Journal of Experimental Fiction
Website of the Publisher of the Foremost in Fiction
New for 2009! JEF 35 is coming in April! Featuring Yuriy Tarnawsky, Hart Broudy, Nathan Penlington, Erik Belgum, Carol Novack, Denis Emorine, Corey Mesler, Michael Oppermann, Tantra Bensko, C. A. Stratman, Jennifer Chesler, Kek-W, Brad Johnson, and John Francis Conahan! Introducing reviews of new books--Garrett Cook reviewed by E. Jayne Forish and Mark Spitzer reviewed by Kane X. Faucher!
Copies will be available from Amazon.com and other purveyors of fine literature.
The Journal of Experimental Fiction, or how to kill your postman
The postman nearly knocked the door down this morning. “I’ve been off for two weeks, and the round is killing me”, he said, out of breath and dripping sweat onto his recorded delivery pad, “I don’t know what’s worse, the temperature or carrying packages as heavy as this”. I printed and signed in the best handwriting possible while clutching a kitten at the same time. As he handed me the package I deduced from its address label what was inside, I thought that it might be conceptually heavy, but I was surprised by its physical bulk. It is best that the postman doesn’t know that the package contained the new issue of the Journal of Experimental Fiction otherwise our post might start getting accidentally lost.
The Journal of Experimental Fiction is edited by Eckhard Gerdes, and it is evident from its 280 page count that it is a labour of love and a result of some serious consideration. Between the minimalist white gloss covers of the new issue, Volume 35, the work of seventeen writers present the results of typographic, linguistic and conceptually experimental approaches to a variety of fiction forms. As with most experimental writing you do have to spend time with some of it, but most of it is openly accessible which I always think is the way to gauge the success or failure of the experiment. The highlight for me is the revised republication of Hart Broudy’s 1976 work ‘5c Utopia’, a kind of concrete poetry novella in a fictional graphic diary form. My contribution is ‘Six Pieces’ – early and newer versions of work, some of which was collected together in my book ‘Almost Nearly’ (of which there are no more copies, until a publisher decides to release it in a new edition).
So, if experimental writing is your thing then check this out and support the hard work put in by Eckhard in tirelessly helping to bring this kind of work to a wider audience. And if you’ve never read any experimental fiction then this journal is the place to start exploring. You can buy a copy from the American Amazon link below – just pity your poor postman.
--Nathan Penlington
http://www.amazon.com/Jour
The Journal of Experimental Fiction is edited by Eckhard Gerdes, and it is evident from its 280 page count that it is a labour of love and a result of some serious consideration. Between the minimalist white gloss covers of the new issue, Volume 35, the work of seventeen writers present the results of typographic, linguistic and conceptually experimental approaches to a variety of fiction forms. As with most experimental writing you do have to spend time with some of it, but most of it is openly accessible which I always think is the way to gauge the success or failure of the experiment. The highlight for me is the revised republication of Hart Broudy’s 1976 work ‘5c Utopia’, a kind of concrete poetry novella in a fictional graphic diary form. My contribution is ‘Six Pieces’ – early and newer versions of work, some of which was collected together in my book ‘Almost Nearly’ (of which there are no more copies, until a publisher decides to release it in a new edition).
So, if experimental writing is your thing then check this out and support the hard work put in by Eckhard in tirelessly helping to bring this kind of work to a wider audience. And if you’ve never read any experimental fiction then this journal is the place to start exploring. You can buy a copy from the American Amazon link below – just pity your poor postman.
--Nathan Penlington
http://www.amazon.com/Jour
