S. Scott Whitaker's Blog

My weird book is in presales, a twisted ride for sure. The audiobook is by the one and only Nate McFadden, who is a brilliant performer, and writer in his own right, and who was amazing to work with. It's a transgressive fish tale, among many things, full of vice, murder, magic, and secrets.

Read the sample chapter "Ostrich Derby". Presales for Mulch are live.  https://mulchverse.blog/ 
"Ostrich Derby took place every year on the same day as the Kentucky Derby, starting approximately an hour after the winning horse made his/her triumphant cross over the finish line. Ostrich Derby took place on Mung's Farm, about four and a half hours north of the Hayes farm and environs. Jeffery Mung and his wife Fay raised ostriches, two and a half dozen of them usually, sometimes as many as three dozen on a sizable chunk of land on Maryland's Eastern Shore."

A new poem in the symbiosis-themed issue of River Mouth Review. Many thanks to Sarah Stockton and staff.

My review of Michael Chang's Boyfriend Perspective in Heavy Feather Review. Many thanks to Jeff Chon. 

My review of Ian Dreiblatt's forget thee is up at Rain Taxi.

A new poem in the symbiosis themed issue of River Mouth Review. Many thanks to Sarah Stockton and staff.

Another new poem in the Sundress Academy affiliated Rogue Agent Many thanks to Jill Khoury and staff.

My review of Michael Chang's Boyfriend Perspective in Heavy Feather Review.

Many gracious thanks to Rosanna Gargiulo and the folks over at The Maine Review, for including me in their May issue.

Many thanks to Richard Peabody for including "Dinner Tonight at Henri's" on the audio/cd issue of Gargoyle. You can purchase it here.

Many thanks to James Diaz and Jenny Robbins for including "Bird/Brain" in the newest Anti-Heroin Chic.

Many thanks to Jill Ireland for including me in South Florida Poetry Journals Summer Issue. I'm on page two, down towards the bottom. You can hear me read "What it's like to get up and go to work when the black cowl of depression covers your face."

I have a new review of Michael Chang's chapbook, Drakkar Noir, up at the Rumpus. 

Hey folks, the workshop at the Eastern Shore Community College will be returning! I did not do a virtual workshop last fall because I was immersed in hybrid learning at Pocomoke High School.  My multi-genre workshop will return, beginning in late August. The folks over at the Academy for Lifetime Learning will be posting the fall schedule toot sweet. Visit them here.

In the past, I have done variations of Beating Hell to Hell, which I recently taught over at the Eastern Shore Writers Association. This fall is likely to involve some prompts, probably not generated via Dante, however. 

From the catalog

Students will read poems and short plays, analyzing for content and technique. Students will compose original works. Students will critique each other’s works for content and technique. Prompts will be provided but will not be required. Students are encouraged to go on their nerve with regard to the work they will compose.

Six sessions: Thursdays, 8/26, 9/2, 9/9, 9/16, 9/23, 9/30  —4:15-5:45 p.m.

Materials needed: a highlighter, writing utensils, a notebook, and a positive attitude

Class size: Maximum 15

@SScottWhitaker is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the co-editor of The Broadkill Review.  A teaching artist with the Virginia Commission for the Arts, an educator, and a grant writer, Whitaker’s work is forthcoming or has appeared in The Rumpus, The Maine Review, Great River Review, Oxford Poetry, The Best of Helios Quarterly & The Southern Poetry Review Series: Virginia. Mulch, a novel of weird fiction is forthcoming from Montag Press.

Note:

I did Bay to Ocean Conference in March and worked with the publishing tract. I highly recommend this conference if you are local. It was virtual this year, FYI. See screen below

Grateful to the folks at River Heron Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and Gargoyle for including me in their newest collections.

"Zoo Animals Disappeared"

"Lawnmower" and "Lark Sparrows in a Pasture Outside of Town"  I'll be reading with River Heron Review next week. You can find the information here. The zoom link registration for the reading is here.

"Tiresias Comes Over For Tea" Gargoyle

Mulch a sprawling American magical realism/speculative fiction mash-up of horror, small-town crime, historical and adventure fiction will be released in 2021, from Montag Press. 

Another flooded Boston dystopian eco-adventure will be out late, late 2021, in Helios Quarterly's new magazine venture.

New work in these fine literary journals.
Grateful to Mary Carroll-Hackett, Semein Washington, Brigid Hokana for publishing my prose poem "What the Fire Said to the Arsonist" in the newest edition of K'in.
Shout out to Ghost City Review's Justin Karcher, Jack Bachman, & Kevin Bertolero for publishing "Flagpoor". 
Thanks to Andrea, Jeff, and Ryn, over at Panoply for publishing "Old Man Winter on the Marsh."
Big shout out to Betsey Boyd, Emely Rodriguez, Adrearna Fleet, Chris Hart, Tim Huber, and Stevie Sanchez over at Welter, for publishing my prose poem "The Butcher & the Wild Child".

Pre-order the action thriller anthology Lethal Impact from Dragon Soul Press. Featuring one of my dystopian stories, "Don't cough in Marshpunk Territory".
Set in flooded out NYC, this pulp tale is a survivalist action thriller, and part of a larger eco-dystopian world.
You can read the original story, "How the Dun-in Man Got His Name" in Helios Quarterly's Best of Anthology, which dropped this summer. A novel-length work set in this world is in progress.
Synopsis: Two outlay scouts fight their way through a flooded NYC wasteland.
"Scraped by a marshpunk’s rusty pike, Nate wrapped his wrist and his forearm with the bandage the Dun-in Man had given him. Dried blood spotted the bandage like a cock-eyed face, and Nate had already begun to fret about the fever that would come later that night. Bacteria, homegrown in what had been Manhattan, would blossom."

Pre-order link: https://books2read.com/DSPLI

New poems over at Ireland's The Blue Nib"Somewhere a radio plays “Turn the Page”

and your age comes in clips, synaptic breaks,

so much is lost in the moment

and regained"

"Spotted Owl Hunting in a Brief Storm" is included in The Golden Walkman's" new episode   "A lake loves itself, 

laps, and laps and laps. How cold water, the mother well. 

How cold the sky up turning now"

A short (about a 1000 words) horror tale is up at DisQuiet Arts. "Vic would later recall the unzipping sound of wet skin and viscera ripping down as black flies came out of her father’s throat, the vomit still hanging on his lips as he tore his face. "
My Mad Max with Boats tale, "How the Dun-in Man Got His Name" is included in The Best of Helios Quarterly.  "Irrevocably altered by climate change, a lone man alludes sharks and marshpunks in near-future Boston."  [image error]
The same character from the aforementioned tale shows up in "Don't Cough in Marshpunk Territory" which will be a part of Dragon Soul Press' Lethal Impact anthology. Splatterpunk, action, dystopian thriller. Lethal Impact will be out later this year. [image error]

A new poem, "Poor Yuck Mouth" was featured as one of their centerfold poems in the new issue from the award-winning Fourteen Hills.
In late May I was interviewed on Chat & Spin, streaming from the UK, about Mulch , forthcoming from Montag Press. A big fat weird Stephen King-like adventure, & most definitely not for children.  Think Netflix's Ozark plus mermaids, and a genie that pops out of a paint can. Plus ostrich races, ghosts, sex, gore, and graffiti.
New poems forthcoming from Gargoyle later this summer.