Otoliths issue #65, dated Southern Autumn 2022, was recently released. This issue marks the beginning of the seventeenth year of the journal’s existence! As usual, it contains a mix of — sometimes mixed — photographs, paintings, short stories, poetry, interviews, magazine columns, & manifestos from an international contributor list, reading like a who’s who of the literary avant garde. Check the contents link above to scan the full range of writers and artists in this issue.
I’m pleased to be represented in this issue with text and visual works. First, a poem entitled “Going Golden,” which continues a radical strain of my experiments with anticipating the dialog innovations of Artificial Intelligence transaction units. Second, a set of asemic vispo made with pieces of junk found on sidewalks and streets over many years. Check out the poem here, and the vispo here.
Var(2x) is an online literary magazine for “extreme experimentalism” that always lives up to its stated intent. Editors Daniel Harris and Irene Koronas seek to publish the “elite of the elite” in experimental writing; this journal doesn’t just define the cutting edge, the texts usually go way over that edge for a good close look at the abyss of text and visual poetry and other language related hybrids.
I’m very pleased to make a second appearance in the journal with a text poem (?) called “Maker Taker Quaker.” This piece came out of my explorations of speculative languages that could potentially be developed by AI units. The text proceeds by triads of imaginary and real words with similar rhyming constructions and sometimes alliterative qualities. Is it a love song, a transaction, a spell, a negotiation? Only the AIs of the future will know.
The video still illustrating the piece is also my work.
Online lit journal Mad Swirl has published a “best of” issue for the past five years; the volume for 2021 was just released and is now available in print on Amazon. I’m very pleased to be included with my poem “The Joys of Serf Culture,” which appeared in the journal last April.
Here’s the book hype direct from Mad Swirl editor Johnny Olson:
“2021 has been yet another extraordinarily challenging year. Thru it all, Mad Swirl was there, every one of the 365 days of this twisted year. We didn’t miss a beat. Those beats are what you’ll get when you dig into this year’s collection. Get your firsthand view of one helluva of a f*cking year. The Best of Mad Swirl : v2021 is a 107-page anthology featuring 52 poets, 12 short fiction writers, and four artists hailing from 5 continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, & North America); 15 countries (Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, England, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Montenegro, Nigeria, Romania, Singapore, Syria, & USA [20 States]). We editors reviewed the entire year’s output to ensure this collection is truly “the best” of MadSwirl.com! The works represent diverse voices and vantages which speak to all aspects of this crazy swirl we call ‘life on earth.’
“Mad Swirl is an arts and literature creative outlet. It is a platform, a showcase, and a stage for artistic expression in this mad, mad world of ours; a diverse collection of as many poets, artists, and writers we can gather from around the world; from Nepal to Ireland, from England to China, from California to New York City and all the places in between. Our Poetry Forum features works from over 170 contributing poets, our Short Story Library has over 40 participating writers and our Mad Gallery has over 50 resident artists.”
Contributors include: Artists: J Gregory Cisneros, Alan Murphy, Thomas Riesner, Bleak Teeth
Poets: Jeff Bagato, Tohm Bakelas, Jon Bennett, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Jean Biegun, Jean Bohuslav, Casey Bush, Laurie Byro, PW Covington, John Dorroh, J.K. Durick, Michael Estabrook Joseph Farley, Robert Fleming, Susie Gharib, Iulia Gherghei, KJ Hannah Greenberg, John Grey, Paul Hostovsky, Ojo Victoria Ilemobayo, Mike James, Ivan Jenson, Sally Jo, Ferris Jones, Carl Kavadlo, Vyarka Kozareva, Padmini Krishnan, Tyler Malone, Robert L. Martin, Tom Montag, Ian Mullins, Madelyn Olson, Johnny Olson, Brittany M. Ortega, Irena Pasvinter, Patty Dickson Pieczka, Timothy Pilgrim,, Randall Rogers, Madu Chibueze Romanus, Sreemani Sengupta, Beate Sigriddaughter, Susandale, David Susswein, Rp Verlaine, Isaiah Vianese, Agnes Vojta, Trier Ward, Richard Weaver, Stefan White, Stephen Jarrell Williams, Catherine Zickgraf, Milenko Županović
Fiction: Jim Bates, Glenn Bresciani, Mike Fiorito, Susie Gharib, Jeff Grimshaw, Prapti Gupta, Flora Jardine, James Lawless, Edward N. McConnell, Vivek Nath Mishra, Randall Rogers, Chuck Taylor
My friends David Craig and Willard Simmons produced an album of poetry and music, called Blame it on the Gamma Ray, which is now available on Bandcamp. There will be a tape version as well available from Unread Records of Omaha, NE. David wrote and read the poems, and Will performed the backing tracks. I have a guest appearance in the middle of the track “Wild Sudafed Head,” where I read my poem “Hot Dogs Can’t Sing.” Knowing these guys’ work as solo artists and in other musical projects (some of which I’ve been part of), I knew this would be a fun project, and hearing the whole thing confirms this. You can preview this track, and even listen to the whole album (or buy it!) here.
Fulgor Silvi may look like a lost member of ZZTop, but more interestingly, he is a Fluxus and mail artist based in Fabriano, Italy, who runs the Pensile Gallery, or in English, Beard Gallery. He came to my attention via several of the mail art and Fluxus related group pages on Facebook, where he posts images like the one above with different artists’ work hanging in his beard, like a hairy Christmas tree decorated with art!
Fulgor describes himself as an “ARTISTA INDIPENDENTE, MULTIMEDIALE, ERRANTE E VISIONARIO” and says this of his project: “Beard Gallery wants to be one of the most proactive and propulsive spaces for those who work in the field of Mail Art and in the Fluxus, Situationist and Dada area. Beard Gallery with over 300 installations by as many international artists, is a particular and unique space: my long and thick beard.” To participate, artists send ten works sized 5 x 5 cm.
I started a new “art” project for 2022 I call “Ferret Lessons,” commissioning some rubber stamps to be made. I mailed postcards made with the stamps to my contacts in the mail art network. I sent Fulgor a selection of pieces, and he arranged them in his beard, as can be seen above. I like what he’s done with them, especially the symmetrical arrangement. I feel honored to be selected to appear in the Beard Gallery!
Otoliths #64, the Southern Summer Issue, was just released, containing the usual encyclopedic overview of the international experimental lit scene, with text, visuals, video and hybrids galore. I’m pleased to be represented once again with one text piece, “Magic Pattern” and ten more asemic vispo made from junk I found on the street over a couple decades. The text is an extension of my AI language experiments using a vocabulary referring to American magical thinking of the current moment. You can read the text here and witness the visuals here.
The latest issue of Washington, DC, based literary magazine Gargoyle, number 74, was recently released in print only format. A massive tome at over 450 pages, it includes nonfiction, poetry and fiction by: Kelli Allen, Roberta Allen, Robert R Angell, Cynthia Atkins, Naomi Ayala, Anne Becker, Nina Bennett, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Joanna Biggar, John Bradley, Nick Carbo, Joan Colby, Andy Darlington, Kiki Denis, Buck Downs, Barbara Drake, Patricia Eakins, Dyane Fancey, Richard Flynn, DJ Gaskin, Robert L. Giron, Gabriele Glang, Jesse Glass, Regan Good, Pamela Gordon, Susan Gubernat, Robert Head, Joyce L. Huff, Beth Baruch Joselow, Ken Kakareka, John Kinsella, Roz Kuehn, Patrick Lawler, Willard Manus, Dora E. McQuaid, Nancy Mercado, Gary Metras, Gloria Mindock, Mary B. Moore, Mary Morris, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Fred Muratori, Emile Nelligan, Kathleen Novak, Mary Overton, Che Parker, Meg Pokrass, Suzanne S. Rancourt, Suzanne Rhodenbaugh, Jonathan K. Rice, Jeff Richards, Julia Slavin, Todd Swift, Eleanor Ross Taylor, JC Todd, Pat Valdata, Michael Waters, Tom Whalen, Rosemary Winslow, and tons more.
I’m pleased to be included in this issue with five very short stories. Perhaps you could call them “flash fictions”: “Air,” “Good Sign,” “Guessing Games,” “Lingering,” and “Normal.” The images are integral to each work, although the texts may or may not be related.
Although there doesn’t seem to be an announcement for this issue on the magazine’s website, you could purchase a copy on Amazon.
Cover of Gargoyle 74
For some reason, the story “Normal” is entitled “Unknown” in print!
Picture from The Chamber’s Facebook post for the story.
If you’re wondering what a grandmother sitting in a rocking chair has to do with science fiction, you’ll need to read my short story, “Ol’ Rocking Chair’s Got You,” which appeared yesterday in online dark fiction magazine The Chamber. The grandmother and her chair reside in the future on a distant exoplanet. The chair is a caregiving robot; and its care is not what it seems at the outset. You can read the full story here. The magazine releases a new issue every week, so if you are a fan of dark fiction, you may want to check it out.
A new issue of Otoliths is always an event. The quarterly online literary and arts journal presents an encyclopedic cross section of current avant garde literary and visual experiments from a host of international contributors. It’s a one stop shop for a view of the contemporary experimental scene. Otoliths #63, the “Southern Spring issue” was released yesterday, and it is no exception. Essential reading and viewing.
I’m pleased to be represented in this issue with a selection of visual and text poems from my most recent work. There are ten pieces of vispo composed from a treasure trove of junk I found on the street over decades of scrounging. They can be viewed here. This series can be considered “junk asemic” visual poems, but I really need to come up with a better title for it. The text pieces are part of a large stash of my newest poetry, much more fragmentary in style. These include “If you’re there,” “What awesome was,” “told best,” “Nowhere and Whittaker,” and “recall this dimmer.” You read them here.
Fresh off the digital press, the Winter 2021 issue of Rat’s Ass Review is once again full of great poetry. I’m pleased to be included once again with my poem “Sea of Shadows.” This piece is sort of “mermaid horror” in a darker and more formal style than I usually work in. You can read the full piece here. The pieces are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name.
jeff bagato 