Dear Reader,
Welcome to Issue Thirty-Two of The Collagist!
This is one of our biggest issues ever, and there's so much to tell you about: First up is that our 2012 Collagist Chapbook Contest is now taking entries Entries in all genres, including short stories, flash fiction, novellas, poetry, and non-fiction. Manuscripts for all genres should be between 35 and 80 pages in length. The winner will be published by Dzanc Books, plus receive $250 and 25 author copies.
Our 2011 winner, [Spoiler Alert] by Laura Eve Engel and Adam Peterson, is out now, and already approaching being sold out. So get your copy of [Spoiler Alert] today, and also send in your own chapbook for a chance to win this year's contest.
In Issue Thirty-Two, we have new fiction by Rachel Levy and Luke B., and from returning contributors Nate Pritts and Gabe Durham. We also have our biggest excerpts section ever, with excerpts from five books releasing this month or next: Syzygy, Beauty by T Fleischmann, Flatscreen by Adam Wilson, Echolocation by Myfanwy Collins, The Sensualist by Daniel Torday, and Ark Codex ±0, published by Calamari Press.
Instead of our normal non-fiction offering, this month we're printing most of the presentations given in Chicago for the 2012 AWP Conference panel titled "Villains and Killers and Criminals, Oh My: Representing Evildoers in Literary Fiction," which included essays by Lauren Groff, Eugene Cross, myself, and Reese Okyong Kwon, who organized this panel. (The Collagist would like to congratulate both Lauren and Eugene on their new books out this month: Lauren's second novel Arcadia is out now from Hyperion, and Eugene's debut collection Fires of Our Choosing is out from Dzanc Books.)
Our poetry this month includes work by Karrie Waarala, Stephanie Lenox, and Terry Blackhawk, as well as the second of two poems we've published this winter by Kevin McIlovy (the first appeared in Issue Thirty-One).
This month's creative audio selection comes from d., who describes the project as a "gallery, or exhibit, of four audio collages concerning the inmate uprising of August 21, 1971, San Quentin State Prison, California."
In book reviews, we have coverage of Baby Geisha by Trinie Dalton (reviewed by Mark Snyder), The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabakov by Paul Russell (reviewed by Adam Gallari), Night Soul by Joseph McElroy (reviewed by Joe Milazzo), Of Lamb by Matthea Harvey (reviewed by Mitchell McInnis), A Shotgun Life by Amye Archer (reviewed by Ansley Moon), and Damascus by Joshua Mohr (reviewed by Matthew Wollin).
As always, thanks to all of the above contributors for being a part of this issue, and thanks to you and all the rest of our readers for visiting us this month. I hope you enjoy the issue!
Sincerely,
Matt Bell
Editor
The Collagist