Short Stories: Portland Lit Around The Web

Every Saturday we will bring you links to articles from around the web featuring members of Portland’s lit community.  Please feel free to pass along any you come across as well, by emailing us at portland@readinglocal.com, and we will include them in next week’s edition of Short Stories.

Underland Press Founder Victoria Blake is interviewed on Fatally Yours:

Fatally Yours: How did your time at Dark Horse help prepare you for launching your own publishing house, Underland Press? In what ways were you unprepared?

Victoria Blake: I worked under Rob Simpson at Dark Horse. He taught me everything. He was incredibly generous with his time and his knowledge. I learned by keeping my ears open, being in as many meetings as I could, and asking Rob as many questions as I needed to. I’m very grateful to Rob.

How was I unprepared? Well, I wish I had spent three years in the accounting department, and three years as a printer’s apprentice, and one as a binder’s apprentice, and three years in law school. I wish I had worked at a bookstore during my teenage years instead of at a restaurant. I wish I knew more agents in New York, and that I’d gone to at least twelve more conventions. But I don’t think you can ever be completely prepared. What you need more than anything else is the ability to learn along the way.

Over on The Rumpus Alec Niedenthal reviews Kevin Sampsell’s A Common Pornography “in the style of A Common Pornography”:

In A Common Pornography, Kevin Sampsell’s father is at first established as a walking contradiction (as a father who at once practices Catholicism, attends confessional, the rigmarole, and (spoiler alert!) impregnates his seemingly enfeebled or at least unhinged stepdaughter), a specter of, like I said, unmistakable evil. As the text progresses, however, “Dad” gradually fades in presence, at first contracting into a relatively normal, if hard-edged and immoral, father for Kevin. At a certain point he begins to haunt the text, less a presence at all than a shadow on the wall, a presence as the unnamed, infiltrating, as a law of foreclosure, of corrosive alienation, each one of Kevin’s adult relationships and friendships. But only appearing under the guise of an apparition, of that which has passed, but which nevertheless remains situated, constituted, at the site of any possible event, of any thinkable decision.

On Story Fix Chelsea Cain provides a list of “What I Wish I Knew About Getting Published Before it Happened To Me.”:

Sometimes you will give readings, and no one will come. The resulting crushing despair will pass.

The best signing pen is the extra fine tip Sharpie. The regular tip Sharpie emits more fumes and will make you high after about a half hour.

Always ask people how they spell their names before you write an inscription, even if you are certain that there is only one way to spell “Pat.”

Sage Cohen’s essay “The Word is the Way” appears alongside President Obama and others in the new anthology How to Achieve A Heaven On Earth:

One hundred one contributions from such notable personalities as Al Gore, Tony Blair, Nicholas Kristof, Thomas L. Friedman, and George W. Bush explore variations on the themes of peace, security, freedom, democracy, prosperity, spiritual and racial harmony, ecology, health, and moral purpose and meaning. Focusing on the large problems of the world without losing sight of the little challenges people face every day, this collection of essays encourages readers to find meaning in their own lives and share it with others for the betterment of the world. Religious and secular, liberal and conservative, old and young, the luminaries who have contributed to this work offer their voices and thoughts to inspire movement toward creating a more harmonious world community.

Northwest Asian Weekly reviews Gregory Nokes’ Massacred For Gold:

This is a book of American history and is especially valuable as it details an event that is virtually unknown — the brutal crime against Chinese by whites, a crime that was swept under the rug for a very long time. It makes us wonder how many other events in history have been ‘forgotten’ in this way. We hope that Nokes’ book will inspire other writers to dig for stories in unexpected places, about people who have been written about before.

Bike Hacks is a fan of Microcosm Publishing’s Zine Trike:

What do you think of when the word “store” is mentioned?  I would hazard a guess that most people conjure up the image of a stationary brick and mortar building where they go to buy something.  With the Internet now such a part of our lives I am sure people might think of a web interface too.  But how about hacking that concept with a bike interface?