How to find us at AWP 17

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Dear readers, AWP is just 3 days away.

During the book fair, you can find us at table 431-T. We’ll be there with copies of every issue of apt, as well as all our chapbooks and full-length titles. We’ll be giving away some readerly and writerly gifts every day of the conference, and there’ll be a special discount on subscriptions to apt!

Plus, on Friday night, we’re hosting a reading in the tap room at The Black Squirrel. Featuring Joanna Ruocco, Dolan Morgan, Tracy Dimond, Elizabeth Wade, and Krysten Hill! Free food (while it lasts), and blood and roses from our host and EIC, Carissa Halston, who is (more or less) the cat you see pictured below.

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And, on Saturday night, immediately following the conference, we’re co-sponsoring a candlelight vigil in Lafayette Square for the First Amendment. Check out more details on Facebook, and if you can make it, we’d love to see you there.

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Posted in: apt, AWP17, Dolan Morgan, Events, Krysten Hill

Events, old and new!

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Clockwise from upper left: Amanda Torres, Brionne Janae, Krysten Hill, and Simone John.

The brilliant poets who read for the HHSGO release party. Clockwise from upper left: Amanda Torres, Brionne Janae, Krysten Hill, and Simone John

If you weren’t able to make it to the How Her Spirit Got Out release party, first of all, we missed you. But secondly, you missed out. Obviously, we’re very familiar with the content of Krysten’s book. But it means so much to hear her read these poems. She shone and showed us all how absolutely necessary her work is. And Simone John, Brionne Janae, and Amanda Torres wowed us again and again.

And if you weren’t able to make it to the Boston Public Library for the first Greater Boston Writers Resist event, Krysten read there as well, and the whole room cheered her on. You can watch a video of her reading, courtesy of WGBH’s Forum Network.

And, if you’re in the Boston area and still haven’t had a chance to catch Krysten reading, you’re in luck! She’ll be at the following events in the upcoming months:

Friday, Jan 27 – 7pm
Belt It Out reading series
Courtside Lounge
Cambridge, MA

Thursday, Mar 16 – 7pm
Reading with Ben Berman
Brookline Booksmith
Brookline, MA

Poets and Pints reading series
Aeronaut (hosted by Porter Square Books)
Somerville, MA
(Date and time to be announced!)

And15940868_10154049971290689_3850647147929325445_n if you’re going to this year’s AWP conference, we’ll be there with you. From February 8-11, we’ll be in Washington, DC for the book fair and the readings. You can find us at table 431-T where we’ll be giving away writerly and readerly gifts, and there will be an assortment of AP editors and contributors managing the table. Stop by to meet co-founding editors, Carissa Halston and Randolph Pfaff, as well as Krysten Hill, and possibly other assorted AP writers. And don’t forget to come to the tap room at The Black Squirrel on Friday, Feb 10 for our AWP offsite reading, featuring Joanna Ruocco, Krysten Hill, Dolan Morgan, Tracy Dimond, and Elizabeth Wade! Lovingly hosted by apt EIC, Carissa Halston, who designed that poster with the idea that she was the lady and the tiger, and she’d be roaring these writers’ names.

And if you are in town for AWP, you can pick up a copy of our latest print issue of apt, featuring longform stories and poems from Doug Paul Case, Sonja Condit, Gregory Crosby, Krysten Hill, and Joanna Ruocco! We just got copies today, and we can’t wait for you to see them! Here’s a peek in advance. And for those of you who aren’t making the trek, you can of course order copies online.

And, finally, as co-sponsors of Greater Boston Writers Resist, we’re enraged at the latest news from Washington, but that’s been the case since late October. Nonetheless, we’re looking forward to seeing so many of our friends in DC, and to stand beside them on Saturday, February 11 to hold a vigil for free speech. Our EIC, Carissa Halston, wrote an impassioned plea to save the First Amendment in her editor’s note for the latest issue of apt. She wrote it in November, just as the censorship was beginning. And now, with the gag order on climate change, and threats to any White House staff who speak to members of the press, this is a violation of our freedom of speech and our freedom of the press. Violations to the Constitution. It hasn’t even been a week.

Which is to say, DC friends, Baltimore friends, Virginia friends…we’ll see you very soon and we’ll be protesting as loudly and as hard as we can.

Posted in: apt, AWP17, Dolan Morgan, Events, How Her Spirit Got Out, Krysten Hill

Dolan Morgan’s “Interior Design” read by Wyatt Cenac on WNYC!

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The recording of Dolan Morgan’s funny and exacting story, “Interior Design,” at Public Radio International’s Selected Shorts is finally available to hear at wnyc.org!

Alongside work by Joe Meno and Anne Enright, Wyatt Cenac reads “Interior Design,” a story about love and furniture and “domestic life with a twist,” followed by a brief interview with Dolan about the genesis of the story and how he approaches his work.

Posted in: Dolan Morgan, That's When The Knives Come Down

Aforementioned at AWP!

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AWP event poster_REV2Readers, we’re less than a week from AWP!

If you’re going to the conference, we hope you’ll swing by table 1920 during the book fair and say hello. We’ll be offering apt subscriptions at a discount and back issues for a song, and we’ll be raffling off an ARC of Susan McCarty’s debut collection, Anatomies, to anyone who buys any AP wares during the conference!

Plus, we’ll be tabling with our friends at Little Fiction | Big Truths, and throwing an offsite reading on Thursday night at Lee’s Liquor Lounge, featuring Angela Palm, Amanda Leduc, and our own Carissa Halston for Little Fiction, and have Gillian Devereux, Dolan Morgan, and Susan McCarty representing Aforementioned! It’s going to be such a great night, so we hope to see you there!

Posted in: Anatomies, AWP15, Dolan Morgan, Events, Gillian Devereux, Susan McCarty

TWTKCD gets reviewed in JMWW

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So happy to find this thoughtful review by Ashley Begley for That’s When the Knives Come Down in the latest issue of JMWW—here’s a peek:

“Not many people admit to feeling empty, to feeling like there is something more out there. Morgan not only writes about it, he tells us straight….It is only after letting the stories seep into our bodies that we begin to grasp what Morgan is saying. And we realize that we want it; we want time that has been stolen from us. We want space to love and hate and feel….We want more. So don’t wait. Don’t let yourself get away. Start the chase—it will be terrifying, but oh so worth it.”

You can read the full review here, and order a copy of TWTKCD here.

Posted in: Dolan Morgan, Press, That's When The Knives Come Down

Dolan Morgan’s Treatment for Writer’s Block

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If you’re reading this, odds are, you’re a writer. To that end, you’re probably acquainted with writer’s block.

You’re probably also aware of the many ways in which writers attempt to stave off writer’s block.

Our very own Dolan Morgan recently shared his DIY treatment at the Story Prize blog.

An excerpt:

Now when I have writer’s block, I follow a strict regimen that I think many others could benefit from. First, I remain ever vigilant for symptoms and signs. With every new word, paragraph, or edit, I take stock of my surroundings and consider my mind and body. This must be done holistically, as things aren’t always cut and dry in life. To be safe, I go immediately into action if two or more of the following circumstances present themselves while writing:

  • Persistent checking of social media.
  • Discoloration around mouth and lips.
  • Hands that smell like chemicals, such as white out or mercury.
  • Burns, stains, and odors on my body (or even clothing, desks, laptops, and other objects in the area, especially paper).
  • Vomiting, labored breathing, drowsiness, confusion, or other deviations from my usual routine.

You can read the rest here. And, while you’re at it, you can also order Dolan’s short story collection, That’s When the Knives Come Down, here.

Posted in: Dolan Morgan, That's When The Knives Come Down

Two new reviews for TWTKCD

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Glowing praise continues to come in for Dolan Morgan’s That’s When the Knives Come Down!

Two of the latest reviews, in Entropy and American Microreviews:

“Dolan Morgan’s That’s When the Knives Come Down is a collection of short stories that seems to have missed almost everyone’s ‘Best of 2014’ list. This is a shame because its true place is at the top of these lists for its passion to discover new territories. Morgan is a brash talent not interested in running over ground already covered by Lorrie Moore, Lydia Davis, George Saunders and other luminaries with experimental flair. Morgan seeks something different, something along the lines of a lost continent to name after himself.” — William Lessard, Entropy

“This is a book full of strangeness, and strange books can come apart pretty easily if they’re not coming from an author with a careful control of his subject matter.  That’s When the Knives Comes Down doesn’t come apart; instead, it takes an obverse, often thrilling tack in its defiance of what we normally think fiction is supposed to do.” — Zach VandeZande, American Microreviews

Order your copy of TWTKCD here!

Posted in: Dolan Morgan, Press, That's When The Knives Come Down

Dolan Morgan interviewed for BOMB

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“All of the pieces in That’s When the Knives Come Down are the product of accident and luck and time, but only as outcroppings from the moments when I felt most exasperated by my own impotence and inability to do anything. You plan and fall short, and you outline and fuck up, and you wish and want, and then you don’t so much give up as you give in. You stand atop a teetering pile of your own absurd expectations and survey the dumb landscape that surrounds you, then don the cupcake costume and offer up the warm lemon hand wedge to the universe. I have to let go of what I want from a story and try in turn to deliver what the story itself wants or demands. Which is an important distinction.”

That’s a small bit from a great interview between Dolan and J.T. Price, now up at the BOMB Magazine site. Check out the whole thing, which includes Dolan’s thoughts on nothingness, face removal, and meaning[ful/less-ness].

Posted in: Dolan Morgan, Press, That's When The Knives Come Down

Excerpt from AP and a new trailer for TWTKCD

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To celebrate the release of Liam Day’s Afforded Permanence, we’ve published three poems from the collection this week at apt! As we mentioned there, “For those of you who know Boston, you’ll recognize much in these lines. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Boston, I promise that Liam’s rendering is as faithful as it is eloquent.”

Head over to the apt site to read “111 – Emerald Cities,” “51 – Tesseract,” and “28 – Gospel Music.”

Also, Dolan Morgan rolled out a second great book trailer for TWTKCD, with even more great music from Will Aronson!

 

Posted in: Afforded Permanence, Dolan Morgan, Liam Day, That's When The Knives Come Down