Changes

Announcement

NEW POP LIT will be undergoing a few changes due to the departure of co-editor Andrea Nolen. We’ll have an announcement soon of where we’re headed. Hopefully to new areas. Any living creation has to continually move forward. In the meantime:

-We’ll soon publish again here great new fiction and poetry.

-We’ll soon post at our house blog a report on NEW POP LIT’s appearance at the Allied Media Conference. Also about the preview of NPL “The Print Version” at that conference.

-We have terrific interviews upcoming with two of the talented writers in that issue, Alex Bernstein and Kathleen Crane.

Andrea Nolen was the driving force in creating this lit site. She brought me into this project. We wish her all success in her future endeavors. We’ll miss her ideas and her skills. The task for NEW POP LIT now is to build on this foundation– to take our quixotic attempt to revive literature to another level. Can we do that? Stay tuned!

-Karl Wenclas

Interview with Allied Media Conference!

Events

allied media con

We at NEW POP LIT are furiously readying our first print issue– which will contain words and art from a dozen talented writers. We also have a dynamite cover by Detroit artist Alyssa Klash. A Sneak Preview of the issue takes place in less than a week, beginning June 19th at our table at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, at Wayne State University.

Though she’s extremely busy, AMC Program Director Morgan Willis was able to give us and our readers information about the nationally renowned conference, and answer a few general questions.

NPL: Where can our readers learn about the history of the AMC event?

https://www.alliedmedia.org/amc/background

NPL: What inspired organizers to choose Detroit for the venue this year?

MORGAN: The AMC has been in Detroit since 2007. The move facilitated more young people, queer people, people of color and low-income communities to participate in the conference. More artists and organizers from Detroit were participating, and people from other places were excited to learn from Detroit’s legacy as a Black Power and Labor Movement city. Detroit offered many examples of visionary organizing models emerging in the midst of post-industrial crisis; at the same time, out-of-town visitors to the AMC brought with them skills and experiences from their home communities that were valuable to Detroiters.

NPL: The AMC has so many events, meetings, dialogues and expositions… what are your favorites and are there any you’d recommend especially for modern short fiction writers?

MORGAN: My favorites are often in the Intergalactic Intergenerational Justice Practice Space (https://www.alliedmedia.org/amc/tpsng). There are tons of storytelling sessions, and as a short fiction writer myself I find various perspectives on what it even means to tell a story a tremendously helpful lens. The entire schedule can be found at http://www.amc2015.alliedmedia.org. Other content areas that may interest “modern short fiction writers” could be the Spoken Movement Track as well as the brilliant exhibition area that features recently published books, zines, magazines, etc.

NPL: Are there new features for participants to look out for this year?

MORGAN: Yes, check out this blog post: https://www.alliedmedia.org/news/2015/06/09/10-reasons-why-amc2015-will-be-best-amc-ever

Thanks Morgan! We’ll see you at the AMC.

(Read more about NEW POP LIT’s new journal at our house blog, http://www.newpoplitinteractive.wordpress.com)

A Cup of Coffee and A Smoke

Announcement

We at NPL have been very busy these last two weeks– we are now days away from launching our first print journal at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit!

New Pop Lit Volume #1 will soon be on sale through this website, too. Details to come!

In the meantime, we give you a poem that may resonate with readers who feel somewhat out-of-place in our crazy-rationalized economy… check out A Cup of Coffee and a Smoke by Matt Sandifer.

 

A Man Smoking A Pipe, by Paul Cezanne.

Studious

Third-Way Fiction

Connor Philips gives us a story about chess and female psychology today, NPL readers. You can learn a lot if you’re Studious.

 

He moves his king pawn one place ahead, I move my king pawn two. His queen diagonal to the edge, I use what foresight he taught me, I don’t want to stack my pawns so I push my rook pawn to face his queen. He can take it if he wants to relinquish his queen and I can free my pawn. His King bishop out four places– he didn’t fall for the trap. I want his queen! King knight forward two left one, “Your queen’s under attack,” I say smugly, either he will back off or lose his queen.

 

The Chess Game (1555) by Sofonisba Anguissola.

An Irishman in Taiwan

Classic Pop

Eric Bauer is our featured writer today, NPL readers. He brings us a thoughtful story about the death of a young English teacher abroad… An Irishman in Taiwan.

 

At the morgue, Liam’s his head was blue and veiny and his mouth open and his eyes shut. The tattoo on his shoulder had been pulled away with the flesh of his arm and then sewn up in great bandages like something out of Egypt, a place he always wanted to visit. He seemed to be turning sideways, jeering at something just out of sight and when we walked around his body and peered in, we felt the coldness of his skin rising up to us like the open door of a freezer so that we pulled back sharp, the formaldehyde and ice tickling our noses, and seeing one another with the same looks, the same failure to view our dead friend this one last time, a shame settled over our heads that made us cagey and awkward until someone reached out, a hand on a shoulder then another and another until the five of us were interlaced like a braid and we could stand there again and see him and just let it be.

 

Thank you to yisjourneytothewest.blogspot.com for the unbelievable photo.

Interview with Jana DeLeon

Announcement

We continue our series of interviews with master storytellers this week with New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jana DeLeon. Her Miss Fortune Mysteries series features Fortune Redding, a CIA vixen hitwoman working the unpredictable Bayou backwoods… and looking for love!

Jana gives us the skinny on both traditional and self-publishing; her writing process; and engaging readers. Enjoy the interview here!

 

The best thing about indie publishing is it pays the lion’s share of profit to the artist, and that’s the way it should be. Non-compete clauses would have to be eliminated. I believe they are restraint of trade. No publisher should be able to limit an author’s ability to make a living, and the vast majority of traditionally published authors are not making enough money to support a family.

MOO-G

Third-Way Fiction

A thoughtful piece for you today, readers. David Solórzano comes to us from Boston and his MOO-G is a darkly comic way to start your Saturday morning.

 

Back when I lived on Lilley Ave there was a homeless guy who slept in the alley between our building and Vic’s pastries. He wore an old Bruins jersey, number 35, that must have originally been black, but had faded over the years to a dirty, depressing gray. Me and my roommates started calling him Moog, after the name on the back of the jersey, but since none of us knew anything about hockey we pronounced it like a cow sound with a G on the end.

 

Thanks to complex.com for the photo.

The Maybe Game

Third-Way Fiction

Our story this morning, by Indiana-based writer Brittany Terwilliger, will resonate with the dating crowd… and anybody who’s ever been disillusioned with the dating crowd! Check out The Maybe Game…

 

The buzz of his snore breaks through my early morning sleep. I look up as if from a tomb, calculating moves that will change nothing. Most mornings, if I close my eyes again I can fall back to sleep. But never when Sebastian stays over. Dust motes float through shafts of light above us, tiny swirling universes with faraway cares. I wish he wasn’t here. But that’s not true, is it. No, the truth is I wish he was always here. Which isn’t that different, when you think about it. I might never see him again and the thought of that makes me want him and despise him at the same time.

 

Thank you to http://foodiereflections.com for the photo credit.

Interview with Sue-Ellen Welfonder

Announcement

NPL is excited to interview author Sue-Ellen Welfonder, who also writes under the name Allie Mackay!

Sue-Ellen is a seasoned storyteller and a USA Today Bestselling author; she’s built a following with her fun, Scottish-themed historical romances and light-hearted paranormal stories. Today she shares her insights about engaging readers and weighs in on the Amazon/Hachette debate. Enjoy!

 

Readers have embraced lower-priced books. Many people are struggling these days and reading is an ideal escape. Easily accessible books at reader friendly prices are the books readers want and will buy. Independent publishing allows authors to offer such titles and I love that. It’s good for writers and readers.

Walter Reed and the Countess of Montreal in Exile

Third-Way Fiction

Today we’re honored to give readers a selection from Samuel Finlay’s novel Breakfast With The Dirt Cult… the only thing worse than counter-culture shock is counter-culture shock after a war. Sink your teeth into Walter Reed and the Countess of Montreal in Exile.

 

Walton sat at the window of the shuttle bus and watched the Washington Monument pass by under a midnight sky. The world was speckled with lights and activity and he regretted that the first sight of his country had to be one of modernity. The neon, and the concrete, and the billboards; there was something about it all that seemed foreign and garish.