the united state of Amerika

30 08 2007

Mark Amerika’s triumphant return to the alphabet world is now complete with the release of 29 Inches from chiasmus press. The book is now available for purchase on Amazon.com.

Back in May, MIT Press released META/DATA: A Digital Poetics, a collection of Amerika’s writing from 1993-2005. So be sure to drop that recent release in your virtual shopping cart as well. The future is so lonely without the past, after all.

Here’s what you’re getting for your hard-earned money ($14.95):

29 Inches is a 21st century tour de farce that traces the nomadic wanderings of a group of online characters whose contemporary lives are driven by technosexual lust. Everybody has their RIMMjob (a personal digital assistant that does it all), including Bram and Kendall, who have recently escaped from the new age religious brainwash of Trungpa Jimmy and his tribe of ultramarathon runners. To survive in the post-dotcom economy, as well as fulfill their wish to Save The Planet, Bram and Kendall start their own webcam performance art project cum amateur porn site with over 20% of the proceeds going to radical environmental groups. Meanwhile, they suffer a temporary split-up themselves and Bram, in search of Kendall, takes a wild hallucinatory trip through what he refers to as “Buddhist Amerika!”

Are you still reading this? Get to clicking already.





King Mingo’s blog

28 08 2007

His Royal Unruly-Ness has launched a blog.  Check it for updates on The Iconographer and all things Mingo.





chiasmus podcast #02

19 08 2007

Pimped/name-dropped/discussed in episode #02 (recorded 17 August 2007):

:: Chiasmus on Facebook, MySpace and iTunes :: Chiasmus Battle Hymn Contest :: Writer’s Edge redux :: Lance Olsen :: Andy’s film shoot at Magic Gardens (Lidia=aroused!) :: Andy Blubaugh’s Scaredycat :: Trevor’s shirt that didn’t get him laid :: Fiction Collective Two :: Lily Hoang’s glittering genius :: Steve Tomasula’s raging egomania :: Notre Dame’s prima donna MFA program :: King Mingo holds court :: Colette Phair sells her body :: Eraserhead Press :: How a college education = meh :: Hal Jaffe :: How Andy romanticizes Eugene lumber yards :: Ken Kesey’s debt :: Creative economies :: Lidia and Michelle totally ruin the Harry Potter books for us all :: Aesthetics =/ Market :: How 300 was “totally not gay” :: Brian Evenson :: Graphic novels =/ Films =/ Sentence and Paragraph novels :: Top Shelf :: Dark Horse :: Oni Press :: VAS: An Opera in Flatland :: Anxious Pleasures :: Do filmmakers get to have sex with their novelist wives? :: Alan Moore :: Trevor frustrates Andy with The Big Vocabulary :: The blessings and curses of the 48-hour Film Project :: Oulipo :: Andy frustrates himself with his own double-talk :: Willem de Kooning :: Lidia’s codeine-fueled flatulence and spankin’ new blog :: Authorship as fiction :: This podcast emulates stupid college radio ::

Let us know what you think and what you want to hear in future episodes by commenting on this post or sending us an email at contact@chiasmusmedia.net. You can also leave us voice feedback via Skype; our username there is chiasmuspress.

Batter up.





fight song contest: give us your ears

19 08 2007

All great tyrannies demand a kick-ass battle hymn, and our great Chiasmus Nation is no exception. Hence, we are holding a competition amongst our proud and brave citizenry to create an official Chiasmus fight song. Here’s the skinny:

1) Length: 3 minutes max.
2) Format: MP3 file
3) Prize: the entire Chiasmus library (one copy of every book, anthology and DVD we’ve produced thus far) plus $100 in cool, hard cash
4) Deadline: October 1

We’re looking for a sound that’s somewhere between Buddy Holly and Bikini Kill, with healthy doses of Miles Davis, Tony Bennett and Diamanda Galas. You know the sound we’re describing, so fire up your WAV editors and get started. The Nation is counting on you.

Your composition should be mixed down to MP3 format. Please (A) email it to us as a file attachment at contact@chiasmusmedia.net; or (B) send it to us via Skype voicemail (username: chiasmuspress); or (C) upload it to your own webspace and email us the URL; or (D) post a link to it in the comments thread below. The winner will be announced here on October 15.

Let’s hear it.





body for sale

15 08 2007

Colette Phair’s, more specifically. Give it a listen.





writer’s edge readings: lidia yuknavitch

8 08 2007

Lidia Yuknavitch reads at the 2007 Writer’s Edge Conference in Portland, OR:


(also available in iPod/MV4 format)





writer’s edge readings: lance olsen

8 08 2007

Lance Olsen reads at the 2007 Writer’s Edge Conference in Portland, OR:


(also available in iPod/MV4 format)





writer’s edge readings: brian evenson

8 08 2007

Brian Evenson reads at the 2007 Writer’s Edge Conference in Portland, OR:


(also available in iPod/MV4 format)





writer’s edge readings: lucy corin

8 08 2007

Lucy Corin reads at the 2007 Writer’s Edge Conference in Portland, OR:


(also available in iPod/MV4 format)





writer’s edge readings: trevor dodge

8 08 2007

Trevor Dodge reads at the 2007 Writer’s Edge Conference in Portland, OR:


(also available in iPod/MV4 format)