Here’s an excerpt from a piece Aaron Talwar wrote on founding Dark Coast Press in Seattle. The whole essay is linked below…
“We named the new baby Dark Coast Press, after a line in Ezra Pound’s First Canto (’Elpenor, how art thou come to this dark coast? Cam’st thou afoot, outstripping seamen?’ And he in heavy speech: ‘Ill fate and abundant wine!’) Yes, we knew he was talking about Africa. But Seattle made quite a good stand-in for one shadowy coast for another. We set out under the banner of literary fiction, fiction, poetry, essays, and experimental works. But our list will most certainly include every genre under the sun as we continue to grow. Simply put: we publish books that we like, period.”
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/atalwar/2010/07/the-apparent-insanity/
John Olson is one of the most astute reviewers and writers in Seattle. His use of language is virtuosic. Today he takes on the work of a 24 year old novelist, Jarret Middleton. Here’s an excerpt of the review:
What I like best about this book is the notion that our largest adventures, our noblest conflicts, do not occur in the trenches of actual warfare or scaling, with frost-bitten fingers to the tops of Himalayan peaks, but occur within, are conflicts of self and soul, Eros and Thanatos.
http://tillalala.blogspot.com/2010/07/something-was-in-house.html
From DCP:
The Gallery at darkcoastpress.com is now active. All works that were selected for publication are now available online in the first April 2010 edition of The Gallery.
This month’s issue includes:
§ Jennifer Natalya Fink – An excerpt from The Mikvah Queen
§ Paul Nelson – Danse Macabre, The Offering, and 10 American Sentences
§ J.r.d. Middleton – We Haven’t Seen You In Ages
§ Chris Stuker – Belittled
Follow the link here:
http://www.darkcoastpress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=70
This debut of our new online feature is a big deal for us. Dark Coast truly strives to maintain an aesthetic standard of writing that is not always easy to uphold. To say it plainly, there is just so much bad writing that comes our way. We are so excited to be launching a feature that promotes quality work from contemporary writers. The Gallery is still new, and we have a lot of plans for it in the future. There will innovations in its design as well as its marketing as a free online ‘art gallery’ of new writing each month. If you have questions or comments I’d love to hear from you.
Dark Coast Press offers The Gallery monthly as a free, online feature…
