Showing posts with label Mad Hatters Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mad Hatters Review. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Some wonderful works on the new Mad Hatters' Review Blog
CAConrad Interview & Video, Poetry by Howie Good, Ric Carfagna, & Larissa Shmailo, and today, a dazzling
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
MAD HATTERS' SERIES READING ON FEB 13TH --- WITH HARP & ALTAR
February 13, 2009
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
at the KGB Bar
85 E. 4th St., NYC (between Bowery & 2nd)
Come by and hear some great writers of unconventional fiction chosen by the editors of Mad Hatters'Review and Harp & Altar.
Joshua Cohen is the author of four books, including the novels Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto (Fugue State Press, 2007) and A Heaven of Others (Starcherone, 2007). Another novel, Graven Imaginings, is forthcoming from Dalkey Archive Press. Essays have appeared in The Forward, Nextbook, The Believer, and Harper’s. North Vain, Bluff, from which the piece that appears in the current issue of Harp & Altar is excerpted, is the second book of a series entitled Two Great Russian Novels. He lives in Brooklyn.
Tim Horvath, whose fiction appears in the current issue of MHR, won the 2006 Raymond Carver Short Story Award and the ‘06 prize of the Society for the Study of the Short Story. His stories are out or forthcoming in Alimentum: The Literature of Food, Fiction, Web Conjunctions, Sleeping Fish, Sein und Werden, and elsewhere. He teaches a class for Grub Street Writers in Boston centered on the application of findings from brain science to writing and literature. His novella Circulation, called “a glittering narrative performance” by David Huddle, will be released as a short book by Sunnyoutside Press in January 2009. He is currently working on a novel in which one or more (it is unclear which) microscopic counter-novels fester in the interstices of the typeface and must be eradicated lest the infra-structure come crashing down.
Joanna Howard is the author of Frights of Fancy, a collection of short prose forthcoming from Boa Editions. Her work has appeared in Conjunctions, Chicago Review, Unsaid, Quarterly West, American Letters and Commentary, Fourteen Hills, Western Humanities Review, Salt Hill, Tarpaulin Sky and elsewhere. A chapbook In the Colorless Round, with artwork by novelist and artist Rikki Ducornet, is available from Noemi Press. Her “Seascape” appeared in Harp & Altar #2.
Mary Mackey, with poems forthcoming in MHR Issue 11, is a poet and novelist who lives in Berkeley, California. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including Breaking The Fever (Marsh Hawk Press); one experimental novella, Immersion; and fourteen novels, including A Grand Passion(Simon & Schuster), The Year the Horses Came (HarperCollins), The Notorious Mrs. Winston(Putnam/Berkley Books), and The Widow’s War (Putnam/Berkley Books--in press for Fall 2009). Mackey’s works have been translated into eleven foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Greek, and Finnish. She has lectured at Harvard and the Smithsonian, is past president of the West Coast branch of PEN, a Fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Professor Emeritus of English at California State University. A member of the Writers Guild of America, West, she wrote the screenplay for the award-winning feature film Silence. More information about her can be found at www.marymackey.com. and at www.marshhawkpress.org.
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
at the KGB Bar
85 E. 4th St., NYC (between Bowery & 2nd)
Come by and hear some great writers of unconventional fiction chosen by the editors of Mad Hatters'Review and Harp & Altar.
Joshua Cohen is the author of four books, including the novels Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto (Fugue State Press, 2007) and A Heaven of Others (Starcherone, 2007). Another novel, Graven Imaginings, is forthcoming from Dalkey Archive Press. Essays have appeared in The Forward, Nextbook, The Believer, and Harper’s. North Vain, Bluff, from which the piece that appears in the current issue of Harp & Altar is excerpted, is the second book of a series entitled Two Great Russian Novels. He lives in Brooklyn.
Tim Horvath, whose fiction appears in the current issue of MHR, won the 2006 Raymond Carver Short Story Award and the ‘06 prize of the Society for the Study of the Short Story. His stories are out or forthcoming in Alimentum: The Literature of Food, Fiction, Web Conjunctions, Sleeping Fish, Sein und Werden, and elsewhere. He teaches a class for Grub Street Writers in Boston centered on the application of findings from brain science to writing and literature. His novella Circulation, called “a glittering narrative performance” by David Huddle, will be released as a short book by Sunnyoutside Press in January 2009. He is currently working on a novel in which one or more (it is unclear which) microscopic counter-novels fester in the interstices of the typeface and must be eradicated lest the infra-structure come crashing down.
Joanna Howard is the author of Frights of Fancy, a collection of short prose forthcoming from Boa Editions. Her work has appeared in Conjunctions, Chicago Review, Unsaid, Quarterly West, American Letters and Commentary, Fourteen Hills, Western Humanities Review, Salt Hill, Tarpaulin Sky and elsewhere. A chapbook In the Colorless Round, with artwork by novelist and artist Rikki Ducornet, is available from Noemi Press. Her “Seascape” appeared in Harp & Altar #2.
Mary Mackey, with poems forthcoming in MHR Issue 11, is a poet and novelist who lives in Berkeley, California. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including Breaking The Fever (Marsh Hawk Press); one experimental novella, Immersion; and fourteen novels, including A Grand Passion(Simon & Schuster), The Year the Horses Came (HarperCollins), The Notorious Mrs. Winston(Putnam/Berkley Books), and The Widow’s War (Putnam/Berkley Books--in press for Fall 2009). Mackey’s works have been translated into eleven foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Greek, and Finnish. She has lectured at Harvard and the Smithsonian, is past president of the West Coast branch of PEN, a Fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Professor Emeritus of English at California State University. A member of the Writers Guild of America, West, she wrote the screenplay for the award-winning feature film Silence. More information about her can be found at www.marymackey.com. and at www.marshhawkpress.org.
Friday, July 18, 2008
ANNOUNCING THE MAD BUNKERS' MASH
Calling works for an unprecedented mashup of two stately publishing venues:
The Mad Hatters' Review & Bunk Magazine
MaSh up & MayheM & haw Issue
Wedding date: Spring/Summer 2009
Reception: The Mad Bunkers' Mash & Racket Club, Bronx, NY & Somewhere off the L.A. Freeway, date TBA
****************
Mashup is the spirit of the day (second only to dementia): Mash a Democrat and a Tory. Mash a Hip Hop CD with Beethoven's Ninth. Mix the movie Dark Victory with a modern Japanese horror movie sound track. Cross eclairs with ecosystems, a Bush speech with a toilet brush. Of course, writers have been mashing for quite some time with their cutups and exquisite corpses.
Mashup is what happens when content is no longer king, usurped by the mischievous jester adept at standing on his head and hands, spouting irreverent nonsensical sense, walking with frivolity on ceilings, pirouetting on paradoxes, ridiculing rules and rulers, and turning rapid somersaults -- all for the pleasure of the jester, her audience, and his sagacious self.
In homage to the jester, we are mashing two publications:
the irreverent, collaborative, genre-blending multimedia literary magazine Mad Hatters Review
and
the provocative satirical new media lampoon Bunk Magazine
Not only will the publications collide to present a mashed union (The Mad Bunkers), but we will feature mashed content.
For this hystorical issue we are soliciting three types of artistes:
Those who wish to be mashed
Those who wish to do mashing with those who wish to be mashed
And those who wish to mash their own
WE WILL BE OPEN FOR EMAIL SUBMISSIONS ONLY (madbunkers@yahoo.com cc: madbunkers@gmail.com) ON SEPTEMBER 1ST. Deadlines vary according to category.
Verily yours,
Carol Novack, Pub/Ed Mad Hatters' Review &
Mark C. Marino, Pub/Ed Bunk Magazine
& various & sundry editors to be listed on our Bunkhouse page
________________________________________________________________________________
Those Who Wish to be Mashed
Submit your inventive written works to us for surprise use in the issue. Primarily we are seeking poems, short fictions, whatnots and literary non-fictions. Please familiarize yourselves with Mad Hatters' Review and Bunk Magazine to get an idea of what we like before deciding to submit. We cannot predict how we will mash your work, only that we will mash it and you will receive proper acknowledgment. In fact, we will present unmashed works on the 3rd floor, baby clothes department.
Aside from the above literary submissions, the Mad Bunkers are seeking visual, aural, and interactive art forms, as well.
These may include:
videos
music
still images
flash animations, text generators, or other forms.
Have no fear, if you can make it, we can mash it.
Submit:
Poems, short fictions, whatnots, or literary non-fiction (maximum word count 3000) by October 1st.
We will consider previously published works, but you must provide detailed publication credits.
Also provide a bio (150 words max).
If you are interested in collaborating (directly) with the mashers, please let us know that in a brief cover letter.
PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME & THE APPROPRIATE DESCRIPTIVE IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL: I'M A (WRITER, MUSICIAN, VISUAL ARTIST, FLASHER, VIDEOGRAPHER, VISPOET, TEXT GENERATOR, OTHER FORM INVENTOR, MULTI-NEW-FUTURISTIC-POSTPOSTMODERN MEDIA TYPE) AND I WANT TO BE MASHED
_________________________________________________________________________________
Those Who Wish to Mash
Submit your proposal for a mashup project using our accepted literary works. The proposal will necessarily be somewhat general since you will not know your text just yet. However, we are looking for innovative (oh, that tired word again) visions on how to mash texts with each other or with other media. The finished piece may differ widely and wildly once you see the text.
Submit:
Proposal: 500-750 words
Portfolio of previous work
Links to online examples (if they exist) of works similar to the mash you propose.
Bio (150 words max)
October 15th deadline
PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL FOLLOWED BY: I WANT TO MASH.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Those Wish to Mash Their Own
We will also consider self-contained mashup submissions (unpublished) in which artists mashup other source material in new and interesting ways. When using large chunks of still recognizable texts, if the source material has been created by another person or persons, we will need written permission from said individual/s (unless other licenses -- read: Creative Commons -- apply).
Submit: Completed Mashup work by November 15th.
PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL FOLLOWED BY: I WANT TO MASH MY OWN.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Submission Guidelines:
Selection Criteria: For a sense of our selection criteria, please peruse the contents of our publications and then mash those together in your mind. If you find yourself mindless after the mashing, you won't be alone and help is on the way. We will facilitate an online Mash Support Yahoo or Google Group for a modest fee.
Submit all works to madbunkers@yahoo.com, cc madbunkers@gmail.com. Texts (words alone) should be pasted into the corpus of your email and attached as Word or RTF docs. Visuals should be medium resolution jpegs or gifs. Very large files should be sent via yousendit or other file-sharing software, but only after September.
Add both of these e-addresses to your contacts list so we don't have to deal with spam blockers when we correspond with you. We do not believe in snailmail. The GPO is under the influence of 5,687 corrupt greedy bastards who plot daily against the struggling masses. We won't reveal the identity of the 5,687 corrupt greedy bastards. You of all people should know.
Simultaneous submissions are politically correct. We are politically correct. And we believe that self-important, self-centered editors who want writers to place their creations in mothballs for more than 30 days while awaiting decisions should be tarred & mashed with sharp-beaked birds. Of course, if your precocious child is accepted into another nursery school, please let us know immediately. We'll serve up the Ritalin to some other brat.
On the other hand, we hate sending rejection emails and refuse to do so. So please --- if you haven't heard from us within 120 days of your submission, presume that "while we enjoyed your submission, it didn't suit our current needs." This has got to be the dumbest, most over-used rejection letter language both of us editors and you have had the misfortune to read. Lots of chi-chi journals send out letters like that. We've surmised that lots of chi-chi editors lack imagination. So instead, imagine that our rejection letters would read: "Dear ____, Thank you so much for sending us __________. We came to blows over it, but the other editor prevailed. There's no accounting for taste. We'll never work together again. The other editor's a Philistine. You deserve better, but please don't forget to revise at least 10 times and check your grammar and word usage, particularly "lay" and "lie." We are offering an online sentence diagramming & verb conjugation workshop for a modest fee. With cutting edge, new media grammar films. Adverbial abuse will be thrown in free if you sign up today. May you thrive & multiply! Love, Carol & Mark et al.
Multiple Submissions: NO NO NO, we can't deal with them. EG. If you send us a mashup video called "Mama's Boy" and a month later decide to send us "Daddy's Girl," we won't consider the latter. No way. Send us your best. We deserve it and so do you.
Multiple Type/Category Submissions: Let's say you want to be mashed, but you also want to propose a mash. You may email separate submissions, but watch the dates, please!
Queries: Okay, sure, go ahead, but don't ask what time it is when there's a clock on the wall behind you.
Digression:
COMBINATION SPECIAL VIDEO CONTEST PITCH - a Mad Hatters' Review & Web del Sol hosted competition with a $500 prize to the first place winner: ENTER ENTER ENTER!
______________________________________________________________________
Some examples of mashups. These serve as an inspiration for the theme -- rather than models for how to mash for this issue.
Movies:
Toy Story Requiem for a Dream Mashup
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D1qihwMN0JM
This video mashes up footage, music, and more
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9QfrsD1CpPI
Music:
One of the most famous mashups:
The Grey Album
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Album
Generators -- these automate the process of mashing up.
Here's an existing text mashup machine that draws upon Project Gutenberg
http://flashups.org/mashups.php
Here's a typical mashup parody: The Show Title Mashup Generator
http://www.generatorland.com/generators/tv_show_mashup_gl.php
Here's another satirical masher
http://www.theadgenerator.org/
fin
CONGRATULATIONS! If you've managed to get through these verbose, rococo, convoluted, selves-indulgent, compulsory guidelines and believe you've understood them, you have won a virtual mad bunker's beanie with a genuine starfish (one of the few left on this planet) embroidered atop. Please send head size and choice of colors (EG: complicated cerulean with vibrant yellow starfish; sexy violet with neon green starfish.)
The Mad Hatters' Review & Bunk Magazine
MaSh up & MayheM & haw Issue
Wedding date: Spring/Summer 2009
Reception: The Mad Bunkers' Mash & Racket Club, Bronx, NY & Somewhere off the L.A. Freeway, date TBA
****************
Mashup is the spirit of the day (second only to dementia): Mash a Democrat and a Tory. Mash a Hip Hop CD with Beethoven's Ninth. Mix the movie Dark Victory with a modern Japanese horror movie sound track. Cross eclairs with ecosystems, a Bush speech with a toilet brush. Of course, writers have been mashing for quite some time with their cutups and exquisite corpses.
Mashup is what happens when content is no longer king, usurped by the mischievous jester adept at standing on his head and hands, spouting irreverent nonsensical sense, walking with frivolity on ceilings, pirouetting on paradoxes, ridiculing rules and rulers, and turning rapid somersaults -- all for the pleasure of the jester, her audience, and his sagacious self.
In homage to the jester, we are mashing two publications:
the irreverent, collaborative, genre-blending multimedia literary magazine Mad Hatters Review
and
the provocative satirical new media lampoon Bunk Magazine
Not only will the publications collide to present a mashed union (The Mad Bunkers), but we will feature mashed content.
For this hystorical issue we are soliciting three types of artistes:
Those who wish to be mashed
Those who wish to do mashing with those who wish to be mashed
And those who wish to mash their own
WE WILL BE OPEN FOR EMAIL SUBMISSIONS ONLY (madbunkers@yahoo.com cc: madbunkers@gmail.com) ON SEPTEMBER 1ST. Deadlines vary according to category.
Verily yours,
Carol Novack, Pub/Ed Mad Hatters' Review &
Mark C. Marino, Pub/Ed Bunk Magazine
& various & sundry editors to be listed on our Bunkhouse page
________________________________________________________________________________
Those Who Wish to be Mashed
Submit your inventive written works to us for surprise use in the issue. Primarily we are seeking poems, short fictions, whatnots and literary non-fictions. Please familiarize yourselves with Mad Hatters' Review and Bunk Magazine to get an idea of what we like before deciding to submit. We cannot predict how we will mash your work, only that we will mash it and you will receive proper acknowledgment. In fact, we will present unmashed works on the 3rd floor, baby clothes department.
Aside from the above literary submissions, the Mad Bunkers are seeking visual, aural, and interactive art forms, as well.
These may include:
videos
music
still images
flash animations, text generators, or other forms.
Have no fear, if you can make it, we can mash it.
Submit:
Poems, short fictions, whatnots, or literary non-fiction (maximum word count 3000) by October 1st.
We will consider previously published works, but you must provide detailed publication credits.
Also provide a bio (150 words max).
If you are interested in collaborating (directly) with the mashers, please let us know that in a brief cover letter.
PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME & THE APPROPRIATE DESCRIPTIVE IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL: I'M A (WRITER, MUSICIAN, VISUAL ARTIST, FLASHER, VIDEOGRAPHER, VISPOET, TEXT GENERATOR, OTHER FORM INVENTOR, MULTI-NEW-FUTURISTIC-POSTPOSTMODERN MEDIA TYPE) AND I WANT TO BE MASHED
_________________________________________________________________________________
Those Who Wish to Mash
Submit your proposal for a mashup project using our accepted literary works. The proposal will necessarily be somewhat general since you will not know your text just yet. However, we are looking for innovative (oh, that tired word again) visions on how to mash texts with each other or with other media. The finished piece may differ widely and wildly once you see the text.
Submit:
Proposal: 500-750 words
Portfolio of previous work
Links to online examples (if they exist) of works similar to the mash you propose.
Bio (150 words max)
October 15th deadline
PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL FOLLOWED BY: I WANT TO MASH.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Those Wish to Mash Their Own
We will also consider self-contained mashup submissions (unpublished) in which artists mashup other source material in new and interesting ways. When using large chunks of still recognizable texts, if the source material has been created by another person or persons, we will need written permission from said individual/s (unless other licenses -- read: Creative Commons -- apply).
Submit: Completed Mashup work by November 15th.
PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL FOLLOWED BY: I WANT TO MASH MY OWN.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Submission Guidelines:
Selection Criteria: For a sense of our selection criteria, please peruse the contents of our publications and then mash those together in your mind. If you find yourself mindless after the mashing, you won't be alone and help is on the way. We will facilitate an online Mash Support Yahoo or Google Group for a modest fee.
Submit all works to madbunkers@yahoo.com, cc madbunkers@gmail.com. Texts (words alone) should be pasted into the corpus of your email and attached as Word or RTF docs. Visuals should be medium resolution jpegs or gifs. Very large files should be sent via yousendit or other file-sharing software, but only after September.
Add both of these e-addresses to your contacts list so we don't have to deal with spam blockers when we correspond with you. We do not believe in snailmail. The GPO is under the influence of 5,687 corrupt greedy bastards who plot daily against the struggling masses. We won't reveal the identity of the 5,687 corrupt greedy bastards. You of all people should know.
Simultaneous submissions are politically correct. We are politically correct. And we believe that self-important, self-centered editors who want writers to place their creations in mothballs for more than 30 days while awaiting decisions should be tarred & mashed with sharp-beaked birds. Of course, if your precocious child is accepted into another nursery school, please let us know immediately. We'll serve up the Ritalin to some other brat.
On the other hand, we hate sending rejection emails and refuse to do so. So please --- if you haven't heard from us within 120 days of your submission, presume that "while we enjoyed your submission, it didn't suit our current needs." This has got to be the dumbest, most over-used rejection letter language both of us editors and you have had the misfortune to read. Lots of chi-chi journals send out letters like that. We've surmised that lots of chi-chi editors lack imagination. So instead, imagine that our rejection letters would read: "Dear ____, Thank you so much for sending us __________. We came to blows over it, but the other editor prevailed. There's no accounting for taste. We'll never work together again. The other editor's a Philistine. You deserve better, but please don't forget to revise at least 10 times and check your grammar and word usage, particularly "lay" and "lie." We are offering an online sentence diagramming & verb conjugation workshop for a modest fee. With cutting edge, new media grammar films. Adverbial abuse will be thrown in free if you sign up today. May you thrive & multiply! Love, Carol & Mark et al.
Multiple Submissions: NO NO NO, we can't deal with them. EG. If you send us a mashup video called "Mama's Boy" and a month later decide to send us "Daddy's Girl," we won't consider the latter. No way. Send us your best. We deserve it and so do you.
Multiple Type/Category Submissions: Let's say you want to be mashed, but you also want to propose a mash. You may email separate submissions, but watch the dates, please!
Queries: Okay, sure, go ahead, but don't ask what time it is when there's a clock on the wall behind you.
Digression:
COMBINATION SPECIAL VIDEO CONTEST PITCH - a Mad Hatters' Review & Web del Sol hosted competition with a $500 prize to the first place winner: ENTER ENTER ENTER!
______________________________________________________________________
Some examples of mashups. These serve as an inspiration for the theme -- rather than models for how to mash for this issue.
Movies:
Toy Story Requiem for a Dream Mashup
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D1qihwMN0JM
This video mashes up footage, music, and more
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9QfrsD1CpPI
Music:
One of the most famous mashups:
The Grey Album
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Album
Generators -- these automate the process of mashing up.
Here's an existing text mashup machine that draws upon Project Gutenberg
http://flashups.org/mashups.php
Here's a typical mashup parody: The Show Title Mashup Generator
http://www.generatorland.com/generators/tv_show_mashup_gl.php
Here's another satirical masher
http://www.theadgenerator.org/
fin
CONGRATULATIONS! If you've managed to get through these verbose, rococo, convoluted, selves-indulgent, compulsory guidelines and believe you've understood them, you have won a virtual mad bunker's beanie with a genuine starfish (one of the few left on this planet) embroidered atop. Please send head size and choice of colors (EG: complicated cerulean with vibrant yellow starfish; sexy violet with neon green starfish.)
Monday, June 04, 2007
New Review of Mad Hatters' Review
Current Issue 7:
may be found here (Sein und Werden).
The review will also appear at Word Riot, Laura Hird, and other sites. Thank you, Daniel Y. Harris, artist, poet & MHR lover!
may be found here (Sein und Werden).
The review will also appear at Word Riot, Laura Hird, and other sites. Thank you, Daniel Y. Harris, artist, poet & MHR lover!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
INTERVIEW OF PETER ROBERTSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, MHR
FROM Ready Steady Book:
Peter Robertson
Peter Robertson is Associate Editor of The Mad Hatters' Review and was recently selected as Emerging Writer by the Emerging Writers' Network. His work has appeared in many publications including The Oregon Literary Review and is forthcoming in The Literary Review. He talks here about his life as editor, writer and translator.
Mark Thwaite: Firstly Peter, before we talk about Viva Caledonia, tell us a little about yourself.
Peter Robertson: Where to begin? I am a private person and have to admit that talking about myself is not my favourite pastime. I am a displaced Scot and left my country years ago, living in many countries, including England, Spain and Argentina. When I was eighteen I left the small Perthshire village where I had been brought up and made my way to London but, unlike Carlyle who headed to a different capital, I did not walk. Right now, I spend half the year in Buenos Aires and half in London (where I previously lived for many years) but I would like to start spending more time again in Madrid, where I also used to live. One day I will settle down but who knows where that will be. I guess at some point there will be a defining moment, a climacteric, and I will be forced to choose a more stable base. It is probably the case that at the moment I am caught up in the pursuit of this.
With regard to writing, I started late, about three years ago. I had worked as a linguist for the International Monetary Fund, and subsequently for the World Bank and a number of other United Nations organizations, and so I did work with language, but with a kind that was very specialized and elliptical. Although I have the greatest admiration for those who wield this kind of expertise-- it is akin to mastering an hermetic language-- it was a world away from the literature I wanted to write, and I was consequently prey to frustration. The watershed was when Andrew Graham-Yooll, the Editor of “The Buenos Aires Herald” asked me to write a review of Tununa Mercado’s “In a State of Memory”. I did have a block back then and it took me a long time to get this done, but I finally got round to writing it. Now I no longer have any kind of mental barrier, and I find writing easy. After publishing the article on Mercado, I started writing about aspects of Argentine culture for Chris Mitchell’s “Spike Magazine”. Over the last year or so, I have devoted much of my time to publishing translations of French and Spanish authors, including Ronsard, Paul Éluard and Rubén Darío, and later this year I will start translating the first of many books. I certainly don´t agree with Cervantes who said that “translation is the other side of the tapestry”; in fact, I am convinced that the best translations are transformative and can even be improvements on the original texts. But I know that the moment will come when I will write only fiction, and I already feel that I have many novels written inside my head. In the meantime, there are many other things I want to write—more criticism, more translations, radio plays, short stories, and writing about crime.
MT: Viva Caledonia presents new, unpublished work by those some deem to be twelve of Scotland's most important writers (Alasdair Gray, Janice Galloway, Alan Spence, W.N. Herbert, Dilys Rose, Kirsty Gunn, Robert Crawford, Laura Marney, Tom Pow, Alan Bissett, Robert Alan Jamieson and Anne Donovan). How did "Viva Caledonia" come about?
PR: In a very real sense Viva Caledonia came to me. Last August, in the broiling heat of Madrid, I started translating some short stories by Juan José Millás. On the strength of these, I was later chosen as Emerging Writer by the “Emerging Writers Network”. Anyway, at the time I wasn’t sure where to send the texts but decided to try The Mad Hatters' Review, a multi-media review based in New York. I contacted Carol Novack, the Chief Editor, and herself a gifted writer, and she liked my translations, and decided to publish them. We later developed a correspondence, and a good rapport, and it wasn’t long before Carol asked me if I would like to join the team as “Foreign Editor”. My remit was to get together a multi-media feature with a Scottish theme, showcasing writers, an artist (Calum Colvin) and a musician (Peter de Moncey-Conegliano). Carol asked me if I could persuade a quartet of writers but the whole undertaking soon gathered momentum. The truth was that I wanted to produce something on a grand scale, and I set about approaching twelve first-rate Scottish writers. There were other gifted Scottish writers I could have invited but, for logistical reasons, I was forced to stop there. With regard to an artist, my first choice was Calum Colvin and I was delighted when he agreed to be featured. I also ran a wide-ranging interview with him in Issue 7. What a pleasure it was to work with that man given his complete dedication and unflagging approach to hard work.
MT: Why did you choose an online forum in which to present this work? What advantages has it given you do you think?
I didn’t choose an online forum for Viva Caledonia. As I mentioned, The Mad Hatters' Review is an online publication and, of course, the Internet is the only suitable medium for a multi-media review. But, opening this up, I am convinced that the Internet is the future and that it is only a matter of time before many publications wind up their print versions altogether. To date, I have only been published on-line although next year I am to be published in a number of print publications. But whether as editor or writer, I favour on-line publication, as this guarantees a readership that is more massive and international.
MT: Why did you choose these particular writers?
PR: I chose these twelve writers on the strength of their writing. That alone was my touchstone. Naturally, they all have different styles, and explore different themes, but the common denominator is their excellence. I was responsible for selecting these twelve authors who are certainly among the best contemporary Scottish writing has to offer. Of course, as I have said, there are other equally talented writers I could have invited. In fact, I was tempted to expand the feature even more but I was given instructions by the Chief Editor to call a halt after I had persuaded twelve of Scotland’s leading authors.
MT: Of your writers, who are particular favourites of yours?
PR: It is only natural that I should have my preferences. But I don’t think it would be professional of me to be drawn on that one. And why should it matter? Each of the writers represented is sui generis and excels in his, or her, own way. I would like “Viva Caledonia” to be considered as a whole. As an editor, I always aim to be even-handed and it would be ungracious, and even invidious, of me to start singling out one or two of these writers for special attention.
MT: I know that for you, Peter, Viva Caledonia is "yet another landmark in the articulation of a Scottish national identity", but is this a good way to read? Isn't calling these writers "Scottish writers" just a way of ghettoising them?
PR: Now that you quote that comment back at me, I have to admit that it could be construed as chauvinistic. But no, I don’t think that calling someone a “Scottish writer” is per se to ghettoize them, as you put it. Ghettoes do exist but they don’t tend to be nations. I hope it won’t sound too banal if I say, “You are what you are”. Let us take two Scottish writers from different historical periods, Robert Louis Stevenson and Muriel Spark—both lived abroad, Stevenson in places more far-flung than Spark, but any accurate study of either would have to look closely at the contexts from which they sprung. And it is a truism that the cultural values one inherits permeate one’s work and even give rise to it. Naturally, I am against flag-waving in literature as I am any kind of overt political agenda, something that vitiates much Latin American literature. Nor am I ever going to defend parochialism. In fact, I would contend that the best literature is a conflation of the local and the universal—one at no time negates the other. But it is a delusion to believe that you leave your culture behind, even in cases where you might try to renounce it, and you are in fact indelibly shaped by it. As I said, I live in several countries and, every time I travel, I am conscious of entering a different reality. Humanity is not a lumpen, homogeneous mass.
MT: Actually, I'd also like to ask the inverse of my last question! Don't you think that a number of these writers have cleaved to an identity as "Scottish" writers because they would drown in a larger sea?
PR: I don’t see any grounds for putting it like that and, in fact, many of the writers who appear in Viva Caledonia are well-known south of the border. I don’t know whether you are thinking of any writers in particular when you talk about “cleaving to a national identity”. Again I return to the same leitmotiv—it is important to know who you are and where you come from. It is a matter of identity and writing about what you know. Most of the writers featured in the “Viva Caledonia” are resident in Scotland, and all have spent long periods of time there, so it is only to be expected that they will consider their lives to be inextricably bound up with that country, and seek to write about it. When you talk about drowning in a larger sea, you make me think of Thomas Hood, the Dundee poet: “But I beneath another sea, and whelmed in deeper gulps than he”. But let us not be too cavalier when invoking this “larger sea”. Nationality apart, we must never underestimate the abundance of talent out there and the competitiveness of the markets. Also, we must be precise when defining success--are we considering it in purely literary or commercial terms, or both? Where, for example, do we place a succès d'estime, a work of artistic merit that has flopped commercially? Furthermore, success depends to some extent on freakish fate and literary arbiters can be capricious, so that a reputation can oscillate in a course of a lifetime. And then there are so many writers who set out to be international but drown in a flash. Adopting a mantle of internationalism is not enough—one has to have talent. Transcending “Viva Caledonia”, I am not sure whether it is the aspiration of most writers to get to the top as such but rather to be true to their imaginations, and carve out successful careers accordingly. Once the process of writing is shorn of its romantic associations, we can see that it is an intensely lonely business which calls for an absolute self-discipline and, even in a relatively successful career, there is a high price to be paid.
MT: What are you working on now?
PR: Over the next few weeks, my immediate priority will be to work on a couple of translations: a short-story by an intriguing, yet little-known, Chilean writer, which I will be sending to “The Yale Review” for consideration; and another poem by Maria Teresa Andruetto, an Argentine writer. In fact, my translation of Andruetto’s “Del Latin Recordis” has just been accepted by “The Literary Review” in the USA and my translations of two shorter poems have been published this week in “Apt Literary Magazine”. As far as “The Mad Hatters’ Review” is concerned, right now I am working on a voluminous English feature I have conceived, a kind of companion-piece to “Viva Caledonia”, entitled “Eclectic England”, which will be coming out in two sections, “Eclectic England I” and “Eclectic England II”, the first part in mid summer and the second in the early winter 2007. The feature is already looking very exciting and sixteen first-rate writers, whom I have invited personally, have confirmed that they will be contributing: Diran Adebayo, Patience Agbabi, Simon Armitage, Nicola Barker, David J. Constantine, Jenny Diski, David Dabydeen, Maggie Gee, Aamer Hussein, Gabriel Josipovici, Mimi Khalvati, Deborah Levy, Sara Maitland, Clive Sinclair, Iain Sinclair and George Szirtes. In fact, I have already received outstanding contributions from Patience Agbabi, Nicola Barker, David Constantine, Aamer Hussein, Gabriel Josipovici, Deborah Levy, Sara Maitland, Iain Sinclair and George Szirtes. I have taken on board the charge of insularity that has been leveled by some against “Viva Caledonia”, and in “Eclectic England” I am embracing inclusiveness, going for a feature that will mirror society’s multi-ethnic make-up. Agbabi and Adebayo are of Nigerian descent, Dabydeen was born in Guyana, Hussein in Pakistan, Josipovici is of Egyptian-Jewish descent, Khalvati is Iranian and Szirtes, born in Hungary, came to England as a refugee. I am thrilled that, so far as featured musician for Issue 8 is concerned, “Fitkin Wall” (the duo of Ruth Wall and Graham Fitkin) have agreed to participate. As soon as I heard their music, a beguiling fusion of harp and electronic music, I contacted them to invite them to appear. With regard to artists, I am delighted that Tom Phillips, the Royal Academician, and George Blacklock, the English abstract artist, have agreed to be featured, one in each section. So it is all coalescing and I am sure that “Eclectic England I” will be a fitting tribute to the summer, with more to come in the winter.
MT: What is your favourite book or books?
PR: Here is a woeful admission—I can’t find the time to read for pleasure. These days I will only read writers I am interested in commissioning, those I am thinking of translating, or work that is necessary background reading for critical articles I want to write. So all that I read is directly related to my editing work, or my output. Perhaps this approach may seem narrow but it is dictated my time constraints. As a writer, I think it is more important to write than to read. Of course, there was a time I read voraciously. In the year before I went up to Cambridge, I spent many months living in Norway and I did nothing else but devour books. I was alone for long tracts of time, sometimes for weeks on end, and spoke little Norwegian, so I turned in on myself. It was during this period that I read all of Ibsen’s work, and I enjoyed it greatly—each play tells a spell-binding story (it is interesting that, although he was a playwright, Ibsen claimed that he wrote primarily to be read) and I admire the fact that Ibsen was an iconoclastic writer, never afraid to challenge conventional propriety. Another Scandinavian writer I think highly of is Strindberg. In the year before I went up to Cambridge, and later at King’s, where I had the tendency to stray from the syllabus, I also read a great deal of Russian and French literature. I found Zola to be impressive and was fascinated by Rousseau’s “Confessions”. I would like to read these authors again but there are so many things that I want to write myself, so that is a pipe-dream. It is a pity that even the longest lives are short! Let me return to Ibsen. In his excellent biography, Michael Meyer mentions that, as an adult, Ibsen read little or nothing, only newspapers. I can relate to that more and more. Once I return to Argentina, I will be reading a lot of Argentine literature but my guiding principle will always be whether or not I am interested in translating these writers.
MT: Anything else you would like to say?
PR: On a cautionary note, for me the enemy of good literature is obscurity which often masquerades as complexity—and many a literary charlatan hides behind that cloak. It is unfortunate that in the 20th century many writers, including those who should have known better, took us down this cul-de-sac. Even Eliot, a great poet when intellection was in equipoise with his lyrical gift and did not swamp it, was not exempt. I read somewhere that a publisher once asked him what “Polyphiloprogenitive”, the first line of one of his poems, actually meant. Eliot did not know. In any case, in general terms, we must be vigilant of those who would play games of one-upmanship with literature, using it as a device with which to make others feel foolish. Winding up, in a few days I will be back in Argentina and grappling with a completely different life. Come late June, I will be putting the finishing touches to “Eclectic England I” from the other end of the world, and from the winter. It will be a pity to leave the spring behind but it is time to be getting back and it will be intoxicating to head once again to my beloved La Cumbre to breathe some alpine air. With regard to future plans, I will continue as Associate Editor of “The Mad Hatters’ Review” and intend to follow up “Eclectic England” with an Irish feature. In this connection, I have already approached David Godbold, who is based in Dublin, and was the UK’s official 2005 General Election artist, and I am delighted to say that he has accepted my invitation to be featured artist. I am returning to the UK in the winter and will be launching my own Scottish literary review—which will also showcase artwork by Calum Colvin and other Scottish artists-- in early January 2008. I am delighted that Anne Donovan, Kirsty Gunn (in a joint enterprise with her sister, Merran Gunn, the artist) W.N. Herbert, Robert Alan Jamieson and Tom Pow have already confirmed that they will be contributing, and I am confident that this literary venture will play a vital part in a Scottish cultural ferment. I will just have to find the time to do my own writing interstitially. It’s been a pleasure talking to you Mark, and thank you for your interest, and also for galvanizing the literary world with ReadySteadyBook — I take off my hat to you!
-- Mark Thwaite (29/05/2007)
Peter Robertson
Peter Robertson is Associate Editor of The Mad Hatters' Review and was recently selected as Emerging Writer by the Emerging Writers' Network. His work has appeared in many publications including The Oregon Literary Review and is forthcoming in The Literary Review. He talks here about his life as editor, writer and translator.
Mark Thwaite: Firstly Peter, before we talk about Viva Caledonia, tell us a little about yourself.
Peter Robertson: Where to begin? I am a private person and have to admit that talking about myself is not my favourite pastime. I am a displaced Scot and left my country years ago, living in many countries, including England, Spain and Argentina. When I was eighteen I left the small Perthshire village where I had been brought up and made my way to London but, unlike Carlyle who headed to a different capital, I did not walk. Right now, I spend half the year in Buenos Aires and half in London (where I previously lived for many years) but I would like to start spending more time again in Madrid, where I also used to live. One day I will settle down but who knows where that will be. I guess at some point there will be a defining moment, a climacteric, and I will be forced to choose a more stable base. It is probably the case that at the moment I am caught up in the pursuit of this.
With regard to writing, I started late, about three years ago. I had worked as a linguist for the International Monetary Fund, and subsequently for the World Bank and a number of other United Nations organizations, and so I did work with language, but with a kind that was very specialized and elliptical. Although I have the greatest admiration for those who wield this kind of expertise-- it is akin to mastering an hermetic language-- it was a world away from the literature I wanted to write, and I was consequently prey to frustration. The watershed was when Andrew Graham-Yooll, the Editor of “The Buenos Aires Herald” asked me to write a review of Tununa Mercado’s “In a State of Memory”. I did have a block back then and it took me a long time to get this done, but I finally got round to writing it. Now I no longer have any kind of mental barrier, and I find writing easy. After publishing the article on Mercado, I started writing about aspects of Argentine culture for Chris Mitchell’s “Spike Magazine”. Over the last year or so, I have devoted much of my time to publishing translations of French and Spanish authors, including Ronsard, Paul Éluard and Rubén Darío, and later this year I will start translating the first of many books. I certainly don´t agree with Cervantes who said that “translation is the other side of the tapestry”; in fact, I am convinced that the best translations are transformative and can even be improvements on the original texts. But I know that the moment will come when I will write only fiction, and I already feel that I have many novels written inside my head. In the meantime, there are many other things I want to write—more criticism, more translations, radio plays, short stories, and writing about crime.
MT: Viva Caledonia presents new, unpublished work by those some deem to be twelve of Scotland's most important writers (Alasdair Gray, Janice Galloway, Alan Spence, W.N. Herbert, Dilys Rose, Kirsty Gunn, Robert Crawford, Laura Marney, Tom Pow, Alan Bissett, Robert Alan Jamieson and Anne Donovan). How did "Viva Caledonia" come about?
PR: In a very real sense Viva Caledonia came to me. Last August, in the broiling heat of Madrid, I started translating some short stories by Juan José Millás. On the strength of these, I was later chosen as Emerging Writer by the “Emerging Writers Network”. Anyway, at the time I wasn’t sure where to send the texts but decided to try The Mad Hatters' Review, a multi-media review based in New York. I contacted Carol Novack, the Chief Editor, and herself a gifted writer, and she liked my translations, and decided to publish them. We later developed a correspondence, and a good rapport, and it wasn’t long before Carol asked me if I would like to join the team as “Foreign Editor”. My remit was to get together a multi-media feature with a Scottish theme, showcasing writers, an artist (Calum Colvin) and a musician (Peter de Moncey-Conegliano). Carol asked me if I could persuade a quartet of writers but the whole undertaking soon gathered momentum. The truth was that I wanted to produce something on a grand scale, and I set about approaching twelve first-rate Scottish writers. There were other gifted Scottish writers I could have invited but, for logistical reasons, I was forced to stop there. With regard to an artist, my first choice was Calum Colvin and I was delighted when he agreed to be featured. I also ran a wide-ranging interview with him in Issue 7. What a pleasure it was to work with that man given his complete dedication and unflagging approach to hard work.
MT: Why did you choose an online forum in which to present this work? What advantages has it given you do you think?
I didn’t choose an online forum for Viva Caledonia. As I mentioned, The Mad Hatters' Review is an online publication and, of course, the Internet is the only suitable medium for a multi-media review. But, opening this up, I am convinced that the Internet is the future and that it is only a matter of time before many publications wind up their print versions altogether. To date, I have only been published on-line although next year I am to be published in a number of print publications. But whether as editor or writer, I favour on-line publication, as this guarantees a readership that is more massive and international.
MT: Why did you choose these particular writers?
PR: I chose these twelve writers on the strength of their writing. That alone was my touchstone. Naturally, they all have different styles, and explore different themes, but the common denominator is their excellence. I was responsible for selecting these twelve authors who are certainly among the best contemporary Scottish writing has to offer. Of course, as I have said, there are other equally talented writers I could have invited. In fact, I was tempted to expand the feature even more but I was given instructions by the Chief Editor to call a halt after I had persuaded twelve of Scotland’s leading authors.
MT: Of your writers, who are particular favourites of yours?
PR: It is only natural that I should have my preferences. But I don’t think it would be professional of me to be drawn on that one. And why should it matter? Each of the writers represented is sui generis and excels in his, or her, own way. I would like “Viva Caledonia” to be considered as a whole. As an editor, I always aim to be even-handed and it would be ungracious, and even invidious, of me to start singling out one or two of these writers for special attention.
MT: I know that for you, Peter, Viva Caledonia is "yet another landmark in the articulation of a Scottish national identity", but is this a good way to read? Isn't calling these writers "Scottish writers" just a way of ghettoising them?
PR: Now that you quote that comment back at me, I have to admit that it could be construed as chauvinistic. But no, I don’t think that calling someone a “Scottish writer” is per se to ghettoize them, as you put it. Ghettoes do exist but they don’t tend to be nations. I hope it won’t sound too banal if I say, “You are what you are”. Let us take two Scottish writers from different historical periods, Robert Louis Stevenson and Muriel Spark—both lived abroad, Stevenson in places more far-flung than Spark, but any accurate study of either would have to look closely at the contexts from which they sprung. And it is a truism that the cultural values one inherits permeate one’s work and even give rise to it. Naturally, I am against flag-waving in literature as I am any kind of overt political agenda, something that vitiates much Latin American literature. Nor am I ever going to defend parochialism. In fact, I would contend that the best literature is a conflation of the local and the universal—one at no time negates the other. But it is a delusion to believe that you leave your culture behind, even in cases where you might try to renounce it, and you are in fact indelibly shaped by it. As I said, I live in several countries and, every time I travel, I am conscious of entering a different reality. Humanity is not a lumpen, homogeneous mass.
MT: Actually, I'd also like to ask the inverse of my last question! Don't you think that a number of these writers have cleaved to an identity as "Scottish" writers because they would drown in a larger sea?
PR: I don’t see any grounds for putting it like that and, in fact, many of the writers who appear in Viva Caledonia are well-known south of the border. I don’t know whether you are thinking of any writers in particular when you talk about “cleaving to a national identity”. Again I return to the same leitmotiv—it is important to know who you are and where you come from. It is a matter of identity and writing about what you know. Most of the writers featured in the “Viva Caledonia” are resident in Scotland, and all have spent long periods of time there, so it is only to be expected that they will consider their lives to be inextricably bound up with that country, and seek to write about it. When you talk about drowning in a larger sea, you make me think of Thomas Hood, the Dundee poet: “But I beneath another sea, and whelmed in deeper gulps than he”. But let us not be too cavalier when invoking this “larger sea”. Nationality apart, we must never underestimate the abundance of talent out there and the competitiveness of the markets. Also, we must be precise when defining success--are we considering it in purely literary or commercial terms, or both? Where, for example, do we place a succès d'estime, a work of artistic merit that has flopped commercially? Furthermore, success depends to some extent on freakish fate and literary arbiters can be capricious, so that a reputation can oscillate in a course of a lifetime. And then there are so many writers who set out to be international but drown in a flash. Adopting a mantle of internationalism is not enough—one has to have talent. Transcending “Viva Caledonia”, I am not sure whether it is the aspiration of most writers to get to the top as such but rather to be true to their imaginations, and carve out successful careers accordingly. Once the process of writing is shorn of its romantic associations, we can see that it is an intensely lonely business which calls for an absolute self-discipline and, even in a relatively successful career, there is a high price to be paid.
MT: What are you working on now?
PR: Over the next few weeks, my immediate priority will be to work on a couple of translations: a short-story by an intriguing, yet little-known, Chilean writer, which I will be sending to “The Yale Review” for consideration; and another poem by Maria Teresa Andruetto, an Argentine writer. In fact, my translation of Andruetto’s “Del Latin Recordis” has just been accepted by “The Literary Review” in the USA and my translations of two shorter poems have been published this week in “Apt Literary Magazine”. As far as “The Mad Hatters’ Review” is concerned, right now I am working on a voluminous English feature I have conceived, a kind of companion-piece to “Viva Caledonia”, entitled “Eclectic England”, which will be coming out in two sections, “Eclectic England I” and “Eclectic England II”, the first part in mid summer and the second in the early winter 2007. The feature is already looking very exciting and sixteen first-rate writers, whom I have invited personally, have confirmed that they will be contributing: Diran Adebayo, Patience Agbabi, Simon Armitage, Nicola Barker, David J. Constantine, Jenny Diski, David Dabydeen, Maggie Gee, Aamer Hussein, Gabriel Josipovici, Mimi Khalvati, Deborah Levy, Sara Maitland, Clive Sinclair, Iain Sinclair and George Szirtes. In fact, I have already received outstanding contributions from Patience Agbabi, Nicola Barker, David Constantine, Aamer Hussein, Gabriel Josipovici, Deborah Levy, Sara Maitland, Iain Sinclair and George Szirtes. I have taken on board the charge of insularity that has been leveled by some against “Viva Caledonia”, and in “Eclectic England” I am embracing inclusiveness, going for a feature that will mirror society’s multi-ethnic make-up. Agbabi and Adebayo are of Nigerian descent, Dabydeen was born in Guyana, Hussein in Pakistan, Josipovici is of Egyptian-Jewish descent, Khalvati is Iranian and Szirtes, born in Hungary, came to England as a refugee. I am thrilled that, so far as featured musician for Issue 8 is concerned, “Fitkin Wall” (the duo of Ruth Wall and Graham Fitkin) have agreed to participate. As soon as I heard their music, a beguiling fusion of harp and electronic music, I contacted them to invite them to appear. With regard to artists, I am delighted that Tom Phillips, the Royal Academician, and George Blacklock, the English abstract artist, have agreed to be featured, one in each section. So it is all coalescing and I am sure that “Eclectic England I” will be a fitting tribute to the summer, with more to come in the winter.
MT: What is your favourite book or books?
PR: Here is a woeful admission—I can’t find the time to read for pleasure. These days I will only read writers I am interested in commissioning, those I am thinking of translating, or work that is necessary background reading for critical articles I want to write. So all that I read is directly related to my editing work, or my output. Perhaps this approach may seem narrow but it is dictated my time constraints. As a writer, I think it is more important to write than to read. Of course, there was a time I read voraciously. In the year before I went up to Cambridge, I spent many months living in Norway and I did nothing else but devour books. I was alone for long tracts of time, sometimes for weeks on end, and spoke little Norwegian, so I turned in on myself. It was during this period that I read all of Ibsen’s work, and I enjoyed it greatly—each play tells a spell-binding story (it is interesting that, although he was a playwright, Ibsen claimed that he wrote primarily to be read) and I admire the fact that Ibsen was an iconoclastic writer, never afraid to challenge conventional propriety. Another Scandinavian writer I think highly of is Strindberg. In the year before I went up to Cambridge, and later at King’s, where I had the tendency to stray from the syllabus, I also read a great deal of Russian and French literature. I found Zola to be impressive and was fascinated by Rousseau’s “Confessions”. I would like to read these authors again but there are so many things that I want to write myself, so that is a pipe-dream. It is a pity that even the longest lives are short! Let me return to Ibsen. In his excellent biography, Michael Meyer mentions that, as an adult, Ibsen read little or nothing, only newspapers. I can relate to that more and more. Once I return to Argentina, I will be reading a lot of Argentine literature but my guiding principle will always be whether or not I am interested in translating these writers.
MT: Anything else you would like to say?
PR: On a cautionary note, for me the enemy of good literature is obscurity which often masquerades as complexity—and many a literary charlatan hides behind that cloak. It is unfortunate that in the 20th century many writers, including those who should have known better, took us down this cul-de-sac. Even Eliot, a great poet when intellection was in equipoise with his lyrical gift and did not swamp it, was not exempt. I read somewhere that a publisher once asked him what “Polyphiloprogenitive”, the first line of one of his poems, actually meant. Eliot did not know. In any case, in general terms, we must be vigilant of those who would play games of one-upmanship with literature, using it as a device with which to make others feel foolish. Winding up, in a few days I will be back in Argentina and grappling with a completely different life. Come late June, I will be putting the finishing touches to “Eclectic England I” from the other end of the world, and from the winter. It will be a pity to leave the spring behind but it is time to be getting back and it will be intoxicating to head once again to my beloved La Cumbre to breathe some alpine air. With regard to future plans, I will continue as Associate Editor of “The Mad Hatters’ Review” and intend to follow up “Eclectic England” with an Irish feature. In this connection, I have already approached David Godbold, who is based in Dublin, and was the UK’s official 2005 General Election artist, and I am delighted to say that he has accepted my invitation to be featured artist. I am returning to the UK in the winter and will be launching my own Scottish literary review—which will also showcase artwork by Calum Colvin and other Scottish artists-- in early January 2008. I am delighted that Anne Donovan, Kirsty Gunn (in a joint enterprise with her sister, Merran Gunn, the artist) W.N. Herbert, Robert Alan Jamieson and Tom Pow have already confirmed that they will be contributing, and I am confident that this literary venture will play a vital part in a Scottish cultural ferment. I will just have to find the time to do my own writing interstitially. It’s been a pleasure talking to you Mark, and thank you for your interest, and also for galvanizing the literary world with ReadySteadyBook — I take off my hat to you!
-- Mark Thwaite (29/05/2007)
Monday, May 28, 2007
Mad Hatters' Review Weekend Extravaganza is Fast Approaching!
I've been working nearly round the clock to get the info out. Mainly about the fundraiser, as I'd kinda like to keep the e-mag going. But I don't want people to forget about our KGB series reading.
Thanks to photographer, new friend Joel Simpson, we have a lovely visual flyer for the event. Now here's the updated info, including our new DISCOUNTED TICKET PRICE! Hope to see everyone who loves the Hatters soon!
EXTRA! EXTRA! SAVE THE DATE: SUNDAY, JUNE 10TH!
The Mad Hatters will present their first FUNDRAISING EXTRAVAGANZA at The Gallery Bar, 5 – 11 + PM120 Orchard Street, The Lower East Side, NYC The event will begin at 5 pm. Gallery Bar (http://www.gallerybarnyc.com) is located at 120 Orchard Street, near the corner of Delancey St. ("F" train to Delancey).
Tickets for purchase online cost $15 and will be available through June 9th via PayPal (Address PayPal payments to madhattersreview@yahoo.com), or $20 at the door; some kind of proof of dire hardship may earn supplicants a discount.
The event will benefit the Mad Hatters' Review and its local programs promoting innovative art and literature. Mad Hatters' Review is a unique online multimedia magazine featuring edgy, experimental, gutsy, thematically broad, psychologically and philosophically sophisticated writings, music, and art. The magazine specializes in collaborative ventures, bringing writers together with artists and composers to create a full sensory reading experience. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction, dramatic pieces and experimental whatnots are displayed adjacent to images of original artwork and accompanied by musical compositions or authors' recorded recitations.
The extravaganza will include READINGS BY OFFBEAT PROSE WRITERS & POETS; A SHOWING OF EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATIONS; AVANT-GARDEY IMPROVISATIONAL MUSIC; DANCING TO LIVE MUSIC (SWING, WORLD, 60'S ROCK, REGGAE, CALYPSO, ETC.; PERFORMANCESW BY TWO FABULOUS COMEDIANS; A LATE SHOW OPEN MIC; and A SILENT AUCTION OF BOOKS, JOURNALS, AND ARTWORKS DONATED BY MAD HATTER CONTRIBUTORS & FANS. AND AND AND: $4 MAD HATTER FACOCTAILS & FREE EDIBLES.
Please see http://www.madhattersreview.com/events.shtml#june10 for details!
*********
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT OUR NEXT POETRY, PROSE & ANYTHING GOES READING SERIES AT THE KGB BAR will take place on FRIDAY, JUNE 8th, 7-9pm: featuring SISSY BOYD, DEBRA DI BLASI, VANESSA PLACE & A READING OF EXCERPTS FROM A PLAY CAROL NOVACK. Details are available at: http://www.madhattersreview.com/events.shtml#june8.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT OUR NEXT POETRY, PROSE & ANYTHING GOES READING SERIES AT THE KGB BAR will take place on FRIDAY, JUNE 8th, 7-9pm: featuring SISSY BOYD, DEBRA DI BLASI, VANESSA PLACE & A READING OF EXCERPTS FROM A PLAY CAROL NOVACK. Details are available at: http://www.madhattersreview.com/events.shtml#june8.
Questions? Contact Carol Novack (Publisher/Editor) andAmy Bucciferro (PR Director) at madhattersreview@gmail.com Subject Line: Fundraiser
Saturday, April 14, 2007
SAVE THE DATES! JUNE 8TH & JUNE 10TH!
MAD HATTERS' REVIEW FUNDRAISER COMING UP!
THE INFAMOUS MAD HATTERS' MAELSTROM OF 2007
The time has come, the kumquat said. What is time? the lettuce asked, shredding its head. Kumquat may, it's time to pre-announce our forthcoming MAD HATTERS' REVIEW FUNDRAISER, an EXTRAVAGANZA non pareil, indeed, an unbridled, maximalistical offering of readings/performances, live music, dancing, animated art, photo slideshows, mini-movies, discounted mad hatter facoctails, edible horbits, and a silent auction. The venue: a gallery by day, den of iniquity by night, located in the Lower Eastside, NYC: http://www.gallerybarnyc.com . The time? Oh, don't be so exacting, spat the Caterpillar --- it's temporarily set for 5 strokes past noon till all hours to be determined by the stamina and aesthetic lust of those in attendance. How about the day? asked Alice, rolling her enfant terrible blues. Day? What is a day but the preamble to a night? Well, if you insist: Sunday, June 10th, year of global warming 2007. So MARK YOUR CALENDARS. Details about who's doing what will emerge in time.
In order to survive and expand, alas, we need currency. As usual, a print anthology of text and visuals is a possibility, and some payment for contributors and staff, another. But for now, I'll be happy to raise sufficient funds to keep us going gloriously for another year or two or three or four (until a tsunami claims New York). The journal has grown and succeeded way beyond its founding mothers' and fathers' expectations (thanks to our gifted staff and volunteers); we mad hatters believe that it's a unique, trend-setting force, an example of what an online multimedia journal of expansive, manic vision and quality can do.
**** We are seeking books from authors of published works, CDS/DVDS from musicians/composers and filmmakers, and other donations to be sold at our silent auction. For visual artists, the costs of print/duplication production and shipping/posting will be reimbursed by Management, and artists are invited to set their minimum "cap" of proceeds, so (if requested), we may refund some of the proceeds (we will possibly have a form).
Collaborative multimedia artists ORIN BUCK and JOEL SIMPSON are on board, as well as DEBRA DI BLASI, author of the already famous new book, The Jiri Chronicles and Other Fictions, and our Guest Editor for Issue 8.
Please note that this second weekend in June is hereby designated THE INFAMOUS MAD HATTERS' MAELSTROM OF 2007. We'll be offering our series reading on June 8th, which will include a reading by VANESSA PLACE, author of the novel DIES: A SENTENCE, an apt title for a publication by a criminal appeals lawyer. And by the way, the novel consists of only one sentence (but with punctuation). An excerpt may be found at the KGB Bar Lit Review's website. Two actor friends will read an excerpt or excerpts from my play HAM & HEN, SISSY BOYD will read one of her very short plays, & DEBRA DI BLASI will read whatever she wishes.
Stay in tune for details!
--
Mad Hatters' Review --- Edgy & Enlightened Art, Music & LIterature in the Age of Dementia: http://madhattersreview.com
KEEP THE MAD HATTERS ALIVE! MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION HERE:
https://www.fracturedatlas.org
http://webdelsol.com/PortalDelS
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
ISSUE 7 OF MAD HATTERS' REVIEW IS OUT OUT OUT!
WE'RE LIVE!!!
Mad Hatters' Review Issue 7
READ IT NOW!!!
Poetry
Joe Amato
Gunnar Benediktsson
Bob Marcacci
Sally Molini
Michael Neff
Fiction
Jai Clare
Brandon Hobson
Juan José Millás Translated from the Spanish by Peter Robertson
Rochelle Ratner
D. Harlan Wilson
G. K. Wuori
Non-Fiction
Kevin P. Keating
Whatnots
Lynda Schor
Rob Stephenson
Vernon Frazer
Audio Text Collages
by Davis Schneiderman& Don Meyer
The Memorials to Future Catastrophes Distant Early Warning System
Book Reviews
by C.B. Smith
'The Last Stage' by Jim Cherry
Walden' by Michael T. Dolan
'A Bit of a Marriage' by Karina Mellinger
'Institutionalized' by Fred Smith & Joe Schmoe
Columns
Rich Andrews
Sir Castor Bayley
Tantra Bensko
Crazy Jane
Pete Dolack
Shirley Harshenin
Lockie Hunter
D. A. Eis
Helen Ruggieri
Comics
Coconuts, Patriotic Polly, Tristan, Miss Julie & Steve & others
Contests
The Wrong Roof Winners
Beebe Barksdale-Bruner, Theresa Boyar, Timothy Matos, Kendall Kyle Cyree & Liz Gallagher
Current Contest Guidelines: "Mad About You"
Editor's Rave
Carol Novack
Galleries
Calum Colvin I II
Issue 7 Art
Issue 7 Music
Interviews
Calum Colvin
Lynda Schor
Mental Theatre
Don Bergland
Video
Wanda Phipps, Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes at KGB, November 17, 2006
Video by Joel Schlemowitz
Viva Caledonia
A multi-media showcase, celebrating the cutting edge of Scottish creative talent.
Selections by Peter Robertson
Fiction by
Alan Bissett
Anne Donovan
Janice Galloway
Kirsty Gunn
Laura Marney
Poetry by
Robert Crawford
W. N. Herbert
Robert Jamieson
Tom Pow
Dilys Rose
Alan Spence
Play by
Alisdair Gray
Art by Calum Colvin & Music by Peter de Moncey-Conegliano
Mad Hatters' Review Issue 7
READ IT NOW!!!
Poetry
Joe Amato
Gunnar Benediktsson
Bob Marcacci
Sally Molini
Michael Neff
Fiction
Jai Clare
Brandon Hobson
Juan José Millás Translated from the Spanish by Peter Robertson
Rochelle Ratner
D. Harlan Wilson
G. K. Wuori
Non-Fiction
Kevin P. Keating
Whatnots
Lynda Schor
Rob Stephenson
Vernon Frazer
Audio Text Collages
by Davis Schneiderman& Don Meyer
The Memorials to Future Catastrophes Distant Early Warning System
Book Reviews
by C.B. Smith
'The Last Stage' by Jim Cherry
Walden' by Michael T. Dolan
'A Bit of a Marriage' by Karina Mellinger
'Institutionalized' by Fred Smith & Joe Schmoe
Columns
Rich Andrews
Sir Castor Bayley
Tantra Bensko
Crazy Jane
Pete Dolack
Shirley Harshenin
Lockie Hunter
D. A. Eis
Helen Ruggieri
Comics
Coconuts, Patriotic Polly, Tristan, Miss Julie & Steve & others
Contests
The Wrong Roof Winners
Beebe Barksdale-Bruner, Theresa Boyar, Timothy Matos, Kendall Kyle Cyree & Liz Gallagher
Current Contest Guidelines: "Mad About You"
Editor's Rave
Carol Novack
Galleries
Calum Colvin I II
Issue 7 Art
Issue 7 Music
Interviews
Calum Colvin
Lynda Schor
Mental Theatre
Don Bergland
Video
Wanda Phipps, Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes at KGB, November 17, 2006
Video by Joel Schlemowitz
Viva Caledonia
A multi-media showcase, celebrating the cutting edge of Scottish creative talent.
Selections by Peter Robertson
Fiction by
Alan Bissett
Anne Donovan
Janice Galloway
Kirsty Gunn
Laura Marney
Poetry by
Robert Crawford
W. N. Herbert
Robert Jamieson
Tom Pow
Dilys Rose
Alan Spence
Play by
Alisdair Gray
Art by Calum Colvin & Music by Peter de Moncey-Conegliano
Friday, January 05, 2007
JANUARY READINGS
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2PM
Phoenix Reading Series Hosted by Mike Graves
High Chai, 18 Ave. B, NYC
212-477-2424One PurchaseDonation
Featuring
Carol Novack
Rob Stephenson
Anne Elliott
Plus OPEN MIC, time permitting
___________________
Thursday, January 25, 8pm
Women's Studio Center Reading
FEATURING
Blick, Katrinka Moore and Carol Novack
Instructors at Women's Studio Center
Followed by Bessie Bazile, Phyllis Blaney, Gina Buttafoco,
Maura Candella, Christine Hamm,Celeste Hastings, Tamanna Hye,
Alice Jacoby, Ameena Lacey and Dulcie L. Leimbach
Waltz Cafe-Astoria, 23-14 Ditmars Blvd, Astoria, NY 11105
http://www.waltz-astoria.com/
$7.00 MinimumOfferings include coffee & tea drinks, wine and decadent desserts
__________
$7.00 MinimumOfferings include coffee & tea drinks, wine and decadent desserts
__________
Mad Hatters' Review
( http://www.madhattersreview.com )
Edgy & Enlightened Literature, Art & Music in the Age of Dementia
Poetry, Prose & Anything Goes Reading Series
Curated & Pickled by Publisher/Editor Carol Novack
5th Reading
Friday, January 26th, 7 – 9 pm
KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, N.Y.C.
*******************
Featuring
Featuring
NORMAN LOCK -- author of The Long Rowing Unto Morning (Ravenna Press), A History of the Imagination (Fiction Collective Two), Land of the Snow Men (Calamari Press), 'Notes to the Book of Supplemental Diagrams' for Marco Knauff's Universe (Ravenna Press), Trio (Triple Press), Emigres & Joseph Cornell's Operas (elimae books and YKP, Istanbul), Cirque du Calder (Rogue Literary Society), and The House of Correction (Broadway Play Publishing). Two Plays for Radio is due fall '06 from Ravenna Press. His stage plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, in Germany, and at the 1996 Edinburgh Theatre Festival. Women in Hiding, The Shining Man,The Primate House, and Money, Power & Greed were broadcast by WDR, Germany. He wrote the film The Body Shop, produced by The American Film Institute. He is the recipient of the Aga Kahn Prize for fiction, given by The Paris Review. He lives in Philadelphia. Two of his book reviews and a short fiction can be found in MHR.
TERESE SVOBODA has been described as "A fabulous fabulist," in Publisher's Weekly review of her fourth novel and ninth book, Tin God. \n Her writings have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, Atlantic, Slate, Bomb, Lit, Columbia, Yale Review and Paris Review,"
DEB OLIN UNFERTH 's fiction has appeared in Harper's, Conjunctions, Fence, NOON
Pushcart Prize anthologies, and elsewhere. Her first book is forthcoming from McSweeney's.
****************
A limited edition of signed "Homeland Security" posters (our cover artwork for Issue 5) createdby contributing artist & writer Marty Duane Ison will be on sale, as will books by our featured authors.
For further info, email: mailto:madhattersreivew@gmail.com
(type READINGS in the subject line)
A limited edition of signed "Homeland Security" posters (our cover artwork for Issue 5) createdby contributing artist & writer Marty Duane Ison will be on sale, as will books by our featured authors.
For further info, email: mailto:madhattersreivew@gmail.com
(type READINGS in the subject line)
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