Makeout Creek Issue Four: It Exists!

...and it will be on sale THIS THURS, FEBRUARY 3 at the Makeout Creek table on the bookfloor of AWP Washington, DC. With copies for sale at the Makeout Creek/Oh No Books reading at Comet Ping Pong that same evening. With online/bookstore sales to follow ASAP...

Here are some pages!

Makeout Creek/Oh No Books Reading at AWP DC

MAKEOUT CREEK
& OH NO BOOKS
Thursday, Feb 3, 2011
8:00 pm

FEATURING
Clay McLeod Chapman
Adam Clay
Carol Ann Davis
Tarfia Faizullah
Noah Falck
P.J. Gallo
James Hannaham
Cynthia Grier Lotze
Marie Potoczny
Emma Rathbone
S.E. Smith
Leigh Stein
Rebecca Wadlinger
& Gina Welch

COMET PING PONG
5037 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20008

Car or foot: two miles north of conference hotels on CT ave.
Metro: to Van Ness/UDC, then head north on CT Ave.

Titus Wins, We Say!

Makeout Creek editor and all-around terrific poet Allison Titus has just received an NEA grant for Creative Writing in Poetry. We couldn't be prouder! Also picked for the list of recipients is Issue Two alumnus Anna Journey. Our deepest congratulations to Allison and Anna!

(You can read recent poetry from Allison here at Blackbird.)

Signs of Life!

Makeout Creek has a new website! Clunky as always! And Issue Four hits in November! Stay tuned...

Ryan McLennan = Winner

We're a little late posting the news, but, dammit, we want the world to know: artist Ryan McLennan has won the West Prize. Among his body of amazing work is the cover for Makeout Creek Issue 3, pictured above. Nothing too competitive: this year there were like 2,100 entries from 78 countries. So, a walk in the park for the young Mr. McLennan. Here's an article about the finalists.

Our sincere congratulations to Ryan!

Poteat Gets Cold

Makeout Creek editor Joshua Poteat has recently been interviewed by Coldfront, an online magazine about poetry. The discussion centers largely on Poteat's recent book Illustrating the Machine That Makes the World, but takes some nice sidetracks into his life in Richmond, VA.

Our favorite:

"On Martin Luther King Day, which is called Lee-Jackson-King Day in Virginia, a group of Civil War re-enactors 'guard' the Lee monument in honor of him. One day I will rent some Union uniforms and attack them and send them back to whatever time machine brought them here."

Makeout in RVA

Jonny over at RVA Magazine has just published an online interview with editor Andrew Blossom about Makeout Creek. Maybe a little something to hold you over until Issue Four magically appears? Our thanks to Jonny and everyone at RVA!

Some Pix from AWP Denver

Over on our Facebook page we've posted two albums of photos (albeit crummy iPhone-quality photos) from Makeout Creek's recent visit to AWP in Denver, CO. Hit the links and you should be able to check them out, even in spite of the Facebookiness of things. Also: above is a jpeg of one of the signs we made to advertise the Makeout Creek table, with Issue Four cover by Oura and line art by Aaron Johnson.



The first album features all the readers from the Diode/Makeout Creek reading at the Jones Theater in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, organized by the wonderful Patty Paine. If you enjoy harshly-lit out-of-focus photos, this is the album for you! Above, poet Abayomi Animashaun.



The second album is a bit of miscellany from the floor of the AWP bookfair. Above, Issue One contributor S.E. Smith ("Advice for Fur Drill Novices").

AWP Denver Reading: Wednesday!

Makeout Creek is hosting a reading with sister publication diode in celebration of AWP Denver. THIS WEDS, April 7, 7:30 pm, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts's Jones Theatre! Denver, Colorado! Readers include Abaymi Animashaun, Mary Biddinger, Kara Candito, Tarfia Faizullah, Anna Journey, Cynthia Lotze, Sabrina Orah Mark, Clint McCown, Karyna McGlynn, Joshua Poteat, Nate Slawson, Mathias Svalina, Allison Titus, and G.C. Waldrep. See you there!

New Poster for AWP Denver!

Makeout Creek will be holding down a table at this year's AWP conference in Denver, CO. Come by and see us -- we'll have magazines and buttons. Delightful buttons! More exciting, however, will be the poetry reading we're cosponsoring with our friends at diode. Posted above is the updated poster for the event, which will take place Wednesday, April 7th at 7:30 pm in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts's Jones Theatre. Thanks to Patty Paine and the students of VCUQ for the design!

We'll post more AWP news as the conference begins. In the meantime, hope to see you there!

Makeout Creek at Virginia Festival of the Book!

(In a manner of speaking.)

On Friday, March 19 at noon, Makeout Creek editor Joshua Poteat will be reading alongside David Caplan as part of the VQR Poetry Series, hosted by Ted Genoways. The event will take place in the UVA Bookstore, and more information can be found on the VFB site, here.

On Saturday, March 20 at 10 am, MC editor Andrew Blossom will appear as part of the panel "Capital Offenses: Richmond, Virginia and Richmond Noir." This event will take place in the Lewis-Clark Room of the Omni Hotel. Blossom will discuss his work on the recent entry in Akashic Books' Urban Noir Series alongside contributors Dean King, Howard Owen, Hermine Pinson, and David L. Robbins. More information can be found at the VFB site.

Should be fun! Look at them. They're very serious young men.

Magill on the Big Screen

Our congratulations to Makeout Creek contributor Tyler Magill (Issue One, "Now I Believe You" and "The Sober Horse Thief"), who appears in the documentary The Parking Lot Movie, which just had its sold-out premiere at SXSW and was recently featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Click here for the trailer. Directed by Meghan Eckman, the film features several Friends of Makeout, although Tyler is the only actual MC alum. We sure are proud of them all!

Diode, Makeout Creek Take Denver!

That's right -- diode and Makeout Creek contributors will be reading poetry during this year's AWP in Denver, Colorado. The event will occur Wednesday, April 7 in the Jones Theatre of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. More information soon -- meanwhile, thanks to diode's Patty Paine for this awesome poster!

Blossom in the News!

Editor Andrew Blossom (center, above) is out gettin' press for his new book (also as editor), Richmond Noir. For more information, check out the publisher's site.

Makeout Creek 4: The Cover

Here it is! With art by Oura. Click the image for a larger version.

We're working on this puppy. We promise! Stay tuned.

Makeout in 2010

By this point it should come as no surprise that we're holding off on Issue Four of Makeout Creek until the first part of next year. "No surprise" because if we were going to publish it this year it'd be out already, yeah? And it's not. No, it's not.

A lot of thought went into this decision. Here was our primary motivation: we took so much time designing Makeout Creek 3 that the issue missed its original print date and didn't come out until June 2009, i.e. halfway through the year. It was clear we'd really have to scramble to put together another issue in 2009, as the process usually takes several months. We decided, ultimately, that it wasn't worth it to risk compromising the quality of the thing. Not worth it to us, the ones shelling out the dough to have these puppies printed, and not worth it to you, the ones putting down your cash to have a look inside.

What does this delay mean for upcoming Makeout Creeks? Not much. We'll resume twice-a-year publication with the 2010 issues, and of course we're moving ever closer to the debut of the Makeout Creek Books line with R. Nicholas Kuszyk's Jammer Slammer, to be released in 2010.

In the meantime, consider the above a sneak preview of Makeout Creek 4, which will feature cover art by Oura Sananikone. This is not the cover -- we just want to give you a peek at one of Oura's killer designs! The official cover image will debut HERE on the blog in January, with Makeout Creek 4 itself following in late February/early March. Check back in with us, why don't ya?

Happy New Year, everybody!

XO,
MC

Titus, Poteat, Svalina: Go!!!

So right now it's just turned Friday and you're probably all, "Whoo-hoo it's Fuh-ryyyyy-day, beeeotch!" And with good reason. But, listen, we all know the truth. This euphoria fades. In three short days you're going to be all, "Sheeeeeeeeeeeit. It's Monday." Makeout Creek is here to propose a remedy. On Monday, November 23, poets Allison Titus, Joshua Poteat and Mathias Svalina will be celebrating the releases of their newest books with a reading party at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond, VA. If you've ever read the masthead on Makeout Creek (hell, if you've ever read this blog), then you know that Allison and Joshua are editors at our little publication. They're also amazing writers and we couldn't be prouder of 'em. Also: we have it on good authority that this Mathias is one hell of a poet. Plus the dang thing's co-sponsored by our friends at Chop Suey Books. So come on out, everybody! Afterwards, maybe we'll even hit $2 draughts at Ipanema?

Titus's Ship Now Available to Order

Makeout Creek editor Allison Titus's new book of poetry, Sum of Every Lost Ship, is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. It's being published by Cleveland State University, where Allison was a finalist in the 2008 CSU Poetry Center Contest. Go ahead and order one, why don't you? We're biased, sure, but trust us: this is one good book. You'll be doing yourself a solid.

Check Turley's Hook (While the DJ Revolves It)

Ben Turley is a good friend of ours here at Makeout Creek, and until recently he worked as a butcher at Marlow & Daughters in Brooklyn, New York. It was there that he laid the charm on Martha Stewart and friend:



And the funny thing is, before that clip even aired, Ben flew the coop from the Marlow Girls. He's currenty starting his own store with butcher Tom Mylan and partner Brent Young. It's called the Meat Hook, and -- New Yorkers! -- it opens this week as part of the Brooklyn Kitchen Labs. Check out their blog for more information. There's also a brief New York Times piece here.

Congratulations, Ben! We're proud of ya! As Martha says, "So lucky to have a real butcher taking care of this beautiful meat!"

The Walls of Academia Are Surely Shuddering

Ho-lee cow. Amazing news! Thanks to the kind efforts of Archival Assistant Gay Acompañado, the first three issues of Makeout Creek have been added to the Special Collections and Archives of the James Branch Cabell Library at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.

What does this mean? Simple: if you've contributed work to Makeout Creek numbers 1-3, then that work of yours is archived and shall be preserved in published form at the Cabell Library. Forever. Or until society collapses, whichever comes first. It's the kind of honor not often bestowed on a young magazine, and it pretty much blows our minds. Rest assured that, now that we're hooked up, we'll certainly attempt to force future issues of this thing into their hands.

Say, want to know more about the Richmond author for whom the library is named? He was a pretty racy fellow. Special Collections and Archives has an extensive overview of his career here.