Texan Royalty and the Future of Poetry: Issue 45 Action Shots!

Fresh from the tumbleweed-ridden lands of Austin, TX and the back of Operative Joey, the SPR is proud to present the following, shamelessly political set of Action Shots, premiering with this artful, windswept portrait:

Arms Reaching Out to No One

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Next, we visit the royal palaces of Texas.

Before the Gates of Montezuma

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Inside the Gates (A Sacrifice Is Made)

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On the walls of the palace:

Joey w/ A Bush

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Lighting the Fire of Revolution

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PIONEERS

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On his journeys with the story on his back, Joey collected three tales (in his own words):

The Wilted Leaves of the Modern Art

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1) The first day I wore it a couple of elderly women sitting behind me at a coffee shop asked to take my picture – they said that they loved it.

Shimmery People

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2) One day as I was walking to a diner a man, who looked rather scraggly, with a staff (although I suppose he called it a bow, does that make it a bow staff?) yelled at me to stop so that he could read it. I bit back the fear, but only for you my good sir [curator/browbeater], and let him approach. He then explained that if some guy kissed him he would probably hit him with the very staff he was toting – he then further related an event in which he did use that staff to hit someone in the head repeatedly – no worries, I made it to the diner.

(EDITORIAL NOTE: This is the kind of people who inhabit Austin, TX. Casual staff-wielders. Probably dressed like the shimmeries in the photo.)

Joey Is Addicted to Firepower

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3) the night of my birthday I was wearing it at a club – two older gay gentlemen asked me about it, and then laughed at the age – saying that they were about 60.

The Faces That Are Always Watching

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Where Children Go to Drown

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Holiday Cheer Lasts Forever

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Majesty:

The Man Who Learned to Fly

And so we have achieved the power of flight.

Welcome to Texas.

Mucho thanks to Joey Holloway, for wearing Cassandra’s poem; to Cassandra Gillig, for contributing the poem and turning the SPR on its side; and to Chad Redden, for being the muse.

See you next week.

Issue Forty-Five!!

OUT WITH THE OLD: the SPR is proud to present its 45th issue, worn within the wide, wide, w  i     d    e  state of Texas by Operative Joey Holloway:

TODAY THE SPR PUBLISHES ITS FIRST DELIBERATELY LINEATED POEM.

AND GETS HORIZONTAL.

ISSUE FORTY-FIVE (2/4/13):

featuring

“POEM”

by Cassandra Gillig

Operative: Joey Holloway (Austin, TX)

About the author: Cassandra Gillig is 20 and lives in New Brunswick, NJ.

About the operative: Joey Holloway loves soft lighting, picaresque novels, and fluffy quiche. This is why he moved to Texas.

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Stay tuned. You know these action photos will be good, because everything’s bigger in Texas. You know the things.

PUSH THE WHEEL OF LOVE: 2/1 Contributor Round-Up

Well, here it is. The first-ever SPR contributor round-up, attempting to corral all of our writers and operatives into the same digital space.

We can’t possibly make up for all the lost time, but we’re trying. LOOK AT HOW BIG WE ARE:

First! BOOKS! (Because SPR people are accomplished like that).

Berit Ellingsen’s collection of short stories, Beneath the Liquid Skin, was released a few months ago from firthFORTH Books, and one of its stories, “The White,” was recently featured on the Weird Fiction Review. You can read another story, “The Love Decay Has for the Living,” in the second issue of Unstuck, which is a 500-page behemoth (and you can read an excerpt of Berit’s story on the site).

Casey Hannan’s magical book of short stories, Mother Ghost, can be pre-ordered from Tiny Hardcore. Just look at that cover. Stroke it. Slowly.

(Also, he has a recent story in Wigleaf, called “The Long Beep,” and it is painful in the best kind of way.)

Chad Redden’s little book Thursday is finally, finally out and into the world, from Plain Wrap Press.

xTx has a new Nephew out from Mud Luscious, Billie the Bull. It’s an innards-scraper.

Joshua Young has a new book coming this month with Chas Hoppe from Gold Wake Press called The Diegesis.

David James Keaton has a book a-coming in May from Comet Press called Fish Bites Cop! Stories to Bash Authorities, a story in the latest Pulp Modern, and an essay in Punchnel’s about bein’ nasty. 

The SPR is proud of its two cousins with new and shiny books out from Housefire:

Two-timing contributor J. Bradley has a novella, Bodies Made of Smoke, replete with Highlander and gods and Freddie Mercury (and to which our curator offered a back-cover blurb).

Also, dig just-operative Robert Duncan Gray’s Cabbage Language. 

Russ Woods just put out a lovely new e-chapbook called “p e r m a f r o s t .” He does such wonderful things with spaces.

Delaney Nolan and Sharanya Manivannan both have amazing stories in Hobart 14. 

The second issue of Sundog Lit is out and about and features a story from operative Delaney Nolan, a poem from J. Bradley, and goats from Brandi Wells. Goats.

Heavy Feather Review 2.1 has work from Tyler Gobble, Delaney Nolan, David Tomaloff, Brandi Wells, and Joshua Young.

(Brandi Wells has been approximately everywhere, +3.)

Finally, a couple of calls for submissions from the family:

Fiction Advocate – the small press and book blog co-run by SPR operative and contributor Brian Hurley – is open for book reviews and fiction manuscripts.

And Cathy Schmitz – SPR megafan, supporter, enthusiast, and perennial first-liker on Facebook – has started up a new quarterly journal, Laughing Earth Lit, which is currently open for submissions. Check it out!

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Today, we are the proudest of aunts.

(We try to keep as up-to-date as possible, but if you’re an past contributor/operative/person of vested interest and feel that we might miss something, feel free to email us.)

Happy Friday.