MAINLINE SELECTIONS
Another MAINLINE down and now it’s time for me to go on and on about how tired and exhausted I am (when am I not?). Yeah, but that’s nothing new and not like it’s changing any time soon. Rather, I want to take a moment to express my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to not only our MAINLINE winner, Bud Smith, and our finalists–Julia Madsen, Brian Alan Ellis, Devin Kelly, Corinne Manning, and Carleen Tibbets–but also everyone that took part in the contest. It isn’t easy being a writer, constantly flanked by rejection and doubt; MAINLINE isn’t an easy contest, the transparency of the daily frontrunners list, the feeling of anxiety as being a contestant in wait to see if your name comes up. It’s not easy. Really, it can be terrifying. But you submitted anyway, and that shows an amazing amount of courage and professionalism. You’re willing to put yourself out there, even if it means completely shattering your comfort zone. Thank you for taking part in this contest. What’s more, thank you for taking part in our community. Together, we’re coping.
– MICHAEL J. SEIDLINGER
WINNER:
Bud Smith – Same Clothes as Yesterday
FINALISTS:
Julia Madsen – In the Event of Amnesia the City Will Recall
Brian Alan Ellis – Failure Pie in a Sadness Face
Devin Kelly – My Lover, Don’t
Corinne Manning – We Had No Rules
Carleen Tibbetts – Dossier for the Postverbal
From Same Clothes as Yesterday (Bud Smith)
I’ve never been to college. I don’t have any education past high school, but I write.
I’m that weirdo that thinks that anybody can make art and everybody should make art.
It doesn’t matter who you are: Your life can be improved by making some kind of art.
I’ve got no formal training and I’m pretty much the only guy I know working construction who reads books at all, but—
I write.
The closest I’ve come to attending college is NYU when I went there with a crew to torch apart the duct work system (big enough to walk through) in the nether regions of the building.
College was in session at the time and I’d walk through the campus in my work clothes, looking at the kids who went there like they were creatures from another planet.
They were looking at me the same way.
#RECURRENT SELECTIONS
First of all, thank you so much to all those who sent in their inspiring and heartbreaking manuscripts. The response was overwhelming and I’m so glad the call for submissions resonated with so many people. It affirms to me why #RECURRENT exists. It was incredibly difficult though to narrow down the selections. I cried, held my breath, sighed in awe, racked my brain, and was held in wonder. Ultimately, I decided to take on a couple more titles than my initially intended two, and to help me with this cause, I’m also excited to be introducing John Venegas as #RECURRENT’s Assistant Editor.
You guys, I can’t express how excited I am to be bringing these books out into the world. They’re going to blow you away.
– JANICE LEE
#RECURRENT / 2017 SELECTIONS:
Gabrielle Civil – Swallow the Fish
Christopher Higgs – As I Stand Living
Ella Longpre – How to Keep You Alive
Jared Joseph – Drowsy. Drowsy Baby.
FINALISTS:
Jaclyn Watterson – Ventriloquisms
Meghan Lamb – Significant Others
Sara Finnerty – Katherine in the Desert
Joseph Han – Dear Who Abandoned Me
Isabelle Davis – Light Curtained It
Rae Gouirand – Glass is Glass Water is Water
Linda Michel-Cassidy – Welcome to Paradise
Stacy Hardy – An Archaeology of Holes
Excerpts from the selected manuscripts:
From Swallow the Fish (Gabrielle Civil):
To swallow the fish, you had to have something more than a reason. In a way, you had to reject reason itself. You had to have spirit (and perhaps spirits and the spirits too). Especially as a nice black girl, as a strong black woman. You couldn’t just get away with whatever. Hell no. You could be crucified for that, or worse gain a bad reputation. Animal murderer. Race traitor. Nasty girl. Acting crazy. Acting up. Performing. Anything could happen to you. Anything could happen. It couldn’t be pretense or something to do for kicks. It had to be real. There had to be some black art, some power, some need and conviction that warranted that kind of transformation. A particular kind of magic. . .
From As I Stand Living (Christopher Higgs):
Each time a book comes into the world I get really sad. It is a terrible, miserable experience. I dislike it immensely. There really is no reward for it, except posterity. The only thing that gives me any pleasure about publishing books is the knowledge that someone in the future will read it. Now, in this moment, it’s awful torture. Right now I wish I hadn’t published any books. The book comes out and no one talks about it, or if they do talk about it they talk about it for a second and then it’s over. If you talk about it too much you become an asshole. Self-promotion is looked down upon. In spite of that, I post about it and then refresh my Facebook and Twitter pages incessantly to see who has liked or re- tweeted my post, and mostly no one does and this makes me very sad. I am terminally sad when it comes to writing. I hate it. I really do.
From How to Keep You Alive (Ella Longpre):
A bone person, someone you see through. They live alone in a cornfield. When he speaks, what is behind him. Standing, heavy with empty. A creek appears in the frozen ground, he is bleeding. A creek appears in the sky. The father and son are caught in a circle, what happens to a circle under water. When we try to put out the fire. Another way to be locked in a room, another way to be lost in a room. A locked door, He said, why didn’t they break it down.
From Drowsy. Drowsy Baby. (Jared Joseph):
Claude Lanzmann interviews the survivors: He survived but is he really alive Claude Lanzmann asks the translator, asks indirectly his survivor interviewee, instead of asking him directly (though there is no direct, there are only directions, the director chooses them, because Claude doesn’t speak Polish nor Hebrew and the translator does, and because, well that’s the question coming, does Claude speak trauma? Do the survivors? Do the dead?) which I think is really cruel. Why are you telling me this story then Claude asks (I wipe out resistance) Because you’re insisting on it. We don’t get to know why Claude is insisting on it. Why does he smile all the time Claude asks same man, and the answer is mysterious by nature but it’s obvious too to the perceptive viewer, because it isn’t so far from crying, but it is the preferable option, and the survivor knows this and the survivor says this.
THE 2017 CATALOGUE:
(So far. Stay tuned for more exciting news/announcements)
Russell Jaffe – Civil Coping Mechanisms (Red)
Sarah Certa – Civil Coping Mechanisms (Blue)
Chiwan Choi – The Yellow House
Gabrielle Civil – Swallow the Fish
Christopher Higgs – As I Stand Living
Calder Lorenz – One Way Down (Or Another)
Scott Esposito – The Doubles
Ella Longpre – How to Keep You Alive
Bud Smith – Same Clothes as Yesterday
Mathias Svalina – The Depression
Jared Joseph – Drowsy. Drowsy Baby.
Siân S. Rathore – Wild Heather