You can buy a copy by clicking on the Buy tab above and following the easy, easy instructions, or just click here. Contributors, be on the lookout for your free copy, and feel free to buy one for everyone you know.
Also, since I’m such a slackass, the next submission period starts tomorrow. Jesus. Anyway, while that’s going on we’ll also have interviews from the writers for Issue 7. Thanks for your patience, and good luck!
Finally, you can now purchase Issue 5 (just in time for Issue 6’s submission period to start). To buy, click the Buy tab above or just click here. We’ve got poetry by Lindsay Doukopoulos, Sarah Kravitz, Jacob Euteneuer, Chiyuma Elliott, and Art Heifetz, fiction from Carly Berg, and cover art by Zakk Maher, below:
The title of the photo is “Portrait of the Artist as a 4 Year Old.” Figured it was a fine picture for our Innocence themed issue. Big thanks to Zakk for at least saving me the last minute scramble for cover art that I had to do for each previous issue. Contributors, thank you, and be on the lookout for your issues (and money, for some). Readers, please hand over your measly three dollars for an issue or five.
New submission period starts tomorrow! Author interviews next week (probably)!
First:
Another fine submission period is over with, and now I start the arduous task of deciding the contest winners and putting the issue together (which, due to a computer failure and my distrust of cloud computing, will have to be done from scratch). So, hold your submissions until November 1, and start saving up your pennies for this issue. I figure it’ll be out in a week, but we’ll see how my work/play balance works out.
Regardless, thanks to everyone who submit their poems and fiction and especially art, which came in spades this time around. Every time I’m down on this whole thing (usually after reading a poem about the environment with rhyming couplets), I get a submission that makes it all worth it.
Second:
Late but never unwanted, we’ve got our last interviewee from Issue 4, Karrie Waalara, who gave us her poem “Reunion” to publish.
Describe your work in 25 words or less.
Tiny snapshots of life (some mine), mostly disguised as persona or how-to.
Tell me about your poem “Reunion.”
“Reunion” is one of the rare poems of late that doesn’t fall into either of the two categories above. It’s just the snapshot, no disguise, of that bittersweet moment when a former love finally truly becomes a friend. It’s easy to say, “Oh, sure, we stayed friends after we broke up” — but in reality it can take a circuitous route to get there.
What or who inspires you to write?
Almost any little glimpse of life can make me want to write. I keep those moments filed away in notebooks or in the back of my brain until they find the right poem. As far as actually sitting down to do the writing… lots of other things I “should” be doing can make writing irresistible. Villanelles are more fun than cleaning the garage or giving the dog a bath.
What authors have influenced you as a writer?
I was just telling one of my creative writing classes that when I look back at my early writing, I can tell exactly whose work I was reading at the time. All of that young, eager imitation. I hope that the influence isn’t as transparent now… but the long list would include writers like Anne Sexton, Marge Piercy, Lucille Clifton, Patricia Smith, Thomas Lynch, Sandra Beasley, Sandra Cisneros…
Do you have a blog/website?
I’m online at www.poetrysideshow.com.
What are you working on right now?
I seem to be at one of those in-between times lately in which the new ideas are percolating. Those can go on for months for me before the work comes pouring out. I’ve been using the time to focus on revising my manuscript of circus persona poems and trying to find it a good home.
Any advice for other writers?
Read. Read, read, read. And then read some more. It’s impossible to be a writer without being a reader.
Well, that was a short month. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy of Issue 4. We’ve still got a few copies left, so get them while you still can; it’s a fine way to see what Bop Dead City is in the business of publishing.
There will be a contest for this submission period, only I haven’t thought of the theme yet. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Anyway, I look forward to reading everyone’s submissions, so send them along. Good luck!
For the first time in my life, someone will be interviewing me. On June 11 at , I’ll be a guest on The Secret Lives of Stuffed Animals, talking with Stumpy and Mister Bear. We’ll be talking about Bop Dead City,and I’m told there may be MadLibs, so check it out Tuesday, June 11 at 8 PM at http://www.bostonfreeradio.com/the-secret-lives-of-stuffed-animals.
As a side note, I’m so nervous about this. For one, I’m afraid of making a complete ass of myself (more than usual, I mean).
But on the other hand, it fulfills a goal of mine in a sense. When I was a kid in New Hampshire, I had big dreams of being a rock star in Boston, and so I consumed everything I could about the Boston music scene: CDs, message boards, etc. Copies of The Noise and The Phoenix procured from the Newbury Comics in Manchester and from the frequent trips to Boston were poured over, the names in them growing to mythical proportions in my head: Jess Klein (who broke my fragile,stupid teenage heart when I found out she was a lesbian), Freezepop, Melissa Ferrick, Noelle, Waltham, Scissorfight, and so on. I watched/listened to many of these bands, in lieu of actually going into these clubs at fourteen or fifteen, by tuning into the late RadioBoston.com, which not only had a radio feed but also live footage of shows at clubs like The Middle East and Club Passim, and I liked to imagine myself on those stages, my band in those concert listings, and our CD in the reviews section. I guess BostonFreeRadio.com is a spiritual successor to that site. So…kind of fulfilling a childhood dream by appearing on The Secret Lives of Stuffed Animals? Pressure.
Point being, either listen to me live out my dream or listen to me crash and burn in a blaze of awkwardness. You can’t lose, people.
Our last contest was such a success that I wanted to make contests a regular thing for Bop Dead City. The last contest was for flash fiction and poetry to recognize our ranking as one of the fastest responding publications, according to Duotrope (if you’re not a member, just trust me when I say we’re quick), but I didn’t want to repeat myself. So, I needed a theme.
The first story I ever got published was set during the summer. Specifically, it’s set on a summer night in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, where I’m from. The season lends itself to sensuality, for one: the smell of sweat, the taste of saltwater, the way chlorinated water burns in your eyes. When many of us were kids, it was also a long stretch of unstructured free time, which seemed to lend itself to experiences both good and bad. For example, my first kiss was in the summertime, and my first (only, promise) arrest was in the summer too.
So there it was. I figured summer was something we’d all experienced in similar but different ways, and everyone had a story to tell about it. Not to mention, the issue’s going to come out in at the beginning of the worst part of summer, so the timing was nice as well.
Obviously, we’re still looking for the best fiction and poetry out there even if it isn’t about summer. Last round, we published lots of stuff that wouldn’t have qualified for the contest, and I’m sure this issue will be the same.
BUT if you’re interested there’ll be two prizes, one for fiction and one for poetry. The submission guidelines are the same as for any other submission, it just has to be about summer in some way: summer as the setting, summer as a subject, even Summer as a character’s name (or if you want to get way out there, the personification of summer as an actual character is an option). Twenty bucks to the winner of the fiction category, and twenty bucks to the winner of the poetry category, just like last time. The deadline for the contest is the same as the general deadline: July 1. Just mention in the body of the email that you’d like to have your story/poem(s) considered for the contest.
As the saying goes, a life without love is like a year without summer, and who the hell wants that?
I finally got it printed and now all of you can buy a copy (or 12) for three bucks. We’ve got poetry by Knar Gavin, Elizabeth Cook, Natalie Byers, Linda M. Crate, and Georgia Bellas, with fiction by Olga Zelenova and Jim Eigo. All you contributors should receive your issues (and prize money, for some) at the beginning of next week.
But seriously, I’m awfully proud of this issue. I mean, I didn’t really do anything aside from pick what went in it, but I think I did a damn fine job of that. (Someone read the issue and said “there’s really good poetry in here,” and I replied “Thanks” like I had written it all. I’m such a dick). So by all means, forgo your venti latte or half of your next crack rock and buy an issue so you can read them all.
Also, Issue 3’s interviews will be posted soon, so keep an eye out for smart answers to the stupid questions I pose to Bop Dead City’s lovely authors.
Straight to the bullets:
1) Reading new and interesting things, and learning about people. Everything people submit is, at least I think in some way, an extension of themselves, and I’m a nosy bastard who wants to know your business. What can I say? The South rubbed off on me.
2) To feel like I’m doing my part in the literary community. Another way of saying this is to say I feel like I’m accomplishing something here.
3) To help other writers in their quest for…whatever. Fame? I guess. Wealth? Maybe not, or at least I’m not getting rich (I figure we’re at about $-40 or so at this point, but whatever. It’s about the words, man). Mostly, just to acknowledge to a small percentage of other writers out there that, yes, you did a good job, you’re good at what you do, and this deserves to be recognized in some small way. Even though Bop Dead City might be small potatoes, at least it’s something to snack on until your main course, right? Or in a less tortured way of speaking, who doesn’t like seeing their work recognized for having some merit (whiskeypaper.com sometime in March, keep an eye out for me, holler at your boy)?
Anyway, the point is, it’s a symbiotic relationship you and I have. I can’t publish you if you don’t submit, and if you don’t submit I’ll have nothing to publish.
So, read the guidelines, get your shit together, and fill Bop Dead City’s inbox on February 1.
Well here it is. The great cover art is “Curve in the Grid” by Jack Galmitz. The horrible layout job is by me. I swear, I did a better job on the inside. The authors, obviously, are those who are listed on the cover, but the table of contents goes something like this: Continue reading
Bop Dead City 