jordancastro:

email from noah cicero re supercomputer (deckfight press, 2011)

deckfightpress:

Cover from ‘The Five Lost Senses of Carl’ by Mel Bosworth & Christy Crutchfield.

Coming (very) soon from Deckfight Press. 

love from @Beach_Sloth for I’m Here Right by Josh Rank. Get yr own copy fo’ free here.

beachsloth:

I’m Here Right? (Stories by Josh Rank)

                Josh Rank is blunt. There’s really no other way to say it. Each and every word written down might have been told to whoever happened to be sitting next to him at a bar. In fact most of the stories involve alcohol of some kind. No polish, no attempt to ‘clean up’ the language. It’s there and you can do whatever you want with it. Some writers have this innate ability to write short, terse sentences which make you unexpectedly laugh. Josh is one of those writers.

                All good stories need a location, a place of action. Josh and the city of Atlanta appear to have a warped history together. You see, he is from Wisconsin and decided to move to this place for no specific reason. Lacking any career prospects he decided he’d find one, eventually. In the meantime (which is documented in a few of these stories) he had peculiar experiences. Josh had the good sense to realize something important: if it’s a bad experience you at least have a story.

                “Do you want to go to the hospital?” describes New Years’ Eve in Atlanta, Georgia. According to the story they celebrate it the same way they do anywhere else. People drink, get merry, and get hit by cars. You know, just going along with the natural scheme of things. If there’s ever a Cliff notes version of this story it would only contain Josh’s memorable line:

                “I got hit by a car. It sucked. Whatever.”

                Each story is introduced by a carefully selected photograph. That helps attract attention to such strange stories as “CALL UP THE MUSCLE” which displays several police officers trying to subdue a single individual. As we learn in the story, Josh delivers food to a jail every night. Unsurprisingly, he gets no tips while there. Once when Josh arrived someone had been released and was causing problems outside the facility. That someone had been released that very day. Instead of trying to leave the individual preferred to bother people in the front. Eventually the guards went out to talk to him and this fellow sprinted towards the jail doors. So the individual who had been free for only a few hours was arrested for trying to break into the jail. 

                “how many of you are felons?” ends the book. People buy meat off of trucks. I don’t know why. Josh doesn’t either. Paired with some random guy they try to sell poor-quality meat in a broken freezer box out of a van. For working three whole days Josh earned a whopping $5 not by selling meat, but by his colleague (Tim) who gives him a $5 out of guilt, perhaps pity. This story fits well with the previous story. We get a follow-up of what happens to some of the ex-felons (they end up selling meat out of trucks). 

                I feel Josh may be ushering in a new literary style. The nature of the writing and his tone indicate a “whatever” attitude. What does the future hold for this Wisconsin native? Josh Rank could be the founder of “Look at all these fucks I give” writing. If not, whatever. 

                Read the whole thing at Deckfight Press. You can find more of Josh here.