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 Joyelle McSweeney
Nylund, the Sarcographer
ISBN: 978-0-9779019-4-4
Fiction. 5"x7", 132 pages
October, 2007
$14 includes shipping in the US
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Nylund, the Sarcographer is a baroque noir. Its eponymous protagonist is a
loner who tries to comprehend everything from the outside, like a
sarcophagus, and with analogously ornate results. The method by which the
book was written, and by which Nylund experiences the world, is thus called
sarcography. Sarcography is like negative capability on steroids; this
ultra-susceptibility entangles Nylund in both a murder plot and a plot
regarding his missing sister, Daisy. As the murder plot places Nylund in
increasing physical danger, his sensuous memories become more present than
the present itself.
If Vladimir Nabokov wanted to seduce Nancy Drew, he'd read her Nylund one dark afternoon over teacups of whiskey. Welcome to fiction's new femme fatale, Joyelle McSweeney.
—Kate Bernheimer, editor of
Fairy Tale Review and the author of The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold and
The Complete Tales of Merry Gold
If Wallace Stevens had written a novel it might have come close to Joyelle McSweeney’s Nylund, the Sarcographer. But any imagined effort of Mr. Stevens would pale next to Nylund’s journey through the butterflied joinery of syntax, the jerry-rigged joy of this tour de joist. And you thought you knew your own language. This book hands it back to you on a platter and includes the instructional manual for its further use.
—Michael Martone, author of Michael Martone
About Joyelle McSweeney
Joyelle McSweeney is the author of The Red Bird and The Commandrine and Other Poems, both from Fence. She is a co-founder and co-editor of Action Books and Action, Yes, a press and web quarterly for international writing and hybrid forms. She writes regular reviews for Rain Taxi, The Constant Critic, and other venues and teaches in the MFA Program at Notre Dame. Her next book will be the science fiction novel Flet, forthcoming from Fence in late 2007.
Reviews of Nylund, the Sarcographer
* A Small Press Distribution Fiction Bestseller
for 3 months
"Nylund, the Sarcographer is like interesting on steroids. Caution: if you are looking for a typical, straight forward, good old fashioned yarn, you’d do best to look elsewhere; but if you want to experience something fresh, daring, creepy, and significant, this is the one for you. . . . Other than the incomparable Ben Marcus, I’m not sure anyone in contemporary letters can compete with the voracity of ingenuity, complexity, and beauty of McSweeney’s usage. Each sentence is carefully crafted to upend your expectations in such a way as to make you giddy with anticipation. Call me strange, but I seriously felt a rush of adrenaline from the sheer excitement over what might come next. Seriously, I did. I’m not kidding."
--Full review in Bookslut
Excerpts from Nylund, the Sarcographer:
Readings & events for Joyelle McSweeney & Nylund, the Sarcographer
upcoming . . .
past . . .
April 10, 2008, San Marcos, CA
Joyelle McSweeney
7 p.m. @ Grand Salon (Room 113)
M. Gordon Clarke Field House
California State University
333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Rd.
March 3, 2008, Iowa City, IA
Joyelle McSweeney and Johannes Göransson
7:00 pm @ Prairie Lights Books
15 S. Dubuque Street
January 31, 2008: Brooklyn, NY
AWP OFF-SITE READING:
Lily Brown, Adam Clay, Julie Doxsee, Graham Foust, Melanie Hubbard, Rauan Klassnik, Joyelle McSweeney, Cindy Savett, Zachary Schomburg, Morgan Lucas Schuldt, Eleni Sikelianos, Jon Thompson, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Max Winter & CD Wright
Hosted by Black Ocean, Cannibal Books, Free Verse Editions, Kitchen Press, Octopus, Tarpaulin Sky Press, & Typo
7 -11 PM @
East Coast Aliens Studios
216 Franklin Street (Greenpoint neighborhood), Brooklyn, NY
$6
December 12, 2007: New York, NY
Joyelle McSweeney with Daphne Beal and Porochista Khakpour.
With music from Marcellus Hall.
Doors at 7. Show at 8pm.
@ The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series
302 Broome Street
Forsyth and Eldridge
October 13, 2007: Cincinnati, OH
Joyelle McSweeney with Johannes Goransson, Noah Eli Gordon, and Joshua Marie Wilkinson
8 pm @ Publico
October 12, 2007: Oxford, OH
Joyelle McSweeney with Johannes Goransson, Noah Eli Gordon, and Joshua Marie Wilkinson
8 pm @ Miami University
October 5, 2007: Ft. Wayne, IN
Joyelle McSweeney with Johannes Goransson, Noah Eli Gordon, and Joshua Marie Wilkinson
7:30 pm @ the Co-op
1612 Sherman Street
September 8, 2007: Lincoln, NE
Joyelle McSweeney, Johannes Goransson, John Gallaher
Clean Part Reading Series
7pm @ The Sheldon Memorial Gallery
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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