“thursday is a lovely and unexpected collection of poetry that tells a moving story with wit and heart—a winning combination. more than that, thursday evokes a powerful sense of place and self—a home and self lost, a home and self that can’t really be found, a woman trapped within herself and the narrator trying through carefully chosen words, through the careful carrying of memories, to set her free.”

chad redden’s little book of poems, thursday, is now available, presale, $12

review copies available monday, april 16, upon request

plainwrappress@gmail.com

plain wrap is pleased to announce the first of four books it plans to publish this year

we received many wonderful manuscripts written by very talented people during our open reading period

plain wrap’s aesthetic is plain and simple: we like to read stuff that appeals to the immediate needs of the reader, generates desire, and has lasting power

we are happy to be publishing the heart’s progress, a collection prose-poems that functions as a novella, by sarah fran wisby

congratulations, sarah fran wisby

plain wrap will announce the second of four books it plans to publish this year next sunday, march 25, at midnight

be there

(sarah fran wisby is on facebook. her blog may be found here: http://sarahfranwisby.com/)

we have an announcement to make

meet us behind school, midnight

plain wrap’s open reading period for little book submissions starts now and goes until we get something we like.

send submissions for little book series here: plainwrappress@gmail.com

subject line: small Spanish boat

like a good commercial we want something that appeals to the immediate needs of the reader, generates desire, but has lasting power.

the specifics: little book series size: ~4.25w x ~5.25h, thickness: ~.25 - ~1.0 in., cover design: plain and simple.

alvin orloff, writer and flaming homosexual, lets plain wrap get to know him better. this is the sixty-first installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you, alvin orloff.

1. Tell us about yourself?

1. Male Caucasion, 5’10”, brown eyes, medium build, flaming homosexual. Loves garage rock and synth-pop. Subscribes to The New Yorker, but never reads the poetry. What makes me atypical is that I grew up in Berkeley, which is in some ways the opposite of Middle America. My fiction tends to deal with the way subcultures and social movements affect the lives of alienated loners.

2. Have you read any good books lately?

2. All Her Father’s Guns by James Warner. You must read it! It’s a social satire crossed with a political thriller containing a really brilliant analysis of the insane American political landscape but with great character development and plot twists.

3. Why did you leave your last job?

3. I’ve been at my current gig, managing Dog Eared Books, for years and years so this goes back to the ‘90s. I was working two jobs simultaneously: fundraising for Project Open Hand, a nonprofit that brought meals to people with AIDS, and exotic dancing at the Nob Hill Cinema. The former I left because I hate asking people for money, even for a good cause. It’s just dull and rude and depressing. I quit the dancing because I was getting old and would probably have gotten fired soon anyway, which would have been really depressing.

4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

4. I love reading history books. Can’t get enough of ‘em! Sarah Vowell’s book about the pilgrims, The Wordy Shipmates, Mark Kurlansky’s The Basque History of the World. Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost, about the Belgian rape of the Congo. Ryszard Kapuściński’s The Shadow of The Sun, a collection of reportage from post-colonial Africa.

5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?

5. Hard to single out one event. On leaving my parents’ home at 17, I spent the next 25 years as a roué, so it was fun, fun, fun all the time. (Mixed in, of course, with the unspeakable heartbreak of poverty, substance abuse, and AIDS.) There was lots of dancing all night, random sex, shopping for ridiculous thrift store outfits, getting wasted on this or that, plus I was always involved in nutty art projects. In the latter category, the most fun was helping run Klubstitute, a queer cabaret that showcased everything from drag queens, to underage punk bands, to art shows, to zine nights, to nude sketch modeling and games of Twister. That and DJing at Baby Judy’s Discotheque À Go Go. Now I’m middle-aged and fun is eating in Burmese restaurants and taking extra naps.

alice may connolly, unemployed student soon to be ‘employed in a dumbass job’ and frequent masturbator, lets plain wrap get to know her better. this is the sixtieth installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you, alice may connolly.

1. Tell us about yourself?

1. goats, snacks, drums, my cat, other animals, corduroy, backwards caps, denim, double denim, miranda july, lydia davis, woody allen, stripey tees, the replacements, life without buildings, todd solondz, scout niblett, charlie kaufman, biting my fingernails, short-sleeved shirts, pretzels, freckles, led zeppelin, chocolate cake, ice cream, thai food, sneakers, shorts, aggressively growing flowers, movies, new zealand, bike rides, leonora carrington, unemployed student soon to be ‘employed in a dumbass job’ student, cool friends, queen-size bed, peanut butter hot chocolate, jo randerson, essays, poems, prose poems, short stories, lists, upbsel.blogspot.com, alicemayconnolly@gmail.com email me.

2. Have you read any good books lately?

2. yes – best behaviour, watchmen, likewise (haven’t actually read this yet but i’m gonna love it).

3. Why did you leave your last job?

3. worked at the movies. left it cos it sucked.

4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

4. books and movies but mainly just talking to lots more people via emails or irl conversation.

5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?

5. masturbating. most nights actually. yeah. i have a real good

alex manley, a human being who writes things and has feelings, lets plain wrap get to know him better. this is the fifty-ninth installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you, alex manley.

1. Tell us about yourself?

1. This is a good opening gambit because it’s technically germane, but so impossibly vague as to be paralyzing. Here are some sentences: I am a Montreal-based human being who writes things and has feelings. I study creative writing at Concordia University. I’m working on becoming better, and better known.

2. Have you read any good books lately?

2. Yes and no. I set an unhealthy precedent for myself when I was younger, I think. If my 14-year-old self knew how little free time I was going to have later on, and how perniciously addictive the internet would be, maybe he wouldn’t have been as voracious, just out of thoughtfulness. I did read Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich for a class recently, and it really set me on my ear a bit as far as storycraft and simplicity and making the absurd mundane and then somehow exhilarating again. Also, Sullied, a collection of poems by Zoe Sharpe, which was put out by previous Plain Wrap interviewee Jack Allen thru his Trapshot Archives press, was the best 12 dollars I spent this year on something that wasn’t food or clothing or getting a contact high at a Bon Iver concert.

3. Why did you leave your last job?

3. Man, the pay was pretty bad, you know. It was actually an unpaid internship at the wonderful (and also Montreal-based) Maisonneuve magazine. I left because it was the end of the internship, which was pretty easy, since I knew it was coming, and it didn’t feel at all like getting fired or quitting or whatever, which I associate generally with negative emotions. It was just, like, “Oh, this has come to a pre-determined ending point. We will hire other interns.” And then they hired one of my friends, so it worked out well. It was very zen. And I got to keep my review copy of Kate Beaton’s new book.

4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

4. My two jobs that I have right now are that I work as the copy editor for The Link, my school paper, and as a clerk at a magazine shop, so I am pretty immersed in the world of journalism, and am just constantly reading articles about all kinds of crap—arts, technology, news, sports, opinions, yadda yadda, you name it. I think my body probably craves things to read the way normal people’s bodies crave things to eat. I get antsy and stuff when I’m not reading. Sometimes I’m just up late on Wikipedia for hours at a time for no reason. Maybe I should go on a diet.

5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?

5. That depends on what sort of time-period you’re talking about. I think for anyone, the answer is probably ‘an orgasm, like, a really good one,’ but if we’re talking spans longer than a few seconds, I had this really good one from early October to early November this year where I was just getting published and doing readings left, right and centre and feeling really happy and fulfilled. I knew at the time that it was a statistical anomaly and that things would cool off eventually, but it still felt really good. Also, my friends threw me a surprise birthday party this year, that was way cool of them.

michael davidson, a magic truffle, lets plain wrap get to know him better. this is the fifty-eighth installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you, michael davidson.

1. Tell us about yourself?

1. Thank you for asking Plain Wrap. I’m going to try to answer honestly, for the sake of your readers. I’m many elements all wrapped up into one ball that responds to two names, one of them being herocious. Some days I respond more to Michael, others I feel like herocious. Soon I’ll be a magic truffle on the tip of your tongue spiced with strong island rum that will make you squint at your own reflection and notice something new about your skin.

2. Have you read any good books lately?

2. Shit yes. Good books have swallowed up a large fraction of my life. I’m always reading good books, mostly small press affairs, and I often review them. Right now I’m in the middle of FAME & MADNESS IN AMERICA. Before that I read THE HUMAN WAR and PERSON. And before that I read IF I FALTER AT THE GALLOWS and THE SECOND ELIZABETH. All of these books are worth my time and more. I also write and handpress books under Tiny TOE Press, which operates on my kitchen table. Maybe I won’t be a magic truffle on the tip of your tongue. Maybe I’ll be a book in your hand being swallowed by other books.

3. Why did you leave your last job?

3. To avoid driving. Now I walk to work and I’m the happiest man in the world. My legs have muscles that burn when I walk uphill.

4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

4. Become small, insignificant, a single note on a piano, an eyelash on an elephant, a leaf floating fifteen stories in the air that makes everyone around think, “Lucky leaf.”

5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?

5. There was this one time when I wrote a string of words that ended with, ‘feeding him spoonfuls of honey.’ It was when I was living in Chicago, in a sweet apartment. I wrote, ‘feeding him spoonfuls of honey,’ and I looked at these 2 birds on the rooftop outside my window.

zachary whalen, writer, lets plain wrap get to know him better. this is the fifty-seventh installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you, zachary.

1. Tell us about yourself?

1. 24, lives in canada, has a job, a room, other things

2. Have you read any good books lately?

2. yeah i have read some good books lately

3. Why did you leave your last job?

3. normal reasons

4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

4. built some things out of wood

5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?

5. had fun ice skating last weekend

*note from plain wrap: some of zachary whalen’s writing may be found here: http://zacharywhalen.blogspot.com/

walter bjorkman, writer, lets plain wrap get to know him better. this is the fifty-sixth installment of plain wrap’s interview series in which plain wrap interviews all its facebook friends. thank you, walter bjorkman.

1. Tell us about yourself?

1. At the top of the subway stairs a line took me down into the depths of the tunnel, musky grays with vile creatures darting out of corners. It proceeded out into a sky of late Autumn sun desperately clinging to life in a shroud of winter air. It veered up five flights to a sweltering summer night on the roof, Sande in my arms, the barely moving air holding back suffocation from rotting streets below. It climbed a ladder to the stars where I rode a moonbeam to other galaxies. On the other side of the universe it took me to a tropical beach with piñas and niñas waiting for my delight. It boarded a catamaran sailing me back to the city, now in a Cuban-Chinese on eighth avenue, ropa vieja on my chin as fat ladies danced in the laundromat next door. It boarded a bus that clanged its way up to a bucolic meadow where people laughed, threw frisbees and fucked out of sight of police. A pelican picked up the line, drawing lazy patterns in the now gloriously blue sky, swooping me back to the station.

2. Have you read any good books lately?

2. None, really, most of my reading now is online poetry & short fiction.

3. Why did you leave your last job?

3. It left me. They spent a lot of money treating us great, flying 2,000 people out to San Francisco for 3 days of private concerts by big names, winery tours, cruise of the bay, and when the next economic crunch came they let go all employees with less than 3 years.

4. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

4. I had been working as editor on two journals, Voices & 52|250 that had intentional ends, which exposed me a lot of short fiction, and increased my design and html skills. Right now I am Associate Editor of THRUSH Poetry Journal, under the leadership of Founder and Editor in Chief Helen Vitoria, who I consider to be one of the best modern day poets. Working with her and being exposed to her incredible work has opened my poetry up to places I never imagined and has made me a much better poet.

5. Tell us about the most fun you have had in life?

5. A child of the city autumns, winters and springs this young boy spent summers in heaven in a bungalow bare-boned but strong built by my Father’s own strong raw-boned hands near the shores of the Sound, on top of a hill where dogwoods and black cherry trees abound outhouse, no plumbing or phone, walking two miles for mail yet this boy and his brother had no cares fishing in Miller’s Pond for crappies just spit-wadded bread on the hook Scottie’s – the grocery store in a big old wooden shack, Sunday funnies and picking only one from the candy rack my Father, in Brooklyn, to work through the week we waited and watched his arrival in the quiet retreat of this land we would hunt for huckleberries in the woods then come back and eat them
found big box-turtles to keep in a chicken-wire pen but by morning they had always escaped screened-in porch Parcheesi on those bucolic nights while watching the fire-flies flicker their lights as boys we didn’t know we were poor – ruled by the forces of childhood, we felt free and protected

Thanks,

Walter