Jorge Luis Borges

b/w

‎"Let us not mince words: the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful."
- André Breton

Stanky old wizard eyes

2011-09-05T20:35:00.001-04:00

This clip is the best explanation of my vision problem that I've seen.

Wu-Tang Somerset Maugham

2011-08-15T11:57:00.001-04:00

File this under Amazon mishaps. I stumbled upon this Amazon page for W. Somerset Maugham which describes him as "the third studio album by the American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released November 21, 2000 on Loud/Columbia Records."

Screenshot in case they fix it:

Harry Potter via Raymond Carver

2011-08-13T17:31:00.002-04:00

Last night I was asked to read a two-minute "fan fiction" piece. Here it is:

Populus Mechanicus

Early that day the weather turned and the snow was melting into dirty water. Streaks of it ran down from the giant ogre-high window that faced the back of Hogwarts. Centaurs slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too.

Voldemort was in the bedroom pushing dark robes into a suitcase when Harry came to the door.

I’m glad you’re leaving! I’m glad you’re leaving! Harry said. Do you hear?

Voldemort kept on putting his things into the suitcase.

Son of a bitch! I’m so glad you’re leaving! Harry began to cry. You can’t even look me in the face, can you?

Then Harry noticed the dementor’s picture on the bed and picked it up.

Voldemort looked at him and Harry wiped his eyes and stared at Voldemort before turning and going back to the defense against the dark arts classroom.

Bring that back, Voldemort said.

Just get your wand and get out, Harry said.

Voldemort did not answer. He fastened the suitcase, put on his cloak, looked around the room before turning off the light with an expellius lampus spell. Then he went out to the great hall.

Harry stood in the doorway of the little kitchen, holding the dementor.

I want the dementor, Voldemort said.

Are you crazy?

No, but I want the dementor. I’ll get someone to come for its things.

You’re not touching this dementor, Harry said. The dementor had begun to cry and Harry uncovered the tattered robes from around its head.

Oh, oh, Harry said, looking at the dementor.

Voldemort moved toward him.

For Dumbeldore’s sake! Harry said. Harry took a step back into the kitchen.

I want the dementor.

Get out of here!

Harry turned and tried to hold the dementor over in a corner behind the cauldron.

But Voldemort came up. He reached across the cauldren and tightened his hands on the dementor.

Let go of him, he said.

Get away, get away! Harry cried.

The dementor was pale-faced and screaming. In the scuffle they knocked down a flying broom that hung behind the cauldren. Voldemort crowded Harry into the wall then, trying to break his grip. He held onto the dementor and pushed with all his weight.

Let go of him, he said.

Don’t, Harry said. You’re hurting the dementor, Harry said.

I’m not hurting the dementor, Voldemort said.

The kitchen window gave no light. In the near dark Voldemort worked on Harry’s fisted fingers with one hand and with the other hand he gripped the screaming dementor up under an arm near the shoulder.

Harry felt his fingers being forced open. Harry felt the dementor going from him.

No! Harry screamed just as his hands came loose.

Harry would have it, this dementor. Harry grabbed for the dementor’s other arm. Harry caught the dementor around the boney wrist and leaned back.

But Voldemort would not let go. Voldemort felt the dementor slipping out of his hands and he pulled back very hard.

In this manner, the second wizarding war was decided.

Existentialist Goose

2011-08-08T13:38:00.000-04:00

Another Animals in Midlife Crises from John and me.

Battleship the board game: the sci-fi film

2011-08-06T13:17:00.000-04:00

I saw the first Battleship (the film!) trailer and it is predictably awful. It reminded me though that I had the idea to make an awful Battleship adaptation over two years ago!

Some Possible Sequels to Classic Novels

2011-08-02T00:01:00.002-04:00

2 Naked 2 Dead
2 Savage 2 Detective
2 Moby 2 Dick
2 Wise 2 Blood
2 Pale 2 Fire
2 Wuthering 2 High
2 Crime 2 Punishment
2 Huck 2 Finn
2 Grape 2 Wrath
Nausea 2: Electric Boogaloo

The final countdown

2011-07-26T19:10:00.000-04:00

New Animals in Midlife Crises strip up at The Rumpus. It is about lionesses and likely one of the final strips we do, at least for a while. So... check it out!

Summer Bummer Specials

2011-07-11T16:49:00.000-04:00

Menu at a local taco joint. My friend's menu said Summer Special so this wasn't intentional.

2011-07-10T17:03:00.003-04:00

So Google+, in a massive design flaw, has deleted every single photo I've ever uploaded to this blog. If you were curious about the many empty white squares now filling up this blog, there you go.

Will add some back slowly...

Boring personal reading habits 2k11 (halfway point edition)

2011-07-05T17:41:00.003-04:00

A list of all the books that I've completed so far in 2k11. I've already read more books in the first half of 2011 than I read in all of 2010 (which was a real down year for me in this regard). However, I have to admit that much of my total comes from speeding through a lot of graphic novels and comic books during a two or three week period in June. This was research for a comic series John Woods and I will be working on soon.

These are only the books that I've finished. There are many others that I've started (2666, The Hundred Brothers, NOON 2011, etc.) that I will hopefully complete before the year is out. I've only re-read one book so far this year (the Carver). Favorites so far:

Taking Care by Joy Williams, Wilson by Daniel Clowes and Hunger by Knut Hamsun.

Full list:

Wilson – Daniel Clowes
The Death of Doctor Island – Gene Wolfe
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Raymond Carver*
The Mezzanine – Nicholson Baker
Great Expectations – Kathy Acker
The Clouds Above – Jordan Crane
Hunger – Knut Hamsun
Werewolves of Montpellier – Jason
The Shadow over Innsmouth – H. P. Lovecraft
Illustrated Three-Line Novels – Joanna Neborsky
Baby Leg – Brian Evenson
The Late American Novel – Jeff Martin and C. Max McGee
The Baltimore Atrocities – John Dermot Woods (manuscript draft)
Stories V! – Scott McClanahan
Visitation – Jenny Erpenbeck
Us – Michael Kimball
The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt
Antwerp – Roberto Bolano
1963 – Alan Moore
Supreme: The Story of the Year – Alan Moore
Supreme: The Return – Alan Moore
The Killing Joke – Alan Moore
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 1
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 2
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 3
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 4
Ultimate Fantastic Four HC Vol. 5
Love and Rockets New Stories No. 3 – The Hernandez Brothers
Understanding Comics – Scott McCloud
World War Hulk
Ultimate Iron Man – Orson Scott Card
Silver Surfer: Parable – Moebius and Stan Lee
Bottomless Belly Button – Dash Shaw
Taking Care – Joy Williams

Take a dip

2011-07-02T11:53:00.001-04:00

I'm happy to say that I have a new dialogue story up at Hobart this month, Little Girls by the Side of the Pool by Lincoln Michel. Here is how it starts:

“Did you see what Suzy did when her father tossed her into the air?”

“No, I was looking at Jimmy.”

“She screamed. She screamed like a little piglet right until she hit the water.”

“My father is really good at tossing me into the water.”

“Yes, my father can toss me so high that I get afraid I'll never come down.”

“My father once threw me like ten feet out of the water and I did two cartwheels in the air before splashing.”

“My father once tossed me so high into the air that I was at eye level with the top of a tall tree and in that tree was a bird and that bird unfurled its wings and looked at me in a loving way, like a sister.”

The Joy Williams Commute

2011-06-28T23:55:00.001-04:00

My new commute lasts exactly two Joy Williams stories no matter which combination of trains I take.

Animals in Midlife Crises (dot com)

2011-06-19T23:21:00.003-04:00

Animals in Midlife Crises, the comic strip by John Dermot Woods and me that is published regularly on The Rumpus has a second home now at animalsinmidlifecrises.com. The only difference is that the comic runs vertically on The Rumpus and horizontally at Animals in Midlife Crises. You can read one or both sites based on your orientation preference.

Escaped Furries Beaten and Tranquilized in Chinese Zoo Uprising

2011-06-06T16:48:00.003-04:00

Facing a shortage of exotic animals for the ever-growing zoo-industrial complex, the Chinese government has begun caging humans in amusing anthropomorphic costumes. The costume seams are held together with a form of bamboo-derived industrial glue to prevent wardrobe malfunctions. However, these caged and costumed attractions, being slightly more intelligent than the animals they play, have begun figuring out how to escape their cages. Two such incidents involving a "tiger" and an "orangutan" occurred recently in the Sichuan province to the great disturbance of the children and women present. Luckily, the escaped faux-animals were quickly subdued and returned to their enclosures before they could do physical harm to any of the zoo-going public who had, after all, paid their admission in full.

(Okay, that isn't quite the "true" story.)

Explosive

2011-06-02T16:12:00.003-04:00

The new issue of Tin House is here and looks fantastic, as usual. It includes new fiction from Gary Lutz and Jodi Angel, interviews with Ann Patchett and Jean-Philippe Toussaint, and more. It also includes, I'm very happy to say, an essay by me on Herbert Read's enigmatic only novel The Green Child. My essay isn't included online, so you'll have to check out the print issue if you want to read it.

Coming Straight Outta Kansas

2011-05-26T14:16:00.005-04:00

Beecher's Magazine, put out by the University of Kansas and edited by the fantastic Chloé Cooper Jones, has just released their first issue. I'm very pleased to say that Beecher's One includes two short stories of mine as well as work by great writers like Joshua Cohen, Rozalia Jovanovic, Yelena Akhtiorskaya, James Yeh, Alec Niedenthal and John Dermot Woods. You can check it out here.

Sunday Style!

2011-05-23T13:05:00.003-04:00

We took a break last week at Animals in Midlife Crises, but this week we are back with a full-color Sunday style strip. Click on the hermit crab above to read it.

Greatest moment in American cinema?

2011-05-18T11:56:00.003-04:00

- Harpo's tattoo barks at Groucho in Duck Soup

Harold Bloom once composed a short list of what he called the twentieth-century American Sublime. It included Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, the story of Byron the light bulb in Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, songs by Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, and, amongst a few others, the war scene that concludes Duck Soup.

I've always loved how Bloom is willing to pick very narrow and specific passages or segments of longer works in this list. Increasingly I find that art grabs me in these little moments. This is not always true, of course. A work like Blood Meridian overpowers with its totality. But often it is brief bits of brilliance in a work that I return to again and again. (At our old Gigantic blog, we explained our magazine's aesthetic in such fragments... although here I see I broke even Blood Meridian down and singled out Judge Holden's dialogue.)

But back to Duck Soup and The Marx Brothers. The war segment is indeed sublime, but my favorite moment is even briefer and even more surreal. From 0:33 to 0:47 in the following clip:

GIGANTIC GIGANTIC GIGANTIC

2011-05-16T16:21:00.008-04:00

Gigantic print issue #3 is hot off the presses and here just in time for the big Gigantic launch party on Friday.

Party will take place at 285 Kent in Williamsburg and go all night long. We've got rad readers, an indie arcade installation from Babycastles, music from NewVillager, cheap booze, and late night DJing by Frank Gilbert Lyon II, James Yeh, and Me.

You should really come!

"Hopefully you aren't in the hospital with a horrible brain injury from biking"

2011-05-16T00:04:00.010-04:00

"Hopefully you aren't in the hospital with a horrible brain injury from biking."

- voicemail from my mother

Forthcoming

2011-05-06T10:52:00.006-04:00

Essay in Tin House

Story in NOON

Story in Unsaid

Story in Indiana Review

Story in Hobart online

Stories in Beecher's Magazine

Poems in PANK

Weekly Animals in Midlife Crises comic strips at The Rumpus

Plus Gigantic issue three: Gigantic Indoors

Collect 'em all

2011-05-03T22:43:00.004-04:00

Animals in Midlife Crises

More to come...

"Why do I keep coming here? I hate all these assholes."

2011-04-06T19:01:00.004-04:00

Have you been reading Animals in Midlife Crises by Lincoln Michel and John Dermot Woods? The second strip went up this week. It even caught the eye of Flavorwire. New strips every Sunday at The Rumpus.

In unrelated Rumpus news, Nancy Smith reviewed issue six of Canteen magazine and gave a very nice shout out to my essay on disappearing deep ends:

Lincoln Michel writes, rather remarkably, about the loss of the deep end of the pool....I simultaneously loved/was terrified by learning to swim and overcoming the deep end was a rite of summer passage. I’m somewhat depressed by the fact that kids nowadays just splash around in a couple feet of water. As Michel so rightly concludes, “A pool can only be conquered if you actually have to swim in it.”

Very awesome to read! Also awesome to see reviews of literary magazines, something that doesn't happen enough.

It is getting harder and harder to be a writer in Brooklyn

2011-04-05T16:16:00.002-04:00

(signs at my local corner store)

mystic haiku, mortality haiku, capitalist haiku, foreboding haiku

2011-03-31T22:50:00.003-04:00

I have four haiku up at elimae for the April issue. They are titled Mystic Haiku, Mortality Haiku, Capitalist Haiku, and Foreboding Haiku.

Animals in Midlife Crises by Lincoln Michel and John Dermot Woods

2011-03-28T11:45:00.003-04:00

I'm very excited to say that The Rumpus is running John Dermot Woods and my comic strip about animals undergoing existential midlife crises (appropriately titled Animals in Midlife Crises). The first strip can be viewed here. Others to follow every Sunday.

Marcy Dermansky, Norman Lock, and Lincoln Michel at The Brooklyn Winery

2011-03-22T12:48:00.006-04:00

I'm reading tomorrow night in Williamsburg at Brooklyn Winery with two fantastic authors. Starts at 7pm.

Full details over at Vol. 1 Brooklyn.

Come out, if you'd like.

Three readings and other upcoming things

2011-03-07T18:57:00.007-05:00

THREE READINGS

March 11th: In anticipation of Blake Butler's new novel, This Is No Year, Harper Perennial is staging four consecutive readings where a variety of writers will read the entirely of Blake's novel. I will be reading on the fourth day, this Friday, at PowerHouse Arena. Other readers that night include good friends Adam Wilson, Catherine Lacey, and Blake Butler, amongst others. Giancarlo Ditrapano, James Yeh, Justin Taylor, and many others will be reading on other nights. You know you want to come.

March 16th: I'll be briefly reading my own work at the Monkeybicycle Lightning Round reading at the Cake Shop, 7pm.

We're happy to say that this edition of the Lightning Round will also double as a release party for our eighth print issue, which will be available shortly. Featuring: Paula Bomer, Vince Czyz, Scott Geiger, Jeff Grentharer, Michael Hickins, Suzanne Marie Hopcroft, Blake Kimzey, Lincoln Michel, David Moscovich, Dustin Luke Nelson, Steve Peacock, Edwin Rivera, Kathleen A. Ryan, Andrew James Weatherhead, and Katie Wudel, plus others.

March 23: I'll be reading a longer amount of my own work at Vol. 1 Brooklyn's monthly reading series at Brooklyn Winery alongside Marcy Dermansky and Norman Lock. The reading is co-organized by Big Other. Dermansky and Lock are both fantastic writers, so should be a good time! Here is the Facebook event with more details.

FOUR PUBLICATIONS

An essay in Tin House's summer issue on Herbert Read's The Green Child.

A short story in Indiana Review's spring issue about a dictator and his head bodyguard.

Two poems in PANK print issue #6, one about urination and campfires, the other about an evil grandfather.

A shorty story (from the last Unsaid) anthologized in Tell: An Anthology of Expository Narrative. This anthology is being put together by the very talented and awesome Molly Gaudry. In addition to writing and editing awesome stuff, Molly just launched an indie books publicity business that is getting tons of deserved buzz around the indie lit world. Check it out.

The anthology's contributor list is beyond amazing and I'm very excited to be included:

Contributors include: Matt Bell, Aimee Bender, Kate Bernheimer, Crispin Best, Blake Butler, Alexandra Chasin, Paola Corso, Rebecca Curtis, Justin Dobbs, Anthony Doerr, Stuart Dybek, Brian Evenson, Kathy Fish, Susan Froderberg, Roxane Gay, Thomas Glave, Michael Griffith, J. C. Hallman, Miles Harvey, Lily Hoang, Christie Hodgen, Shelley Jackson, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Lee Klein, Samuel Ligon, Robert Lopez, Gary Lutz, Charles McLeod, Ben Marcus, Peter Markus, Clancy Martin, Michael Martone, Lincoln Michel, Lydia Millet, Rick Moody, Richard Nash (Foreword), Peter Orner, Benjamin Percy, Dawn Raffel, Nelly Reifler, George Saunders, Christine Schutt, Ben Segal, B. R. Smith, Michael Stewart, Terese Svoboda, Christian TeBordo, J. A. Tyler, Deb Olin Unferth, Diane Williams, Kevin Wilson, Lidia Yuknavitch.

SOME OTHER STUFF

Gigantic Indoors (Gigantic issue #3) is heading to press pretty shortly and we are very excited about it. The issue will include fantastic contributions from Dave Berman, Diane Williams, Joshua Cohen, and many others. More info to come!

I have been working on a rad series of comic strips with the very talented John Dermot Woods that we will hopefully reveal pretty soon.

As always, I write a regular column on fiction at The Faster Times and pretend to post witty thoughts on Twitter.

Interview up at PANK

2011-02-17T15:12:00.004-05:00

I have an interview up at PANK blog in which I use the phrases "children’s party clown with a mean streak," "organic oils and artisanal lotions," "air-dropped into the secluded hunting grounds," "undead howls," and "fool others into thinking I’m thinking."

You can read the interview here.

You can read the two stories that prompted it here.

Forthcoming...

2011-02-15T16:36:00.000-05:00

Essay in Tin House

Fiction in Indiana Review

Poetry in PANK print

Interview in PANK online

Starting 2011 off with a mix of things. Will post more as they are posted or printed.

language as inside ideal

2011-01-31T00:04:00.002-05:00

I know plenty of people have made note of the spam poetry that exists on the web and in emails---the bizarre sentences cobbled by computers to get around spam sensors---but since this one contains my name I thought I might as well post it:

Mondays and thursdays are considered already recent infantrymen for fasting. Ringed piers of different fancy of definitions acutely followed. Thinking contributors were a other interest often constructed over science and from one transcendence to another. Victoria's form is six pipes larger than endurance centrifuge. Lincoln Michel since i published some of his language as inside ideal at night train rocks inside.

I'll spare you the spam link, but I couldn't figure out what the spam was even for. Russian Viagra maybe?

Nice things people have said about me

2011-01-22T13:59:00.003-05:00

Last month I had two short stories in Unsaid #5 and this month I have two even shorter stories up at PANK.

My two PANK stories were featured on BlackBook magazine's "Fiction For Your Lunch Break" series. Here is what writer and friend Adam Wilson had to say:

His two featured stories might only be a paragraph long each, but they manage to encompass big ideas and entire worlds. “The Soldier” hinges on a startling point of view shift, from that of a soldier abroad to that of a local dog the soldier has accidentally kicked. In “The Hunt,” men go off hunting only to return to a burnt shell of a village, the families there regressed to feral, pre-human instinct. Michel is a master at manipulating time, seamlessly shifting from panorama to personal close-up. Re-read these stories until your brain has been marinated in their dark wisdom.

On Facebook, Unsaid super editor David McLendon has been collecting photographs of Unsaid contributors and had a very flattering comment on mine that I hope he won't mind me repeating here (or perhaps using as a blurb in the future!):

Lincoln Michel knows where he is from. No matter the flask or bottle or napkin dispenser from which Michel imbibes, his pages are always poured from the greater vessel that is Michel himself. Or, more accurately, Michel's pages are poured from that part of himself that he wishes but refuses to shake: Home. In Michel's case, home is a more than a place - it is a journey. His pages always orbit the source they intend to flee, but with a kind of furthering recurrence that pushes home much closer to home than was ever possible before Michel framed home with language. In other words, you can never go home again. In other words, welcome home.

~ David McLendon

You can read one of my Unsaid stories, "Drive," over here. However, you should buy the whole issue because it is packed with amazing writers and McLendon is one of the most talented editors in the lit mag world today.

Two for PANK

2011-01-18T16:14:00.003-05:00

I'm excited to say I have two short-short stories in the current online issue of PANK. I will also have a few poems in their forthcoming print issue.

The first story is about a a soldier that accidentally kicks a starving dog and the second is about abandoned women eating bark with their teeth. Here are two random sentences:

When he was hungry he sat on the ground and gnawed on his own leg.

Our beards grew long.

Check them out if you'd like!

Boring personal readings habits 2k10

2010-12-31T13:51:00.008-05:00

The past two years, I made resolutions to read at least fifty books and did so. This year, I did not make a resolution and failed to crack thirty. So this list is probably even less interesting than usual.

I taught several classes this year, which allowed me to reread a lot of fantastic essays and short fiction from old masters (Kafka, Hoffamann, Borges, O'Connor, Marquez, Cortazar, and countless others), but impeded my complete book reading. I also started a few giant tomes, specifically Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy and Roberto Bolano's 2666, both of which I will hopefully finish in some future year.

Books I finished in chronological order (*s are rereads):

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
Chronicles – Bob Dylan
Little Things – Jeffery Brown
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned – Wells Tower
NOON 2001
Reality Hunger – David Shields
NOIR – Robert Coover
NOON 2010
Twenty Grand – Rebecca Curtis
Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor
Magic For Beginners – Kelly Link
Books: A Memoir – Larry McMurtry
Nightwork – Christine Schutt
The Spot – David Means
Apex Hides the Hurt – Colson Whitehead
All the Living – C. E. Morgan
Jesus’ Son – Denis Johnson*
Billy Hazelnuts 2 – Tony Millionaire
Seven Nights – Jorge Luis Borges
The Green Child – Herbert Read
Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico – Javier Marias
The Literary Conference – Cesar Aira
Patriotism – Yukio Mishima
Ghosts – Cesar Aira
Tales of Desire – Tennessee Williams
Mystery and Manners – Flannery O’Connor
Do Not Disturb – Muriel Spark
Here Comes Another Lesson – Stephen O’Connor

This feels like too few books to bother with further breakdown, as I did in previous years.

Well, onwards and upwards (and more reading in the future).

Settling down to an evening with the new Unsaid #5

2010-12-04T13:44:00.003-05:00

This thing is massive. Check out this list of contributors and then order it here.

BRIAN KUBARYCZ/ANNE CARSON/JOE WENDEROTH/BLAKE BUTLER/JONATHAN CALLAHAN/ROBERT LOPEZ/MICHAEL KIMBALL/A. MINETTA GOULD/DAVID HOLLANDER/JENNY GROPP-HESS/GREG AMES/JOSEPH CELZIC…/ANNE VALENTE/ERIKA LORENTZSEN/DANIELLE BLAU/DAWN RAFFEL/TRENT ENGLAND/M.T. FALLON/BRIAN EVENSON/KIM CALDER/ROZALIA JOVANOVIC/LUKE GOEBEL/CATHERINE FOULKROD/A WOLFE/PETER MARKUS/KATY WYER/JASON SCHWARTZ/TOM MCCARTAN/SHANE FIREK/AMBER SPARKS/ROBERT KLOSS/ELIZABETH MIKESCH/PAMELA RYDER/LINCOLN MICHEL/MICHAEL COPPERMAN/LITO ELIO PORTO/ALEXIS ALMEIDA/MONICA HARHAS/EVELYN HAMPTON/SEAN PATRICK HILL/PAUL MALISZEWSKI/B.R. SMITH/JEFFREY LAMONDE/ALEXANDRA CHASIN/TOM LAVERTY/ANDY DEVINE/M SARKI/RICHARD ST. GERMAIN/ALLISON TITUS/KEITH NATHAN BROWN/LIAM O’BRIEN/MATT BELL/COOPER ESTEBAN/SCOTT GARSON/ERIKA MOYA/SASHA FLETCHER/JOSEPH SCAPELLATO/STEPHEN GROPP-HESS

several of the last few weeks

2010-11-13T16:22:00.011-05:00

I have not updated this blog since reading in Kansas City, MO and Lawrence, KS. Here is a quick round-up of some things.

In writing news:

I have two stories in the sure to be fantastic Unsaid #5, which I believe started being shipped yesterday. You can view the massive and massively awesome list of contributors here. I'm honored to be alongside so many authors I admire (Anne Carson, Brian Evenson, etc.) and authors I am good friends with--and also admire!--such as Rozalia Jovanovic, Catherine Foulkrod and Sasha Fletcher. Look out for it in bookstores, or order it online.

I also have a story forthcoming in another great literary magazine, Indiana Review. It is a story about a short dictator and his bodyguards. It is pure fiction, although when I gave a reading of it once several different people came up and told me that they were positive they knew which real life dictator it was based on. More on that when it gets published.

I also found out that an essay I wrote for The Rumpus was assigned in a college course when I received a few emails from students asking me for background information for their essays. It was pretty flattering to hear!

John Dermot Woods and I have been working on a badass comic strip. More about that later.

Lastly, the readings in Kansas City and Lawrence were both awesome and a million thanks to Clancy Martin and Chloe Cooper Jones for organizing them. Indeed, the whole midwest experience was fantastic, especially the food. Some items I consumed: duck fat french fries, kobe beef burger, biscuits and turkey sausage gravy, biscuits and beef sausage gravy and eggs, biscuits and fried rabbit, chicken-fried pork steak, sliced flank steak, Kansas City pulled pork, Kansas City short ribs, etc.

post-lecture, pre-reading

In editing news:

In addition to our readings, James Yeh and I gave a talk on editing and creating literary magazines to students in the MFA program and Kansas University. I've just learned that their magazine will be called Beecher's Magazine and my good friend Chloe Cooper Jones is going to be the first editor in chief. Look out for it!

Speaking of Chloe Cooper Jones, she is joining the staff of The Faster Times with an exciting dialogues section. The first piece will be a conversation between herself, Deb Olin Unferth and George Saunders. It should go up on Monday.

Lastly, Gigantic #3 is coming together amazingly and we have several killer contributing writers and artists to announce soon.

In non-writing and non-editing news:

I had a birthday and am one step closer to death.

In better news, I recently attended the baptism of my cute and awesome godson, Leo Marshall Pesch. If we are Facebook friends, I am sure you've seen pictures.

More to come...

Big on the Missouri-Kansas border

2010-10-01T12:22:00.007-04:00

Gave a fun reading with James Yeh and Chloe Cooper Jones last night in Kansas City at the New Letters house. Clancy Martin gave a far too kind introduction and New Letters was a great host.

Tonight, James Yeh and I will be giving a lecture on literary magazines (4 pm) followed by a reading of our fiction (7 pm) at Kansas University in Lawrence.

That's right, I'm blowing up on the Missouri-Kansas border!

James Yeh, Chloe Cooper Jones, Clancy Martin, and Lincoln Michel

The Kings County Society for Fitness, Science, and Musical Merriment Third Monthly Gala

2010-09-21T14:28:00.004-04:00

James Yeh and I are hosting our monthly dance night at Greenpoint's Manhattan Inn this Friday. I play a lot of 60s soul and Southern hip-hop, James plays a lot of 80s pop and Northern jangle rock. Come on by and boogie.

your football assigned reading

2010-09-20T23:06:00.003-04:00

I'm a little late posting this here, but before the kickoff of the NFL season I wrote a piece about great football books for Flavorwire. Pictured above is my absolute favorite.

you'll need this in the desert

2010-09-03T14:04:00.004-04:00

Above is the rad cover for the new issue of Canteen magazine. The issue's feature is a series of essays that tangentially deal with the decline (?) of The Great American Novel. I have an essay in there on disappearing swimming pool deep-ends and there are essays by many other rad writers such as Justin Taylor and Tao Lin (read an excerpt of his essay online). Check it out!

The Kings County Society for Fitness, Science and Musical Merriment

2010-08-25T12:30:00.004-04:00

ATTN NYC FRIENDS:

DJs James Yeh and myself* will be hosting our monthly 60s soul/60s rock/southern rap/sporadic funk dance night at The Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint Brooklyn this Friday. Come on by if you can!

*Formerly DJs Cormac McBootay and Hemingyeh?

The last dog days of summer are being rounded up.

2010-08-23T19:26:00.002-04:00

After a short summer break, Gigantic online is back with new content. We have fiction from Ashley Farmer and John Dermot Woods as well as a great interview with the fantastic Amy Hempel by Nathan C. Martin and part four of our serialized comic Until I Find It (by Luca Dipierro and Leni Zumas).

on and on and on and on

2010-08-16T16:23:00.004-04:00

I have a short piece up today over at Everyday Genius. It starts:

Driving out west in a rusted sedan, our thoughts slowed with each passing state. My Indian wife wore her wrist-watch with the broken strap. She was dialing up the radio.

Mildly interesting note: that piece actually began as a cut-up of a Hardy Boys novel I found on the street. I have some other work coming out soon that I'm excited about, especially two stories in the new Unsaid that will be in stores very soon. Also expect new Gigantic online content, events and print issues in the coming days, weeks and months.

there's still a lot of drinks that I ain't drunk and lots of pretty thoughts that I ain't thunk

2010-07-12T18:51:00.005-04:00

Friends, Romans, blog readers, lend me your ears. Gigantic and NOON are joining forces Voltron-like for a Bastille Day Soiree this Wednesday the 14th! If you are in the New York City area you should come out to mingle in a rad downtown bar and hear great readings from three amazing authors: Diane Williams, Rebecca Curtis and Joshua Cohen.

In other Gigantic news, we are seeking submissions for our third print issue: Gigantic Indoors.

And have you been checking out the amazing comic by Leni Zumas and Luca Dipierro that we have been serializing? The third installment went up last month with more to follow.

wigleaf top fifty

2010-05-20T12:47:00.006-04:00

Every year wigleaf magazine posts their top 50 short fictions from the previous year. This year was guest judged by the amazing Brian Evenson (read his forward here). I'm honored to note that a short story of mine from Opium magazine was included as was Carmen Lau's piece that we published in Gigantic's mini-monster issue. Check out all 50.

Gigantic May

2010-05-16T19:46:00.004-04:00

May Gigantic is here with work and interviews from Joe Wenderoth, Leni Zumas, Mike Young, Luca Dipierro and more. Check it out!

Puff the Magic Dragon sued for child endangerment

2010-04-26T17:21:00.005-04:00

I have a fun short story up at Everyday Genius, guest edited this month by Blake Butler. Lots of other rad writers this month to so check it all out. My piece is titled Our Current Trajectory and begins:

Puff the Magic Dragon was being sued for child endangerment. Johnny Paper's mother was crying on TV. Her son had returned home hours past his bedtime with burns on his arms.

Reminder

2010-04-22T11:55:00.002-04:00

NOON launch and reading at The Center for Fiction tonight. You should come. Details below:

NOON 2010 Reading & Party

Thursday, April 22nd at 7pm

Featuring Kim Chinquee, Sara Jaffe,

Tao Lin, Lincoln Michel, Dylan Nice,

Diane Williams, & Anya Yurchyshyn

The Center for Fiction

17 E. 47th Street

R.S.V.P 212.755.6710

Sam Lipsyte Jump-Off Story

2010-04-15T13:35:00.004-04:00

The Rumpus has posted a short-short of mine alongside seven other rad stories by Mark Edmund Doten, Shya Scanlon, John Madera, Maureen Miller, A. Wolfe, Franklin Winslow and Snowden Wright. These are the four winners and four finalists of the Sam Lipsyte Jump-Off Contest where we wrote 300 word stories based on a sentence from Lipsyte's fantastic new novel, The Ask. You can read my story here, after the introduction.

“It’s when they stop trying to destroy you,” my mother said, “that you should really start to worry.”
My mother had one arm hooked around my neck, smothering me against the same breasts that once milked my mouth. The other swung at me with a mechanical can opener.
“Stop,” I yelled. “I get your point!”

high life at the highline beneath the high line

2010-04-06T02:07:00.004-04:00

Tonight, April 6th, is A Night Together at the Highline Ballroom. The event, hosted by The Rumpus, Tin House and Flavorpill features a bunch of awesome writers, comedians and musicians like Sam Lispyte, Colson Whitehead, Michael Showalter and Jeffery Lewis.

The Rumpus also held a contest for readers to write 300-word stories based on Sam Lipsyte sentences. Four submitters, including me, were selected to read, which should be pretty fun! So if you aren't doing anything tonight, you should stop by. Or if you are doing something, you should scrap those plans and come to this instead.

A Gigantic April

2010-04-02T11:42:00.002-04:00

Gigantic has a bunch of new content up for April. We have a whole collection of new American biographies and accompanying artwork from John Dermot Woods, an exciting illustrated book from Leni Zumas and Luca Dipierro that we are serializing online, and finally we have reprinted the long Sam Lipsyte interview that I conducted for print issue 2. I know there have been a lot of Lipsyte interviews and reviews accompanying his great new novel, The Ask, but like my momma always said, there is always room for more Lipsyte.

Hey, speaking of issue 2, you should buy a copy! A beautiful little magazine for only 7 dollars.

A NOON reading

2010-03-15T00:28:00.004-04:00

NOON's annual reading and party at The Center for Fiction (formerly The Mercantile Library) is happening on April 22nd this year. As I noted two posts ago, I have a piece in the new NOON and I'll be reading it at the NOON party alongside some great writers. So, you should come! Info below:

NOON 2010 Reading & Party

Thursday, April 22nd at 7pm

Featuring Kim Chinquee, Sara Jaffe,

Tao Lin, Lincoln Michel, Dylan Nice,

Diane Williams, & Anya Yurchyshyn

The Center for Fiction

17 E. 47th Street

R.S.V.P 212.755.6710

p.s. There will also be a deal to get all 11 issues of NOON for 100 dollars!

Me and James Wood down by the schoolyard

2010-03-11T20:42:00.004-05:00

My essay on Reality Hunger by David Shields has been getting a lot of responses on The Rumpus if you want to check out the comments. It also got a nice mention in the New Yorker Book Bench in their review round-up alongside the reviews by Laura Miller, James Wood, and others: "Lincoln Michel provides a thoughtful and evenhanded response, aptly named 'Reality Boredom: Why David Shields is Completely Right and Totally Wrong,' in The Rumpus." Cool. I was also glad to see that James Wood, in his New Yorker review, had a similar take as me on the contradictory nature of Reality Hunger's argument.

UPDATE:

I don't want to make a new post for this, but Harper's also posted a section of my essay on their site.

Rock 'n Roll.

it is that time

2010-03-09T16:41:00.004-05:00

The new NOON is here! Always an amazing and essential read, the 2010 issue is even more exciting for me this year because I have a short piece in it. I'm very honored and excited to be alongside the likes of Deb Olin Unferth, Clancy Martin, Christine Schutt, Gary Lutz and my good friend Anya Yurchyshyn. Should be in bookstores soon if not there already.

a response to Reality Hunger by David Shields

2010-03-08T18:34:00.006-05:00

Over at The Rumpus, I have a fairly long response essay to David Shields's intriguing (but frustrating) new book Reality Hunger. It is titled Reality Boredom: Why David Shields is Completely Right and Totally Wrong

The comment section is buzzing if you want to weigh in.

Respect for the late master

2010-03-03T16:42:00.004-05:00

Barry Hannah passed away a few days ago. Hannah was one of my all-time favorite writers, a true master of both the sentence and the story. Few writers wrote with such power or with sentences that are stunningly beautiful without seeming conscious of their own brilliance. I wrote about Hannah's writing over at htmlgiant along with several other writers. I also did a round-up of Barry Hannah remembrances at The Faster Times. RIP, good sir.

at the edge of every woods

2010-03-01T15:38:00.003-05:00

I have a new poem up at the always awesome elimae. (Some other poems I've had at elimae are here: one and two.)

Also, thanks everyone for coming out to the Gigantic issue 2 launch party this weekend and making it such a success!

Gigantic Things Poppin'

2010-02-22T00:22:00.002-05:00

Believe it or not, the second issue of Gigantic magazine is completed. It is a long time coming, but the result was worth it. The magazine looks completely fantastic (thanks to Erin West!) and contains work or interviews with the likes of Sam Lipsyte, Robert Coover, Clancy Martin, Lydia Millet, Stephen O'Connor, Deb Olin Unferth, Adrian Tomine and many other awesome artists and writers.

We are also having a launch party next Saturday at PPOW gallery in Chelsea. Clink on the link for all the details, but Stephen O'Connor, Deb Olin Unferth, Sasha Fletcher and Brian Beatty's surrogate will be reading and there will be booze so you know you want to come.

momma was a bildungsroman, papa was a whammy bar...

2010-02-10T13:59:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow night Vol 1 Brooklyn and Gigantic are presenting Greatest Three-Minute Rock ‘n’ Roll Story Ever, a rocking reading with 20 readers, some bands and good times. The readings will only be three minutes each, so not as intimidating as it sounds. I'll be reading a short piece as will James Yeh, Justin Taylor and many other rad writers. 7pm at Bar Matchless. More info here.

Retired astronauts plant American flags into their own chests

2010-02-09T01:01:00.009-05:00

I was cleaning up my old files and came across a very old poem I'd written in 2005 after a Robert Bly poem called The Great Society (1967). I haven't touched the poem or read Bly's in five years. I still like some of the lines, but as you can tell it is very much a poem about the Bush era and doesn't seem salvageable. I figured I'd post it here for fun. (Note: the only edits I've made are losing some semi-colons, which I was using to mirror Bly, but probably incorrectly.)

Here goes:

The New Society

after Robert Bly’s “The Great Society”

Dentists will drill holes in fences to monitor their neighbors.
At night, evangelists drain the motel pools
As apes appear hauling barrels of oil to refill them.
On city ledges, pigeon courts dole out painful sentences to captured doves:

New buildings designed with the terrible architecture of ants.

The legs of senators are trapped in gofer holes.
Dogs sniff at dark clouds brewing to the east.
The President daydreams of invading everything
Except his own skull.
The pregnant cement of city streets has split open with weeds.

Talking heads cough up balls of static on TV: The suburbs brood.
The traveling salesmen returns home covered in blood, again.
Wet children in their lawns stare troubled at each other
Before vanishing to their dinners while
Retired astronauts plant American flags into their own chests.

In other poetry news...

A few of you have met my friend Taras Castle. He is an, uh, interesting man. He has been working on a collection of poems called The Red Cosmonaut Cycle for a while and one of those poems just appeared in Greatest Uncommon Denominator. If you click on the link you can see a preview and purchase the poem for a mere 50 cents (or for a bit more the entire issue). Here is the first paragraph:

The old lady tells me that inside

the belly of every songbird
there is a purse of gold coins.

the web: now in real life

2010-01-28T18:29:00.004-05:00

The Rumpus and htmlgiant party last week was a rocking good time. Thanks to everyone who came out (and it was a packed house). I had fun DJing and listening to the rad musicians and readers, especially Deb Olin Unferth and her forthcoming Noon story and Jeffrey Lewis and his Mosquito Murderer rap. There is a write-up with some short interviews and pictures at Scallywag and Vagabond.

In other web slash non-web news, Gigantic magazine just put some new content online including a rad story by Saša Stanišić and some Little Big Planet levels inspired by Matthew Barney's Cremaster films. We also are having a call for submissions for 300 biographies of famous Americans in anticipation of Gigantic #2, which will be available in physical bookstores near you in a few short weeks.

In just web news, a short article of mine at The Faster Times (Is David Foster Wallace So 1990s?) got linked at The New Yorker blog and other places, which is pretty neat.

scratch master

2010-01-18T16:50:00.004-05:00

This Thursday I will be DJing The Rumpus One Year Anniversary Party (co-sponsored by htmlgiant). The Rumpus is a great website that I've written for a few times. The party features lots of great readers and musicians (Deb Olin Unferth, Tao Lin, Justin Taylor, Jeffrey Lewis, etc.) and is hosted by my good friend and Gigantic co-editor Rozalia Jovanovic.

Check out this nifty animated invite:

Come on out, you know you want to.

A week and a half ago I wrote a long (and mostly negative) review of James Cameron's Avatar for The Millions. Yesterday Avatar won a Golden Globe for best picture, but we live in a world where Juno of all awfully-written films won a script Oscar and Crash was named best picture...so what can you do?

The second (and super-awesome) issue of Gigantic should come out in the next few weeks. I know we've been saying that for a while, but this time we are super-serious.

tune in

2010-01-08T01:26:00.010-05:00

I made a guest appearance on WNYC's Soundcheck yesterday to talk about my essay in the current Oxford American Southern Music Issue and southern music in general. I didn't talk for too long (the editor of Oxford American, Marc Smirnoff, was the main guest) but it was a lot of fun and interesting to see the inside of radio. Anyway, you can listen to the episode online or download it if you'd like.

And if you haven't checked out the OA's music issue, you should get on it. It is really great this year. I've been rocking the CDs constantly for the past few weeks.

Boring personal readings habits 2k9 summary edition

2010-01-01T19:24:00.005-05:00

Continuing my annual tradition that is of no interest to anyone but myself, here is the chronological list of every book I finished in 2009. Finished means I finished reading the entire thing front to back, but not necessarily that I started reading it in 2009 (likewise books I started this year yet didn't finish are absent).

My goal was at least 50 books. I completed the 50th late in the afternoon on December 31st.

1. The Tormented Mirror – Russell Edson
2. The True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey
3. The Men Who Stare at Goats – Jon Ronson
4. Flying to America – Donald Barthelme
5. How to Sell – Clancy Martin
6. Retreat Retreat Chapbook – Wells Tower
7. The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven – Rick Moody
8. Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee – James Tate
9. Farewell Navigator – Leni Zumas
10. Like You’d Understand Anyway – Jim Shepard
11. Funny Misshapen Body – Jeffery Brown
12. NOON 2009
13. Days Between Stations – Steve Erickson
14. Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson
15. Hey Jack! – Barry Hannah
16. Personal Days – Ed Park
17. Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World – Donald Antrim
18. Varieties of Disturbance – Lydia Davis
19. Trout Fishing in America – Richard Brautigan
20. Last Days – Brian Evenson
21. The Pill Versus the Springhill... – Richard Brautigan
22. Roads – Larry McMurtry
23. The King – Donald Barthelme
24. High Lonesome – Barry Hannah
25. Platform – Michel Houellebecq
26. The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake – Breece D’J Pancake
27. I Love and Understand You and Would Be... - James Yeh
28. The Spectacle of the Body – Noy Holland
29. The Collected Works of Tony Millionare's Sock Monkey*
30. The Writer's Notebook: Craft Essays from Tin House
31. Fugue State – Brian Evenson
32. Prison Pit Vol. 1 – Johnny Ryan
33. Skin Deep – Charles Burns
34. The Squirrel Machine – Hans Rickheit
35. Tours of the Black Clock – Steve Erickson
36. Child of God – Cormac McCarthy
37. Light Boxes – Shane Jones
38. Che: A Graphic Biography – Sid Jacobson
39. The Ask – Sam Lipsyte
40. The Hour of the Star – Clarice Lispector
41. In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan
42. Born Standing Up – Steve Martin
43. Twilight of the Superheroes – Deborah Eisenberg
44. The Book of Evidence – John Banville
45. The Anthologist – Nicholson Baker
46. New York Tyrant V. III Issue I
47. All-Star Superman Volume 1 – Morrison and Quitely
48. All-Star Superman Volume 2 – Morrison and Quitely
49. Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine – Stanley Crawford
50. Numbers in the Dark – Italo Calvino

* indicates books I'd read before previously...although this year that was only one book.

20.5 novels/novellas

15 story collections/lit mags

8 comics/graphic novels

5 books of non-fiction (one of which was also a graphic novel)

2.5 poetry collections

This year I was working full time and also finishing up my fiction thesis for Columbia University, which I think cut down on my reading time substantially (14 fewer than 2008). I'm a little ashamed of the gender imbalance in the above list, something to fix in 2k10. The amount of poetry I read fell dramatically and I'm not sure what explains that. Non-fiction is always low since I read a lot of magazines for that (primarily The Believer, New Yorker, Harper's and The Oxford American).

I read two books each by Steve Erickson, Barry Hannah, Grant Morrison and Donald Barthelme. Three books each by Brian Evenson (all 2009 releases no less) and Richard Brautigan.

Top 10 favorites (no order):

Days Between Stations – Steve Erickson

Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson

The True History of the Kelly Gang – Peter Carey

The Ask – Sam Lipsyte

Child of God – Cormac McCarthy

Last Days – Brian Evenson

Like You’d Understand Anyway – Jim Shepard

NOON 2009

Personal Days – Ed Park

In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan

6 honorable mentions:

The Anthologist – Nicholson Baker

How to Sell – Clancy Martin

All-Star Superman Volume 1 – Morrison and Quitely

Hey Jack! – Barry Hannah

Trout Fishing in America – Richard Brautigan

Fugue State – Brian Evenson

hollaback blog

2010-01-01T18:54:00.005-05:00

I wanted to give a shout out (back?) to Jay Diamond at Vol 1. Brooklyn (a great culture blog based in, well, Brooklyn). He recently made a nice post titled Scott Esposito vs. Lincoln Michel in a Cage Match to Determine who my Favorite Lit. Blogger is about my book blogging at The Faster Times and then some guy named Scott Esposito who I must now destroy.

The fight will take place in February in a cage suspended above the Gowanus. I'm told I'm allowed to bring either one folding chair or one copy of Infinite Jest into the ring. Is anyone available to help me train?

Farked, Metafiltered, Digged

2009-12-16T22:06:00.003-05:00

Yesterday my account of The Velvet Underground's "reunion" at the New York Library went up on The Rumpus. The piece got picked up at a few places around the internet, including Metafilter, Fark and Digg. I feel like Paul Wall here!

“The building has hit fire code,” the security guard told me. “500 people.” Some of the people outside were holding tickets. I asked the guard if I could use the bathroom out in the hall. He sighed, shrugged and said, “I’ll remember you.” I decided not to risk it.

Also, two days ago I had a (very short) story go up at Opium magazine. It is called Consequences:

I once knew a girl who’d been smothered with a pillow by her lover. It was the same old story, jealousy of this or another. He didn’t get far and she lived, but she became afraid of anything soft.

ctrl + f "Lincoln Michel"

2009-12-11T18:11:00.005-05:00

The Oxford American's 11th annual music issue is out now and this week they put up Q&As with all of the contributors online. If you click here and do a ctrl + f for "Lincoln Michel" you can read me discussing Iggy Pop, Bernhard's The Loser, why U2 is boring and other music-related things. Or you can just scroll way down. Or not click. Hey, I give up. Do what you wanna do.

Oxford American Southern Music Issue

2009-12-09T02:15:00.004-05:00

Oh yes, it is that time of year!

For those not in the loop, every year The Oxford American compiles a few CDs of amazing tunes from across the spectrum of Southern music. Soul, country, bluegrass, rap, pop...it is all here, likely by artists you have never heard of before. Each track gets an essay (or two or three) to accompany it in the magazine and this year I'm lucky enough to have a piece of mine included. I'm pretty excited to be a part of this because an OA Southern Music issue is always some seriously massive stuff. This year features two CDs, one devoted entirely to Arkansas musicians.

The Oxford American also published a short story of mine earlier this year.

It's like Santa came early this year and he had a flask of bourbon in his hand and a twang in his voice.

Big Bling

2009-12-07T23:41:00.006-05:00

New York City (and surrounding area) friends, three magazines that I am involved with—Gigantic (co-editor), The Faster Times (books editor) and The Rumpus (sometime contributor)—are joining forces to throw a near-year-end holiday party on Monday, December 14th.

Should be a pretend-fancy good time.

Three Jokes the Homeless Man Told on My Morning Commute

2009-12-07T23:38:00.002-05:00

Q: What did the breakfast say to the lunch?

A: Eat me.

Q: What did the SWAT team say to the young man?

A: Get a haircut!

Q: What do you call the stars in Hollywood?

A: The Big Dipper.

Recent things at The Faster Times

2009-11-25T15:09:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Lots of projects in the works. Some fiction coming out, some non-fiction coming out, some reading series being worked on, some issue 2 of Gigantic (featuring Robert Coover, Sam Lipsyte, Lydia Millet, Adrian Tomine, Clancy Martin and many more...it will be massive, titanic, giant, even gigantic) being finished up, and so on. In the meantime, here are some recent posts of mine at The Faster Times:

The 100 Best Books of the 2000s (At Least According to The Times)

Philip Roth’s Bad Sex Writing Gives Him Hope for a 2009 Literary Prize

A Novelty Deckchair of One’s Own

Balls-Out Badassery: TFT Review of Prison Pit Book One by Johnny Ryan

Will the Real Roberto Bolaño Please Stand Up?