Cathedral

by Patrick King (Editor)

"Cathedral" is an independent literary zine edited by Pat King of Birmingham, Alabama. It's part of the literary counterpart of independent film-making and independent music. Except that independent literature is largely unknown for some reason. In fact it has been alleged to not the only worthwhile literature comes from academia, it is said, by the powers that be. Well, that's of course, "balderdash" as someone once told us. Editors like Pat King are changing all this and putting indy lit on the map right up there with indy film and indy music. They're doing it by way of the Underground Literary Alliance. The ULA makes noise (and commonsense) on behalf of relevant, real-world writers, the kind that aren't in ivory towers or grad school, the kind who are too busy working crazy jobs and making art---just like their filmmaking and musical counterparts. And finally they're busting out of their ghetto. "Cathedral" is what is called a lit-zine. It offers writing about the world we actually live in, not a bunch of stylized BS such as comes out of the dozens of unreadable academic lit-mags that dominate the lit-scene (or should I say suffocate it---no one is reading this stuff except those who have to for their grades). "Cathedral" offers writing that is truly new, fresh and different, yet it's straightforward. No fancy stuff, no infantile shock-jocking. This Issue #2 offers stories Wild Bill Blackolive (aboriginal Texas bodyguard, model and SSI recipient), Karl Koweski (dweller among smokestacks in Gary, Indiana) and Grant Schreiber (feisty Chicagoan). No MFA wannabe's here. Just explorations of life as it is, as we haven't been able to read til now. Enjoy!

71 pages, Paperback