Vignette on Frazen, Lit Fiction & The Twitterverse

The literary hype machine descends upon the masses. Its message””Frazen is here! Rejoice, you troglodytes!””is splayed across the web like a flickering neon sign. I didn”â„¢t know Jonathan Frazen was upon us once again. I haven”â„¢t even read The Corrections … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: The Unusual Suspects

I first met Amy Ellenburger when I was writing about arts funding and Chalk Repertory Theatre, the theater company of which Ellenburger is a founding member.   (I later blogged about Chalk Repertory and their resident playwright Ruth McKee here … Continue reading →

Word Play: A Photo Book Review of Marjorie Tesser’s The Important Thing Is…Card Game

Winner of the 2009 Firewheel Chapbook Award, Marjorie Tesser’s chapbook The Important Thing Is– is poetry designed to be played as a game. The book is presented in a box with game cards and instructions that give only one rule””break … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Bill Yarrow

You can enjoy some really interesting work from Bill Yarrow in the July issue and he gives us some wisdom about the dearth of Satan in or lives, spiritual shell games, and love rituals. 1. Why is no one ever … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Brandi Wells

We were excited to have Brandi Wells make another appearance in PANK and today she talks with us about special words, awkward photos and much more. 1. How awkward would it be to have a blown up photo of your … Continue reading →

What Do You Want Your Writing To Be Like?

One of the best readings I saw at AWP 2010 was the Black Warrior Review/Blue Hour Press event. I spent much of the conference in a drunken haze, and to be brutally honest, I don’t really remember a ton of … Continue reading →

Museum Appetite 7: Video Installations and Reality Television

I have visited San Francisco three times since moving to Los Angeles; the first two trips were lost time in terms of museum-hopping, but last weekend I spent one day absolutely alone in a semi-familiar city.   Naturally, I sought … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Robb Todd

Robb Todd will make you want to travel with his story in the July issue and he talks with us about weapons, the things we leave behind, and drunken dreams. 1. What weapon do you wish you got when you … Continue reading →

What I Love About YOU

Nuala Ni­ Chonchoir’s debut novel, You, is set in 1980 Dublin against the charged backdrop of the River Liffey. The novel tells the turbulent story of a ten-year-old girl and her broken family. Narrated through the child’s point of view … Continue reading →

Another School Year Begins, Below Shiny Red Apples

Tres Crow interviews xTx and things are said. Congratulations to PANK 3 contributor Brooklyn Copeland who just  received a Lilly Fellowship! That’s some fancy business right there. Another Tuscaloosa Craigslist Missed Connection from Brian Oh Lee You. We have high … Continue reading →

Fractured West #1: A Review by Claire King

Reading the first issue of this new literary magazine is like crashing a party. You walk into the room, you recognise a couple of faces but not many. It’s exciting in there, sexy and uncertain. Look around you: there are … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Robert Swartwood

Robert Swartwood makes another appearance in the July issue of PANK. He talks with us about blending in, animal genetics and much more. 1. How would you completely blend into an  environment? Well, that depends on the environment. If it … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – J.D. Salinger

“It’s partly true too, but it isn’t all true. People always think something’s all true.” J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye This line has haunted me in a fatherly way. In today’s society of polars, how do I teach … Continue reading →

We Are Now Using Submishmash

Writers, we have surrendered to the awesomeness that is Submishmash. We are now using their system for all submissions. Direct your writing to pankmagazine.submishmash.com. We are also no longer accepting submissions for the Queer Special Issue. You overwhelmed us with … Continue reading →

When Your Writing Space…Part II (aka Mac Love)

-Photo by Peter Yang, taken for Rolling Stone Magazine “Just when I thought I was out”¦they pull me back in.”* “They,” in this case, refers to the objects that make up my writing space. If you’ll recall, I adjusted my … Continue reading →

Aaron Burch Is About to Sell Out

But not the way you think. There are only FIVE copies if How to Take Yourself Apart, How to Make Yourself Anew available. If you want a physical copy of this gorgeous book in your hands act now or make … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: Wyclef Jean In His Own Words by Rion Scott

Editor’s Note: We conducted this interview with rapper and activist Wyclef Jean shortly after he announced his bid for the Haitian presidency. Haitians officials have now declared him ineligible to run for the nation’s highest office. We present this interview … Continue reading →

Vinyl Poetry is New & Good

Gregory Sherl and K.M.A. Sullivan are spearheading VINYL POETRY, a new online venue. Though submissions are by solicitation only at this point, they are open to suggestions. Check out their first issue with work by Sasha Fletcher, Matt Hart, Bob … Continue reading →

Jay Varner’s Nothing Left To Burn: A Review by Salvatore Pane

A coming-of-age memoir in the tradition of Tobias Wolff’s  This Boy’s Life and Gary Fincke’s The Canals of Mars, Jay Varner’s debut book Nothing Left to Burn tells a generational story in tiny McVeytown, a rundown blip on the map … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Robert Anthony Siegel

Robert Anthony Siegel’s fiction appears in the July issue and he talks with us about house bands and intro music, corset making, and the mistakes we marry. 1. Who would be your house band on your late night talk show? … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Keith Rosson

Keith Rosson’s finely detailed At This Table appears in the July issue and he talks with us about aliases, spines as a building block and quiet acts of bravery. 1. What alias would you take up when eating at a … Continue reading →

Excitement, Love, Lists, More: May August Never End

Congratulations to the finalists in the 2010 Black River Chapbook Competition including PANK contributor Stace Budzko. We also want to congratulate Steve Himmer whose novel Bee-Loud Glade will be published by Atticus Books in 2011. We’re excited that David Peak … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – “Your Wife is Hot”

“Your Wife is Hot” a single billboard message on CA 78 west (Oceanside). At first, I was taken aback, but then as I continued to drive, I started to smile about it. The sign was right. My wife is hot. … Continue reading →

Our Island of Epidemics: The Trailer

Top Writer Apps for The iPad

I’ve covered my thoughts on the iPad, and its usefulness to writers, in previous installments. I won’t rehash old points, but only state that the iPad still has some gaps in its design, and rightfully so, given its a first-generation … Continue reading →

Haunted: A Review of Maureen Alsop’s Apparition Wren

I met Maureen Alsop before meeting her poetry. We were ghost hunting together in the hills of the Antelope Valley. To clarify, we are not normally ghost hunters, but poets. We were actually in search of poetry—attempting to soften a … Continue reading →

August PANK Will Scorch You

It’s hot. These words will get you hotter. Put your hand in the fires of Zack Bean, Eric Bennett, Nicelle Davis, Sean Doyle, John Fischer, Luke Geddes, Luke Goebel, Melissa Goodrich, Brett Elizabeth Jenkins, Matt Lapata, Lindsay Merbaum, Teresa Milbrodt, … Continue reading →

Review: Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

When I first started taking my writing seriously — though I don’t know how successful that was, because I still write stupid shit about zombie rockstars and butch girls in bars… Okay, when I started actually finishing stories instead of … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Johnsie Noel

Johnsie Noel’s poem in the July issue captured my imagination the moment I started reading it.  Today she talks with us about noms de plume, telephone, and secret tastes. 1. What dimension does your nom de plume live in and … Continue reading →

Underrated

By now, I’m sure most of you have read Anis Shivani’s attack on what he calls the fifteen most overrated writers in America. Many writers have already spoken out about how useless such a list is. But I’m not posting … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: The New Normal

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this Slate article, in which writer Tom Vanderbilt argues that in the movies not owning a car is shorthand for being a loser, a criminal, or a freak. Growing up in L.A., public … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Alana Dakin

Flesh and Blood by Alana Dakin appears in the July issue and she talks with us about ghost dating, the stuff ribs are made of, and more. 1. Would you date a person made of bone, skeleton bone not boner … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Bowling your heart out

Since it was a typical Saturday morning in our small town (read: nothing much else going on here), there were a few families bowling together. As I watched them, I saw a pattern.
Continue reading →

Hey Hey It’s Thursday Which is Read Awesome Day

There’s this really great blog post at Third Face by xTx about a weekend of writing. There’s one by Mary Hamilton about staring at the wall (and well, more).  Barry Graham writes about writer mystique and this is all happened … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Jen Gann

Jen Gann’s Tiger Town is part of the July issue and today there’s more tiger talk than you thought was possible. 1. If a dead tiger washed up on the beach, would you wear its pelt? Maybe if someone dried … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Kyle Minor

Kyle Minor is one of PANK’s favorite writers. He makes an appearance in the July issue and takes our questions head on in ways that make us want to shout, “Kyle Minor, you are a king among men!” 1. What … Continue reading →

Weave Seeking Collaborators

The fine people at Weave are looking for collaborators at AWP 2011. If you would like to partner with Weave for a reading or to share a table at the bookfair, go here for further details. While you’re at it, … Continue reading →

Best Writer Apps for Android

The computer & mobile platform flame wars entertain me. Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft vs. Research in Motion (aka RIM aka Blackberry): each ecosystem has its positives and negatives. I still own a PC, though I use it more as … Continue reading →

PANK News, Updates & Reminders

1. PANK 5 is in production. PANK’s most exciting print issue yet, with new work from Nancy Carol Moody, Gabriel Welsch, Rachel Yoder, Luca DiPierro, Mimi Vaquer, Melissa Broder, Tasha Matsumoto, and many, many others. Pre-order your copy today. 2. … Continue reading →

Pindeldyboz is over / Mud Luscious Press takes on print archives

For those of you who haven’t heard, the final online issue of Pindeldyboz is up with notes from a few generations of editors as well as some final editorial picks, an online ‘best of’ to cap off this fine journal’s … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Chris Erickson

An excerpt from Chris Erickson’s Henrytown appears in the July issue and today he asserts some of our questions are loaded (indeed they are), talks about the taste of laser beams, and more. 1. What do you think a laser … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Jonathan Gold and Culinary Citizenship

I was driving alone up Western Avenue in Los Angeles late at night.   I had been back from China for only a few weeks.   I was zoning out, letting my eyes slip into and out of focus across … Continue reading →

Check it Out: The WBEZ Blog

WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio has a quirky blog I’ve been enjoying this week. In addition to the posts you might normally find on a blog (news, supplements to WBEZ programming, other miscellany), each week author Amy Krouse Rosenthal creates a … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Murder by default

As a parent, I can’t bow out. I can’t decline. It never matters whether I want to. It’s non-optional and there’s no point in arguing. I clean. I wipe. I wake. I comb, I dress, I make lunches, I sign notes and make appointments.

I’m also a writer, but that identity usually gets brushed off. I’m just too occupied.

That’s not right. I was a writer first. Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Pablo Picasso

“I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.” -Pablo Picasso. I saw this (Ma Jolie – Pablo Picasso) at the Indianapolis Museum of Art this week. I read the quote. I like things that are thinking, … Continue reading →

Though Summer Wanes, These Words Rise

Congratulations this week to Ethel Rohan whose remarkable short story collection (yes, I’ve read it suckas) Cut Through The Bone, will be published in December 2010 by Dark Sky Books. This is richly deserved and when the book is available … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Tim Dicks

Tim Dicks has two witty poems in the July issue and talks with us about bad oral sex, his very own sex position, and escaping Florida. 1. How bad must the oral sex you’re getting be if you can write … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: Re(-en)vis(ion)ing: The Obligation of the Latino Writer by Joseph A. W. Quintela

(Prelude to a Literary Murder) If it is truth that you desire then let me explain a few things. But be careful. For where truth is involved there will also be complexity. There are no simple truths. Simplicity is the … Continue reading →

We Want Readers for AWP 2011

We’re looking for ten readers for the PANK/Annalemma/mud luscious reading at AWP 2011 to join the five mud luscious press novella readers who have already been secured. This reading extravaganza will likely take place on Thursday evening at 7 or … Continue reading →

When Your Writing Space Keeps You From Writing…

My writing space needed a change. The glass tops of my L-shaped desk were covered in dust and cigarette ash. The monitor and laptop appeared out of place. Not to mention the bevy of wires: USB cords, an auxiliary cable … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Kate Wyer

Only in Motion by Kate Wyer appears in the June issue and talks with us about willing herself into a collision, good shades of lipstick and other important matters. 1. How do you will yourself into a collision? I was … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: Training to be a Writer by Digging Holes in Scranton, Pennsylvania by Salvatore Pane

From ages six through 13, I spent most summer days at my father’s garage in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He purchased the place from his family in the late 80s, and there wasn’t much to do at C. Pane Body Shop for … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Sara Crowley

Sara Crowley’s visceral In July conveniently appears in the July issue. She talks with us about wombs as weapons, growing up and period sex. 1. If your womb was a firearm, what would it be and why would we want … Continue reading →