NO COLONY Volume 2, Now.



NO COLONY Volume 2 is ready for you. This collection has continually wowed Blake and I, we are proud parents again. This issue features:

Isadora Bey
Kristina Born
Aaron Burch
Blake Butler
Luca Dipierro
Scott Garson
Rachel B. Glaser
Chris Higgs
Brandon Hobson
Edward Kim
Matt Kirkpatrick
Rauan Klassnik
Lee Klein
Darby Larson
Evan Lavender-Smith
Patrick Leonard
Eugene Lim
Sean Lovelace
Anthony Luebbert
Conor Madigan
Gene Morgan
Bryson Newhart
Christian Peet
Jennifer Pieroni
Kathryn Regina
Joanna Ruocco
Bradley Sands
Ken Sparling
William Walsh
Corey Zeller
& art by Michael Berryhill

I guarantee you will find at least three stories in this issue that shake you, if all don't. You can also subscribe for $35 and receive Vol.2, and in the future receive volumes 3, 4 & 5. AND: Volume 1 + Volume 2 = $15. If you haven't read Volume 1 already, you are a bad person (not really, but I don't like you as much).

Thank you.

On Ever


I'm going to begin and end this review with this recommendation: Buy and read EVER by Blake Butler.

Here is why, and briefly:

EVER is a story of mud and light and houses and metaphysical shifts in conscious, shifts in body and being and time. EVER is a story that leaves you feeling bruised and emotional and larger than you were before.

Blake Butler's sentences are often better and more pleasing than those of Lutz, McCarthy & to those of Williams and Lish. I feel Butler's sentences have a more aggressive sonic imperative. As you read, you really are (to use one of EVER's frequent words) slushed along by sentences heavily marked by S's. And when Butler reverts to a sonically dull sentence, often containing the most poignant/banal remark, the words hit you that much harder, because of the impact of all contained behind that sentence slamming forward into you. And when the tone and composition of the sentences and paragraphs shifts, you feel it. It's a visceral change.

The ideas contained in EVER expanded my thought on words, on lyricism and style, on literature. EVER is affective and brutal and beautiful. EVER is a highly creative work that truly feels original, feels new.

Buy and read EVER by Blake Butler.

A year in review.

Blake Butler Nails It

My favorite Butler quote (nonfiction):

'I am trying to convince myself to stop talking and doing things around in this internet area but all that is is a tendency in me to want to be contrary no matter what, and really I am too frightened of being awake in the awake clod to not come on the internet, as much as I may try to manifest the idea that I could disappear at will.'

Exactly.