We’re out and out giddy to see the official announcement that Stephen Graham Jones‘ brilliant The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti has been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award. Here’s the full field from the Novella category:

Disquiet, Julia Leigh (Penguin/Hamish Hamilton)
“Dormitory,” Yoko Ogawa (The Diving Pool, Picador)
Living With the Dead, Darrell Schweitzer (PS Publishing)
The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, Stephen Graham Jones (Chiasmus Press)
“N,”, Stephen King (Just After Sunset, Scribner)

Congratulations to Stephen, and also our designer Matt Warren and publicity goddess Virginia Paterson for pulling it all together. Cheers!

chiasmus press would like to introduce you to the NEXT BIG THING–the winner of the chiasmus book contest:

please say hello and give it up for:

Kate Zambreno — O Fallen Angel

We’d also like to ring the bells of praise for:

Jane Downs — The Sleeping Wall

and

Boris Pintar — Family Parables

So season’s greetings to all — and BUY BOOKS PUBLISHED BY INDEPENDENT PRESSES.  BECAUSE IT MATTERS.

Out of hundreds of entries to this year’s Chiasmus Press First Book Competition, we have selected eight finalists which represent the best of the best:

- “VTV” by Elena Knox

- “Glamorous Freak: How I Taught My Dress to Act” by Roxanne Carter

- “Caprichos” by Pedro Ponce

- “The Sleeping Wall” by Jane Downs

- “O Fallen Angel” by Kate Zambreno

- “Girl Love” by Sandi Sonnenfeld

- “With One Step Ahead” by Goro Takano

- “Family Parables” by by Boris Pintar

These manuscripts will now be sent to our secret final judge and his/her selection will be made by the end of November.

Thanks to all that participated in this years contest.  As you can see you were all in great company.

We’re proud as punch to announce that our High Priestess Lidia Yuknavitch will be joining fellow Chiasmanauts Lance Olsen and Stephen Graham Jones in their teaching duties at the fourth annual FC2 Writer’s Edge workshop next March.  Here’s the skinny:

The fourth annual Fiction Collective 2 (FC2) Writer’s Edge workshop will be held March 19-21, 2009, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the Universidad International. This year, the FC2 Writer’s Edge will be held in conjunction with the American Book Review (ABR) Writer’s Conference, held March 16-18. Sponsored by FC2 and ABR, the conference will feature workshops on innovative fiction, panels, a faculty reading, open mics for participants, and myriad conversations about experimental prose.

Also teaching workshops are two writers we adore, Alexandra Chasin and Jeffrey DeShell.  Full descriptions and application procedures are available here.

In this episode, Shane interviews R.M. Berry, author of Frank. They talk about what it means to take on an “unwriting” project, struggling to create an identity, and the danger of violent literary experiences.

Visit www.ralphmberry.com to check out Ralph’s other works. Thanks for listening.

Since Chiasmus Press doesn’t live on profit we’ll take praise… or even honorable mention. Check out what Poets and Writers.com has to say about us this time.

This episode is a dual interview with Davis Schneiderman and Carlos Hernandez, authors of the collaborative novel Abecedarium. They talk about the novel’s conception and creation, the importance of explicit collaboration, and scamming their way into a book competition.

Visit carlos-hernandez.net and www.davisschneiderman.com to keep up with the authors and their current projects. Thanks for listening.

We’re proud to announce that Stephen Graham Jones‘ latest novel, The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, is now available on Amazon.com.  Here’s the back cover propaganda:

If there’s a line between the real and the digital, between meat and the game, between past and present, then hold this book close to your mouth and whisper it into the pages. Please. Maybe the kid in there’ll hear you. His name is Nolan Dugatti. He’s lost, see, running down hall after hall, something both ancient and not-yet born galloping up behind him on a hundred legs, each individual footfall a sound he knows, a way of shuffling that he’s always known. His father? Except it can’t be. Unless of course this is another novel from Stephen Graham Jones. Not quite horror, not quite science fiction, but like his five or six other books, a story trembling at some pupal stage between meat and the game, where words will sometimes stop their crawl across the page and crane their neck around at the sky, nod about what they see there-you- then unfold their wings, drift up into another world altogether.

Check out Stephen’s latest blog post here, in which he explains the method and madness of a novel written—yes—in a 72-hour blast of fright and delight.

We’re proud as punch to announce that the standard trade edition of Lily Hoang’s novel Parabola is now available for order on Amazon.com.  The special edition (oversized, full color) is also available.

In this edition Kevin Sampsell takes a break to discuss his new collection of short stories, Creamy Bullets. He tells us about the impulse to create an accessible text, the value of a well-composed sentence, and stapling chapbooks in his kitchen.

Kevin’s micropress, Future Tense Books, is online at www.futuretensebooks.com. Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for future episodes.