Monday, January 26, 2009

Juan Felipe Herrera is on Fire!

TNS #1 contributor Juan Felipe Herrera's Half the World in Light has been nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award for poetry. Buena Suerte!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Contributor Kudos

Hey Normals,

Check out the new book by TNS #1 contributor, Austin Ratner, coming out from the very cool new Bellevue Literary Press, a press dedicated to books at the "intersection of art and science"

http://www.blpbooks.org/books/jumpartist.html


"THE JUMP ARTIST is a beautifully scrupulous, intricately detailed novel about joy and
despair, anti-Semitism and assimilation, and like a great photograph, it
seems to miss nothing, and to catch its subject in all his complexity."
--Charles Baxter, author of Feast of Love and The Soul Thief

THE JUMP ARTIST is based on the true story of Philippe Halsman, a man who Adolf Hitler
knew by name, who Sigmund Freud wrote about in 1931, and who put Marilyn Monroe on
the cover of Lifemagazine. The story begins in September 1928, when Halsman and his father were hiking in the Tyrolean Alps. Halsman's father was murdered and Halsman
stood trial for patricide. He endured prison and exile and, while haunted
by the tragedy, he ultimately transformed himself from a victim of
history into the world-famous Life photographer
who defined American post-war optimism. However, he kept his tragic past
a secret.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Emergent Normal

Normals,

Our good friend, Dan Wickett over at the Emerging Writers Network, posted a nice little plug for The Normal School. If you haven't spent some time on EWN and seen the good things Dan and his merry band have done, please do. He's a great guy who has done a lot to help literary writers.

He's also incredibly Normal.

TNS

Contributor Kudos

Hey Normals,

Our contributors to TNS #1 continue to rack up the successes. Check these out:

Erinn Batykefer's new book of poems Allegheny, Monongahela is coming out from Red Hen Press and debuting at AWP!!

Laura Pritchett's new book, Going Green: True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers will be released on Earth Day from the University of Oklahoma Press. You can see more about it here: http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=978-0-8061-4013-1

Congrats Normal Contributors. We love you!

Barry Normal

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Barnes & Noblelicious

Hey Gang,

Check out these apples: The Normal School was just picked up nationally by the book behemoth, Barnes & Noble. They ordered a staggering number of copies . . . That means we'll be rubbing spines with the likes of Harper's, McSweeney's, Tin House, and the select few other lit mags that make their rack.

If you live near one of these places (and I know you do), please visit them weekly, stand just inside their wide glass doors, and scream at the top of your lungs, "I want to be Normal!" It's kind of like the Bat Signal. We'll do our best to get copies to you if the staff can't help.

Believe it or not, but we're in danger of selling out of #1! Get yours now by subscribing through the website.

Peas.

SWC

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Grantabulous!

TNS #1 contributor Aimee Nezhukumatathil ("The Sick Diet," p. 31) has been awarded an NEA grant in poetry. Congragulations to Aimee!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Follow that Editor!

Adam Braver's Nov 22, 1963 was recently reviewed on the Emerging Writer's Network:

40. Nov 22, 1963 by Adam Braver
2008 Tin House 208 pages
Review copy supplied by Tin House at BEA

Adam Braver has done something that might have seemed impossible not long ago - he's created a fresh look at the events of November 22, 1963, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He's done so by avoiding the main incident in his writing, and instead looking at some of the quieter events surrounding the day - Jackie's getting dressed that morning, the dealings with the local funeral home, the story of Vaughn Ferguson, who, working with the White House garage, was in charge of getting the car cleaned and back up to speed. Braver has found a way to once again dip into this event that shattered a nation, and reminds us of how devastating a day it was without simply re-hashing what others have written before. It's a bold task for a writer, begin to write about something that every reader picking the ball up already thinks they know the ending to, but Braver was more than up to the task.

4.5 stars