The fabulous brains over at Burrow Press are taking their 15 Views of Orlando project out of the cyber world and into the streets: the print version of the 15 Views project is dropping on January 31st, 2012.

If you missed it the first time around, Burrow commissioned 15 writers with some connection to Orlando to write around 1000 words or less based on locations in and around Orlando city limits. The idea was to show a side of the city beyond the misconception of tourist traps and swamps. Lindsay Hunter, J. Christopher Silvia, Hunter Choate and many more talented folks picked up the challenge and made the project a weird, bizarre and engaging series.

Burrow is pre-selling copies right now. If they sell 100, it covers the cost of printing and all proceeds after that go directly to Page 15, a reading and writing education center in Orlando that offers free after-school tutoring and writing workshops for Orlando public school students. Great people, great project, great writing, great book. Can. Not. Lose. Click here to buy.

Big ups to Issue Six: Sacrifice contributors Anne Valente and Jim Ruland for snagging a “Notable” mention in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011. Anne got the hat-tip for her story “A Very Compassionate Baby” and Jim was recognized for his story “Fight Songs”. Both Anne and Jim are fantastic writers and these are great stories. Click here to check out Issue Six where the stories first appeared.

You probably already know about BANR, but if you don’t, I highly suggest picking up a copy. Significantly less dry and stodgy than its series forebears Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays, BANR attempts and often succeeds in showcasing writing equal parts provocative, energetic, inspiring and downright fun. Congrats to Anne and Jim for getting recognized by what is clearly a committee with a keen taste for quality and talent. And thanks to the BANR committee for giving it a read!

{photos: Tim Schreier}

We (us, Avery Anthology and La Petite Zine) had a big old time at BookCourt here in Brooklyn a couple weeks back.

A lot of friends came out and showed their friendship publicly. It feels good when this happens. If you’re somebody’s friend you should make it public.

Shooting the breeze with BC manager, Zack Zook. That dude is the dude.

Avery Anthology editor and all-around good human, Adam Koehler.

The great thing about BookCourt is they do a lot of fantastic events, which brings folks in the door and then they gravitate to the beautiful shelves. Hopefully this gets them to buy books cause this place is incredible and it needs to be around for a long time.

The Avery folks brought some original art produced for their seventh issue by Abi Daniel.

The lit mag crew.

Melissa Broder and Dan Lichtenberg from La Petite Zine, they read some fantastic poems from LPZ’s new issue, The Broom.

It’s a bold move to hold a release party for a online mag, all alone up there without a book to hide behind. Mel and Dan are brave.

Avery editor, Issue Seven: Creation contributor, and razor sharp talent =  Nicolette Kittenger.

Avery #7 contributor Jason M. Jones.

Avery editor, Stephanie Fiorelli champions Abi Daniel’s artwork.

Avery #7 contributor Robert Yune.

Adam Koehler pumps up Avery #7. You should check it out, it looks damn good.

Avery #7 contributor Kurt Scott, also finalist for Avery’s Small Spaces Fiction Contest, judged by Junot Diaz (I cannot get over that). Kurt read a great piece about picking up girls in a club, or keeping away from skeezy dudes, whichever way you want to look at it.

Annalemma Issue Seven: Enduarance contributor and indie lit powerhouse Sal Pane represented Anna that night.

I read this piece from Issue Eight: Creation.

Sal read this piece about Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris.

Thanks everyone for coming out!

Barry Grass takes us to Belgium on a journey into the heart of artesian brewer Dany Prignon of the Fantôme brewery. Designer/dressmaker Jen O’Malley walks us through the American history of the bridal gown. Fiction writer Blake Butler talks about the role playing game he invented as a kid. Author/activist Anne Elizabeth Moore shows us the landscape of gender inequality in the world of comic books.

This issue is dedicated to creators, people who make things, people who use ingenuity to work around barriers. To the people who aren’t satisfied with a problem and instead of ignoring it, they face it and try to make it better. This issue is dedicated to the makers of the world.

This item is available for pre-order only. This item will ship July 15th, 2011. Order now and save $5 off the cover price.

If you live in New York and feel like doing some pre-party for independence day weekend come hang out with us, Avery Anthology and La Petite Zine at Bookcourt in Brooklyn.

We’ll be celebrating the release of Annalemma Issue Eight: Creation, Avery Anthology #7 and La Petite Zine #27 The Broom. We will be drinking wine and eating baked goods and listening to ridiculous and entertaining words from readers of our respective publications. And it’s at Bookcourt, which is the best bookstore in the continental United States, definitely in the Western hemisphere, probably the entire planet. What’s that? You’ve never heard of Bookcourt?

Come kick off your independence day weekend with us!

[image: Donya Todd]

Behold, a tentative list of folks we’re publishing in Issue Eight: Creation. Thanks to all these talented folks who felt the desire to submit and those who responded to the call. I’m very excited about the stories and essays we’re publishing in the issue, I’ll be giving some details on each piece in the coming weeks. Also, big thanks to this issue’s readers who helped out big time in whittling these choices down: Sarah Bridgins, Sarah Rose Etter, Justyn Harkin, John Kemmick, Nicolette Kittinger, Eric McKinley, Anna Neiger, and, of course, Dylan Suher.

Also, thanks to everyone who’s helping out with our subscription drive (that’s helping us pay for this issue).

Nonfiction

I Tried Really Hard to Play

Essay: Blake Butler

Images: TBA

How to Make a Bride

Essay and Images: Jen O’Malley

Uncommon Knowledge

Essay: Gina Ishibashi

Images: Amber Albrecht

Phantasmogoria

Essay: Barry Grass

Images: Paul X Johnson

The Measure of Creation

Essay: Amanda Jane Smith

Images: Susan Hope Lanier

Fiction

Win a Chance to Be in my Next Novel

Story: Eliza Tudor

Images: Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo

South Beach

Story: Ryan Rivas

Image: Shannon May

Project

Story: Peg Alford Pursell

Image: Yann Faucher

Autonomous in my Rib Cage

Story: Maggie Ritchie

Images: Donya Todd

City

Story: Paul Kavanagh

Images: Jon Mcnair

Golem

Story: Dov Naiditch

Image: Walter Green

And it was Good

Story: Sam Libby

Images: Joe Gunn

Wigleaf mag announced the Top 50 [very] Short Fiction awards over the weekend and Amber Sparks made the cut with her piece, The Dictator is Drinking Alone, which we published online. Way to be, Amber! We also had some alumni on the long list for their stories: Erin Fitzgerald’s This Morning Will be Different, Brad Green’s Missing the Next Inch, and Ben Loory’s Sea Monster. Well done everyone and big thanks to Wigleaf’s associate series editor Ravi Mangla, selecting editor Lily Hoang and Wigleaf head-honcho, Scott Garson. This is a great list of some damn good writing that’s happening all over the web and I’m not just saying that because Anna is well represented here. There’s some incredibly strong writing on this list and if someone wanted to know where they could get their hands on some of the best short stories on the web I’d send them a link to this list.

Hey, it’s been Short Story Month for five days and I’m late to the party. It seems events and celebrations have been moving along at a good clip over at SSM headquarters, Emerging Writers Network, and at Matt Bell’s Blog so I thought I’d join in the fun.

Everyday Genius has always been an interesting zone, at the very least for the curatorial process involved. For the month of May, Publishing Genius head-honcho, Adam Robinson, recruited Justin Sirois, of Narrow House Publishing and The Understanding Campaign fame, to wrangle in some refreshingly bizarre writing inspired by a selection of animated gifs. Kind of strange task to undertake seeing the gifs themselves are the visual equivalent of a non sequitur. Anyway, most notable so far are Brian Allen Carr and Amelia Gray’s  short pieces. From Amelia’s:

I got sent two excellent collections of writing in the mail last week.

The above is Fragmentation + Other Stories, put together by my Orlando homies Jana Waring and Ryan Rivas under their new imprint Burrow Press. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, just blasted through a few that caught my eye, most notably the flash piece at the book takes its name from by Peg Alford Pursell. She knows the key to a good flash piece is to illustrate those emotions we have that spark up real quick and fade just as fast. Tom Debauchamp’s story about a kid that compulsively says the word “skullfucker” before everything had me thinking it was going to be shocking for the sake of being shocking, but then turned out to pull off a real heart warmer. Full disclosure: I have a piece in here. While I would be psyched if you read it (it’s pretty good), that’s not why I’m pumping this collection up. Jana and Ryan are taking the initiative to start a small press for Orlando and the surrounding area, the place where I’m from and a place that doesn’t have that sort of thing. They’re taking a step towards creating an outlet for writers in that area, something that I didn’t have when I was there, and all that makes me feel good. Buy this one, it’s good writing from good people.

Issue Five contributor William Walsh was good enough to send me a copy of this collection he put together with Ampersand Books called RE: Telling – An Anthology of Borrowed Premises, Stolen Settings, Purloined Plots and Appropriated Characters. Issue Six contributor Matt Bell lends his magic to the immortal Mario Bros. in  Mario’s Three Lives. Another contributor from the same issue, Jim Ruland, takes the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme to the seedy underbelly of Amsterdam and the morally ambiguous terrain of adulthood. This collection is all about fun, a chance to watch some of your favorite writers (Blake Butler, Roxane Gay, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Shya Scanlon, Molly Gaudry, Michael Kimball, Lily Hoang and more) take some pop culture figures and tropes and have a good time flipping them on their head or pushing them to limits you’d never imagined they could approach. Pick this one up if you enjoy reading.

We’re all ready for NerdFest 2011.

You know you’re a nerd when you’re very excited about a book stand you made. Thinking about making more/selling them. Not sure if there’s a big demand for these though. Want one? Hit me up in the comments.

Very excited to be sharing a table with the fine folks at Avery. Come hang out with us! We will be at the following places on Thursday and Friday nights, respectively: