Kitty Snacks: February 2010

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Kitty Snacks #3 is out! Party on Friday, March 5!

We are pleased to announce the release of Kitty Snacks #3, a literary magazine based in Oxford, Mississippi. The third issue features stories, poems, photographs, and drawingsby a wide variety of authors and artists.

Kitty Snacks #3 features fiction from University of Mississippi John and Renee Grisham writerin-residence John Brandon, whose novel Arkansas was published by McSweeney’s in 2009. Also featured are Mississippian Mary Miller, author of Big World (Hobart’s Short Flight/Long Drive Press, 2009) ; Deb Olin Unferth, author of Vacation (McSweeney’s, 2008); Rudy Wilson, author of The Red Truck (Ravenna Press, 2010); Kevin Wilson, author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (HarperPerennial, 2009); and George Singleton, who has published four collections of stories, two novels, and a book of writing advice and whose latest novel is Work Shirts for Madmen (Harvest, 2008).. The majority of these writers are connected to the South and many were born in or live in Mississippi. Other writers featured in the magazine include P.A. Levy, Ryan Ridge, Andrew Borgstrom, Isadora Bey, Darlin’ Neal, and Jeff McNeil.

Work by three photographers is featured in this issue. Jane Rule Burdine’s book Delta Deep Down was published in 2008 by the University Press of Mississippi. She lives in Taylor, Mississippi. Los Angeles-based photographer Ward Long provided the cover photograph for the issue as well as color photos in the interior. His work has appeared on TheFader.com. John Oliver Hodges has several black-and-white photographs included in the issue. His photos have appeared in The Oxford American andelsewhere.

Jason Polan and Josh Burwell both contributed drawings that appear throughout the magazine. Josh is a 2009 graduate of the University of Mississippi and currently splits his time between Oxford, Mississippi and Paris, France. Jason Polan lives in New York City and draws for Jack Pendarvis’ monthly column in The Believer. Polan is currently working on a project to draw everyone in New York City and once drew every piece of art in the Guggenheim.

Captain Maximus is out of print!

Get Barry Hannah's books back in print!

Dear big and small publishers,

Barry Hannah is one of our favorite writers and it's a shame that some of his books are not in print. Anyone who has read these books that have gone out of print will agree that it's insane.

These books by Hannah are no longer in print:
The Nightwatchmen
Captain Maximus
Hey Jack

SOMEONE PRINT THESE!!!! Or donate the money to Kitty Snacks and we'll do it.

Kitty Snacks Kegger #3!

Issue #3 release party on Friday, March 5 at 9 p.m.
Location: The Powerhouse in Oxford, MS

Come by after the Oxford Conference for the Book wraps up for the day. Free booze. A raffle with tons of good stuff including signed Barry Hannah books (to celebrate the conference).

Ward Long, John Oliver Hodges, & Jane Rule Burdine will have photos on exhibit.

Stay tuned for a list of readers and performers...

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Excerpt from The Big Book of Forgotten Lunatics, Volume 1

by Kevin Wilson

The King of the Sinkholes

Dr. Wesley Partin (1877-1958)

He was born without ears, his skin bone-white. His mother bled out. His father, a veteran of the Civil War, his left arm a sleeve of fabric, smothered the newborn baby for seventeen minutes with a wadded-up cloth handkerchief but the child did not perish.

He reportedly called sinkholes “the most vaginal of god’s natural occurrences,” though this has been disputed and is probably a case of mythmaking rather than fact.

Wrapped in a thin mummy of his deceased mother’s dresses, the child developed quickly. He discovered his first sinkhole at age seven, noting in the letters section of the June 7^th, 1884 edition of the Gainesville Sun the “slumping fenceposts” and “wilting vegetation” of the affected area. Seven days later, the earth had collapsed, a cone of debris signifying the development.

He once berated an assistant for an error, exclaiming, “This is a goddamned hole, you fool, not a sinkhole. Just a hole.”

At age ten, he was elected to the Southeastern Topographic and Geologic Society. At the initiation ceremony, he allowed the vice-president’s wife to touch the places where his ears should have been. “How do you hear?” she asked. “My teeth,” he answered, and when she ran her fingertip across his incisors, he winced.

He reportedly called sinkholes “the devil punching holes in the earth with his penis,” though this has been disputed and is probably a case of mythmaking rather than fact.

These Institutions Deserve My Gratitude

by George Singleton

I would like to acknowledge the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. I cannot, but I would like to do so. Evidently my plan of action regarding The Curious Life and Difficult Times of Transcendental Meditationalist and Kosher Deli-Owning African-American Leroy Pinckney: Conformity and Rebellion, Fresh Meat and Mantras did not sway the voting committee, or whatever they have up there at the NEH. I completely understand. I do not bear a grudge, nor do I wish to exact vengeance on any of the highly-qualified members up there in Washington, D.C. I read recently that somebody received one of the NEH grants in order to work on the Selected Papers of Reggae Icon Bob Marley. Selected rolling papers, maybe. But I understand. Up until my biography of Leroy Pinckney hits the shelves of every college and university library in America (and Jamaica, I suppose), no one will understand how Leroy’s lynching affected our fast-paced modern day society of men and women, the bigoted and the rational.

Kitty Snacks Bundle of Kittens!

For a limited time we're offering a sweet deal on Kitty Snacks #2 and the upcoming #3 in a crazy bundle. You'll get both issues for 14 bucks plus a small shipping fee (while supplies last). Just click the buy button below.

UPDATE: No longer available. sorry.