The Jargon

Thieves Jargon 203

2010-10-22T10:32:00.003-04:00

Bang-up job by Dan Scannell and the rest of the editorial team putting this month's issue together. Any time we can lead an issue off with Spencer Dew, we're in good shape. Spencer's one of our favorite writers, and it's been all too long since we've seen him in these pages.

Also great to Carl Miller Daniels back with the big dicks.

I'm also surprised that it's taken this long for indie-circuit wrestling to make its way back to TJ, but I'm glad it's back.

Also liked the work from this issue's newcomers, especially the late-night city creeps in Where Do You Go? and Lara Konesky's mother/son/Jesus flash The Second Coming.

Happy Halloween, everybody.

Thieves Jargon 202

2010-09-03T10:52:00.003-04:00

Contrary to popular opinion, Thieves Jargon still lives. Dan Scannell and Joe Goosey have done a good job of pulling together another installment. I'm particularly fond of Anelise Chen's Life is So Many Olympic Exertions #2, KJ Hays' Birdfeeder, and Gretel My's Various Value-Added Products, Various By-Products, which has a Delphine-Lecompte like feeling to it.

Speaking of Delphine Lecompte, I was excited to sell a dozen copies of Kittens in the Boiler to Brown University, where the book will be taught to undergrads this fall. Thieves Jargon has gone Ivy League.

Still more Delphine, as she's resurfaced in a brief interview at The Damned Human Race:
Part 1
Part 2

Speaking of The Damned Human Race, they also have a three part series outlining the development of the cover for Kittens in the Boiler, as well as the cover artist's Belgian meeting with the author in question:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Speaking of Thieves Jargon Press, Mike Boyle has a new story published at Red Fez, an excerpt from his Dollhouse sequel.

Speaking of Red Fez, I said goddamn, there are a lot of Jargon alumni in their fall issue... Brent Poweres, Luis Rivas, Karl Koweski, Josh Olsen, Steve Wheeler. Might be worth checking out as you wait for 203.

Thieves Jargon 201

2010-08-04T20:17:00.003-04:00

Any thoughts on Thieves Jargon 201? I'm personally trending toward Robert Kloss' The Loam (where the hell did that come from?) and Megan Roth's two poems, in specific, "The Airshells."

As always, I leave the rest of the discussion up to you.

Issue 200

2010-07-05T13:11:00.002-04:00

Eric Jones has been with us since Isssue 1.

George Sparling has been with us since Issue 10

Joel Van Noord has been with us since Issue 81

Kenneth Mulvey has been with us since Issue 85

Randy Dalzell has been with us since Issue 104

Josh Olsen has been with us since Issue 124.

Thanks for reading all this time.

Thieves Jargon 199

2010-05-09T10:31:00.005-04:00

I'm pretty sure I sent the singer in the band above a copy of "Kittens in the Boiler" when it came out. You can plainly see the influence in the scene.

Welcome to Thieves Jargon 199. Scannell brought together some interesting fiction that I really enjoyed. Stove Hands starts with a guy burning his hands on a stove and gets weirder from there. Danny Sadsack and Razor Wire give the the gift of the city. Matt Salesses has Epidemics stories popping up like funky rashes, and I like seeing one in TJ.

As for the poetry, a lot of sex, only nobody's having any fun. Miller Daniels dick poems always make me laugh, I kind of wish I knew about somebody paying homage to the female anatomy these days quite like Carl dedicates to the men.

In other news:
Joel Van Noord acts like a woman.

Mark Baumer is walking across the country.

Cats are pretending Natasha Henstridge's death had an important impact on their lives.

Headz the Novel by John Colagrande has sparked a bidding frenzy.

Enter Joe Goosey

2010-04-23T09:49:00.002-04:00

"Hey Matt. Funks occur. Three hangovers in four days ain't bad. I had a massive one last week that set me back about a full business week. Katie had to come find me on the side of a main road eating an omelet with my hands."

Happy to announce Joseph Goosey is coming on as poetry editor for Thieves Jargon. I've been a big fan of his work for a while now (city-kid imagery mixed with self-awareness and longing), and I think he's only going to get better moving forward. If he can identify poetry that's somewhere in the same neighborhood of interesting as the poetry he writes, we should be in good shape.

Viva le Goose!

Million Writers Award

2010-04-05T21:49:00.003-04:00

Million Writers Award is underway again, always one of the coolest times of the year for this tiny sector of the world. I'm happy to say that Andrew S. Taylor's vagina dream That Which Dreams Does Not Sleep picked up a notable story mention and will be representing Thieves Jargon. We'll find out in a month or so if it makes the cut to the top ten. In the meantime, there were a ton of other Friends of the Jargon who got nods as well, including:

Mel Bosworth
Kevin Wilson
Kevin Spaide
Fortunato Salazar
Crispin Best
Richard Grayson
Tai Dong Huai
Greg Ames
Matt Bell
Zdravka Evtimova
Mather Schneider

Congratulations everybody!

Thieves Jargon 198

2010-03-15T19:52:00.002-04:00

First off, huge thanks to --Ed. Dan Scannell, who undertook the site redesign project. We've been talking about this since before he came on board, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Paramount for me was changing the font from that tiny Arial to something bigger and easier to read. Everything else was more or less his idea. I like the new organization of the authors and artists and links. The horizontal layout is a nice touch. We'll see if we get any traction on the ads. Like the new color scheme. Something for Dan to be proud of accomplishing.

But everybody knows that looks aren't everything, so I'm happy to know there's some substance underneath that pretty head of hair as well. Personal favorites from issue 198 include Renaldo's All-Night Shave, Having a Heart Attack, and Brown I. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time in a long time that we've had an issue made up entirely of first-timers.

And dig that innocently innapropriate cover art. Promise mommy you won't sit on Uncle BJ's lap.

Issue 200 is coming soon. Any special plans?

Thieves Jargon 197

2010-02-04T20:56:00.004-05:00

Dan Scannel made it made it worth the wait. Adam Rothstein has a bone infection. Quentin Collier has something different growing on the inside. We also have Joe Goosey, who I think is one of the more interesting poets in current operation. If you like his poem, I recommend you check out his chapbook A Comfortable Place with Regular Sunshine. In adddition, Drew Jackson's short short Sisyphus of Anacostia ends on a rare high note. And Sean Jackson's Not Even Jail take the bold move (for the online writers) of actually covering a large amount of ground.

I do hope you'll enjoy. And when you're done here, there's always Madore's Lit Dispatch, which just dropped Issue 19.

And how about a little trip through the archives, because Madore dragged me out to Amherst to hang out with Mike Young, editor of Noo Journal, where we drank beers with Mel Bosworth, and these two fellows:

Ben Kopel, whose Poem strapped to the radiator for making too much racket is one of my absolute favortes.

Gabe Durham, whose Eight Times in the Everywhere set the stage for my late-summer, 2008.

Madore left a hat in my car, which I've been wearing around. I'd like to tip that hat to Andy Riverbed, whose blog I'd be happy to shamelessly rip off any old day. Hope you make it up to Boston, even though the winters would destroy you.

In the meantime, Joel Van Noord's book "Surf Music Travel Sex" should secure agency representation in the next few months, and Kenneth Mulvey's new poetry manuscriupt is sitting on my desk as well. Plenty to do, plenty to get done...

Thieves Jargon 196

2009-12-28T14:53:00.002-05:00

Issue 196 went live sometime over Christmas weekend, and it's a good one. Love the expat and the Russian girl in Tanya's Bare Legs, and the JS Khan's demon monoglogue. Caroline Kepnes always brings her fastball, and Carl Miller Daniels is as gay as ever.

Dig it.

Why you cryin'?

2009-12-24T09:56:00.001-05:00

Holly jolly, y'all.

Poetry editor needed

2009-12-16T09:54:00.003-05:00

I'm sad to see Spencer Troxell moving on, he brought a thoughtfulness and perspective to the position that I really enjoyed. But co-editors are made to go on to other things, and I don't really mind that.

Poetry editors work in conjunction with --Ed. Dan Scannell to read, evaluate, send rejection letters, and accept an occasional piece of work for Thieves Jargon. You'll correspond with lots of nice writers and a few disgruntled ones. You'll read enough work that yours will only get better.

We're looking for somebody that's been published in Thieves Jargon before, and therefore knows what we like to publish. You need to have an appreciation for street-level writing, MFA-grade craft, and an eye for that one unique line.

Interested candidates, please send an email to thejargon at gmail dot gom, listing a few of your favorite poems, either from our archives or links to other journals.

Punk Rock

2009-12-06T13:16:00.001-05:00

Iggy Pop weighs in on the issues of heart and craft.

Thieves Jargon 195

2009-11-28T12:26:00.002-05:00

Love the "Horse Slump" piece by Rhodes Stevens. Nice to see xTx, the internet's biggest tease, lurking around these parts. Big ups to bowling alley representation, always welcome in these parts, especially the candlepin variety. Thomas Mundt's "The Creep" hit me right. Good issue, gang.

Xgiving

2009-11-24T11:07:00.002-05:00

Eat pie, drink wine.

Catalogue of Childhood Fears

2009-11-16T22:56:00.002-05:00

Dock Ellis

2009-11-15T10:02:00.000-05:00

Bleach is 20

2009-11-08T17:47:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween

2009-10-30T10:25:00.001-04:00

Issue 194

2009-10-26T14:08:00.001-04:00

Read and discuss.

Shreddin'

2009-10-22T14:27:00.002-04:00

My kids someday will be doing stuff I’ll never understand. People ten years younger are already leaving me in the dust.

If you haven’t already, check out Andy Riverbed’s blog. He doesn’t update often, but when he does, it’s an event. Embedded music, translations, links to his own work, links to other people’s work. In a lot of ways, this is better than a literary journal, it’s more of a magazine. Punk rock aesthetics. I’m especially enjoying his new collection up at Read Some Words, a journal I haven’t heard about until now but which publishes some poet I admire. The poems inMissed Connections and Casual Encounters were all published originally in that cool journal Craigslist. Public performance at its finest.

Now Madore’s Dispatch has incorporated audio, with original songs included with each issue. Issue 14 gets me excited because the author, Ian Singleton, is in the writing portion of the grad program I’m a part of, and I’m pretty good friends with the girl who edited the piece. He’s also getting his work out there.

And somewhere down the road, once I get Mark Baumer’s new book. Wait, Mark Baumer has a new blog about life as a getting-paid member of the Brown University MFA program?

“We are selfish and feel entitled to add to the world's clutter. It is our right to do exactly what we love, and to do it as well as we please.”

Chonto

2009-10-15T14:38:00.003-04:00

"I did what I had to do... I injected heroin into the monkey's head."

This is something I found on a Wholphin DVD. I can't recommend Wholphin enough. This quarter's issue features a Joseph Gordon Leavitt-directed adaptation of an Elmore Leonard short story starring Eric Stoltz and Xander Berkeley.

Darrin Oliver

2009-10-11T15:28:00.003-04:00

It's always a treat to go way back and read Steve Shea's Ode to Darrin Oliver, especially because Darrin Oliver is still pitching.

Related link: Carl Everett. Everett doesn't belive in dinosaurs and once headbutted an umpire. He was traded from the Red Sox for Darrin Oliver.

Science geek take note

2009-10-08T23:31:00.003-04:00

All this talking about Wired magazine and did you see they're going to crash a satellite into the moon just to see what happens and you can watch NASA chase-craft coverage in about eight hours? Why didn't they tell me about this before now?

NASA TV.

How to get an author published

2009-09-29T19:45:00.002-04:00

From: The Jargon
Date: Monday, March 12, 2007 12:06 AM
To: Vagabond Press
Subject: query

Is Vagabond Press accepting manuscript submissions?

I edit an online literary journal called Thieves Jargon (www.thievesjargon.com). One of my better writers has a manuscript of short stories, I thought I'd ask around on his behalf. The guy's name is Spencer Dew, he's a streetwise divinity student with a taste for exotic food, rare drink, and weird sex. Both his style and content cross between Henry Miller's thrill of the tactile and Chuck Palahniuk's pulpy intensity. He writes from Chicago, and his work sweats city grime.

Hey, I'm just sayin'.

Best,
Matt DiGangi
Thieves Jargon

Issue 193

2009-09-27T09:42:00.003-04:00

Love seeing old friends... Hi Willie, Hi Carl. Adam Moorad's Bikini Sex is a jewel. Love the poems by Nathan Graziano. Read all of Issue 193 if you haven't already checked it out.

Looking for the names of some publishers

2009-09-22T20:21:00.003-04:00

I know of a solid short story collection that needs a home, but I've become ignorant of the good homes. I'm looking for a solid mid-level publisher that is accepting work. By solid I'm thinking they should have their shit together enough to offer a contract for the manuscript, by mid-level I'm thinking they should have had some books out already, might have distribution, good production values. Last time I tried this, Spencer Dew's book got published with Vagabond Press.

Any thoughts?

I read a garbage poem today

2009-09-20T15:29:00.003-04:00

It's past tense, it's present tense, it's past tense again! It's low-grade writing like this that gives online journals a bad name. I used to think Why Vandalism? was a good journal until it started getting out that they don't send rejection notices. Aspiring editors, take note: Good design, which this site certainly has in spades, won't make up for hack editorial.

Little old Peggy, the bartender, was eighty years old,
but the Bashful Bandit was slow.
She waddled out of the back room
and set down a big bowl of grapes on the bar
in front of Whisperin’ Ron
like a still life in the half light.
Whisperin’ Ron had a cancer operation on his throat
ten years ago when he
turned fifty,
and now he talks in a hoarse loud whisper.
Sometimes it’s annoying
because you can’t hardly hear him and
he really likes to talk,
like a yippy dog that had its vocal chords snipped
but still barks all the time.
He puts his cigarette and beer down
and carefully picks out a big
fat purple grape.
“Freshly washed and chilled,” Peggy said.
Whisperin’ Ron put the grape
into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully
and with obvious pleasure
for a long time.
“Mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmmmm...”
Then he swallowed demonstrably.
“You know what, Peggy?” he whispered.
“What, dear?” Peggy said,
leaning her ear toward him.
He looked at her as if he was about
to reveal a tremendous secret
that would affect both their lives and leave
them forever altered.
“Grapes make great wine,” he said.
He smiled very big and sat back.
“Yes they do, dear,” Peggy said,
“Yes they certainly do.”

Digital Piracy

2009-09-20T14:03:00.003-04:00

(from Publisher's Weekly)

Simon & Schuster this morning issued a new policy statement regarding its stance about the online piracy of digital books. The statement notes that as sales of digital books becomes a bigger piece of the book business, combating unauthorized copying and posting of material “requires vigilance and innovation. We work to stop online piracy as promptly as we can,” explaining that when piracy is discovered the S&S legal department “acts quickly to notify site operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) by issuing copyright infringement notices both for electronic versions of our books and for the sale of unauthorized physical editions at online booksellers.”

The statement also includes a site, www.simonandschuster.biz/antipiracy, where anyone can send information regarding suspected acts of piracy as well as creating an online form to facilitate reporting of piracy, antipiracy@simonandschuster.com. S&S acknowledged that copyright enforcement of online piracy “is by its very nature an imperfect science. But as the potential for this kind of behavior is amplified in the digital world, keeping our content secure, enforcing our copyrights, and creating a robust marketplace for easily accessible, reasonably priced content will be the pillars upon which we build our future as a digital publisher.

The statement is being e-mailed to all author, agents and others in the book community. An S&S spokesperson said no particular incident lead to the development of the statement, but added that S&S was interested in communicated a policy about where it stood on digital piracy while providing a forum for agents, authors and others to help the publisher fight unauthorized use of its content.

If we could be heroes

2009-09-15T18:56:00.001-04:00

Culture Editor

2009-09-13T16:59:00.004-04:00

The most recent edition of PH Madore's Dispatch has an interesting thing I saw:

dispatch is currently seeking a culture
editor. applicants should be
generally on top of current events,
both mainstream and alternative,
and should have at least three
210–250–word dispatches to submit
for suggestion. all applications will
be responded to but only one will be
approved. dispatch@litareview.com

Sounds like a Jeff T. Kane specialty to me, but if you're looking to get some exposure for your work, I'd imagine Madore would get you some exposure.

Your favorite writer

2009-09-08T19:59:00.003-04:00

Patterson Signs 17-Book Deal with Hachette
By Jim Milliot

While sales of titles by some brand name authors have slowed in recent years, that hasn’t been the case with James Patterson and the prolific author has just inked a new 17-book deal that will keep him with publisher Hachette through 2012. The deal includes 11 adult titles, to be published in hardcover by Little, Brown and Company and in paperback by Grand Central Publishing, and six titles for young readers, to be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Publisher's Weekly

Wet and Dripping

2009-08-27T19:09:00.002-04:00

"Wet and Dripping" is a chapbook by Joseph Goosey, who is a poet I like a lot. He's kind of all over the place, but he's weird and sad and romantic. I think he writes sex about better than anybody else.

"Forget your fingers.

They will be discovered
in the next county
and used by someone
who is in dire
need."

Here's a non-TJ poem for those crying out "Favoritism!"

And here's the link to Shadow Archer Press, which has the book. $7.

Oh yeah, the cover art is done by a former TJ artist named Darren Hopes.

Issue 192

2009-08-22T12:54:00.003-04:00

Never thought I'd see this happen... went away for a week's vacation, come home to a new issue of Thieves Jargon. Glad to see Scannell keeping some of the regulars around and bringing in some new people as well. Totally weird to read a new issue without knowing any of the work that's being published in there. Totally love Hello, Oblivion so far. Looking forward to the rest of Issue 192.

Mule

2009-08-16T12:28:00.002-04:00

Madore's Dispatch 10 has gone live with a pretty good story about the Mexican muling business.

Frequency

2009-08-15T12:19:00.002-04:00

Thieves Jargon now publishes on a monthly basis. Eight or so stories and poems every thirty days. Read. Digest. Read. Email the writers. Think about that thing you've got on the back-burner. Blast open the back of my skull. We exist in or amongst a glut. Thieves Jargon is melting the fat. Recall Beckett: “Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.”

Tighter and stranger.

Dan Scannell
--Ed., Thieves Jargon

Nasty diner fights

2009-08-12T21:08:00.001-04:00

Here's a story I've been thinking about a little bit recently, a nice blast from the past.

#9 by Judson Hamilton.

Supersized ereaders?

2009-08-11T13:33:00.002-04:00

Interesting article from Wired magazine about one possible future for the publishing industry. I just like it because it agrees with my own viewpoints: once the screens get bigger and cheaper and go color, ereaders are going to to ipod.

Even better than the article are the comments.

Vanguard Creates Video Game to Promo New Title

2009-08-03T21:44:00.003-04:00

There should be more action like this. Good video games are story-based, but they're so poorly written most of the time.Publishing / video game crossover.

Bartop stories

2009-07-30T20:34:00.003-04:00

Man, when I started, these used to be all I wanted to hear.

Reading the newest issue of Madore's Dispatch reminded me of Steve Barker's Jesus' Vagina.

Such a small victory

2009-07-29T23:05:00.004-04:00

Monday I get turned down for a job I wanted plenty bad. Tuesday little sister has skull surgery. Wednesday I ask the hot librarian out and she's already living with somebody. At least half a dozen other little disasters, and I try to work the phrase "without bad luck there's no luck at all" into all my conversations.

I'm a blowhard. I don't write much poetry but I've spent more than a decade studying it and I know for a fact that Mather is less than mediocre.

Here's his big finish from a poem in the newest issue of My Favorite Bullet, a journal I've always been happy to send writers to.

"That bottle’s gonna sit there on the counter
untouched from now on
like an idol to remind us
that there is no god."

Thanks, dude. I was scribbling "there is no god" on my trapper keeper when I was six. You really threw some FRESH NEW PERSPECTIVE out there, a real sweet TRUE GRIT SNAPSHOT. I mean, you talk shit about tons of writers who come up with fantasy worlds or whatever, but your REAL WORLD is as obvious as a 16 year old goth kid hanging out at the food court parking lot.

Haha Mather, I'm sorry, but you're garbage. Everybody around here knows it but it's been a while since I let you know myself. Stick around for another three months and I'll do it again, and I know it'll make your night the same way I'm sure your pulse will be going good the time you finish reading this for the first of at least 10 times.

Weird name

2009-07-27T19:17:00.001-04:00

"In Penguin's own release, US ceo David Shanks Shanks notes, 'We achieved a reduction in returns in both our frontlist and backlist businesses'... eBooks do now exceed 1 percent of sales, though the company isn't saying by how much. In the US Penguin has 7,400 ebooks available and expects to have 10,000 titles by later this year."

New issue of Swill Magazine

2009-07-26T19:38:00.002-04:00

They only publish like once a year, but I've always been a big fan of Swill Magazine. They more than make up for their long production time by publishing some high-end fiction. As far as small press PRINT productions go, I think they're up there. Earlier issues have featured my favorite Spencer Dew story, Delphine Lecompte, Corey Mesler, and more. Issue 4 has Thieves Jargon co-idiot Steve Young, probably due to reputation only, but membership has its priveleges, and you're not a member. I won't review it because I haven't received my copy yet, but just know I'm not going to ask for a free copy, and you shouldn't either.

Thieves Jargon 191

2009-07-16T07:49:00.001-04:00

We're back, and now under Dan Scannell's watch. Wish the fellow luck.

Brendan is Sleepy

2009-07-15T20:54:00.002-04:00

This is a new site looking for submissions:

"This was a somewhat memorable day. We were feeling devious and Brendan was feeling sleepy. The strange thing about this night is that he's in full on winter regalia. He never even got a chance to take his coat off before passing out. He'd been out that night, not with us. He decided to "stop by" and apparently had no clue how bored we were until he showed up and immediately passed out on the couch."

Brendan is Sleepy.

Everybody's writing about animals these days

2009-07-14T22:57:00.004-04:00

I mean, Jeff T. Kane started the trend five years ago. Then Tao Lin did all those stories about hamsters floating around on helium balloons and pretty much made his name on it. Now personified animal stories are everywhere. Check out this series of three at Madore's project (which is up to Issue Eight, no small shakes for a kid in Iraq). Amelia Grey, I now know, has really good hair.

So does Jac Jemc.

So does Mary Hamilton.

Blake Butler's hair, though, is almost as bad as mine.

Email from a celebrity

2009-07-13T21:30:00.004-04:00

This is actually a big moment for me, and I don't really know how he found my name but I think it's because we're both from Boston, athough maybe it was because he heard me talking trash about how I'm scared of big dogs since that pit bull bit my hand. But, you know, I've been a big fan of his since Widow's Walk, so it's nice to get an email from Robert B. Parker, the author of the Spenser detective novels. I really hope this isn't a prank, but his email address is Rparkernovelist@aol.com, so it's probably legit:

You've got your nerve, refusing simultaneous submissions and not paying. May you fail soon.

Free books

2009-07-12T10:46:00.003-04:00

Free-For-All: Anderson, “Free” Book, Sparks a Backlash Online and Among Battered Media Industry

Maybe a glimpse into certain publishing futures.

A thing I heard

2009-07-11T20:57:00.000-04:00

New Thieves Jargon sometime this upcoming week.

Smooth Criminal

2009-06-25T20:42:00.000-04:00

Let's go back.

We done

2009-06-22T23:32:00.003-04:00

Full circle night. Eric Jones wrote the first story I published for Thieves Jargon, and he gets to be the last in line.

Thanks again to all the writers, readers, the editors I've worked with, the artists, anybody who has submitted. You'll be in good hands with Scannell.

Drop a line and say hello sometime.

Mather's big day

2009-06-16T20:23:00.001-04:00

Mather as Ed the Schizophrenic Synth-Player of a Punk Rock Band

Who you callin' psycho?

2009-06-10T23:15:00.004-04:00

Five years ago tonight, under the influence of cheap wine and California smog, I put together the first issue of Thieves Jargon, which contained work from:

-- Eric Jones, writer and bandit, perhaps my first personal contemporary influence. Cover artist for Kittens in the Boiler and Year of the Thief.

-- Nate VanSweden, who wrote for Barstool Sports, the shitty Boston with some of the sleaziest editors in the game.

-- Bill White, whose story "Chicken Shack" in the late journal Pig Iron Malt(along with Chuck Palahniuk's "Guts") made me want to start Thieves Jargon.

-- Stephen Shea, my favorite literary Sox fan, maybe the only honest person I ever worked retail with.

--Hollywood, my pseudonym.

The original goal? Do it better than anybody had previously done it. I'm pretty sure we were the first journal with anything approaching a message board. Maybe 3am, but I don't think anybody else was doing weekly issues. We had the weekly writers. When artwork showed up with issue 100, there weren't too many journals doing artwork.

We didn't catch much traction until issue 5, when we ran a piece called "Redemption, TX," by Megan Frazer. She pimped us on the Zoetrope message board, and then we started getting a lot more submissions and readers. That's where Jeff T. Kane found us.

Delphine Lecompte showed up for issue 11. I remember sending her email saying, I've never seen anything like this before, I'd love to see more, and then she sent me two stories a night, as she wrote them, for a year straight. She gave Thieves Jargon as much a voice as anybody, and her writing led to the first release from Thieves Jargon Press.

We've published almost 700 authors and 1400 pieces in the last five years. I've spent the past month running some of my favorites. I have a few more weeks of classic TJ authors that I want to publish one last time, and then I'm retiring.

Thieves Jargon is going to continue under the watch of Dan Scannell, who has been a TJ co-editor for long enough that I know he's thoughtful, smooth, and has enough similar tastes to me.

I'm going to concentrate on editing novels and compilations. I have several on my plate to get me through the summer. Send suckas my way and I'll do them right.

Thanks for reading.

More, better, later...

Young publishers take note

2009-06-09T12:01:00.002-04:00

From 18 challenges in contemporary literature on wired.com:

4. Means of book promotion, distribution and retail destabilized.

5. Ink-on-paper manufacturing is an outmoded, toxic industry with steeply rising costs.

6. Core demographic for printed media is aging faster than the general population. Failure of print and newspapers is disenfranching young apprentice writers.

7. Media conglomerates have poor business model; economically rationalized “culture industry” is actively hostile to vital aspects of humane culture.

8. Long tail balkanizes audiences, disrupts means of canon-building and fragments literary reputation.

Interesting article and discussion.

Speaking of JVN...

2009-06-08T20:25:00.003-04:00

I always thought he was criminally underappreciated. It's rare when writers write about things they know about and it's not about getting fucked up.

"Guano Arc"

guano arc by ~jvnjvn on deviant ART

jvnjvn

TJ5yrs

2009-06-08T19:50:00.002-04:00

And this thing in front of him was squirming.

Musical interlude

2009-06-04T00:16:00.002-04:00

We want Mather

2009-05-25T20:48:00.003-04:00

Hey Mather,

Against my best advice, Andy Riverbed wants you to evaluate and comment on his upcoming manuscript and provide an honest quote for the back cover. Is that something you'd be interested in?

Talk about well-rounded

2009-05-20T23:45:00.002-04:00

Check out Dave Morrison's poetry in today's update of Thieves Jargon. Then go back and check out some of his prose, starting with the first part of Bone Hunger.

Boyle vs Madore

2009-05-18T20:58:00.001-04:00

Novelty.

interruption over

2009-05-05T22:14:00.003-04:00

My shift key doesn't seem to be all the way back but otherwise my computer has been recovered and the semester is over and baseball season is back and i got some new music and Thieves Jargon should be back publishing new stuff on monday.

Interruption

2009-04-24T09:11:00.000-04:00

So it looks like if you pour a glass of water on your laptop, lightning comes out and it doesn't work any more. I might be tough to reach for a few days.

Pharmacon

2009-04-22T23:22:00.002-04:00

Spencer Dew's Pharmacon got nominated for a Million Writers Award.

Vintage Dew.

Issue 187

2009-04-20T22:19:00.002-04:00

Alternate cover

Channel 666

2009-04-18T12:58:00.001-04:00

Lot of cool links coming across these days.

youtube.com/wsmith49

More of his work can be viewed by googling "deeply ashamed of being human."

afternoon drinking is okay

2009-04-17T14:30:00.004-04:00

Andy Riverbed's new ebook is a story about his recent trip to the slums of Puerto Rico. Click the link to read it on Everydayyeah.

Kudos to Mark Baumer for designing the ebook. I like the presentation a lot. It seems like pretty much the best way possible to present 8000 words through html. Throw in some gimmickry, one of the more interesting young writers working today, and you have a winner.

Runner vs Gonzales

2009-04-14T23:14:00.001-04:00

Something to accompany Jason Huskey's poem.

The Life of the Mind

2009-04-05T21:41:00.001-04:00

Decline

2009-04-04T09:57:00.000-04:00

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/04/times_co_threatens_to_shut_globe_seeks_20m_in_cuts_from_unions

The world isn't ready for this social critic

2009-04-01T22:25:00.003-04:00

The Damned Human Race

This weekend I...

2009-03-29T18:19:00.001-04:00

...got drunk with Madore and pondered the future of Thieves Jargon.

What did you do?

Big week for Mark Baumer

2009-03-19T23:08:00.004-04:00

Everyday Yeah hits number 500.

He gets accepted to Brown University. Say what you will about creative writing programs, when a top-10 program pays YOU to go there after you write a personal essay about cocaine even though you don't even drink, yeah.

He gets a book coming out from mud luscious press.

And, he found $200 on the ground.

Hats off to Mark and all the other Thieves Jargon editors.

Free speech

2009-03-18T22:21:00.004-04:00

Well, it's cool and all, but it's tricky.

I mean, I just really don't think you can convince me Klansmen should be allowed to have parades or even be allowed to talk to unattended people under the age of fifteen in public.

Right, so that leads to Jews and Nazi Germany.

BUT: TJ publishes things that would offend a lot of people, so I kind of rely on free speech.

Hiding free speech behind art sounds like something those hippies that turned republican would talk about.

So I dunno.

But I'm still going to quash Mather's dissent until he writes us a poem.

Statistical anomaly?

2009-03-17T21:18:00.002-04:00

Thieves Jargon is now listed on duotrope as being in the top 25 (of 850) hardest journals to get poetry into.

Statistics never lie and good things don't always last.

Million Writers Award

2009-03-10T20:07:00.003-04:00

The 2009 Million Writers Award is now open for nominations. You should check it out here and nominate a story from either Thieves Jargon or some other journal. Anybody can nominate their favorite piece of 2008, and the winner takes home five hundo.

Thieves Jargon has pegged a notable story every year we've entered, but still hasn't scored a top-ten finish. Maybe this will be the year. As an editor, I get to nominate three pieces. I have some in mind, but I'd like to hear some thoughts. Help me decide. A quick spin through the archives has given me the following potentials:

No Eating by Russell Zerbo
The Consciousness of Infestation by Marc Gulezian
James Becomes an Epicurean by Kevin Wilson
Pharmacon by Spencer Dew
Turtle Soup by Woodie Stephenson
Cheney Don't Dance by Peggy Newland
Twelfth by Zach Plague
Duckass II by Mike Boyle
Fly Fishing and Shit Like That by Joel Van Noord

Spring Break

2009-03-08T20:00:00.002-04:00

I'm on Spring Break this week. As such, so is Thieves Jargon. New work next week...

You used to be beautiful

2009-03-07T16:30:00.001-05:00

Coupla classics

2009-03-03T21:12:00.002-05:00

I'd like to do this regularly, but will probably forget.

3 Poems by Josh Olsen

2 Poems by Aaron Anstett

3 Poems by Joseph Goosey

Watchmen

2009-03-01T19:08:00.003-05:00

I'm a really big fan of the comic and every time I get a copy of it, I give it away. It sounds like they might not have fucked this movie up too much. I'll be curious to see what people who see the movie without being familiar with the book will think.

Boston Globe on Watchmen.

Is it AIDS?

2009-03-01T02:48:00.004-05:00

Is it even AIDS, or maybe something else?

I know a few people on here think AIDS is really fucking cool. What were your thoughts on Spencer Dew's piece this week, Familiar with Disease?

Soft Skull

2009-02-25T22:11:00.002-05:00

(from Publisher's Weekly)

Richard Nash will step down as editorial director of Soft Skull Press and executive editor of parent company Counterpoint March 10. Nash joined Counterpoint approximately 18 months ago when he sold the financially struggling but highly regarded Soft Skull to Charlie Winton’s Counterpoint. The purchase gave the Berkeley, Calif.-based Counterpoint a New York office and in a release Winton said he intends to keep an editorial office in New York and to maintain the Soft Skull imprint.

Both Winton and Nash said Soft Skull is now on sound financial footing, with Nash calling 2008 Soft Skull’s “best financial year ever.” He said he was grateful for the reprieve Counterpoint gave to Soft Skull’s writers and readers, but said, “It is time to let Soft Skull move onto the next phase of its existence, and to allow me to take on the new challenges our industry is facing.” The departure of Nash does not come as a surprise to many in the indie press world who have been speculating for several months that Nash was looking to getting back to try something new.

Nash told PW, "This is about the future of publishing. I really want to be engaged in helping figure out a new model for independents. And I am enormously optimistic. I'm not going to do consulting or freelancing, in the sense of eupemisms for 'I don't have a clue' or 'I'm getting the hell out of publishing,' but as a way of doubling down, betting it all on the future of publishing, and it's easier to bet if you have a clean slate rather than a legacy project." Nash also indicated he looks forward to having time to "play with others," after working "70-hour weeks for eight years inside the Soft Skull pod."

Submissions open again, new poetry editor

2009-02-23T23:19:00.004-05:00

Jake Mooney has left his post as poetry editor. Jake was huge, and he had been editing at TJ for like three years. Gonna miss him. Check out his poetry book, which was among the better things I read last year. "New Layman's Almanac."

Taking his place will be Spencer Troxell, who we've been publishing almost since we started. I think Spencer has a pretty good sensibility. I have his blog (medicine cabinet) linked from the front page of TJ now. He's thoughtful and kind of still a kid. I think it'll be a fine fit.

Unsolicited submissions are also open again.

Kin Corn Karn

2009-02-22T13:24:00.001-05:00

Little roots maneuver to go along with Bradley Sands' piece this week.

Denis Johnson's editor

2009-02-19T19:42:00.003-05:00

At least for "Tree of Smoke" and "Nobody Move" (the Playboy serial that comes out as a book in April).

Dave Cole.

Once Upon a Time in the West

2009-02-14T10:24:00.001-05:00

A little western flavor to accompany Mulvey's piece this week.

Shoot it Sonny, I'm scared

2009-02-13T00:46:00.003-05:00

Welcome home, Kenneth Mulvey. It's been too long.

We missed you.

You do that beat up beat beat proud.

And people like Mather will hate you because I said that.

Coupla Wavy Lines

2009-02-11T22:50:00.001-05:00

Bow Down

2009-02-09T22:48:00.001-05:00

Riverbed gets the girl

2009-02-08T20:45:00.001-05:00

"Before Riverbed and Cleaver had lived together for two years, when they had just met at a bookstore they both worked in, they had kissed on top of a parking lot. The next day, Riverbed told her that he wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, and they said they’d see each other again. But Cleaver stood him up again and again; he tried to communicate with her, and she wrote him a letter calling him a junky, an overgrown baby. Riverbed skipped out of town for three weeks; he bummed around Asheville, and when he returned, he had a beard and Cleaver said she was in love with him."

Buy his new poetry book, Damaged, because there's no way it's not out by now, right?

Lolita

2009-02-03T00:11:00.001-05:00

Yowch.

Now THIS is a book...

Mather

2009-01-31T18:30:00.001-05:00

Updike dead

2009-01-27T16:18:00.002-05:00

Not that I've read anything by him outside of a few New Yorker stories, but he lived on north of Boston, pretty close to where I grew up.

Fun quote I found in his obit in the Boston Globe:

"I'm more or less a shady type improvising his way from book to book and trying to get up in the morning without a toothache."

Issue 181 complete

2009-01-25T17:20:00.004-05:00

With the constant updating we do around here, it's not the easiest figuring out when an issue has been arranged and fully moved into the archive. The daily updates we do is more of an under-construction sort of thing, but it's every other Sunday when the most recent completed issue is locked down. If anybody ever wanted to, like, talk about some of the work we've run, this would be a good place.

181 in cement.

Letter to the editor

2009-01-19T15:53:00.003-05:00

I'm curious what your thoughts are regarding publishing these days. Must one merge with the consumer model? Or can one subvert/supplant/circumvent it?

One mustn't merge with the consumer model if they don't mind doing it just to do it, but if the idea is to make money, merging with the consumer model is a better idea, although even that's not a sure shot. There have probably been more than five thousand failed publishers for every successful one.

I don't necessarily know what the consumer model is, but in my head, these are the non-supplantable angles that need to be considered:

1. Lots of cash is needed to get more printed books for each dollar spent.

2. Creative marketing can only go so far. More cash is needed for advertising.

3. Print coverage (newspapers, magazines) goes further than web coverage, but each is important, and there needs to be many layers.

4. Your writer should be out on the road all the time. Readings sell the most books. The more different locations, the better.

5. A publisher also needs somebody who can do sales... getting your book into bookstores is important. This is very important, but a waste of time unless steps 1-4 are successful.

6. Ideally, this sequence will have to be repeated several times successfully. A strong and relevant backlist is also important. It's possible steps 1-5 would be happening simultaneously, but with several different books. Which is why I think a successful publisher will be a team of at least three people.

7. All of which will be for naught if you have a shitty project. No bookstore is going to carry something with an amateur terrible design. No reviewer will pay attention to something that hasn't been well edited.

The only angle I can think of right now to circumvent some of these steps would be to design eBooks directly for portable reading devices like the Amazon Kindle. Cutting printed books and shipping out of the equation would be very helpful. But somebody doing this needs to hope that those devices take off (and I honestly can't tell if that's going to work or not), and I'd imagine they'll also need to still spend an awful lot to market their books and get enough people to read them. Seems like just as shitty a bet as starting a traditional publishing venture.

AWP Chicago

2009-01-15T20:11:00.001-05:00

Anybody going to this thing? I'd like to met some heads, and I'd love to save a few bucks and crash on a couch somewhere...

http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2009awpconf.php

how many more times...

2009-01-14T23:48:00.002-05:00

...am I going to end up in a crowded bar with a girl who doesn't mind crying in public?

Feels good to be a gangster

2009-01-13T20:38:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Renaissancejones for the mental cue.

Quote to consider

2009-01-10T13:04:00.000-05:00

"I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollas
They criticize me for all yet they all yell holla"
--Jay-Z

"Yeah no..."

2009-01-06T12:46:00.001-05:00

My new favorite phrase.

--Ed.'s Best of 2008

2009-01-01T10:03:00.003-05:00

Hey gang, happy '09. Here's a last little look back at 2008. Looking through the last year's, yeah, we ran some really good stuff. Thanks to all the writers and editors and readers. New stuff coming on Monday.

Fiction
Twelfth by Zach Plague
Modesty by Kenneth Calhoun
Cheney Don't Dance by Peggy Newland
Harvest by Jared Smith
Duckass II by Mike Boyle
Turtle Soup by Woodie Stephenson
Having Won the Lottery, James Becomes an Epicurean by Kevin Wilson
No Eating by Russell Zerbo
The Consciousness of Infestation by Marc Gulezian

Poetry
Creme in Crematorium by Nick Demske
2 Poems by Steven Breyak
I'm an Inexperienced Hiker by Andrew Ratner
Grizzly Adams by Brenton Rossow
The Problem with Any Sort of Change by Drew Kalbach
Leftovers by Damien Harpel
Considering by Rachel Toliver
Cap and Gown by Chad Forbregd
I Wrote an Ode by Matt Summers