Welcome to Issue V, Volume VII: May 2016 of Connotation Press: An Online Artifact. Let’s make this short. Pat McCrory is a fucking idiot and the GOP should be disbanded. They are the worst kind of trash on the planet and like any good steaming pile of shit, they should be flushed.
Questions?
I’ve been sick for the past two weeks and so I’m a bit impatient, and I hope you’ll forgive me, but I just needed to get that off my chest.
And now, let’s kick this pig and see what it’ll do!
A Poetry Congeries with John Hoppenthaler rocks this month with stellar new work by Tony Hoagland, Sarah Blake, Henry Walters, Diana Reaves, Christopher Kempf, Karen Leona Anderson, and Margo Taft Stever. And don't miss John's preface this month as he delivers a Chicken Antipasto recipe for a book Kurt Brown was working on before he passed away, and takes a little time to remember Kurt's poetry, too. A pleasure, as always, to publish this column. And publishing Tony Hoagland? Amazing. Another line drawn through an entry on my bucket list. Thanks, John!
Editor-at-Large, Meg Tuite, is back at it this month with an outstanding offering for her Crazy Rabbit Review column: an excerpt from the new novel, Beautiful Ape Girl Baby, by the brilliant Heather Fowler. We’ve got an interview with Ms Fowler along with an excerpt from the book and a video of Heather discussing magical realism at the AWP conference this year in Los Angeles. Do Not Miss status on this one, kids. And GREAT to have you back, Meg!
This month our Book Review editor, Julia Bouwsma, takes a look at the strong new collection, Bright Stranger, from the stunning mind of Katherine Soniat. Bright Stranger, an offering from Louisiana State University Press, is “a spiraling, seven-sectioned meditation on liminality…” and not to be missed. Thanks, Julia!
And finally, John Turi takes our A Drinker with a Writing Problem column to Thomas Keller’s French Laundry for part two of the review he started last issue. It comes as no surprise that John gives stellar marks to the French Laundry experience, but this review seeks to not only shed light on the dining experience, but explain why spending $5,000 on dinner is something smart to do.
That’s it for the first half of our May offerings. Please come back for the second half on the 15th, when we’ll have strong new work in our Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction columns.
And remember, the GOP agenda is horrible and dishonest, Donald Trump is not even a viable candidate for a shitty TV show host gig let alone the President of the United States, and a vote for this group of bullies and idiocy mongers is a vote against the rights of women and the evolution of scientific thought in America. It’s not funny. It’s not a cute joke. It’s fucking sick, and these people need to be stopped lest we all end up going through on a national level what the good folks in North Carolina are now.
Connotation Press: Enough!
All best,
Ken Robidoux
Publisher/Founding Editor-in-Chief
Connotation Press