Library of Unwritten Books

In the words of this project's curators: 

"Library of Unwritten Books is a collection of possible books. Short interviews are recorded with people about a book they dream of writing or making. Limited edition mini books are published from transcripts of the interviews, which are made available to readers at exhibitions and special events. Touring book-boxes also display the books at everyday venues such as cafés, pubs, libraries and launderettes.

The concept was inspired by a fictional book repository featured in The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 by cult American writer, Richard Brautigan. The novella’s main protagonist is a librarian who catalogues any book deposited in his care. All authors submitting unique titles, such as Growing Flowers by Candlelight in Hotel Rooms and The Culinary Dostoevski, are accepted and shelved. After Brautigan’s suicide, fans started real libraries of unpublished books."  


Nice.  

Here it is.

'I shall say what inordinate love is' from Poems on the Underground

Bits of Poems on the Underground, London's subtler relative of Leiben's wall poetry, are archived online here.

The collection includes a 15th Century poem by an anonymous author called 'I shall say what inordinate love is': 


I shall say what inordinate love is:
The furiosity and wodness of mind,
An instinguible burning, faulting bliss,
A great hunger, insatiate to find,
A dulcet ill, an evil sweetness blind,
A right wonderful sugared sweet error,
Without labout rest, contrary to kind,
Or without quiet, to have huge labour.

The Wall Poems of Leiden

A very interesting discovery here:

The Wall Poems of Leiden

It's one of the boldest and most in-your-face poetry projects I've ever come across.  Time for other cities take a leaf out of Leiden's book, eh?

Chilly Gonzalez - The Grudge

A world class pianist and a world class performance poet ... what a ridiculously talented guy ...

Jack McCarthy

The poetry of Jack McCarthy was brought to my attention by the Indiefeed poetry podcast's tribute show.

Lots more at Jack's website, http://www.standupoet.net/

Crisps by Randolph's Leap

Open Book Publishers

Great to discover this academic publisher, who make their books available to read online for free...

In their own words:

"We are an independent academic publisher, run by scholars who are committed to making high-quality research available to readers around the world. We publish monographs in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and offer the academic excellence of a traditional press, with the speed, convenience and accessibility of digital publishing."

Woohoo!

Here's the link. 

2013 SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN

I'm pleased to announce that Philistine Press submissions are open once again (after a few months break).  

The guidelines are on the website, but I've reproduced them here, just for the hell of it... 

Submission Guidelines 

Please familiarise yourself with the work on the site before submitting (www.philistinepress.com). 

We are looking for book-length fiction and poetry submissions - novels, novellas, poetry and short story collections - not individual poems or stories.   Non-fiction submissions will also be considered if they sit well alongside our other releases.   

Submissions are accepted by email only – please send your work to philistinepress@gmail.com.  Write the word “Submission” and the title of the work in the subject box.  Write a short description of the work in your email, and a short biog if you wish.  Please send as an attachment, preferably a Word document.   

We are interested in original, unconventional work that does not fit comfortably into any one genre.  We like genre fiction – crime, sci-fi, fantasy, etc – but if you are submitting this kind of work, we want you to do something new, not just echo what has gone before.  The same applies for literary fiction, which in many ways is a genre in itself.

Please be aware that if your work is accepted for publication, it will be made available for free, and you will not be paid for your efforts, other than through voluntary donations.  If you’d prefer to actually make money from the venture (and we can’t blame you for that), please submit it to a publisher that pays! 

Potential contributors are welcome to a donation on the understanding that it will not increase or decrease your chances of appearing on the site.  

Evelina Rudan: A Convincing Garden

So, this is the title poem from Evelina Rudan's poetry collection, available to read for free online through Bloesk ...

Read the whole thing here.

a convincing garden




through the main entrance, down the hallway

to the backdoor leading to

the garden

a very convincing garden

one can visit any time

usually you won’t find me there

usually you won’t find anybody there

(but you can always leave a message on the answering machine

or write a note)

you can sit on the bench beneath the window

eat without compulsion

and gaze

from the same bench

having a splendid view of the garden

garden resembling the atrium of the Franciscan monastery

(imaginably at Trsat where people confess at the Feast of the Assumption)

but this garden is a particularly vibrating one

plants having their special beat

at any time of day and night

pulsating with calm vigour and discreet energy

only ivy being more restless and fernery less fluttery

but not making the garden

less convincing

Happy New Year 2025

This is a message for the two or three people from the future who clicked on this long-forgotten post having Googled "Happy New Year 2025". 

Greetings from twelve years ago. 

Spooky eh?