Last night Issue Eight: Creation contributor Blake Butler rolled into Brooklyn to promote his new memoir Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia. I found out about it at the last minute, grabbed my camera, hopped on my bike and high-tailed it to BookCourt to catch the dude.

Here’s the thing: Blake knows how to read. If he ever comes to your town or remotely near you, it’s in your best interests to check him out. Reading in front of people is performing and there’s no two ways about it. You need to give as much of a shit about reading your words aloud to people as you do putting them on paper. Blake knows this, that’s why I like watching him do his thing. He knows how to spit fire.

Here’s some video from last night. My card ran out of space about halfway through, just as it was getting very good. Apologies for the abrupt ending. You’ll need to pick up a copy of his new book to see how this piece ends. Judging by what I saw last night, you won’t regret it.

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{Image by Walter Green, excerpted from the story “Golem” appearing in Annalemma Issue Eight: Creation}

Out of the blue, I got an email from Walter Green earlier this year requesting to work with Annalemma. I clicked over to his site to check out his work and immediately recognized some of the images. His work has made an impact as of late in our world of literary small press publishing, most notably at The Rumpus, McSweeneys (where he works as a designer) and the new food quarterly, Lucky Peach. I dig the overall vibe of enthusiasm, delight and unpretentious excitement permeating Walter’s work.

I had a chance to speak with Walter over Gchat about his work, where he gleans inspiration from and the perils of working in an office with x-acto knives and water coolers.

Annalemma: So how’s your day going? Can you talk about what you’re working on?

Walter Green: Sure, my day’s going well! I’m a designer at Mcsweeney’s publishing in San Francisco, and there are a lot of little branches that go along with that and a lot of different hats to wear, etc. So today, I’m working on designs for a few of our magazine/quarterly type projects, mainly this thing called Lucky Peach, which is our new food quarterly with David Chang. Besides that, I do interior design of books, book covers sometimes, book ads, press releases, and lots of little things. But today, mostly editorial design for this food magazine. Also, I am the DJ.

A: That’s amazing. So how’d you land this job?

WG: Well, I interned there a while ago, and never really did a lot of design stuff. I had the desire to do design but no experience really. So I did some things for free for my friend’s bands or their business ideas and what have you, and kind of amassed a little portfolio. Then I moved to New York for a while and helped out at a small but fertile design studio and made my portfolio a little stronger. And when I eventually moved back to San Francisco, I started doing some freelance design and that seemed to work out okay for us all. So after a while they asked me to be a junior designer and I quickly said yes!

A: That’s rad, I have to say I’m really jealous.

WG: Well, it’s fun but often really tough and exhausting.

A: About five years ago I was obsessed with McSweeneys.

WG: Then what happened!

A: I started getting more and more involved with the publishing world, started digging deeper, seeing what was out there, seeing all the presses that were doing cool stuff. I still love what y’all do, but my focus is spread out so far now.

WG: Sure, of course!

A: I thought McSweeneys was the only game in town worth a shit, for a long time.

WG: How long has Annalemma been going on for?

A: We’ve been putting stuff out for four years. But I always looked to McSweeneys for design inspiration, so when I heard you were a designer there I was immediately curious about what that’s like.

WG: Well, it’s fun and exhausting as I said. It’s a two-person design team, essentially. There’s me (I think I’ve dropped the junior from my title now) and an amazing art director named Brian Mcmullen. So we do the bulk of the work, with other people helping out when they need to. Everyone here has some idea of how to work indesign/photoshop/what-have-you.

A: I’ve always been blown away by the ambition and scope of the design work. Where does the driving force come from to make things look so good?

WG: Well, I can’t say for sure for everybody else here. We’ve never sat down and had a real conversation about why we make things look the way we look. Why not put some effort in to make something look good if you can? I guess you could also say that we like to make our things look the way they do in hopes that people will buy them, read them, keep them, etc.

Also, just on a personal level, I think we’re all very interested in trying out new things and new ways to present content, just to keep things fun for us. By the way, the design of your magazine is incredible. The clarity of design is really inspiring. KUDOS, is all!

A: Thanks man, I wish I could take credit for that, it’s all my designer Jen O’Malley, she’s really talented. She comes up with a lot of the ideas, I’m more of the philosophy guy in the background trying to make sure that nothing looks like it’s a part of disposable culture, trying to make it something that people will want to keep around for a long time.

But enough about me, how long have you been drawing?

WG: Since I was a small child, I guess. Though there are always long periods of inactivity–even today–when I don’t draw for the longest time and end up sort of completely forgetting how it’s supposed to be done.

Yeah, it’s tough to talk about drawing. I’m not very good at it, but it’s somehow become a part of what I do, just because I’m so interested in it. I wish I could be the kind of person where my brain and my hand are totally connected and I can draw whatever I can imagine. But it’s probably just not in the cards for me, so in my illustrations that I work on today, I don’t rely on the regular stuff that actual talented artists use. I’m kind of just grabbing whatever is around and throwing it all together and hoping that something sticks I’d say I’m more of a DESIGNER-ILLUSTRATOR than a straight-up-drawing-dude.

A: I like how you incorporate your drawings into your design work though. I’m cruising around on your site here and all your work at first glance just looks like it’s a lot of fun. Like fun to read, fun to work on.

WG: Yeah, I guess being even slightly talented at illustration is a huge boon to the kind of design work that I want to do, so I’m able to fill in holes where necessary in my design and it’s good to not have to rely on an illustrator.

A: What are some design resources that pump you up? What are the daily places you go to that are doing good work?

WG: Hey, hold on a second!!! “BRB”

A: k

WG: SORRY! people are looking for x-acto knives.

A: No problem.

WG: I like to visit that site 50watts.com for a lot of incredible vintage/classic/bizarre/whatever design work. I like to visit the sites of other designers I like. but mostly I like going into Dog Eared Books near my office here and obnoxiously browsing their covers! And a lot of inspiration comes from the people I worked with/have worked with/the work they’ve done.

A: Who are the designers you’re a fan of?

WG: I’ll forget people but some of my favorites are: Paul Sahre, Leanne Shapton, Rodrigo Corral, Paul Buckley, John Gall, and the aforementioned Brian McMullen.

There are a lot more who have sites that I’ll check out, but it probably means something that those are the first names I think of when asked about designers I like.

A: Yeah, first impulses are usually the best. Like I was saying before, I’m really digging the work on your site cause it all looks fun, how do you maintain that attitude? My designer and I can work on something for days and weeks and sometimes it can be hard to keep fresh eyes about it. I guess I’m asking what drives you, what do you want the audience to feel most of the time?

{pause}

WG: Hey sorry I was absent, I was changing the water cooler

A: Sounds busy there today : )

WG: I guess as a designer/illustrator I am going on a project-by-project basis. Some things that are, you know, more light-hearted and fun can be appropriate for some silly colorful hand-lettering, while other projects call for a more serious illustration/type treatment/design treatment/what- have-you.

Mostly, I’m hoping that the design can reflect the content in some way. That’s when it comes to editorial design/cover design/illustration and stuff. As for, how to maintain a happy and fun feeling while designing, I’m not sure that it’s possible all the time.

There’s definitely a large part of what you were saying earlier in what I do, where I’ll start a project and think it’s the greatest thing in the world. You know, ten weeks later, it’s hell. And I hate the whole thing, and I still have to carry on the fun feeling.

A: Haha, yeah when the excitement wears off.

WG: Yeah, definitely. But, I guess I’m lucky in that the littlest things are able to bring me design-excitement, something as simple as just changing one color to a design I’m “tired” of can make me love the project all over again, sometimes. And it’s also good that at my job, I have a wide range of things I can work on, so I can put projects down, and pick them up later and my hatred for them has died down.

A: Haha

WG: And I start to remember them fondly. And even miss them a little bit.

A: I hear that, I keep trying to do that, look at things from a different perspective in order to see it in a new way. I do that a lot with writing, like a story might not be working at all and it’s complete shit in my mind but something will click, like I need to change the perspective from third to first and everything will come together. I love it when those breakthroughs happen.

WG: Yeah, of course, little things like that that bring a clarity to the whole thing and can sort of show you the light at the end of the tunnel are the greatest.

A: So what’s the next release we should look out for? What’s good on the McSweeneys roster?

WG: Welp, I’ve been doing a little more editorial illustration work for a few different clients and that’s been fun. I do a weekly illustrated column for the bay citizen (a nice journalistic website focusing on the bay area) where I review different events that happen. So tomorrow I’ll be going to some sort of yard sale and then drawing the people I see there.

Beyond that, I’m mostly focusing on this food quarterly thing here that is shaping up to be great. This is the second issue, so we’re gonna be able to tighten up everything a bit from the slightly loose style we established in the first issue. And that’s fun because I’m able to do hand-lettering, or type design, or chalk drawings, or vector illustrations–just whatever the articles call for.

A: That’s cool.

WG: Yeah, beyond that, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to give the secret scoop on whatever stuff Mcsweeney’s is doing. But I can say that whatever it is, we’ll be trying to make it look nice!

A: Awesome, well, I can’t wait to see it whatever it is. Thanks for talking to me, Walter.

WG:  Hey thanks for thanks for letting me do some work for your recent issue! I loved that story.

A: I’ll get that mag out to you soon, I spilled a big cup of water on a stack of personalized thank-you letters to contributors I was sending out with mags and I’ve been putting off rewriting them so I think that’s why you haven’t got yours yet.

WG: Gotta hate those big cups of water! No worriez!

A: Cool man, well thanks again and I’ll be in touch.

WG: NICE! Talk to you later bud! We’re CHAT-PALS NOW!

A: Haha, indeed we are, talk to you soon.

Click here to check out Walter’s work appearing in Annalemma Issue Eight: Creation.

{Here’s us}

Hey New York! It’s nice out, right? Fall’s here. Means that old bastard Winter is around the corner, he’s gonna make us stay in doors for three months and question why the hell we live up north. Nothing to do but read some books. Come out the the BBF this Sunday and get a jump on all the stuff you’d like to put in your mind grapes for the hibernation.

Us and Avery Anthology will be at table #71, pimping out our latest wares to all the hungry brains. Come see us! And come see Amelia Gray read at the St Francis Auditorium at 5pm. I’m going cause Amelia is radical and always fun to watch. See you there.

{image by Walter Green, excerpted from the story “Golem” appearing in Issue Eight: Creation}

Issue Eight: Creation contributor DovBer Naiditch is many things: husband, father, writer, rabbi. He imbues all the things that encompass those roles into his writing. In his story “Golem” an old rabbi creates a mud golem for no particular reason who ends up doing menial tasks like yard work. The golem quickly begins to question his existence and take interest in a strange neighbor lady next door.

I had the chance to speak with Dov over gchat about religion, the search for truth, rabbinical studies and mud golems. Enjoy.

Annalemma: Hello Dov, are you there?

Dov Naiditch: Hey, yeah.

A: Great, are you good to chat for a little while?

DN: sure

A: Cool, so I ran into a friend of yours a few months back. I didn’t know you knew Sal Pane.

DN: Yeah, yeah. we were in class together. He’s a sweetheart. Justa kind of cool and open guy.

A: He’s a good dude, what school was that?

DN: University of Pittsburgh.

A: Are you still in the program there?

DN: No, I just graduated in the spring.

A: Congratulations, was it an MFA or undergrad?

DN: MFA in fiction.

A: How’d you like it?

DN: It was a very good program. I don’t have much else in comparison, besides for those charts people put out every now and again, but it gave me everything I needed from a good program.

A: I understand you’re a rabbi as well?

DN: Yes, yeah. I got my Rabbinate in a seminary in Israel.

A: Which came first, the desire to be a writer or a rabbi?

DN: Shoot, that’s a good question. I don’t know. Let me try and explain. First, I guess, to become a rabbi in the community I grew up in isn’t a huge deal, I think. It’s not really expressed as a calling or anything. Jewish law is very complex and intricate, and when your as deep in it as I am, it’s kind of a necessary prerequisite to become one. Many of my friends in my community, for example, have received their rabbinates (though some haven’t and make a point of not doing so).

That being said, my desire to become a rabbi ties very deeply into my expression of myself as a religious person, and so it’s a very central part of me. But then, my decision to become a writer has also been a central part of me. I remember writing in rabbinical school, little bits and scenes and segments of things that caught my eye, or constructing stories. And of course the two are far more intertwined than that. I mean, they both stem from a central desire to find and define G-d.

A: That’s really interesting. Do you teach or lead services?

DN: No. That kind of rabbi you might call a pulpit rabbi. I don’t have a congregation or a community. Rabbis in the most basic sense are qualified definers and determiners of religious obligation in all of its facets. A rabbi, in this sense, is much like a lawyer. He determines what situation is right or wrong (and not just moral situations, but structural situations as well)

If you’re familiar with Kashrut, for example, no mixing of milk and meat, no eating of pig. Well, what if you’re mixing a huge pot of milk and just a little grease from a steak falls in? Is it all bad? A rabbi is called to research the Talmud and additional texts to determine if indeed it is bad (in that particular case, if the grease is less than 1/60th of the milk, than you may still drink the milk). Stop me if I’m getting too off the path.

A: No way, I’m really interested in this stuff. I have a Christian background so I relate to people on a spiritual journey. I’m especially interested in ones that are different than mine. I never thought to draw the parallels between writers and students of religion. But at heart, it seems like they’re both diggers, trying to get to the truth of life.

DN: Hah, all I ever do is draw parallels. I mean, at it’s heart it’s telling stories. Both religion and writing.

A: Right, we’re all trying to determine the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of existence.

DN: Yes. I was at a reading once by A.S. Byatt and she said something about how the novel was the first truly agnostic form, that it arose from the 16th century reformation and ideas about finding G-d on your own, or questioning G-d’s means. Because to believe in G-d is to believe in the ultimate story, that there is a plot to all of this, that we are characters. And so to write, I think, to create your own story–to say, this is how it should be–is definitely an act of questioning.

But since G-d tells a story with us, and in telling stories we are creating in the image of G-d, then in some way in writing, we are creating ourselves in the image of G-d, and so it can be a mystical and reaffirming quality as well. At least, this is what I think.

A: That’s an interesting way to put it, most people from my faith would just call what I’m doing hethanistic secularism Does your writing ever come into contention with your faith like that or do you get judged for those sorts of things?

DN: Most people in my faith would probably call it that, too. But I don’t do it for them. And hecks yeah, I get judged. And I’m sure some of it even comes from a good place. Or a place that wants to be good. But yeah, my writing does come into contention with my faith, all the time.

A: What do you do when that happens?

DN: I know it’s a good story.

A: Hahah

DN: Right?

A: Yeah.

DN:  (Take) the act of charity, for example: there’s a lot of argument, in both of our faiths, about charity, because it is at it’s heart an implicit rejection of G-d’s design. When a man gives charity he’s saying G-d’s plan isn’t working. And he has to step in and fix it. It’s the ultimate form of hethanistic secularism. And yet it’s an essential part of all faiths. So what’s the deal?

A: Yeah, life is full of contradictions, religion being just one area, one garden of contradiction. Navigating them is the conflict. Therefore, it’s where the material is at for writers.

DN: Yeah. Although, honestly, in my writing I’m never nearly as absolute as I am in this conversation.

A: Haha, yeah it’s hard to be that forthright and hard lined in fiction. People most times don’t want that in fiction. So you kind of have to make your messages termites. There under the surface, a little bug digging through the readers brain.

DN: That’s a good analogy. [Ed. note: wish I could take credit for it]. But also, it helps not to have a message. Or to not know what it is yourself.

A: Right, it usually comes in the form of an impulse.

DN: Yeah. Nothing should be clean. If it’s clear cut, you’ve lost it. And that’s not just for your reader, I think, but for yourself.

A: Yeah, I think it goes back to the writer/theologian thing: we’re all diggers and even when we’ve found something that makes sense we still don’t stop digging. There’s always more to learn, more to know. The more our spheres of understanding grow, the more we learn that we know even less that we thought we did.

DN: Yeah. That’s a good way to put it. These are some of the things I don’t like about religion, the morality plays, the bows on top. The this is what we’ve learned (types of stories). They institutionalize inspiration.

A: I agree, it’s impossible to put a bow on the larger questions. I wanna steer this in a different direction before we run on too long. I wanted to talk to you about golems. They’re a re-occurring theme in literary fiction, why do you think that is?

DN: Shoot, again it’s about creation. But here it is a bit different. It’s about the not-quite-right, I think. At some point, I think, every writer writes something and says this feels so right but it’s not alive. It’s got everything in the right place, you know?

A: Right, like it doesn’t have a soul yet.

DN: And this is something we all come across. When I was trying to write more realistic fiction, to accurately describe my surroundings, I always felt that way. At some point it stopped being watching a frog jump around and started being dissecting it. So I gave up. Which isn’t to say that there aren’t writers out there who do it well. I’m very jealous of them, people who can put a soul in setting. Why do you think Golems are popular?

A: I think the idea is appealing to writers because a golem is a blank slate, you can make him whatever you need. And you’ve got a built in story already there that a lot of people know, so some of the legwork is done for you. Plus it’s just weird! A big mud man walking around.

DN: Hah

A: Such an evocative image, something that speaks to a need in our brains. A need for a protector, I guess. I don’t know, is that really offensive?

DN: I think you’re right though. Sadly, i guess. There is a desire in all of us to just have some one around to do whatever we want, a kind of primitive desire to lord it over others. Maybe a golem is just a socially acceptable thing to do so with.

A: What’d you think of how it was handled in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay?

DN: Honestly, I hate to admit this, but I never read that book.

A: Dude. You gotta read that book.

DN: I know (Micheal Chabon) graduated from Pittsburgh, and I loved the Yiddish Policeman’s Union. I’ll get it this weekend.

A: It’s an incredible read, you won’t regret it.

DN: I know I won’t. I never do regret reading a novel someone suggests. It’s always the getting around to it that smarts.

A: Yeah, that happens with me too. The first 100 pages of some of my favorite books have been the hardest to get through.

DN: Right? I always promised myself that when I wrote a novel it would be exciting all the way through. I just read “Atmospheric Disturbances” by Rivkah Galchen and it was good overall. But man I had to grit my teeth through some chapters.

A: Did you find that the teeth gritting was worth it?

DN:  In a way. It’s a novel that delivers the kind of vague impulse that short stories should deliver. In that way it makes very good. But also I felt like it could have been done in 12 pages.

A: Huh, that’s interesting. Sometimes novels are work, man. And I think that’s okay, a reader can usually sign on for work as long as it has a payoff. It’s got to have a payoff.

DN: That’s why I like Chabon. He knows a novel should have a payoff.

A: I think talking about payoffs is a good place to call it an interview. Thanks for talking to me Dov.

DN:  Oh, man it’s been a pleasure. It’s nice to sit down and actually break down some of those thoughts that have been percolating for so long. Lets do this again. Maybe next time we can talk about the actual story ; )

A: Hah, you got a deal, great talking to you too. I’ll let you know when this thing posts, probably tomorrow or Thursday.

DN: Sweet. Be well. Great job with the magazine, by the way, I’m really honored to be in these pages with some of these awesome writers and artists.

A: Thanks man, glad we could have you, it’s a great story. I’ll be in touch.

Click here to check out Dov’s Story in Issue Eight: Creation.

We had a flood last week and a few boxes of mags got destroyed. We decided to slash prices to get rid of some of the inventory and a lot of folks took advantage the savings over the weekend. Today’s the last day to join in though, so check it out:

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Your order will be free of water damage. That is a PROMISE.

Offer ends tonight at midnight EST.

Waters from the heavens have been coming thick and fast this week in my neck of the woods and the studio done flooded, damaging a few boxes of mags. This sequence of events let me to the conclusion that I have way too many boxes cluttering up my space. So for the rest of the week I’m putting stuff on sale in the hopes of clearing up some room and delivering some powerful words and images into your brain. Here comes some deals, people!:

$5 off subscriptions.

Regular subscription price = $25.00. Flood sale price = $20.00. That’s a DEAL.

$3 off Issue Eight: Creation.

Regular cover price = $15.00. Flood sale price = $12.00. That’s a DEAL.

$5 off Issue Seven: Endurance.

Regular cover price = $15.00. Flood sale price = $10.00. That is a DEAL.

$2 off Issue Six: Sacrifice.

Regular cover price = $10.00. Flood sale price = $8.00. That is a STEAL.

$2 off Issue Five.

Regular cover price = $10.00. Flood sale price = $8.00. That is a STEAL.

Issue #4 or Issue #3 FREE with any purchase.

Specify which one you want when you order. That should be ILLEGAL.

Your order will be free of water damage. That is a PROMISE.

Offer ends Monday, Sept. 12

This happened over the weekend. A lot of people got pissed off. Some of them had good reasons, some of them didn’t. Seeing as it’s pretty much over, I don’t have anything to add to the conversation other than to say, all that time spent talking and thinking about something like this could have been spent so much more productively, like making something like this:

People like to talk about this stuff because controversy and outrage are a fun distraction from doing work. But it’s easy to forget that it’s just that, a distraction. These are the sorts of topics on the internet that get more hits than any fiction or poem that’s published on the web and further perpetuates the devaluing of art and writing in the world we live in. Bothering yourself with “controversy” like this is taking the place of writing and creating something that will provide a service to people long after you’re gone. There’s so many other things in this world worthy of your ire and scrutiny. In five or ten years, no one is going to remember these flare ups of our small corner of the world. You probably barely will as well. What will matter is what you created. What matters is what dig for and what you make out of it and how it effects people.

It’s easier to talk about creating than it is to create. You think that guy in the video spent hours and days ruminating over the state of the dance world? He probably just danced his ass off.

Let’s stop talking and start doing.

{hat tip to booooooom for the video for “Pop Culture” by Madeon}