Reality and the Rhino

(c) Peter Beard   For K.K.J. with apologies I am worried about the fact that yesterday when I Googled a certain poet and found an image, plain, white-haired, middle aged, I decided I wouldn’t like her before I’d read any … Continue reading →

Embrace / Introducing Mia Sara

(c) Tilo Keil , Embrace, 1968. The rose window, obscured with scaffolding, the sun, more August than April, beaming down on the Church of St.Vincent Ferrer on Lexington and 66th, firing up the stained glass walls, casting those gathered in … Continue reading →

Our Friends at Black Warrior Review are Having a Contest.

The Ninth Annual Black Warrior Review Contest has begun! Send us your dearest-beloved (stories/poems/essays)! Guest Judges for 2013 are Brian Evenson (Fiction) Jenny Boully (Nonfiction) Kate Durbin (Poetry) To Submit your Work, or for more details and guidelines, please visit: … Continue reading →

The Lightning Room with Jim Krosschell

Jim Krosschell speaks briefly with J. Bradley about his great piece, How to ___ a ___ Lobster ____, from our June 2012 Issue. 1. What can stop The Claw? Nothing can stop the Claw but a continuous onslaught of tourist … Continue reading →

It’s Almost March and All That Crazy but I Would Like to Introduce You to February

Have you seen our February Issue? Dependent on approach and disposition it may eat you alive or you will eat it alive all the same. From Nuncio Casanova there are giraffes and illustration and collage and story. Jenny Sadre discusses the … Continue reading →

Sympathy from the Devil by Kyle McCord (A Review by Anne Champion)

     Gold Wake Press 80 pages/$12.95              Kyle McCord’s Sympathy from the Devil crosses a myriad of celestial and earthly terrains.  In this collection, readers encounter God, Gabriel, and, of course, the Devil; they … Continue reading →

Introducing the First Online Issue of 2013

Welcome to the New Year we hear it will be life-changing and exciting and inspirational. Welcome to Friday (also often touted as exciting and life manipulating, at least temporarily). Welcome to the January Issue (8.1) of PANK. Be sure to … Continue reading →

Portrait

You are the heat wave that stormed the city. You are absurdly important. You are a field lit up with glow sticks on the fourth of July. You are where you belong right now. You are an email I forgot … Continue reading →

I AM HOLDING YOUR HAND Official Release

In case you missed it amongst the holiday/New Year’s/list obsession hoopla, we are excited to announce the official release of I AM HOLDING YOUR HAND from Myfanwy Collins. A mixture and collection of both short stories and flash fiction, I AM … Continue reading →

Congratulations, Your Prediction that the World Wouldn’t End Came True

….and as a reward for insightfulness we’re gracing you with the December Issue, live like all of us still are. Start out with Eastward from Rebecca Nison, then move forward and explore.  

Let Us Assist With Your Stress-less Holiday Shopping

Feeling a little fuzzy on what to buy your angsty cousin/high school bestie in need of some hip-ening/secret lover/any neat-but-difficult-to-buy-for-person in your life this holiday season? Quit googling top ten holiday gift lists and scoot on over to the [PANK] … Continue reading →

PANK’s 2012 Pushcart Nominations

Each year it gets harder and harder to choose only six PANK writers to nominate for the Pushcart and this year was no exception. Our nominees for this year are: Homosexuals Threaten the Sanctity of Norman’s Marriage by John Warner … Continue reading →

Digital Americana

Digital Americana, a new-ish, interactive magazine to emerge,  embraces the digital aspects of publishing while valuing print literature all the same, making it a comprehensive attraction, rather than a partisan digital vs. anti digital platform. In all aspects of our mission: … Continue reading →

Call for Submissions: Arriba Baseball!

VAO Publishing invites submissions  to the forthcoming print anthology Arriba Baseball!: A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction We are seeking submissions for a collection of the best Latino/a fiction that both celebrates and complicates the American pastime tentatively entitled Arriba Baseball!: A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction. … Continue reading →

Maidenhead by Tamara Faith Berger (A Review By Helen McClory)

  Coach House Books   176 pgs/ $18.95 CAD   I struggled for a long time with this review. Maidenhead has been well-received in reviews across the internet, but my personal response was murky, confused. My copy is dog-eared and when I … Continue reading →

Call for Submissions: California Prose Directory

Interview with Louise Phillips, author of crime novel, Red Ribbons

  Why crime, Louise? Why for you as a writer and why for us as readers and moviegoers etc? What is it about crime, horror, violence, murder, and in particular serial killers, that we find so captivating and compelling? I … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: If Richard Yates Wrote A Novel Called Tao Lin. . . – Act Two

Lil B is Miley Cyrus, Ellen DeGeneres, and Dr. Phil.  But he’s also ‘Alt – Lit’. . . at least that’s what I’ve been told.  But I’ve been told a lot of things.  Andrew Marantz, in a New Yorker essay … Continue reading →

Autumn Monday Updates

1. How hot is it that we’ve got free shipping on [PANK] 7 for fall? Order here. 2. We’re settling in and returning to the submission pile. We’ve resumed the acceptance of regular submissions, send us your work here. 3. … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: If Richard Yates Wrote A Novel Called Tao Lin. . . – Act One

Neon Glittery, Hannah Fantana, xTx, Crispin Best, Sam Pink, Guillaume Morissette, Yumbo Tuff, Gabby Gabby, Buffet Feline, Frank Hinton, Carnivorous Judy, Moon Tzu, Socrates Adams, Reginald Reginald, and Beach Sloth are all pseudonyms that belong to – as the high … Continue reading →

We Like to Tease

While you await the arrival of your soon-to-be shipped issue of [PANK] 7, which, if you haven’t already can be ordered here, these excerpts should tide over your hunger for the delicious. If you’re not satisfied, check out our Tumblr … Continue reading →

A call to the arms of love: on the love of film as a politics of film, on critique-as-love and love-as-revolutionary-force, in memory of Alexis Tioseco, Nika Bohinc and my father; or, another letter I would love to read to you in person

On September 1, 2009, Filipino Canadian film critic and founder of Criticine, Alexis Tioseco and his girlfriend, Nika Bohinc, were killed at home in Quezon City, “in an apparent burglary staged by three armed men who fled the scene.” From … Continue reading →

Three Excerpts From [PANK] 7 For Your Friday

“It’s suspicious the way the world looks in the first few minutes of morning, the color of circumvention, scattered dots scrambling on a signal-less television screen.” -Excerpt from “Conjecture in Early Morning,” by Kelly A. Wilson, forthcoming in [PANK] 7. … Continue reading →

Books We Can’t Quit – A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Chosen by: Kenny Mooney A Clockwork Orange is, after Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, one of the most important novels I have ever read. And that is as much to do with what it led me on to read, as it is … Continue reading →

All the Best on Monday

1. The [PANK] August Issue is alive and you should live it. 2. [PANK] is currently accepting submissions for the third annual Queer Issue, but only until September 1, so get your submit on. 3. [PANK] is looking for a … Continue reading →

The August Issue and We’ll Tumbl For Ya

Check out our August issue featuring Jen Knox, Rhoads Stevens, Kejt Walsh, Ross McMeekin, Emma Smith-Stevens, Michael Lupi, Becky Kaiser, Owen Duffy, Kimberly Bunker, Christopher Shipman, Jacob Victorine, Quinn Wolf-Wilczynski, Rion Scott, Ben Tanzer, Jane Otto, Emily Howorth, Amy Benson, and Ruth … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I Can’t Watch Another Ape Shit Without Going Ape Shit

The seventh and newest installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), has been rotting, unwatched, at the bottom of a duffle bag filled with a year’s worth of my dirty … Continue reading →

Suggested Readings

Dennis Mahagin’s new collection, Grand Mal is now available for pre-order. Kathleen Hellen has a new collection of poetry Umberto’s Night that is a ghost walk through the post-industrial landscape. It won the Washington Writers’ Publishing House Poetry Prize and will be published by … Continue reading →

In Conversation with Nuala Ní Chonchúir

Irish writer Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s fourth short story collection Mother America has just been published by New Island: “In Mother America and other stories mothers tattoo their children and abduct them; they act as surrogates and they use charms to cure childhood illnesses. The story … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. The entire, and final, issue of >kill author. 2. All these great Maira Kalman videos at THNKR. 3 . This essay, “Love and Poetry,” from Maura Kelly at The Paris Review.  4. “THE LOVELY LASS OF INVERNESS,” from Nate … Continue reading →

I Am a Magical Teenage Princess by Luke Geddes

  A helpless surfer girl drifts through time like flotsam, tormented by the bizarre cliches of drive-in-era B-movies. A reluctant teenage astronaut idles away her post-apocalyptic adolescence huffing gasoline and fooling around with her five brutish shipmates, all of them … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Kenton K. Yee

Back in May there was Kenton K. Yee’s “Try My Shank.”  1. How has working in the world of finance influenced your writing? Two finance guys sit down next to a mysterious stranger at a bar. “Stocks had a bad … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I was Facebook ‘friends’ with Patrick Wensink before Jack Daniels sent him the nicest cease and desist letter ever

If your desire for attention is anything like mine, you have a Facebook account. If your Facebook account is anything like mine, it includes a ‘news feed.’ If your ‘news feed’ is anything like mine, it’s filled with pictures of … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Franz Kafka should have spent his time rolling dice with confidence on the corner instead of writing letters in confidence on the paper – Act Three

I went to Vegas because I believed that leopard pattern spandex and rusted tinfoil sailor hat wearing street schizophrenic when he grabbed my little tattooed arms and said, “Franz Kafka should have spent his time rolling dice with confidence on … Continue reading →

Let’s Get Hotter

Todd McKie has a new story in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. You can read three poems by Gary Percesepe in Fwriction Review. Swanee, by Sara Lipmann is featured at Joyland. There are six poems by Christopher Citro at Used Furniture Review. … Continue reading →

Welcome to Monday and the Rest of your Life

1. The July Issue has come. 2. If you haven’t heard, we’re excited to announce the release date for [PANK] 7, September 1 2012. Here you will find the roster of contributors, some snippets of what’s inside, and the fabulous … Continue reading →

Scattered notes on love, counterpublics, queer time, the care industry & Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You”

From Dr. Herukhuti’s Ocean’s of Love Letter: Is one black man loving another man the revolutionary act of the 21st Century?: In choosing to communicate through the simile, “I feel like a free man,” rather than saying he was a … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Don’t Ever Antagonize The Horn

Thomas Pynchon has, for almost a century, maintained his privacy – successfully dodging The Media’s muckraking microphones and cankerous cameras – in this hi-tech era when even the most reclusive of recluses have Twitter accounts where they announce every shit … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Krief

“Now I can say, you’ve got me. Just me. And I can say, take it or leave.” Krief, “La Verite” The act of giving yourself to someone you love, and yet having the strength to tell them to decide. Inner … Continue reading →

My world is empty without you/World is empty: on love songs, state violence, & Michael Laney

On Monday night, Charlotte police officers shot and killed Michael Laney. Laney was handcuffed in police custody at the time of his murder. In nearly all mainstream coverage of this police execution, journalists have named Laney as an “armed robbery … Continue reading →

Friday Five

Five pieces of interest from authors with writing in the upcoming [PANK] 7, to be released September 1, 2012. Pre-order here. 1. Reunion from Matthew Baker in FRiGG. 2. Excerpt from The Ancient Book of Hip by DW Lichtenberg. 3. Poetry from Elizabeth … Continue reading →

Friday Five

[PANK] 7 will be released in September. You can pre-order it here. Have you seen the cover art from Elena Duff? It is gorgeous. Below are works from five contributors with work in [PANK] 7. 1. Casket is an American Euphamism, … Continue reading →

Announcing [PANK] 7

Marking the first of our move to bi-annual print issues, we are proud to announce the scheduled release of [PANK] 7 for September 1, 2012. [PANK] 7 is a yearbook of literature, a dense periodical filled with the author’s you need … Continue reading →

On Feeling Red: a failed essay about eczema, riots, Mesut Özil and Zinedine Zidane, the Belarus Free Theatre, neoliberalism, austerity and the Eurozone, KLM Airlines, Derek Jarman, Mary Magdalene, clingy women, feminist killjoys, melancholic migrants, contamination, sickness, health, racism, capitalism, totalitarian patriarchy, “the barbaric,” suicide economies, refusing to leave your shit at the door, showing your wound, not getting over it, feeling it, still feeling it.

(Note: Having not written at the [PANK] blog for nearly a year, I apparently thought the best way to make up for that absence would be to stuff an entire year’s worth of posts in one. I am definitely doing … Continue reading →

Reminders For Your Week

1. Have you read our June Issue yet? It is amazing and filled with greatness. Take a peek. 2. There’s still time!…but not much,  submit to our Special Pulp Issue, guest edited by Court Merrigan,  until July 1. 3. Keep … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Franz Kafka should have spent his time rolling dice with confidence on the corner instead of writing letters in confidence on the paper – Act Two

There aren’t many like you – members of that almost non-existent subculture of Americans who practice the ancient art of reading words – and the few peers that you do have aren’t reading these words.  They are reading the words … Continue reading →

CLMP Hosted a Great Event

Last weekend saw the annual CLMP Lit Mag Marathon Weekend. The two day event began with a “Magathon” reading at the New York Public Library’s DeWittt Wallace Periodicals Room on Saturday afternoon. It was a pleasure to read with so … Continue reading →

So Many Things We Have Wanted to Tell You

Gene Albamonte, one of our favorite columnists, has compiled his columns into a book, for sale now, with new material. Details here. Congratulations to the PANK contributors who were recognized in the Wigleaf Top 50 and Kristen Iskandrian, in particular, for … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. Red Number One from Rebecca Cook at The Cortland Review.  2. Salt from Issue 03 of The Common by Jane Satterfield. 3. The Rumpus interviewed Emily St. John Mandel. 4. Three Poems from Brian Henry at Conjunctions. 5. RECEIVED from Lily Brown at Epiphany.

Books We Can’t Quit: Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

Chosen by: Alicia Kennedy Original Publication Date: 1996   Sometimes I think, I miss the places I used to go in those books I used to read. I don’t really know what it means. Do I miss being adolescent, spending … Continue reading →

For Your Monday

1. Have you ever wondered how a print issue of [PANK] is born? Have you seen our fancy video yet? 2. Stop by and say hello at HousingWorks bookstore, Sunday, June 17! We’ll be participating in the annual CLMP Lit … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. THIS VIDEO. 2. “Live Forever” from B. J. Hollars at The Rumpus. 3. Mel Bosworth Every Laundromat in the World Release Contest. 4. The Collagist Chapbook Contest. 5. “Neighbor,”  poetry from Chad Redden at Punchnels.

A Forsley Feuilleton: the Hollywood Machine started feeding unoriginal ideas to unsuspecting movie-goers as a cheap alternative to risk

Last Memorial Day weekend I went to Rasputin – the music/movie store from Berkeley, not the ‘Mad Monk’ from Siberia – to get a war flick, not a magic dick.  I planned on honoring our country’s fallen soldiers by lying … Continue reading →

For Your Monday Morning

1. If your in New York City, look for [PANK] at the upcoming CLMP Lit Fair, June 17th at Housing Works! 2. While regular submissions are currently closed, you still have just under a month to submit to the Special Pulp Issue. … Continue reading →

Win with Shut Up/Look Pretty

Did you read Shut Up/Look Pretty? You can win goodies from Tiny Hardcore! Each chapter of my contribution to the book, Local God (a novella about four boys in a terrible punk band at Stirling University), is titled with a song … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Franz Kafka Should Have Spent His Time Shooting Dice With Confidence On The Corner Instead Of Writing Letters In confidence on the paper – Act One

This month I’ve only written one Forsley Feuilleton – I’m writing the second right now.  I blame my lack of productivity on my lack of brain activity, and I blame my lack of brain activity on my lack of nourishing … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. “Memorial Day,” from Raymond Gibson at Fictionaut. 2. “Busy About You,” from M.G. Martin at Conveyor. 3. “Dairy Queen,” from Jennifer Pashley in Smokelong Quarterly. 4. “Watching Mysteries with My Mother,” from Ben Marcus at Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading. … Continue reading →

BROOKLYN INVASION :: TONIGHT

Prepare yourself, get the facts: Co-hosted with Vol. 1 Brooklyn. 7 pm. WORD, 126 Franklin Street. Readings by Mensah Demary, Sean Doyle, Jennifer Pashley, Robb Todd, M.G. Martin, Tess Patalano, and Roxane Gay. See author bios and RSVP here.

For Your Monday Morning Coffee

1. HEY WE ARE COMING TO BROOKLYN. Or, really, we’re already in Brooklyn and Vol.1 Brooklyn, our co-host, is in Brooklyn all the time so we’re just saying you should get your ass to Brooklyn too, or more specifically to WORD … Continue reading →

Friday Four

1. “Quiet the Remedies”, fiction from Robb Todd, is a recent obsession of mine. It’s published here at The Fiddleback but also included in his book, Steal Me For Your Stories. 2. “Evening,” poetry from Alex Dimitrov at Memorious. 3. … Continue reading →

For Your Monday Morning Coffee

1. THE MAY ISSUE IS ALIVE. 2. Only a short amount of time until we invade Brooklyn again, this time with Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and we couldn’t be more excited. May 23rd, 7pm. WORD, 126 Franklin Street, Brooklyn. Featuring readings … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. This essay on the cultural relevance of reading from Vouched Guest Contributor Adam Robinson, at Vouched 2. These poems from Claudia Cortese, at DIAGRAM 3. These poems from Mary Kovaleski Byrnes, at Literary Bohemian 4. This letter to Don … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Stanley Kubrick Wanted A Taste, A Second Taste, Of Terry Southern’s Lamb-Pit

I love fucking Terry Southern. . . that came out wrong.  I never fucked the writer, at least not proper fucked.  But I have been fucking him intellectually, off and on, for a few decades now.  By that I mean … Continue reading →

For Your Monday Morning Coffee

1. Together with Vol. 1 Brooklyn, [PANK] Invades Brooklyn. May 23. 7pm. WORD, 126 Franklin Street. Featuring readings by Mensah Demary, Sean Doyle, Jennifer Pashley, Robb Todd, M.G. Martin, Tess Patalano, and Roxane Gay. RSVP on our Facebook Page. 2. … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. “Dear Corporation”, by Adam Fell, at Sixth Finch 2. “Building of Unseen Cats”, from Fjords Vol.1 by Zachary Schomburg, at Verse Daily 3. “Night of The Lillies” by Antonia Crane, at The Rumpus 4. “Mercy”, poetry by Layne Ransom, … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I Would Have Obeyed Those Gods, Became A Dunce, And Joined The Confederacy

I read John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces last month.  But it was too late.  My life was damaged beyond repair.  If I had read it ten years ago as a high school student, I would have a career, … Continue reading →

Spring Funds Drive

Dear Readers, Do you love [PANK]? Do you love what we do, what we stand for? Do you love the writers we publish, their stories and poems that keep you up at night, keep you thinking and guessing, creep you … Continue reading →

Prairie Schooner’s Inaugural Creative Nonfiction Contest

If You Take Me With You: Massive Goddamned Roundup

There is, of course, a new issue of PANK with writing by Lisa Fink, Lisa Ahn, Ian Brown, Melissa Yancy, Maria Elvira Vera Tata, Ashley Bethard, Tyler Sage, Hedy Zimra, Kimberly Ann Southwick, Danielle Sellers, Glen Pourciau, Wendy C. Ortiz, … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: They Are Two Different Games But In The End They Are The Same

“There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game” – that’s what the protagonist of Bernard Malamud’s The Natural wanted people to say when he walked down the street.  And they would have.  He was a baseball … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Grandaddy

“Yeah is what we had, no we never knew Good, good is what we understood” Grandaddy, Yeah is what we had I help raise two children. They are young now, and I try to teach them the basics: manners, kindness, … Continue reading →

Books We Can’t Quit: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Chosen By: Ally Nicholl Bullseye Books, 1988 272 pgs/$6.99 I discovered The Phantom Tollbooth at the appropriate age and in the usual way. I was about nine, and it was a battered old copy I came across in the schoolroom … Continue reading →

For Your Monday Morning Coffee

1. We would love to have your support in our Spring Funds Drive. Read about it and donate here. We’re half way through the month, but not quite half way to our goal. 2. The April Issue, it’s alive. 2. Mark … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: They Have Since Cut Their Hair Off, Sued Their Fans, And Are Probably Opening A Chain Of Vegan Restaurants

When Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads and called upon Satan to rise from the fires of Hell to tune his guitar, he didn’t have dollar signs in his eyes and titties on his brain.  Material possessions were of … Continue reading →

Million Writers Award Nominations!

We made them. It was, as ever, a very difficult choice. We only accept work we believe deserves such recognition. Alas, we can choose only three and this year, those three were: Story 1: “Becoming Deer,” by Rachel Levy http://www.pankmagazine.com/becoming-deer/ … Continue reading →

Death Wish Winner Announced

Congratulations to Martha Williams on winning the Death Wish Book Giveaway. Death Wishing author, Laura Ellen Scott, had this to say about judging the wishes submitted and making the difficult decision to choose just one: “So hard to choose! I … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. OF BIRDS, BINOCULARS & GRADE SCHOOL ANATOMY, poetry by B.J. Love at DIAGRAM 2. Turn Off My Face, poetry by Ben Kopel at La Petite Zine 3. Graphs About Charts and Charts About Graphs, Ben Greenman at McSweeney’s Internet … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Flavor Flav Is A Classically Trained Pianist, Tom Petty Has A Dirty Fish Tank, and Selena Gomez Is Starring In Harmony Korine’s New Flick

Dostoyevsky used to watch his wife shit, G.G. Allin voted for Jimmy Carter, Jerry Garcia tongue-kissed his older sister on her deathbed, Diana Ross hated the movie When Harry Met Sally, Elizabeth Taylor is a beer enthusiast, Kirk Douglas collects … Continue reading →

Ask The Author: Nancy Flynn

Distant Early Warnings, from Nancy Flynn, in the January Issue. 1. How does one unclot a vapor? With the wave of a magic wand? Alchemy? Other dark arts? When I wrote that line, I was channeling the ancient Greek and … Continue reading →

Make a Wish and Win Free Books!

Laura Ellen Scott’s excellent and quirky debut novel, Death Wishing (Ig Publishing, 2011), is set in post-Katrina New Orleans. In this wonderfully reimagined world, random dying wishes are granted by some unknown and arbitrary power. Wishes that can cure cancer, magick-away … Continue reading →

A Found Poem by John Mortara

Every year (well at least the past 2), John Mortara collects all the flyers and handouts and whatever flotsam he finds during AWP, and cuts them up into a found poem. This is the poem he found this year.  

[PANK] Went to Mission Creek

and it was awesome. I could sum it up at that, but I’ll go into a little more detail: ten hour drive, bookfair, reading, BBQ, concert, ten hour drive. I can go into further detail still: Dubuque Iowa in the … Continue reading →

Mission Freak!

We’re at the Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City today. Come see us at the Mission Freak book fair at the Mill. Or come to the reading we’re hosting tonight with Draft and Uncanny Valley, 5-6pm at the White Rabbit.

Friday Five

1. Night at Target, poetry by Ryan Bender-Murphy at elimae 2. Stealing Bic, fiction by Laurence Pritchard at Used Funiture Review 3. As The Hours Grow Smaller the Smaller Grows Flour, poetry by Ben Mirov at Everyday Genius 4. Exits … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Gary Shteyngart Can Afford As Many Bottles of Vodka And “Double-Cured-Spicy-Soppressata-And-Avacado” Sandwiches As He Craves

As far as the schools of literary criticism go – and damn do they go far, so far that you need a dozen diabeticless Labrador Retrievers with MFAs to fetch them – I’ve always favored those theories, like Historical-Biographical criticism, … Continue reading →

Invasions :: Portland :: Seattle

We went to Portland, Oregon. We went to Seattle, Washington. It was good. Next up, Iowa City on Saturday! Go to there. [PANK] Invasions :: Portland :: Seattle from M. Bartley Seigel on Vimeo.

[PANK]Invasions::Portland::Seattle

SEATTLE, TONIGHT! Join us. RSVP on Facebook.

A Letter from the Fictional Character, Geneva, to her Author, Myfanwy Collins

Engine Books, March, 2012, $14.95   Dear Myfanwy Collins, I want to thank you for telling my story, and the story of the others too, especially the women. I’m glad you didn’t just write down all the terrible. That you … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: An Open Letter To The Anti-Ginger Grocery Store Night Managers Across This Once Tolerant Nation

I know you are going to do with this letter what you did with all the others: throw it, while laughing, into the wastebasket labeled, “Letters From Fiery Tempered Firecrotch Ex-Employees.”  But I quit another Night Stocking job at another … Continue reading →

And Then It Was Monday

1. [PANK] Invades Portland (March 23) and Seattle (March 24th) this week! Be there. 2. The March Issue is live. 3. [PANK] will also be at the Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City, March 30th and 31st. We want to … Continue reading →

Friday Five

These poems are good. They are poems that we read this week. They are poems that you should read while you wind down your week. Enjoy. Sasha Fletcher at Notnostrums. Nicholas Reading at Burnside Review. Juan Felipe Herrera was the … Continue reading →

Books We Can’t Quit: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Chosen by: Dawn West First Published in Hardcover: April 1, 1993. Farrar, Straus and Giroux 256 pgs/$10.99 “What are you doing here, honey? You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets.”  “Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a thirteen-year-old girl.” … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: In The Good Old Days You Could Use Books To Beat Your Perverted Boyfriends Into Submission Without A Problem

Everyone’s talking about the future of the book.  Most aren’t actually ‘talking’ about it.  They are Tweeting, Skyping, and Facebooking about it, trading one-liners back and forth over the internet – that collective consciousness of search engine optimizing keyword articles, … Continue reading →

In the History of the World There Is This

The February issue includes our 2011 1001 Awesome Words contest finalists and several other fine writers. MG Martin has poetry in Issue 6 of Requited where he is joined by CL Bledsoe, Gary F. Sheppard, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Alexis Pope, and … Continue reading →

Overheard

Things we heard people say while at AWP 2012: Your rejection letter made me so happy. We skew in the direction of poetry and prose. But mostly we publish experimental literature. Are they…children’s books..?? Is this appropriate for teenagers? So … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I Gave Up The Roadwork Of The Fight-Game For The Drinking Of The Lit-Game – Act Three

You don’t think writing is like fighting, that to get intellectual you have to get physical?  You think I’m crazy for comparing writers to fighters, the lit-game to the fight-game?  Then what do you call Haruki Murakami, the acclaimed Japanese … Continue reading →

AWP 2012 Made My Shoes Hurt

Keywords and oft repeated crucial phrasings of the week: hermit walk, cig break, arm wrestle, money wad, whiskey, tubercular cough, crazy dude (he’s still stalking me, Rachel Yoder), poesy fart, skinny tie, love, Geoffrey bag, lap dog, avant pose, death … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I Gave Up The Roadwork Of The Fight-Game For The Drinking Of The Lit-Game – Act Two

Those poets, the young happy rich people dressed like old sad poor people, spoke the truth:  after I moved from Phoenix to San Francisco and gave up the roadwork of the fight-game for the drinking of the lit-game, the only … Continue reading →

Today Precedes a Great Tomorrow

1. AWP is upon us. The [PANK] crew descends from near and far, some of us tomorrow, some of us later this week. Here is a list of where we plan to be. Follow our live Twitter feed to see … Continue reading →

AWP :: Gird Thy Loins

The conference itself sold out at 9,500 participants. The book fair exhibitor tables and booths sold out, as well, and while I don’t have the energy to count up the total (something like 500, I think), suffice it to say … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Frank Hinton

“You are perfect and clean and floating. Everything was clean about us. Everything was perfect until you burned away.” Frank Hinton, “All Of The People In These Pictures Are Dead Now.” I read once that burning was the best form … Continue reading →

UPDATE :: [PANK] Invasions :: Portland / Seattle

For those of you who expressed interest in this thing, my apologies for dropping off the map. AWP is upon us and, well, AWP is upon us… Anywho…We’re back in the saddle organizing readings for Portland, Oregon, on Friday, March … Continue reading →

Goddamnit, Quick Fiction Closes?!!!

Today, this, from Quick Fiction editor and one of my favorite [PANK]Contributors, Jennifer Pieroni. “Long live the lit mag! But, alas, not Quick Fiction. After many wonderful years, we’re ceasing publication. Thank you for supporting, reading and constantly challenging us … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I Gave Up The Roadwork Of The Fight-Game For The Drinking Of The Lit-Game – Act One

Jake ‘The Raging Bull’ LaMotta, Muhammad ‘The Greatest’ Ali, Johnny ‘Mi Vida Loca’ Tapia, Arturo ‘Thunder’ Gatti, Bernard ‘The Executioner’ Hopkins – those were my childhood idols.  I wanted to do what they did.  I wanted to make a living … Continue reading →

Good Morning, Monday

1.Hey, did you see us, along with some other great magazines, get a little nugget of love from the New York Times last week?! It was in this week’s Sunday print issue, too. Check it out. 2. We can hardly … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: Buy the ticket, take the ride. . . and crack open a bottle of rum

The Rum Diary comes out on DVD tomorrow, and I haven’t been this terrified since the Halloween night it opened in theaters. I took the 14 Muni Bus to its midnight-showing and a limbless hobo offered to tuck me into … Continue reading →

Books We Can’t Quit – Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas

Anchor Books April, 2001 (hardcover originally published by Knopf, 2000) Chosen by: Amye Archer   Maybe it’s the educator in me, but I have, throughout my reading lifetime, creating a series of benchmarks that a book must reach in order … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Miracle Legion

“Far away from home, but never far away from me.” All For the Best, Miracle Legion. I have always had a shaky sense of “home.” I have lived in many places in my life, cementing to none. Never the real … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Old Money, Oil Money, and The Big Sleep

For several months now I’ve been sitting with The Big Sleep, utterly absorbed in its stylish mischief but without any idea of what I might add to the conversation. It is a novel about which it is almost impossible to … Continue reading →

PANK, NEW YORK TIMES, BFFS

We are pretty excited to have the magazine included in a feature of ten “literary heirs” in the Style Magazine of the New York Times this weekend. We’re pretty excited. This is also a good time for Matt and I to … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: It’s So Hard To Say Good-bye To Yesterday, Whatever That Means

Hello. As you may or may not know, this is my last post for my Gallimaufry column. That’s right: it’s time to say good-bye. And as you may or may not know, there are many ways to say good-bye.

Everything I Do, I Tell You, All the Time

Mary Miller’s Safety, is up at Tin House. At the Chattahoochee Review blog, Ethel Rohan talks about memoir, autobiography, and her collection Hard to Say Jen Bessemer has a new e-chapbook from White Knuckle Press. The February issue of decomP … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I’m funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh?

In the days following last week’s Forsley Feuilleton, I wanted to surf the internet naked, vulnerable both physically and emotionally, yelling like Emmett Ray at the end of Sweet and Lowdown: “I made a mistake! I made a mistake!” Last … Continue reading →

[PANK] Updates: All Kinds of Excitement

In case you haven’t heard (in which case, where have you been?!), our lovechild was born last week, named [PANK] 6, and now available for sale.

To Make Your Friday Even Better..

We want to know where you are and where you are reading your new [PANK] 6! Post a picture of yourself loving up [PANK]6 to our Facebook page, and you’ll be entered to win a free [PANK] T-shirt. Be sure … Continue reading →

Are You Happy?

Daniel Nester has a new essay up at The Poetry Foundation. The February issue of elimae features Lisa Marie Basile, Beth Brezenoff, Scott Garson, Margaret Bashaar, Matthew Burnside, Meg Pokrass, Joseph A.W. Quintela, Eric Burke, and Mel Bosworth.

[PANK]6 Cometh

This week, [PANK]6 begins showing up in bookstores and mailboxes all around our little blue globe. Watch out or order it here now. Look to the February 19 New York Times Style Magazine for a little [PANK]6 love, as if you didn’t … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: The seducing letter I got in the mail from Marie Calloway

Give The Rumpus five buckaroos a month and they’ll send you a Letter in the Mail almost every week from a more important person than yourself – like Dave Eggers, Nick Flynn, Emily Gould, and Jonathan Ames.  By buckaroos I … Continue reading →

If All They Had Were Their Bodies?

I’ve returned several times to the title of Michelle Reale’s new chapbook, If All They Had Were Their Bodies (Burning River, 2011), posing it as a question of its characters. What if these characters—these vulnerable, sometimes cruel, and often-mistreated children, … Continue reading →

Call For Submissions: Specter Magazine’s Hip-Hop Issue

Submissions for Specter Magazine’s first themed issue, The Hip-Hop Issue, are now open. We’re looking for fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art/photography which embodies a hip-hop aesthetic. The Hip-Hop issue is scheduled for a June 4th, 2012 release (subject to change). … Continue reading →

It Was a Curious Object, Indeed

You can’t miss Melissa Chadburn’s outstanding essay at The Rumpus. Huzzah! Jason Jordan’s The Dying Horse, is now available from Main Street Rag. More epitaphs from Matthew Vollmer in Fringe. Jules Archer and Rose Hunter have work in A-Minor. Lots … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: He was eating my prose as the typewriter shit it out

William F. Buckley, the conservative writer from the right ruling class, owned a King Charles Spaniel named Rowley.  Eli Cash, the Western writer from the film, The Royal Tenenbaums, ran over a Beagle named Buckley.  Because the title character in … Continue reading →

For Your Monday Coffee

1.  Only 8 more days of waiting until the release of PANK 6! You can still pre-order your copy here. 2. If 8 days is too long to wait for some PANK goodness, order our iPhone app. Send us proof … Continue reading →

Are Your Fingers Cold?

Our January issue is up up and away! Oh this is a fine issue. It really is. Let’s start with the four short stories by Ashley Farmer where the writing evokes the surreal and fables. You also don’t want to … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Sarah Rose Etter

“Then the pinholes move and I can only see the wall, but I know he is still there …” Sarah Rose Etter, Chicken Father. Every now and then, the simplest lines mean the most to a reader. They pull memories … Continue reading →

A Forsley Feuilleton: I believe he once claimed to have reeled in a marlin with one hand and beaten a bear in arm wrestling with the other

Even though Woody Allen is still sticking his wrinkled pecker into Soon-Yi, his ex-girlfriend’s adopted daughter, I support the great filmmaker unconditionally.  It’s time to forget about his scandal and start shunning those writers that still use it as an … Continue reading →

An Unexpected Warmth of Words in January

January decomP offers writing by Tess Patalano, Marcus Speh, Suzanne Marie Hopcroft, and more. Dawn West has a story in the Winter 2012 issue of Midwestern Gothic. She is joined by Christopher Linforth. Red Lightbulbs 6 will light your world up with … Continue reading →

Henge

I was three when my biological mother left me. I don’t remember her leaving. I don’t recall a feeling of loss. I remember a book from my childhood, Are you My Mother? A baby bird hopped between animals asking, “Are … Continue reading →

In Case You Need Reminding

1. PANK 6 is now available for pre-order. Our annual print copy of wonderfulness has a cover that is sure to engage and 280, twohundredandeighty!, pages of awesome writing so dense it may fall through your coffee table. 2. The Science and Fiction Special … Continue reading →

New This, New That

January Hobart offers two stories from Gregory Sherl. Lisa McCool Grime has a truly remarkable piece in DIAGRAM 11.6. Click click click!  She is joined by Jenny Gropp Hess and Suzanne Scanlon. Salt Hill 28 is bound to be amazing … Continue reading →

From the Special Science & Fiction Issue Editors

Let’s face it: Science fiction gets a bad rap. Just utter the words and people’s eyes glaze over as they imagine literature built on formulaic plot twists, over-explanatory dialogue, and two-dimensional character archetypes piloting space shuttles to distant galaxies. As … Continue reading →

If the news is to be believed, it’s a new year

Therefore, a recap, a look ahead. 2011 rocked our socks at [PANK]. In our Little Books Series we published Ethel Rohan’s wonderful little collection, Hard to Say. We held Invasion Readings in Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Brooklyn, and New … Continue reading →

Hush, children, greatness draws nigh

Dear Marie Calloway

I’m no angel. Hold yourself with care. I’m old enough to be your mother. But I’m no one. Lidia Yuknavitch, Rachel Resnick, Cheryl Strayed, Chelsea G. Summers, Antonia Crane, Susie Bright, Kerry Cohen, Sue William Silverman, Ethel Rohan, and Dylan … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Shome Dasgupta

“Again they stuck their heads back into the earth & laughed & sang songs until their lungs were full of land.” Shome Dasgupta, from {C.} An MLP Stamp Stories Anthology Again, I wait for Spring, wait for the warm sun … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: A Compendium Of Compendiums Regarding Wine, Bluff-Calling & English Majors In Prison

Compendium #1: Wine/Movie Pairings There are tons of lists that help you pair wine with food. But what about lists that help you pair wine with movies? Well, here it is: the definitive wine-movie pairing list. Chacayes Malbec 2003 Pairs … Continue reading →

A Small Compendium of Words

We’re nearly all the way through the holiday season (phew) but literary gifts continue to abound. At Everyday Genius, DeWitt Brinson! And Melissa Broder! Joyland offers a story by Amanda Montei. Tania Hershman has a new story in New Scientist … Continue reading →

How the Gingrinch Stole Christmas!

All the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, But the Gingrinch, he did not. He hated Christmas and everybody who lived. It was because his heart was three sizes too small and his head two sizes too big. … Continue reading →

It Won’t Be Long Now

Jan Stinchcomb’s The Gill Bride is now up in The Red Penny Papers. There is a new issue of JMWW which includes work by Carrie Murphy, Robb Todd, and John McKernan. At A-Minor, a little something by J. Bradley. He … Continue reading →

A Christmas Cheer

Admittedly it’s uncouth or uncool, perhaps even tacky to write about my financial straits, but it’s bugging me I can’t afford to buy my son a Christmas gift this year. Do you ever want to give up? Well I do, … Continue reading →

[PANK] Goes on Hiatus

Until January 2, 2012, there will be no submissions to [PANK] and you can expect a little less from us. After January 2, it’s back to business as usual. In the meantime, read the December issue. It’s the bomb. Happy … Continue reading →

The Whisper Was Surprisingly Loud

The December issue debuts today, and this one is, outstanding. Every piece is a showstopper and we hope as you head into the holidays, you find a little time to stay warm with the writing in this issue.  This issue … Continue reading →

If I Were A Poor White Single Mother

I read something at Forbes today because several of my friends on Facebook had linked the article. Here it is. If I Were A Poor Black Kid. The author, Gene Marks, describes himself as a “short, balding, and mediocre public … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Los Angeles Book Club

Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time (I wonder what percentage of total blog posts on earth begin with the phrase “Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time”).  I will plead the excuse of having had an additional … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: Reading Lorrie Moore

If you’ve ever read Lorrie Moore, you know she’s a genius in the tragicomic world of literary fiction. If you’ve never read Lorrie Moore, then you will have no idea what this post is about, and for this I’m sorry. … Continue reading →

One Day We Are All Gonna Scream

Patricia Lockwood has two poems in The Awl. New magazine ILK has debuted and you will find Thomas Patrick Levy, MG Martin, Parker Tettleton, and Wendy Xu. Kill Author 16 is up and running. Check out the excellent writing of … Continue reading →

The $50 [PANK] Saturnalian LitOrgy Basket

Got a surly, hard-to-buy-for Litnerd in your life and them flipping holidays creeping up just around the corner? Four words for you, for you and your children, [PANK]‘s Saturnalian LitOrgy Basket. Just choose their t-shirt size, hit the buy now button, … Continue reading →

Newpages Review of Ethel Rohan’s Hard to Say

HARD TO SAY Fiction by Ethel Rohan PANK, September 2011 ISBN-13: 978-0-9824697-6-7 Paperback: 54pp; $6.50 Newpages Review by Michele Finkelstein Hard to Say, recently published by PANK, contains a collection of short personal stories that will pluck at your heartstrings. … Continue reading →

Congratulations, Dan Lundin, of South Pasadena, CA!

Congratulations to Mr. Dan Lundin of South Pasadena, CA. He done just won hisself a free Kindle Touch from his friends at [PANK]! On its way, Mr. Lundin. Enjoy!

50 Word Stories: From The Special Issue Editor

For the last few months I read submissions for this special Stamp Stories edition of [PANK], and with each new submission, the realization came louder: writing stories in 50 words or less is not about condensing beginning, middle, and end … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: A Letter From The “Words With Friends” Corporate Office

Dear Concerned Citizen: We at Words With Friends received your letter regarding our—as you put it—“uncanny similarities to the board game Scrabble.” Believe it or not, you aren’t the first person to bring this to our attention. In fact, we … Continue reading →

I’m Depending on You

Joseph Quintela has a story as program at Housefire. In the November issue of Anti, a poem by Wendy Xu. You can listen to a story by Todd McKie in the current issue of LITRO. At Everyday Genius, David Peak … Continue reading →

Last chance to win a Kindle Touch from your friends at [PANK]

Last chance! Spend $10+ at the [PANK] Store by the close of today and you’ll be entered to win a free Kindle Touch. And the odds ain’t bad, maybe 1 in 50 last we counted. Get on it! Get on it! … Continue reading →

Our 2011 Pushcart Nominees

We’re excited to nominate the following writers for the Pushcart Prize this year: Fourth Year of Marriage, Marie-Elizabeth Mali The Last Time, Christopher Newgent Don’t Hide Your Light Under a Bushel,  Lauren Foss Goodman, PANK 5 Letter to Her, Without … Continue reading →

It’s Crazy How Thankful We Are

As PANK grows, so does our gratitude for the very talented writers who are generous enough to allow us to publish their words and the equally generous readers who support PANK by reading the magazine online each month, subscribing to … Continue reading →

Deliberations Have Been Made! Winners Have Been Chosen!

This year’s contest was particularly competitive and the decisions were, truly, a challenge, particularly in narrowing the field. Our first shortlist had about 25 pieces so creating a list of 10 required the removal of some vital organs. Our winner … Continue reading →

This Is How It Goes

The November issue of PANK will astound and delight you with writing by Jeanann Verlee, Barrett Bowlin, Andrea O’Rourke, Mike Rosenthal, Grace Hobbs, Eric Ellingsen, Peter Kispert, Keren Veisblatt, Riley Michael Parker, Sarah Malone, Mary-Jane Newton, Jennifer A. Howard, Matthew … Continue reading →

Our New Orleans Invasion, Friday, Friday, Friday!

Three Reminders For Your Monday

1. In case you were out, we’re giving away a prize. Spend $10 (including shipping) on the website and be automatically entered into a drawing to receive a free Amazon Kindle. The give away runs the month of November, so … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: More Plans By Herman Cain

Everyone knows about Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan. But what about his other plans? Here’s your chance to familiarize yourself with them. 3-2-1 Plan Herman Cain will hand out little joystick-like paddles with a red button on top. Simply push the … Continue reading →

Darkness, Darkness, Everywhere

Jason Jordan’s The Dying Horse, is available for pre-order from Main Street Rag. In Used Furniture Review, the one and only Brad Green, Michelle Reale, and Ravi Mangla. Carmela Starace and Alan Stewart Carl have work in November Hobart. It … Continue reading →

Things occasionally come apart

We regretfully announce the cancellation of Nicolle Elizabeth’s Little Book, I Will Speak For Myself. And so it goes. While we wish things had worked out differently, particularly so late in the process, we wish Nicolle all the best in … Continue reading →

All You Need in the World

Sarah Hilary has fiction in Friction Magazine. New Frigg and words from Erin Fitzgerald, Jon Rosen, Vallie Lynn Watson, and more. NOO 13 brings Jamie Iredell, Adam Moorad, Greg Gerke, Jenn Gann,Michael J Martin, Melissa Broder, Arlene Ang, and more. … Continue reading →

Hush, innocence, [PANK]6 draws nigh

[PANK]6, the latest of our regally appointed print editions, is officially in production for a January release. New, white hot writing from Frank Hinton, Matthew Lippman, Ashley Farmer, Christopher Newgent, Keith Taylor, Sherman Alexie, Amy Butcher, Édgar Rincón Luna, Ocean … Continue reading →

Fancy Things and Contests

The fourth title in our Little Book series, I Will Speak For Me by Nicolle Elizabeth is now available for pre-order. At $8, pre-ordering I Will Speak For Me gets you four fifths of the way entered into our random drawing for an … Continue reading →

Look sharp, thrice

1. We’re looking for colaborators for a NOLA Invasion reading mid-November. Are you those people? Contact us. 2. We are still accepting entries for our third annual 1,001 Awesome Words contest, guest judged by the one and only Michael Martone. … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: Less Successful Fruit Drink Names

Surrogrape Mother Murderberry Splash Switchblade Vurpberry Watermeloncholy Salmonella Punch Lemon-Lime In The Time Of Cholera Dysentery Cherry Goiter A-pear-ances Can Be Deceiving Vasectomelon Splash Kiwi de Magnesia SacriliJuice! Banana Dilemma Orange “The Shakes” Crush

So Unexpected, That Dry Hot Wind

The Last Repatriate, by Matt Salesses, is being launched this week by Nouvella Books. Matt is one of our favorite writers, the author of our second book, and you cannot go wrong with his new title. Also he has a … Continue reading →

Bring Down the Chandeliers by Tara Hardy (A Review by Brian Fanelli)

Write Bloody Press 85 pages, $15 Bring Down the Chandeliers is not a collection of poetry for the faint of heart, prude, or squeamish. At times, Tara Hardy’s poems can be unsettling, as they address rape and incest, using raw, … Continue reading →

Invasion: New Orleans?

Short notice, we know, but this, that and the other have conspired to bring us to New Orleans November 17-19. Why not host an Invasion? Why we ask you? New Orleans peoples and surrounds, PANKsters and traveling language clowns, these … Continue reading →

We Got A New Format

PANK got technical. Thanks to the aid of our distributor, Disticor, we are pleased to announce the release of the new PANK app, available for Apple products. $6.99 gets you the app and a digital issue of your choice. Get it, … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: New (And Improved?) Choose Your Own Adventures!

Lost In A Cave! Oh, no! You are lost in a cave and you’re desperately trying to find a way out! Really, you have nobody to blame for this misfortune but yourself. Also, Daniel, who drugged you, tied you up, … Continue reading →

Relentless and Dark and Sharp Sheets of Rain

Laura Ellen Scott’s Death Wishing is now available for sale but you can also get the Kindle version for FREE on Amazon so go and do so but also consider buying the book. The new Sink Review includes poetry by … Continue reading →

It Was Strange—The Sky Just Opened

First thing you should do is read Sean Doyle’s essay at The Rumpus. You will be moved. Pangur Ban Party’s Very Beautiful Women features a great many very beautiful women and work from contributors Ani Smith, Frank Hinton, Sarah Rose … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: Just Another Day At The Gym

Boot Camp Class Okay, everyone, let’s start with some stretches! Ready? O-kay. Let’s begin with the arms in the air, and raise them…and raise them…and raise them! Come on, people, you just got caught swallowing 1.2 million dollars in canary … Continue reading →

And Just Like That, An Unexpected Heat Came Over Us

The fall issue of Menacing Hedge features a story by Michelle Reale and three poems by Margaret Bashaar (1, 2, 3). In the new issue of R.K.VR.Y., Anne Leigh Parrish and others. Ryan Bradley’s chapbook, Mile Zero, is available from Maverick Duck Press. Congratulations to … Continue reading →

Design Our Next Cover?

We’re looking for a cover designer for PANK 6.  If you’re interested, please e-mail us at awesome at pankmagazine.com with a link, if possible, to a portfolio. We do offer a small honorarium for cover design.

The Chill in the Air is Perfectly Crisp

Weekend Fiction at the Good Men Project features a story by Faith Gardner. Garrett Socol has two new stories: WE KNEW WHAT IT WAS BY THEN, and AFTER THE CHAMPAGNE. Two poems by Brett Elizabeth Jenkins appear at Metazen. At … Continue reading →

The Body is a Little Gilded Cage by Kristina Marie Darling (A Review by J. A. Tyler)

In short: Kristina Marie Darling’s The Body is a Little Gilded Cage is the best book that Darling has written and the best book that Gold Wake Press has produced. I’ve read Darling’s previous Night Songs (also from Gold Wake … Continue reading →

Two Calls for Submission

The Splinter Generation, a literary journal for and about people born between 1973 and 1993, has begun its next reading period and is now accepting submissions for creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry from October 1-December 1. Do Talk to Strangers, our … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: The Worst Thing

There is nothing worse than getting a paper cut. Some people will try to argue differently, but those people are always wrong and we should feel sorry for them. Some people will try to tell you they experienced something worse … Continue reading →

Nothing Even Matters But This This This and That

In the September issue of Word Riot, Melissa Chadburn has plans to be loved. xTx is featured in the debut issue of Safety Pin Review–a charming new magazine. Over at Housefire, a raw story from Ryan Bradley. You’ll find a … Continue reading →

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You by Lea Graham (A Review by J. A. Tyler)

Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You is Lea Graham’s first full-length collection, as well my first date with No Tell Books, and both are a solid way to begin something new. The physical product is … Continue reading →

First Impressions (Or A Letter to My English Composition Students) (Or “We’re Not Hesher.”)

Before we go any further discussing objective versus subjective descriptions or read essays by Heather Rogers and EB White or beat ourselves over the head with anymore comma splices or discuss how some of you begin a paragraph in past … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: The Second-To-Last Supper

And as they were reclining at table and eating on this, the second-to-last supper, Jesus looked around at his guests. There was James The Greater and, to a lesser extent, James The Lesser. There was John and Peter, who, you … Continue reading →

What You Should Know On This Day

The September issue is alive and kicking and this issue is really something special. In this issue you will find two sharp poems by Corinna Bain including one, “Girls Putting on Make-Up on the L Train,” with language so carefully … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Red Hot Chili Peppers

“In the end and then, all will be forgiven when surrender rises high and I gave what I came to give.” Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tear. After a rough few weeks, it is reassuring to be reminded that “in the … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: Thank You For Using LinkedIn!

Thank you for using LinkedIn. Everyone here at LinkedIn truly appreciates your ongoing support, and we hope our site has provided you the tools you need to succeed in business. With that said, we would like to take a moment … Continue reading →

A Strange Coolness In the Air

We are really, really thrilled to share that PANK contributor MERRITT TIERCE will receive a 2011 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award. Merritt is an outstanding writer and this recognition is richly deserved. In Issue 4 of Red Lightbulbs, xTx, Paul Cunningham, J. … Continue reading →

Do You Know The Meth-od Man? It’s Three A.M.

A man nearly died on my driveway last night. He’d done a huge amount of some naracotic then wandered the trailer park before ending up at my house at three a.m.  The man fell against the front of my house then knocked on the window. … Continue reading →

MLP has a new Nephew

http://mudlusciouspress.com/nephew/

Gallimaufry: New Science Experiments You Can Do With Basic Household Items

Baking Soda Volcano This. Is. A classic. The kids will love this one so much, they’ll finally call you ‘Dad.’ (Hey, better late than never!) Start out by baking a dozen sugar cookies on a baking pan. When they’re finished, … Continue reading →

Bruised Jaw, Bloody Tooth, the Last of Hot Summer Days

Our amazing crime issue is life featuring Chris Offut (!), Aaron Michael Morales, Frank Bill, Eric Shonkwiler, Anthony Neil Smith, Art Taylor, Keith Rowson, and Kyle Minor. Start here with the special issue editor’s Brad Green’s introduction. Everyone Wants to … Continue reading →

New Facebook Fan Page

We’ve surpassed firecode on our Facebook profile page, 5,000 strong, and the requests keep on a comin’. So we’ve started a fan page that everyone can “like” instead. Same great way to stay connected with PANKsters the world over, waaaaaaaaaay … Continue reading →

Bowdlerized Books Presents: Excerpts From The Lorax, Abridged Version

We at Bowdlerized Books love literature. That much is certain and cannot be disputed. We live for the moment we read a great book and our minds start swirling as if suddenly activating parts of our brains that have atrophied. … Continue reading →

Little Known Author-created Causes of Hangovers

This is a guest post by Caleb J Ross as part of his Stranger Will Tour for Strange blog tour. He will be guest-posting beginning with the release of his novel Stranger Will in March 2011 to the release of … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood’s incredible poetry is featured in the July issue. She talks with us about canaries, mines, false alphabets and more. 1. What happens when a canary dies in the fact mine? A Tweety shirt shrinks in the wash. A … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: Department Store Announcements You Don’t Hear Very Often

Attention shoppers: Life is hard, I know. There are many trials and tribulations, and some of your problems simply can’t be fixed. You want to hit an ‘undo’ button on some of the decisions you’ve made, but you can’t because … Continue reading →

Small But Mighty Things

Seth Fischer has a story in the current issue of Gertrude. He is joined by Megan Williams and the issue is available for sale. Volume II of Stoked Journal features poems and prose by Daniela Olszewska, Adam Moorad, Nate Pritts, … Continue reading →

Nightmares of a Screamy Baby

My son, he’s 10 months old. Funny kid. Has a cute broad smile that he often displays alongside hysterical laughter. Since he doesn’t have any language I can’t ask him what he is laughing about. Talking to him is a … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: High School Courses Revisited

Creative Writing This is an introductory course that focuses on imaginative writing style, revision, being alone, ordering in, crying, finding a good psychologist, and cleaning the house. Writing-wise, we will focus on short stories, poetry and creative non-fiction as well … Continue reading →

New Issue, New News, New New

The August issue is live. I insist you start with Charles Dodd White’s Winter by Heart. This stunning story about a father and son and a man who has little good in him is fine writing by any measure. You’ll … Continue reading →

Critical Perspectives on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s ‘Otis’ From Seven Guys Named Otis

I’m really feeling this. These dudes is balling. “Luxury rap, the Hermes of verses.” That’s just how I’m living. They speaking my language. I mean, this is how I’m gonna be living. I guess this very moment I’m the-Hermes-of-sitting-on-my-ass-in-my-mother’s-basement. I’m … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: Standard & Poor’s Official Apology For Its $2 Trillion Dollar Mistake As Well As Some Of Its Other Minor Miscalculations

On August 6, after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US credit rating to AA+, the US Treasury pointed out a $2 trillion error in Standard & Poor’s calculations. “A judgment flawed by a 2 trillion dollar error speaks for itself,” … Continue reading →

An Unexpected, Cool Breeze

Brad Green’s Fixing Miss Fritz is live now at the Texas Observer. Read this. Staccato Fiction offers a story by Michelle Reale. At Fwriction Review, fiction from Myfanwy Collins. Mensah Demary’s Stark County appears at Used Furniture Review. In the … Continue reading →

Alexis Orgera’s how like foreign objects: A Review by J. A. Tyler

Alexis Orgera broke up with me. She did it in a book. The book was how like foreign objects. One minute we were dating and so intertwined and then I became a pit in her stomach and near the end … Continue reading →

A Special Announcement From President Barack Hussein Obama

My fellow Americans, my colleagues and I in the Democratic Party recently made a debt deal with our friends across the aisle in the Republican Party. This deal averted a crisis—the debt ceiling was raised and our country avoided default—but … Continue reading →

Gallimaufry: My First Days On Earth

Like you, I was born. Then I became a man. I still am a man. Just ask my wife. Never mind. Don’t ask my wife. Pretend I never even brought my wife up. Just take it from me: I am … Continue reading →

You’re Going to Want to Sit Down For This

Behold Specter Magazine. Issue Zero (wait, what?) features Dawn West, J. Bradley and Rion Scott. Laura Ellen Scott’s Death Wishing will be out in October. Meanwhile, check out her book’s new page. Brett Elizabeth Jenkins has five poems in Fwriction … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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,  JA Tyler, and more. Matter Press’s first chapbook will be Wild Life by Kathy Fish. Huzzah! … 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 →

Huckster: Welcome To The 23rd Annual Agency Picnic Olympics!

Hello, everyone! Thank you for coming to the 23rd Annual Agency Picnic Olympics. Our agency has been doing this for more than 22 years now, and every year it gets better. So, without further ado, let’s go over the day’s … Continue reading →

May the Sparks From Your Sparklers Burn My Skin

Two new things from Jac Jemc at Joyland and Strange Machine. The current issue of Knock has work from Eric Beeny, Joseph Riippi, and more. Hey, we’re having a killer reading in NYC on July 21s at Pete’s Candy Store. … Continue reading →

Substitute “Baby’s First Words” in Case my Son’s Actual First Word Turns Out to be Profanity

Shift Funk Mister Funkster Funk that shift, you shift-for-brains Mister Funkster. Count What a funky count. Hiss Crock Mass Dan Dan Ick Got Dan Got Dan Ick Pits If that shifthead Mister Funkster keeps staring at my wife’s got Dan … Continue reading →

We Are Still Here, Still Queer

Submissions are now open for  PANK’s second  special issue featuring Queer prose, poetry & art, guest edited by Tim Jones-Yelvington. Submit fiction, poetry, art and unidentified or hybrid literary text objects  by September 1, 2011 through the special issue submission … Continue reading →

PANK’s Invasion Reading Series, Brooklyn Edition

Huckster: Muse Varieties For Creatives In Advertising

Many creatives are reluctant to answer (truthfully) the question, “From where do you get your ideas?” Sure, they might provide an answer, but rarely to do they provide the truth: that they get their ideas from a muse. Every creative’s … Continue reading →

Some Illegal Notes

I find myself tired and sick today; and sick and tired every day. I have theories about women and a certain kind of sensitivity. Women and a certain kind of sickness, especially stomach sickness. Women and what is and isn’t … Continue reading →

And Up North, June Still, a Chill

Congratulations to Brian Allen Carr for winning the Texas Observer fiction contest. We’d also like to congratulate Brad Green for placing as a finalist for his outstanding story Fixing Mrs. Fritz, which I have read. If you are an editor … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Children’s Theater, Family History, and the Hollywood Fringe Festival

It’s that time of year again – the Hollywood Fringe Festival, a ten-day live theater festival compromising more than 800 performances and events held in venues throughout Hollywood.  As someone with (as of four weeks ago) two children, I turned … Continue reading →

Bishop Bobby Bling Speaks: A Sermon

Let me hear the congregation say Amen. I can’t hear you; the congregation’s gotten shy all of a sudden? It don’t matter that you don’t know what I’m about to say. Just say Amen. If Jesus come down here and … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Miracle Legion

“One day the stone will roll away, and soon you’ll see.” All For the Best, Miracle Legion. I am always a sucker for words that reference old Bible stories. As a bonus, also wrapped up in this piece is man … Continue reading →

Happy Birthday Lidia Yuknavitch

Yours is The Book generations of women will press to a beat beneath their left tit as they brave college classrooms the first time, or the next time, or the last time even; it’s with them between classes, between sentences, on … Continue reading →

Early Happy Father’s Day; or Unhappy Father’s Day; or No Fathers Day; or Dead Fathers Day; or Never Fathers Day; or just for the love of men who love day.

Some Announcements, Friends

This month we have two exciting issues. First up, is our regular June issue featuring writing from Thomas Kearnes, Joshua Helms, Ken Poyner, Hazel Foster, Jan Stinchomb, Mike Meginnis, Karrie Waarala, Keith Taylor, Karen Skofield, Alexis Pope, Christopher Newgent, Jessica … Continue reading →

Huckster: Things (About The Advertising Industry And Those Who Work In It) I’ve Yet To Overhear At A Party

“I think it’s just a matter of time before someone in advertising wins the Nobel Peace Prize.” ……………… “Copywriter, huh? Is he single?” ……………… “Well, for starters, I feel like the deadlines could be tighter.” ……………… “It was either this, … Continue reading →

Somewhat Ineffective Jokes About Your Mother

Your mother’s so ugly that many people find her very, very unattractive. * Your mother’s feet have so many corns, that she should probably see a podiatrist. Perhaps the foot doctor can prescribe something to clear that up. * Your … Continue reading →

You Can Go Home, For a Little While

Congratulations to J. Bradley, Stevie Edwards, and Megan Falley for becoming finalists in this year’s Write Bloody reading period. You can read a fine interview with Bradley here. Andrew Borgstrom’s Meat Is All is the next title from Mud Luscious … Continue reading →

Dear Tracy Morgan

Dear Tracy Morgan, By now, everyone probably knows you stated during a recent stand-up routine in Nashville Tennesse you’d stab your son to death if he was gay. That was probably the worst of your homophobic tirade. I guess. You also said gays are pussies for whining so much about being bullied … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Jeremy Allan Hawkins

The poetry of Jeremy Allan Hawkins is featured in the April issue. He talks with us about biblical pornography, the humor of poets, and more. 1. How do you know angels like anal? When I was last in Berlin I … Continue reading →

Notes on watching Asif Kapadia’s SENNA (2010).

I watched Asif Kapadia’s SENNA when it came out in my city in part because I saw the trailer on the blog of a Japanese male model I like, who has a very delicate and beautiful but sometimes irritatingly self-satisfied … Continue reading →

Huckster: A Few Famous Songs Turned Into Advertising Jingles

Sung to the tune of “Wanna Be Starting Something,” by Michael Jackson I said you wanna be drinkin’ Starbucks You got to be drinkin’ Starbucks I said you wanna be drinkin’ Starbucks You got to be drinkin’ Starbucks You’re really … Continue reading →

Ask the Champ: Gregory Sherl

It’s rare that we get to interview a champion after surviving a brawl so we are proud that Gregory Sherl, Orlando’s Literary Death Match champion, took time out of his busy schedule to answer our humble questions. His poems in … Continue reading →

The Locusts Are Upon Us

Tadd Adcox and Robert Kloss have work in Abjective. Tadd is also interviewed over at Plumb. At Staccato Fiction, brief fiction from Randall Brown. The Fwriction Review has Meg Pokrass and Len Kuntz. Wrong Tree Review has fiction from J. Bradley. He … Continue reading →

Transcript: Anthony Weiner’s Penis Answers Questions During His Press Conference

Monday, Representative Anthony Weiner called a press conference to admit to sending racy pictures to women over the internet. While Weiner answered questions, his penis was below, likewise, responding to questions. Here we present the previously inaudible answers of Rep. … Continue reading →

Hardwired

The day is warm and windy in Republican country. I’m surrounded by churches and liquor stores, desert hugged by mountains. What does a person’s sexual preference have to do with his or her professional ability, his or her professional integrity? … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Spiritualized

“Oh babe, I am going nowhere. Nowhere’s where I want to be.” Spiritualized, ‘Don’t Just Do Something’ the unfirm line quiz Instructions: Read the above line then listen to the below song. Question 1: Is he going nowhere as in … Continue reading →

Hairy English

“A semiotician as subtle as Roland Barthes was disappointed in later years that his interviews needed to be cleaned up of hesitations, raspings, small coughs. These sub-verbal or intra-verbal materials claim a locality connected not just to breathing, but rather … Continue reading →

Huckster: Movie Teaser Excerpts For Films About Advertising

If you see only one movie this summer, make it one of these…and then see the other four! And remember, when you’re reading these teasers, channel the voice of Don LaFontaine! …………………….. The Job In a world…where one man will … Continue reading →

Hard to Say: Now Available

Ethel Rohan’s Hard to Say is now shipping. You can buy the paperback for $8, the e-book (in several formats) for $4, or both for $10. Act fast! Our books sell out quickly. The e-book was generously created by Vaughan … Continue reading →

Touching Kiefer Sutherland (1)

In 1989, I broke up with my first boyfriend. I touched Kiefer Sutherland. And I won the title of Miss Coors Extra Gold. My first boyfriend was older than me. He drove a Corvette, owned a house, owned a business. … Continue reading →

There’s That Heat We’ve Been Waiting For

Laurence Klavan’s The Conservative appears in the Stickman Review. For The Cure of Fits (Das Ding #2) by Luca DiPierro is available for sale on his website. Amy McDaniel writes about Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water for Paste Magazine. … Continue reading →

Ol’ Clementine Explains How he and a Team of Navy SEALs Killed Osama bin Laden

NOTE: This is the third and final post in the series, THE MERKING OF OBL (though it may be back as an occasional feature). Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Eds. note: At 236-years-old, Ol’ Clementine is the oldest man … Continue reading →

Huckster: The Opening Of A Job (As Told In The Style Of A Raymond Carver Story Edited By Gordon Lish)

L.T and I go out for a drink at this café that serves cold sandwiches and alcohol. This is after I opened a new job back at the agency. We don’t always drink at lunch. Sometimes we drink other times … Continue reading →

The May Winds Are Blowing

Congratulations to Rachel Swirsky who won the Nebula for her novella, ‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window.” Hello! Dan Gutstein, one of our favorite contributors, is the hottest professor in the country according to RateMyProfessor. Please … Continue reading →

CFS: Pushing the Boundaries

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES postmark deadline: June 13, 2011 Creative Nonfiction is currently seeking experimental nonfiction for our “Pushing the Boundaries” section (“experimental,” “boundaries,” yes, these can be loaded terms). We want writing that blows our minds with its ingenuity, essays … Continue reading →

An Interview With Miami-Dade Mayoral Candidate Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell

Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell, first as leader of  the rap group, 2 Live Crew and then as a solo artist, has recorded some of the raunchiest party songs of all time. Campbell masterminded such hits as, “Me So Horny” and “Head, Head … Continue reading →

Process Notes: Katrina Denza’s In the Fall

Ed. Note: I’m always interested in how writers get from the first draft to the final draft of a story. Katrina Denza’s In the Fall appears in the May issue. It’s a lovely, lovely store, and when I accepted the … Continue reading →

Special Issue: Science and Fiction

Sometimes, we want to branch out with our offerings so in coming months, we’ll publish an issue on the first and the fifteenth to accomodate some exciting special issues we have planned. Our June special  issue, London Calling, debuts next … Continue reading →

Thursdays Are For Titillation

The May issue up and it is a marvel. Congratulations to Ethel Rohan for making the Bristol Prize longlist. She also responds to the news for Dark Sky Magazine. At Everyday Genius, words by Lily Hoang. Michelle Reale’s Lesson appears at … Continue reading →

Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s Selenography: A review by J. A. Tyler

The moon is out tonight and it is big on the horizon and the face, the man-in-the-moon face, is clearly visible, looking downward in a gesture that seems either pitying or happy from afar. The moon’s surface is an odd … Continue reading →

Three (About the Body) Rough

When I was three, my mother left my father and me. When I was five, my father told me he was driving to Denver to pick up my brother. I didn’t know I had a brother. I knew I didn’t have a … Continue reading →

On dubbing

Yoko Tawada, “The Art of Being Non-Synchronous”: In Japan, poetry readings are rare. I found it just as surprising that on German television the samurais in a Kurosawa movie spoke German fluently, as did the figures in anime films. Even … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Gnarls Barkley

“Come on now, who do you think you are? Bless your soul. You really think you’re in control?” – ‘Crazy, Gnarls Barkley Reflection is a soul-pounding process. The goal to never make the same mistake twice, while hoping your loved … Continue reading →

Huckster: Yankee Candle Scents For Advertising Professionals

Polished Turd Definitely doesn’t smell like Cannes. Production Meeting Notes of copper (blood) and onions (body odor) and sugar (to pour into the wounds). Careful! Some wicks are fuses! Office Coffee Is something burning? Yes. Yes, something is burning. Server’s … Continue reading →

Slowly, The Warmth Presses Upon Us

Tuscaloosa Runs This is a fine e-book that includes the work of several PANK contributors. You can read the e-book here and contribute to the Tornado Relief Fund here. The eleventh issue of Willows Wept Review includes Rose Hunter,  Eric … Continue reading →

Dear Donny Thane

  Last night I sat under a fan staring at the TV wondering if this might be the night I slept longer than four hours, then over the sound of the fan and TV I heard my son crying down the hall in … Continue reading →

Circe

Circe, with poetry by Nicelle Davis and illustrations by Cheryl Gross, is forthcoming from Low Brow Press.

The Merking of OBL Part 2: Barack Obama Calls George W. Bush

NOTE: This is the second post in the series, THE MERKING OF OBL, which will explore the death of Osama bin Laden. Read Part 1 here. Check back later this week for part 3 and maybe 4, I haven’t decided … Continue reading →

The Merking of OBL Pt. 1: An Interview With Fred, Osama bin Laden’s 72nd Virgin

NOTE: This is the first post in the series THE MERKING OF OBL, which will explore the death of Osama bin Laden. Check back later this week for parts 2, 3 and maybe 4, I haven’t decided yet, as well … Continue reading →

How To Ask For It: An Essay by Emma Ozeren

I grew up in the West Country, which is not a country; it’s the rural south-west of England, a stocky little peninsula pointing out to the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic beyond. My family have been farming there for a … Continue reading →

Tuscaloosa Runs This

Tuscaloosa Runs This — an eBook of Tuscaloosa Writers Download View on Issuu Donate Featuring Andrew Grace Jason McCall Matt Maki Lauren Gail Juan Carlos Reyes Megan Paonessa Jeremy Allan Hawkins Caleb Johnson Darren Demaree Kori Hensell Kate Lorenz Pia … Continue reading →

Hard to Say by Ethel Rohan, Order Now!

We are especially proud of our third book, Ethel Rohan’s gorgeous, personal, at times painful but always resonant, Hard to Say, and this is a book you’re going to want to get your hands on before it sells out. Hard … Continue reading →

The Joy of Binge Drinking: An Essay by Jacqui Hazell

We like a drink, us Brits. We’re renowned for it. Venture into any town or city centre, anywhere in the UK, on a Friday or Saturday night and what will you see? Depending on your point of view, it’ll be … Continue reading →

MÃœNCHNER FREIHEIT 04262011

Dear —, I take this video* outside the Münchner Freiheit metro station in the Schwabing area of Munich. Later I have dinner with strangers who also happen to be friends. Everyone speaks in German, which I understand fairly well, but … Continue reading →

Announcements!

We are  reading Little Book manuscripts until 9/15, as we look for titles to publish in 2012. Go to Submishmash, scroll to the bottom, and proceed accordingly. There is a $20 reading fee. As usual, there are no guidelines. We’re … Continue reading →

Huckster: Deciding To Get Into Advertising: Mini-Stories

Jason’s Story I still remember the day I decided to get into advertising. It was a cold day. Extremely cold. Not outside, but inside the walk-in freezer, the one my captor locked me in. You know, same old story. Anyway, … Continue reading →

This Is What They Write

Felicidades! Hoy es el Cinco de Mayo. Voy a beber muchas margaritas. Y usted? Matthew Salesses created a gorgeous hypertext map of Our Island of Epidemics which is also still for sale. Frank Hinton’s I Don’t Respect Female Expression is … Continue reading →

Fragmentation + Other Stories: A Review by Rebecca Leece

Anthologies. What’s to be done about them? Millions exist, and undoubtedly millions more are in the making this very instant. Say, for example, you are fascinated by stories about dead babies. You require a fresh dead baby story to read while you … Continue reading →

Black Warrior Review Contest

The Seventh Annual Black Warrior Review Contest has begun! Send us your dearest-beloved (stories/poems/essays)! Guest Judges for 2011 are: Gary Lutz (Fiction) John D’Agata (Nonfiction) Prageeta Sharma (Poetry) Payment must be made online (the Submission Manager will direct you to do so). To … Continue reading →

Crabs

Today is Tuesday and I transmit from a trailer in a trailer park on the southeast of town. The sun shines. The wind has tapered down. Weather’s about to turn for the warmer. I love warm. And my trailer is awesome. Did I mention … Continue reading →

Two Announcements from Knee Jerk Magazine

Knee-Jerk’s 2011 Essay Contest Knee-Jerk is excited to announce its first annual essay contest! What do we mean by essay? Something that tickles us in strange places; that depicts a person, place, thing or idea in a unique light and … Continue reading →

Dublin Calling: An Essay by Erin Stalcup

When I arrived in Ireland I had a hard time understanding the accents. I didn’t know what “T’lads and m’self ergoin’ twa disco t’ave some craic—ye must get paralytic wit’ us!” meant. I did a lot of what lads in … Continue reading →

A Few Thoughts on the Rejection of Rejection

This post may be ill-advised but I am completely burnt out on angry rejection rejections, those unsolicited rejection responses from writers who are incapable of handling rejection. By burnt out, I mean I am done. I have had it. This … Continue reading →

Huckster: The Catholic Church—Advertising Medium Of The Future

Currently, there’s a huge medium that’s being ignored by advertisers, and that medium is the Catholic Church. But this will change in the future—specifically, it will change on Maypril 45, 2123 AD. I learned this from a friend of mine … Continue reading →

If It Will Never Be Warm, These Words Are All We Have

You can enjoy two poems by Christopher Phelps at The Awl. Night Train is going on hiatus until February 2012 but until then you can browse the archives and check out work in the new issue which includesDaniela Olszewska, Sheldon Lee Compton, Heather … Continue reading →

Birther Control or Ol’ Clementine Got Some Questions About The President’s Birth Certificate

Eds. note: At 236-years-old, Ol’ Clementine is the oldest man in the world. He worked as a slave in most of the Confederate states and has continued the profession long after Emancipation. Occasionally, he shares his unique perspective on the … Continue reading →

Short Story Markets in the UK and the US, by Jarred McGinnis

Every morning from the age of five until I was eighteen, they made me pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America; so I’m duty bound to think, like rock and roll and spray cheese in a … Continue reading →

14

My son’s first girlfriend was Alyssa Milano. He was three. She was twenty-seven. Alyssa was on the cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine that year and my son cut her out with his child-safe scissors then stuck her to the refrigerator with a couple of … Continue reading →

Vote Bull!

Jarrett Haley, editor of BULL, needs your help: BULL is now one of five finalists up to win 100K in funding through Dockers’ (Levi’s) “Wear the Pants” Contest. It’s an unprecedented sum for a lit journal, and an unprecedented chance … Continue reading →

Buzznet Poetry Contest

In honor of poetry month, Buzznet, the web’s largest social magazine written for youth by youth, has partnered with BUST Magazine and actress and author Amber Tamblyn, to launch a poetry competition which invites aspiring young writers, poets and creatives to … Continue reading →

Becoming British: An Essay by Sara Henkin

After nearly five years in London, one wedding, three different types of visas, and a pact that my husband and I would not give in and pay an immigration lawyer, I found myself registering to take the United Kingdom’s citizenship … Continue reading →

Moses and God Compose the 10 Commandments

We’ve reached the holiest time of the year, where Jews celebrate their escape from bondage in Egypt and Christians celebrate the torture and brutal murder of Jesus Christ. This holy moment for the Jews culminated in Moses the Law Giver, … Continue reading →

A Woman’s Touch

Bull is looking for stories with a woman’s touch. Editor Jarrett Haley writes Last week my wife and I had our second child, a daughter.  This is the biggest of deals for me, coming from a family where men outnumber … Continue reading →

Huckster: First Lines Of Classic Novels, Written As If Their Authors Had Worked In Advertising

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of opening a job, it was the age of closing the job, followed by reopening the job, but with a tighter deadline. It was … Continue reading →

Of course, there’s the amazing April issue. Start with that if you haven’t already and congratulations to all the PANK writers who were recognized for having a notable story in the 2010 storySouth Million Writers Award. We would especially like … Continue reading →

Letter to Shin Sang-ok

Dear Shin Sang-ok, I keep thinking about you. When I was at university, I wrote a short story—-which was not a short story because it ended up being fifty pages, one of the first indications of my future failure as … Continue reading →

Hint Fiction, Part Trois

Robert Swartwood says: Hint Fiction is two years old. Hard to believe that what originally started as a not-so-serious essay which was intended to be read by only a handful of people turned into something this big. After all, Hint Fiction: An … Continue reading →

Long Live the Queen’s Head Pub: An Essay by Danica Green

Sport is a large part of living in Britain, and everyone is expected to stand up and support their country when the time comes. Football belongs to the English, rugby to the Welsh, and Scotland has such unclassifiable sports as … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – M. Kitchell

“The images produced by dead men are the greatest mystery of my life.” M. Kitchell, ‘the text of death’ There are two dead men that mean the world to me. They produced words and stories that stabbed directly, not forceful … Continue reading →

The April Issue of PANK Will Break You Down

The April issue of PANK is pretty massive in every way.  There’s a lot to talk about so let’s get to it, shall we? I have a little story about Laura Adamczyk. I saw Lindsey Drager read at Stories and … Continue reading →

Huckster: The Progression Of Job Titles In Various Agency Departments

Account Services Department Account Coordinator Account Executive Assistant to the Barista Barista Head Barista Account Supervisor Director of Account Services (Mystery Title, Determined By The Wheel Of Thou Fair Moniker) Assistant to the Barista …………………… …………………… Public Relations Department Public … Continue reading →

Want to Read in Minneapolis?

PANK contributor (and trusty reader) Brett Elizabeth Jenkins has set up a reading that is sure to be kick ass in Minneapolis at moto-i (OMG A SAKE BREWERY) on Friday, May 13th, 8 pm. She’s looking for a few good … Continue reading →

Mucous Was Involved in the Making of This List. You’re Welcome.

Don’t do anything until you read this essay by Chloe Caldwell at The Rumpus. Todd McKie has a short story in the new issue of Molotov Cocktail. Over at Hot Metal Bridge, you will find Eric Beeny, JA Tyler, Sherman … Continue reading →

Ol’ Clementine Remembers the War of Yankee Aggression

Eds. note: On the 150th anniversary of The Civil War, that chapter in the country’s history remains a controversial one. To gain perspective, we turn to the world’s oldest man, former Alabama slave, Ol’ Clementine. At 236 years old, he … Continue reading →

Light

Jeff and I used to go to the gay clubs in Denver. I was a model then; Jeff was a model too. That was how we met. Anyway, we recognized each other right away. At clubs, we were brother and sister. Jeff was … Continue reading →

Literary Scenes in Britain, Nashville and Amsterdam: An Essay by Avery Oslo

BritPANK is coming! It’s like Christmas in July, but instead of milk and cookies, Santa’s sipping Irn Bru and eating…toad-in-the-hole? Laver bread? Champ? This special issue is necessary, like tea or like air because modern British literature is one of … Continue reading →

Huckster: How To Inverview For A Job In Advertising

Looking for a job in advertising? Plenty of people are, that’s for sure. Here’s a little trick: open up any phone book and, chances are, someone in that book is looking for a job in advertising. Just kidding. There’s no … Continue reading →

We Didn’t Start the Showers But The Rain Keeps Falling and the World Keeps Turning

Mud Luscious 15 includes Sarah Rose Etter, Troy Urquhart, and Andrea Kneeland. Thunderclap 5 features many PANK favorites such as Len Kuntz, Sheldon Lee Compton, Matt Salesses,  Tim Jones-Yelvington, Jesse Bradley and others. Purchasing information here. In Guernica, poetry from … Continue reading →

Open Letter to James Franco so if you are not Jimmy Franco Please Stop Reading. Thanks.

Dear Jimmy, Forgive me for being so informal. My initial draft began, “Dear Mr. Franco,” but after you read this, we’re going to become good buddies and nothing as formal as “Mr. Franco” will do. You’ll call me on my … Continue reading →

Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water: A Review by Dawn West

I am not what people mean when they say good woman. By people, I mean the good Christian kind. Sarah Palin calls them real Americans. I have lied (especially to hide) and cheated (twice). I smoke and swear and drink. I’m not … Continue reading →

Two

I saw the film, “Showgirls,” with a friend in 1995. We were alone in the theater. I loved the movie from the get go, my instant-fierce love. The film received terrible reviews though; everyone said how bad Elizabeth Berkley was as Nomi Malone. I’ve seen … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Morrissey

“And all those lies, written lies, twisted lies well, they weren’t lies, they weren’t lies, they weren’t lies I never said. I never said.” Morrissey, Speedway I’ve never confessed to a priest. Tight-lipped, tight-lipped and evasive. There are no horrible … Continue reading →

On Audrey Hepburn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tura Satana, Gregory Peck, racist cookies, and not being an American writer.

My father used to say that I was an American made of Filipino raw materials, so for a long time I’ve thought of my body as composite and cybernetic (cybernetic because my American part is definitely electronic—which is to say, … Continue reading →

Dzanc Day 2011 + Collagist Chapbook Contest

On April 9th, Dzanc will be hosting its second annual National Workshop Day, with workshops in 20+ cities all over the country (and one in Canada!). Most workshops are just $30, and are being taught by a variety of professional … Continue reading →

DYN-O-MITE!: The Revolutionary Origins of an Explosive Catchphrase

Long thought to be a sitcom catchphrase like any other—DYN-O-MITE!—the excited refrain of James Evans, Jr., the oldest son on the Norman Lear produced family sitcom, Good Times, is perhaps the most interesting and subversive in television history. The refrain … Continue reading →

We Are Not Yet Fools

Did you catch this new fiction from Chelsea Laine Wells over at Housefire? Prick of the Spindle 5.1 includes writing from CL Bledsoe, twice, Len Kuntz, Tim Tomlinson, Andrea Kneeland once twice thrice,  and others. At Small Doggies, Amber Sparks … Continue reading →

Huckster: First-Draft Taglines

Chances are, if you don’t work in the magical world of advertising, then you’re probably not aware of what company taglines originally looked like before they evolved into their present state. For instance, did you know that Volkswagon’s “Drivers Wanted” … Continue reading →

One

My mother died March 20, 2011. Her name was Lydia Kathleen. She married my father when she was seventeen. At eighteen, Lydia Kathleen gave birth to me. My father tells me about the snowstorm in Durango that night. They were scared … Continue reading →

Huckster: My First Date

Everyone remembers their first date. I certainly remember mine. I was 22 and I had just been promoted from junior copywriter to copywriter. In fact, I remember my first date like it was yesterday. Her name was Judy or Joan … Continue reading →

Fiction from Len Kuntz is up at LitSnack. He is also interviewed. Enjoy something instructive with How to Butcher Someone’s Self-Esteem at Metazen, by J. Bradley. Random Cartography Notes, not only is a great title, it is also an e-chapbook … Continue reading →

Slave, Please

I must have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a long time ago, back when I was a teenager or something like that. Never finished it. Figured there wasn’t much to it. A bunch of ignorant White folks saying ‘nigger’ … Continue reading →

Fluffer

The first erotic story I ever wrote published was in 1995. I called it “Private Investigation” and had Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in mind when I wrote it. They fucked on a mattress at a crime scene. Playgirl Magazine published it. … Continue reading →

Huckster: Do You Have A Urinary Tract Infection Or Are You Just Doing Your Timesheets?

Let’s face it: there’s only one thing worse than having “that feeling” and that, of course, is not knowing exactly what the feeling means (besides excruciating pain! Help!). Many doctors rush to the diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI), but … Continue reading →

Meet the Brides of March

The March issue of PANK is ready for your literary delectation and this one is a doozy. Check out work from Libby Cudmore, Sandra Simonds, Kerrin McCadden, Kristina Born, Joseph Michael Owens, James O’Brien, Robert Swartwood, Kyle Beachy, Megan Williams, … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: I don’t know what to call this

I don’t know where the time goes. I’ve been desperately grasping the holes where it used to be, clawing to save bits of burnt straw. Continue reading →

March PANK, For Your Eyes and Hearts Only

The March issue of PANK is ready for your literary delectation and this one is a doozy. Check out work from Libby Cudmore, Sandra Simonds, Kerrin McCadden, Kristina Born, Joseph Michael Owens, James O’Brien, Robert Swartwood, Kyle Beachy, Megan Williams, … Continue reading →

A Sample of Critical Reactions to Martin Lawrence’s: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son

Eds. Note: In 2000, Martin Lawrence starred in the seminal black-man-in-a-fat-suit-portraying-a-black-woman comedy, Big Momma’s House. This was an exciting moment for cinema. Lawrence, long thought to be the clown, turned in a sensitive and nuanced performance as a man who, … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Mel Bosworth

“The spell is over us all, the spell is over us all, relentless.” Mel Bosworth, Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom Sometimes I stress over the big decisions: job choices, moving from state to state, parental choices. However, I am … Continue reading →

Cattle Call

Have you ever been to a cattle call? It’s like entering a writing contest. But I should explain a cattle call first. When I was a model I used to go to these things the industry referred to as a “cattle call,” … Continue reading →

Huckster: The Worst Kind Of Client

It’s common for someone working in advertising to complain about a client every now and then. It’s only human nature as well as science (chemistry). There are the clients who want to play art director, or the ones who like … Continue reading →

Ides, They March

The ever wonderful Jimmy Chen has this wonderful story, Sashimi Saturdays, to offer. Desmond Kon has new poetry. Kyle Minor tells an Origin Story at Metazen. At Abjective, a poem by Ricky Garni. Wonderfort continues to be wonderful with a … Continue reading →

Doing Dishes

I dreamed once a person took a shit in the middle of a room and then left it there, and I just stood looking at it like, I’m supposed to clean this up? I used to live in this apartment complex where a guy … Continue reading →

Two Calls for Submission

Monkeybicyle is looking for awesome writing, particularly for their online imprint. Send them brilliance. Full guidelines, here. — Annalemma 8: Creation Only the most proficient of techies among us would be able to fix their mobile phone if it broke, or … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Los Angeles Alleys

It’s been far too long since I wrote a post for Literary Los Angeles, but now I am in the process of writing several very long ones at once, including a whole series on Los Angeles history and how it’s … Continue reading →

Love! Give us love!

From today’s Oakland Examiner, some PANK love.

Not Vegas

So it’s Thursday everyone and I realized at 5:49 this morning I hadn’t written my column this week. Wow. Time flies. It’s Friday, 7:11 a.m., and I’ve still not finished my column. Slacker. Actually, I’ve got stuff happening and probably could have skipped this week, but … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Edward Abbey

“A swirl of little pale birds, like confetti, like a net of lace, exfoliated from the sky and draped themselves upon an Aleppo pine … the world continued, bland and blase, while catastrophe opened beneath the one who cared.” Edward … Continue reading →

Huckster: Myth Bustin’

Why am I here? Why are you here? Why are any of us here? Why is this cat here, sitting on the barstool next to me? Why is there a living goldfish wriggling inside the cat’s mouth? Where did that … Continue reading →

Come Away Easy Now; Please Come Away

ATTENTION: We are having a reading in Chicago, this saturday, at 9 pm, though words will start spitting at 9:30. There’s going to be burlesque. Both Matt and I are reading as are other luminaries such as, well check out … Continue reading →

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday!

A Kite in Wind: Julia Cohen’s Triggermoon Triggermoon (a review)

Imagine this perfectly windy day. There is a kite, the most perfect kite. And we are on a perfect grassy slope, looking down a clean run, a lack of trees as a runway. We want to burst, kite string in … Continue reading →

Our Million Writers Award Nominees

This year was especially difficult to pick only three stories to nominate for the Million Writers Award but here goes: Sarah Rose Etter, The Tongue Party Sean Doyle, Ladies First David Frederick Thomas, Hanging is the New Hugging: A Six Cassette … Continue reading →

Huckster: An Average Day For Someone Who Works In Advertising

—Wake up. Wonder why you have “If You’re Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands” song stuck in head. —Go to bathroom (number one). —Head to office. Realize you forgot your laptop. —Go back home, try to remember what … Continue reading →

We all Want to be Glitter and Gold and Glamour

Fiction from Colin Winnette has been posted at Everyday Genius. Fruit, fiction by Len Kuntz is up at Staccato Fiction. The third issue of Muzzle includes poetry from Marcus Wicker, Steve Subrizi, and others. Lacey Martinez writes of lists and … Continue reading →

Sightings

Our babies make their way in the world with or without us. Somewhere not here.

Divination in DC

Sorry this took me so long to get situated. But here it is, our madness from the DCAWP. Enjoy. Divination in DC I from M. Bartley Seigel on Vimeo. The first two flights of the [PANK]/Annalemma/Mudluscious reading in Washington DC, … Continue reading →

Poison

When I leave work traveling north on Highway 50 over the bridge I see the same billboard each day. “Heaven or Hell: Where Are You Going?”  It’s a ridicules question. Hell is eighth grade. Or if you’re a writer, it’s having no time to write.   … Continue reading →

Hard to Say Now Available for Pre-Order

Ethel Rohan’s beautiful and poignant story collection, Hard to Say, is now available for pre-order. Please add the book to your shelves on Good Reads and get in line for this book that is sure to sell out. The book … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – The Dears

“Galactic tides will end our lives - Taking us down in the moonlight” The Dears – Galactic Tides There are some masses, immense and greedy. I try to stay away from them, stay away from their gravitational field. Otherwise, the closer … Continue reading →

If you don’t have anything nice to say…

1. Back in August Anis Shivani published a half-baked and perfectly dissmissible essay on the Huffington Post called The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers. There were responses to this, of course, there was handwringing, all of it equally half-baked … Continue reading →

Congratulations Robert Swartwood!

“Seven Items In Jason Reynolds’ Jacket Pocket, Two Days After His Suicide, As Found By His Eight-Year-Old Brother, Grady” by Robert Swartwood, which appeared in the April 2010 edition of PANK, was just selected as the runner-up of the 4th Annual Micro Award! … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Does your choice of profession outweigh your rights?

I’ll make this brief. I read two news stories today that piss me off as a professional, as a parent, and as a human being. Because you know what? I am all of those things at the same time. Story … Continue reading →

Huckster: The Legend Of My Grandfather, An Ad Man

Before he died, my grandfather once told me that everyone is supposed to stick to one thing in life. One thing. That, he said, was the secret of life. He was in advertising, my grandfather, but you’d never know it. … Continue reading →

A Writer Deconstructs His Rejection With an Angry Red Pen

A writer submitted a story that wasn’t right for us. We have to say no more than we can say yes. We take no pleasure in it. We sent this writer a form rejection without further commentary on his story, … Continue reading →

There Was a Warm Wind and in the Wind, Hope for Winter’s End

Three more bodies from Mike Meginnis appear at Everyday Genius. Monkeybicycle features Stolen Fat Babies by the one, the only Sarah Rose Etter. The February issue of Knee Jerk includes a story by Angi Becker Stevens. There’s a House Fire … Continue reading →

Rose Metal Press Open Reading Period

From February 15 through March 30, 2011, Rose Metal Press will be actively seeking full-length hybrid and cross-genre manuscripts for consideration for publication in 2012. They are particularly interested in short short, flash, and micro-fiction; prose poetry, novels-in-verse or book-length linked … Continue reading →

Read this…

Saw Mill, the new online extension of Lumberyard Magazine from Typecast Publishing. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty sweet, with new work from Leora Fridman, Michael Shorb, Christine Kanowick, and Jon Gertz. Start with Sky Poem by Nate Pritts.

CFS: The Best Poems

Just passing this along… The Best Poems would like to call for submissions for its first annual Poetry print Anthology for the best 100 poems written in the year. The deadline for submission is 25 March 2011. All current members … Continue reading →

Impeded

Today is Sunday and I transmit from a cottage in Republican country after having suffered the worst of a terrible bout of flu. It’s early afternoon and already I’ve worn myself out doing laundry and a few other minor chores. I may not finish this … Continue reading →

The AWP Wrap Up

De rigueur, I guess, given the number of these things I’ve seen posted this past week. Anywho, [PANK] went, of course. It saw, things happened, there were readings and bars and dancing, a pinch of mayhem, a dash of naughty, … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Big-bottomed girls and other playthings

When I was a kid, I was weird and lonely. My friends were my pets and my toys, in that order. Looking at my kids’ toys now, though, I think something big has changed. Girls’ toys, in general, are role-playing … Continue reading →

Forbes & Jaded Ibis Press

Jaded Ibis Press, publisher extraordinaire & home to slick now & coming books by Lily Hoang, David Hoenigman, John Dermot Woods/J.A. Tyler, Janice Lee, Anna Joy Springer, Christopher Grimes, & Davis Schneiderman posted this in-depth interview today via Forbes.com. Chalk one up for team … Continue reading →

Huckster: Transcript Of An Ad Agency New-Business Pitch, Part 1: Introducing The Team

Hello, and thank you for letting us pitch your business. Half of the thinking you’re about to hear today will decidedly prove that we are the right advertising agency for you, and the other half will simply blow. Your. Mind. … Continue reading →

Gather Round, Come Close Close Closer

Issue Eleven of >kill author is a powerhouse including writing from xTx, Jonathan Callahan, Helen Vitoria, Amorak Huey, Brian Oliu, Feng Sun Chen,Garrett Socol, Gary Moshimer, Sarah Rose Etter, Sean Doyle, Robert Alan Wendeborn, and more. Laurence Klavan has a new story in The Barnstorm. Up at A-Minor is … Continue reading →

We’re at AWP, But We Rock Rock Don’t Stop

Jonterri Gadson has two poems in the Fall 2010 issue of Poetry Quarterly. You can find her work on pp. 28-29. Ester Bloom writes about her father’s gun for Salon. At Metazen, a truly lovely poem from Helen Vitoria. Metazen … Continue reading →

PANKAWPDCOMFG

If you be lookin’ for PANK this week, you may direct your attention to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Washington DC. We will definitely be at all of the following, though you can check out just … Continue reading →

[PANK] Invaded the Mission. It was rad.

[PANK] recently traveled to beautiful San Francisco to give a reading and made a movie of it. Also rad. Lauren Becker, Seth Fischer, Ben Jahn, Ethel Rohan, and me, M. Bartley Seigel, rockin’ the mic with words. Watch it here: [PANK] … Continue reading →

Last Words: Philippe Parreno & Douglas Gordon, ZIDANE: A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT

This week’s Last Words feature comes from Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordan’s Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait. This will be the last Last Words post for a while (possibly permanently if I retire the feature and move on to something … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: The problem of first loves

The first time you love, you’re invincible. The outside world falls away. Your pairing and your faith are all that matter. But you lose something serious when it’s over; you lose the lack of sight. Continue reading →

Huckster: Five Commonly Known Sexual Pleasures For Advertising Professionals

To be sure, everyone’s extremely familiar with kama sutra—the ancient Hindu text on erotic pleasures. Everyone except advertising professionals, that is. You see, these professionals have their own book catered specifically for them. Here are just some of the 1,245 … Continue reading →

The Best Damn Word Mixtape Of All Damn Time

We’re having a reading, in SF, TONIGHT. TONIGHT. TONIGHT. Go, listen to amazing writers, get your hands on PANK 5. The lineup? The elusive M. Bartley Seigel (hopefully wearing Frye Boots), Ethel Rohan, Lauren Becker, Ben Jahn, and Seth Fischer. … Continue reading →

Tonight, PANK Storms The Mission!

Used Furniture Review: grrrrooooowthhhh

I have loved watching the Used Furniture Review grow over the past months. Have you been reading there? You should be / have been / need to. For instance Kim Chinquee. For instance Brandi Wells. For instance Amber Sparks. For … Continue reading →

Castles

Today the sun shines upon our cottage, the air outside is warming, and I canceled our cable television subscription.  My son’s idea. ”Mom, why don’t we cancel cable?” Sure, yeah. Done. It’s all crap anyway. Television, gads, it’s Crack. The only thing I still love about cable television is True Blood, and … Continue reading →

Last Words: Tsai Ming-liang, VIVE L’AMOUR

This week’s Last Words feature comes from Tsai Ming Liang’s Vive L’Amour. Lately I’ve had trouble putting things into words.

Breeding and Writing: The people I can’t be

I don’t have creative energy and love at the same time. They seem to be mutually exclusive. Either it’s dishes or dharma; laundry or literature. I can’t seem to (pardon the pun) marry the two women I intend to be. Continue reading →

Potty Mouth

Strangers in public restrooms lend to memorable moments, which sometimes inspire my writing. While relieving myself at a supermarket urinal today, a gentleman’s phone conversation echoed from a stall: Did you return that movie I left on the table? Damnit! … Continue reading →

Huckster: What It Takes

If you’re like me, you’re probably asking yourself right now, What does it take to get into advertising? Certainly, some qualifications depend on what department you want to work in, but there are some general traits that are not department-specific, … Continue reading →

Short But Sweet, These Can’t Be Beat

Brandi Wells’s Katy Gunn is up at Used Furniture Review. A story by Chris Tarry is online at the Absent Willow Review. In the latest issue of The Collagist you will find work from Melissa Broder, Nick Kocz (with Jenniey … Continue reading →

HUM WHO HICCUP ////// Chris Mason

If you don’t know Narrow House, you should. If you don’t know which Narrow House, Chris Mason’s forthcoming HUM WHO HICCUP. If you don’t know Chris Mason, let’s learn to. If you haven’t read HUM WHO HICCUP, let me say: … Continue reading →

Here it comes, coming to get you!

PANK 5 has arrived! Fresh from the printer, smelling of printer, smelling of 251 pages of wicked awesome, PANK 5, saturated in its muchness, dripping in new language from so many great writers. I tremble in the naming. PANK 5 … Continue reading →

Ryan Stone’s Best Road Yet: A Review by Martin Macaulay

Ryan Stone‘s Best Road Yet is a collection of twelve stories set in the fictional Midwest town of Wynott. In it we meet a number of residents, some of them on more than one occasion, and Wynott is the thread … Continue reading →

New Threads

As you may have noticed, we’re in the process of updating the website. Please bear with us as we work out the kinks and spray for bugs. Also, please let us know what you like/don’t, what works/doesn’t, what you’d like … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Building a Future City

After living in six cities on three continents, I have chosen to raise my children in the same place where I grew up (walking distance, in fact, from my old high school). Where once this was the default choice of … Continue reading →

Last Words: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY

This week’s Last Words feature comes, in keeping with this month’s cinema theme, from Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century. It’s in honor of the fact that Weerasethakul’s latest film, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, for which he … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: The words that fuck us up

Thinking back on my own formative years, there are words I thought I knew and have found out later that I completely don’t. Continue reading →

Huckster: Monologue Of An Ad Job (Read In The Voice Of Morgan Freeman From Shawshank Redemption)

There’s a job like me in every ad agency in America, I guess. I’m the project that can give it to you. Stress-induced hives, grey hairs, a bastard child conceived while working late into the night with someone of the … Continue reading →

Don’t Call It a Comeback, We’ve Rounded Up For Years

Laura Ellen Scott’s Curio, which is quite a marvel, is now available for your reading pleasure, one story at a time, at Uncanny Valley. At Flash Fiction 500, Christy Crutchfield’s Cartesian Doubt is well worth a read. Atticus Books features … Continue reading →

Sidebrow’s Collaborative CITY: A Review by J. A. Tyler

Sidebrow Books is going to (if they haven’t already) become a seething force in the mouth of indie lit. Take a slim volume like City, this unassuming book written in collage, covered thick in words, & it is apparent that … Continue reading →

Quake

My Kiddo was  sick today. At seven a.m. this morning he said, “Mama, will you stay home with me?”   I called my  boss and  left a message then lied down with my son on his bed and rubbed his … Continue reading →

Looking for Projects for My Document Design Class

Are you a writer, small press, nonprofit, or small business, with a chapbook in need of a designer? Do you need a brochure designed? Do you need a poster designed? I am looking for projects for the students in my … Continue reading →

Last Words: Wong Kar-wai, HAPPY TOGETHER

This week’s Last Words (Last Shots? Last Frames?) comes from Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together, one of my favorite films of all time (“of all time!”). I knew that next week I wanted to feature the end of another film, and … Continue reading →

London Calling! Our Next Special Issue

Our first special issue was such a success (and we will be doing another Queer Issue in 2011) that we thought we do a special issue featuring writing from or about the United Kingdom. This issue will be edited by … Continue reading →

New Year, New You, New Me, New Us?

The first elimae of 2011 includes Eric Beeny, Lucas Southworth, Steven Fowler, Troy Urquhart,  and Helen Vitoria. Brandi Wells has three fictions up at Monkeybicyle. In the new issue of Requited, you will find writing from Jac Jemc, Andrew Farkas, … Continue reading →

PANK wants to have a reading in San Francisco at the end of this month.

Who’s in? Where should we book it? Quickly, quickly now.

A glance behind, a glimpse ahead.

Happy new year, shiny peoples! 2010 was good for [PANK]. 2010 was great for [PANK]. 2010 was grand for [PANK]. Let us, together, count the ways.  Across our print and digital platforms [PANK] reached an audience of approximately 100,000 readers … Continue reading →

Huckster: The Unbelievable History Of The Advertising Industry

You’re probably wondering how the advertising industry got started—or, to put it another way, how the industry of advertising began. It’s only natural for you to wonder such a thing. But the fact is, if I told you, you wouldn’t … Continue reading →

Remembering Biddy

My mom slept until noon today, and—considering how unusual that is—I got worried. She was still. I thought she had taken the wrong cocktail of pills and would never wake. She was breathing. My best friend’s mother died last week, … Continue reading →

Born Again

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. Erica Jong Since beginning my column here for PANK Magazine,  I’ve received several messages on Facebook as well as several … Continue reading →

David M. Peak’s The Rocket’s Red Glare: A Review by Thomas DeMary

Nearly 350 million quarters are minted each month. In the second after a coin is pressed, an entire civilization of germs can rise and file, leaving behind only their tale of survival. The Rocket’s Red Glare is one of these … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Suck it up and change anyway

We’re rearranging my kid’s room in the aftermath of that which is Christmas. Among the haul, he got a play kitchen, a talking truck as big as he is, a train set with eight feet of track, and half a … Continue reading →

The Week Between Is Really the Worst Week. These Words Will Make It Better

Tim Jones-Yelvington’s Conference Room is a great round up to some of the best writing from 2010. Necessary Fiction this week features Nick Ripatrazone. Janey Smith reads “Circus Tricks.” A poem from Amber Sparks appears at Used Furniture Review. The … Continue reading →

First Words/Last Words: Hiromi Goto, “Stinky Girl”

This week’s First Words/Last Words feature comes as a total accident. I was researching the poet Hiromi Ito, and came across the Japanese-Canadian writer Hiromi Goto, whose work strangely enough has a lot of crossover with Ito’s, and with my … Continue reading →

Huckster: Regarding The Advertising Agency Media Department, Did You Know?

1,024 is the average number of words per minute a media buyer can speak? Ron Jeremy was a media buyer before he was an accountant? (This is a different Ron Jeremy.) Media buyers are born with three kidneys? After a … Continue reading →

Still Alive

When I was three, my mother abandoned me. She  gave me up to become  a stripper at the Clown’s Den in Denver, and then she became a hooker.  When I was five, she  went to prison for solicitation.   That … Continue reading →

Joseph Riippi’s The Orange Suitcase: A Review by P. Jonas Bekker

Do Something! Do Something! Do Something!, Joseph Riippi‘s debut novel, received some harsh criticism (here, for example). Part of that was due to the fact that, due to its fragmented nature, it apparently lacked character definition and conflict. Another part … Continue reading →

Greetings From Sunny Florida Where My Parents’ House is NINETY DEGREES

Paula Bomer is interviewed by Gian DiTrapano for Vice. Go buy her book, Baby, which is a must read book. J. Bradley has words in Camroc Press Review. Spork features fiction from Jac Jemc. Aaron Burch offers up A Prayer … Continue reading →

Last Words: Jalal Toufic, THE WITHDRAWAL OF TRADITION PAST A SURPASSING DISASTER and GRAZIELLA

This week’s Last Words comes a couple days earlier and is a holiday double feature! Here are two endings from Jalal Toufic; one from The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster, the other from Graziella, both of which are … Continue reading →

A Metazen Christmas E-Book

Metazen is releasing a Christmas e-book to microfinance a small business through Kiva. Consider making a donation and on Christmas Day, you’ll receive this awesome e-book with writing from all the writers listed above.

The Perfect Writing Chair

One of the joys of being a writer is buying things to make us better writers. For some this involves treating themselves to a latte, an iPad, or—in my current case—a writing chair. The couch and bed have trumped my … Continue reading →

Darlin’ Neal’s Rattlesnakes & the Moon: A Review by Robyn Oxborrow

Great stories can make us see our lives in a new way, pulling us in, taking the time to make us feel welcome so we step alongside the main character. In Rattlesnakes & the Moon, Darlin’ Neal creates this atmosphere … Continue reading →

Brittany Murphy, an Elegy in X

Amber Tamblyn wrote she died like a spider in the shower. Where does a soul go? Up the wall on eight legs, down the drain? My son asked me a long time ago  not to kill spiders, so I scoop … Continue reading →

Last Words: Yoneda Kou, TADAYOEDO SHIZUMAZU, SAREDO NAKI MO SEZU

This week’s Last Words feature comes from a yaoi manga by Japanese manga artist, or mangaka, Yoneda Kou. The full manga (it’s a one-shot) can be read for free online here, scanlated (scanned + translated) by the fan group DP … Continue reading →

Something Meaningful and Poetic Belongs Here

We recently received the sad news that Cami Park passed away. While we did not know her, we are fans of her work and this community will feel her loss for some time to come. Two stories of Cami’s, The … Continue reading →

Christmas, Early, By Way of December PANK

The December issue brings our year to a close in a remarkable fashion with writing from Rae Bryant, Alan Stewart Carl, Kristina Marie Darling, Tyler Flynn Dorholt, Sean Doyle, Noah Falck, Raina Lauren Fields, Nate Innomi, Jeffrey Carl Jefferis, Annam … Continue reading →

Huckster: Two-Page, Annotated Introduction In The Creative Department Employee Manual

PAGE 1 Hello and welcome, new employee in the creative department! Congratulations on getting the new job. Whether you’re an art director, copywriter, designer—whatever—your time here will be quite fruitful.1 Consider this an executive summary of the 1,235-page manual you’re … Continue reading →

PANK 5 to press

PANK 5 is to press, peoples. We should have it in hand toward early January and to you shortly thereafter. It’s so awesome that when we hit send on those files, we jumped up and did this: Seriously, it’s that … Continue reading →

Dirty Laundry

Washing bedding is stupid when you’re tired because stretching a fitted sheet over a mattress takes effort. I considered sleeping on an unmade bed, but I’m not thirteen. I waited for my sheets to dry like an adult, ate blue … Continue reading →

5 Reasons You Should Buy Fractured West

#1. It’s crammed full of eerie, sexy, sweet, bizarre, and truthful short-short stories. #2. It’s written by twenty-two of the most shamefully talented writers around today—you wouldn’t want to be the last person to be aware of the next wave … Continue reading →

Last Words: Heriberto Yépez, “Re-reading Maria Sabina”

This week’s Last Words feature comes from an article written by Heriberto Yépez, about the indigenous Mexican poet and curandera Maria Sabina. You can find the full article here, and another Yépez article that explains Maria Sabina in more depth … Continue reading →

Wilderness

Yesterday I felt like I edged ever near a nervous breakdown. I had one of those in college, you know, a near-nervous-breakdown and began seeing a shrink and took meds, the whole thing. My primary fear, always, is I’ll become … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Mourning for a stranger

I can’t think of a parenting slant to this, but here are the words I want to say today. I just heard that Cami Park died. I didn’t know her. We never crossed paths even once. Apparently, she was a … Continue reading →

Huckster: Hello And Welcome To The Agency, New Account Executive

Oh, hi! I didn’t see you there. Just kidding. How could I miss you—you’re in our lobby, for Christ’s sake. Welcome to our ad agency, new account executive. Let me give you the dime tour one more time. Then I’ll … Continue reading →

______ Shopping Days Remaining. Rejoice, the End Is Near

Joseph Owens thinks we’re one of the top ten literary magazines! Thank you Joseph! These folks also say nice things about us! We love compliments. We thank you. Molly Gaudry reviews Matthew Salesses’s Our Island of Epidemics which is on … Continue reading →

Jo Cannon’s Insignificant Gestures: A Review by Sara Lippmann

No matter who we are or what we look like or where we’ve been or why  we’re here, if we have a human heart it’s going to break—if it’s not already broken. Anguish permeates the twenty-five stories in PANK contributor … Continue reading →

Ask The Publisher: Matt DeBenedictis

Matt DeBenedictis is the mad genius behind Safety Third Enterprises, publisher of such fine chapbooks at The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You is a Robot and He Is Talking To The Fat Lady. He’s also a tremendously talented writer and … Continue reading →

Last Words: Park Chan-wook, SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE

This Friday’s Last Words feature is a last scene, one of my favorite last scenes in film. (This is an understatement; better to say, one of the scenes that crushes me the most, in the places that need to be … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: The only two things I want

Anytime I see this question in one of those legacy journals  at the bookstore or philosophical posts on a “mommy forum” (gag), I have the same answer. What do you want for your children? Personally, I want them to be: … Continue reading →

Not the Slab; A Microscope

“If I had to give young writers advice, I would say  don’t listen to writers talk about writing or themselves.” Lillian Hellman Whoops. I transmit from a cottage in Republican country. Today is Thursday.  Outside the cold could sink deeper … Continue reading →

The Inner Sanctum Of A Traditional Advertising Agency

There are many departments within an advertising agency, and each has its annoying (yet adorable!) habits. Here is a brief overview of the departments for a traditional agency structure. I should be clear that every agency is different and, these … Continue reading →

What Happened to the Past Year, Though?

Ethel Rohan’s gorgeous Cut Through the Bone is now available from Dark Sky. This book is just lovely and emotional in so many ways and I strongly encourage you to get a copy. Her story Treacherous, is live at Pif … Continue reading →

Gray day, everything is gray

and I’m listening to these kids (not kids, really, but…) from PANK’s neck of the woods. Check them out here. Good music to compose by on the first cold day of December.

BIG SALE BUY NOW

We’re having a killer sale for the next two weeks. PANK 4: $7 PANK 5: $9 Our Island of Epidemics: $6 There are lots of great combo deals as well. Go to the store, browse, we hope you see something … Continue reading →

“There is No Safe Haven Like Being at Mother’s Breast”

Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy: One month into writing POP ULCER, I have been diagnosed with my first stomach ulcer. Thanks to TUMS and Prevacid, my stomach feels a little less like a voodoo doll. I  have no appetite. If … Continue reading →

Yes, an MLP Cyber Monday Deal

Any 2 Mud Luscious Press titles, current or  forthcoming, for $20, free shipping. Today only. Get you some.

Last Words: Tisa Bryant, UNEXPLAINED PRESENCE

This Thanksgiving Friday’s Last Words feature comes, appropriately I think, from Tisa Bryant’s Unexplained Presence. From the back cover: “By remixing stories from novels and films to zoom in on the black presences within them, Tisa Bryant ruminates on the … Continue reading →

FOOD BLOG POSTS PLEASE TO SEND

Now that you’ve eaten some delicious turkey, make some great food blog recommendations. Here’s what the fine folks at Creative Nonfiction Have to say: Once again, Creative Nonfiction is seeking narrative blog posts to reprint in an upcoming issue. Since … Continue reading →

Ever So Thankful We Are

You’re with your families and we’re with our families and we’re all so very thankful but we’re also sleeping in beds that aren’t ours or used to be ours and old wounds heal hard and dinner feels a long time … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Holiday horror stories

So, yep. It’s Thanksgiving. That’s the current elephant in the room, right? I’ll go with it. Happy Turkey Day, youse guys! It’s time for big parades and football games and warm fuzzies and appreciation and tryptophan and pie, extra whipped … Continue reading →

Get a Free Tattoo!

Buy the new novel from Eraserhead Press: Love in the Time of Dinosaurs and win a free dinosaur tattoo. Buy Love in the Time of Dinosaurs from  amazon.com before January 1st, 2011, send an email with receipt of purchase to … Continue reading →

Apologia for Jaden and Willow Smith, Part 1: Emotional review of one scene in THE KARATE KID (2010)

In THE KARATE KID, Jackie Chan is a broken man because he killed his wife and son in a car accident while he and his wife were arguing (though I don’t think Jackie Chan says explicitly that they are his … Continue reading →

Huckster: Mad Men, Pagan Deities & Journalism—Answers To Common Questions About Advertising

Below, I’ve answered some common questions about advertising. Hopefully this will shed some light on an industry renowned for its darkness. Dear Huckster: Is the television show Mad Men respresentative of the current advertising world? – GoingMad, Auburn, Alabama Dear … Continue reading →

PANK giveaway: Andrew Borgstrom’s EXPLANATIONS

In honor of the release  of Andrew Borgstrom’s Cupboard Pamphlet Series volume EXPLANATIONS, I want to give out 5 signed copies to the first people to comment here. Go ahead. No strings attached. Just say you want one & it … Continue reading →

Androgene

When I was a boy, I used to wear my grandfather’s t-shirts as dresses. My family called them togas. My grandfather once caught me stuffing with shoulder pads— his 5-year-old grandson on a step stool, makeshift breasts reflected in the … Continue reading →

Last Words: Alain Mabanckou, BROKEN GLASS

This Friday’s Last Words feature comes from Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou, one of the few writers able to pull off the Writer-As-Protagonist conceit with sly, irreverent, acidic aplomb. I’m not a particularly gifted reviewer, so I direct you to … Continue reading →

What These Words Really Want Is Theme Music Because They Are That Bad Ass

Congratulations to Myfanwy Collins for winning the Flatmancrooked fiction prize for 2010. xTx’s chapbook, He’s Talking to the Fat Lady, is now available from Safety Third Enterprises. Buy it now. There’s a really fantastic interview with Steven Himmer on the … Continue reading →

Review: I Am Here and You Are Gone by Shome Dasgupta

Even if I haven’t submitted to a contest, and most times I haven’t, my inner-reader and inner-editor are always hyper-critical of any book labeled as a “winner”. So while I am familiar with Shome Dasgupta’s writing through various online and … Continue reading →

A FAILED ESSAY ON GRIEF, SICKNESS, ANTI-WRITING/ANTE-WRITING, WOUNDS, CIXOUS, PHILOCTETES, DÉBROUILLARDES, AUNG SAN SUU KYI, ON KAWARA, KANYE WEST, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, BARTHES’ MOURNING DIARY AND QUEER GHOSTS IN CONTEMPORARY R&B; IN THE FORM OF AN INTERRUPTED LETTER TO A DEAD PARENT.

Yes, I would sometimes like to write postcards like the above telegram to people. Especially since I now live so far from everyone I know. Postcards which say only, just as On Kawara’s telegrams do: I AM STILL ALIVE or … Continue reading →

Help Launch Forecast

A year ago this month, we published Chapter 35 of Shya Scanlon’s Forecast and now his book is being launched by Flatmancrooked . The year is 2212, the weather is out of control, and Seattle is being rebuilt with electricity … Continue reading →

Is BOOYAH still an appropriate exclamation for anything?

Over at flavorpill: 10 Online Lit Mags You Should Be Reading. Guess who comes in at number three?

Huckster: A Frank Introduction To The Ad Agency Production Meeting

When someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell him or her I’m a writer at an advertising agency. I could say that I’m a copywriter at an advertising agency, but there have been too many instances … Continue reading →

Girls With Insurance is Having a Contest

The folks at Girls With Insurance have this to say: It’s contest time. What we have up for the winning is a once-read (by yours truly) copy of Mather Schneider’s Drought Resistant Strain (Interior Noise Press, 2010,  $15–GwI review forthcoming). … Continue reading →

When You Write About Writers You Make Editors Sad

This may well become an annual announcement but writers, you must, for the love of all that is holy, stop writing stories where the main characters are writers. I understand the appeal. You are, perhaps, writing what you know. You’re … Continue reading →

Kids Say the Darndest Things & We Should Exploit Them After We Correct Them

My aunt looks like Justin Bieber.  When I grow up I wanna be skinny. Not fat like my mom. I have two really small toes like midgets do. ‡ These gems sparkle from the mouths of third grade students I’ve … Continue reading →

We Give Thanks for November PANK

Another month is upon us and as always, we are thankful for the amazing writing that comes our way. We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again–the quality of our submission queue never ceases to impress us. The good … Continue reading →

Insignificant Gestures—In Stores Now

Jo   Cannon is a doctor and short story writer. Her debut collection, Insignificant Gestures, was published by Pewter Rose Press in November   2010. Purchasing information can be found here. A refugee finds his face has disappeared from the … Continue reading →

Last Words: Manuel Ramos Otero, “The Exemplary Life of the Slave and the Master”

Last Words is a feature about the last words of a given work: story, novel, poem, essay, instruction manual. I find we often favor excerpting the beginning of a piece of writing; Great First Sentences, etc. Why not excerpt the … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Psycho families are just more fun

Thanksgiving’s closing in quickly. Enter the holiday season, with all the familial insanity it always brings. I used to wish I had a normal family. You know, as a kid. Back when I thought there was such a thing. Cookies … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Robert McDonald

Robert McDonald’s moving poem for Dorothy Allison is featured in the October issue. He talks to us about her influence, the stories that weigh him down, and the things he carries. 1. How has Dorothy Allison influenced you? I had … Continue reading →

We Are All Just Hanging On With These Words

A new issue of Barrelhouse rises from the mist and in it you will find stories from Amber Sparks, Aaron Burch,and  Brian Oliu. In the new issue of Ghost Ocean Magazine, you can find poetry from Susan Slaviero and an … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: The Big One

Like every hapless child that went to school in Los Angeles in the 1980s, I was terrified of The Big One.   The Big One, the big earthquake, the nine-point-something San Andreas Fault killer that was—that is—quietly sleeping beneath our … Continue reading →

The Maze of Diane Lockward’s Temptation by Water

Diane Lockward’s collection of poems, Temptation by Water, takes readers on a journey through a maze of sorrows and delights. Just as life doubles back on itself, giving the joy of french fries with the regret of trans fats, Lockward … Continue reading →

A FAILED ESSAY ON READING WHILE MOVING, MANGUEL’S A READING DIARY, BOLAÑO’S NAZI LITERATURE IN THE AMERICAS, MARGINALIA, SEI SHONAGON, AND HOW TO BE A BROWN GIRL AS A TEDIOUS PASTICHE.

* All the features and habits of moving, all of which I now know too well. In the past eight years, I have lived in eight different cities. * Madness of packing—though I am an exemplary packer, the best packer … Continue reading →

I’ve Always Wanted To Be a Housewife

Earlier  I thought about raw fast food chicken soaked in ammonia, so I ordered a double cheeseburger and fries. If you get McDonald’s, take the long way home. We think we’re invisible to others when we drive. Blast that Katy … Continue reading →

Mel Bosworth’s Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom: A Review by Martin Macaulay

Have you ever read a real-life story of love? Not one of those decorated love stories, wrapped in adjectives too flowery to connect to any kind of reality, but a love story that grabs you by the hand and drags … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Be awesome or die

What’s more important: being perfect or being kind?  Should you encourage writers even though they suck? This issue has been on my mind today after reading Carolyn Kellogg’s rebuttal article up at the LA Times site today called “12 reasons … Continue reading →

Words, Whispers, Waning, Wanting, We.

Night Train 10.2 is live with writing from J.P. Dancing Bear, Stevie Edwards, Thomas Patrick Levy, and others. JP also has work in the Fall 2010 issue of the Willows Wept Review where he is joined by Kirsty Logan, and … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – MGMT

“It’s a heavy time but your,  your rhythm makes it light and explode like a violent star keeps threatening the night.” MGMT, Flash Delirium I am more influenced by music than literature, especially musicians that can write without mimic, without … Continue reading →

The PANK 5 Lineup

[BUY PANK 5] The Man Who Says Shhhhh by Deb Olin Unferth A Dainty Network of Bones by Lucas Southworth Last Dance at Poplar Ridge by Emily Kiernan Caterwaul by xTx Sacrifice for Higher Wisdom by Sheldon Lee Compton When … Continue reading →

2011 1,001 Awesome Words Contest Results

We received entries from 70 writers, many of whom sent in two or three pieces.  We read a great many stories, poems and work that truly defied categorization.  Our winner is a new-to-us writer but there are also familiar names … Continue reading →

Divinia is Divina by Jack Wiler

Jack Wiler’s collection of poetry “Divina is Divina” got me—I mean got my heart and made me cry good hot tears. Poems like “We Monsters,” “My Friend Asked Me to Write About Losing Things,” “Divina Is Divina,” “The Man with … Continue reading →

KICKSTART THE RE:TELLING ANTHOLOGY

Our friends at Ampersand Books are publishing a unique anthology entitled Re:Telling: An Anthology of Borrowed Premises, Stolen Settings, Purloined Plots, and Appropriated Characters. Consider contributing to this project which includes the work of several PANK contributors. Giving is good. … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Mortal fear combat tactics

Yeah, it’s hard as hell. And yeah, it’s raw to write them. But we all have nightmares. It’s sharing them that releases the fear into the ether and strips its power over us, and of course, if we do it right, the fears belonging to our readers, too. Continue reading →

A Brief List of Important Cultural Artifacts

Jen Gann brings her considerable talent to Everyday Genius–a fitting match. She is joined by Elissa Gabbert. Listen to xTx read in the  Orange Alert podcast #33. She is joined by Adam Moorad. The Hint Fiction Anthology, edited by Robert … Continue reading →

PANK seeks iPhone/iPad developer

Dear Hive Mind, PANK is seeking a iPhone/iPad developer for a PANK App. PANK has awesome ideas for its app, but no skills. Any suggestions? Warmest Regards, PANK

the unfirm line – Ben Tanzer

“It is also clear to me that age brings fear, and there is no doubt that everything scares me more than it used to.” Ben Tanzer, 99 Problems Never been a scaredy cat, never been worried about what went bump … Continue reading →

Adam Ford’s Heroes and Civilians: A Review by Thomas DeMary

Novelty is relative. The newness of style, of language, in literature is wholly dependent on the reader’s exposure, limited or otherwise, to various texts. “If I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me,” so goes the mantra. While flash fiction … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: A peek into new territory

Talking with folks who have successfully charted in YA waters, I realized quickly that none of my hard-wrought publication credits matter. I mean, sure, I can say that I’ve sold tons of work to someone who isn’t my mother and doesn’t have to like me. There’s that, and that helps. But in juvenile book circles? I have no pull. I know no one well. Nobody owes me favors, has read my work, or remembers meeting me at a workshop. They don’t. They haven’t. They wouldn’t. I’m a novice all over again. Continue reading →

Kickstart Pop Serial #2

Stephen Dierks has aunched a Kickstarter to fund Issue 2 of Pop Serial, a new, truly exciting magazine out of Chicago. He is trying to raise $1,000 or more in 21 days. The first 100 people to donate $10 or … Continue reading →

Don’t Be Frightened, These Are Only Words, Words For You

Our Queer Issue, edited by Tim Jones-Yelvington, is live. Check it out. Karamaneh by James Tadd Adcox appears at Metazen. Check out Octopus #14 where you will find Molly Gaudry and other lovely poets. Molly is also interviewed at Fringe … Continue reading →

Ben Spivey’s Flowing in the Gossamer Fold: A Review by Melissa Chichester

“The walls felt colder, and I sat shoulder to shoulder with the world.” Get ready, because  it’s a tight squeeze. While reading Ben Spivey’s Flowing in the Gossamer Fold, be prepared to enter the vortex that is Malcolm Blackburn. Wait, … Continue reading →

J. A. Tyler interviews J. A. Tyler: A Re-Review of Stephanie Barber’s Re-Release of These Here Separated to See How They Standing Alone Or the Soundtracks of Six Films

JAT: When did your original review of Stephanie Barber’s These Here Separated— appear in Mud Luscious? JAT: Issue six. It went online January 2009. JAT: And this was part of your full-press review of Publishing Genius Press right? JAT: Right. … Continue reading →

The Queer Issue is Here and… Queer

Several months ago, I forget quite when, we thought it would be a good idea to publish a guest-edited issue of queer writing and there was only one man for the job, Tim Jones-Yelvington, who has assembled a truly unique … Continue reading →

There Is More Than Fall in the Air

You have until midnight Friday night/Saturday morning to enter our contest. You know you want to. Take a chance. Congratulations to Gregory Sherl who won Dark Sky’s first chapbook competition, as well as runners up Mike Meginnis, Christy Crutchfield, and … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Interview with Aimee Bender

Aimee Bender is one of our city’s best-loved writers, a teacher of creative writing at USC and UCLA, and a fellow L.A. native.   Her most recent novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, is set in the center of … Continue reading →

MONKEY BARS, Briefly

Monkey Bars by Matthew Lippman Published by Typecast Publishing, 10/06/2010 ISBN-13 (cloth): 978-0-984-49610-5 Pages: 72 Size: 6.5 x 8 I am not going to linger long on Matthew Lippman’s new poetry collection  Monkey Bars because Typecast Publishing is also publishing … Continue reading →

Mary Hamilton’s We Know What We Are: A Review by Martin Macaulay

Mary Hamilton’s ‘We Know What We Are‘  is a collection of thirteen short-short stories, beautifully crafted and condensed into microcosms of  life, love, death and dream. Some of the places this writer takes you, you’ll already know; some you won’t. … Continue reading →

We Can Do Better Than to Say It Gets Better

This is not a literary post but today is National Coming Out Day and on Friday we debut our Queer Issue and there’s a lot of buzz and chatter about the It Gets Better project so we thought we might … Continue reading →

Prayers, Poetry, Prose, Perfections

Who has a chapbook? xTx has a chapbook. He is Talking to the Fat Lady will be released on November 15. You want this chapbook, I assure you. She also wrote the honest, quite touching and insightful  introduction to the … Continue reading →

Contest Extended!

The 1001 Awesome Words contest will be accepting submissions until 10/15 instead of 9/30 so there’s still time to send us your awesomeness. Full details can be found here.

Breeding and Writing: Who are you writing for?

When you create art, it’s moving toward someone. And it’s an uber-specific individual. Who will remember you? Continue reading →

And Then There Were Words Which Begat Words and Unto Them Were Born More Words

We’re loathe to discuss this but both Matt and I as well as Elizabeth Hildreth and others are reading at the Book Cellar, tomorrow night, in Chicago, 7 pm. It’s a launch event for our friends at Artifice Magazine and … Continue reading →

Eric Beeny’s Snowing Fireflies: A Review by Renee Emerson

Reading Eric Beeny’s  Snowing Fireflies is like entering a dream about childhood. Even the look of the chapbook is playful””meandering font, drawings of little fireflies here and there, a picnic basket on the cover. The stories are whimsical, imaginative, but … Continue reading →

PANK ON FILM!

Some MTU students made a video about PANK and it’s pretty damn great. Check it out! See Shane Jones! Ethel Rohan! Kirsty Logan! M. Bartley Seigel shows off our t-shirt and says things. I say awkward things. Clicky clicky clicky. … Continue reading →

We Love Lori Ostlund so Buy Her Book

I loved Bigness of the World (my review can be found here) by Lori Ostlund so I was really happy to hear that the book is now available in paperback because hardcover books are evil. I have this book in … Continue reading →

Our Island of Epidemics Has Been Blurbed!

Extended sickness, packed-in sexspace,  a  she-god named Sam, stone sandwiches, ganglions, weight gain, dookers,  spells of fainting: this book about making a book is full of hell, though  a giddy kind of hell you might like to read aloud to … Continue reading →

Is there a doctor in the house?

In fact, this morning there is. Congratulations to my partner in all things PANK, Dr. Roxane Gay, on the successful defense of her dissertation, Subverting the Subject Position: Toward a New Discourse About Students as Writers and Engineering Students as … Continue reading →

Support Our Friends at Artifice Magazine

A note from our fine friends at Artifice Magazine: Issue #2 is just about ready to go: it’s got the car keys in its hand, it stole $5 from our handbag by the door, and it’s padded its bed with … Continue reading →

If These Words Were the Last You Ever Read, You Would Still Know Beauty

Our Island of Epidemics is almost here. Support great writing and buy this book. Booth has published a story by Brian Oliu, As Is. At the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, (what a title, right?) a short short story … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – LCD Soundsystem

“I can change if it helps you fall in love.” LCD Soundsystem, “I Can Change” Tonight I went to help.com to see the first answer to this question: “How much of yourself should you have to change for the one … Continue reading →

Ben Mirov’s Ghost Machine: A Review by Iris Cushing

Are Ben Mirov’s poems haunted? Perhaps not so much as they are preoccupied—inhabited by something that was there before anyone arrived, including, perhaps, the poet himself. Ghost Machine guides us through the narrator’s material occupations: food, friends, money, sex. The … Continue reading →

Gather Round, Gather Close

xTx takes on Into the Wild at Titular. It will be the best read you have all week. She also has a beautiful, heartbreaking story, Standoff,  in Word Riot. She is joined in the September issue of Word Riot by … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: The Four-Season Climate, Comforting Boundaries, and Literary Lies

It’s surprising, considering that fall is my favorite season, how unhappy it makes me.   Autumn surrounds me with all my favorite things—pumpkin pie, woolen garments, cranberry sauce, turning leaves—but it also drives me to check and recheck the weather … Continue reading →

Fall into the September Issue

It’s hard to believe that two years ago this month we started publishing content online to complement our annual print issue. That first issue shared the words of only three writers–Daphne Gottlieb, Bruce Cohen, and Gabriel Welsch. We’ve grown quite … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Mike Young

“What I do know is the trick of all things wonderful. It’s that you can’t thank them.” Mike Young, We Are All Good If They Try Hard Enough I wish I could thank for all things wonderful. I wish I … Continue reading →

Our Nominations for Best of the Net 2010

It’s always difficult to choose from the wonderful work we publish in our magazine when it comes time to nominate writers for recognition. As my co-editor said to me this morning, “We should just nominate the whole thing,” and he’s … Continue reading →

Two Calls for Submissions

A Midsummer Night’s Press announces a call for submissions for two anthologies celebrating queer Jewish poetry: FLAMBOYANT: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH GAY POETRY edited by Lawrence Schimel and MILK AND HONEY: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LESBIAN POETRY edited by Julie … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Superclogger

I’m a little late to post this (I’ve been meaning to blog about it since June, how time flies!) but I couldn’t let Literary Los Angeles go without mentioning “Superclogger,” artist Joel Kyack’s mobile puppet show. Kyack and his fellow … Continue reading →

Mud Luscious Press Blind Faith Subscription Drive

Mud Luscious Press is having a limited-time ‘Blind Faith’ subscription drive: If you will trust us on the authors & titles of our forthcoming 2011 catalog without seeing any covers or blurbs, then you can get every book in the … Continue reading →

We’re Gonna Lasso You Some Words To Read

Let’s kick this week off with a fine story from Shannon Peil at vis a tergo. Are you guys reading vis a tergo? It’s an interesting little magazine we would love to see more people reading. Shannon is the editor … Continue reading →

The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You is a Robot: A Review

I do not want to read The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You is a Robot. The stories are uncomfortable and violent and the people in them are vicious and abrupt. I would not want to be stuck in a lift … Continue reading →

I Can Has Author Friends?: How the Internet Alters the Reader/Writer Dynamic

During my youth, I was a total comic book addict. I read four issues of Spider-Man every month along with healthy doses of the X-Men and the Dark Horse Star Wars series. But in 1994, when I was just beginning … Continue reading →

[Imagine Something Pithy Here to Let You Know We're Going to Round Things Up]

Amber Sparks is the September Writer in Residence at Necessary Fiction and she’s doing something really imaginative with her tenure there. Go and check it out. Ethel  interviews xTx and we learn where she wants her ashes scattered, among other … Continue reading →

Vanishing and Other Stories by Deborah Willis: A Review By Salvatore Pane

Deborah Willis’s debut short story collection Vanishing displays an impressive range of talents and voices. These fourteen long stories feel texturally distinct from one another, and the book never falls into that trap that some short story collections do where … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Counting Crows

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen the ocean. Guess I should.” The Counting Crows, ‘A Long December’ For the last 20 years of my life, I have lived very close to the ocean. Within the next 30 days, I … 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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Literary Los Angeles: Working from Home

I recently read a statistic (from a source I have since misplaced and so can’t cite here) stating that Los Angeles has the highest percentage of freelance, temporary, and contract workers of any city in the country.   While this … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Awesomely disturbing kids’ books

There are lots of publishers out there with some nauseating stuff, but we’re not talking about Elmo or (god forbid) Spongebob paperbacks and coloring books.

So sick of those. Ugh.

Anyhow, not them.

No, what we’re discussing today, boys and girls, are some supremely messed up, real-life books for kids. These books exist. They are not photoshopped gags–I checked. Continue reading →

Books You Should Buy

Click on the covers to buy.

News News Big Big News

Congratulations to Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz who is the recipient of the 2010-2011 ArtsEdge Residency at the Kelly Writer’s House at the University of Pennsylvania. Aptowicz plans to use the ArtsEdge residency to work on a non-fiction book about the life … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Peter Schwartz

“Tell me there will be beaches in my future.” Peter Schwartz, “Tell Me” There are so many ideas that come to mind with this line. Some linear, some not so much. – my wife and I will have out beach … Continue reading →

Rob Sherman’s Valve Works: A Review by Dan Holloway

I read a tweet a few weeks ago that “most people who claim to be at the cutting edge have no idea where the cutting edge even is”, so it’s always interesting to check out things that claim to be … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Giving away your baby

We know our writing better than anyone else ever could.

We were there the day it came into being, and we know the thousand other ways the ending could have gone, the phrase we didn’t pick but almost did, the names and where they came from, why they mattered. We want to qualify our decisions, so the editor will see things our way and make them the way we would.

It takes an editor two seconds to delete a line you made with your blood. Continue reading →

What I Read On My Summer Vacation

The hot July issue of Word Riot includes Kirsty Logan, Adam Moorad, Michelle Reale, Greg Gerke, and others. Aaron Burch is interviewed by Timmy Waldron in the same issue and talks about How to Take Yourself Apart, How to Make … Continue reading →

Museum Appetite 6: Getting To Know You

Last weekend, I visited the Museum of Jurassic Technology again.   I live only a few miles from the museum, and I absolutely love it, so I usually end up visiting once a month.   My first visit lasted three … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – The Dears

Most people are saying you’re wrong,  I know you’re on to something. I think the world of you. The Dears, Meltdown in A Major There is a piano solo intro that I try on my piano. It sounds similar but … Continue reading →

Matt Bell’s How They Were Found: A Review by Troy Urquhart

No matter what I write here, I cannot tell you how great this book is. In fact, I’m not even sure I know how to write a review that will  do it justice. So let’s just agree on this point … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Choosing L.A.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week thinking about that article from New York Magazine.   This one, if you haven’t read it, but it’s likely you have.   It’s called “All Joy and No Fun: Why parents hate … Continue reading →

A Cover Speaks 1,000 Words

The cover art for Our Island of Epidemics and PANK 5 are both being done by the amazing Luca DiPierro. Both PANK 5 and Our Island of Epidemics are available for pre-order. Feast your eyes:

Breeding and Writing: Mother-friendly places to submit

Parenthood takes a lot out of you. (Today, for example, it took most of my time today, so I’m just now writing this.)

Between cooking, feeding, the subsequent and never-ending cleaning, bathing, reading, Band-Aiding, diapering–and oh yeah, squeezing the suckers out in the first place–there’s not a lot left at the end of the evening for mom and dad, of energy, nookie, or anything else.

It’s rather all-consuming.

But in that consumption, those of us who were writers before engaging our wombs in the “on” position have found whole new worlds of emotional and personal pleasure and baggage (yes, both) to be blessed and/or plagued with.

Add to that, motherhood can be rather isolating. Very few moms ever say what they really feel, because quite a lot of it is frightening, truth be known. Commiseration is a beautiful thing; thus the major-dollar, let’s-parent-together, hive mind sites like BabyCenter and CafeMom.

It makes more than a little sense, then, that mama-magazines would pop up to publish the diatribes of those who feel a little more literary.

Here are some of those, for anyone inclined, and what they want: Continue reading →

PANK Writers Bring It and Bring it and BRING IT

Paula Bomer is a writer you should know about because she has fierce talent and style. You really should order her book, Baby, which is available for pre-order from Word Riot. Go here. Janey Janey Janey Smith BRINGS IT to … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – T.S. Eliot

“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land One of the hardest books I have ever read illustrated testimonies of men, women and children during the dust bowl. Horribly sad, dust pneumonia. I’ll … Continue reading →

The July Issue of PANK is Explosive

The writers in the July issue are blowing things up. They are shooting fire into the sky. Get down with Rachel Adams, Stace Budzko, Sara Crowley, Alana Dakin, Tim Dicks, Chris Erickson, Jen Gann, Kyle Minor, Ansley Moon, Gena Mohwish, … Continue reading →

Jason Floyd Williams’ Inheritance Tax: A Review by Adam Palumbo

Last week, my grandfather’s health deteriorated rapidly while traveling to my cousin’s wedding in Houston, Texas. He is 82. He has led a full and adventurous life, serving in both the Second World and Korean wars. He raised five children … Continue reading →

Museum Appetite 5: Going Inside

Every time I’ve visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), I’ve wandered through the first floor of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum like a weird moth to a weird flame.   The flame, in this case, is two … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: 826LA

This week’s edition of Literary Los Angeles is also a shameless plug for one of L.A.’s most versatile, energetic, creative, and necessary literary non-profits, 826LA. 826LA is the Southern California outlet of 826 National, an organization dedicated to helping students … Continue reading →

2010 1,001 Awesome Words Contest

We are now accepting entries for our second annual writing competition, 1,001 Awesome Words. We think it suits the PANK ethos to leave it at that. Not enough, you say? Need key words, you say? Explode. Excite. Intrigue. Surprise. Blow. … Continue reading →

Our Island of Epidemics by Matthew Salesses is Available for Pre-Order

M. Bartley and I are pleased to announce that our second little book, Our Island of Epidemics, by Matthew Salesses, is now available for pre-order. You can buy Our Island of Epidemcis for $10, or bundled with PANK 5 for … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Sally Mann and the ethics of being a parent artist

Many accused photographer Sally Mann of either choosing her craft to the exclusion of her kids or her kids over her artistic credibility.

Tough place to be.

Mann’s most controversial work was Immediate Family, a book comprised of pictures of her kids in the twilight of their childhoods as each teetered between innocence and adolescence.

The alarming bit? Many of the photos are nude shots. Yes, they are all breathtaking, arresting pictures. Does that make it right to publish them?

As artists, shouldn’t we document life as it really happens? Are all things to be filtered for political correctness? Does that change when we become someone’s parent, or are our lives still our own? Continue reading →

July Is Almost As Hot As PANK Writers

Congratulations to Jen Michalski whose novella MAY-SEPTEMBER has been chosen as the co-winner (a first) of the  Press 53 Open Awards Contest and will be published in October 2010 by Press 53. Her novel, THE SUMMER SHE WAS UNDER WATER, … Continue reading →

Museum Appetite 4: Doctor Who

In a recent episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor and his companion Amy Pond visited a museum.   For on the un-geeky, Doctor Who is a British, time-travel sci-fi series in which a man called the Doctor travels through space … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – MGMT

“I’ve got someone to make reports that tell me how my money’s spent.  To book my stays and draw my blinds  so I can’t tell what’s really there.” MGMT, “Congratulations” Purchased and purposeful self delusion. Sad, I guess there are … Continue reading →

Craig Sernotti’s Forked Tongue: A Review by Dan Holloway

Craig Sernotti’s Forked Tongue (Blue Room Publishing) is a strange mix of the lyrical and the minimal, and reading it has made me think long and hard about what a collection of poetry is. Which is a good thing. And … Continue reading →

Shane Jones’ Light Boxes: A Review By Salvatore Pane

It’s easy to see why Spike Jonze bought the film rights to Shane Jones‘  debut novel  Light Boxes. Jones is an image junkie and delivers  one imaginative set piece after another in this meta-fantasy about a town suffering through a … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Doing Theater in a Film Town

L.A.’s Chalk Repertory Theatre has been one of my go-to choices for theater in Los Angeles ever since I saw their remarkable performance of “Three Sisters” last year.   After watching the original play “Full Disclosure” last month (starring founding … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Why nobody cares about your relevant crap

When you’re thirty, those younger than you don’t care because you’re not young. Those older than you don’t care because you’re not old. Those you are thirty with are your closest allies, your commiserators, your siblings through life.

The cruel reality of it is that when you’re seventy, then eighty, then ninety, there will be increasingly fewer of them left. The generational conspirators will die off and leave you in a swelling world of new children and younger-than-you adults who make no sense and don’t remember anything you do.

How do you write to and for a world of readers who are not you, haven’t lived your life, and eventually will find you totally outdated? How do you matter when it’s all so impermanent? Continue reading →

These Words Explode in Bright Showers of Light

Do you want to read for PANK in Chicago on October 1 at The Book Cellar? We’re doing a joint reading with Artifice Magazine and are looking for a few good readers. E-mail roxane at pankmagazine dot com if you’re … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Aaron Burch

“But if you get this far. If you get it.” Aaron Burch, How To Take Yourself Apart, How To Make Yourself Anew I love optimism as it relates to distance and the next step. Hope tied to momentum and time. … Continue reading →

Sasha Fletcher’s When All our Days Are Numbered Marching Bands Will Fill the Streets & We Will Not Hear Them Because We Will Be Upstairs in the Clouds: A Review By Troy Urquhart

In the second chapter of Walden, the nineteenth-century naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau asserted that the ultimate creative act is, fundamentally, an act of self-creation, an act in which the artist shapes not objects in the world, but his … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Emily Howorth

Emily Howorth’s whimsical Look Away, Dixieland is part of the June issue. She talks with us about letting Scarlett O’Hara burn, fact versus fiction, party mixes and more. 1. Would you have let Scarlett O’Hara burn? Why or why not? … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – The Smiths

“I once had a child, and it saved my life.” The Smiths, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. (To celebrate the Orange Alert Smith-i-sode, as well as a general shout out for Fathers Day.) We are lucky to be a … Continue reading →

There’s So Much To Love; It’s All Because Of You

Congratulations to Ocean Vuong who recently won the 2010 Connecticut Poetry Society’s Al Savard Memorial Poetry Contest for his poem 1967. We’d also like to mention that Gabe Durham will be taking over as editor of Keyhole Magazine. Another installment … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Teaching your baby to swear

I’ve written some dark shit. I’d hope I’m not as fundamentally deranged as every character I can imagine. But obviously I’m still the person who thought that stuff in the first place then, aren’t I? And I could have (theoretically) chosen not to write those more troubling thoughts down for preservation. Right?

Who’s at fault?

The twisted author? The ignorant masses? The collective unconsciousness, the hive mind, the overextended self-help book section, the all day CNN reports of raped children and looted buildings? What makes dark things happen in a story, and are they real if they do?

Does fiction have a moral obligation to be responsible?

Or does it save us from everyday obligation and free our minds?
Continue reading →

Museum Appetite 3: Context

Many specific museum exhibits have stayed with me, for either emotional reasons not relating to the art, emotional reasons relating to the art, or on the basis of the art itself.   The last exhibit I really loved was called … Continue reading →

Dan Holloway’s Songs From The Other Side of the Wall: A Review By Amy Whipple

While the big publishing houses continue to fret about the future of the book, Dan Holloway just keeps on going. Founder of the Year Zero¸ Writers collective, Holloway preaches free e-books and otherwise self-published items. Much of what he and … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: Machine Project

“Sound Synthesis Workshop;” “Intermediate Welding for Aesthetes;” “Paleolithic Bone Tools Workshop.”   Those are a few of the lectures you could have (should have) attended in the last two months at Machine Project, a non-profit arts and sciences organization that … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: The Uterus Monologues

Why does having a vagina mean I have to love my work less?

It’s more passive aggressive than it was in olden days, to be sure. We’ve come a long way. But that mostly-unspoken bitterness is still there: I thought you were a mother.
Continue reading →

PANK Contributors Continue to Represent!

Before you read this, make sure you are seated securely. Take a deep breath. Prepare to be BLOWN AWAY because our contributors have truly outdone themselves this week. In case you forgot, there is a really interesting, awesome, moving, odd … Continue reading →

Tom Bissell’s Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter — A Review By Salvatore Pane

In 1989, my parents bought me a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. I was four years old and this was, unequivocally, the happiest moment of my entire life. This is not an uncommon story; the NES sold more than 61 … Continue reading →

Museum Appetite 2: The Mixed-Up Files

Six weeks ago, I spent the night in UCLA’s Hammer Museum during an event called the Dream-In, curated in conjunction with the Machine Project and artSpa. The Dream-In was an investigation of dreams and dreaming, held in conjunction with the … Continue reading →

June Subscription Drive

It’s still June, oh, happy days, and we’re still holding our subscription drive. We know, you’ve already bought PANK. Thanks for that. But have you shilled for us yet? Have you gone out there and canvassed the neighborhood, proselytizing and … Continue reading →

Connected: The Web (2.0) of Literature & Strangers by Mensah Demary

It’s easy to forget the breadth and scale of the world’s literary landscape. Millions of books from all cultures, all perspectives and should one step out of his comfort zone, out of the few genres and authors that move and … Continue reading →

June PANK is Here For You

We’re pretty excited about the June issue of PANK. There’s a little bit of everything in this one and contributors include James Tadd Adcox, Melissa Broder, Gabe Durham, Kaitlin Dyer, Emily Howorth, Alexandra Isacson, Kevin Kaiser, Victoria Lynne McCoy, Teresa … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: The After-Movie Q&A

One of my favorite Los Angeles institutions is the after-movie Q&A.   Of course, question-and-answer periods following new releases and small screenings are not exclusive to Los Angeles but I’d hazard that in no other city do they feature so … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: The fast-food joint at the end of the universe

What happens if the foil-wearing pyramid people are right, and something drastic happens in 2012, leaving all of our technology obliterated? Who would we be?

Say we all survive and start over. Could you help your kid with a science project without Google? Stand reading a single newspaper once a day, or worse, once a week? Could you permanently remember how your favorite songs go, even without being able to listen to your iPod for the rest of your life? Continue reading →

Julie Enszer’s Handmade Love: A Review and Interview By Dan Holloway

A Review: Julie Enszer‘s poetry, riddled with the juxtapositions and contradictions facing feminists and LGBTQ activists today, reads like  the author is throwing questions against the side of her skull to break them open. Her collection Handmade Love isn’t a … Continue reading →

June is Busting Out All Over

Brian Oliu writes about the most beautiful house in America. We are planning a road trip. Listen to James Tadd Adcox in the Orange Alert Podcast 14. He also shines the  light of his bright writing on Abjective this week … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Charles Bukowski

“Writing was strange. I needed to write. It was a disease, a drug, a heavy compulsion, yet I  didn’t like to think of myself as a writer.” Charles Bukowski, Hollywood. I think I can count the number of times I … Continue reading →

Submit to Annalemma 7: Endurance

Every day the world tests our will, our ability to keep moving forward. With this in mind we chose the theme for Annalemma Issue Seven: Endurance. The word has a connotation of athletic ability and physical stamina. But the mind … Continue reading →

New Little Books From PANK

Our second Little Books reading period has closed. We read and enjoyed more than fifty excellent manuscripts. We have laughed, we have cried, we have agonized. We thank everyone who entered and trusted us with their writing. Matt and I … Continue reading →

Dan Gutstein’s Non/Fiction: A Review By Amy Whipple

Before we start, you should   to know that I can get rather Glenn Beck-ish about genre. Start talking about rounding corners in a memoir, and I’ll get all kinds of slippery-slope on you (complete with finger jabs in the … Continue reading →

Museum Appetite

I lived in Los Angeles for nearly a year before I visited the Museum of Jurassic Technology.   I went on a whim with two friends, and none of us had visited the museum before.   We could not have … Continue reading →

The Machine’s Arrival by Mensah Demary

I was twenty-five. My father and I were in his living room: the floors were overcast like marble and, along the walls, various prints featured animated Jazz musicians in suspended animation, frozen in creative glee. We spoke of my future, … Continue reading →

Literary Los Angeles: You Are Welcome

I was at a book party this week.   I didn’t know anyone well, but I recognized some names and faces, including the face of one man who looked so familiar I spent much of the evening wondering whether he … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Pet Shop Boys

“When I look back upon my life, it’s always with a sense of shame. I’ve always been the one to blame.” Pet Shop Boys, It’s a Sin Sometimes a phrase will turn on me as the years pass. When I … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Why you aren’t ready to be a writer

I don’t want her to die yet. I want another Christmas. I want family pictures, and her attendance at my son’s graduation in seventeen years, and her hair to have the chance to turn grey. I need it all to stop for a minute and let me catch up, let me breathe.

We don’t get that chance in the writing world, either.
Continue reading →

Gather Round For These Words

We would like to congratulate Summer Block and Rachel Swirsky for taking first and second place, respectively, in the 2010 storySouth Million Writers Award. Well done! This week kicks off with work from Kuzhali Manickavel at AGNI and hey, she … Continue reading →

Patrick Wensink’s Sex Dungeon For Sale: A Review by P. Jonas Bekker

Patrick Wensink’s story collection Sex Dungeon for Sale came out last year from Eraserhead Press‘s New Bizarro Author Series, or NBAS. The philosophy of the NBAS is interesting. Normally, the editor’s foreword states, Eraserhead would only have room for one … Continue reading →

Etiquette and the Rejection of a Rejection

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the summer kickoff and barbecuing and otherwise being festive. I’m not but that’s okay. As long as you all are having fun, I will live vicariously through you. Did you … Continue reading →

Gary Fincke’s The Canals of Mars: A Review By Salvatore Pane

To call Gary Fincke prolific would be an understatement. He is the author of sixteen books of fiction, poetry and nonfiction (one of which won the 2003 Flannery O’ Connor Award). His latest, the memoir The Canals of Mars (published … Continue reading →

Pindeldyboz, You Are Awesome

All things considered, it is very easy to start a literary magazine. It is infinitely more difficult to start and then sustain a great literary magazine and do so for ten years.  Pindeldyboz managed to do so with wit and … Continue reading →

The Difference Between Lay and Lie

It seems to me that when people have conquered the two/too/to fiasco, or the there/their/they’re conundrum, they give up, convinced of their mastery of the English language. And I know I’m probably going to sound  kind of like an  asshole … Continue reading →

Breeding and Writing: Grandpa knows what you’re doing in there

If you’re comfortable with something you’ve written, it probably sucks.

Yet no one can make us as uncomfortable as our families. That’s what they’re for. Watch any Thanksgiving episode of any sitcom. It happens.

That’s the real question I’m asking. As a parent, as a sibling, as the adult child of someone else who will likely be hurt by your actions—how do you marry the two worlds? Continue reading →

It’s a Celebration, All Around

The Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions for 2010 have been announced. Congratulations to PANK contributors Jensen Beach, Matt Bell, Randall Brown, Aaron Burch, Blake Butler, Jimmy Chen, Molly Gaudry, Karen Gentry, Barry Graham, Brad Green, Shane Jones, Sean Lovelace, … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Blake Butler

“If I’d listened, in those soft days, I would have taken other pictures to show my children (the children I’ll never have). I’d flip through the photo album backwards and watch my father’s head grow full again – and me … Continue reading →

Why Do Writers Write About Writers?

It’s really interesting (for me, and me alone of course) to see how my editorial tastes have evolved while reading submissions. As I have amply documented, stories and poetry about cats are difficult for me. This feline aversion began years … Continue reading →

Loosening the Grip, Letting Go

It has been a week since we started using readers to help manage our submission queue. Making the decision to work with readers was not easy. Matt and I both have control freakish tendencies because we’re really invested in PANK … Continue reading →

Celebrating Sport: A Review of Stymie Magazine by Mike Revell

Reading Stymie, it occurred to me that you do not often find sport and literature in the same place. Not this kind of literature, anyway: not fiction or poetry. Disregard, for a moment, that childhood staple of soccer stories looking … Continue reading →

I Almost Forgot, But It’s Friday, So We’ll Give Away Some Books

We’re going to mix it up today. First, a copy of Hobart 11. Secondly, the next five person who comments get to pick a book $15 or less, from any small press of their choice and it shall be yours. … Continue reading →

The Word Kick is Cool. PANK Writers are KICK ASS.

Congratulations To Summer Block and Rachel Swirsky. Their short stories, which appeared in Wheelhouse and Tor.com respectively, have been named 2 of the top 10 online stories of 2009. Kyle Hemmings kicks this thing off with a story at Staccato … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Morrissey

“Come back, come back to Camden, and I’ll be good.” Morrissey – “Come Back to Camden” ‘Being good’ was always such a childly endeavor. Christmas depended on it.  So to hear a grown man singing that he will be good … Continue reading →

Matthew Simmon’s A Jello Horse: A Review and Interview By Salvatore Pane

A Review I came home from AWP with a lot of books, but the one I like best is definitely A Jello Horse by Matthew Simmons. Distributed by Publishing Genius, A Jello Horse is a novella about a young man … Continue reading →

We Need Readers + A Couple Announcements

We’re looking for readers. We are raising the white flag. Too many submissions, not enough hours in the day. What we’d like is 2 or 3 people who have the time to read submissions regularly. We’re pretty committed to fast … Continue reading →

You Know What? It’s Friday. BOOKS, FREE

PLEASE READ: If you want a book, just say what you want in the comments, then e-mail your address to roxane at pankmagazine dot com. Please e-mail me your address. Please. Also, you don’t have to ask, just claim. The … Continue reading →

May We Enchant You With the May Issue

The May issue is up, it is outstanding, and it includes writing from J.P. Dancing Bear, Ryan Bradley, Catherine Zobal Dent, David Erlewine, Eileen Escabar, Seth Fischer, Shanna Germain, Kathleen Heil, Elizabeth Hildreth, Aubrey Hirsch, David LeGeault, Kyle Minor, Nancy … Continue reading →

May Will Be Mighty

ANNOUNCEMENT: First it was Elephant Summer and the Elephants, they rumbled mightily. It was a gigantic event! Enormous!  Colossal! Monumental! I have run out of synonyms for large! This year will be the year of the ZOMBIE!!!! Go to xTx’s … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Brett Fogarty

“A steamroller of a forget-me-not (they say don’t forget don’t forget but I do a little every day and I am sorry).” –     Brett Fogarty in Nicole Elizabeth’s “the 12 am project.” Memory issues are crushing, repainting the … Continue reading →

Gutter #2: A Review by Euan McClymont

Gutter is a brave and important venture. It focuses on contemporary Scottish writing but not in any limiting sense of those born in the country; rather in the healthy sense of all and any writers currently based in Scotland.  The … Continue reading →

May May May We Show You a Garden of Literary Delights?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, J. BRADLEY. Inquire within for your gift. The Broadset Collective has wisely chosen to shine their spotlight on xTx. Ethel Rohan’s The Current That Crackles is the May Hot Opener at The Potomac Review. Tim Jones-Yelvington is featured … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Vonnegut

“What kind of a man would turn his daughter into an outboard motor?” –  Rabo Karabekian, Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions I have a daughter and have never thought of her as an outboard motor, or any other sort of internal … Continue reading →

James and Kirsty Talk We’re Getting On

James Kaelan wrote a book, We’re Getting On. Kirsty Logan, our fantastic Reviews Editor shared her thoughts on the book. People (though not the author or the publisher, who have been class acts) had surprisingly strong reactions to the review … Continue reading →

Death to February: Shane Jones’s Light Boxes

In honor of Light Boxes being re-released by Penguin Books on May 25, we’re reposting our review of Shane Jones‘s Light Boxes. Having just read the Penguin version, I can safely say I love this book even more the second … Continue reading →

Review: Michele Leggott’s Milk & Honey

Most people I know don’t read poetry. My girlfriend, my mother, my workmates: they say they don’t ‘get’ poetry. They say it excludes them, it doesn’t mean anything to them. Even some of my writer friends are leery of poetry; … Continue reading →

the unfirm line – Radiohead

“What would I do? What would I do, if I did not have you?” “”Radiohead, I Might Be Wrong I recently read in a comment/review of Sally Weigel’s, To Young To Fall Asleep that Radiohead only made depressing music. I … Continue reading →

A Reader’s Rapture: A Review of Maurya Simon’s The Raindrop’s Gospel, by Nicelle Davis

Highly adorned Christian churches are always good for renewing my guilt over sex. As scripture is read, my attention is stolen by depictions of half-clothed deities. The arrow protruding from St. Sebastian’s groin makes me blush; Jesus at the crucifixion … Continue reading →

Many Fine Words to Read By

PANK favorite xTx has some fine, angry words at Camroc Press Review. You can also listen to xTx read her work in the Orange Alert Podcast. Here’s something weird. I wanted to fast forward to her story so when I … Continue reading →

We Rank Things Too

The Faster Times released a really interesting, useful set of magazine rankings this week and we were pretty pleased to be on the list, so I thought we would share our own magazine rankings, arrived at very scientifically. Ultra Tier … Continue reading →

Review: We’re Getting On by James Kaelan

Flatmancrooked is gaining quite the reputation for innovative book marketing. Last year they launched Emma Straub’s novella, Fly-Over State, by asking people to buy a “share” in the project, which includes a signed first-edition copy of the novella. This year … Continue reading →

It’s Friday. Let’s Give Some Books Away.

I feel like spreading some literary love. Claim what you want in the comments (1 item per caller) then e-mail your mailing address to roxane at pankmagazine dot com. Books will go out Monday. If you have thoughts on what … Continue reading →

Words Are Springing! They Have Sprung!

If you’re looking for some wonderful writing from across the pond, our Reviews Editor, Kirsty Logan has  poems in some UK magazines: poetry and illustration magazine Popshot and arts/fashion/literature magazine .Cent, and also online at Referential. At Luna Park Review, … Continue reading →

Let’s Make the Case for Blog Posts as Literature

From the Editors of Creative Nonfiction: Recently, the NY Times’ Paper Cuts blog ran an interesting piece about  whether or not a blog could rise to the level of literature  (http://tiny.cc/thr48). Their answer, ultimately, was no, but the  editors at … Continue reading →

DOGZPANK ’10: We Got it ALL on Tape

Now that we’ve recovered from AWP, we can talk about DOGZPANK, the epic joint reading between DOGZPLOT and PANK, held on Thursday, April 8 at Forest Room 5. Minus realizing we needed to rent a PA system the day of … Continue reading →

Hello lovely winners…

Last week we held a silly little six-word story contest so people could benefit from the large stash of AWP magazines we hauled home. The following folks won: Dan Burt “” Flynn”â„¢s severed head tells me things. Xtx “” “Truth.” … Continue reading →

An Ampersand Megareview by Megan Scarborough

Ryan J. Davidson’s poetry collection Under What Stars focuses on themes of travel, soul-searching, and loneliness — something of a holy trinity.   The collection centers around the places Davidson has lived in and traveled to throughout Asia, Europe and … Continue reading →

Nicolle Elizabeth’s Threadbare Von Barren: A Review by Salvatore Pane

Nicolle Elizabeth’s chapbook, Threadbare Von Barren, is a slim volume comprised of 32 pieces of flash fiction. The individual stories read more like prose poetry and test the minimalist boundaries of the flash genre. Take for instance, the fourth in … Continue reading →

PANK is so queer, no?

Submissions are now open for  PANK’s October  special online issue featuring Queer prose, poetry & art, guest edited by Tim Jones-Yelvington. Submit fiction, poetry, art and unidentified or hybrid literary text objects  by September 1, 2010 through the special issue … Continue reading →

Yessssssssssssssssssss…

David Shields on the Colbert Report, assuming you haven’t yet seen it.

These Works Will Not Tax You

It was a real pleasure meeting so many of you at AWP 2010. While we were gone, Garrett Socol had two new stories go live. At Full of Crow, Anatomy of a Blogger where he is joined by Catherine Zickgraf … Continue reading →

Did You Miss Us? We Missed You!

.5 We have returned from AWP 2010 where many things happened, all of them good, nay, great. Lots of things have been happening. 1. There’s a new issue of PANK featuring Rachel Andelman, ZZ Boone, Julie Babcock, Leah Bailly, Nik … Continue reading →

Review: Lock Up Your Daughters #4

If you are a superhot, supercool Glaswegian dyke, you will already be familiar with Lock Up Your Daughters. I am, however, aware that queer Scottish twentysomethings make up a very tiny percentage of PANK readers, so I will be more … Continue reading →

We will build a monument for the ages.

Are you a possessor of PANK schwag? A t-shirt or sticker, a pin perhaps? Have you found PANK in some other incarnation?  Send a picture to awesome@pankmagazine.com of you or someone you love wearing or sticking or otherwise claiming space … Continue reading →

Pulitzers, yo-yo, Pulitzers

In Letters, Drama and Music: Fiction – Tinkers by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press) Drama – Next to Normal, music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey History – Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World … Continue reading →

Chapbook Contest Extension until May 15

We’ve had a couple requests to do so and we’ve been contemplating an extension anyway so we’re going to keep the reading period for chapbooks open until May 15!  More details here.  Send us awesome. We are ready and reading.

Everyone tired and sore, raise your hand, say AWP.

Another year, another AWP. It was a good one this year, kids, so good I’m still hurting today. Altitude, dry air, endless boozing and the endless boozey hand shaking, a book fair that needed a zeppelin hanger it was so … Continue reading →

Annalemma Six Release Party 4/12 7:30 pm

CSI: Svalbard Episode 2 — A Review By Andrea Mullaney

It’s always tough to judge a new show on the basis of its first episode, even the latest in such an established franchise as the CSI shows, because the set-up and the players have to be introduced in the course … Continue reading →

AWP Won’t Stop Us From Keeping Track of You

Congratulations to Tim Jones Yelvington and Stephen Mills, both finalists in the 2009 Best of the Net competition. We also congratulate the many fine writers who have been selected for inclusion in that anthology including PANK contributor Diane Lockward. Dzanc … Continue reading →

PANK + IndieFeed = Awesome

PANK  and poets who’ve been published by PANK are being featured on Indiefeed: Performance Poetry this week. On Monday, enjoy Carrie Murphy. She’ll be followed on Wednesday by Kristina Marie Darling and the week ends on Friday with Stephen Mills. … Continue reading →

Review: Angela Readman’s Strip

The poems in Strip (Salt Publishing, 2007) are the glittering twists of burlesque, then the smeared lipstick and fading smiles of the dressing room. They dazzle us with performance then drag us backstage; they are the untouchable neon of the … Continue reading →

Notable, Indeed

Congratulations are in order for the PANK contributors who have made the Million Writers Award 2009 Notable Stories list. Two stories from PANK made the list so we’re particularly pleased to see the work of Kevin Catalano and Janet Freeman … Continue reading →

These Words Are Anything But Foolish

We are always confident our contributors are out there doing amazing things and every single week that belief is confirmed by the wonderful writing we find here, there and everywhere. We were thrilled to learn that Ben Loory, who graced … Continue reading →

New Opportunities, New Revenue Streams

PANK’s growth over the past few years has been incredibly exciting for us as editors and as we begin our fifth year, we’ve been asking ourselves what we can do to make our offerings more dynamic and more importantly, we’re … Continue reading →

This, That and The Other or RELEASE THE KRAKEN

1. In case you haven’t heard, AWP is just around the corner. You can meet the PANK editors at the Bookfair (Space A E10), all day every day during the conference. We’ll be having a fun giveaway and we’ll be … Continue reading →

At AWP, The Bookfair Will Be Like Reading This Post in 3D

Lydia Ship’s Firefly Lungs is up at Staccato Fiction. Sneak Preview: JA Tyler has excerpts from forthcoming works at Spring Gun Press and Dead Paper. Remember Ken Wahl? David Erlewine does. He also has a story at Everyday Genius. There … Continue reading →

Justin Taylor’s Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever: A Review by Salvatore Pane

A lot has already been written about Justin Taylor’s impressive Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever, a debut short story collection by an HTML Giant contributor about hip, young people doing hip, young things. Whether or not you believe … Continue reading →

A Mud Luscious Bookmark Contest

the first Mud Luscious Press bookmark contest: anyone who has ordered from us in the past knows that we have already made  some slick looking ephemera bookmarks with cover designs & excerpts from  forthcoming novel(la)s, but we plan on giving … Continue reading →

Jeanann Verlee’s Racing Hummingbirds: A Review by Megan Scarborough

Racing Hummingbirds ought to come with a warning: Choking Hazard. I read some of it while eating my dinner: I don’t suggest this. The collection is raucously confessional, full of blood and guts, sex and booze. It’s poetry with its … Continue reading →

Like your mother, we’re lying when we say we love you all the same.

This morning we awoke to 2,491 friends on Facebook. WTF? Who are all you people?  As we have some fondness for having one foot in the profound and the other in the utterly meaningless, we’re giving a free t-shirt to … Continue reading →

The Newness

There is a new, exciting issue of PANK. Check it out, then come back here. At Staccato Fiction, Jared Walls on a missed connection. Annotation is the order of the day when Aaron Burch annotates Andrea Kneeland’s Masochism.  Conversely, Aaron’s … Continue reading →

PANK would like to remind you lest you forget…

1. PANK and DOGZPLOT are having a reading in Denver during AWP. It’s called DOGZPANK. Get it? It’s going to be bitchin’. You should come. 2. Also at AWP, PANK is hosting a table at the bookfair (Exhibit Hall A, … Continue reading →

Spring May or Not Be Springing But the March Issue has Sprung

We are well into March. There have been a few days of sunshine. We can see the ground, often a rare occurrence this time of year. Our hope that winter has ended is fragile but our spirits are buoyed not … Continue reading →

Gigantic is GIGANTIC

I am intrigued by Gigantic magazine. I like the name. They have a really nice website. I find them mysterious and elusive. They never respond to my submissions unless I withdraw something (totally my fault) and then they are very … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: Blurbs of Myself by Marc Schuster

I don’t read books, I just read blurbs, and Marc Schuster’s are the best in the business!  - Lance Caldecott, internet lurker and blurb connoisseur I contacted The New Yorker. I contacted the Times. I even contacted my local paper, … Continue reading →

MOOOOOOOOO!

There’s a new magazine making a little noise: One Ded Cow. Send them things!

Words Keep Marching In

The Spring/Summer 2010 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review is a special issue, guest-edited by Amy Hempel (Innovative Fiction: 21 Writers) and will feature the work of Joe Stracci. Full TOC here and ordering information here. This looks to be a … Continue reading →

FWD: To Think. To Write. To Publish.

A program for “next generation” writers of any genre with an interest in science and technology. Learn creative nonfiction techniques. Develop and pitch ideas to book and magazine editors and literary agents. Publish your work. Featuring two intense days of … Continue reading →

DOGZPANK @ AWP!

Have we reminded you recently about the DOGZPANK reading during the Denver AWP in April? Have we done that? Have we? Where:  Forest Room 5 When: Thursday, April 8, at 7:30 pm. Who:  Aaron Burch,  Beth Thomas,  Tim Jones-Yelvington,  JA … Continue reading →

Shane Jones’s A Cake Appeared: A Review by Troy Urquhart

The experience of reading Shane Jones’s new collection A Cake Appeared (Scrambler Books) is very much like the experience of peering into one of Salvador Dali’s paintings — ‘The Hallucinogenic Toreador’, perhaps, or ‘The Discovery of American by Christopher Columbus’. … Continue reading →

My First Day on Fictionaut

Like a mouth-breathing, crotch-rubbing, bulge-eyed stalker, I have long admired Fictionaut from afar. But I’ve always felt that it’s slightly out of my grasp. Fictionaut is for proper writers; ones with pro sales and chapbooks and story collections and maybe … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Cambridge, Huff, Daum, Dando, Coke, Beck, Aldo, Howle

Greetings from a bakery/cafe in Cambridge, MA called Carberry’s, where I paid 4.95USD for an hour’s worth of internet access. Don’t say I never did anything for you, readers…The mp3 CD I dug out of my glove compartment kept me … Continue reading →

Cousins Reading Series: Providence, RI

Sunday March 7, Darcie Dennigan and WIlliam Walsh are launching the Cousins Reading Series in Providence. The first reading will feature Heather Christle, Claire Donato, Matt Hart, and Nate Pritts. Cousins Reading Series is featured on Sundays (about once a … Continue reading →

March Begins With Might and Magnificence

Is it just me or does it seem like there was a lot of new writing finding its way into the world this week? Something’s coming. Could be. Who knows. If you get the reference you are a musical theatre … Continue reading →

Free Reading Material

Stake your claim in the comments, one item per person, and e-mail your address to roxane at pankmagazine dot com. More to come. The latest, truly gorgeous issue of The Lumberyard featuring lots of excellence including M. Bartley Seigel. Mlkng … Continue reading →

Meanwhile Reads

I like to read. I need to read. But I’ve got shit to do. I deal with this by multitasking, maybe because I’m female or maybe because I have a short attention span. Accordingly, I would like to present to … Continue reading →

Apart/Anew in the news…

From THE BROAD SET WRITING COLLECTIVE  these good words about Aaron Burch’s HOW TO TAKE YOURSELF APART, HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF ANEW. From CHAPBOOK REVIEW, a review by J.A. Tyler and his interview with Aaron. Scroll down. Haven’t bought this … Continue reading →

Review: FRiGG #27

There are a few reasons why I love the Law & Order-themed issue of FRiGG so much. Let’s examine the evidence (note: I promise that will be the only pun in this review). 1. Law & Order Is Good For … Continue reading →

A CAKE APPEARED by Shane Jones

From Scrambler Books. Poems, fables, and scrolls by one of PANK’s favorites, Shane Jones. Check him out in PANK 4. The price is right: $12.00. And domestic shipping on pre-orders is free, free, free. Ha ya like dem apples?

Saturday Surprise!

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday only — Buy  PANK4, Aaron Burch’s  HOW TO TAKE YOURSELF APART, HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF ANEW, or any PANK combo,  and receive a super duper surprise with your order. That’s right, a surprise! It’s super duper!  Order … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Baby, Back, Krugman, Indiana, McElwee, Beller, Bronson

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Beer Supply, L.A.’s premier 70s soft-rock tribute band. Take a look at that set list from their first gig. Ambrosia. Poco. Player…Speaking of “Baby Come Back,” Player’s 1977 #1 hit, as I brainstormed with … Continue reading →

Did you know that PANK accepts submissions?

Given the number of submissions we get every day, many of you clearly do. What you probably don’t know is that we answered the call today and took off our gloves. You think you’ve got PANK? If it’s PANK, we’ll … Continue reading →

Words to Watch Out For

I’m really excited about Puerto Del Sol 45. It looks to be quite an issue and will feature work from Matt Bell, Elisa Gabbert, Shya Scanlon, Kyle Minor, James Grinwis, Mike Meginnis, and many more. Randall Brown’s short story, His … Continue reading →

This Modern Writer: 28, NO, MAKE THAT 30, ABSOLUTELY TRUE BLACK HISTORY FACTS ON THE OCCASION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH (FORMERLY NEGRO HISTORY WEEK). 1 FOR EACH DAY, PLUS 1 IN THE CASE OF LEAP YEAR & 1 FOR GOOD LUCK by Rion Scott

1. In 1857, frustrated by the number of informants undermining her efforts along the Underground Railroad, abolitionist Harriet Tubman printed up 500 “Stop Snitching” t-shirts and distributed them throughout the South. 2. Black History Month was in danger of being … Continue reading →

Chapbook Reading Period Open

We are again open for chapbook submissions. PANK is seeking chapbook manuscripts in any genre, cross- or  mixed-. To know what excites us and what doesn’t, read PANK Magazine, then show us something we haven’t seen before. Our first chapbook, … Continue reading →

What Moves Me

While reading submissions the other evening, I lamented that I was reading well-written stories but few were truly moving me. @KateCollings asked a great question about what kind of story does move me so I thought I would attempt an … Continue reading →

Review: Popshot #1

When contemplating a poetry and illustration magazine, it must be easy to get into a chicken-and-egg scenario. Should the illustrations be inspired by the poetry, or vice versa? Jacob Denno went with the former for his magazine, asking artists to … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Mayer, Naropa, Huth, Pritts, Oral, Three Things That Piss Me Off About The Rumpus

If Jane Mayer could look more smug when she is not talking in her recent television appearances, she would explode in a flameball of contemptuousness.   Super reporter, though…I don’t know what Google Buzz is, but evidently it’s a hit… … Continue reading →

There Are Things We Want You to Know

The next issue of Stymie Magazine will feature work from David Erlewine, Sean Lovelace, Scott Garson, and Ben Loory. Ben also has a story in the Vestal Review. Matthew Simmons has a lovely story at The Nervous Breakdown. Nicelle Davis’s … Continue reading →

storySouth Million Writers Award Nominations

There could be only three and it was a difficult decision but this year we are nominating: The Incredible Teeth of Bobby McGraw by John Haggerty http://www.pankmagazine.com/?p=1207 The Ugliest Drowned Man in the World Washes Ashore Lake Michigan by Janet … Continue reading →

You Me and Everyone We Know Did Real Good

Y’all are awesome.   Tthere are many reasons why but today you are awesome because in our fundraising drive for Haiti, you raised $775. We are genuinely overwhelmed by your generosity and as a Haitian I am grateful to all … Continue reading →

Review: Inconceivable Wilson – JA Tyler

JA Tyler has discovered the secret of time travel. There is no other explanation for being able to run mud luscious magazine and ml press, produce several chapbooks and novellas, contribute to Rumble, The Chapbook Review, and Lies With Occasional … Continue reading →

February PANK, Our Valentine to You

If a Valentine is an expression of love, we feel there’s no higher demonstration of our affection for our readers than sharing the work that excites us and haunts us and never strays far from our hearts. In the February … Continue reading →

Meet Our New Reviews Editor, Kirsty Logan

We’re thrilled to announce our new Reviews Editor will be Kirsty Logan who joins us from across the Atlantic in Glasgow, Scotland. We’re particularly excited about bringing Kirsty on board because she’ll be focusing on both American and European writing. … Continue reading →

Roses are red, violets are blue, I love ARTIFICE and LUMBERYARD, too.

Among the many vaguely articulated PANK policies I will likely break today, three in particular. First and foremost, PANK staff are supposed to eschew self-promotion of their own individual creative works within PANK air-space, insofar as it can be avoided. … Continue reading →

The Extraordinary Ordinary: Kirk Nesset’s Mr. Agreeable, by Nicelle Davis

One moment, if it’s the right moment, can define a person entirely. Kirk Nesset”â„¢s stories are set within those pivotal moments and result in vivid characters navigating unique circumstances. Mr. Agreeable, out now from Mammoth Books, is a collection of … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Reznor, Lennon, Ving, Mordor, Burt, Wakoski, DiNovis, Banks

Was it a former coach of the New Jersey Nets who said, “Don’t be the lion who stares at the legs of the chair? I think it was…I’m not sure if this guy is for real, but he sure knows … Continue reading →

All Good Gifts These Words of Yours

Brandi Wells’s Treatment appears at Dark Sky Magazine and I love the way the story begins. Knee Jerk #8 features Donna Vitucci and Eric Bennett. At Inertia, Maureen Alsop has three poems. The Last Thing We Ever Need by Jen … Continue reading →

The Best of (What’s Left Of) Heaven by Mairead Byrne

Publishing Genius Press, is pleased to announce its tenth book, THE BEST OF (WHAT’S LEFT OF) HEAVEN, by Irish/American poet, Mairead Byrne. The 200-page collection of poetry is scheduled for release on March 1. Byrne’s poetry is characterized by her … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Yule, Iris, Long, Blogger, Cooper, Hitler, Vocoder

If you get the name of the person singing wrong in a song–Doug Yule, say, instead of Lou Reed–you do not get to write a poem about that song…An ex-friend just wrote a hate email to me, after I used … Continue reading →

Read This and This and This and This

At Flatmancrooked, Valerie O’Riordan’s Hear That Song. Sheldon Lee Compton has new work in The Foundling Review. Heavy Bear features three poems by Eric Burke. He is joined by ja tyler. ja also has work in euphony. The fifth installment … Continue reading →

The Glamor of Editing

We spent the latter half of the afternoon stuffing more than two hundred envelopes, applying stickers and otherwise conducting the business of editing with some awesome assistance by the Blue Ice staff. We stuffed our little hearts out or at … Continue reading →

PANK 4 Arrives

Hark! Cue the silver snarling  trumpets… Beginning tomorrow, out go your copies of PANK 4, packaged smartly by our little animatronic snow elves, mailed directly to your door where PANK 4 will emerge from its supple wrappings like a faun, … Continue reading →

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

When I was a kid I really enjoyed those games where you had to look at a picture and identify all the elements of the image that were out of place. Sometimes we receive a communique that pushes so many … Continue reading →

Congratulations Are In Order

We are pleased as punch to announce that Erin Fitzgerald and Ravi Mangla were both finalists for the third Micro Award for their stories Waiting Room and Ethics, respectively. Congratulations also go to the winner, Michael Stewart. Check out the … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: And We’re Back

And we’re back.   Sorry folks, sometimes a columnist needs to have a nervous breakdown or three before three-dotting his way back to sanity. Onward. Some predictions sprinkled in…Am I the only person who love that the same image of … Continue reading →

The Days Are Long And Cold But In Words There is Comfort

At The New Yinzer, Jen Michalski writers a story about bowling. This week’s Wigleaf features Laura Ellen Scott. Her postcard is also not to be missed. This writer’s playlist also features several PANK contributors including Angi Becker Stevens, Kirsty Logan … Continue reading →

PANK 4 Arrival Imminent?

January has been an exercise in patience for PANK, as it awaits the arrival of No.4 from our benevolent printer, for whom billing cycles are sacrosanct, but production schedules are not. Here we sit, end of month, in lotus position, … Continue reading →

Friday 5!

Much of note, whittled to 5, in no particular order: 1. Bias, I know. Aaron Burch’s HOW TO TAKE YOURSELF APART, HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF ANEW. 2. Scott Garson’s AMERICAN  GYMNOPéDIES. 3. Laura Sim’s STRANGER. 4. CAKETRAIN 7. 5. BITCHSLAP … Continue reading →

Greatness and Grandness Everywhere

At Wigleaf, Erin Fitzgerald’s Trumpet Voluntary. The Alice Blue Review brings Matt Bell, Andrew Borgstrom, Kathy Fish, Matthew Simmons, PH Madore, and Jac Jemc. Lit N Image’s Winter issue includes writing from Eric Beeny, David Erlewine, and Jared Ward. Eric … Continue reading →

MLP: The First Year + Giveaways

Mud Luscious Press has compiled the creative works which represent the first year’s output into a gorgeous little anthology. The collection features work from CL Bledsoe, Randall Brown, Aaron Burch, Blake Butler, Ryan Call, Jimmy Chen, Elizabeth Ellen, Molly Gaudry, … Continue reading →

This Whole Wide World

Writers are very interested in the idea of the world. In 2009 alone, countless books invoking the word “world” in their title were released including The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway, World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler, … Continue reading →

Haiti.

We often plead for our readers to support small press literary publishing by purchasing magazines and entering contests and buying the books of the writers they love. We would like to make the same plea today for your support of … Continue reading →

Clay Matthews, Runoff

PANK 3 contributor Clay Matthews’s Runoff is now available from BlazeVox. Clay Matthews currently lives next door to the Bristol Motor Speedway in East TN. He has one previous full-length, Superfecta (Ghost Road Press), and two chapbooks: Muffler (H_NGM_N B_ … Continue reading →

3 of interest

1. The Eli Coppola* Memorial Poetry  Chapbook Contest —  deadline, February 15, 2010! The Eli Coppola Memorial Poetry Chapbook Contest is a prize for poets honoring both the tradition of the chapbook and the memory of beloved San Francisco poet … Continue reading →

New Year, New PANK

Our first issue of the year is quite remarkable and leads off what we are confident will be a year of writing that moves, you, amuses you,   challenges you, inspires you. Enjoy words from Maureen Alsop, Andrew Borgstrom, Doug … Continue reading →

What News from the World

Vice Magazine offers up Blake Butler’s Sourcebook. Lakin, Lamia, Lakshmi from Matt Bell in the latest issue of Knee Jerk. Lauren Becker offers a new essay at The Nervous Breakdown. Ben White needs a friend at Right Hand Pointing. Prolific … Continue reading →

Nostalgia’s Thread: Ten Poems on Norman Rockwell Painting by Randall R. Freisinger

Accessible and engaging, the poems in Randall R. Freisinger’s Nostalgia’s Thread are provocative reconsiderations of the American experience as depicted in ten of Norman Rockwell’s best known paintings. Arguably the only serious collection of poems inspired by Norman Rockwell’s images, … Continue reading →

New Year, New Writing

At Metazen, Meg Pokrass. The first issue of elimae edited by Kim Chinquee is live and features writing from Michelle Reale, Meg Pokrass, and J. Michael Wahlgren,   among many others. Mud Luscious Ten has gone live and includes words … Continue reading →

Randall Brown has started a new press and journal, Matter, and this week, you can read Hammock, by Sean Lovelace. The third issue of Super Arrow includes writing from Feng Sun Chen, Nick Ripatrazone, twice, JA Tyler, and collaborations that … Continue reading →

The year in PANK

2009 ended, I’m told. Whew. For PANK, here’s what was. PANK 3 sold out, though “sold out” is a bit ‘o reassuring obfuscation. We did run out of copies and for the first time in our brief 3 years sold … Continue reading →

One Last Roundup for 2009

At Matchbook, you will find a new short story from Michelle Reale. The VSF blog continues to impress and Matt Bell’s recent post on organizing a collection of VSF offers excellent advice. In the new issue of Zygote in My … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Dunham, Jillette, Litbloggers, King, Sabotage, Shortz

It’s Christmas, which means people might be reading this or might not. Or perhaps you’re Jewish, Asian, African, or my favorite, Depressed..I love this quote by Carroll Dunham: “In the contemporary context, there appears to be a divergence between “sincere” … Continue reading →

Not Quite the Three Wise Men, But We Bring News

At Anastamoo, Adam Moorad, RA Allen, Corey Mesler, and Mel Bosworth. Hali, Halle, Hamako by Matt Bell appears in Buffalo’s ArtVoice. Ben Loory has a really lovely story in Wigleaf–The Rope and the Sea. He also shares some celebrity sightings … Continue reading →

Spotlight: Molly Gaudry, Writer, Editor, Charmer

As part of this week’s focus on new books, Nicelle Davis interviewed Molly Gaudry, author of the lush novella We Take Me Apart, out now from mud luscious press. 1.The flow of We Take Me Apart appears effortless. How were … Continue reading →

Holy Giveaway Winners, Batman!

We were so excited about the response to the giveaway that we’re going to offer three copies each of One Hour of Television, We Take Me Apart, and Inconceivable Wilson. Even more exciting, Molly Gaudry has generously decided to give … Continue reading →

Friday GIVEAWAY

Kristina Born’s One Hour of Television Molly Gaudry’s We Take Me Apart JA Tyler’s Inconceivable Wilson Also, we want to thank Joseph Young who donated our last giveaway’s copy of Easter Rabbit. We’ll do a drawing. Leave a comment with … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Telfer, Hickey, The Laughers, Colins, Claire, Nash, Afros

Greetings from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, while I wait for my flight to Albany International Airport.   The latter is international, we think, because of a flight to Toronto once a month.   But Chicago? The wind is cold, the … Continue reading →

PANK is short for Contributor GPS

The December issue is live. Visit Pentagon City with Rachel Yoder in Wigleaf. JA Tyler talks about books at Recommended Reading. And he has a tiny thing at Slingshot. He tells of the chipmunk at Everyday Genius. Kangaroos hop at … Continue reading →

Guest Post: Dave Clapper Tweets While Drinking Scotch and Reading Submissions

An old friend asked me recently what we’re looking for in stories we accept for SmokeLong Quarterly. Since we’ve changed to a rotating editor on a weekly basis, it’s a little different. I can’t speak for every editor, but here … Continue reading →

ANNALEMMA PRESENTS — HOLIDAY IN CAMBODIA: A COLLECTION OF HOLIDAY STORIES FOR A GOOD CAUSE

In the winter of 2007 editor, author,  and  activist Anne Elizabeth Moore was invited to live to Phnom Penh to teach  Cambodian young women how to make zines. She plans to return December 24th to continue her ongoing project. We … Continue reading →

A Virtual Stocking Stuffer–December PANK

The time for December PANK is upon us. In our final issue of the year, you will find wondrous and at times whimsical words from James Tadd Adcox, Eric Beeny, Sheldon Lee Compton, Kristina Marie Darling, I Fontana, Janet Freeman, … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Mathews, Cupcakes, Shukert, Nuno, Vito, Chet

I’m back after a week-long bender of book tour and absentee blogging…Thank you for your patience, oh readers and Panksters…Onward to two-centsing… Coat racks are bullshit…Did you know that the Thoreau family–the Henry-David-Thoreau Thoreaus, the go out into the woods … Continue reading →

A Wintery Week Brings News of the Word

Daniel Nester has been nominated for a Pushcart by the Indiana Review for his essay “Cousin Mike: A Memoir” (from issue 31.1, Summer 2009). TIM (NOT UNDER THE RADAR) JONES YELVINGTON and Alicia Gifford were nominated for a Pushcart by … Continue reading →

Easter Rabbit Release Party 12/12

Tis the season to celebrate the birth of Joseph Young’s first book, Easter Rabbit. The party is at the Hexagon, in Baltimore (1825 N Charles St) THIS SATURDAY NIGHT. It opens at 7pm, the show starts at 8:30. It’s free, … Continue reading →

News from MLP

12.1.09 brings news from Mud Luscious Press, in the form of this: WE TAKE ME APART by Molly Gaudry, the debut title in the Mud Luscious Press Novel(la) Series, is shipping this month. $12. Read an excerpt & get a … Continue reading →

We Always Know Where You Are

Think of us like one of those house arrest bracelets. Publish with us and we will always know where you are. At Everyday Genius, Jensen Beach does wonderful things with repetition in   We Cannot Cross the River. Cooper Renner’s … Continue reading →

You Didn’t Ask For My Opinion But…

1. Have you checked out the website for Aaron Buch’s amazing chapbook? Have you bought yourself a copy yet? Are you interested in reviewing the chapbook? If so, drop us a line. 2. Have you been reading Daniel Nester’s freakin’ … Continue reading →

Sex Dungeon for Sale!

Patrick Wensink recently decided there’s only one way to celebrate the release of his book, “Sex Dungeon for Sale!”. And that is by holding a coloring contest. He had a series of illustrations created based on some of the book’s … Continue reading →

A Holiday Gift Guide + Gifts for You, Dear Readers

Our gift guide is simple this year. Visit our store and purchase a subscription to PANK 4 or more. We’re also selling Aaron Burch’s chapbook How to Take Yourself Apart, How To Make Yourself Anew for the low, low price … Continue reading →

PANKcast!

1. Kudos to the publishing industry, where memoirs are written by people with genuinely awesome stories to tell and not Miss USA contestants whining about their cup size! 2. I would go to Boston just to hit up these bookstores. … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Turner Overdrive, The Regulars, Nader, Runaways, Arnold, Flatulists

Here’s modern poetry in a nutshell: paintings, animals, mythology…Every word can end either with the suffix “-esque” or the suffix “Turner Overdrive”–.But nothing shall ever be “Turner Overdrive-esque”… Written while tipsy…Heck, we all have pets; heck, if we went to … Continue reading →

We Give Thanks for our Contributors, Indeed

At Staccato Fiction, Beth Thomas gives us More Honey. Brandi Wells offers Notes from a Landlord at McSweeney’s. Ben White is here, there, and there and everywhere. J. Bradley shares The Kama Sutra of Edward Cullen at Opium Poetry. On … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Friendster, Frisell, Jordan, Arcangel, et Cetera

Humping a statue can be a dignified form of political protest–I logged onto my Friendster page for the first time in, like, two years–Sometimes I miss living in Camden, NJ, but not going to school there–I can’t wait to see … Continue reading →

PANK = Productive, Awesome, Notable, Kickass Writers

This week, there’s a new issue of PANK which features really wonderful writing.   If I had to recommend a starting place, I’d suggest Helen Vitoria’s We Were Horses and Joe Stracci’s The Fourth and Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s The Air … Continue reading →

The Epic PANK 4 Lineup

We have finalized the lineup for PANK 4 and we’re really excited about this issue. You can order PANK 4 here.

Terese Svoboda is Weapons Grade

An Interview by Neil de la Flor Neil de la Flor: How’s it going? In other words, what’s changed since our last interview ? Terese Svoboda: I’m on a roll. I gave up trying to get big presses and voila! … Continue reading →

Give thanks for November PANK

The November issue of PANK is now live and it features some really great writing (for which we are extra thankful, get it? November, Thanksgiving, we give thanks, okay, horse, beaten dead, now glue, sticky, peeling from our palms, tasty … Continue reading →

New Kid on the Block

There’s a new kid on the indie publishing block—Black Coffee Press LLC. They are out of Detroit and   just released their second book entitled SHE. by Thomas Michael. Five new titles are set for 2010 – all from fresh … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Seth, Ben, Rocksteady, LL, Barbicide

Enough of this picking on memoirs already. Many of them are in fact journalism collections or nonfiction road trips. What’s the matter with that? Why the false fiction-nonfiction dichotomy?…Speaking of memoirs, I love me some Ben Yagoda, but his new … Continue reading →

Shya Scanlon’s Forecast

Chapter 35 of Shya Scanlon’s Forecast is now live: http://www.pankmagazine.com/?p=1081 Enjoy!

The PANK Posse is Prolific

In Wigleaf, Ethel Rohan tells a tale of practical, endearing romance in Gold. In Red Fez’s Editors Issue, three flash fictions by J.A. Tyler and a public apology as poem from Peter Schwartz. In the debut issue of wtf pwm, … Continue reading →

AWP Table Share: Help a Publisher Out

The fine folks at Artistically Declined Press are looking for a table share at AWP 2010. If you’re interested, leave a note in the comments and we’ll put you in touch.

Rose Metal Press Chapbook Competition

From the Editors of Rose Metal Press: Our Fourth Annual Short Short Chapbook Contest submission period begins October 15 and ends December 1, 2009. Our 2009 judge will be Dinty W. Moore. During the submission period, please email your 25 … Continue reading →

It’s My Two Cents: Prog, Abdul, HTMLG, Elaine’s, Fence

I gave up on objecting sentences with “however” after reading the Language Log. Not that I feel good about it…I guess someday I will have to sit down and actually listen to the Zombies box set, rather than saying I … Continue reading →

PANK People, Everywhere

Tim Jones-Yelvington has a new story in the Musical Obsession issue of Storyglossia about Adam (G)Lambert. He is joined by Anne Valente, Tracy Bowling, and many other talented writers. In the new Emprise Review, fine writing from Paula Bomer, Ryan … Continue reading →

Degrees of Separation

Let us begin with  ABJECTIVE and  Juliet Cook’s “Paper Dolls.” Cook is also featured in DIAGRAM 9.5. In  DIAGRAM 9.5, we also find Ryan Teitman’s “Ode, Elegy, Aubade, Psalm.”   Ryan is also in Hayden’s Ferry Review. Hayden’s Ferry houses … Continue reading →

I’ve Been Reading: Tiny Reviews

I wish I had time to do critical, in-depth reviews of everything I read but alas not during the dissertation year. Still, I’ve been reading some really great writing lately. Every time I read for ten minutes or so for … Continue reading →

PANKcast!

1. The Seattle Times pours out its best writers. 2. Mmmm… Texas Book Festival is looking spicy! 3. Vampires, hit men, and God – Anne Rice will creep you out. 4. The Washington Post loves “The Man in the Wooden … Continue reading →

Sneak Peak: Opium 9

The cover art for Opium 9 has been revealed and it is pretty! Order now for this goodness: Cover by: Sean Landers Stories by: Jonathan Baumbach, Dawn Raffel, Anne Ray, Aaron Garretson, Davin Malasarn, B.R. Smith, Melinda Hill, John Madera, … Continue reading →

Friday Five!

We do a lot of rounding up on the PANK blog. It has its uses. But my favorite posts are the “writer’s life” ones. Our contributor interviews and ask-the-editor Q&As, the moms and dads and identity exploration posts, these I … Continue reading →

Ashley’s Dozen

A Cappella Zoo: A review of C.E. Chaffin’s big top, faith, and awesome words found in his collection Unexpected light. The Ampersand Review:   Another Poem about China, a thought provoking piece by J. Bradley, is featured in Volume 3. … Continue reading →

PANK Friends Are Busy Busy

New Jimmy Chen at Eyeshot and Monkeybicycle. At Wigleaf, Angi Becker Stevens talks about Anticipation. Jac Jemc has new poetry in Front Porch 12. Jensen Beach will have work in Avery 5. Penguin has revealed the cover art for the … Continue reading →

Future PANK in 3

1. PANK 4 coming down the pipe, featuring new work from Jennifer Pieroni, Taylor Mali, Matt Bell, Bill Yarrow, Summer Block, Ethel Rohan, Laura LeHew, Bob Hicok, Karen Gentry, and many, many others. Delicious. Get some. 2. Aaron Burch’s chapbook … Continue reading →

PANKcast!

1. Norma Fox Mazer, an older person who actually understood the ups and down of young adults, passed away. Damn. 2. Plotless, yet laced with something very tasty. 3. Her husband fell in love with a gay man, and she … Continue reading →

East Bay on the Brain

If you’re going to be in Berkeley, CA Sunday 10/25, consider East Bay on the Brain, a reading featuring Timothy Crandle, Andrew O. Dugas,   Stephanie Freele, Greg Gerke, Roland Goity, Ethel Rohan, Reynard Seifert and hosted by Lauren Becker. … Continue reading →

Friday 5.

It’s cold and gray in PANK land today. Very, very gray. Insufferable gloom. Sleet. There is pestilence afoot. There will be no exclamation points. 1. Look. 2. Listen. 3. Touch. 4. Taste. 5. Smell.

Dodging Traffic by J. Bradley, Now Available

J. Bradley’s first collection is long overdue.   Ampersand Books is proud to present this raucous, lively collection of vivid imagery, larger-than-life imagery, and poetry crafted from the real stuff of everyday life.   Lust, love, contempt, disgust, parental guidance, … Continue reading →

PANK’s First Chapbook Competition Winner: Aaron Burch

We (Matt and Roxane) are really thrilled to announce that PANK’s first chapbook will be Aaron Burch’s HOW TO TAKE YOURSELF APART, HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF ANEW: notes and instructions from/for a father.   While all of the manuscripts we … Continue reading →

DOGZPANK 2010—We Need Readers

The editors of DOGZPLOT and PANK are hosting a joint reading at AWP 2010 in Denver. The DOGZPANK reading will be held at Forest Room 5 on Thursday, April 8, at 7:30 pm. We’re looking for readers. If you’ve appeared … Continue reading →

PANKcast

1. Books are quite literally a form of art to Steve Wolfe, whether or not he’s read them. 2. Third Place Books gives their say on current best sellers. 3. A Michigander! A local press! Nominated for the National Book … Continue reading →

Splinter Generation: Submit NOW

Splinter Generation will be accepting submissions for only two more weeks and they want your writing. They say: The Splinter Generation is currently accepting submissions from writers who were born between 1973 and 1993 for an ongoing online generational literary … Continue reading →

PANK Friends Out/About

If you haven’t checked it out already, the October issue is now live and full of amazing writing. xTx has a new chapbook, Nobody Trusts a Black Magician, out from Not a Punk Press. October contributor Gary Moshimer has a … Continue reading →

Call for Submissions: Persona Poetry

Anthology: A Face to Meet the Faces The editors are pleased to announce a call for submissions for A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. We are seeking poems that work within the literary tradition … Continue reading →

Friday 5!

This week’s Friday 5 is brought to you by the flu, which I have. Isolation Ward by Joshua Spanogle Immunity by Lori Andrews The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton Outbreak by Robin Cook Pandemic by Daniel Kalla Now PANIC!

PANK Does the Pushcart

Congratulations to our Pushcart nominees from PANK 3: Prose: Rachel Yoder, Letters to My First Love Chris Gavaler, Name:_____________ Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, Shadowland Poetry: Molly Gaudry, Beneath Mosquito Netting I Imagine Stephanie King, Baby Says (p. 23) Caleb Barber, In … Continue reading →

Chapbook Contest Deadline Today!

Here. Deadline of midnight, EDT, today. Last call.

October PANK: Tricks and Treats and Flannel Sheets

October brings fall color, a chill in the air, the smell of winter coming and this month, remarkable writing from:: Amye Archer Jimmy Chen Katie Cortese Karen Dietrich Neil de la Flor Travis Fortney Karen Gentry Steve Gibbon Joseph Goosey … Continue reading →

From Ashley’s Desk: Yooper Dozen

In true randomness fashion this week’s blog is dedicated to the favorites of someone… Zahir, a journal of speculative fiction is going electronic!   Starting with it’s January 2010 the only way to read this literary goodness will be via … Continue reading →

Guest Post: On Queer Visibilities by Tim Jones-Yelvington

Pank asked me to write about queer visibility and acceptance in the independent publishing community. I should confess much of my thinking re: this topic is unresearched and anecdotal. Some is based more on speculation than direct experience, and so, … Continue reading →

Our Nominees for….

We had far too much amazing writing to choose from and we feel everything we publish deserves recognition but alas, we’re not allowed to point to entire issues and say “all of that.” Dzanc’s 2010 Best of Web Anthology: Lauren … Continue reading →

PANKcast!

1. 2009′s Great Michigan Read is from Vietnam! 2. “Never-Ending Birds” from the editor of The Kenyon Review. 3. Dave Eggers gets wild! 4. Need a laugh? Check out The New Yorker’s run-down of the publishing industry. 5. Unplug yourself … Continue reading →

Asked/Answered

Last night I Twittered about two new poetry peeves: epigraphs and cute fonts. Morris Stegosaurus (@mstegosaurus) asks: Two questions: 1) Do you think there’s any context in which non-standard fonts could be appropriate in a poem and 2) Same question, … Continue reading →

A ‘lil Hicok with your Monday morning coffee?

Bob Hicok has new poems forthcoming in PANK 4 (order it!), one coming out on the website (as Roxane keeps the queue I’ll just say presently), and if you don’t read Hicok, well, you should. Begin anywhere, or here, or … Continue reading →

Electric Literature Presents: The Soapbox Reading Series

Where: Washington Square Park, (west of the fountain). When: October 13th, 2009 and October 20th, 2009, Noon — 1:30pm Who: Oct 13th: Colson Whitehead and Carmiel Banasky 20th: Stephen O’ Connor and special guests The Electric Literature Soapbox Reading Series … Continue reading →

Friday 5!

1. Sarah Vowell is funny! 2. Mr. Noodle! 3. Short attention spans! 4. Dug from the Dalkey archives! 5. Always with the self promotion.

From Ashley’s Desk to Yours

So this week I decided it would be fun to stalk a certain Associate Editor’s Facebook page. Here’s what I mined. Numero uno, Knee-Jerk, an interesting interview with David Shields, What is your most desired result of Reality Hunger? Intrigued? … Continue reading →

And the Winners Are…

When we decided to run a writing contest, we didn’t quite know what to expect. It has been a fascinating, eye opening process reading through entries and selecting the winners and runners up.   Narrowing the field to determine our … Continue reading →

News of Two New Presses + News + Fall Television

Past PANK contributors continue to be industrious.

PANKcast

1. The New York Times shines light on the hidden life of deer. 2. Ah, the Midwest: fishing, pinochle, and the death of farming. The Seattle Times reviews the poetry of Ted Kooser. 3. Michael Moore has done it again … Continue reading →

Announcements and Pronouncements

Only ten days to enter our chapbook competition. We are reading entries from our first contest. Results will be announced soon. We are looking for a copyeditor. Lots and lots of new work out and many magazines featuring work by … Continue reading →

Help Wanted: Copy Editor

PANK is growing and right now, we have a real need for a reliable, talented copy editor. The job would require a time commitment of approx. 5 hours a month during the first ten days of the month before our … Continue reading →

Friday 5!

1. Chapbook! 2. Stitches! 3. Vice! 4. Mixtape! 5.  Weekend  Reclamation Project!

1,001 Awesome Words Contest – Deadline Today

Last call.

PANKcast – books and blather

1. The New York Times is ready for Halloween with “Her Fearful Symmetry.” 2. Detroit Free Press reviews “Surrogate.” 3. Washington Post promotes the National Book Festival with a list of authors attending, including John Irving! 4. Shakespeare is back … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Marcelle Heath, Assistant Editor, Luna Park

Today, we interview Marcelle Heath, assistant editor of Luna Park, literary magazines and Bravo! reality programming. 1. What do you do as assistant editor for Luna Park? How did you get involved? As an assistant editor, I cover the online … Continue reading →

Available Now: Disappears in the Rain, Matthew Thorburn

Disappears in the Rain, is now available. Because it’s a very limited edition, you won’t find Disappears in the Rain at Amazon or B&N. But if you’re interested, you can get a copy from Matthew via the link on his … Continue reading →

Happy Banned Books Week!

Please, in observation of Banned Book Week, get out there and book-slap a bigot. Just find a bigot, any bigot, and read them a book. Preferably one of these books. You may have to lure them into your van with … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Andrew Leland, Managing Editor, The Believer

Today, we trade tough talk on interviews, obscure Spanish vocabulary, fish, awesomeness, and buckets of guts with Andrew Leland at  The Believer. PANK: You’ve done a few of these editor interviews, and I’m sure, like me, you’ve read your share, … Continue reading →

Majors, books, and blather…

1. The New York Times on Atwood’s SecretBurgers in The Year of the Flood. 2. The Seattle Times gives a four-star review to Bright Star. 3. Dumberer? Jeff Daniels’ new comedy, “Escanaba,” reviewed by the Detroit Free Press. 4. The … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. In Serbo-Croation, pank means punk. In Estonian, bank. Google images for pank. Among the many oddities you’ll find the Spanish comic book Peter Pank, a fair number of graffiti tags, and some bitchin’ glamor shots of Polish rock band … Continue reading →

New to Me: Agriculture Reader

I stumbled onto Agriculture Reader quite by accident and was extremely put off by their submission guidelines and then I felt guilty about that so I bought issue No. 3 as penance like the good Catholic girl I’m not. The … Continue reading →

Growth, Gratitude, September PANK and a New Look

One year ago, we thought it might be nice to have some online content to supplement our annual print issue. Our first online issue featured only three fantastic writers””Gabriel Welsch, Bruce Cohen and Daphne Gottlieb. We’ve since grown and now … Continue reading →

Call for Submissions

Call for Submissions Working Title: And Then It Shifted: Women Open Up About Leaving Men for Women (Seal Press, 2010) 2,000-4,000 words Payment: Upon publication. Amount will vary, depending on experience and other variables ($50 and up). Please include a … Continue reading →

Laura Marello, Claiming Kin

PANK contributor Laura Marello’s first novel, Claiming Kin, is now available from fine purveyors of reading material online and at your local bookstore. About Claiming Kin, a first novel by Laura Marello: Andrea has an unusual sense of smell. She … Continue reading →

Majors, books, blather: A baker’s dozen

1. The New York Times on Where the Wild Things Are. 2. The Washington Post takes on the  neocon Jew. 3. The Boston Globe on used and specialty bookstores. 4. The readers of the Atlanta Journal Constitution evidently don’t turn … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. It’s all about us. 2. PANK 3 is sold out so stop asking. But… 3.  Subscribe to PANK 4 or more, before 9/15, and you will be entered into a random drawing for a free 8GB iPod touch. 1 … Continue reading →

Guest Post: On Fatherhood and Writing

Last week, we heard from three mothers about how motherhood affects and influences their writing. In many ways, we felt the natural progression would be to also hear from fathers about writing and fatherhood. We were fascinated by the differences … Continue reading →

Ask the Editors: The Mysteries of >kill author

>kill author is a new online venture from anonymous editor(s) who privilege words above the editor as personality. In this really engaging interview we talk about their manifesto, homicidal tendencies, haters, and the editors true identities (or at least, the … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. First, a bit of self-promotion. If you subscribe to PANK 4 between now and 9/15, you will be entered into a random drawing for a free 8GB iPod touch. If you subscribe to PANK 4 and PANK 5, you’ll … Continue reading →

Upcoming book from a PANK contributor and the glimmer of an idea…

1.  Adding to a list that grows longish, this: BlazeVOX Books is publishing Crying Shame, from early PANK adopter  Jeff Morgan, sometime in early 2010. We’ll update when we get more info. 2. PANK contributors: Have a book out in … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Jared Walls, Superman

1. What is your favorite brand of ginger ale and why? I really haven”â„¢t had ginger ale since I was about seven. I remember the moment I heard the questionable assertion concerning cancer””I was at my aunt”â„¢s mother”â„¢s house (not … Continue reading →

Ask the Author, Kevin Griffith, Time Traveler

In Yearlight Savings Time, Kevin Griffith shows us what it might be like if we had to do it all over again. Today we talk to him about the end of the world, his story, and what’s in a name. … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. PANK contributor Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz has a book coming out in January 2010. In the coming months, there will be a review, a giveaway, and an interview. In the meantime, check out the awesome cover. 2. Keyhole 8 is … Continue reading →

Race, Gender, Pretty Awkward, Quick Follow Up

We are really enjoying the conversations taking place on our post about race and gender. We look forward to having more of these conversations in the future. I do want to point out a few things: The post was not … Continue reading →

Awkard Stuff: Race, Women, Writers, Editors

It’s important to have awkward conversations unless you’re on a date. When that happens, its just sad for everyone involved. I am consistently frustrated, frightened, and freaked out by the lack of people of color in the publishing world in … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Valerie O’Riordan, Birmingham Mermaid

Valerie O’Riordan brought PANK one of our favorite stories in the August issue–a rather disturbing yet beautiful tale of obsession. Today she talks with us about unhappy endings, Cher, and the senses. 1. This story took us by surprise. Was … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Erin Fitzgerald, Celebreality Addict

Erin Fitzgerald edits The Northville Review and has three short short stories in the August issue. Today we talk about what happens next, gaming and VH-1 reality programming. (Note: This interview took place before we learned one of the contestants … Continue reading →

PANK is Having a Chapbook Competition

The Nitty: PANK is pleased to open submissions for its first chapbook competition. We are reading manuscripts until October 15, and will announce the winner on November 1. Manuscripts can be in any genre, cross genre, mixed genre or include … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Kevin Dickinson, Editor, Writers’ Bloc

1. Who is responsible for all the cleverness on the Writers’ Bloc website? We love it. I designed the site last September back when we were a tiny Rutgers enterprise, but with all intentions of making this thing big. I … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Nicelle Davis, Tomboy Mother

Nicelle offers us four poems in the August issue. Today she talks with us about these pieces, where they fit in a larger body of work, and how she did homework in the delivery room. 1.   We love that … Continue reading →

Friday Five Things to Read Across the Virtual Plain

1. The Pickup by Nate Innomi, Proxy by Emma Lannie, oh hell… everything in >kill author 2. 2. The King of Sinkholes by Kevin Wilson and Mongolia, New York, Prague Krakow, by PANK contributor Matthew Salesses in the debut issue … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Mel Bosworth, Beard Keeper

Mel Bosworth has a beard and a story about his beard appears in the August issue of PANK. He is also generous and charming. Today we talk with him about the state of his beard’s union, his pirate name and … Continue reading →

New World Orders

On Tuesday’s episode of Big Brother, Chima (who is really shiny, that has to be said) was removed from the show after weeks of “rule breaking.” One of the most interesting, yet unsurprising things about reality television is that the … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: J. Bradley on Epic Poetry

J. Bradley brings us the first epic poem we’ve published and talks with us about how the poem came about, the best Usher song to make love to and why some questions should remain unanswered. 1. You don’t see many … Continue reading →

Anatomy of a Rejection

There is often a lot of mystery to the editorial process and rarely can writers get a clear sense of why their writing is rejected. Reality dictates the necessity of form rejections, particularly when reading more than 200-300 submissions a … Continue reading →

Ask the Author: Jason Jordan, Seal Whisperer

After his story Sammy went up in the August issue of PANK, Jason Jordan posted some interesting thoughts on the genesis of his story. That inspired us to start an interview series where we talk with PANK contributors about their … Continue reading →

News Next Now

Ten Tips for Landing a Writing Residency Light Boxes, by Shane Jones, to be published by Penguin in 2010. Secrets of the Amazon.com bestseller list. A great interview with Richard Russo. New issues of PANK, The Collagist, Bust Down The … Continue reading →

Call for Submissions

SUBMISSION CALL: COON BIDNESS Greg Tate is starting a journal called COON BIDNESS (named in honor of the great St Louis jazz musician Julius Hemphill and his album of the same name*) in partnership with LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs as … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Anupama Shankar, Associate Editor, The Foundling Review

1. Why The Foundling Review? What is the significance of that name? So many well-written pieces without takers languish in dead space, like abandoned children — hence Foundling. According to many of our authors, their pieces found a home in … Continue reading →

Editorial Confessional

Dear Great Editor in the Sky, forgive us, for we have sinned. It has been, well, a considerable amount of time since our last confession. We have been consumed by envy as we read the amazing writing in other magazines. … Continue reading →

2009 Best of Net Nominations

It’s nomination season and we’ll be nominating for Best American Short Stories, Dzanc’s Best of Web, the Pushcart and Best of Net. We’ll also be spreading the love as far and widely as we can. Our nominees for Best of … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Jensen Whelan, Hobart (Web) Editor

In this week’s Ask the Editor, we talk to Jensen Whelan, Web Editor for Hobart. He talks to us about international intrigue, parenthood, his amazing ability to effect social change, the brilliance of the spork, and the Internet as the … Continue reading →

An Attitude of Gratitude

We are grateful for: Our print subscribers: You are awesome.   Sometimes, you buy a PDF or a single issue or a Kindle issue or a three year subscription. However you support us, you believe in us enough to give … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Gary Percesepe, Associate Editor, Mississippi Review

Today we talk to Gary Percesepe, Associate Editor of the wonderful Mississippi Review about the spirituality of writing, Obama’s mom jeans, and the stories that give us gut reactions. 1. What is it like serving as an editor for such … Continue reading →

Snuggie Poems!

We had six truly amazing entries to our Snuggie poem contest! The entries are below for you Snuggie enjoyment. The winner (randomly drawn using a very complex methodology) is Teresa Houle. Teresa, you lucky lady, e-mail your mailing address to … Continue reading →

Friday Five

1. What is the difference between an author and a writer? 2. The Summer 09 issue of Frigg is up and it is pretty fantastic. In particular, check out Four Stories by Richey Piiparinen a forthcoming PANK contributor. 3. Watch … Continue reading →

From Ashley’s Desk

Bill Ectric gets a brief low down from author Mikael Covey, about his latest book, Out There. Check it out here: http://billectric.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/out-there-by-mikael-covey/ The wonderful editorial staff at the Ampersand Review introduce Ampersand Books!  There are 2 books available on their … Continue reading →

An Editorial Assistant Speaks

A dear friend of mine who works as an editorial assistant at a small press has some things she wants you to know: 1. The title “Editorial Assistant” does not mean that this unfortunate person is *your* personal assistant. He/She … Continue reading →

Two Things

1. Does anyone want to share a table with us at AWP? If so, hit us up at awesome@pankmagazine.com. 2. If you’re near Atlantic City, you do not want to miss this:

Friday Five

1. Things you should read:I Kept the Nickel by Lauren Becker, The Friends by BJ Hollars, Sponge by Andrea Kneeland, Cliff by Mel Bosworth, The Factory, An Elegy in 6 Parts by Rebecca Lehmann, and I Don’t Want to be … Continue reading →

Let’s Take a Look Back

When we first started this blog, we didn’t really have a plan. We thought it might be fun to have a conversation with ten or twenty folks each week and get news out there about our work.  Since that first, … Continue reading →

Dzanc’s Best of the Web Blog Tour. Guest Post: Corey Mesler

Corey Mesler, author of “Rock Paste” from Cezanne’s Carrot: I became a reader late in life, around 18 or so, after public schools spit me out onto the sidewalks of a hot Southern city, leaving me there to fend for … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Jared Ward, Prose Editor of decomP

Jared Ward is the prose editor of decomP and a real renaissance man. We ask him some questions about facial hair, tennis, and alternate realities. 1. Do you have a beard? Why do so many male writers and editors sport … Continue reading →

Calls for Submission

CONTEST: End of Life Stories postmark deadline Dec. 31, 2009 Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays that explore death, dying, and end of life care, for a collection to be published by Southern Methodist University Press. We’re looking for stories … Continue reading →

PANK Asks Burning Questions: Deb Olin Unferth

PANK thinks that everything Deb Olin Unferth has written is must read material. Seriously. For a recent salvo, check out her story from the July  Harpers.  She recently granted us a little Q&A so long as we didn’t ask her … Continue reading →

Things I’ve Been Reading

When I was in high school, my mom, who I adore, would call me at boarding school and ask me what I was reading. I would sigh and be fifteen and say stuff with a long, drawn out, exasperated sigh. … Continue reading →

PANK Asks Burning Questions: C.S. Giscombe

If you don’t know Giscombe’s work, we recommend you rectify the situation. He ain’t hard to find, but you have to look. And he’s one of our absolute favorites. If you’re new, start with his most recent, Prairie Style. It’s … Continue reading →

Tuesday is News Day

Bryan Carr is having a contest on his blog for a copy of MLKNG SCKLS and some other great looking books. You have until 7/27. Get to it. Ten tips for structuring a short story collection. From Daily Lit, Jhumpa … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Erin Fitzgerald of The Northville Review

Erin Fitzgerald is a writer and the editor of The Northville Review. Today, she talks with us about alter egos, pop culture and the reality TV horrors she knows all too well. 1. Did you know that amongst the many … Continue reading →

Yet Another I Heart Moment…

From Ashley’s Desk: In high school I became obsessed with the written word and began, one by one, reading everything of interest in my school library.  (Coming from a small leftover mining town, it didn’t take me long to exhaust … Continue reading →

Reader Request: The Other Side of the Coin

Shome Dasgupta writes: I’ve gained much insight into what an editor looks for in submissions and what frustrates them and what makes things easier for them–I was wondering, as a writer, what frustrates you when submitting to journals, and what … Continue reading →

Steve De France is in trouble!!!

Steve De France hopes you are well as he himself is in a great sorrow writing you this note. Steve De France must inform you about something very important. Something very terrible has happened to Steve De France. Steve De … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: B.J. Hollars, Editor, You Must Be This Tall To Ride

B.J. Hollars is the editor of the anthology and online magazine You Must Be This Tall To Ride. Today, he takes some questions about projects past, present, future and discusses some other fun things too. 1. How tall exactly must … Continue reading →

Useful Things

From Ashley’s Desk: Mira’s List, a free service for aspiring artists, writers and the like, has information about a  grant fellowship through the Center For Book Arts.  It’s for residents of New York, but once you check out the details … Continue reading →

We Too Choose Honest Arrogance

I like when a writer knows their work is good. I like when a writer is unapologetic about their talent and doesn’t make excuses for their ambition or success. How can you expect an editor to fall in love with … Continue reading →

Things I’ve Been Reading

I had several firsts this week as I enjoyed my first issues of American Short Fiction, Keyhole, and Quick Fiction. I was duly impressed by all three publications. Actually, I lie. I’ve read the Handwritten Issue of Keyhole, too and … Continue reading →

Why Selling Points Matter and Other News

Short but sweet, the people at Salt Publishing give us 100 words of advice why selling points for books matter: Check it out at http://saltpublishing.com/blogs/index.php?itemid=670 There’s a new issue of decomP that looks excellent as always. Keyhole is offering a … Continue reading →

Reader Request: The Whole Online Thing

On Twitter this weekend, I was taking requests for things to blog about because I’m all about service. And I’m lazy. Nik Perring suggested I talk about how the Internet is affecting the short form,   what it’s doing for … Continue reading →

Ask the Editor: Lauren Becker, Fiction Editor, DOGZPLOT

Once a week, more or less, we’re going to interview an editor or other person of interest that you may not know a lot about. Our first interview is Lauren Becker, a PANK contributor past and future. She is also … Continue reading →

Your Title Matters

Lately, I’ve been reading a number of submissions that are pretty damn good, but have not great titles. While this is something that can be easily fixed most of the time, I do find it a little distracting. The title … Continue reading →

Short Story Month Anthology

From the Desk of Incredible Ashley (who will be doing more blogging for us in the coming weeks and months): Dzanc books in collaboration with Matt Bell, Aaron Burch of Hobart, Steven McDermott of Storyglossia, and Dzanc’s Dan Wickett at … Continue reading →

Awesome Search Strings That Let Us Know Everyone Is Weird or Sick

photo of redhead hugging roses porno tube tall mother with long legs read sad stories roommate uncircumcised rose mexican snoball pants sex tubes that show men jerking off in front of womem she liked his dick sister tries to stop … Continue reading →

Heads up. Chapbooks!

Get your manuscripts ready. We’ll be officially announcing PANK’s first chapbook contest sometime in August, deadline October (probably), winner announced in November, with a release coinciding and packaged with PANK 4. Expect a small entrance fee to help us cover … Continue reading →

Multiple Choice: Why Your Submission Was Rejected

This list is by no means comprehensive or prescriptive. 1. The writing simply wasn’t good, where good quantifies a subjective combination of the ability to garner the reader’s interest and the ability to tell some kind of story in a … Continue reading →

News You Can Use

Did we mention we’re having a contest? The winning story of Blake Butler’s This is Not Not a Contest has been posted at Lamination Colony. It is interesting. Storyglossia is accepting submissions for a music obsession themed issue in October. … Continue reading →

Dzanc’s Creative Writing Sessions + A Giveaway

I had been hearing things about Dzanc Books Creative Writing Sessions. I was intrigued. Last week, I submitted a short story I’ve been working on, and chose Matt Bell as my mentor because I enjoy his writing. The process was … Continue reading →

Two by Two

Via Ashley. Over at HTML Giant, Drew Toal has an interesting review of Harper Perennial’s Fifty Two Stories project, which pairs big names in literature with innovative and lesser known writers. Yay to those providing life support for the written … Continue reading →

Charms for the Easy Life: Writer Edition

On Wednesday, we talked about things editors can do to sustain their publications. Today, let’s have a chat about the ways in which writers can do their part to keep the world a happy writing place.* Again, this is not … Continue reading →

1,001 Awesome Words Contest

PANK Magazine is pleased to announce its first writing competition, 1,001 Awesome Words. And we think it suits the PANK ethos to leave it at that. Not enough, you say? Need key words, you say? Explode. Excite. Intrigue. Surprise. Blow. … Continue reading →

Missives from the void.

“Cookiebomb” sent us a polaroid. Postmarked Dulles, VA, June 15. No other identifying mark. Perfect. Sky? Thanks, CB.

REAL SIMPLE Essay Contest

First, we are now offering PDFs of PANK 1, 2 or 3 for $3.5o. The awesome t-shirts we had at AWP are also available for sale. Details here: http://www.pankmagazine.com/subscribe.html REAL SIMPLE’s annual Life Lessons Essay Contest Topic: When did you … Continue reading →

Charms for the Easy Life

I get a lot of questions about what it takes to start and sustain a journal and while I don’t have any profound insights, I’m happy to share some of the things I have learned. PANK was founded in 2006 … Continue reading →

Subscription drive?

We’ve never done one. But we probably should. Except that we’re lazy, disorganzined, and lack…well…that particular kind of drive. But when we sent out the call for you to subscribe the other day, a few of you actually did. And … Continue reading →

This is Not Not a Contest Results

A couple weeks ago, Blake Butler held an interesting writing contest, that became something bigger than I think anyone anticipated, with probably a hundred crowd-sourced prizes including a copy of PANK 3. And now, the results are in. Congratulations to … Continue reading →

Monkeybicycle 6

I have it on good authority that there is no deep hidden meaning behind the name Monkeybiccyle. That’s a bit of a disappointment. I thought it might reflect some kind of inside joke or something. I subscribed to the journal … Continue reading →

Your To Do List: Subscribe to PANK

Support of all kinds is great, but you know what it takes to do what we do. Plus, PANK 3 is approaching sold-out status. Buy now if you have any hope of ever getting one. All issues also come with … Continue reading →

Well, yes…

There’s an interview with the new editor of Granta, John Freeman. Some of it is interesting, some of it is silly. The funny thing about publishing trying to evolve is that we’re all saying the same thing and stating the … Continue reading →

What Kind of Bookstore Customer Are You?

Over at Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind details the seven kinds of customers found in a bookstore. It’s pretty amusing and I’ve seen most of these people. I am an Internet Hobo but I always spend a fair amount of money … Continue reading →

Submission Feedback: Limited Engagement

Every writer hates the impersonal nature of rejection letters. I get it. I’m a writer, too. Editors! They’re just like us! And sometimes, you want to know why a submission didn’t click so that maybe you’ll have better luck next … Continue reading →

June is Here and It’s Summer Somewhere

We’re still enjoying a brisk winter in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We warm ourselves with the wonderful writing in the June issue, up now, featuring work from these excellent writers: Mark Budman Kevin Brown John Farmer Heather Fowler Katherine Grosjean Caitlin … Continue reading →

Conflict of Interest?

What happens when a woman reviews her ex-boyfriend’s new novel? The ever reliable Rumpus shows us and it’s awesome.

Shaman Drum Bookshop to close.

A great independent Michigan bookstore, Shaman Drum Bookshop, will close on June 30. It is a shame. I just visited the store for the first time about a month ago and it is a lovely shop. If you’re in the … Continue reading →

Oh, Canada!

Here’s a little bit of Canadian awesome. Yann Martel has decided to send the Prime Minister of Canada a book every two weeks, along with a nice letter. So far, 56 or so books have been sent, although the PM … Continue reading →

PANK To Do List, Week of June 8

1. Block out, repress, bury.   2. Read submissions. 3. Read the new Poetry, Ninth Letter, and A Public Space that showed up over the weekend. 4. Read submissions.   5. Grill something, consume alcohol. 6. Read submissions. 7. Move … Continue reading →

All The Day’s Sad Stories | Tina May Hall

Yesterday All The Day’s Sad Stories by Tina May Hall arrived in the mail. My stack of things to read is perilous so I was going to add it to the queue but pink is my favorite color and the … Continue reading →

On MFA programs and such

There’s a really great article in the New Yorker about MFA programs where Louis Menand writes: Academic creative-writing programs are, as McGurl puts it, examples of “the institutionalization of anti-institutionality.” That’s why institutions love them. They are the outside contained … Continue reading →

NPR poetry archive

This probably isn’t news to many of you, but it’s been my experience that I’m generally not the only one late to the party. National Public Radio has a page  that pulls together all it’s poetry related stories, including the … Continue reading →

Do You Know Drupal?

PANK is growing and we need to move to a Content Management System. Is anyone out there familiar with Drupal and interested in giving us a hand as we try to get fancy with our content management? Do you feel … Continue reading →

Free Chapbook from ml press

PANK 4 contributor and excellent individual j.a. tyler has this to say: charles lennox turned in this fantastically explosive text A FIELD OF COLORS to ml press & we, well, we wanted to share it with everyone. so, here is … Continue reading →

Why We Do It

Molly Gaudry wrote a lovely post over the weekend about why editors do what they do and the kinds of acceptance letters we send. I don’t have anything nearly as eloquent to add but I like lists so I will … Continue reading →

BEA 2009

Book Expo America 2009 just wrapped up and as the conference ends, the prognostication begins. If you weren’t there, Publisher’s Weekly has some fairly comprehensive coverage of the goings on.

Omnivoracious

I know Amazon is supposed to be the evil empire of the book world, but we are really enjoying their blog Omnivoracious. Lots of interesting news is posted there, and the product placement is easy to ignore.   Also, when … Continue reading →

Bookslut has   a nice interview of forthcoming PANK contributor Shane Jones. We’ll be discussing his book Light Boxes here next week. Mark your calendars.

What is PANK?

Editorial assistant Ashley is not only industrious as the mistress of all things Facebook, she is curious and today she’s going to tell us all about what PANK means. The Many Definitions of PANK, At Least According To Urban Dictionary. … Continue reading →

Literary Kindle Offerings

There are a number of literary blogs now available on the Kindle (which is a really great device, in my opinion. The PANKBlog is not one of these, but still, if you’re interested, click here.

Reading Log Star Date 052609

I read a lot this week because I was trying to cope with the debacle that was the season finale of One Tree Hill. It was very very upsetting to me, so I used great writing to make myself feel … Continue reading →

Barry Graham Wants You to Have Free Books

Details are here.

Recommended Reading

There’s a really interesting piece of writing up at Abjective this week by JodiAnn Stevenson. David Erlewine has a very short story in this month’s elimae. There’s a new issue of flash fiction up at DOGZPLOT, all of it good. … Continue reading →

It’s All a Crapshoot

Joshua Mohr writes over at The Rumpus about what it takes to get your novel published. Its bleak yet… hopeful.

How to be Professional

While we have our opinions on cover letters, Vince Gotera, editor of the North American Review also has some thoughts on submissions, all of them good.

We believe.

The new Believer is in. Interviews with Deb Olin Unferth and Bob Odenkirk. What’s better than that? Nuthin’. Or is there something… Well not better. Different. Close on it’s heals, what should show up in my mailbox? Why, the newest … Continue reading →

Reading Log Star Date 051909

This weekend I read Keyhole 5, the Handwritten Issue, and NOO Journal issues 8 & 9. I write boring reviews. I apologize in advance. One of the things I really enjoy about literary magazines is that you don’t have to … Continue reading →

The Things They Leave Behind

Sometimes, the least appropriate stories you read are the ones that stay with you the longest. One of the most interesting things about the slushpile is that you can track current events via the subject matter of the writing we … Continue reading →

This, That, The Other

PANK contributor Ravi Mangla has a new blog called Recommended Reading. It is good. Ted Genoways has some thoughts on the future of university presses and journals. The StorySouth Million Writers Award finalists have been announced and we can now … Continue reading →

Madonna Essay Anthology Seeks Submissions From Women Writers

Laura Barcella is   currently looking for smart, thoughtful women-authored nonfiction essay submissions. It’s for a new anthology all about our favorite freaky feminist singer/artist/’Sex’-er/mother/material girl: Madonna. She’s been such a powerful, iconic cultural figure for the past 26 years … Continue reading →

Book Review Contest

The Rumpus is holding a book review competition for undergraduate and graduate students. Publication and a small cash prize are involved. If you win, let us know!

May PANK is served

This month we have writing from Katarina Boudreaux, John Bruce, Anne Champion, Catherine Daly, Kelly Davio, Richard Fellinger, Laurie Junkins (with an audio treat), Jan LaPerle, Chloe Leisure, D. Lifland, Anthony Madrid, Ravi Mangla, Mike Meginnis, Devin Murphy, Michael Strickland … Continue reading →

So Hard to Say Goodbye

Harper’s always engaging forum Sentences is ceasing publication. The archives, however, are still there. Lots of good stuff worth reading there.

We Like Creative People

PANK No.3   contributor Molly Gaudry has put together something very interesting and moving and strange.

Looky Looky

We noticed a very high, very interesting hipster quotient at AWP. This site isn’t literary but it reminds us, fondly, of AWP. Can’t wait til Denver!

You Are Here or Why We Love Cover Letters

We receive all manner of cover letters. Some are very business like. The writer simply lists a brief selection of their publications, nothing more, nothing less. Other letters don’t list any publications and instead thank us for taking the time … Continue reading →

Call for Submissions: Best New Poets

Best New  Poets, an annual anthology of 50 emerging writers, is now accepting submissions  for its open competition.   See  www.bestnewpoets.org  for details.   Submission deadline is midnight,  June 1, 2009.     Entering poets cannot have published a book-length … Continue reading →

No Thesis Necessary

We have been tossing around the idea of sharing some highlights from the work we’re passing on that clearly demonstrates submitters who a. have not read our guidelines and/or b. have not read an issue of PANK, which is somewhat … Continue reading →

NEW LETTERS LITERARY AWARDS

$4,500 IN TOTAL PRIZES, PLUS PUBLICATION, IN THE  NEW LETTERS  LITERARY AWARDS Call for Entries for fiction, poetry, and the essay, by  May 18, 2009 Dear Writer, I want to make sure that you know about the chance to compete … Continue reading →

Good Writing, Everywhere

There’s so much good writing going on that I need to talk about it. A new story is up at Necessary Fiction—The Moon is a Star, by Peter Markus. I’m not going to describe it lest I detract from the … Continue reading →

Four random things

Well then… the geniuses at Merck decided to publish a fake scientific journal that discussed their products in a favorable light. Sad. Very sad. The DOGZPLOT FLASH FICTION ANTHOLOGY 2009 stories have been selected. Buy a copy of the book. … Continue reading →

In the spirit of short story month, its worth noting that One Story has a project wherein they are trying to Save the Short Story. The thing is, every so often, the death of something grand is declared. In the … Continue reading →

May is for Short Stories

Over at Emerging Writers Network, they’ve delcared May Short Story Month and why not? There’s lots of interesting stuff worth reading over there, so check it out!

Is there such a thing as an Internet Writer?

Blake Butler and Shane Jones (past and forthcoming PANK contributors) discuss.

It’s All About the Title

The Virginia Quarterly Review has released a list of the ten most common titles they’ve seen over the past two years. Its amusing and a little sad. As for PANK, we actually see a wide range of titles and unfortunately, … Continue reading →

Emerson was the first book slut…

…or so contends JC Hallman in a cute little piece over at Bookslut. We truly mean “cute” as a compliment, not as a  diminution.

Hello, Future

PANK No. 3 is now available on the Amazon Kindle platform, for the low low cost of $7. While nothing can substitute for holding a fabulous copy of PANK in your hands, we’d like to think that this e-version is … Continue reading →

Elizabeth Ellen at DOGZPLOT

Finally got around to the spring ’09 issue of DOGZPLOT. Tasty. Elizabeth Ellen, one of the beautiful minds behind Hobart, has a piece of short fiction that is well worth the trip. We won’t spoil anything for you, not even … Continue reading →

ARTIFICE MAGAZINE announces open call for submissions

ARTIFICE MAGAZINE announces an open call for submissions for its upcoming Issue 1, to be published in  January  2010.   Submissions will be accepted year-round online at  http://www.artificemag.com/submissions/ Artifice Magazine is looking for previously-unpublished stories, prose works, and poems, pieces … Continue reading →

American’s Next Top Mark Twain or ANTMT, for short

The relatively new imprint Harper Studio is having an interesting competition wherein writers can finish Mark Twain’s unfinished story Conversations with Satan and win a few trinkets and baubles as well as a Border’s reading. Entries due by May 31. … Continue reading →

A couple weeks ago, the Grey Lady paid homage to the short story.

Inside Editing

Creative Nonfiction offers a glimpse into the editorial process. It is definitely worth a look.

Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow discusses the implications of the Google Book settlement.

Submitting to the editors directly…

…uh-uh, no way. Jesus follows the submission guidelines and uses the online form or he doesn’t get that pony poem into the running for PANK. Pulitzer prize winner, ask yourself, what would Jesus do? First time submitter, the same. And … Continue reading →

An Interview with Jason Jordan

The Examiner has an interesting interview with decomP’s editor, Jason Jordan.

News Bits

The Pulitzers were announced on Monday.   Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge took the fiction prize and W.S. Merwin’s The Shadow of Sirius got the nod for poetry. Interesting choices, both. The Pulitzers well and good, but what we’re really excited … Continue reading →

Submissions FAQs

I hear you have strong feelings about Pushcart Nominations. Is that true? Yes and no. First, congratulations on the recognition. We are sure you deserve it. Having said that, it doesn’t influence what we’ll think of your writing so mentioning … Continue reading →

April Showers Bring….

The April issue of PANK is up. This month’s issue is swollen, like many lakes and rivers this month, with great writing from Tamiko Beyer, Rebecca R. Branden, Melanie Browne, Kevin Catalano , Annie Clarkson, Jared DeFife, Nick Demske, Jane … Continue reading →

Happy National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. Who knew?

Spring unfolds, summer approaches…

…and in the coming weeks and months readers and writers should expect a smidge less from PANK. The staff will splinter, editors will depart for foreign shores, and while the machine will run per its usual belching self (we hope), … Continue reading →

Evil Corporate Overlords Gone Wild

Amazon.com has found themselves in a wee spot of trouble by behaving badly and in a rather oppressive, homophobic, judgmental manner. We hope they pull their head out of their ass in short order. If not, there’s always the amazing, … Continue reading →

Two Notes

PANK is on Twitter. Feel free to follow us. Poets and flash fiction writers, submit. We’re getting a lot of very long fiction (which is nice) but we would love to see more poetry of any flavor and shorter fiction … Continue reading →

I am mildly obsessed with the New Yorker’s intense preoccupation with the lives of white men. In the past several issues, the magazine (of record?) has kicked up this preoccupation the proverbial notch. In the April 6 2009 issue, Rebecca … Continue reading →

Author Speaks

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses her new short story collection, set mostly in the States. It drops here in June.

Every One Gets In

Duotrope has a nifty little feature wherein they share the acceptance rates of journals. PANK is supposedly at 25%, but in reality our acceptance rate is not that high. There must be a preponderance of people whose writing we like … Continue reading →

A Story a Week

Harper Perennial is doing 52 stories this year, serving up an interesting range of short fiction. I’ve not yet been disappointed. Check it out.

We’ve been enjoying the writing at Necessary Fiction.

Administrative Updates

We’ve read and responded to all work send through April 1. We’ve also sent out all contributor copies for PANK No. 3. If you haven’t heard from us on either front, drop us a line.

Where do we go from here?

Lots of people prognosticate about the future of publishing, but Richard Nash, former publisher of Soft Skull, is definitely worth listening to.

Feeding the mind and body

A bookstore in L.A. is also selling delicious tamales. What an idea. (via Maud Newton)

You say comicbook, I say graphic novel

Let’s call the whole thing off.

The Internet Makes Me Feel Old. Get Off My Lawn!

I am 34. When I started writing, seventeen years ago, it was a real pain in the ass to submit work and if it was a pain in the ass then, I can’t really imagine how writers maintained their sanity … Continue reading →

Elsewhere, Good Writing Abounds

The new issue of Mud Luscious is up featuring some past and future PANK contributors. Lots of nice words.

Bad Economy Good For Writing?

Apparently so…

Poetry is dead? Long live poetry?

Thanks, NEA, but we just don’t buy it.  http://www.newsweek.com/id/191012?from=rss

Bonus Materials

Over at Hobart, they’re offering some bonus materials for Hobart 9, the Games issue, where you’ll find stuff from, among others, PANK contributors Blake Butler, Mary Miller, and Jennifer Pieroni.

The Nietzsche Family Circus

http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/perm.php?c=87&q=200

Orange Prize

The longlist for the Orange Prize was revealed last week. It’s certainly an interesting list. Girl Power!

Feeling generous?

NOO Journal is looking for some contributions to help them do their thing and keep their journal free. Free is good. In fact, if you donate, you get a free poem and some other goods out of the deal.

Best one line response to a rejection letter. Ever.

“Perhaps my importance as a poet is exaggerated.”

BOMB’s fiction contest

The deadline is fast approaching for BOMB’s annual Fiction Contest, judged by Jonathan Lethem.  First prize is $500 and publication  in BOMB’s literary supplement,  First Proof. Deadline April 15. Full info here:  http://bombsite.com/issues/0/articles/3254

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Michael Chabon’s The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is now a movie. Enjoy the trailer.

Journal Shout Out: Canteen

I got two issues of Canteen in the mail this week and read them both over the weekend. One of the features I really liked was articles by writers about the writing life from a different perspective than we normally … Continue reading →

Free Cake(train)

If you’re looking for some weekend reading, check out Issue 2 of Caketrain, which is now available, free, as a PDF.

And the winner is…

The Tournament of Books over at The Morning News continues. Also, I love a beautiful library.

Marlon James-The Book of Night Women

I always enjoy listening to writers talking about their writing. When they do it with an accent, all the better. Also, the book itself is lovely.

Because writers need musical inspiration

I just started following the twitterer “Indie Music Universe.” I wanted to share with you all   http://www.independentmusicawards.com/ima_new/jukebox2009.asp the Indie Music winners of 2009– the best of Indie Music of 2009 thus far because sometimes a little music would do … Continue reading →

Three sides to every story

Five Star Literary Stories offers three perspectives–publisher, story and reviewer. Its an interesting read.

March PANK is PANKtacular

The March issue of PANK is up and we’re thrilled, as we always are, with this issue featuring writing from Lauren Becker, Myfanwy Collins, Geordie de Boer, Taylor Mali, Heather Momyer, Nick Padron, Sarah Sweeney, D. Harlan Wilson, and Corey … Continue reading →

Wisdom of the day

Daily, a chapter of the Tao arrives in my email inbox. Most days I don’t really read it–I just kinda skim to get the main idea. But today I read through–I guess I needed some wisdom. Perhaps you need some … Continue reading →

The PANK staff is at the CCCC conference in San Francisco. It has been a very busy spring, however, when we get back, our first order of business is slaying the dragon that is our submissions queue so if you’re … Continue reading →

A new literary magazine

I just stumbled upon Chaparal–a new magazine out of Southern California. See what you think of it by checking it out at www.Chaparralpoetry.net

New, Now, Next

I (like many others) am always on the lookout for new, interesting writing. The Emerging Writers Network is a great place to find excellent words here and there.

funnies for a movie that “flopped”

http://www.slate.com/id/2212953/ Slate.com thought about what would happen if Woody Allen had directed “The Watchmen” which premiers in theaters today, through comic-like drawings. This is worth looking at because as so many critics have already noted, The Watchmen really sucked, kind … Continue reading →

Impromptu Writing Opportunity

First, there was the flash mob. Now, we have the flash literary journal, The Crystal Gavel (via HTML Giant).

Bits, Pieces

Amazon.com has released a version of the Kindle for the iPhone. Those of us who own iPhones are squealing with tempered glee. Some clever individual has come up with a way to turn an iPhone into a Moleskine book. Bookslut … Continue reading →

Should we join Linkedin?

(LinkedIn is a Myspace/Facebook spin-off for those looking for networking in the world of the industry of work.) Are you “LikedIn”? Should PANK have a presence on this social networking system? Why or why not?

The Mother of All Amazon Reviews

Most writers I know obsessively check their Amazon.com reviews. I don’t know what I would do if I encountered this one though, left in response to The Secret…

PANK Magazine welcomes C.S. Giscombe to the end of the northernmost road.

Poet C.S. Giscombe comes to Michigan Tech on Friday, February 27 to give a reading and frolic in the snow. 4pm in 134 Walker Arts and Humanities Center on the campus of the Michigan Technological University. Reception to follow.

BBC’s Big Read?

I can’t tell if this is current or old or very old. The BBC started compiling their information in 2003 which appears to be when the Big Read programs aired. Regardless, at some point in the last six years they … Continue reading →

Online publishing…

Like many others, I am almost as wary of online publishing as I am excited and committed. Nonetheless, I do think online publishing is important and deserves more legitimacy than it gets. Having said all that, blah blah blah and … Continue reading →

It’s an interesting month for PANK

Post PANK 3 hitting the shelves, post AWP, and pre grant deadlines, your friendly neighborhood PANKsters (all five of us) are running around like proverbial chickens, sans heads, knocking things over, blood everywhere, and generally making an unnecessary mess. Which … Continue reading →

best “first-liner” contest

Through May 1st 2009, enter the “Literary Database’s” contest for the best first liner… Enter here: http://literarydatabase.com/contest.html Although the winner doesn’t receive ca$h– the winner will receive a copy of “the literary database 2009″– I love the idea of working … Continue reading →

Awareness

Although “Black History Month” is a more commonly known national-February-awareness raising calendar marker, this week in February, is also “National Eating Disorders Awareness Week” (Feb 22-29). I felt this important “week” needed to be shared here on the PANK blog … Continue reading →

Elegant, Balanced Sentences

Good news! We have a president who can construct an elegantly balanced sentence. Next we’ll discover he reads!

PANK-alerts

I’ll do the footwork, if you’ll continue regularly checking out our blog. As I was waiting for the steam to drift from my freshly poured coffee, I found the following online that you just might want to check out for … Continue reading →

Treking through the snow

The weather outside is… beautiful yet frightful where we are. How’s it look where you are? The only thing to brighten the day; to break up the monotony of snow was stumbling upon a PANK 3 contributor’s blogsite and seeing … Continue reading →

According to Google:

1. Pank needs to keep an eye on cost. 2. Pank needs coin. 3. Pank needs to refresh. 4. Pank needs to settle. 5. Pank needs a spanky. 6. Pank needs a piggy. 7. Pank needs a million dollars. 8. … Continue reading →

Oh, Chicago. . .

As we brace ourselves for the trek northward we must take a moment to massage the pangs in our low-backs after sitting for hours in silly little chairs devoid of lumbar support. Thank you to the writers who stopped by … Continue reading →

AWP Day 3: The hangover

Yikes. By noon today it was time to barf. Or kill. Does the P stand for pretentious? What’s with all the writerly posturing minus the actual writing? Why the fixation on genre minus concern for actually producing anything worth reading … Continue reading →

AWP Day 2: But by the second day

Hipster zoo at the book fair, NOT awesome. Tongue tacos on Ashland, awesome. Selling lots of copies, totally awesome. The reading at Quimby’s rocking our socks, wicked awesome. Not awesome, 1. Various awesomeness, 3. Awesomeness wins. Thanks Dan, Jennifer, Sheila, … Continue reading →

AWP Day 1: Anything/anyone can be sexy for 24 hours

We met some of our PANK No. 3 contributors, many conference goers, and observed that writers wear an awesome array of eyeglasses. Photographic evidence to come. If you’re at AWP, visit us at table 631 in the Southwest Hall on … Continue reading →

February PANK Now Available

Just in time for AWP and/or Valentine’s Day and/or the PANK reading at Quimby’s this Friday, the editors of PANK are pleased to announce that the February issue of PANK is now available. This month’s issue is profuse with choice … Continue reading →

Quirky Call: Menupoems

Call for menupoems! April is National Poetry Month Alimentum will once again publish a poetry broadside of menupoems for National Poetry Month. The poems are distributed to participating restaurants for diners to enjoy some poetry with their menu! We need … Continue reading →

“Shock Troop” author wins 25,000$ and gets some PR for literary non-fiction

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090209.WBBooksblog20090209134630/WBStory/WBBooksblog Above is the link to the article about the winners winnings and below is an expert from the book. The link on which this expert exists is at the bottom of the page. An excerpt from Shock Troops: Canadians … Continue reading →

Never knew writers could win so much money…

The Charles Taylor Prize will be awarded on Monday February 9th– you’ve missed the deadline this year, but did you know that next year perhaps, you could win up to 25,000$ if you were Charles Taylor worthy? Consider your submission … Continue reading →

Opinions are more prevalent than poetry submissions

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090204/GJLIFESTYLES/902039902 This link gives us advice about how to write a book. My advice is BEGIN. Devote 250 words minimum of writing a day, as well as at least 15-20 minutes a day REVISING. But what do I know anyway? … Continue reading →

Two Things a Post Make

1. Administrative note: We’ve read and responded to all work submitted on 1/11/09 and earlier. If you haven’t heard from us and you submitted before 1/11/09, drop us a line and we’ll see what is what. 2. If you’ve ever … Continue reading →

The Thing About Cats, Kittens and Other Felines

And this is not new, but there’s something about writers and cats. Its as if we cannot help ourselves. We have to write about them, at length and in great detail. When I was a slushpile slave at Prairie Schooner, … Continue reading →

Now, for something completely different

Please pardon the service interruption. Have you ever seen the Cash4Gold infomercials? They’ll buy! Your gold! It seems like a pretty sweet deal. Okay, maybe it doesn’t, but the excellent production values could easily convince you otherwise. One intrepid fellow … Continue reading →

What’s a Website Worth?

If you’ve ever wondered who designs the websites for fancy pants authors, look no further. The New York Times discusses Jefferson Rabb and other web designers who create online presences for writers and their work.

“Fogged Clarity” (new literary journal) seeks submissions

http://coffeeandcritique.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-literary-journal-seeks-submissions.html Click the link and you’ll be transported to a blogspot that will tell about this new journal that yearns for YOUR excellent writing. So submit something– even I am thinking of doing it

Tidbits

Via Maud Newton, Mary Gaitskill would enjoy a wife so as to better direct her attention to writing. I want one too, let it be known. In Time Magazine, Lev Grossman dissects publishing in the digital age. In case you … Continue reading →

PANK No. 3 is here

We are pleased to announce that PANK No. 3 is now available. Visit our Get PANK page for more information on how to get your hands on a copy of this fantastic, sure to sell out issue featuring a great … Continue reading →

PANK Reading at Chicago AWP

  Date & time:  Friday,  February 13, 2009, 7pm Location: Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave, in Wicker Park, Chicago. Cost: Free. Jennifer Pieroni, James Grinwis, Sheila Squillante, Daniel Nester, and Rachel Yoder read their work from the pages of … Continue reading →

A Digital Humanities Manifesto?

The Mellon Seminar in Digital Humanities at UCLA issued A Digital Humanities Manifesto that has some interesting things to say about the nature of the ever-evolving digital world.

Things to Do: NYC Edition

If you happen to be in NYC, you might check out an exhibit at the New York Public Library on the Yaddo artist colony.

Snark is Good: Yea or Nay?

David Denby, a critic for the New Yorker, has an interesting interview up at the Columbia Journalism Review’s new book blog.

WAPOs Book World Comes to an End (In Print, Anyway)

The future of book reviews in print newspapers is unclear, but the Washington Post ending Book World as a standalone publication gives us an idea of where things are going. The final issue will appear on Feb. 15, at which … Continue reading →

When everyday feels like “Groundhog Day” and you wonder how to spice up the mundane

Think about watching the show FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS– A show that has been helping me make it through the monotony of winter. “Flight of the Conchords” the show, which has recently begun it’s second season on HBO is just–odd, … Continue reading →

Appreciating Augusten Burroughs

The progam CBS “Sunday Morning” is often a source of inspiration for this fellow watcher. This morning the show highligted non-fiction writer Augusten Burroughs, with several “experts” claiming that his work is fabricated. As a fellow product of a disfunctional … Continue reading →

Other publishing opportunities

Although we really want you to continue sending us you work– here’s some other opportunities that you might find interesting, helpful, or appropriate for your writing endeavors. Deadlines and details for submissions are given. Hope this might be something useful … Continue reading →

The 50 best African Artists

A culturally, mind-expanding “rating” of fifty contributors of the arts from Africa. http://news.independentminds.livejournal.com/568956.html

Submission Update

We have news. As we previously noted, PANK No. 3 should be out shortly; we’re currently accepting submissions for our monthly online issues and PANK No. 4. We’ve read and responded to everything we’ve received through 12/16/08. Log in to … Continue reading →

Save Publishing!

A Modest Proposal for the Publishing Industry.

Book/Cover/Judgment

There’s something to be said for an interesting book cover; some enterprising folks have started an archive of book covers that are worth a look.

A Year in the Life?

Over at The Millions, C. Max Magee reflects on the fiction published in The New Yorker in 2008.

What Not to Write

There is bad writing and then there is bad writing…

Is reading back on the rise?

How a Book Is Published

Its like Food Network’s Unwrapped, only literary.

Book Show Down

The Morning News has announced their nominees for their 2009 Tournament of Books. The picks are certainly… interesting albeit mainstream. Softskull publisher Richard Nash notes in his Twitter feed that only 1 on of the 16 nominees are from an … Continue reading →

How the Fiction Collective Was Born

Author Jonathan Baumbach discusses the rise of the Fiction Collective, a group he founded in 1974.

PANK reading at Chicago AWP!

Friday night, 7pm, at Quimby’s in Wicker Park. More details acomin’. Stay tuned.

Looking Forward And Backward

Michael Cairns makes some predictions for 2009. More discussion on E-books. Best Books of 2008? Dear Diary? Fiction to look out for in 2009.

PANK Turns 3

Happy New Year! PANK 3, the print anthology, is in production, due out in a couple of weeks. New work from  Rosanne Griffeths,  Michelle Tandoc-Picherau,  R.A. Allen,  Brooklyn Copeland,  Matthew Thorburn,  Erik Wennemark,  Stephanie King,  David Brennan,  Margaret Bashaar,  Cristin … Continue reading →

Obamapoetics?

Poet, essayist and Yale professor Elizabeth Alexander discusses the anticipated effect the Obama presidency will have on poets and poetry.

PANK Holiday Gift Guide

If you are at a loss as to what to give a loved one this holiday season, look no further. We have carefully prepared a holiday gift guide to satisfy everyone on your gift giving list. 1. A subscription to … Continue reading →

Some interesting things…

Meet Barney Rosset, the most dangerous man in publishing. Enjoy books on the Nintendo DS? Does everyone hate Jonathan Safran Foer? Aren’t these shoes TO DIE FOR?

There Are Wondrous Things About

Enjoy Nabokov explaining how to pronounce Lo-li-ta, among other things.

PANK 3 in no longer accepting submissions.

All submissions that come in after today will be considered for PANK 4, both online and print.

PANK 1 & 2 are out of print.

That’s kind of exciting. We should probably print more. We probably will. But right now we’re enjoying the idea of both existing and having moved the merchandise. A testament to our writers, we thinks. Regardless, we’re still sticking to a … Continue reading →

A Room of One’s Own

The Guardian has a nice little feature on writer’s rooms. Mine is generally whichever room I am currently inhabiting, but I do dream of a nice little book nook with a sizeable desk wherein I might more diligently attend to … Continue reading →

NPR does its 2008 book dance.

Here.

All songs are about one thing, mostly

… at least, according to Marc Haynes, over at McSweeney‘s.

Year’s Best?

This is the time of year when publications create their Best of 2008 lists. Today, we have the Los Angeles Times, with their offerings for the Best Books of 2008.

Nobody Loves His $20,000 Baby

Tina Brown’s new venture, The Daily Beast has a lot of interesting things to say from a wide range of intersting voices. Today, read Daniel Nester’s account of he and his wife’s experience with IVF.

Your window draws to a close.

There’s still time to get submissions in for consideration for PANK No.3, the print edition. But not much. Reading for online content and for PANK No.4 continues unabated.

Coded Language

This is Saul Williams – Coded Language. Awesome.  Enjoy!

I’m a fan of clever word games and apparently so are the editors at Boing Boing who decided to hold a little clever poetry and prose game in their comments. The sestina about copyright is particularly amusing.

How The Future Reads

How does medium affect the story? The Tomorrow Museum looks at the potential for an IPhone Novel, sort of.

Join us at Good Reads

See what PANK is reading and share your books with us at www.goodreads.com.

From House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

“There are seven incarnations (and six correlates) necessary to becoming an Artist: 1 Explorer (Courage) 2. Surveyor (Vision) 3. Miner (Strength) 4. Refiner (Patience) 5. Designer (Intelligence) 6. Maker (Experience) 7. Artist.   “First you must leave the safety of … Continue reading →

PANK, November Style

This month we give thanks for the fine writing in the November issue of PANK. Check it out.

Where’s Whitey?

A friend and I were recently talking about indie music, indie lit, and whiteness. Again. The former we talk about a lot. The latter less so. The former is written about more than a bit. The latter, not so much, … Continue reading →

Lit Mags Rock

Powell’s Books interviewed Open City editor Joanna Yas (read  here). She said: “I’m afraid that even though more and more people decide to be writers every day, I’m not sure if the same amount decides to be serious readers.” If … Continue reading →

When I was your age…

Writer Matthew Cheny offers advice to himself as a young writer.

FWD: Bellday Poetry Prize

BELLDAY POETRY PRIZE $2,000 PRIZE TO WINNING POET   Submission Deadline:  March 16, 2009   CONTEST FINAL JUDGE: Linda Gregerson Linda Gregerson is the author of four poetry collections:  Magnetic North  (2007),  Waterborne  (2002),  The Woman Who Died in Her … Continue reading →

FWD: ROOMS announces chapbook contest

ROOMS announces its inaugural chapbook contest.  The winning submission, chosen by  ROOMS’  editors, will be published by Articles Press, its parent non-profit organization and publisher.  The chapbook will receive a first printing of 200 copies to be sold for $5 … Continue reading →

Just keep on readin’, keep on readin’, keep on…

OK, so I just finished Deb Olin Unferth’s new novel, Vacation, published by the good folks at McSweeney’s. For the second time. Did you catch that? Twice, that’s right. Because the first time it just freaked me out so I … Continue reading →

The Golden Notebook

The Internet is making many things possible. At The Golden Notebook, seven women writers are having an online conversation about Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook. We can read the book online to follow along with the conversation and the entire … Continue reading →

GOOD books

GOOD has a new book blog worth perusing.

Fight the Good CopyFight

As writers, copyright is a complex and important issue. How do we protect our creative works while contributing to an overall atmosphere of collaborative knowledge? In Locus Magazine, Cory Doctorow shares his thoughts on copyright and why we should reform … Continue reading →

And now for something similar, yet different.

It is a good day. Over at Boing Boing, Susannah Breslin offers a brief round up of Sarah Palin erotica, of all things. She also features a site (NSFW?) created by prolific editor and blogger Rachel Kramer Bussel offering the … Continue reading →

Art by Shannon Willis

Art by Shannon Willis Check out Shannon’s beautiful multi-layer, mixed-media art at: http://artbyshannonwillis.com/ “Choose Your Destiny” is beautiful.

A Bookseller’s Love Story + Literary Election Perspective

An ode from Jonathan Evison to the bookseller who knows books and can only be found in an actual bookstore. Granta currently has a nice election feature up with some interesting pieces from writers writing on the election.

Setting the World Write

Writing is a powerful tool for bringing attention to the world’s atrocities. In a series of journal entries, Ashley Judd writes about the ongoing tragedies taking place in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Art is Rebellion

“Bring out your [art]!” Send in your art! We would love to consider it. http://www.hu.mtu.edu/SMS

Reverse Graffiti Art (Clean Art)

                        Check out Paul “Moose” Curtis and his reverse graffiti art  using high pressure water to create green landscapes in the urban environment at  www.reversegraffitiproject.com

Perhaps the Last Open Forum Left

All forms of published written expression pass through a filter that censors the content to conform to society’s established norms. Bathroom graffiti may be one of the last open forums left providing a backdrop for anonymous articulation and discussion of … Continue reading →

Hmm…

http://www.pank.se/index1.htm

Daydreaming…

Just floating along, taking my sweet time

Spoken Word

This is Oscar Brown – This Beach. Awesome.  Enjoy!

Spider

 ”Spider”,  for your amusement:

The Chronotebook

I am always looking for new ways to organize my day using a combination of electronic and print day planners. Now, Muji has come out with The Chronotebook. Each page has a clock and you can organize your day around … Continue reading →

Joan Didion on Election 2008

“Senator Biden himself was said to have ‘a great story,’ the one that revolved around the death of his first wife and child and taking the train from Washington to Wilmington to be with his surviving children. Senator McCain, everyone … Continue reading →

Debate Junkie

This year I’ve been glued to C-Span when it comes to debates.   C-Span offers a split-screen view of the candidates during the entire debate, which allows the viewer to see the emotional reaction of the candidate who isn’t speaking. … Continue reading →

Girl In a Coma, Los Angeles, 10/20

Girl in a Coma (who are playing live with Tegan & Sara) will be playing live at Amoeba Records in Hollywood on Monday Oct. 20th, at 7pm.  If you’re not in that area, no worries, there will be a live … Continue reading →

Fwd: Ronald Sukenick/ABR Innovative Fiction Prize

Eligibility The Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Innovative Fiction Contest is open to any writer of English who is a citizen of the United States and who has not previously published with Fiction Collective Two. Submissions  may  include a collection of … Continue reading →

My Shuriken is Mighty

Today, I give you Book Ninja. Check out their literary novel rebranding contest for a few good laughs. In other news, who is going to AWP? I’m thinking a PANK meet-up of some kind where we might ponder the many … Continue reading →

Now Serving: October Pank

October is a bittersweet month, neither summer nor winter, just this much past fall.   Canada gives thanks during the month of October and the Greeks fete their independence. Italians, Hispanics and the Polish all celebrate their heritiage in October … Continue reading →

Behold the Short Story

Steven Millhauser has written a lovely paean to the short story. “The novel is insatiable — it wants to devour the world. What’s left for the poor short story to do? It can cultivate its garden, practice meditation, water the … Continue reading →

Amoeba

Hah, I see a pattern forming.   My blogging abilities seem to be limited to trying to share my likings with others, but so be it.   That being said, I love Amoeba.   Amoeba is a music store with … Continue reading →

Fangirl Speaks

I’m a total fangirl for Narrative Magazine. The writing is always interesting and really quite good. For example, there are lines like this from Reese Kwon’s Super Hero: “Her abdication made for a good excuse, though. Hooking up with one … Continue reading →

Michel Gondry

The Lego comment made me think about the White Stripes music video for “Fell in Love with a Girl.”   The video is directed by Michel Gondry, who happens to be a pretty awesome artist.   If you’ve never seen … Continue reading →

Institutionalized “Man”

I was in an avid debate about contemporary language and more specifically the role of vulgar slang and expletives. I was arguing fervently for more freedom in the use of these profane terms in broadcasting, print, and speech.   A … Continue reading →

Lego Album Covers

I use Legos in the classes I teach so I’m always interested in seeing the different ways people use Legos. Check out these 20 album covers that have been recreated using Legos.

Just in, the new POETRY, October 2008…

From Craig Arnold’s Uncouplings:              in all communication            we count on a mimic            (I am not uncomic)   Tasty.   Great poems this month. Great … Continue reading →

The Poetry of Sarah Palin – From Slate.com

http://www.slate.com/id/2201342/pagenum/all/#page_start The Poetry of Sarah Palin RECENT WORKS BY THE REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. By Hart Seely Posted Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, at 1:25 PM ET Sarah Palin It’s been barely six weeks since the arctic-fresh voice of Alaskan poet … Continue reading →

From this week’s MTU Lode, in the “Pulse”

Giving literature a serious Panking -Cassandra Brabon, Lode Writer When I arranged to interview the staff of PANK Magazine, I was told to meet them at the KBC. Hearing that, I knew this small group meant business, but knew how … Continue reading →

FWD: From far, far away…

Hi I thought the readers of your website might be interested in our competition and was hoping you could post details on your site. Bookhabit.com, in association with the  New Zealand Poetry Society, are staging an international poetry competition that … Continue reading →

Hungry.

Matt wants to read something bright and young. Sock it to me,  http://www.hu.mtu.edu/SMS.

Narrative Magazine Under 30

Narrative Magazine is calling on writers, visual artists, photographers, performers, cartoonists, and filmmakers, ages 18-30, to tell us a story. We are interested in narrative in the many forms it takes: the word and the image, the traditional and the … Continue reading →

Analog!

So Many Words So Little Time

In 2003, the New Yorker wrote a quirky little piece about Irving Tobin, a man who reads the New York Times from front to back every day. At the time, he was 18 months behind, so for him, the past … Continue reading →

Pank’s Romantic

I have a dirty little secret. It’s raunchy. It’s delicious and I love every single minute of it.       I’m a reader… ok so that fact isn’t necessarily a secret. PANK is a literary magazine… which involves a … Continue reading →

FWD: October Grants & Awards

*October 1* *The Gatewood Prize In Poetry. Switchback Books announces a call for entries for the Gatewood Prize in poetry, an annual competition for a first full-length collection of poems by a woman writing in English between the ages of … Continue reading →

PANK’s online submission manager will be down temporarily!

Due to some sysad alchemy we will never understand (and aren’t trying to), the PANK online submission manager will be out of commission from sometime this afternoon until sometime Monday. You have snail mail or patience to fall back on … Continue reading →

Web 2.0 grief debate

What has the web become? Early on the web was used as a vehicle for transmission of information from one source to another not unlike transmission based modes of instruction like the lecture. But now it has become something much … Continue reading →

KCRW

KCRW is an amazing radio station that broadcasts a beautiful array of music, news, and artistic talks.   There are many different programs to choose from, and if you’re ever looking for something to read, check out Bookworm hosted by … Continue reading →

PANK Contributor wins 2008 Witter Bynner Poetry Fellowship from the Library of Congress

Matthew Thorburn, who has two new poems coming out in PANK 3, recently won one of two Witter Bynner poetry fellowships from the Library of Congress. Matt is one of our favorite poets and one of the nicest guys on … Continue reading →

Things I am Obsessed With This Week

1. Sending out correspondence. If you’ve submitted work to us prior to 9/18/08 and haven’t heard from us, get in touch because we’re all caught up. 2. A few days ago, I talked about Esquire’s 75 books every man should … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – Missouri Review

Dear Writer, The October 1st deadline for our 18th annual Jeffrey E. Smith Prize for fiction, essay, and poetry is rapidly approaching. Once again, we’re offering prize amounts of $3,000 per genre plus publication in our spring issue, making this … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – FENCE & SLS

Subject: New FENCE contest: win a free trip with SUMMER LITERARY SEMINARS Dear friend of FENCE, Summer Literary Seminars (SLS: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www .http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://sumlitsem.org) is announcing its annual 2009 unified (SLS-Italy, Lithuania, Kenya) literary contest, held this year in affiliation with Fence … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – Coal Hill Review

Coal Hill is currently sponsoring a chapbook contest for its winter issue. I’d like to encourage any of you interested in submitting a chapbook, to check us out at www.coalhillreview.com and note the  guidelines. We’ll be considering single poems again … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – Phoebe

*Phoebe—A Journal of Literature and Art* announces its annual winter contests: The Winter Fiction Contest & The Greg Grummer Poetry Award *$1000 Prize and Publication* Entries must be postmarked December 1st, 2008 and must include a $15 reading fee. Fiction … Continue reading →

Esquire suggests…

Seventy-five books every man should read. At the top of the list, Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, one   of my favorite short story collections of all time. It’s a pretty fantastic list though … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – Lumina

Dear Friends: *Lumina*, Sarah Lawrence College’s graduate literary journal of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, is accepting submissions for its 2009 issue and poetry contest, judged by Ilya Kaminsky. Deadline: November 15, 2008. For more information, visit slc.edu/lumina. Thank you for … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – Narrative Magazine

ENTER TO WIN <https://narrativemagazine.com/2008-fall-fiction-contest> *Open to short stories, short shorts, and novel excerpts.* – First Place $3,000 – Second Place $1,500 – Third Place $750 – and ten finalists will each receive $100 – All entries will be considered for … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – Lettre Sauvage

Greetings from Lettre Sauvage! We are a small, family-run letterpress printing studio based in Santa Paula, California. We specialize in printing fine, limited edition broadsides, prints, and chapbooks and we have collaborated on work with writers such as Stephen Dunn, … Continue reading →

FWD: Call for Submissions – Fiction Weekly

Call for Submissions Fiction Weekly is designed and dedicated to offering readers the best in new fiction 52 times a year. Our contributors come from a wide variety of backgrounds and include both established and previously unpublished authors. Fiction Weekly … Continue reading →

FWD: OSU Press/The Journal Award in Poetry and the ’09 Charles Wheeler Prize

September is the month! — Don’t forget to submit your manuscript for The Ohio State University Press/The Journal Award in Poetry and The 2009 Charles B. Wheeler Prize! You are welcome to submit your manuscript for the 2009 Ohio State … Continue reading →

Unicorns, bunnies, and happy rainbows…

…that’s what PANK is thinking right now.

Meta Meta Meta

The Metaphysics of the American Literary Industry…

Pretty Books, Just Pretty Books

Gawker has an interesting bit up about the revival of the home library, well-appointed and filled with all the right books. Said books, of course, are rarely read, a sad statement, Gawker laments, on the future of the publishing industry. … Continue reading →

We Do Read What You Write

There was a bit of a bottleneck, but if you have submitted work to Pank, never fear, we are making decisions and enjoying a great deal of excellent writing. If you haven’t heard from us by the end of month … Continue reading →

K-Day

Hooray for a new year and new look for Pank. Thanks to Roxane our new website is up and running, and it looks great! Also, to celebrate the beginning of a new school year, Pank will be at K-Day. You … Continue reading →