I'm extremely excited to be working with Publishing Genius on bringing their outdoor journal to Nashville. Is Reads is such a great idea and I'm sure a great reading experience, and we're thrilled to be involved.
SmokeLong is one of my favorite websites (if you're a smoker and you find yourself bored while you smoke, then this is the site for you). I hadn't planned to mention the new issue of SmokeLong since it's been all over my RSS reader today, but I was happy to see Rosanne Griffeth in the list of contributors and wanted to direct you to her story, Memento Mori. She lives in the eastern part of Tennessee, which is where I spent just about every weekend and large chunks of summers growing up. Her stories are like memories. And they're really good. Be sure to check out the interview too. Four of her stories are in the current issue of Keyhole.
A SmokeLong editor had this to say about Shellie Zacharia, and I'm going to have to agree...I'm usually just about this happy to see her name anywhere: "I have a bit of a crush on Shellie Zacharia. It's kind of embarrassing, actually. I see a story by her and I clap my hands and squirm in my seat and lean in closer to the screen, or the page, until the words enter me as if through osmosis. See? I'm excited just by the thought of a Shellie Zacharia story!!...What is it that I like so much about her? She's fun. She never bores me. Even when her stories are serious, they still have that authentically delightful Shellie Zacharia quality. (Apparently her name is pretty spectacular, too, because I can't quit saying it.) Anyway... thank you, Shellie, for gracing us with your presence."
On June 16th, Keyhole will be hosting a Bloomsday celebration at the Keyhole headquarters in Nashville. Bloomsday is a celebration of the greatest book ever written - James Joyce's Ulysses - and its main character Leo Bloom (the entire novel takes place on June 16). So if you happen to be in the Nashville area on June 16th, come and celebrate with us and throw down a pint of Guinness - 7pm. If you would like more information, including directions, send an email to jon@keyholepublications.com with "Bloomsday" in the subject line.
If you show up and aren't wearing green socks you will be asked to leave (unless you have Guinness with you).
"If you want me to write your life story (on a postcard)—and trust me, I want to—then send me an email (postcardlifestories@gmail.com). Tell me your name, age, where you were born, where you have lived, what you do (jobs and hobbies), what you study (if you're in school), what you want to do with your life. Tell me about any important events in your life, any life changing decisions, any strange things that have happened to you, anything that makes you particularly you. I will follow up with questions, then write up your life story, and mail you the postcard so you can put it up on your refrigerator with a magnet."
We're out of copies of issues 1 and 2. We aren't planning to print more for a while, if ever. Though they are for sale at Powell's Books, so add Keyhole to your order and save on shipping. issue 1 is $4.95 and issue 2 is $10
Having just moved to Nashville 9 months ago, I've found myself feeling obligated to dig back in to musicians and artists that I associate with Nashville: music city. While there's plenty of horrible music in Nashville these days, the heart of the city seems to remain healthy with folks like John Prine and Emmylou Harris constantly feeding it. A few months back I was able to snag a front-row seat at the Station Inn to see Mr. Prine and Mac Wiseman perform for Bill Cody's radio show, early on a Friday morning. Bill introduced me to John and we got to talking about poetry. John admitted that he was ashamed for quite some time that he wrote songs, even though he had done so long before he finally told anyone. Prine mentioned several artists that he admired, and one of them was Iris DeMent; he has done several duets with DeMent and I recently picked up her first album: Infamous Angel. Since its release in 1992, her song, "Our Town," has become more and more popular, maybe because it's becoming more and more relevant. My fiancee and I moved to Nashville from a tiny town in south-central Montana, and experienced a place where "town" = a library, a 5-isle IGA, a post office and a bar. I've decided that Nashville ain't so bad, traffic and all. But I just might find myself back in Big Sky country after a while...
Noel Sloboda currently lives in Pennsylvania, where he serves as dramaturg for the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival and teaches at Penn State York. His poetry has appeared in a number of places, including Chronogram, Waterways, BLOW, Cape Rock, Blue Earth Review, Ghoti, Free Verse, erbacce, and the Ottawa Arts Review.
This summer sunnyoutside will be releasing Noel's chapbook, Shell Games.
We take all things Keyhole-related very seriously...here's an example of our dedication to making things happen (note from the interviewer, Brandon Schultz): "I decided that I'd conduct the interview at work because it’s quiet in the afternoons after everyone leaves. So I chose the small conference room and got all of my stuff in there: laptop, power cable, mouse and mouse pad, a can of soda. I stepped outside to get one last thing and the door shut and locked behind me. I started freaking out a little because the interview was in fifteen minutes. I pulled and yanked on the knobs and crammed credit cards into the crevice of the door, anything I could think of to get inside. But of course I didn’t get the door open. A guy that works evenings in the lab, came down the hall and asked if he could help. He tried everything I tried—crappy library cards in the door slot and an unfurled paperclip in the keyhole. But then I got an idea: go through the drop down ceiling in an open office adjacent to the small conference room. I had a stepladder in my office, but it was far too small, so Stephen offered to let me climb on his back. Now I’m sure this looked rather funny: I’m about 130 pounds soaking wet and Stephen is closer to 300 pounds (also, as an aside: he looks exactly like Kevin Smith and is always eating chocolate cake and reading the funnies). Anyway, I heaved myself over the giant walls and came pummeling down to the ground like John Candy hanging Christmas lights. Hurt my ankles a little bit and had a whole bunch of insulation in my hair, but I was otherwise ok. The interview went well. Noel’s a nice guy, and you'll get to hear him talk thanks to my catlike reflexes and my ninja skills."
We've recently added Micah Ling to our editing team. She has been a big help and she reads faster than the rest of us combined. She's also a very good writer (poetry and fiction). You can find some of her stuff at these journals right now:
Poetry forthcoming in Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine Poetry forthcoming in Harpur Palate, Summer 2008 Poetry forthcoming in New Southerner, Summer 2008 Poetry in Flyway Magazine, Spring 2008 Poetry in Fifth Wednesday, Spring, 2008 Poetry in wind: a journal of writing & community, Spring 2008
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