Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Line Jester and Other Stories



Line Jester and Other Stories by Michael Duncan

The stories in Michael Duncan's debut chapbook collection take the reader through surreal landscapes, where art is both necessary and impossible.

In the title story, a performer meets a colleague who shows him how to take his performance to supernatural heights. "On the Death of the Baroness of Silence" presents a musician who considers an offer of financial security in exchange for hanging up his instrument. "Namelessness" and "On the Occasion of the Downed Wire" examine questions of meaning and identity in circumstances that provide neither.

Throughout his stories, the force of Duncan's ideas is matched with an exacting attention to language and detail. The fables in Line Jester and Other Stories offer a bracing reminder of the power of beauty, and a singular, expressionist aesthetic.

Fiction, 33 pp. Click here to download PDF in new window.

Michael Duncan was born in Michigan and attended Indiana University where he received degrees in Mathematics, Economics, and Psychology. He currently works for W.W. Norton and lives in Harlem.

Also by Michael Duncan: "Suggested List for Further Reading," parts 1 and 2

Monday, September 18, 2006

Q & A

Q: What is Revelator?

A: e-chapbooks for the masses.

Q: What the hell does that mean?

A: I'll level with you. We know some people. These people write. Good stuff. It's really hard to get things published (yeah, I know, cry me a river), so we're going to put some of this stuff out there. Free.

Q: Free?

A: Sure, the first one is always free.

Q: What's the catch?

A: No catch. We're betting that you'll like it, and you'll come back to read more.

Q: So this is like one of those record club things, where you'll start mailing me stuff I don't want, and charge me if I don't return it?

A: Nope. We're not in it for the money. We want to get people talking, and maybe if enough people get talking, or the right people in the right places, then maybe you'll see some of these people in Poetry, or The New Yorker, or on the new release table in your local bookstore. You can buy stuff then.

Q: Real publication? You think these people are that good?

A: Who am I, Harold Bloom? These people are good writers. Read them. Tell them what you like and don't like.

Q: Tell them? This thing is interactive?

A: This is a blog, isn't it? Join the 21st century.

Q: How do I keep up?

A: Subscribe to our rss feed (http://revelatorpress.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default). You can keep an eye on the discussion there, and we'll post original work, in PDF form, every four to six weeks or so.

Q: Anything else?

A: Yeah. Tell your friends.