Literary Nonfiction. Essays. In EXPERIMENTAL LITERATURE: A COLLECTION OF STATEMENTS thirty-four writers and critics reflect upon how literature puts itself to the test in an effort to make itself new. Those reflections assume very different shapes, and each approaches the question from a different angle. There are formalist readings here, and historicist readings; some contributors consider the politics of literature, others focus upon aesthetics; some statements deal with national traditions or periods, others are more synchronist. There are pieces on French theater, the Russian avant-garde, and performance in West Africa. There are meditations on poetry as a daily practice, on experiment as a way of knowing, on the restlessness of liminal spaces, and on the incommensurate dimensions of dream and reality. Each contribution is fueled by the notion that literature works best when it is willing to interrogate its own premises. Both individually and collectively, these analyses display an extraordinary mobility, one that does justice to the dynamism of experimental literature itself. Each essay engages its readers actively and thoughtfully, inviting us to participate in a conversation about literature's horizon of possibility, about what literature is and can be. Robert Coover, arguably the most distinguished living American experimentalist, contributes an afterword to this volume.

Experimental Literature: A Collection of Statements

Literature & Fiction

Di Leo, Jeffrey R.

Motte, Warren

Essays & Correspondence

JEF Books/Depth Charge Publishing

About the Author Eckhard Gerdes has published books of poetry, drama, and sixteen novels, including White Bungalows (Dirt Heart Pharmacy Press, 2015) and My Landlady the Lobotomist (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2008). He has won an &NOW Award, the Richard Pike Bissell Award, been a finalist for the Starcher one and the Blatt awards, and was nominated for Georgia Author of the Year. His most recent books include a tongue-in-cheek work of creative nonfiction, How to Read (Guide Dog Books, 2014); a short novel titled Marco & Iarlaith: A Novel in Flash Fictions (Black Scat Books, 2018); and another short novel, The Pissers' Theatre (Black Scat Books, 2021).He is also editor and publisher of The Journal of Experimental Fiction and its associated imprint JEF Books. He lives near Chicago and has three children and five grandchildren. Product Description "Have you seen whales frolicking in the sea—giant masses of shiny wet flesh gracefully rising up into the air and then just as gracefully plunging back into the water? They do it not to catch flies as trout do, food always on their tiny minds, but to delight at their ability to do it, delight at being whales. I rise and plunge, says the whale, therefore I am! And so it is with Eckhard Gerdes in his massive, whale tale kind of a book, The Chronicles of Michel du Jabot—he is not after seducing a reader or two with a suspenseful story into purchasing his book but to exercise the writer in himself, delight at his ability to use language. Gerdes is because he writes." -- Yuriy Tarnawsky Book Description Eckhard Gerdes's biggest work, his sixteenth published novel

The Chronicles of Michel du Jabot

Gerdes, Eckhard

Literary

Fiction. The 2018 winner of the Kenneth Patchen Award for the Innovative Novel. The judge was the late novelist and great friend of JEF Books Jonathan Lyons, who said the following in his encomium&nbsp;for the novel: "This is a visionary work, one that challenges form and content, destroying both to recreate them in its own vision. Patrick Keller's breadth of vision is simply astonishing."

Those Brave As the Skate Is

Keller, Patrick

Asked to lead an investigation by the Bureau into the inexplicable behavior of a town that has seemingly gone insane, a highly regarded psychology professor encounters absurdist leaders, madcap citizens, figures of questionable authenticity, and a plethora of outrageous denizens all spewing impossible statements and making fantastical accusations within an indecipherable logic before being put on trial for crimes that are blatantly opaque. The question remains: Was this what it felt like to live in America during the first two years of the Trump Administration? Stylistic invention, direct citations, wild play, outlandish humor, compassion, random dispatches, historical photographs, faux documents, and a variety of other approaches to convey the larger metaphor—welcome to “The Greatest Place on Earth”!\nBook Description\nA literary, innovative novel about the circus that the last administration was.

"The Greatest Place on Earth": Personal Note: A Work of Absurdity? (Journal of Experimental Fiction)

Weisman, Jeff

Humor & Satire

Product Description Four days before the presidential election, a bomb explodes on a Japanese cargo ship in the Port of Jacksonville, incinerating four American workers. Unexplained murders follow. Retired newspaper editor Trammell is on the story, just as soon as he gets in a quick nap. Laid-off reporter Lucy Neale has his back, searching for a fugitive computer programmer falsely accused of planting the bomb. Is the Democratic president, Oscar winner Cassandra Holland, somehow involved? Is the GOP challenger, professional wrestler Daniel "The Hammer" Hammerschmidt, behind it? And just what is dirty trickster Dick Maestro up to? All we know for sure is that a toe-tappin' tune could save America. Book Description Patchen-Award Winning Novel About the Author Cal Massey is a retired newspaper editor who is not an enemy of the people. He won more than 30 state and national awards as writer or editor during his journalism career. He and his wife Lynn live with six cats in a house in the woods in Florida. This is his first novel. Its gestation period was thirty-six years.

Own Little Worlds (Journal of Experimental Fiction)

Massey, Cal

In this extraordinary fiction, all letters lead to A, and A is for everyone. One reads between the letter(s) and discovers a new literary form that defies definition. When I first approached this manuscript, I thought it might be in the manner of Alphabetical Africa, an Oulipian experiment, but no, the author is up to something quite different. Using the familiar format of an alphabet book for children ("A is for...."), this fiction is a truncated alphabet of surprises. Each entry is a path leading down avenues of imagination. The entries range from surreal parables, anthropomorphic fables, memories of an unnamed narrator, poetic musings, and deadpan observations of everyday life. There are mini epiphanies and nuggets of absurdism. The language is simple, in the best sense of the word, deceptively so, slightly skewed, à la Russell Edson. I've read nothing quite like it, and its originality deserves this year's Kenneth Patchen Award. -Derek Pell, author of Naked Lunch at Tiffany's, Snowdrop in Africa, Assassination Rhapsody, and a score of other amazing books, from his encomium for A is for Everyone, winner of the 2021 Kenneth Patchen Award for the Innovative Novel

A is for Everyone

Vanderspek, Dennis

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