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The Summer Writing Contest: Unite the Write! Print E-mail
Call for Submissions
Posted by David Blaine   
Thursday, 03 July 2008
bored

It's summer, you're bored, and it's too hot to play outside, so what to do?

Become famous!  Enter The Guild of Outsider Writers "Unite the Write" contest.

Your display of compositional dexterity will surely amaze your friends and startle any enemies you happen to have.

Here's the sizzle:

1) To be considered as a finalist, each contestant must submit three pieces of writing, a poem, an essay, and a piece of fiction.

2) There is no specific theme, but all pieces must revolve around their own theme. (i.e. If you write an essay on the Care Bears, your poetry and fiction work must also be on the Care Bears)

3) Word Count Requirements for each:

Poetry: No more than 50 lines
Fiction: No more than 2000 words
Essay: No more than 2000 words

4) All entries must be sent into: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by midnight on July 31'st, 2008. Please attach in 12 point Standard MS format and via attachment WORD doc or RTF

5) Winners will be announced on August 15, 2008 at 10:52:04pm or somewhere before or after that time. 

6) Winner gets copies of books/chapbooks by OW members McGinins, Hyde, King and Finch.  Good late summer reading!



OK, Now send us the steak!

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Featured Poet: ANTONY HITCHIN Print E-mail
Lit Circus
Posted by MELISSA HANSEN   
Thursday, 03 July 2008





A Trip into Town

Soles slip on nazi grey
foreign face reflected in glass, pupils large and pebble black with Saturn rings. Even in the middle of the Café, clutching my cup, sitting on a busy nest of tables; in the shopping centre, herds heaving and swilling, girls giggling and babies screaming, phones ringing, store security alarms bleeping; I am never quite solid, the ridges of my arms and legs diffusing, bleeding into some oily liquid, then vapour, the hubbub repeating like some ritual noise or Witches chant, speaking in tongues,
dead as Latin.


 
Written by A.D.Hitchin, 2008. Published in 'Origami Condom' issue 7

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Spammers Killed Our Comments Print E-mail
News
Posted by David Blaine   
Thursday, 03 July 2008
No Spam

Starting today, July 5th, commenting on this site will be disabled until we can install better security. 

The past few days we have received three serious comments and over fifteen hundred spam messages.  I'm not talking about crank comments, I mean spam.  Links to porn sites and such.  This has been an ongoing problem for months, but now the attacks are coming daily.

The result requires a massive effort, sifting through garbage to find the real comments.  Our present security code system is not effective in keeping these unwelcome visitors out. 

We have always enjoyed reading your comments and will miss them.  This is not an effort to censor, and it is not going to be permenant.

Thanks for your patience.

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2nd 69 Chapbook Released! Print E-mail
News
Posted by Pat King   
Wednesday, 02 July 2008
Hey there boys and girls!

Come check out the fantastic poetry of Lisa LaTourette and John Dorsey in the 2nd issue of the Zygote '69' Flipbook Chap series!

Order a copy HERE:
Zygote ‘69’ Flipbook Chap #2

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A Blonde for Onion by Kristin Fouquet Print E-mail
Lit Circus
Posted by J. D. Finch   
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
On the night of her eighteenth birthday, Desiree Mitchell blacked out. When she awoke the next morning, her head hurt and she was in an unfamiliar bed. Naked under the sheets, her anxiety and panic escalated.

Desiree turned to the bare back of a stranger. The pale back was slender touched by shoulder length brown hair. Anticipation was killing her, but she didn’t dare move as she wasn’t quite ready for the confrontation.

Motionless, she pondered whether to stay a few more minutes in an effort to recall the night’s events or to sneak out of bed, get dressed, and get the hell out of there. Her internal debate was disturbed by pounding on the door.

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Greenbeard Seeks Submissions from Writers and Visual Artists Print E-mail
Call for Submissions
Posted by Marissa Ranello   
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Poetry, fiction, reviews - film and literature - commentary, one-act plays, scenes and hybrids are welcome. Original artworks are too. We urge you to read a few pieces contained here before sending yours in. 

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Inscribed Seeks Submissions Print E-mail
Call for Submissions
Posted by Marissa Ranello   
Tuesday, 24 June 2008

Inscribed, an international literary magazine based in Canada, seeks traditional to experimental poetry, fiction, and essays for its next issue. Leniency toward the interesting and the bizarre. Deadline: July 25, 2008. More details www.inscribed.org

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Gloom Cupboard Chapbook Contest Print E-mail
Call for Submissions
Posted by Marissa Ranello   
Tuesday, 24 June 2008

To celebrate our first birthday on August 31st we at Gloom Cupboard have decided to bypass the carrot cake and absinthe shots in favour of a Chapbook contest, giving you the perfect birthday present.

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Susan Blowdryer: The Laziest Secretary Print E-mail
Reviews
Posted by Victor Schwartzman   
Friday, 20 June 2008

The Laziest Secretary


Jennifer Blowdryer

12.95

Zeitgest Press/ http://www.zeitgeist-press.com/ 

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Zeitgeist-Press 1630 University Avenue #34 Berkeley, CA 94703

Reviewed by: Christopher Robin

If she could somehow harness the energy she put into a free dinner into trading on the stockmarket, she could have funded the early retirement that had been her dream since preschool. Latoya hadn’t wanted to dress up like an Indian Squaw in a cardboard hat and dyed macaroni beads, she had not wanted to multiply, and she had especially not wanted to attend gym. Her childhood passed in a dizzying array of fake illnesses and hall passes. She had never for one moment wanted. To do. Anything.”


Zeitgest delivers another winner with this very funny book by long time punk poetess/writer/food critic/musician Jennifer Blowdryer. The main character, Latoya, is an overweight, frumpy temp worker (this book was first printed in the 1990’s and this is the 2nd edition) who hates (loathes, despises, cringes at the thought of) getting up in the morning. And of course, coupled with that, she also hates to work, and will go to (mild) lengths to get fired (she doesn’t have to do that much, which suits her).



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Featured Poet: SUSAN SLAVIERO Print E-mail
Lit Circus
Posted by MELISSA HANSEN   
Friday, 20 June 2008






Spread


A muskmill, this room that rents
for sixteen dollars an hour with
its ghosts of slap-lip, torn slip, the
bulletsnick of a zipper.  Only bonepocket,
whiskey stagger, a bruised
leg keep her from slipping
digitalis in his drink. Pout. Click.

And he knows a woman worn
on the wrist like a wire hanger
can be sweet-centered—
blackberry jam and loose custard
in a warm spoon.

Pull focus: kohl eyelids, glossy tongue, her
thumbpressed spine. Shell-pink
panties draped on the dusty lampshade—

Subject: that dark blade pressed to
her exquisite clavicle.

Object: the bluish skin of a woman shaved,
a skinless pineapple, photoflat
and pixilated in a red merry widow.

Exhale if you want.  It’s your dollar, your fist.



(originally published in Zygote in My Coffee, #103)

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Sirens Anthology Print E-mail
Reviews
Posted by Victor Schwartzman   
Monday, 16 June 2008

Sirens Anthology/Five Femme Fatale Poets

Misti Rainwater-Lites, Debbie Kirk, Jude Lynn, Iris Berry & Cynthia Ruth Lewis


Sisyphus Press P.O. Box 10495 State College, PA 16805-0495 www.sirens5.com   


Reviewed by Christopher Robin  

This anthology is nothing short of an outsider epic. It is composed of five hungry female poets who may bring to mind Patti Smith, and other goddesses of Rock ‘N’ Roll-and-the-Word, Five writers that have not succumbed to self-destruction, (like many of their predecessors), but are saving their own asses (and ours if we’re lucky enough to read them) through their writing. And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Debbie Kirk’s poetry is a good example of this. Historically, we have lost many writers to mental illness and suicide. Hence, her poetry is pure redemption: “I’m a crime scene sex idol/the bastard child of Burroughs,” (from ‘My Cross is Upside Down and I’m Dizzy.’) And yet, more than merely pulling us into despair, Kirk, a veteran of the punk and poetry scene, shows us how she has survived the horrors of addiction and abuse, and may in some way instill courage in her readers (mostly based on the fact that she has lived to tell): “even my closest friends won’t offer me a hand up/I spent two weeks in that roach infested shelter for battered women/but I lived/ so I’ve stopped asking for help/and stopped waiting for it,” (from ‘A Mercy Killing’). The titles alone will draw you in: “Judas and Idle Hands,” “Crazy People Eat Glue,” “What is the Color of Evil,” “My Arena of Hate…” Often self-deprecating, and sometimes empathetic, she usually gets the last word: “I know we are both scared of ourselves/I know we are both scared of each other/But today I’m on fire/and you’re fucked, (“From ‘Climbing on Top.’) Poignant, rebellious, cathartic, and delivered with a sneer, if you dare to delve into her mind, you may be tempted to reach for the razor blade, but I would recommend that you keep reading instead, hold these poems  to your heart and hold on tight, praying to whatever god you have left.

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Interview with Mikael Covey Print E-mail
Outsider Writer Interviews
Posted by Pat King   
Sunday, 15 June 2008

Pat King: Lit Up Magazine just seemed to come out of nowhere. Did you plan on starting a webzine for a while or was it a sudden decision?

 

Mikael Covey:  There were a couple of things that went into that - one, so many great writers around today, and so many great zines... Yet the zine editors saying they only accept maybe five percent of all submissions. So I wanted a forum that was maybe more open.

Secondly, I wanted to reach a younger audience because really, there are great literary ezines out there, but I don't think kids, teenagers, are aware of that. So I wanted to reach out to them, bring them into the fold of avid readers; like an alternative to playing video games or just killing time.

And, there're a bunch of other reasons, I suppose, but those two make me sound altruistic and noble, so let's go with that.

 


 

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Leopold McGinnis: Bad Attitude Print E-mail
Reviews
Posted by Victor Schwartzman   
Wednesday, 11 June 2008

Come for the Apocalypse, Stay for the Widgets

A Review of Bad Attitude by Leopold McGinnis

Reviewed by Pat King

If you want the best example of contemporary outsider writing from the last couple of years, then you should read Leopold McGinnis’s self-published book, Bad Attitude.  The book is cynical, funny, and yet, deadly serious about its subject.  And it’s a polemic in the best sense.  It takes the topic of consumerism, lays it on the operating table and examines its guts. 

The subject of the book is the end of the world, the apocalypse, something I’ve been incredibly interested in recently. 

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