William Walsh's Blog

Vol. 1 Brooklyn has included The Poets in its Books of the Month feature for April.

"...For as long as we can remember, William Walsh has been writing formally inventive literary work — and his latest book, The Poets, looks set to continue that streak..."

Honored to be on a list that includes Maggie Nelson, Justin Taylor, Ben Tanzer, and more...

Thanks, Vol. 1 Brooklyn!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge identified four kinds of readers. I am all four kinds of reader, and, I suppose, all four kinds of writer.

Research Notes about writing the THE POETS is up at NECESSARY FICTION.

An appropriation of an appropriation. A play on Tom Stoppard's play on Shakespeare, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Wed."

Joe Scapellato, one of the blog editors at The Collagist , asked me a few questions about writing. He applied a constraint to my replies. He asked me to reply only in excerpts from the works of James Joyce, a la Unknown Arts  (Keyhole Press).

I formed my answers around Joyce's many references in Ulysses to Shakespeare (and especially Hamlet). Here's the sentence from Ulysses that inspired me: 

"He reflected on the pleasures derived from the literature of instruction rather than of amusement as applied to the works of William Shakespeare for the solution of difficult problems in imaginary or real life." 

I had a lot of fun putting it together, and I hope it's an enjoyable read. 

Check it out. 

Ethel Rohan, author of Cut Through the Bone (Dark Sky Books), responded to Unknown Arts at HTML GIANT today.
She says:
"... Unknown Arts can be read as analysis, distortion, homage, and/or a work of art all of its own. It is doubtless a contentious book that will likely add fuel to the ongoing and often fiery debates around contemporary criticism, the imprint of influence, and the nature of creativity. Controversial or not, the collection is a valuable artifact..."
Read it all at HTML Giant.

Just noticed that Post Road has posted my recommendation of "First Love" by Samuel Beckett, which appeared in issue 21(Fall/Winter 2010).

Post Road 21 is a great issue, with work from Michael Martone, Michael Kimball, Meredith Steinbach, and many others. Recommendations is a running feature in Post Road. Authors share brief appreciations of their favorite (and often overlooked) books.

Here's a clip from my recommendation of "First Love":

"The unnamed narrator of "First Love" will be familiar to you. You've met him before. He is much like Molloy and Malone and the unnamed narrator in The Unnameable. He is not unlike Belacqua from Beckett's short story "Dante and the Lobster"—he even uses the term "lepping." And like Krapp, he has a taste for bananas. But while Belacqua's first love is blissful Beatrice, from Dante's Inferno, and Krapp spools and re-spools his recorded memory of lovingly reading a "page a day, with tears" of Fontane's Effi Briest, the narrator of "First Love" is less literary and more corporeal: he marries a prostitute named Lulu."

Read it all...at Post Road.

Richard Thomas gave Ampersand, Mass. a pretty thorough read over at the The Nervous Breakdown.

"These tales run the gamut from fantastical and bizarre to sweet and touching to heartbreaking and morose. Sounds like life—like most towns, big or small. But in his unique point of view, Walsh unveils relationships that are familiar, and yet, not quite right—a twist or oddity that makes these tales his own."

Thanks to Richard and TNB.

I've got a Research Notes piece on Unknown Arts at Necessary Fiction.

It's all about the research. I don't have a PhD. That's not an apology. Unless you want an apology. In that case, sorry I don't have a PhD.

OK?

Unknown Arts is available for pre-order at Keyhole Press. $14.95, includes shipping.

Release date is February 2, 2012.

Order information for digital editions soon to follow.

It's a collection of 40 borrowings from Joyce's Ulysses, Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegans Wake, Exiles, Pomes Pennyeach, Chamber Music, Giacomo Joyce, and his collected letters.

A few of these poems and text pieces have appeared in a few journals over the last few years, namely elimae, Artifice, Admit2, Big Other, Annalemma, Mudluscious, Monkeybicylce, FlatmanCrooked, The Scrambler, and H_NGM_N. Thanks to the good folks running those fine journals.

And special thanks to Keyhole Press for sticking its neck out--again.

Unknown Arts is coming very soon.

Texts and poems derived from the works of James Joyce. A few have appeared here and there. In Artifice #1, elimae, Admit 2, The Scrambler, Mudluscious, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere.

The image on the front cover is a St. Brigid's Cross made from McDonalds' straws.

Here's what's on the back cover:

Unknown Arts, to use a Joycean coinage, is a thinkling. Walsh offers a series of critical appropriations—poems, stories, and a silent play—drawn from Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, and more. "Enjombyourselves thurily!"

"Art critic Thomas Hess found that the only worthwhile criticism of a work of art is another work of art. William Walsh must feel this too, because he does not merely document and rearrange Joyce's work here—he makes, with Joyce's materials, his own music. Each piece is a lovely read, and a reminder not of totemic, hallowed literature, but of how personal and playful the act of reading really is."
- Darcie Dennigan, Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse (Fordham University Press)

"A mixup, an accumulation; William Walsh faithfully divines James Joyce and his multiflex bodies. Here is a man (two men, I mean, meant to mingle, both) once won of song and slave to rhythm; sum dumb, fully plumbed. Here is a truly prazeful recapitulation! Read."
- Ken Baumann, Solip (Tyrant Books)

More informaton to follow...