HOBART

Coming to an Arizona or California near you

(Note: you don't even know how excited I was, upon Google image searching "go west, young man" to not only discover that it was the title of a Michael W. Smith album, but it was image number 1 on the page.)

As you may already know, Amelia Gray, Lindsay Hunter, and I are heading west for our High Emission Book Tour. We plan on wasting as much gas as possible, and electricity, and generally doing our part to counteract every thing James Kaelan is doing to not leave a a carbon footprint on his Zero Emission Book Tour. We're going to leave like eleventeenhundred footprints! OK, not really, but the idea of our tour name made us laugh, and that's about all that goes into naming a tour. 

Our first stops will be back-to-back Vermin on the Mount readings in San Diego then Los Angeles. Have you ever been to a Vermin reading? Oh, man. They're the best. We're excited!

 
 
 From there, we're headed up to San Francisco, for two readings. Between the two, we're going to be reading with Reynard Seifert, Lauren Becker, Andrea Kneeland, and Greg Gerke. I know, right?

Also, for three of these first four readings, we're going to have Avian Gospels author, Adam Novy, with us. Novy's book will be out in another month or so, but we're going to have some special preview copies on tour with us. They're beautiful, and the words inside will kick your ass. Seriously. Laird Hunt said it is “is one of the most original novels I’ve read in months, maybe years.”

and Sal Plascencia said I have seen the horrors of broken fidelities to kin and creed, brutal sights of carnage and betrayal. “But I have also seen soaring, beautiful, sculptures—sights never before imagined or dreamt. I blame Adam Novy for all of this.”

 
 

From the Bay, we're rocking it to Sacramento to hang with the flatmancrooked crew and where we will probably have to duke it out emission-style.

And then, down to Tucson for a big Spork blowout party!

I made a short promo-type video for the tour and, whether or not you want to donate money for the cause, the Kickstarter page is a good collection of all the tour dates, places, times, readers, and all that. I don't think I can express how excited we are to have already raised so much money Of course, if you want to donate a couple dollars, either because you are so in love with us and the cause, or just because you want some of those rad rewards, awesome! All funds will be used solely for tour expenses and, if we happen to have anything extra, it'll be used for gas money next month when we do a short midwest dollar store reunion tour (wait for it... first sneak peak at dates for those coming.... NOW!):

Madison, WI:
Friday, August 27 6:00pm
High Noon Saloon 

St. Paul, MN:
Saturday, August 28

The Clown Lounge

 

Iowa City, IA:
Sunday, August 29
The Mill

 

Chicago, IL:
Monday, August 30
The Hideout

-aaron

On Craft Essays

 

This last year, I had to (well, really, got to) teach a creative writing class for the first time. I was excited but also realized: I had no idea what to do. So I started reading a bunch of different craft essays. And what they taught me was: I don't really like craft essays. 

But one of the books I picked up was You Must Be This Tall to Ride, edited by Hobart buddy, B.J. Hollars. Its basically an anthology of about 20 "coming of age" (loosely defined) stories. And they're all great. But it also includes, as the subtitle says, "contemporary writers take you inside the story." And what these taught me is I kind of love behind-the-scenes types of essays. I love director commentaries on DVDs and documentaries on how movies and other things were made, a love for which inspired the "bonus materials" websites we do for every print issue.

 

What the anthology is is the aforementioned 20 stories and then a short 2-4 page essay by the author about the writing of that specific story. What happens, more often than not, is these become perfect little craft essays but with the context of this being how this specific author wrote this specific story. I love them for the cool, interesting, and somewhat voyeuristic aspect but there's something about knowing how an author wrote a story that both demystifies it and kind of endlessly reminds me, "oh yeah. You can get at a story like that, too. Or, like that. Or that."

Along those lines, I've been slowly working my way through Rose Metal's great Field Guide to Prose Poetry for weeks -- been meaning and wanting to write something about it forever but instead just keep going back to it and reading, rereading, thinking about. From the preface: "They (the editors) made clear that while they both enjoyed and respected the power of the critical essay, they found the lack of personal essays about prose poetry to be a gap that they wanted to fill." Yes! Personal essays! That's what I want!! And then, still from the preface: the "Field Guide to Prose Poetry operates not unlike a field guide to wildlife, plants, or tress in that it surveys and showcases what the field has to offer while encouraging active engagement with that landscape." More yes!

 

I think what I like so much about these kinds of essays, and these anthologies specifically, is really a few-fold:

1) Reading something and recognizing myself in it. When Christopher Kennedy (one of, if not my sole, favorite prose poets) writes that his "sense of how I became anything is spotty" I think, "phew. It isn't just me!"

2) Reading a "how I write" that is completely unlike anyway I've ever written anything myself and just that reminder of how everyone works differently. It's fun to know other people's processes, no? Whether you have any desire to try to mimic it or not.

3) The pure fun of reading behind-the-scenes pieces by some of my favorite authors.

4) Reading an essay by an author I'd never read before and kind of coming to the writer backwards -- finding their personal essay interesting and so reading their poems excited to find a new voice. (Which, in a collection like this, being a fiction dude and not really reading much poetry, was a lot. How can you not be won over with a first line like David Lazar's "I had one one good idea in my life, and it turned out to be a bad idea." And I absolutely loved both pieces by Jeffrey Skinner, but especially "The Experiment" and I'm now in a hurry to track down more.)

Which is a long way of saying: pick up these books. 

Brad reviews: Summer

Remember those old days of Hobart, before we had any clue at all what we were doing? (Not that we have all that much figured you now but... you know... more.) Remember when we posted weird, random reviews of stuff? Remember when a good percentage of those reviews were written Brad and we made fun of his lack of desire (or ability?) to use proper grammar or, often, make much sense at all, but we posted the reviews as they came in anyway, sans editing, because we thought that was all part of the charm? Remember when he guest edited a web issue, and most of the stories were about pirates? (sidenote: clicking through those links can be a kind of fun look back at the various looks of Hobart over the years.) 

If you remember those times, and if you are like us and spend too much time looking backward with fond nostalgia, then you miss Brad and his kooky reviews. Lucky for you... he's back! So, with nor further ado, here goes...

 

lets see here... been a while... 

and we just traded cliff lee to texas for a guy who hits .209.  i could punch myself.  

on to reviews.

i will review......... SUMMERTIME!

it goes, like this:

ah summertime.  sweet, sweet summertime.  long days, hot nights, pools, and the smell of sunblock means its summertime!  summertime, summertime, summertime.  SUMMERTIME!  i consulted with experts from around the world about this topic and their contributions to the list of summertime reviews basically sucked.  i was forced with no other recourse than to substitute my own.    

pools *******

now, obviously im going to give pools lots of stars because pools are awesome.  if i have to explain this in greater detail then you are stupid.  

slip n slides ********

or should we call them, "slide n scabs"?  you might be asking yourself right now, "but why so many stars if he thinks they should be called slide n scabs?"  well, for starters, this IS the low review.  and second, i dont think they should be called slide n scabs, i KNOW.  not even a well-timed tuck and roll will help - just plan on getting jacked up on one of these.  its summertime - just go with it.  

longer days *******

the days are actually longer.  think about that.  the days are actually l-o-n-g-e-r.  scientists are still baffled at how this actually happens, but not every scientist should be expected to explain annual three month rifts in the space time continuum.  Just let it go. 

july 4 ***********

indian reservation and a wad of cash = THE BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE AS YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES RUN FOR THEIR LIVES! 

july 4 in california *

unless you like shelling out $35 for a crappy fountain that lasts .5 seconds and nobody has to run for their lives, please, by all means, enjoy your 4th in california.  

water parks *************

see aforementioned pool review x10. 

water slides with tiny gaps at the point of intersection where two pieces of the slide are joined *

cousin to the scab n slide, badly sealed gaps in a water slide will cause pain and, as i have found out, have the potential to remove moles, hair, back acne, nipples, and smiles.  one star is awarded because, hey, at least you're on a water slide!

working during the summer 

the careful observer will note there are no stars given for obvious reasons.  

going bare foot ********

not the hippy version of going bare foot, where you are not ever allowed to wear shoes, shave, use soap, or be normal, but the good summertime version of going bare foot like when you go out to check the mail across the gravel, skateboard, sprint through the water park, mow the lawn, or comb the beach at night.  

bbq's ***********

granted this can and should be done year-round, but in the summertime you can bbq bare foot!  

blisters on the bottom of your feet from going bare foot ***

half badge of honor, half homage to summertime, half painful infection.  

jet skis ********************

my buddies and i all agreed that when one of us ever won the lottery, the winner would, out of the goodness of his heart, buy a jet ski for all the guys.  the sitting down kind, not the stand up kind that requires circue de soleil balance to even stand up on it.  make no mistake about it - the standie ones are hard to get going, plus you'll most definitely have a massive bruise on your leg by the end of the day from the jet.  a warning: you wont know about this bruise until the next morning when you get out of bed, and it will scare the crap out of you.  you will then try to figure out how the heck a bruise that big and dark could ever end up on the entire region of one of your upper thighs, and many scenarios as to how this happened while you slept will play themselves out in your mind.  this will frighten you.  then, shortly after breakfast, you will come to understand that it came from hours of impact from the jet as you tried to maneuver yourself from a prone position to a standing position while giving the jet ski ample throttle.  sitting jet skis.  sitting indeed.  

watermelon ****************

one time my wife brought a HUGE watermelon home from the store and she had to cut it into cubes so it could all be refrigerated.  after she cut it she put the cubes into a HUGE tupperware bowl and brought it over to me to have a "few" pieces.  after i finished the entire bowl she was like, "you ate ALL that watermelon?!" i was like, "chill, baby.  its watermelon.  you should have known."  

wetting the bed after eating a HUGE watermelon **

theres nothing really cool at all about adult-watermelon-induced-bed-wetting, or AWIBW, but then again, its summertime.