Karl Stevens visited my graphic novel course to talk about his art. My students and I had a vibrant discussion of his collection Whatever the class before his visit, and they asked many perceptive questions of him when he came to class. He spoke to us of his intensive crosshatching techniques, the kinds of materials he uses, how long it takes him to do a strip (and how long it takes him to do his watercolors and oil paintings, all in a similar photo-realist style); he also spoke to us of his love of the Old Masters, especially Rembrandt. Generous and personable, Karl even gave us all a demonstration of his working process by sitting at a table at the front of the classroom and inking part of his latest Failure strip. As I'll tell my students this week, when we see it in the paper, we'll be able to say, "He drew part of that in my class!" Thanks again, Karl.

Looking forward to this Sunday's reading at Outpost 186 in Cambridge at 3 pm. Matthew Derby, Kristen Iskandrian, and John Dermot Woods are reading as part of the Small Animal Project Reading Series. (John co-edits the journal Action, Yes which will have two short prose pieces of mine in the upcoming issue. He's got a new book out which I can't wait to see; check out his blog, too, which often has the latest on cutting-edge comics and graphic novels, as well as on other innovative/experimental fiction, art, etc.)

Robert Swartwood has a call up for an anthology of "Hint Fiction": fiction of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story. The deadline is the end of August.

My story "The Teacher" is in the July issue of Word Riot. You can also listen to my reading of the story by clicking on the audio link there. And you can download it to your iPod via Word Riot's monthly podcast subscription at FeedBurner.

Word Riot has just accepted my story "The Teacher." It will likely appear in July.

The International Virginia Woolf Society sponsors two panels at the MLA each year. This year I'm happy to be on one of them. My paper "The 'power to cut and wound and excite': Feeling and Communication after War in Mrs. Dalloway" is one of three papers on the panel "Troping the Light Fantastic: Woolf's Use of Pleasure and Desire." Here are the abstracts. I look forward to meeting everyone in San Francisco this December.

Wish I could be there ...



LIT 14 LAUNCH PARTY AND CELEBRATION!

Friday, June 6th from 6-10 PM
Kellen Gallery @ The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center of Parsons
The Corner of Fifth Avenue & 13th Street

Featuring readings by...

NOELLE KOCOT
WILL COMERFORD
HEATHER CHRISTLE
IRINA REYN


Come eat, drink and be merry, surrounded by gorgeous art in the brand new Kellen Gallery! Come to say goodbye to LIT’s departing prose editor, Scott Dahlie! But most of all, come for the memories.


Reader bios:

Noelle Kocot’s first two books, 4 and The Raving Fortune, were published by Four Way Books in 2001 and 2004, respectively. Her book, Poem for the End of Time and Other Poems, was published by Wave Books in 2006. Sunny Wednesday is forthcoming from Wave Books in spring 2009. Noelle has won grants and awards from The Academy of American Poets, The American Poetry Review (The S.J. Marks Prize), The National Endowment for the Arts and The Fund for Poetry, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, where she was born and raised.

Will Comerford has worked as a music journalist and a medical writer. He lives in Brooklyn. His stories have appeared in The Greensboro Review, Zone 3, and Fourteen Hills.

Heather Christle is the assistant editor of jubilat and blogs for the Kenyon Review. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Fence, NO: A Journal of the Arts, Skein, and Tarpaulin Sky. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Irina Reyn’s first novel, What Happened to Anna K., is forthcoming from Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. She is also the editor of the nonfiction anthology Living on the Edge of the World: New Jersey Writers Take on the Garden State. Her short stories, essays and book criticism have appeared in such publications as One Story, Post Road, Nextbook, Ballyhoo Stories, The Forward, San Francisco Chronicle and The Moscow Times.


LIT 14: Available NEXT MONTH!

Featuring poetry and prose by...

Seth Abramson * Paige Ackerson-Kiely * Kim Addonizio * Michael Aird * Jeanne Marie Beaumont * Caren Beilin * James Belflower * Wyatt Bonikowski * Heather Christle * Will Comerford * Nicole Cooley * Rhiannon Dickerson * Chris Edgar * Joshua Edwards * Elaine Equi * John Estes * CJ Evans * Jennifer S. Flescher * Jamey Gallagher * Regan Good * Ian Grody * Kimiko Hahn * Christopher Harris * Anne Heide * Megin Jimenez * Karla Kelsey * Amy King * Noelle Kocot * Lance Larsen * J. Michael Martinez * Karyna McGlynn * Amy McNamara * Joe Meno * Robert Miltner * Sally Molini * Carol Novack * Idra Novey * Irina Reyn * Anne Marie Rooney * Mary Ruefle * Jerome Sala * Peter Jay Shippy * Bronwen Tate * Greg Wrenn * Mark Yakich

AND!

Art by...

Gregory L. Blackstock * Tiffany Matula


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New York, NY 10011

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I am heading off to Austin, Texas, on Thursday to attend the International Conference on Narrative, where I will present my paper, "Ford Madox Ford's Wartime Impressionism." The paper is a section from my book project, Traces of War: Shell Shock, Death Drive, and Narrative after the First World War.

I have recently learned that I am one of four winners of LIT Magazine's AWP contest. "Late Summer 1979" will appear in LIT 14 in June.