Archive for July, 2011
Ya Girl Kool Emcee White Chicky-V, yo Discusses Her Use of the N-Word
What up my niggers and niggerettes? My name Ya Girl Kool Emcee White Chicky-V, yo. Niggers be getting that twisted an’ shit. Only wan’ take the middle part an’ don’ be tryin’ to say the whole thing. If you say … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Caroline Crew
Caroline Crew has four poems in the June issue. She talks to us about where the weather touches her, seasoned hips, and assailing to the trees among other things. 1. Why is “Saussure, Sorry” screaming at me? I am hungover … Continue reading
Huckster: Nine Ways To Keep Creativity Flowing
Advertising is all about creativity, no matter which department you’re in (unless you’re the office barista). So how do you cultivate creativity? With a garden trowel? A gun? With $32.50 in unmarked bills delivered to a shadowy man in a … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Lidia Yuknavitch
Lidia Yuknavitch shares a searing essay with PANK in the May issue. She talks with us about the origins of her essay, parody, and more. 1. What compelled you to write “On Being A Woman Writer?”. Being a woman writer. … Continue reading
There Are Other Things, Indeed
At Good Men Project, you won’t go wrong with Christy Crutchfield’s fiction. Pedro Ponce and Steve Himmer have stories in the anthology Art from Art (Modernist Press). Pedro’s chapbook, Homeland: A Panorama in 50 States, has just been published by … Continue reading
I Know When To Keep Quiet By Dawn Leas (A Review By Amye Archer)
Finishing Line Press $12 I often lament that I have never lived anywhere else. Sure, I’ve moved like a roulette wheel ticking around to different suburbs, but that center, the crumbling metropolis of Scranton, has always been within reach.  And … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Christopher Newgent
Christopher “ARMS” Newgent’s elegant fiction is part of the June issue. He talks with us about whiskey, burning, breaking up, and even his fiction. 1. What was the last thing you lit on fire? Some pages from the Association of … Continue reading
Some European Notes, or Truth Unveiled By Time
From Yascha Mounk’s article “Rebellion Against Pluralism”: It is alarming that Breivik fed on ideas that are now fairly mainstream in Europe. Remarkably, he does not hail from the hard core of Scandinavia’s neo-Nazi movement. Even when he did post … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Alexis Pope
Alexis Pope’s excellent poetry appears in the June issue. She talks with us about bathing inr ose water, the heart as a decoration, and birth control. 1. Why do we bathe in rose water on Sunday? I guess because it’s … Continue reading
Ben Tanzer’s My Father’s House: A review by J. A. Tyler
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how much of my life slips into my fiction. If I look back on a previous manuscript I can see in it rhythms of songs I was listening to at the time, snippets … Continue reading
Tigger Blood: A Letter from Rep. David Wu to his Colleagues in the House
Dear Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and my Colleagues in the House, I’d first like to apologize for my behavior. I realize that it has become quite erratic. I will explain that, as well as the enclosed picture of me in … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Jo Gatford
Jo Gatford is featured in our special London Calling issue. She talks with us about ducks, night reading, bookshelf life and more. 1. What would you stick on a duck to enhance it? Definitely a handlebar moustache. Or a snorkel … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Myfanwy Collins
Poinsettias, by Myfanway Collins, appears in the June issue. She shares some sad facts about poinsettias and much more. 1. What would you like to exhale? I would like to exhale all of my fear. I want it to spill … Continue reading
PANK Invasion Reading Series: Brooklyn
Sometimes you spend more time traveling than you do in the place traveled to. Sometimes it’s so hot and humid there, so goddamned sticky and uncomfortable and bad smelling, the act of sitting in the shade and breathing becomes an … Continue reading
I Don’t Respect Female Expression By Frank Hinton (A Review By Stanton Hancock)
Safety Third Enterprises 15 pgs, $3.00 In her chapbook “I Don’t Respect Female Expression,†Frank Hinton manages to include an astonishing amount of content within just fifteen pages. Fittingly, considering the traditionally masculine name of “Frank†is being employed by … Continue reading
the unfirm line – Ethel Rohan
“Every time I closed my eyes, I saw God pull mother through a black hole in the sky.” Ethel Rohan, Hard To Say When I was younger and closed my eyes, I would cry of the dark – the science … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Karen Skolfield
Karen Skolfield’s poetry appears in the June issue. She talks with us about the irony of a blackout in an engineering building, the power spikes of lesbians, and becoming smaller and faster. 1. How ironic is a blackout at the … Continue reading
Huckster: Anatomy Of An Advertising Professional’s Brain
Many people think the brain of someone in advertising looks exactly like the brain of people in every other profession: grey, lumpy, lightening bolts down each side. But actually, our brains look quite different. Take the shape, for instance. An … Continue reading
If You’re Not Sweating, You’re Not Having Any Fun
We will brag a little and tell you we are featured at Fiction Writer’s Review this week. Daniel Nester writes about writing memoir for Painted Bride Quarterly. You must must read the excerpt from Kyle Minor’s The Sexual Lives of … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Becca Ansorge
Becca Ansorge writes letters in the May issue. She talks to us about writing letters on skin, matters of burning, how this piece was born and more. Whose skin would you write a letter on? The wrinkled palm of an … Continue reading
what is exhausting is what i wanted…
the time is 10:32 PM est. i am hunched over my laptop, shoved into the corner of our apartment. the desk–my wife’s–is positioned next to an open window, where humid air blows in, where expensive cold blows out–along with the … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Thomas Kearnes
Thomas Kearnes has two stories in the June issue. He talks with us about being saved by a big dick, the trickiness of a meth high and getting down on a web cam. 1. If my big dick can’t save … Continue reading
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive By Christopher Boucher (A Review By David Atkinson)
Melville House Press 208 pgs, $11.95 Having been born in the middle seventies to parents who owned a VW Beetle, I admit to being confused when I first picked up How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by Christopher Boucher. I … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Bendi Barrett
Two poems by Bendi Barrett appear in the May issue. The poet talks with us about the process of creating these poems, wanting him open, and where the fallow ends. 1. How did you create “Diagram Of The Carnal Male” … Continue reading
Come Hang Out With Us
We’re enjoying Google Plus (feel free to add us to your Circles), so we thought we’d make use of the Hangout feature. On Wednesday, 7/20, we’re going to do a Hangout where you can come chat with us about anything, … Continue reading
The Truth About Planking
It was late the other night and, if I remember correctly, the day had been unconscionably hot. The heat had given me leaden arms and legs. I lay face down on my couch blinking my dusty eyes and drifting between … Continue reading
Sommer Browning’s Either Way I’m Celebrating: A Review by J. A. Tyler
Most reviews I write are intended to say what I think a book is attempting to do, and how well I believe the books does it. Only a fraction of the reviews I write are about telling people that they … Continue reading
Ghostwriting, or PLACE ME LIKE A SEAL UPON YOUR HEART
“Understand me, when I write, right here, on these innumerable post cards, I annihilate not only what I am saying but also the unique addressee that I constitute, and therefore every possible addressee, and every destination. I kill you, I … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Jan Stinchcomb
Jan Stinchcomb’s Baboon is a story that really has stayed with me. I read it over and over again because it is layered and strange and endlessly compelling. She talks with us about the why of the baboon and so … Continue reading
This Modern Writer: A Vinyl Revival by James Patrick
It began innocently. These things often do. A Zenith turntable/8-track/cassette combo player rescued from my grandmother’s house in Wisconsin as we sorted through valuables and priceless non-valuables before the estate auction. I took a few of those records (leaving the … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Keith Taylor
Keith Taylor’s poetry appears in the June issue. He talks with us about titles and their impact on poems, backpacking in Denmark. line lengths and more. 1. What impact does the title as the first line have on a poem? … Continue reading
Huckster: Excerpts From An Advertising Professional’s Journal Regarding His Time At Ogilvy Transylvania
May 10 It’s very strange here at Ogilvy’s Transylvania office. Not strange in a bad way. Just strange. I mean, I love it here. It’s, like, the best place I’ve ever worked at, and I’m not just saying that because … Continue reading
The Thicker The Air, The Thicker The Air
Mel Bosworth has fiction in Metazen. You can also buy his novel Freight. Everyday Genius has published an e-chapbook by Nicolle Elizabeth. At Used Furniture Review, three fictions by Vallie Lynn Watson. Andrew Roe’s Accident appears in The Sun. Brava! … Continue reading
Short Bus By Brian Allen Carr (A Review By Sal Pane)
Texas A&M University Press $22.95 My first encounter with Brian Allen Carr was over the internet.  HTMLGIANT had just linked to this long diatribe I’d written about a semi-obscure video game from the 1990’s. I checked the comments section hourly, … Continue reading
I Believe I’ll Write My Way Out of This Hole
You know how you almost always have someone who’s got your back? That person, since I was three years old, was my grandmother, granny; Mama Bear is what I called her. Because I didn’t have a mama  until I was ten, and then unfortunately, … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Mike Meginnis
Mike Meginnis’s technobiblical fiction appears in the May issue. He talks with us about all manner of things related to his story and beyond. 1. What is Robot Christ powered on? I hadn’t thought about it, but I’m tempted to … Continue reading
This Modern Writer: Travelogue: The Etymology of “Faggot” by D. Gilson
At the cottage of Anne Hathaway, which is in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, which is in Warwickshire County, which is in the West Midlands, which is in England, which is in the United Kingdom, which is not the United States … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Barry Basden
Barry Basden’s brief fiction appears in the May issue and he talks with us about Rebecca Black (who?), how he writes, and what he clutches when he sits alone. 1. How challenging is it for you to write and be … Continue reading
Like Gambit Hurling Race Cards…
Author’s note: this was written in February, 2011–undoubtedly during a blizzard. Two weeks ago, I grabbed my red marker and wrote on my noticeboard, “opinionated writers.†Earlier, I perused Twitter and my RSS feeds, feeling inferior about my own work. … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Ken Poyner
Ken Poyner’s three poems are a fine addition to the June issue. He talks to us about dark sex, deadly teaching sins and so much more. 1. What makes someone a good piece of ass? The transition from selfish to … Continue reading
This Modern Writer: Stranger Than Fiction or A Fine Grain of Stupidity by Jon Rosen
Having arrived at the Loews Theater at 34th and Broadway, I couldn’t resist taking a long look at the looping trailer for the film “Stranger than Fiction,” playing on a wall-mounted television set. The featured scenes played out with a … Continue reading
Brandon Shimoda’s The Girl Without Arms: A Review by J. A. Tyler
The trouble in reviewing a book like Brandon Shimoda’s The Girl Without Arms is that no matter what the reviewer says, no matter what excerpts are culled, the text will remain very difficult to define without simply saying: go read … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Alex Pruteanu
Alex Pruteanu’s May Day is, fittingly, part of the May issue. He talks with us about interrogation, journalism, making fun of his last name and more. 1. How would you interrogate someone? Waterboarding is so Bush/Cheney era. The secret to … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Anthony Jones
The fiction of Anthony Jones appears in the May issue. He talks to us about writing as a woman, religious geometry, the duality of the soul and more. 1. How challenging is it as a man to write from a … Continue reading
Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack: A Review by Ethel Rohan
Carol Novak’s Giraffes in Hiding – The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack is a quirky and remarkable collection of forty-one poetic fictions, fusions, and prose poems. This exceptional collection makes for a challenging and absorbing read. To read this book … Continue reading
Hector and the Search for Happiness By Francois Lelord (A Review By Rebecca Leece)
Gallic Books £6.99 Hector is a French psychiatrist who is dissatisfied because he’s not able to make people happy. He decides to look into matters by going on a trip around the world to observe what makes people happy—or unhappy. … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Carolyn Zaikowski
Carolyn Zaikowski’s work is featured in the May issue. She talks with us about how she falls, chasing water falls, what she used to have and more. 1. How do you go chasing waterfalls? There are a few ways I … Continue reading
This Can’t Be The Beginning of the End of These Warm Summer Days
July Hobart brings xTx, Lincoln Michel, and JA Tyler. The Summer issue of Required includes Simon A. Smith, Jess Glass, Nicelle Davis, Molly Gaudry, Â JA Tyler, and more. Matter Press’s first chapbook will be Wild Life by Kathy Fish. Huzzah! … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Melissa Chadburn
Melissa Chadburn’s unique fiction is included in the May issue. She talks with us about the composition of Christ’s body, mangled hearts, knowledge of priests, and more. 1.What do you wish Christ’s body was made of? Well hmmm… if it was … Continue reading
Citizens or lovers: sixty-six notes around tennis
1. This video of a young Goran Ivanisevic confronting a chair umpire about how to correctly pronounce his name. And my tenderness for it. For the shifts in his face, between weary, wry bemusement and offended pride. For his distinctive … Continue reading
An Open Letter to Stanley the Stinkbug, the only Stinkbug in America. Sorry for Flushing You Down the Toilet, but You Stink
Dear Stanley the Stinkbug, Minutes before sitting down to write this, my wife screamed like an unknown man was in the apartment, which could only mean one thing: you had somehow breached the defenses of my home and were dangling … Continue reading
Cool Story, Bro
Humility is acceptable, right? It’s not so odd to stare at the ground–or my big-tongued Adidas sneakers, black or burgundy, depending on the mood–and take the compliments in stride, as in silence, instead of feeling full of myself? Am I … Continue reading
Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate By Johannes Göransson (A Review By Joseph Michael Owens)
Tarpaulin Sky Press 100 pgs.  $14 Beware beware I have begun a king A jacklighting king There is a talented bunch of contemporary writers doing some really cool things with experimental prose lately (I’d hate to call it experimental “-literature†… Continue reading
Ask the Author: Jonterri Gadson
Jonterri Gadson’s poetry graces the May issue. She talks to us about quiet heros, great disappointments, and swimming in pools of sweat. 1. Would you trust a quiet hero? I would trust and prefer a quiet hero. I would love … Continue reading
Ask the Author: Adam Peterson
Adam Peterson’s three stories are a fine part of the May issue. He talks with us about his best drink friend, generation skipping, and the influence of pop culture. 1. What beverage is your best friend? Coffee. Although that may … Continue reading
London Calls You
We’re excited to announce the publication of our newest special issue, London Calling, guest-edited by the one and only Kirsty Logan. Â This is an exciting issue with work by Jo Gatford, Cara McGuigan, Susan Rukeyser, Andrew Pullan, Holly Dawson, Alice … Continue reading