Joseph Bates's Blog

My great thanks to the fine folks at Keep Your Shorts On--a site devoted to story recommendations--for this lovely piece on "Mirrorverse," the lead-off story in TOMORROWLAND (which originally appeared in The Rumpus). Head on over and check it out!

Also, if you're in the Cincinnati area, come out this afternoon at 4pm to hear me read alongside the great Jamie Poissant, author of THE HEAVEN OF ANIMALS, at my alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, at 4pm in the Elliston Room of Langsam Library. It's going to be a good one.

My very great thanks to Kelcey Parker for including me in her wonderful series, "How ______ Became A Writer," and for hosting me tomorrow night (2/19) at Indiana University - South Bend (7pm on the 3rd floor, Weikamp Hall). If you're in the area, come say hello.

Also, very excited to read tonight in Ann Arbor, MI, as part of the Hobart Reading Series at Literati Bookstore, with excellent companions Tom Williams, Daniela Olszewska, Ben Tanzer, and Joseph Horton, 7pm. Looks like I might even have nice weather for the drive.  

See you there?  

TOMORROWLAND  -Fall Readings & Events-
(click to expand)

September 5th - WORDS + MUSIC #4 (Curbside Splendor Fall Release Party), Chicago, IL
Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western Ave, 9pm
[link]

September 19th - Mellow Pages Library, Brooklyn, NY
56 Bogart Street, Brooklyn, NY, 8pm

September 22nd - Brooklyn Book Festival
Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn NY, 10am-2pm

September 25th - Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH
2692 Madison Rd, 7pm
[link]

September 28th - Barnes & Noble, West Chester, OH
9455 Civic Center Blvd, 1pm
[link]

October 1st - Miami University, Oxford, OH
Leonard Theater, Peabody Hall, 7:30pm
[link]

October 3rd - Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI
Baber Room, Park Library, 8pm

October 12th - Books by the Banks, Cincinnati, OH
Duke Energy Convention Center, 10am-4pm 

October 17th - UNC-Asheville, Asheville, NC
Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall 139, 7:30pm

October 18th - Barnes & Noble, Greenville, SC
735 Haywood Rd, Book signing 2-5pm

November 7th - Paging Columbus, Columbus, OH
OSU Urban Arts Space, 50 W Town Street, Suite 130, 6pm

November 21st - Clemson University Writers Harvest, Clemson, SC
Location: TBA, 7pm

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TOMORROWLAND  -Fall Readings & Events-

September 5th - WORDS + MUSIC #4 (Curbside Splendor Fall Release Party), Chicago, IL
Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western Ave, 9pm
[link]

September 17th - Mellow Pages Library, Brooklyn, NY
56 Bogart Street, Brooklyn, NY, 7pm

September 25th - Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH
2692 Madison Rd, 7pm
[link]

September 28th - Barnes & Noble, West Chester, OH
9455 Civic Center Blvd, 1pm
[link]

October 1st - Miami University, Oxford, OH
Leonard Theater, Peabody Hall, 7:30pm
[link]

October 3rd - Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI
Baber Room, Park Library, 8pm

October 12th - Books by the Banks, Cincinnati, OH
Duke Energy Convention Center, 10am-4pm 

October 17th - UNC-Asheville, Asheville, NC
Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall 139, 7:30pm

November 7th - Paging Columbus, Columbus, OH
OSU Urban Arts Space, 50 W Town Street, Suite 130, 6pm

November 21st - Clemson University Writers Harvest, Clemson, SC
Location: TBA, 7pm

Here's a preview of the forthcoming (and very generous) review of TOMORROWLAND from Booklist!

"The first collection of futuristic short fiction from master storyteller [Joseph] Bates is filled with surprising, clever turns, at once freakishly funny and wildly imaginative. Bates has a well-calibrated sense of comic timing but does well not to stray into outright lampoon, instead layering characters with realistic detail and emotion ... [A]n outstanding story collection." —Booklist

The full review hits shelves September 15th!

The first review of TOMORROWLAND is in, and it's a very generous one, courtesy of Susan Weinstein at Not Another Book Review...my great thanks!

"The highly inventive stories in this debut collection address a fantastic yet familiar world, where shiny promises of fulfillment fall flat, age disappoints and love is not exactly the answer. Yet these bizarre stories are funny in the best humanist tradition. Imagine if Tolstoy set The Death of Ivan Ilyich in The Twilight Zone and you have an idea of Tomorrowland [...] Joseph Bates is not just looking to be clever. He’s looking at the space in consciousness, where a person experiences their own inanity and self-pity disappears (if not fear and desperation). His characters have awe for life's mystery, minus the shortcomings of humans and their often less than intelligent design."

[Read the full review]

So in the category of things I needed to do that weren't really pressing, but I feel good doing them anyway, there's a spiffy new site design I'm pretty happy with, and also this rockin' thumbnail image that ought to display whenever I post something on Facebook, but of course isn't working right now. Still, a little good old fashioned housekeeping never hurt anyone.

TOMORROWLAND’s not enough; Joseph Bates needs to put out a collection of stories every month. These are quirky, sly, brilliant, playful stories that belong shelved somewhere between Barthelme and Saunders. TOMORROWLAND is outstanding, and unforgettable, and universal. It’s like opening up one of those chocolate samplers and finding out that, through a mix-up at the factory, each piece is your favorite. 

 -- George Singleton, author of STRAY DECORUM

(Thank you, George!)

Google honored Franz Kafka today, on what would've been his 130th birthday, with a Doodle inspired by The Metamorphosis featuring, you guessed it, an insect. It's a great illustration, and great of them to recognize Kafka on his birthday--I was bowled over when they released a Doodle for Italo Calvino's 88th a couple of years ago--but also ironic, since Kafka himself, in a letter to his publisher on October 25th, 1915, asked for the insect Gregor to be nowhere on the cover:

Dear sir, you recently wrote that Ottomar Starke is going to do an illustration for the title page of The Metamorphosis. Now I have had a slight probably wholly unnecessary shock. It occurred to me that Starke might want, let us say, to draw the insect itself. Not that, please, not that! I don’t want to restrict his authority, but only to make this request from my own naturally better knowledge of the story. The insect itself cannot be drawn. It cannot even be shown at a distance. I would be very grateful if you could communicate or underscore my request. If I myself might make suggestions regarding the illustration I would choose scenes like these: the parents and the chief clerk in front of the closed door, or better yet: the parents and the sister in the illuminated room, while the door to the adjoining completely dark room is open.

Starke honored Kafka's wishes, producing a cover that captures the despair of the novella with nary a hint of insect. But come on. How could artists stay away from the image, really? Not only by now is it one of the most famous images from all of literature, and hardly a spoiler, but it's Kafka's own descriptions of Gregor's transformation and his clumsy, armor-shelled as it were body and difficulties adjusting to it--coupled with the fact Kafka never identifies the type of insect--that sparks readers' imaginations, debates and essays, and a ton of inspired cover art that completely ignores Kafka's wishes. In honor of Kafka's birthday, here's a gallery of some of the best alternate Metamorphosis covers...some respecting Kafka's wishes and some not. All gorgeous.

First edition, art by Ottomar Starke.


Artist:Tabi Aziri 


Artist: Elena Ospina

Artist: Salene Jang
Artist: Thiago Rodrigues dos Santos 
Artist: Mina Bach

So I've been noodling with book trailer ideas, and when I say noodling, I mean trying stuff and failing, though nobly. Some of it looks good, and I'm learning a few good things not to do, but the biggest problems I've faced with it include, in no particular order:

1) Should it capture the overall feel of the book, or should it simply create an atmosphere that'd get people to pick the book up? Because the overall feel of the book includes absurdity, lowbrow humor, metaphysical yearning, loneliness, foul-mouthed kids, science-fiction conceits, and an Elvis impersonator. So.

2) Shouldn't it look very pro? But if it looks too professional--even if I somehow could figure out how to do that--won't that seem slick and fake? This goes back to the question of tone, I think, and how you know you're getting away with, say, evoking a feeling of loneliness or longing (there's a lot in the book) without seeming that you're reaching or creating fake emotion. If it looks as slick as the beginning of a film trailer, with titles that fade in and out and some ominous music underneath, is that really my book at all, or just a rendering of it, and wouldn't potential readers look at the trailer and say, Maybe I'll stay away from this lonely-looking book? (When in fact, almost all the loneliness or sadness in the book comes with a laugh. And vice versa.)

3) Am I thinking about it this much because I also want to be a director of fine book trailers? Am I considering a second career as the Scorsese of the 30-second video advertisement? And should I want to be the Scorsese of book trailers rather than the Ed Wood of them? The Ed Wood would probably be closer.

4) I'd actually like to be the Kubrick of them. In fact, I wish I could just use the scene from 2001 where Gayane's Adagio plays as my trailer. When I see the cover, and that little isolated spaceman on it, I can pretty easily hear this climb of strings behind it: