Kevin Sampsell's Blog

Hi friends. I did a weird thing and accidentally made a kids’ book. At first it was just an absurd little story called Sean (it was published on the very cool Diagram website in 2022). And then I had an idea to make it into its own little illustrated book. I asked Emma Jon-Michael Frank, whose comics and zines I’ve loved for years, if she would make some illustrations for it. And then (many months later after trying to figure out how to design such a book)… Voilà! It became an adorable book called Sean the Stick. I put it out in a limited hardcover run on Future Tense in January 2024. And now I’m happy to announce it’s available more widely as a sweet little 60-page paperback.

I’m doing just a couple of events for it: First off, a proper release party at Up Up Books, and then a real life children’s Storytime at Powell’s on October 5th. Both of these readings will feature accompaniment on harp by my lovely and talented friend, Dasha Shleyeva.

I’m doing some late summer road tripping–along with my friend Jeff Alessandrelli, whose new book, And Yet, is out now from Pank Books. Here’s where I’m going (check back for updates)…

Friday, September 16th (7pm): Denver (with Jeff Alessandrelli, Jeff Alessandrelli, Natalie Earnhart, HR Hegnauer, and Nazli Koca at Evans School, 1115 Acoma Street, Room 111 [Joshua Ware’s studio])

Sunday, September 18th (afternoon event: 1pm) : Wichita (with Jeff Alessandrelli at Watermark Books)

Monday, September 19th (7pm): Omaha (with Jeff Alessandrelli and Emily Borgmann at Dundee Book Company, 4915 Underwood Avenue)

Wednesday, September 21st (6pm): Lawrence, KS (reading and collage-making event at the Wonder Gallery, with Marty Hillard)

Friday, September 23rd (8pm): Nashville (at Nashville Poetry Library, with Malaka Gharib and Simba Alik)

Hopefully with summer coming, I can start lowering my dangerously high cloudy day Vitamin D intake and get some actual sun! My new book, I Made an Accident, is out on July 19th from Clash Books and I’m doing some road tripping to spread the word. Here’s where I’m going (check back for updates)…

Saturday, June 18th : New Orleans (I’ll be at Kolaj Fest that week, and reading at the Show and Tell event at The Domino)Thursday, August 4th : Portland (Book release reading, with guests Janice Lee and Jay Ponteri at Powell’s Books . Collages from the book + new work will be on display at Powell’s through August)Tuesday, August 30th : Seattle (Reading and talk with Peruvian collage artist Kike Congrains at Third Place Books in Ravenna)Friday, September 16th : Denver (Art show with Meca’Ayo Cole, Andrea Rexilius, and Shannon Tharp + reading by Shannon Tharp, Collage Films by Carolina Ebeid & Remixed Songs by Suzi Q. Smith at Georgia)Sunday, September 18th : Wichita (tba)Wednesday, September 21st : Kansas City (at Wise Blood Booksellers)St. Louis (tba)Nashville (tba)

Last week on my Instagram page, I did something I’m not a big fan of: Ask for help. After draining most of my bank account on a dental bill followed by treatments for vertigo, 2022 was starting to look like a pretty broke-ass year already. But I’ve always found a way to dig myself out creatively somehow. That’s when I came across a box of about 100 copies of an old out-of-print story collection that was sent to me when the publisher was closing shop.

It’s my 2005 collection of flash fictions and short stories, Beautiful Blemish, published by the legendary Word Riot Press. Despite its age, I’m still very proud of this artifact of weird lil’ stories. The favorable Publishers Weekly review noted its “diverse, convincing world of romantic perversion governed by impulses at turns whimsical, hilarious, and cryptic.”

I actually still love this 100-page oddity, so I decided I’d refresh the book a little and collage every cover and then sell them to you directly. I think this could be a win-win situation for everyone. You get a rare artifact of early “Sampselliana” with an original collage, and I get to climb out of this unexpected financial ditch. I’m offering these on a sliding scale. How about $20-$50? You can pay more (way more?) if you like. My Venmo is @ kevin-Sampsell or my paypal is kevin @ futuretensebooks dot com. Include your mailing address when you do.

Here are some of photos of the books. Some of these are sold, but I’ve been making more as people order them—and I can do a sort of custom job too, if you give me ideas. Thank you so much!

sold sold sold sold sold sold Sold The original cover, with photographs by Marne Lucas

I am honored to be featured on the great art website, The Weird Show. I was interviewed by one of my favorite collage artists in the world, Andrea Burgay. Enjoy!

It’s mid-2020 and the world is simultaneously burning down and rising up. The weirdest year possibly ever. The “president” sucks. The coronavirus is a menace. The police are dicks. The wrong people are dying. Karens are abusing their cell phones. Sports are put on pause!

But. But! Some social justice work is finally happening, at least in the ways that people can instigate. Sometimes by resistance and force. Sometimes by discussion and amplified voices. A rebuilding and a rethinking. The thing more people are learning: Just because something is part of history (or perceived as history) doesn’t mean we should glorify it with statues, flags, monuments, and misguided team names. This is why Germany doesn’t have statues of Hitler or fly Nazi flags–because they are symbols of shame and embarrassment.

So while we count down the days to when Trump gets dumped and shit settles down a bit, and since it’s been a long while since I updated folks about my creative adventures, I thought I’d give a quick update…

I started the year by taking some time off of my job at Powell’s to finish work on a novel I’d been working on for about seven years. The timeline on this book and how it was build was a good lesson in perseverance. Up until last summer (August 10th to be exact), I had written just 22,400 words on it. With a renewed focus and commitment, I was able to strap myself in and finish the rest of it in about six months (final word count around 62k). I’m super happy with it and currently querying agents for representation. In a lot of ways, it felt like it was the first time I’d written a novel, maybe because it’s more linear than my past books. I don’t want to tell you too much about it yet, besides the fact that it’s narrated is two years old at the beginning of the book and five at the end.

Then I got a kitten. Her name is Susan. She is perfect.

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Then I went back to work. Only to get punked by COVID-19, which shut down nearly everything everywhere. Since mid-March I’ve been out of work and on unemployment (hoping to return to work later this year), giving me some extra solitary time to work on various projects. One of them is an upcoming book of some of my collages that Clash Books is putting out at the end of the year. It’s called I Made an Accident and it will also include some of my poems. I should have more info and a cover reveal for you soon. Here’s a recent collage…

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I put Future Tense Books on hold for a bit while I worked on this stuff, but I have our next release set for early 2021 (which will also be announced soon as well) and more to be announced later this year. Recently, we had a Black Lives Matter fundraiser which was a great success (over $800!).

I had a poem in the Winter/Spring issue of Poetry Northwest.

I wrote an essay about cleaning out my desk at work for Book and Film Globe.

I have an essay about living during COVID-19 coming soon in this anthology.

I am very proud of this longer short story published in Southwest Review.

Another essay from early this year, about trying to grow a beard! In Split Lip Magazine.

Thank you for reading and for all the things that you do to make this a better world. xo

As the summer slides into fall, I find myself with a plate getting fuller. This post sort of doubles as my to-do list. Haha. Projects I’m working on for the next few months…

Just did final edits and now working on production of the next Future Tense release by Felicity Fenton and her lyric essay chapbook, User Not Found.

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After that, going to be publishing the paperback release of Rob Roberge’s memoir, Liar (originally published by Crown). Out in time for AWP.

Getting ready for a number of book fairs: Short Run Seattle (Nov 3rd), Portland Book Festival (Nov 10th), Publication Fair at The Cleaners (Dec 19th), and AWP (March 27-30).

Getting ready for some readings soon too. Oct 27th at Mother Foucault’s w/ Rebecca Brown and Kate Carroll de Gutes, Nov 8th at Rose City Book Pub for Clash Media, Nov 9th at LitCrawl in Portland, and some stuff for AWP next year as well.

Been trying to squeeze in some writing as much as possible. Submitting new work when I can. Right now, I have a couple of flash pieces looking for a home, a longer story I’m not sure what to do with (though it was recently rejected with a personal email–with praise and comments!–from the New Yorker), and an essay about Prince/The Revolution I hope will land somewhere soon.

A couple of things recently published: A longer story on Joyland. This reprinted essay on the Freeform Radio blog about Til Tuesday and Everything But the Girl. And if you see the new issue of Post Road in your fave bookstore, pick it up. My essay on Claire Dederer’s memoir is in that.

Collage-wise, I’m still making stuff and I’m currently working on a couple of movie-related things, including a commissioned job for a movie poster.

Thanks, everyone, for reading, and for being a friend. xo

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I went to New Orleans last month and participated in the first ever Kolaj Fest, organized by Ric Kasini Kadour and Christopher Byrne of Kolaj Magazine. The whole festival gathered almost 200 artists from around the world and offered talks, demos, parties, gallery walks, and a collage making space (run by me and my friend Jay Berrones). On top of all the collage activities, there were of course many hours of enjoying the New Orleans party vibe and historic neighborhoods. And though it was hot and humid as heck, all the venues (Cafe Istanbul, Antenna Gallery, Artisan Bar, etc.) were stone cold cool and it seems as if the general consensus among the festival-goers is that they will gladly be back for future Kolaj Fests.

Here are a bunch of photos from the four days of fun. A few awesome people I enjoyed spending time with but didn’t get photos of: Andrea Burgay, Nikola Janevski, Kike Congrains (from Peru!), Marlies Oakley (from Australia!), Alex Hood, John Hundt, Janina Anderson, Lybra Ray, Charles Wilkin, Beth Guipe Hall, Baleigh Ann Kuhar, and Chelsea Dean. Also, big thanks to Laurie Kanyer, who put a lot of love and energy into this event…

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At the collage making space, there were many collage all-stars at work. This is a beauty-in-progress by Ben DiNino. https://www.bendinino.com/

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Janice McDonald lead a workshop on the first day. http://www.janicemcdonald.com/

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New Portland pal Arthur Franklin (of Milk Bandits) and former Portlander (now Mexico City resident) Jay Berrones made the nights out wild and amazing.

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The Kolaj Fest show at Antenna Gallery featured this amazing walls of Zach Collins collaborations. http://www.zachcollinsart.com/

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#squad  (w/ Ric Kasini Kadour, Mighty Joe Castro, and Morgan Jesse Lappin)  http://mightyjoecastro.com/   http://www.morganlappin.com/

 

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My collage, Savior, was at Antenna Gallery (next to a beautiful Aaron Beebe piece here)   https://www.antenna.works/flat-file-new-work-in-collage/

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Seeing Danielle Krysa (The Jealous Curator) was one of the big highlights of the festival. So funny. So inspiring.   http://www.krysa.com/danielle/

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The night Jay almost jumped in the Mississippi. Good thing Aaron Beebe talked him down.

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Tourist photo with Ignatius J. Reilly.

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I did this collaboration with someone but now I can’t remember who!

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The amazing Allan Bealy multi-tasks at the collage making space.  http://allanbealy.blogspot.com/

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The last day featured a collage swap of art made at the festival

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My contribution to the collage swap, which was snagged by Daniel Lynds.  http://daniellynds.com/

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Two of the collage GOATS: Aaron Beebe and Zach Collins  http://aaronbeebecollage.com/

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It was great to meet Seattle artist Cheryl Chudyk (Stitch Pixie). She joined Arthur and a bunch of us for breakfast on the final day.   https://www.instagram.com/stitchpixie/

 

So, yeah–I wrote a long-ass essay about being a Cardinals football fan for forty years. It’s up at Longreads and I felt such a weird relief and catharsis writing it. In many ways, being a sports fan (mostly football and basketball) is as big a part of me as being a writer or father. I mean, the shit feels ingrained! And if you think 4,605 words is a lot for an essay (it’s my longest one yet), I have to say that I had to hold myself back. It could have been longer! In fact, I think I’m going to write a follow-up piece and publish it somewhere in September, when the next NFL season starts up. This follow-up piece will be more fragmented (my usual style, haha). Like if Joe Brainard or Maggie Nelson wrote about football.

And I haven’t even written about the Philadelphia 76ers yet. Is sports writing my new jam? Nah, not really. In fact, I have mostly been writing short stories this past year. A new flash fiction (and a postcard) appeared recently on Wigleaf. And some other stories have popped up since my last update here too. Lookee here!

Besides that, I’m working on some other Future Tense stuff, doing more collage (including this current show at Redux!), and reading some great books like the amazing Liartown compilation, Myriam Gurba’s newest, this weird-ass graphic novel, and the Carmen Maria Machado collection.

I’m going to add an update to this post on Monday because I have a new poem popping up that day and also because today I’m going to boldly pick the Eagles to upset the Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Mind you, this prediction is made mostly from my heart as an eternal fan of the underdog and NOT my brain as a smart sports fan. Until then, here’s a link to a video about the Cardinals unlikely playoff run in 2009, and three photos of Larry Fitzgerald, my favorite player ever.

 

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On November 25th, 1997 (it was a Tuesday), I started working at Powell’s. I couldn’t have guessed that I’d still be there twenty years later or what an important part of my life it would be. Being a bookseller, event coordinator, and champion of small presses at the largest bookstore in the world feels like my calling, perhaps even more important than being a writer or publisher.

But all of this time–this life–wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t fell in love with the transformative act of reading. Before bookselling, before writing, before publishing, I was a reader.

Working at Powell’s has been such a rewarding experience and the people I’ve worked with are truly my family. Thanks to everyone who has made these first twenty years such a wonderful experience.