Chilly Jay Chill introduces ... 'Topograph'

----



Topograph is a recently published literary anthology that I edited. It’s an attempt to upend the stale definition of Southern literature and survey what’s really happening below the Mason-Dixon line.

Over the past decade, the region’s cities have become more cosmopolitan, the make-up of the population has shifted, and the variety of writers living in the South has ballooned. But many readers still expect Southern writing to deliver certain tried-and-true tropes: Realist style, folksy or gothic elements, and at least a touch of an accent. This traditional brand of Southern literature has become painfully self-conscious, straining to live up to outdated clichés.

Topograph offers a rough sketch of the new southern literary landscape. Choosing pieces for the book, I didn’t worry about whether a writer was “southern” enough in terms of their style or subject matter. Instead, I took the literalist approach: If a writer lived in the South or had ties here, they were eligible. The contents of the anthology turned out to be pretty surprising: One-minute stories, fractured prose poems, playfully ironic instructions, fragments of pulp fiction, essays about poetry, code-riddled espionage tales, epigrammatic poems, inventively structured memoirs, and lyrical invocations to destruction. And it’s all exclusive content that you won’t find anywhere else.





SO WHAT’S IN THE BOOK?

If you’re reading DC’s Blog, I’m pretty sure you’ll love these pieces by D/Ls and one person who’s been the subject of several posts:

John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) contributed three new poems - “Regulators Seize Nine Banks,” “Italian Guns,” and “Italian Guns II.” If you’re a fan of his work, you’ll dig these.

Blake Butler’s “Choir(s)” - a previously uncollected story by that’s in the vein of Scorch Atlas.

Scott McClanahan’s “This Is A Story with a Phone Number In It” – a reworked and quite different version than appeared in Stories II.

Alec Niedenthal’s “Dog W. Velvet Ears” – a brand new story written just for this anthology.


Plus there’s a good chance you may know some of these authors and like their work:

Andrew Ervin’s startling flash fiction “Meatland.”

Jack Pendarvis’s outrageous pulp sci-fi serial “A Wonderful Excursion to the Moon: Chapter XXXII – Revelation of the Beast.”

Frank Lentricchia’s excerpt from his upcoming novel The Sadness of Antonioni. Yep, it’s about the film director. Lentricchia’s work has been championed by the likes of Gordon Lish and Don DeLillo.

Sally Keith offers a new selection of poems that chew up language in various ways.





BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER STUFF?

I don’t want to be a tease. But rather than share samples of work by people that you know, I thought I’d include selections by some of the younger writers that I discovered while compiling the book.

Many of these folks – with the major exception of Alan Michael Parker – are virtually unknown. They’ve all got multiple pieces in the anthology, so here’s a quick taste of their work. Hope you enjoy them!

______________

Cosmonautica
By Megan McShea

The whole thing was televised by the satellite, which passed the star-crash victims every twelve hours. Already money was changing hands, optioning the movie, the action figures, the traveling roadshow. We watched guiltily as they paid the price for our outerspace probe, which had a silly ring to it on the lips of the TV announcers, but that’s what they kept calling it.

In the stage show they’d have these sexy jumpsuits with a little discreet bulging in all the right places. But their real space suits were sagging and soiled. Janice had the biggest blood staining hers, horrible bright red blood. She’d get the red jumpsuit in the version with the dancing chorus and the orchestra.

Cindy believed they would make it, she would claim, the whole time. So in hindsight we would be able to picture her there, suspended in space, believing, although we would picture her with a yellow jumpsuit on, and the prosthesis, not holding the armhole closed with her remaining arm, her eyes dazzled with a pain and fear beyond what most people ever know and call pain and fear.

I would later see them at the mall, evoking the ordeal with a little zero-gravity swing dancing. The crowd would love it. But that would all come later, after the horrible not-knowing, the ladies suspended in half-death outerspace.

Maura thought space was beautiful, she would later contend, but actually she looked sad via satellite, like what she really thought was its horrible emptiness was more dangerous than she could ever describe. Maura spun in the negative hold of space and eyed Janice and Cindy and felt it come between them irretrievably. Her whole body wanted to gasp but she denied herself the comfort of her one pure impulse at this moment of uncertainty so severe it was almost perverse. She did not gasp away her small air there in that place that was not even a place because it had no name and no air.

At the mall they would have the stores all around them and their space ship like a big pillow that the dancers danced on in sparkly basketball uniforms. It would be very high energy and acrobatic. The orchestra would play “Everybody is a Star” and people would call it funky self-consciously and a few kids would dance in the audience like they were in a music video and the single would have this whole comeback.

But every time I would hear it I would think of those three women not gasping, hardly breathing in those saggy, bloody suits in the blinding heat of the sun without the shelter of atmosphere. And then I would shut it off and think of diving into my neighbor’s pool back home on a hot sticky night, my simulacrum of relief. And I would see Janice, Cindy, and Maura in silver-sequined basketball uniforms, embedded in the firmament over Shady Lane in some continuum of outerspace that reaches back that far when everything was safe and cool and wet.

______________

I Told it Once
By Amy Bagwell

It’s safer for everyone if I write this

and not the poem bashing my sleep. I told it

once, traced letter by letter those bad years

into an anthill with an oak switch, hoping

those fiery fuckers would understand,

but they just panicked.

_____________

From The Committee on Town Happiness

The Public Portion of the Meeting
By Alan Michael Parker

Forthwith, to be listed on the agenda, sign up at least twenty-four hours in advance, then sign in thirty minutes prior to the meeting. Be in a marked seat—Section D, Rows 11-15—ten minutes prior to the closing of the doors. Sit in order. Wear an official nametag, available only from the Nametag Officer two weeks prior to the date; confirm correct Nametag use in person forty-eight hours prior to entering the building. Carry only the prepared statement. No handbags. No indoor scarves. Nothing resembling a device.

All statements must be read aloud measuredly. Prior to each three minute oral presentation, each speaker must submit his or her written statement to the Statement Officer. No corrections or changes; no colored pages, no challenging fonts, no double-sided messages. No surprises. We, the Committee on Town Happiness, know a good surprise; let us handle all surprises, if surprises are desired.

Written statements shall be eloquent because they’re written. All expressions must be known; all coquetry shall be dismissed. Opinions are to be presumed. No abundant use of “scare quotes.” No gross coddling of Committee members will be tolerated.

In the public portion of the meeting, all votes shall hereby be provisional. Given the fractiousness of possible responses, should premature conclusion to a public statement become necessary, the Sergeant-at-Arms shall be instructed inconspicuously to ring a bell. It’s just a little bell.

The gathering of vehicles outside was such a petty, historical cliché. Whosoever designed the operations map clearly lacked operational skills. The smoke in the rest room was uncalled for, as was the closing of the far window in the hall. The slippery stuff—some kind of commonly found, light industrial lubricant, presumably—could have been dangerous. The flyers were in fact dangerous: admittedly, we didn’t anticipate the flyers.

We, the Committee on Town Happiness, appreciate a good joke, a well-timed prank on a less important occasion. We are happy to return the favor to the prankster at our next meeting; we intend to recognize successes as successes. Please sign up immediately, to be placed on the next agenda, to be duly recognized in the public portion of the meeting; it would be better for everyone if the prankster didn’t have to be tracked down.

________________

Alternative Sources of Energy
By Maryke Burger


When he was alone he stripped

the wall of every coat,

and outlined in pencil a one

way street that looked

exactly the way it was.

_______________

Historiole
By Mark Hossfeld

The habit of friendship had come late to the old king. It was his sleeping position that had finally softened him up. It turned out the oldest and least complicated concubine actually positioned herself under his body during sleep in such a way that she became part of his mood the next day.

The king squatted beside a little black puppy, wondering what the Hindus thought about such a short-lived animal. He befriended his valet, asking him constantly, “What do you really think of the name, Abyssinia?” One of these days they are going to take a trip together, the king would say, and THEN …Well, they would look at each other and smile. The king would also soothe the remorseful cook by eating burnt biscuits and greedily slurping down gummy lamb and noodles.

After the assassination someone found the king’s diary in the rubble. The pages were terribly white and the letters so faint. There were wispy drawings of animals and sketches of figures drawing a bath. There were recipes and other meddlings with the idea of food. There were little stories with happy endings, glassy and wet.

______________

If you’re interested in buying a copy of the book, there’s a bonus of sorts. Topograph is published by Novello Press, which is run by the Charlotte Mecklenberg Library System – it’s the only library in the U.S. that has its own publishing division. A truly bold and progressive model.

All the proceeds from Topograph go to support the Charlotte Mecklenberg Library system – which happens to be undergoing a budget crisis. So your money will help a community in need.

You can buy a copy here.

Thanks for checking this out.
----

*

p.s. Hey. It's a special weekend around here because longtime d.l. Chilly Jay Chill aka the splendid writer and 'Destination Out' co-maestro Jeff Jackson walks you through an exciting anthology he has edited of new writing by new Southern authors, including some of the best scribes out there and a slew of fresh faces. It's a total knock-out of a book, as you will see if you haven't perused the post yet, and I really encourage you to pick up a copy if you can. Enjoy, talk to your host please, and thanks a million to you, CJC, for giving this place the honor and pleasure. Otherwise, for those of you who aren't news feed-checking Facebook friends of mine, I did finish my long in-progress novel yesterday, which I'm very happy about of course. Now I nervously await the judgement call of my agent, and then we'll see. Lastly, as you saw as soon as you opened this page, I'm proud to announce the upcoming two books from my Little House on the Bowery imprint. You have my guarantee that they're both amazing, and you can preorder the books by clicking the cover images, and I hope you will. Right, so I think that's it. ** Memoirs of a Heroinhead, Well, not according to the bastion of honesty Courtney Love, ha ha. That is a useful site, yes. Let me ... Everyone, courtesy of Memoirs of a Heroinhead, here's Rock Cocks & Lousy Lays, and ... yeah. Click that. Thanks, man. ** Kiddiepunk, Thanks for putting the tea in my iced last night. Talk to you in a bit. ** Oscar B, Thanks for putting the chips in my nachos last night. Talk to you in a bit. Everyone, the mighty artist and d.l. Oscar B has lodged long-awaited evidence of 'There's Nothing Wrong', her most recent performance in London, on her blog. I'm imbedding the video of the show itself down at the bottom of the p.s. for our enjoyment, and you can see more in the original location by simply clicking this. Please do. ** David Ehrenstein, No, no snowman making. The news makes it seem like there was a blizzard here or something, but, almost anywhere else, it would have an average winter snow day. You know how LA falls apart if it rains for more than two hours? It was like that. The Bachardy/ Isherwood night sounds to have been totally wonderful. Really nice to see them both feted. ** Tender Prey, Hi, Marc! Thanks for the congrats, man. Yeah, it's finis. Apart from little fiddlings I'll do between now and the last pre-pub minute, if, as I really have to say, it has turned out all right enough to please the people in power. You never know until the world rushes in. So, you've spent your first night in your new pad? Fantastic! Sure, write me whenever. I'm sort of back in the world as much as I ever am. Lovely to see you, pal, and give my warmest howdy to the Wolf. ** Tonyoneill, Yeah, it made me want to watch or rewatch (I can't remember) 'Jack Frost' too. And so I will. Thanks for the good thoughts on the novel completion. It's your turn now, man. ** Bernard Welt, You might get away with including the videos if you upload it to Vimeo with a discrete description. Great videos of performance art? Hm. I know great performances, but I don't know the videos of them in most cases. Lincoln Center has a great resource of performance art documentation that I assume you can get on loan. Performance-wise, I highly recommend the 80s era works of Dancenoise and the early John Kelly pieces like 'Pass the Blutwurst, Bitte'. And of course Ethel Eichelberger. There's a lot. But I don't know how the videos of their works turned out. At least with Eichelberger, they're probably fine since he was a fairly unadorned solo performer. Thanks for the Stevens poem. Nice. ** Nick, Hey. Thank you, man. ** MANCY, Beer might not be so bad. I can't remember. Well, do your best and all that. If it hurts, don't eat it, I guess, basically. Yeah, there was a big, kind of evil snowman in 'God Jr'. A real spoilsport, that guy. Have a good weekend, man. ** Paul Curran, Hey, thanks a lot, Paul. Means a lot coming from you . And, so ... where does yours stand at the moment? I'm all ears. ** Mark Gluth, Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I fussed with the final syllable yesterday, for now anyway. I've never read the Potter books. I liked how the movie had a lot of faith in the characters and in the actors, more than in any of the earlier ones. I thought that was kind of moving. And, yeah, totally about that weird village. I don't know, but I sure get the feeling we'll be seeing a lot of it in the last film. And hopefully a lot more Snape. Need more Snape. ** No more teenagekicks, Hi, Mark! How's it? Well, here's the final word. It's done. So, what about yours? How close are you to the finish line? ** Pilgarlic, Me too, about abandoned places. I never got the lure of the public bathroom thing though. Not sure why. I guess I'm not into the danger thing of, like, someone could be watching or could walk in at any moment. Strange. Strange that that doesn't interest me. ** Allesfliesst, Thanks a lot, Kai. You're still looking at this in cafes? No kidding about that backwards internet stuff in Germany you mentioned. I think France is pretty shit about that too. They've been promising to fix the horrid internet at the Recollets 'in two weeks' for months. I'm going to 'enjoy' cleaning my city dump of a desk. That's my first post-novel promise to fulfill. And go see the Larry Clark/ Basquiat retrospectives. And cake. Eat cake. ** Alan, Hey. Thanks a lot, man. What's new with you? Are you busy getting ready to move? ** Jheorgge, Hey. Ooh, huge snowman robot. Yum. Thank you. Everyone, listen to d.l. Jheorgge: 'a guy i know has designed and built a giant robot called 'mr. snow' here in edinburgh that's supposed to be unveiled, i think, today - i'm pretty curious to see it, it's written about on the bbc news site here, if yr interested.' Surely, you are. Oh, the ghost drawing, thank you for reminding me. My mind is swiss cheese. Will do. Oh, yeah, I love Bruno Dumont's films, and 'Hadewjich' is one of his very best. Huge Bresson fan. Dumont and I were co-interviewed a few years ago for this French magazine Inrokuptibles. Cool guy. Yeah, wonderful films. ** Heliotrope, Hey, Markster. Yeah, I don't know if ever explained why the secret comments space got nixed. Blogger was acting bizarre at one point, and it would only put one post on the front page at a time no matter what I did, and so the post would show up, but the p.s. would already be in the archives, so I had to combine them into one post, and then, when I did, I thought, you know, this is more logical. Hence, the death of the commenting secret tunnel. ** Sypha, Well, how cool, then, that our books will presumably be published in the same year. Nice. Not nice about your physical downfall. I hope the weekend takes are of that. ** Killer Luka, Well, it was either that or mentioning that Paris was Hitler's favorite city in the world. Oh, here's an encoded secret message for you: It will appear next Tuesday, and it will be accompanied by a surprise. ** Jon Reiss, Hey, Jon! Good to see you! That was a great Slater/widows peak story, man. You should use that literarily somewhere. Someone just told me that book about punks in movies is fantastic. Is it? You interviewed the Knoop, huh? I read something somewhere about her performance art thing. I'll go read your NY Press thing. While I wish nothing but bad and more bad for Laura Albert, I don't have any hard feelings for the Knoop. So, yeah. Have a lovely weekend, sir. ** Postitbreakup, Hey. Ha ha, that was great and so sweet of you and so classically you. Thanks, man. ** Ken Baumann, Hi, Ken! Aw, thanks, man. You just finished yours recently, so you now how it feels. Oh, hey, can I read yours now? *lowers head respectfully and rubs hands together* Videogames! Yes, it's so true. I had forgotten all about that. Yes, where to start, where to start ... Oh, wait, I know. ** Matthew, Hey, Matthew! Wow, it's excellent to see you! How are you? What's going on? I would love to get caught up if you have a moment and the inclination. The Lynch snowman pix are awesome, the standard setters. Man, take care. Really, really good to see you! ** Toniok, If you've got champagne, definitely open it. I should get some champagne, shouldn't I? Oh, and I know just where to get it. Thanks a lot, my friend. ** Andrew, And ... how did that make you feel when they attacked you, Andrew? Did you feel like you ... deserved it? Have you considered the possibility that the reason you like guys instead of gals is because gals are also known as chicks? Sorry, you brought out my inner Dr. Phil there for a second. ** Emptythesun, Hi, Joseph! Pleasure to see you! Yep, the 85% turned into 100%, I'm happy to say. Thanks for the well wishes. Hm, makes a lot of sense. I mean your theory on the musical manna from Detroit. One wonders why Russian rock is so crap, though. But then I guess they have other factors to deal with. You're a longterm veg guy too. High five. I would love to see 'Frosty the Blowman' if you can dig out of the ether. It sounds, as my mom used to say, priceless. ** Thomas Moronic, Thanks a lot, T. I'm glad to hear the estate stuff is getting sorted out at last. Yeah, my mom's took years and years. The only downside to the New Years in Paris thing is that Kiddiepunk and Oscar won't be here. But if you come anyway, I'll be happy to take up the slack, needless to say. I need a new Macbook too, rather badly. Yury, who knows about such things, insists that I should wait a month or so because he says the new models are about to come out, so keep that in mind, I guess. I'm trying to. ** Misanthrope, Oh, gosh, I don't even want to think about another novel for a while, but, yeah, my plan is still to write one more and then quit the novel writing racket. Famous last words. When I was in NYC doing 'Them' and that reading of my older stuff at the New Museum, I thought that I would like the next novel to be more personal and emotional, but we'll see. Glad you're warmer. I'm amazed those literary novel readers even know who I am. It's tough being me, man. Enjoy your private dinner and the steamy hot sex that is destined to follow. ** Tom/Jax, Hey, Jax. You had me scratching my head there for a second with the 'Tom' business. Thanks for the congrats, pal. Next? Write the new theater piece for/with Gisele. That's task #1. And I've wanted to put together a book of the blog's slave posts -- just the texts -- for a while, and I might do that. Yeah, update me when you can. I'd love know what's going on in your world and head and word documents. ** Steevee, Oh, if it's like the Slits, that's no problem at all. Okay, I get it. There might be a place in my heart and head for 'Pink Pounders'. Nice name, for sure. I'll investigate. ** Oliver, Hey, Oliver! Thanks a lot, man. The French media coverage has actually been okay and serious and thoughtful, relatively speaking. It's the American online coverage that's been 90% about the Prince/Camilla and how the lax their protection was and was ... blah blah blah. Have you been out to participate or see any of the demos? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Fucking hell about the exploding frozen pipes, and I can't believe you had to miss the Yuck 'n Yum launch! That's crazy and awful. But, of course, the big news is very big news indeed. Can not wait to peruse it in just a few minutes! Everyone, ahem, DC's official favorite zine in the world, Yuck 'n Yum, has just released its new issue. It features not only work by Mr. _Black_Acrylic himself but also the superstar d.l.s and artists Kier Cooke Sandvik and Shane Levene aka Memoirs of a Heroinhead, Waiting for John, and so much more. Add other goodies by other amazing people and artists and writers, and we're talking about an absolute fucking must, people. So, without further ado, click this, and feast. Awesome, Ben! Congrats to you and to the fortunate known world! ** Slatted Light, Thanks, buddy. I think the new novel is technically shorter than 'The Sluts', but its pages are packed, so it's certainly longer in terms of reader investment time. Sure, let me sit on the novel for a while like I like to do, and then sure, you can read it. Awesome news about your new blog! Wow, very, very cool. I'll dig in just a little later on today. Everyone, the great Slatted Light, master of virtually everything, has launched a new blog drift lines that is, in his words, 'a new political philosophy blog I'm updating semi-irregularly. The latest post up is re: the recent stuff with Wikileaks.' Hugely recommended that you click that link and bookmark the page that loads immediately. Thanks, D. A fine weekend to you. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. That Taymor 'The Tempest' is a film, I'm guessing? I hadn't heard about it. I don't really like Taymor's films so far, strangely. But still. I don't know who Ben Whishaw is. Is that weird? Anyway, I'll know soon enough. ** Chris Cochrane, Hi, C. Hm, on the texts ... I don't know. Whatever sounds right to you sonically, I guess. Whatever is the most grabby or something? 'Bedded Friends' might work. I don't know. I trust your judgement. Great weekend to you, man. ** Statictick, I'll take the warmth and especially the fuzz, thank you. Assuming you don't mean fuzz in the 'another word for cops' sense. Man, that sucks about the robbery. That's fucking unbelievable, but, yeah, obviously, I'm glad he's A-okay physically. Yikes. ** Brendan, Hi, B. Demarinis was your professor? Wow. What can you tell me about that? That's so cool. You're so mysterious, but my fingers are crossed about whatever's going on, and not even vaguely so. How long is that show on the 29th up for? I might be coming into LA the day after or two days after. May 14th is a possibility. Too early to say. Hope so. Man, have the best weekend possible. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. Oh, I looked up Funfetti, and I liked what I saw. Did you eat it? If not, who? You had a quiet day there. You don't like your cousin? Oh, wait, it's the boyfriend, isn't it? I'm trying to remember. Make them eat Funfetti. That would fun(fetti). My day: Well, I worked on the novel, and then there was this weird moment where I thought, holy shit, it's finished! Then I formatted it with a title page and stuff and sent it to my agent. He wrote back to say if he can format it for the Kindle, he'll read it right away, and otherwise he'll have to print it out, and that'll take a day or two. So, now I'm a little nervous to hear what he thinks, like I said. But excited, too. Gulp, whoopie, gulp ... whoopie. Etc. Then I ... hm, felt good for a while. I posted on Facebook that I finished my novel, and lots of people congratulated me, and that was really nice. I asked Kiddiepunk and Oscar if they wanted to celebrate with a Hard Rock Cafe run, and they did. So we went there. Or Oscar and I did, and Kiddiepunk met us there because he was getting his hair cut just before. My plan had been to have drinks and eat a big dessert, but the drinks there were insanely expensive, and the desserts weren't so magical, so I just ate my usual HRC meal of nachos, veggie burger, iced tea. But I ordered macaroni & cheese as a bonus. It was nice. The nonstop video show there was pretty standard and mostly crap: Flock of Seagulls, Jeff Healey Band, Jamiroquai, Stevie Wonder, ... uh ... The only good one was Neil Young. So, we ate. I felt sick because I ate too much. Then we came back here. Then I called some people whose calls I'd been avoiding, and they didn't pick up or call me back, so maybe they're pissed at me. Gisele's manager called to say I need to do a photo session with Gisele and Jonathan C. on Monday night on Isle St. Louis for some big magazine piece about 'TIHYWD', I guess to promote the Paris shows. I looked at my very messy desk and started strategizing about how I was going to clean it with the most efficiency possible, and I'll start that today. Oh, I don't know what else. Not much. I'll leave it there. So, now I embark on my first post-novel weekend, and I will try to do things that are fun to hear about. I will. Meanwhile, you tell me about your weekend, okay? ** Schlix, Oh, my friend, I'm so, so sorry. I'll hold out hope for you. That's so scary and and sad. My very, very best and lots of love to you this weekend, Uli. ** Squeaky, Thanks a lot, Darrell. For me, hm, I guess it would be cocaine, but I don't know if I want to go there. Well, I want to go there, but ... I won't. Dang. ** Jeff, Thanks much, Jeff. How are you doing, man? I like Todd Solondz's films, yeah. Not all of them completely, but 'Happiness' is great, and the newest one, the sequel to 'Happiness', is pretty good. ** Okay, I won't go back to work now, phew, but I'll do something. You guys give 'Topograph' your attention until further notice, please? And watch Oscar's video just below and click all the italicized links too. Is that asking too much? Sorry, if so. Just do your best. See you on Monday.