Authors
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Killer Poetry
We’ve had killer fiction on our radar screen for a while. Now here comes the tragic tale of… killer poetry! A former teacher was detained in Russia’s Urals after being accused of stabbing an acquaintance to death in a dispute about literary genres, investigators said Wednesday. The 67-year-old victim insisted that “the only real literature is… Continue reading
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Small Press Shout-Out: Akashic Books!
Here we go! Back to Brooklyn for another small press shout-out. This week, we look at Akashic Books, which describes itself as a Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks… Continue reading
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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love CreateSpace (Okay, Okay, I’m Still Worried)
Readers, you have been extremely patient. I know not everyone is on board with the Kindle or other e-device. Curiously, I’ve heard from a lot of people who once had a Kindle and have stopped using it. One wonders what the future will bring. In the meantime, I’m trying to make my books available to… Continue reading
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What They Knew #27
“A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle…” – Vladimir Nabokov Continue reading
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Popova on Lightman
Just when I get beyond my fear of falling into a black hole, along comes Maria Popova to throw me back into a cosmic tailspin. In the title essay of his excellent The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew, which also gave us this beautiful meditation on science and spirituality, Alan Lightman points… Continue reading
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Fantastic Poem Breakdown: “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” by W.H. Auden
Taking a break from the Terrible Poem Breakdown series this week. Instead, we’re focused on Nina Martyris’s wonderful look at a classic poem by the great W.H. Auden. More than just a close read, Martyris’s essay provides what amounts to a biography of the poem in the hands of multiple poets: The poem was W.… Continue reading
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Small Press Shout-Out: Ugly Duckling Presse!
A presse! We’re obviously big fans of the extra e here at the Jacke blog. But there’s more than just creative spelling going on over at Ugly Duckling. There’s the logo (Toyota-like in its ability to combine the presse’s letters into a recognizable symbol). But none of that matters as much as the catalog. And… Continue reading
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What They Knew #26
Just realized that yesterday I posted what may be the darkest, most morbid post yet. On Valentine’s Day. Hey, at least it had “love” in the title! In any case, let’s look at something more optimistic. “Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how… Continue reading
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Small Press Shout-Out: OR Books!
A refuge for renegades, OR Books was founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson (the O and the R), who together have published an impressive roster of authors in their careers, including Tariq Ali, Andrei Codrescu, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn, R. Crumb, Cory Doctorow, Andrea Dworkin, Eric Hobsbawm, Abbie Hoffman, Lewis Lapham, Gordon Lish, Rigoberta… Continue reading
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Blurbs That Will Not Be Appearing on My Book
Readers! Still trying to get the print version of The Race out there. It’s taking longer than I’d hoped. I do have one blurb lined up and a couple more in the hopper. I wish I had another one finalized to share with you (since Mondays are “Jacke News” day), but in the meantime, here… Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 