Fringe, the Noun that Verbs Your World

Amy Dupcak tells us the story behind her story, “illuminated destruction“:

“illuminated destruction” was originally the fourth (and last) part of a longer story I wrote in 2005, as a junior at Sarah Lawrence College. This year, when I was looking over the piece, I decided that this fourth part was the most poignant, and separated it from the rest. After thoroughly smoothing it out and tightening it up, I sent it off to Fringe.

But back when the story was conceived, I was in a rather experimental mindset. I had been readily digesting the Beats, Tristan Tzara, e.e. cummings, and Steal This Book.  I’d recently switched from studying/writing poetry to diving headfirst into fiction, undertaking a semester-long independent study with the writer Kathleen Hill, and putting my poetry skills to new use. For “illuminated destruction,” I incorporated imagery from vivid dreams, which continue to inspire my writing (in fact, my entire novel sprung from a combination of two dreams).

Awash in a neo-hippie sort of liberalism and way of life at SLC, I began writing from a 1960s’ point-of-view, with an us versus them theme, maintaining a spirit of pacifist rebellion for my generation. I decided to write in lowercase because I thought... more »

Poignant. It is a word heavily overused in the description of literary works — often when the word “sappy” could be used instead. But poignant is the only word appropriate for the works of Melissa Henderson. She writes of life growing up in Indiana with a very young mother and a brother who always seemed to be looking for trouble. It may sound mundane but each essay represents one bright point of insight into the world of children and how it carries on to adulthood.

Her stories range from a young mother’s love to the cutting of corn off the cob. From the sharing of tamales to the surprising connections between brother and sister. And how both the quiet and the tumultuous parts of childhood return to us in adulthood, whether we want them to or not.

Hello, loyal Fringe subscribers.

We want to apologize for the number of email notifications you have been receiving from our site. Instead of your usual weekly digest email, you are now receiving emails with each post. I am working hard to resolve this, but it seems to be an issue with WordPress. I promise I will get this fixed. In the meantime, thanks for bearing with us. We should be operating normally very soon.

Best wishes,
Julia Henderson
Webmistress
Fringe Magazine, Inc.

An interview with Melissa, the author of Mental Multivitamin, reviewed here.

What inspired you to launch your blog?

When I started “Mental multivitamin”(nearly seven years ago now — wow), I had only one idea: to chronicle my reading and other learning adventures and synthesize what I was learning. Okay, I actually had two ideas: Given the glut of “mommy blogs,” I wanted my blog to do and say something else, something not that, if you know what I mean.

What has kept you motivated to keep at it?

I enjoy what I’m learning, and I enjoy writing about it.

How much time do you devote to the blog on a weekly basis?

Some weeks, just an hour or so; other weeks, more.

How has your blog gained an audience?

When I began blogging in 2003, I was active in a vibrant homeschooling forum. Many readers arrived at Mental multivitamin via my posts there. Later, M-mv earned readers through its nomination in the literary blogger category of an annual blog competition. I don’t think of my site as a literary blog, but I appreciated the new readers. Later, my site also earned readers through similar contests hosted by homeschooling sites. I don’t think of my site as a homeschooling blog, either,... more »

Melissa, a homeschooling mom of 3, says she initiated Mental Multivitamin (M-mv), which bears the tagline established in October, 2003 for readers, thinkers, an autodidacts to “chronicle my reading and other learning adventures and synthesize what I was learning.”  Averaging 5 posts per week, this literary blog also includes arts commentary (see Fine Art Fridays- sometimes posted on the occasional Thursday), media commentary, birding, and more.

Still, literature is the meat and potatoes of the blog. The monthly Reading Life review chronicles the author’s nightstand collection, and the frequent Poetry entries provide insight into poetry and sometimes link to choice sonnets- just because.

“Given the glut of ‘mommy blogs,’ I wanted my blog to do and say something else, something not that, if you know what I mean,” says Melissa. While M-mv is not a “mommy blog” a great deal of the books discussed and reviewed have a parenting, motherhood, family and homeschooling bent, clearly mirroring the experiences and interests of the author.

My favorite series is Chapbook Entry, in which Melissa lets us into her personal notebook and provides commentary on key passages in the books she reads. Simultaneously a sort of Cliff’s Notes and window into her mind, the entries are brief... more »

Fringe republished Sarah Sweeney’s excellent nonfiction piece, “Tell Me If You’re Lying” this week, and chatted with her about the piece and what this publication (her first) meant to her. Hint: It changed her life.

Looking back at your piece now, three years after it was published, what do you notice?

There’s lots of weird humor in this story, I think. A few years ago, when I was doing readings promoting Best of the Web 2008, which this story was drafted to, it occurred to me that people were always laughing, even in places that I didn’t find particularly funny at first. But it’s definitely a tragicomedy, and I appreciate that most about it.

In what ways is this piece typical or atypical in terms of your work?

My writing is pretty honest. I’ve quite recently delved into writing more nonfiction essays — including more stories about my father — and my poetry is just as exposed. I have few secrets. But when “Tell Me If You’re Lying” first came out, I confess I did have a momentary freak-out about what my family and others would think. I knew there was no going back. But that feeling passed in an instant. I’ve received so many... more »

I attended the wonderful Sewanee Writers’ Conference earlier this month, and in the packet for fiction writers I found a note offering the opportunity to meet with several book publishers, editors, and literary agents that would visit at different points during the 12-day conference.

As far as I know, there was not such a note for the poet participants, and very few poets attended the panels, Q & As, and the individual meetings held in tiny book-lined rooms so dim you could hardly discern the features of those hip New York visitors. It soon became apparent that many of us fiction writers didn’t belong at such presentations and meetings either.

In case we missed the large flashing-red billboard posted all over the mainstream publishing industry: SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS DO NOT SELL. At Sewanee, hopefuls, including myself, still attended some of the editor panels; we still met with agents. If we didn’t have a novel, these practical folk told us, “Talk to us when you do.” And if we said we weren’t interested in writing a novel, that we prefer the short form,  they looked at us blankly. Were we crazy? Why would we not want to write a novel? Why would we not... more »

I don’t know how the weather is where you are, ladies and gentlemen, but it’s hotter than a really hot thing where I’m sitting. Okay, that’s not entirely true. The supermarket café I am stealing an Internet connection from is pretty near freezing, but the outside world is all but made of sweat and humidity, and the two are not necessarily unrelated. Say it with me, ‘Ew.’

What is there to do on days when you barely have the strength to apologize to the person you’re peeling yourself off of in the subway as you stumble to the next air conditioner? Anyone who’s seen a very enlightening episode of Hey Arnold! will know that the usual solutions (the public pool, an afternoon movie, a fire hydrant, etc.) will only end in disappointment. In these dark times, we must turn to the great literary minds. When they are done with their own rounds of, ‘Ew. Gross. Don’t touch me. Ew,’ the only word they will find is, ‘Drink.’

And who are we to argue?

Chum it up with a real man’s man, and try the Papa Doble (aka Hemingway Daiquiri).

2 ounces silver rum (Cuban rum if you have it)

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce... more »

Welcome to Isak, the project of journalist and fiction writer Anna Clark. Named after writer Isak Dinesen, the blog seeks to provide “a space to celebrate tales and truth in the curious, loving way that embodies the spirit of the writer for which it is named.” On a given day, you may encounter Clark’s musings on the merits and inadequacies of author Francine Prose, an in-depth look at the work of recent Pulitzer winners, or a list of top literary magazines to which you absolutely must subscribe. Isak was recently listed as one of Largehearted Boy’s “Blogs to Read 2010.”

Clark’s meditations reflect a heartfelt reverance for literature and its importance to society and spirit. Whether she is arguing with literary critics on form (the role of narrative vs. scenes in fiction in Marilyn Robinson’s Housekeeping), expounding on the macabre prose style of William Styron ’s Lie Down in the Darkness, or commenting on a Wall Street Journal article about a kid’s campaign to prevent closure of a local independent bookstore, she exhibits unmistakable allegiance to the power and sanctity of words.

In 2009 Isak launched Choose Books: A Gift Guide for Those Who Love Stories series, a 53-page Christmas shopping guide designed to... more »

Aren’t we all, Buddy?

Okay, maybe not everyone is looking for romance, but some of us are and it’s not easy. I mean, it’s not like scores of available, big-hearted, and agreeable lords and ladies are moving into the neighborhood and hosting balls.* Diners, drive-ins, and dives are all great places to meet and mingle, but any romantic comedy will tell you that they’re just breeding grounds for shenanigans and hijinks.

Then where? The Internet, of course! There is no shortage of dating sites to help out: eHarmony, OKCupid, the Gaga-approved Plenty of Fish, andthelistgoeson. Each has set up scores of dates and begun many relationships, each with its own method.

Alikewise.com is the new kid on the block. matching people up based on the books that they share. The idea, as the About Us page conveniently states, is ‘to find an area of passionate interest, and let you take it from there.’ Before you’ve even met, you’ll have something to talk about that extends beyond the color of the walls in the café or how much good a little rain would do your geraniums.

The site is the brainchild of Matt Sherman, who came up with idea after ‘wishing I could meet a woman... more »

Most beginning writers are led to believe they’re embarking on a great journey.

First stop: Learn your craft.

Second stop: Experiment.

Third stop: Workshop.

Fourth stop: Revise.

Final Destination: Your very own voice.

Luckily, there are many tools to help you along the way! Craft lectures, craft books, MFA programs, conferences– many of which push this belief that after much struggle and failure,  you’ll reach a place in your writing where you’ll feel comfortable. You will have found “Your Voice.” And once you’ve found something, there’s no need to search for it anymore.

Many of us like to read a variety of literature. Sometimes we feel like minimalism in the morning, and maximalism in the afternoon; satires at the playground, formalist experiments over coffee,  gothic fiction at the beach, fabulism in the bathtub, lyricism with midnight ice-cream. Variety is stimulating; it’s exciting. So why are so many of us, as writers, journeying toward stasis?

Because we paid our dues at the second stop. We experimented, and we failed, or we weren’t very good at anything, until we discovered the scrap beginnings of Our Voice. Workshopped and revised, Our Voice worked. Our Voice became recognizable. Our Voice got published. Now, we can wake up in the morning and sit down and Our Voice comes easily. Besides, there... more »

J. A. Tyler tells us about ”Terry & Tawny & Lucinda” and its larger work, Water.

For Ben Segal & Erinrose Mager’s forthcoming book The Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature I wrote an imaginary blurb for an imaginary book–then I decided that I wanted to write that book instead of leaving it to the imagination. My blurb was for a potential title called All These the Violent Children. This would be a book entirely about children killing one another. “Terry & Tawny & Lucinda” is one portion of that work, which is now just the prelude to a much larger novel titled Water.

Water is a book that begins with a rain that has no stop. It begins with a variety of children in a school with no teacher in a land with no parents, each of them killing and opening up one another in a surreal and imaginary landscape. That is what you have in Fringe and may read another excerpt of in a forthcoming issue of New York Tyrant. The book then goes to the stories that these children tell one another in the dark of a broken moon. Some of these just appeared in kill author and several more are forthcoming in Caketrain.... more »

We at Fringe like to think we have a decent sense of humor; yet, when it comes time to publish, rarely do I have a piece of humor in hand. In fact, it’s rare for pieces of humor to come across the nonfiction desk at all, let alone ones that are actually funny. So imagine my delight when I discovered Gabriel Durán. Well, “discovered.” Other magazines were snapping up his work so fast that I kept missing my opportunity. Finally the timing worked out and I snagged a piece of my own: Anti-Social Networking.

Remember that guy in your dining hall during your undergrad years that you thought had the potential to be cute if he stopped staring at you so funny? Well that’s Durán in Anti-Social Networking–only with a healthy dose of self-awareness, self-deprecation, and a dash of charm. Durán has a way of writing his own character that makes the reader both laugh and cringe. Laugh because Durán so emphatically details the ridiculousness of his wayward pursuits, and cringe because you find so much of yourself in his character, too. This essay is not just a tale of the follies of a young man but a story of the terrifying act... more »

When walking to the cinema to enjoy what was to be one of the last films a girl would watch with her roommate before said roommate was off to Poland for a year, there’s only one logical topic of conversation: children’s fiction. So, we talked about Harriet the Spy (which she’d never read) and The Fantastic Four series (which I’d never read).

About halfway to our destination, we noticed that the books we had both read focused on children working their way through bleak futures. As kids, we didn’t want the science fiction World of Tomorrow that our parents would have loved, despite its promise of hover cars and robot dogs. Instead, we craved bleak futures which hardened kids, broke them, had them making impossible choices by the time they were learning long division. Our school book fairs were full of titles and authors—Lois Lowry and Margaret Peterson Haddix, I’m looking at you—which seemed to specialize in horrifying children with the world’s potential for cruelty. We wondered, then, if that’s what the sick little puppies born in the nineties enjoyed, what were the children of this millennium reading?

Much the same thing, it seems. The kids of today love stories about young people... more »

Author bios are changing. There have always been writers who instead of (or in addition to) including the standard list of publications choose to drop “interesting” factoids about themselves – their geographical whereabouts, the names and disposition of their pets. But it seems lately more bios are mini works of art themselves – works of fiction or memoir carefully crafted to hint at the author’s artistic interests, humor, and psyche.

These writers refuse the standard “He has been published in…” and “She received her MFA from…” They give something more rich and bloody. The story or poem doesn’t end with the story or poem. Here, in the contributor notes, is an offering. A free dessert.

These writers are my heroes. Because too many of us (myself included) have used contributor notes for evil purposes, mainly to judge the integrity of the author, to measure his/her success in the literary world, and to reinforce a hierarchy of “better” journals and “the best” MFA programs.

Interestingly, the artistic bios seem most prevalent in arty, online, alternative, post-avant garde, boundary-breaking, and/or new up-and-coming mags. The well-established journals, even the crazier ones, seem to sport mostly the safe and standard credential listings.

Perhaps this is a question of... more »

Once upon a time, way back in the early ‘aughts, film lovers, foodies, and lovers of literature looking to hedge their bets on the latest Hollywood release, micro-brew bistro, or DeLillo novel turned to the professional reviewers of venerated institutions such as the New York Times or The Boston Globe. Like much of the pre-Web 2.0 way of life, those days are gone.

The proliferation of user-review websites such as Amazon, Goodreads, Rotten Tomatoes, and Yelp! have reconfigured the landscape and possibly created a new endangered species: the professional critic.

As if user-review sites were not enough to sound the death-knell for the New York Times book critic, the explosion of the blogosphere circa-2004 birthed a new genre of literary criticism: the literary blog (litblog, for short). Written by both professional and “amateur” critics, litblogs embody all of the gravy and liability of the blogosphere, adding a multitude of new voices to the mix, democratizing the conversation, and expanding content servicing the ultra-specific (e.g. poetry, or graphic novels), while simultaneously overwhelming the reader with content, choices, and links, blurring the role between professional critic and amateur, and reducing the market for paid professionals.

For literature aficionados, litblogs provide a way of connecting to the like-minded. Rain Taxi,... more »

In Fringe 23, our own Rachel Dacus interviews Eliot Khalil Wilson about his influences, his poetic aims, and the following poem from his forthcoming collection This Island of Dogs (Margie/Intuit House Press).

White Slip on the Paris Metro
by Eliot Khalil Wilson

From the fouled nests of Villejuif
to the street below,
then the walk, the steps down
to the catacomb metro—
I have waited with Moroccans squatting like tajines
and Senegalese women asleep against their bundles,
waited in this crowd like a soul for a ferry
and how many skies exiled?

How many skies?
To ride this silent film
under cobbled Paris, her exposed-bone sycamores,
to pitch and tilt and judder,
in scumbled light,
there among the speeding cataleptic,
rocking like the drowned,
being how many kinds of foreign
and living like Saint Jerome.

And I speak stone but no one speaks.
I have slept against my reflection.
I have pretended a bored sleep.

But once I raised my head
and saw, I swear, a woman wearing falling snow.

She glowed supernova in a slip.
Not a knot or a kiln or a boat ramp
but a dress from the silver water of the moon
and a liquid shape, each way free.

Not... more »

This week The New Yorker had an interesting blurb about marginalia–specifically the marginalia in the New York Public Library’s rare books collection by famous writers such as Jack Kerouac and William Coleridge. Marginalia, a fancy term for the notes and underlinings scrawled in books, can take many forms. The column got me thinking about how the way we read is such a subjective and personal experience–everyone processes what they read in different ways. I know people who consider it a form of vandalism to make any mark at all in the books they own, while others underline with abandon.

I don’t tend to mark up my books too much, but I like to be able to underline memorable passages, preferably in pencil, but I rarely make notes or comments. It just makes the experience of reading more personalized. Joe writes page numbers on the last page of the book with a couple of words from the passage he wants to remember. I find the process a little cryptic, but it doesn’t interrupt the flow of text as you’re reading. I find it’s like a delightful game when I borrow a book from him and then flip to the last page to go... more »

Britain’s Just Joe (Joe Wheeler) Interviews Working Issue Artist Martin Askem, who says he’s inspired by the human condition and desires to be “the savior of modern art”:

Just Joe Interviews Martin Askem on YouTube.

While some technological types are looking to the future to the keep the written word going strong, others have found that a bit of nostalgia doesn’t hurt.

WriteRoom is a computer program that gives its users no chance for distraction. Once opened, the entire screen goes black, save for a green sliver of flashing pixels.

WriteRoom is a word processor, and that’s all, folks.

Sure, technology has come a long way since the green-on-black color scheme of the Eighties, and there is a lot to be said for the endless avenues of communication opened up by the Internet, or the convenience of a cell phone that weighs less that a hefty Shi Tzu. The only problem is, that with so much potential for productivity and exploration, many people become overwhelmed and distracted, watching videos of cats being tickled rather than writing that Fringe entry.

Even this post is riddled with links to take you further and further away from that-thing-you-were-doing-before.

It’s not a exactly a bad thing, but if you’ve got actual work to do, WriteRoom may be your new best friend. Double-click away every diversion and, when you’re done, just click out and you’ll see that the black hole of efficiency you’ve been working within is little more... more »