Things you should know, if you don’t already:
1. In coming days, we will publish Steven Dunn’s second novel, water & power.
2. We also published Steven’ first novel, Potted Meat. It was co-winner of the Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize and went on to be a Small Press Distribution Bestseller, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award, and shortlisted for Granta magazine’s “Best of Young American Novelists.”
3. Excerpts from water & power were just published in an exciting new journal called Rigorous. Here’s an excerpt:
No thinking about the Navy for three weeks. I can already taste my aunt’s fried fish and my cousin’s Purple Haze.
At my folks’ house I hug my sisters and my mom and dad. Glad you made it home, my mom says, Thanks for protecting us. My sister rolls her eyes and points to a sticker on the refrigerator: PROUD NAVY MOM.
I’m outside smoking cigarettes with my dad and his friends. One of his friends says, You still in that Army? No, I’m in the Navy. He says, It’s good you joined the Army. I tried to get my boy to sign-up but that sorry-ass nigga don’t wanna do shit but smoke dope and lay around with these no-good hoes. You should get him to join, he says, Tell him how much of that Chinese pussy you gettin.
Ain’t you a spy? No, I say. Oh, he says, you’d have to kill us if you told us, huh? I stub out my cigarette and throw it into the garbage can because my mom just swept the sidewalk. My dad’s friend says, Uncle Sam got that boy trained good—he don’t leave no tracks behind.
My dad says, Yall ain’t find that one muthafucka yet? No, I say. And yall ain’t gon find him—he probably still in New York. I ain’t believin shit that lyin-ass news say, they know he aint in no Zackitstan, Crackistan, he ain’t in nown one of them goddamn Stans.
My mom sends me to the Post Office. In the Post Office there is a Wall of Heroes with a photo of everyone from our town who is currently in, or has been in the Armed Forces. Even if they were kicked out for drugs or attempted suicides or check fraud or going AWOL. There is photo of me from boot camp, the cheesy one with the soft grey background. I have on that silly white hat and a serious look on my child face. I snatch my picture down, crumple it, and toss it in the trash.
4. You should read the rest at Rigorous.