Monday, March 22, 2010

Introducing Kugelmass!

Hi everyone,
I wanted to sound the whistle about my latest project, which I am embarking on with the venerable Brian Clements: editing a lit journal. Real quick, it's called Kugelmass. It's stories and essays. It's funny. Print. Twice a year. Our impressive group of contributing editors (and some familiar faces): Steve Almond, Daniel Nester, Dan Pope and Daniel Asa Rose. We're now accepting submissions and want to get the word out in a big way.

See below for our call for submissions and be sure to check out the website: http://firewheel-editions.org/kugelmass/

So what is Kugelmass? Quite simply it is a bi-annual print journal founded to publish ambitiously humorous stories and essays. The first issue is planned for early 2011 and we are now wide open for submissions.

What do we want? First, we want funny. We want stories and essays between 1,000 words and 4,000 words. But funny words.

Don't stop with mere funniness, though. We believe that funny can be smart and sad, poignant and gritty and whimsical. We like when funny gets dark or ambiguously inappropriate. We like ugly truths and to be taken somewhere we've never been, somewhere we didn’t know existed and for that place to speak to something larger about who we are and why we are. We like our funny to jerk us from a daze and dangle something extraordinary in our faces, something that was there all along, but we couldn’t see. But if your piece won't make a hilarious percentage of readers laugh, then we shan't have it.

Check out firewheel-editions.org/kugelmass/guidelines for further submission info.

Kugelmass is proud to have on its mast and to feature the original work of some of the freshest and funniest writers around: Steve Almond is author of My Life in Heavy Metal, The Evil B.B. Chow, Candyfreak and (Not That You Asked), among others. For his most recent book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life (available April 13), Publisher's Weekly says Almond's "snarky, swoony counterpoint makes for a hilarious riff on the power of music." Daniel Nester, whose latest book How to Be Inappropriate is called by Time Out New York “[A] deeply funny new collection of booger-flecked nonfiction”; Dan Pope, author of In the Cherry Tree and of essays in the Harvard Review, McSweeneys, Iowa Review and elsewhere. And Daniel Asa Rose, whose latest book Larry’s Kidney was named one of the “Top Books of 2009” by Publisher’s Weekly.

Thanks for listening – we hope for your support of Kugelmass and look forward to reading your hilariousness.

David Holub

http://firewheel-editions.org/kugelmass/

Sunday, March 21, 2010

CT events on book tour

I hope you can join me at one of my CT events to celebrate the launch of the fifth Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery, Silent Auction. (A complete listing of my national tour can be found on my website.) Here are the CT events:

1. April 21, 2010, Wednesday, 7:00 p.m.: Mystery Round Table
Borders Books & Music
1499 Post Rd
Fairfield, CT 06824
203.256.1619

2. April 26, Monday, 7:30 p.m.: Presentation: "Finding Stolen Art: A Detective Takes on the Nazis"
Westport Public Library
20 Jesup Rd
Westport, CT 06880
203.291.4840
http://www.westportlibrary.org/


3. April 27, 2010, Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. through lunch: Luncheon Keynote: "Under the Writer’s Veil"
Darien Community Association
274 Middlesex Rd.
Darien, CT
203.655.9050
http://www.dariendca.org/ "Meet the Author Series” (Open to the public. $15, includes lunch. Call to make a reservation starting on April 1, 2010.)

Friday, March 19, 2010

Tony Soprano in Print

My book review of Salvatore Scibona's The End, "Tony Soprano Doesn't Live Here Anymore" was published in this week's issue of Curator Magazine (www.curatormagazine.com).

Thanks to Erik Mortenson and Daniel Asa Rose for helping me develop this into something that someone actually bought.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Reminder re: Faculty Requests

Writers in Residence are assigned to students in this priority: 1) thesis students 2) first semester students in Writing in the Primary Genre courses 3) all other students in Writing in the Primary Genre courses, and 4) all other courses. Therefore, it's highly unlikely that you will get a Writer in Residence for a course other than Writing in the Primary Genre. I highly recommend that you list second or even third choice mentors who are not Writers in Residence.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Fall Semester and Faculty Requests

It's that time again. If you would like to request particular faculty members to work with in the Fall, please email those requests to me by March 29. Be sure to align faculty requests with particular courses. After March 29, I will assign your mentors.

PLEASE NOTE: if you intend to change your enrollment status (changing from full time to part time, or vice versa), I need to know ASAP!

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Thanks, Mom

My essay, "First Anniversaries," is being published in the upcoming Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom. Hits bookstores Mar 23. A small deal, but name in print anyway. All over a first anniversary of store-bought pasta and cheap wine. Who knew?

Monday, March 01, 2010

Our Roger Boylan on Sorrentino's Last Novel

Click the title link for Roger's new piece in the NY Times.