Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts

Friday, July 22, 2016

STRANGELY EVER AFTER: pacificREVIEW, A West Coast Arts Review Annual


Looking for a read that will take you back to your childhood days of listening to fairy tales and reading fantasy series on long summer days? In SDSU Press fashion, Strangely Ever After, the 2014 pacificReview journal, puts forth a selection of short stories and poems that play with more traditional forms of fairy tales, ghost stories, and everything in between. Think Franz Kafka, Edgar Allen Poe, and the Little Red Riding Hood all in one big melting pot of poetry, photography, and fiction. 

The authors featured in the journal write literature that twists the fantasy genre with elements like humorous undertones, questionable morals, and the denial of a happily ever after. Among the creatures and characters that you will encounter in the 2014 edition of pacificReview are victims that transform into the monsters that victimized them, malevolent spirits thirsty for revenge, frustrated demons, strangers who bond over their attraction to the unappealing, deceptive faeries, and clueless teenagers. 

Contributing artists include Jamie Klenk, Gale Acuff, Diane de Anda, Jane Beal, Lisa Beebe, A.J. Benenati, and Chrystal Berche, among other talented writers and photographers. Strangely Ever After is edited by Jacquelyn Phillips, Samantha Richardson, Shannon Snyder, Melissa Hill, and Dakota Lenz. 

















Once you get your copy of Strangely Ever After sit back, listen to a mood setting lullaby by The Cure, and enjoy the strange and thrilling ride. 





You can also look forward to our upcoming 2016 publication of pacificReview, an annual SDSU Press journal. This year's theme, LURKING ANONYMITY, will gather interpretations of our relation to technology in terms of reliance and behavior and what it indicates about our humanity. 







Thursday, July 21, 2016

Line of Fire: Detective Stories from the Mexican Border

The compilation of detective stories from SDSU Press’ Baja California Literature in Translation publication series, Line of Fire: Detective Stories from the Mexican Border, features non-orthodox takes on a genre that has been popular in the Latin American literary tradition. Names like Jorge Luis Borges and Roberto Bolaño have been celebrated as important figures that have paved the way for the detective novel, and as the genre continues to develop, SDSU Press has captured short detective stories taking place in Baja California and its surrounding areas. The stories that form part of Line of Fire were originally published in Spanish in En la línea de fuego: Relatos policiacos de frontera and are written by Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz, Héctor Daniel Gómez Nieves, Leobardo Saravia Quiroz, Edgar Gómez Castellanos, José Manuel Di Bella, Carlos Martín Gutiérrez , Federico Campbell, Harry Polkinhorn, and Sergio Gómez Montero.


The English version of these stories, published by SDSU Press and edited by Leobardo Saravia Quiroz, whose own story is also included in the book, has opened the door of accessibility to a greater audience. Saravia Quiroz comments on the divergence from more conventional forms of the detective story that is clear in Line of Fire, “An indifference towards reason and justice prevails: the entirely modern ‘banality of evil.’ This is one difference from the conventions of the genre.” With the introduction setting the way and the “banality of evil” present in the stories that follow, the reading experience of Line of Fire will have you stepping into worlds of confusion, mystery, and unsolved endings set in the border regions of the US and Mexico. Filled with thoughts and images of paranoia, longing, belonging, betrayal, sounds of music and of bullets, you are bound to become immersed in the Mexican borders portrayed in each story that forms Line of Fire.





Order your copy today! Click here to be directed to our amazon store.







Monday, July 08, 2013

Nailed to the Wound... Tales by Jose Manuel Di Bella


There are books, titles, works , and so on that deal with a "peculiar" literary technique that seems to have fallen into an awkward void. People seem to constantly put anything from William Faulkner to Joyce on their reading list, the title of which might read "'Summer books...' I need to read to seem more cultured, but won't understand," otherwise known as Stream-of-Conscious. And it is ok! I have authored such a list as well, and cannot begin to comment how many times I have to had re-read a page of The Sound and The Fury, at this point I should just re-read the whole book.

But by far the most moving piece I have encountered, and I recommend for anyone who wants to start maneuvering and breaking into a pair of new stream-of-consciousness reads is Carlos Fuentes "La Raya del Olvido" or "The Line of Oblivion," found in his novel of short stories La Frontera de Cristal or The Crystal Frontier. The reason why, its complexity veiled in simplicity. The language and sentence structures will not take a toll on many, but yet reveal a dramatic mentally savage end. It's also short, for those of us that say we have no time.
If yiu want to get a taste of Carlos Fuentes, this link will take you to a Dance performance video Arturo Fuentes did based off Carlos Fuentes "The Line of Oblivion." Go ahead and click on it and peer a little into the Crystal Frontier

Somwhere on this path do I find myself with Jose Manuel Di Bella's Nailed to the Womb. 

His sentence lines move with controlled swiftness and dissonance. For example, in his short story "The Card," which involves a translator, who takes the role of narrator, illustrates his last interactions with his lost  friend. This quote highlights their friendship and the beginning of the end..
I had thought to call Lucia to have her invite Magui, but soon this idea dissipated, too far away, on hearing the first thing he said: 'Time only exists for those who dare to measure it. I have no beginning or end.' and he cackled impressively. Used to his phrases, I also started to laugh and added somewhat uncertainly: 'If you hide a minute in a box, and then open it after 20 years the minute will still be there.' his response left me cold: 'yes, but you have to be very careful about hiding it. It can be the minute of your recapitulation.' And he again cackled, which now didn't last as long, and with that naturalness he asked me how the matter of the translations was going...
This should also provide a taste to Jose Manuel Di Bella's caliber by impressively creating vivid characters through not only the eyes of others but the characters own internal experiences in a few concentrated pages. Which perfectly portrays the power of a stream of conscious. This is as close as we can get into someone else's skin before losing ourselves. 
Another example of Jose Manuel Di Bella's narrative power resonates in each character's boundary breaking voice tearing through the pages and our atmosphere. In the main titles story "Nailed to the Wound" the narrator begins:
Well I'll tell you. I don't worry too much. As long as you don't interfere with what I want to do, good luck and good-bye. It happens that suddenly you adopt high integrator flights of dispersed masses and want- really it's a reverend ingenuity- feel yourself the inspiration of something that transcends us...but the truth is that you have an authentic leader complex.
Each ending also brands a picture of longing. I would give you a quote to peak, but I think 1) that would ruin the ending 2) you need to find out by yourself 3) if I gave you any more passages I might end up showing you the whole book. And you need to read this. It is a beautiful mental piece without the surgical price or deathly scavenge.

Jose Manuel Di Bella
if you want to know more about him visit this site, hopefully you can read spanish... http://larc.sdsu.edu/baja/autores/di_bella_jose.html

Monday, September 24, 2012

Spencer Dew's, Learning for Revolution: The Work of Kathy Acker, Brings this Feminist's Work Back to Life



Spencer Dew's Learning for Revolution: The Work of Kathy Acker is providing the public with a comprehensive insight into the work and theory of Kathy Acker. This experimental thinker's theories have not stopped making an impact in various facets of society. Kathy Acker broke the mold of the 'sophisticated scholar' through her provocative and controversial style. Spencer Dew's analysis of Acker does not limit itself to her narratives as he takes a dive into her essays and criticism as well as her teachings. This exploration of her work is crucial for a true understanding of Acker's message and perception of society.

Her scholarly work is not the only component under the microscope; Dew also uses aspects of her life and overall philosophies to take the reader into Acker's world. Dew writes: "Kathy Acker's broadly conceived political and ethical dreams-of a world less defined by inequality, hierarchy, oppression-are dreams which I share. As a scholar and writer, I am urgently concerned with questions of to what extent and through what means literature and art can bring about change of political structures, alter and construct communities, and redefine relations between human beings."
click to enlarge 

This feminist theorist is brought to life through Spencer Dew's Learning for Revolution: The Work of Kathy Acker! Make sure to pick up your SDSU Press copy today!