REVOLUTIONESQUE

Editors Amy King and Ana Božičević announce the third installment of Esque :

REVOLUTIONESQUE

"We asked you to tell us about the revolution," write Bozicevic and King. "We didn’t define what we mean by that. Whether it lives in your home, in the financial district, or the district of your heart, you defined your revolution and told us what it is. Here are y/our findings...."

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Jacket 2 reviews Jenny Boully's not merely...

Amy Wright reviews Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking towards them (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2011) at Jacket 2, for which we are grateful. Not only does Wright locate not merely within Barrie, but manages to bring Byron into the mix, which is always a good idea.

Says Wright: "not merely contributes so rich a reading to Barrie’s text it should be assigned as a prep course for adolescents loosing the anemones inside their chests and a refresher course for fortysomethings who have forgotten the point."

Indeed. Read the full, awesome review here.

Read more about Jenny's book, and buy it, here.

Sarah Goldstein's Fables reviewed at Specter Magazine

Brian Oliu reviews Sarah Goldstein's Fables (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2011) at Specter Magazine, and we are grateful.

Oliu calls Fables a "gorgeous intertwining of allegorical stories presented in tiny fragments, dare I say breadcrumbs!, that display a horrifying yet beautiful world where mayors keep bones in boxes and ghosts enter through the beaks of birds," but Oliu also notes "The language is reassuring, declarative:  that we trust in whomever is telling us these fables, that the world that exists is a world that exists—that what happens here happens, that it will not disappear when someone wakes."

Good stuff. Read the full review here.

Get more info and read a sample of the book.

Huffington Post and Lantern Review examine, praise Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them

At The Huffington Post, poet and attorney Seth Abramson provides a succinct, spot-on review of Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them (along with brief reviews of some other favorite books of ours, including Julianna Spahr's This Connection of Everyone With Lungs and Ariana Reines's Mercury).

Writes Abramson:

Peter Pan was a postmodern tour de force written at the height of Modernism -- and if the very best collections of literary art at least gesture toward their immediate influences, this is undoubtedly the contemporary re-treatment that Peter Pan deserves. Boully has captured the darkness of Barrie's text, and in elevating its inter- and sub-textualities to the level of discourse she illuminates and reinvigorates her source material without sacrificing any of its creepiness, wonder, or violence. Simultaneously metaphysical and visceral, these addresses from Wendy to Peter in lyric prose are scary, sexual, and intellectually disarming.

Read all of Abramson's  December 2011 Contemporary Poetry Reviews

At The Lantern Review, Jai Arun Ravine provides a unique, probing, and ultimately fab review, locating not merely within the contexts of Boully's The Body and J.M. Barrie's "source text," Peter and Wendy, and drawing parallels with Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Small Arguments (Pedlar Press, 2003) and Padcha Tuntha-obas’ Trespasses (O Books, 2006).

Here are a couple excerpts:

“Sewing,” “pockets” and “stories” being things that don’t quite exist in the Neverland, Jenny Boully’s not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them sews pockets in and around the mythos of J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy. Cutting snippets of Barrie’s source text, including Barrie’s Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and events in Andrew Birkin’s J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys, Boully centralizes Wendy’s experience and sews up bits of her story, stitching the make-believe into the made-quite-real. In her pockets, open ends and open endings fit and hover....

Having also read Barrie’s text, I find that the original story is already quite dark and awkwardly twisted. The Neverland is a world of recurring trauma and chronic amnesia, wrapped up in a child’s ignorance, which continues to circle itself. Sexuality is no stranger to Barrie’s story either, but Boully does unravel the hems a bit further, taking a peek at Tiger Lily’s pubes, Hook’s pubic-y beard, Wendy’s panties, poo, peepee and pooper holes.

The realness of make-believe washing, make-believe medicine, make-believe food and make-believe sex—stink, sickness, malnutrition and still-birth—peep through Boully’s stitches.

Read the full review.

Buy Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them directly from Tarpaulin Sky Press and save about $6 off the Amazon price.

New review of Sarah Goldstein's Fables, at The Iowa Review

Poet Nick Ripatrazone at The Iowa Review provides a brilliant engagement with Sarah Goldstein's Fables (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2011), and in the process evokes Ingmar Bergman, the Brothers Grimm, James Joyce, and W.B. Yeats, which works for us quite nicely. Especially Bergman.

"Regardless of the genesis of these prose poems and vignettes," however, writes Ripatrazone, "Goldstein’s vision and approach is wholly new. Her work in this collection is more than translation and transcription: Fables contains poems that whisper tradition but fully stand on their own."

Ripatrazone also discusses Goldstein's "contributions to the organic conversation of narrative form," noting that Fables

might be considered a book of prose poems, but strict definitions only muddle the power of the stories. The works certainly build toward a final line, and yet the profluence of the narrative builds in epigrammatic snippets, crafted with laudable precision. Goldstein opts for the sideways glance, the unfocused focus. What is not told to the reader is enticing: when “dogs of the town lie in a heap and cough, shuddering with every breath,” an entire architecture of apocalypse remains in the silent background. The power of fable, and Fables, has always been folks' ability to give blurry shapes to concrete fears, to convince the listener that the corners of the supernatural can be flushed with light just as easily as they have been shadowed dark.

Read the full review here.

Buy Sarah Goldstein's Fables directly from Tarpaulin Sky Press and save about $6 off the Amazon price.

New reviews of Jenny's Boully's *not merely* at DIAGRAM and Examiner

DIAGRAM Issue 11.5 includes an intelligent and thorough engagement with Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them. Here's a snippet:

unlike in Book of Beginnings and Endings and "The Body," the idea of text in Not Merely Because of the Unknown that was Stalking Toward Them is not being erased. Instead, conventions are being uprooted, turned upside down. Boully establishes complex characters inconsistent in their observations, unfaithful in their desires, untraceable in their animation, unknowable in their thoughts. All of this "unning" undoes the traditional gesture in fiction where the primary character's desire is clearly understood. Boully goes underground to root out the darker desires.

The book is divided by a horizontal line that moves around but usually appears in the middle of the page. One might read what's underneath the like as one does David Foster Wallace's footnotes, all at once. Or, one might read them as they do in Boully's essay, "The Body," and read nothing but the footnotes. But when I started to read them as individual poems, my reading of the book became clear and the premises apparent. . . .

Peter's love of power, his deviousness, his lasciviousness, appear in the original text but it's not until Boully digs them out from the underground, from the subtext of Barrie's work that those characteristics seem so cruel. What does it mean, to say to a woman, never grow up? Is there any curse worse for a woman to grow old? Old is alone.

When you imagine Wendy, you must imagine her at her most lonely. She's twelve, then fourteen, then sixteen, then married. She'll leave the window open; she'll wear the same nightgown; she'll keep whispering stories, stories out the crack of the window, through keyholes, through fissures in the ground. Whenever she hears a twig snap or the fluttering wings of moths, she'll think that Peter's back, but he's never back, at least not for her (6).

[READ THE FULL REVIEW AT DIAGRAM]

Via Examiner, Lisa M. Cole also dives deeply, and smartly, into Berrie's and Boully's divergent approaches to the "same" characters. Writes Cole:

The novel Peter Pan has many troubling aspects when viewed through today’s modern lens. It is often sexist, and too preoccupied with etiquette. Also, rather than being charming, Peter often comes off as too cocky, and Wendy too eager to fit into her predetermined gender role. However, there were a few interesting things about the story, despite these objections.  Take, for example, the severe blurring of roles in the relationship between Peter and Wendy. Are they lovers? Are they mother and son? Are they siblings? This quandary is the emotional center of Boully’s book. As she retells the story of Peter and Wendy, she focuses on the universal theme of unrequited love. The supposedly whimsical and light children’s story transforms into something much more mature, much darker, as Wendy’s feelings of abandonment are at center stage. Most people have felt the sting of rejection that Wendy feels when Peter does not reciprocate her feelings for him.  The fact that the audience can so readily empathize with Wendy’s character is part of what makes Boully’s book so haunting, and so intense an experience. . . .

This retelling is valuable because by bringing the true darkness of the story to the forefront, Boully’s text is not masquerading as something it is not, which is a problem identified in the original. It is not often that a response to a literary work is more successful than the original work, but that is certainly the case with Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them.

[READ THE FULL REVIEW AT EXAMINER]

Buy Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them directly from Tarpaulin Sky Press and save about $6 off the Amazon price.

Sarah Goldstein podcast reading for InDigest; Johannes Göransson interviewed at 3:AM Magazine, with *entrance to a colonial pageant* now featured, and reviewed, at LitPub

Johannes Göransson's entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate is now featured at LitPub, where you can not only buy the book, but read excerpts and a review by Tim Jones-Yelvington .

Founded by Molly Gaudy, LitPub states: "Our mission is to promote a sustainable literary community by introducing readers to authors we know and love. By providing a public gathering place for ongoing conversations, we aim to connect readers, authors, publishers, and other independent artists of all creative disciplines."

And for that and more, we thank Molly and the rest of LitPub's large and awesome crew.

For folks craving more and ever more Göransson, we direct you to this interview with Johannes, via SJ Fowler, at 3:AM Magazine, where you will also find more excerpts from entrance.

Of course, you can always find more from Johannes at  www.montevidayo.com or at our favorite distributors, Small Press Distrubution, where, like a half dozen other TSky Press titles in the past (we boast, shamelessly), entrance debuted on SPD's Bestsellers list, along with Sarah Goldstein's Fables.

And, speaking of Sarah Goldstein's Fables, In Digest Magazine's InDefinite Podcast Episode #22 features Ms. Goldstein reading from her bestseller. Thank you, InDigest!

Irene Flood Update from Tarpaulin Sky's Vermont Home Base

Christian now has a real computer again and will try to answer your emails soon. Thank you for the many kind ones you have sent. We're OK, both E & I, and the cats are also fine. Our house was surrounded by water but did not flood inside, which feels nothing short of miraculous. The bad news is that the damage to our land and out-buildings is pretty extensive, as is the number of things, both personal and business, that were lost down the river. None of which was covered under our flood insurance, we have been informed.

We filled some orders this morning and will continue to do so. You may continue to order directly from Tarpaulin Sky or, if we are out of stock for a specific title, from Small Press Distribution (or Amazon, if you must). Tarpaulin Sky Press is able to honor present contractual obligations, but is unable to commit to any new projects at this time. Please do NOT send review copies, or reviews, or submissions of any kind.

Some photos follow. --Best, Xtian

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Tarpaulin sky press flooded

Main Vermont office hit hard by Irene. All that was green is now a sand dune. Two buildings floated down river. Xtian & E are OK. Will be offline for some time. Please order through SPD. Cant get on facebook from this ipad. Sorry for inconveniences. Best wishes, Xtian

Kristin Sanders at HTML Giant reviews Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown...

At HTML Giant, Kristin Sanders reviews Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them:

Sanders discusses structure and hybridity and all that good stuff, and her engagement is wholly intelligent and insightful throughout--

. . . perhaps most prominent are questions related to traditional gender roles and the budding sexuality of the story’s youth, which every other adaption appears to have dulled down . . .

--though it's Sanders' appreciation of the book's humor that we particularly enjoy:

. . .  [not merely] offers more questions than answers. Who are the Lost Boys, really, and why are they clothed in bearsuits? What’s the history between Peter and Mrs. Darling?  How many other little girls did Peter whisk off to Neverland? How does one properly dispose of Never poo? About Tinkerbell, Boully wonders: “where ever will we get such small medical supplies for you? The Tinker dental dam; the Tinker tampon.” . . .

Read the full, totally awesome review here.

Read more about the book at the following link, where you can also buy Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them for $2 off the Amazon price, with free shipping.

Tarpaulin Sky Issue #17: Free, online

Tarpaulin Sky Literary Journal
Issue #17 / Summer 2011
192 pages, free, online

Click here to read the issue

Published by Christian Peet. Edited by Laynie Browne, Blake Butler, Colie Collen, Sandy Florian, Lily Hoang, Joanna Howard, and Karla Kelsey; with associate editors Duncan B. Barlow, Michael Tod Edgerton, Brian Mihok, Christine Wertheim; along with readers Jac Jemc, Eireene Nealand, Janna Plant, Michael Rerick, Amanda Skubal, Julie Strand, Amish Trivedi, and Laura Woltag.

Cover art by Noah Saterstrom. Featuring work by Scott Butterfield, David Buuck & Juliana Spahr, Roxanne Carter, Joshua Cohen, Stella Corso, Patrick Crerand, Jeremy M. Davies, Sandra Doller, Aaron Patrick Flanagan, Molly Gaudry, Roxane Gay, Anne Gorrick, Janalyn Guo, Daniel Y. Harris, Catherine Imbriglio, Lucy Ives, Christopher Janke, Patrick Jones, Catherina Kasper, Sean Kilpatrick, Thorin Klosowski, Sean Labrador y Manzano, Susan Maxwell, Susan McCarty, Christina Mengert, Anjali Mullany, Christian Nagler, Aimee Parkison, Lance Phillips, Deborah Richards, Kate Schapira, Ben Segal, Donna Stonecipher, Bronwen Tate, Laura Vena, and Max Winter.

Tarpaulin Sky Press New Books, Bestsellers & Reviews: Boully, Goldstein, Göransson

While Jenny Boully's not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them is still a brand new baby, currently "recommended" at Small Press Distribution, toddlers such as Johannes Göransson's Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate and Sarah Goldstein's Fables, we are pleased to report, are already on the SPD's poetry and fiction bestsellers lists.

Nick Sturm, at The Rumpus, reviews Sarah Goldstein's Fables.

‎"Horrifying and humbling in their imaginative precision, the stories of Sarah Goldstein’s collection, Fables, awaken the tension between human and nonhuman in these haunting vignettes. . . . Entering Goldstein’s Fables is good fodder for dreams and the conscience, but be sure not to leave this one laying out for the kids." [READ THE FULL REVIEW]

Karen Hannah, at Open Letters Monthly, reviews Jenny Boully's not merely. (Though, it's less of a review and more of a dissertation. Thank you for your attention, Karen and Open Letters Monthly!)

"Boully’s book subtly reveals how we engage in the act of creating narrative through our reading in order to find our own place within a narrative—in order to be placed within a narrative ourselves—in the same way that we place characters via our definition of them. This makes narrative a kind of place that we look to find ourselves within or that we try to settle ourselves within. We seek it out like a home because it feels familiar or because it began from the origins of something that felt familiar." [READ THE FULL REVIEW]

Fence poet and Capo of the Racine Public Library system, Nick Demske, provides a thought-provoking review of Johannes Göransson's Entrance to a colonial pageant.

"Göransson pays the ultimate penance and shoulders the heaviest burden: to reflect a culture accurately, no matter how disfigured. His art drinks deep of the disease it most fears so that we can learn more from his symptoms. He’s the Poet Laureate of the Coal Mine, our savior canary, dying and producing perpetually death-obsessed art that we might all be spared. So for all its ugliness—all its child predators and body dysmorphia, its castrations, its Ronald Reagans, its hate crimes and artists and anorexia, everything—Entrance is the dubious gift of the diagnosis we’ve been too afraid to confront on our own. It’s embarrassing, it’s frightening, but it’s also potentially the long-neglected first step in addressing a major disease." [READ THE FULL REVIEW]

Joseph Michael Owens, at PANK Magazine, also reviews Göransson's Entrance.

‎"Entrance to a colonial pageant… demands its reader to engage it on a close sentence-to-sentence level and rewards the reader with some truly spectacular prose. Prose that, page after page, begins to infect the reader, begins to parasite the reader as host, parasite the host’s inner child . . . before immolating the host, the reader." [READ THE FULL REVIEW]