Readings, bus poems, apt 5, and more!

Dear readers, we haven’t updated this space in the past few weeks, but for good reason: scads of great stuff happening at AP HQ.

TWTKCD
Dolan has been reading non-stop—in October, he read in Boston at Carissa’s very own Literary Firsts (video), and in November, he read at Baltimore’s Starts Here! series, and a month or so ago, he read part of “Infestation,” for an episode of The Catapult, which you can listen to here. Just in case you haven’t been able to catch Dolan at a reading, he’s got one more coming up in the Baltimore area: Saturday, December 6, he’ll be reading at Federal Dust in Woodlawn, MD.

Also, TWTKCD has been on the SPD fiction/non-fiction bestseller list since it hit shelves in August, most recently at #6, so if you haven’t picked up your copy yet, go get one!

Afforded Permanence
We’re less than a month away from releasing Liam Day’s debut collection, Afforded Permanence! The collection features thirty poems, inspired by bus routes on the MBTA. The book trailer is on its way and we just got the proof for the cover.

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Also, if you’re in the Boston area, mark your calendar for the release party: Thursday, January 22, 7pm at The Banshee in Dorchester. Hope to see you there!

apt5_front_coverapt
We’re putting the final touches on the Long Fiction issue, apt‘s fifth print annual, due out in January. It’s going to be our biggest issue yet (nearly 200 pages!), and will feature work from Colleen Cable, Elizabeth Chandler, Kendra Fortmeyer, William Hillyard, and Matt Jones. The presale will open in the next week or so, but for now, we wanted to share the cover with you.

LONG LIVE LONG FICTION.

Words to live by.

2014 has been a huge year for AP, and it’s not over yet. Looking forward to kicking 2015 off with a bang!

TWTKCD gets a starred review in Publishers Weekly!

We were thrilled to see a review for That’s When the Knives Comes Down in Publishers Weekly today, and even more so when we saw the red star next to the title!

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“Morgan debuts his refreshing talent in a collection of 12 short stories that are as bizarre as they are brilliant. Germanely punctuated by Robin E. Mork’s playful graphite drawings, the collection is driven by an idiosyncratic and absurd mind… ‘Experimental’ would be a misleading term for this one-of-a-kind book.”

Read the full review here, then pick up your own copy today!

Dolan Morgan in The Believer and Selected Shorts

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Exciting TWTKCD news!

Dolan Morgan talks with Nelly Reifler at The Believer. An excerpt:

“I’m super tired of the sort of traditional, twentieth-century-style void, where people feel a “dead emptiness inside the brain,” and where they get dizzy and sick at the edge of a life without meaning. Blah, blah, blah. Buncha babies. I simply don’t understand what’s so scary about nothingness. In fact, I find it uplifting and invigorating. It makes me happy. And I feel like throughout my life, I’ve always been handed an artificial set of social choices: either 1) “Things are absurd and that’s terrible,” or 2) “Things are imbued with purpose, and that’s fantastic.” But really, what about: Things are absurd, and that’s great? And how about: Purpose is terrifying. Purpose is oppressive. Get that junk out of here. Rather, we’re all flying through a pointless expanse and that’s amazing. Lucky us. Our ability to comprehend the world is imperfect, limited and often incorrectand that’s gorgeous.

You can read the full interview here.

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And, for those of you who live in New York (and its surrounding environs), the roster for next month’s Selected Shorts is as follows: Heather Burns reading a story by Aimee Bender, Alex Karpovsky reading a story by Kurt Vonnegut, and Dave Hill reading a story from That’s When the Knives Come Down! You can (and should!) buy tickets here—a steal at eight dollars! Since this is part of the 30th anniversary of Selected Shorts, it may sell out (so don’t delay, etc.).

And if you still haven’t picked up a copy of TWTKCD, you can order it by clicking the link in the sidebar, or following us through this magic internet portal.

Upcoming TWTKCD readings!

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On Thursday night, we had the pleasure of visiting WORD in Greenpoint for the release party for Dolan Morgan’s That’s When the Knives Come Down. (Check out photos from the reading on WORD’s Tumblr, and a short video of Dolan’s reading on Instagram!)

If you’ve not yet had the pleasure of hearing Dolan read, we strongly encourage you to go to one of the following events:

Friday, Sept 5
Washington, D.C. – Petworth Citizen – 7pm
Barrelhouse Presents Aforementioned Productions…Dolan reading with Carissa Halston and Randolph Pfaff (that’s us!)

Saturday, Sept 6
Akron, OH – Annabell’s Bar & Lounge – 6pm
The Big Big Mess Reading Series…Dolan reading with Natalie Eilbert and Caryl Pagel

Monday, Sept 8
Brooklyn, NY – Franklin Park – 8pm
Franklin Park Reading Series…Dolan reading with Marie-Helene Bertino, Scott Cheshire, and Justin Taylor

Hope to see you at one of the readings!

Dolan Morgan interviewed at Electric Literature

923189_10102802822797449_2474154495711510166_nDolan talks inspiration with Matthew Thompson for Electric Literature’s WAX column.

An excerpt:

I like breaking rules, and you can’t break them if there aren’t any. Ads, spam, dismissed genres, how-to guides and brochures all provide such rules. These rules each amount to a kind of game that one can enter into and play. For me, the process is distinctly human: we recognize limitations or obstacles in the world and endeavor to circumvent or undo them. There’s great satisfaction in creating and reading works that mimic this process. It is inherently playful, yes, but I don’t think play is childish. Play is an almost spiritual undertaking. When we give ourselves over to a set of rules, or follow them to their conclusion (or engineer a way to use them in a manner beyond their initial intention), we access something new or even impossible.

Read the whole shebang over at EL.

TWTKCD giveaway winners!

8126166641_49ff1c7815_zWe’re thrilled to announce the winners of the That’s When the Knives Come Down giveaway!

The winner of the READER PACKAGE, receiving one free copy of the additional ebook, For Promotional Use Only, is Jim Ruland!

The winner of the GENESIS PACKAGE, receiving one free copy of the first print annual of apt (wherein we published the story that launched a thousand ships, Dolan’s “Investment Banking in Reverse”): Lawrence Schwartz!

And the grand prize winner of the IMMATERIAL PACKAGE, receiving the gift of NOTHING (as generously donated by IMMATERIAL Journal): Nancy Dunetz!

Nancy correctly answered our question on Facebook:

Q: What is Jennifer Coughlin afraid her son will someday ask her?

A: What the hell were you doing when the whole world was falling apart?

Congratulations to all our winners!

If you haven’t yet, check out all the great press TWTKCD has received in the past week:

Karina Vahitova interviews Dolan at IMMATERIAL Journal 

Nothing Works Until It Does, works inspired by TWTKCD, at Sundog Lit

“Nuée Ardente,” an excerpt from TWTKCD, published at Recommended Reading

Michael Maiello reviews TWTKCD at Dagblog: “Morgan is a poet and its shows in his prose…[and] Morgan is a true original.”

TWTKCD presale giveaway!

TWTKCD_giveawayToday marks the final week to get TWTKCD for just $13, as well as all the additional presale incentives!

But, just in case that’s not enough to entice you, we’re kicking off the final week with an additional attraction: a giveaway!

Starting today, Wednesday, August 13, anyone who buys any of the presale options will automatically be eligible to win one of the following packages:

THE READER PACKAGE
For READERS only, one lucky winner will receive a copy of For Promotional Use Only, an ebook that includes dozens of additional stories and illustrations by Dolan!

THE GENESIS PACKAGE
For all entrants, one lucky winner will receive a copy of the first print annual of apt (originally published January, 2011), wherein we first met Dolan via his story, “Investment Banking in Reverse,” and which includes even more illustrations by the lovely Robin E. Mørk!

THE IMMATERIAL PACKAGE
For all entrants, one grand prize winner will receive “nothing,” generously donated by IMMATERIAL Journal. That’s right: nothing. Which is exciting, because you can do anything with nothing! Or maybe you can’t do anything with nothing. Let’s find out!

IMPORTANT NOTE
You may be thinking, “Hey, wait a second, I already ordered one of the presale options—what do I get?”

To be as fair as possible, we wanted to include everyone who has invested in Dolan’s book so far. For anyone who’s already purchased the book or one of the presale incentives and wants to be eligible for the giveaway, all you need to do is watch Dolan’s interview with goat farmer, Jennifer Coughlin, and answer the following question via Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr:

What is Jennifer Coughlin afraid her son will someday ask her?

That’s it! All winners will be chosen at random, and announced on Thursday, August 21. And while you’re waiting to hear about the big winners, you should check out the interview Dolan recently did at IMMATERIAL Journal.

Nothing Works Until It Does

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For the past two years, the fine editors at Sundog Lit have presented new work inspired by forthcoming novels and collections from great indie lit writers, and we’re honored to have Dolan Morgan’s That’s When the Knives Come Down among them.

Starting today and continuing through August 22, Sundog will feature stories, songs, poems, and visual art from the following cast of writers:

Amelia Gray | Kyle Hillbrand | James Tadd Adcox | Molly Rose Quinn | Amber Sparks | Mark Leidner | Sean H. Doyle | Chelsea Hodson | Tom Oristaglio | Jess Dutschmann | Emily Raw | Rachel Glaser | Bianca Stone | Jess Mack | Mike Lala | Robb Todd | Sasha Fletcher | Monica McClure | Natalie Eilbert | Eric Nelson | Nelly Reifler | TK Madden

Check out the ongoing festivities here and keep your eyes peeled for more exciting news coming on Wednesday to celebrate the final week of the presale!

Just one more month!

Spot for "Infestation," by the brilliant Robin E. Mørk

Illustration by the brilliant Robin E. Mørk

One month from today, Dolan Morgan’s debut collection, That’s When the Knives Come Down, will hit shelves.

Have you watched the videos he’s been making for each story in TWTKCD?

Have you RSVPd for the book launch?

Most importantly, have you checked out the great presale incentives? There’s something for every reader and every budget, and no matter which option you choose, within mere weeks, you will hold your very own copy of Dolan’s collection, replete with illustrations by the amazing Robin E. Mørk (see: right).

BOTTOM LINE: Get on now—you are the perfect height to ride this ride.

More interview goodness from Dolan, now at Electric Literature

Dolan doubled his efforts for the second round of interviews to bring you two subjects for the price of one story!

You can read Dolan’s video effort for “Euclid’s Postulates,” which features two interviewees: a cruise ship employee and a tow truck driver, once again yielding poignant results.

CONCLUSION: Dolan Morgan’s got a heart of gold.

IMPLICATION: You should order his book, That’s When the Knives Come Down.