News

It's Been A Great Year!

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Last year at this time, we were getting organized—setting up a website, launching Facebook and Twitter pages, and deciding what exactly Awst Press would be about—and then tweaking the concept until we were ready to start our first series in February. We're proud of the authors and curators from this inaugural year and we are excited for the possibilities moving forward. To celebrate, we've decided to offer both a series of essays, as well as pieces from four of our earlier authors. Interspersed in all of this will be announcements for our next curated series. 

Starting Monday, we will have an essay by Diane Lefer. On Tuesday, we will post David Olimpio's Variations on a Theme. On Wednesday, we'll announce the artist for the covers of the next curator series. On Thursday, we'll post Susanna Childress's Retroactive Empathy: A Haunting. On Friday, we'll post an essay from Donald Quist. Great things happening all week!

Thank you for supporting our authors by purchasing chapbooks and staying connected to us. We're wrapping up six months of very diverse work and we're going to add a little more to it with our essay series. It'll be a little serious around here for a moment, but we think it's worth it. Tune in Monday to start reading the first one. Or, stick around later this morning for our first book announcement at 9:00 CST and/or our next curator lineup at 10:00 CST.

Men who have made love to me (2010)

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Men who have made love to me was a recreation of a lost 1917 silent film and a "director's commentary" style performance.  In the recreated film, Mary MacLane, the "wild woman of Butte" lists the many types of men who have attempted to tame her.

In the performance, Mary MacLane gives live, unhinged, and occasionally maudlin boudoir commentary on (a recreation of) her (lost) 1917 silent film of the same name.

In the film and the performance, Mary Maclane was portrayed by Juliana Francis Kelly.  The film was directed by K. Allen and adapted (from MacLane's writing)  and designed by Normandy Sherwood.   The still photo used as a thumbnail for this page was taken by Scott Irvine.

The project premiered at the Metropolitan Playhouse's 2010 "Another Sky" festival, and was a part of an evening called "Mary MacLane: Confessionalist" that featured a play by Trish Harnetiaux about the young Mary MacLane OH, DEAR, SWEET, BITTER OLIVE

See an excerpt of the film here: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi3667133977/.

To see the script for Normandy's play, Permanent Caterpillar (Abridged), follow the link below.


Introducing Amy Gentry, our third guest curator

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I am not sure when I became aware of Amy Gentry, but at some point I started recognizing her name in local Austin publications and in conjunction with clever analysis across my social media feed. I always feel more educated or more convinced of my own opinions after reading her work. I don’t know many people who can write about Magic Mike XXL, switch to critical analysis of current books, switch again to race matters, switch back to advocating for Safe Place, and then throw in something about style. She does it all. And well. 

In searching for curators, we are always interested in mixing things up—different genres, differences in authors, different geographies, etc. With a PhD in English from the University of Chicago, we know she is trained to spot excellent work and to articulate her thoughts well. As a writer and book reviewer—with work appearing in The Rumpus, The Hairpin, LA Review of Books, the Chicago Tribune, Gastronomica, and the Austin Chronicle—residing in Austin, Texas, she has plenty of exposure to some of the best authors the state has to offer. This makes her a perfect choice for curating. All of our authors thus far reside outside of Texas, so we are excited to see that Amy's series will include superstars closer to home.

Stay tuned for more info. We'll be announcing her authors and their schedule soon. Follow Amy on Twitter, @unlandedgentry or via her blog at TheOeditrix.com.

Wendy M. Walker