&NOW...Now What

Can we have a drumroll please? Thank you! Steve Gadd, everyone, the Samizdat Blog in-house drummer!

And to what do we owe Mr. Gadd's musical stylings? The official addition to the blogroll of: The Now What Blog, a place for some of the prose writers affiliated with the &NOW Festival of Innovative Art and Writing to hang out, complain, argue, and endlessly opine. Sort of like a grubby left-bank cafe of the twenties, only available right on your lap-top, in a bring-your-own-absinthe environment.

Contributors include:

Ted Pelton

Laird Hunt

Lance Olsen, third nicest guy in all of alt-fiction land.

Davis Schneiderman, my colleague at Lake Forest, last seen stapling sandpaper to the covers of the limited edition of his new book.

Dimitri Anastasopoulos, who sports what is arguably the best hair in alt-fiction.

Christina Milletti, who deals patiently with Dimitri's hair-care needs and crises.

The omnipresent Joe Amato

The omnipresent Kass Fleisher

Michael Mejia

Steve Tomasula, who knows how to hunch over a plate of caprese with William Gass in deep conclave, from which the only audible words are "Kafka...Kafka...Kafka..."

And many more...

Even though the contributors are all writers or publishers of prose, there's been some interest in poetry at Now What: recent posts include thoughts on Charles Olson and Robert Creeley, as well as a few good words about Christian Bök's Eunoia, which seems likely to create as much of a stir in American avant circles as it did on the other side of the 49th parallel, now that Soft Skull is putting out an American edition of the Canadian Coach House book.

Check it out, and remember to bring your own absinthe and clove cigarettes. Bear in mind: on the internet, no one can see how silly you look in a beret...