Dear Everybody @ Creative Alliance; I Will Smash You @ Shattered Wig; It Will Be Monumental @ CineCity

Tomorrow, Friday, November 13th, Dear Everybody (the short film that I made with Luca Dipierro) is going to be part of an evening of short films at Creative Alliance MovieMakers (CAmm), which also includes Travis Mays' adaption of Poe’s Tell Tale Heart, Ryan Thomas' premiere of The Debt Collector, and other shorts. Q & A follows. Doors 7pm. Show 8pm. $10.




Friday, November 20th, there will be a screening of I Will Smash You, part of a Shattered Wig evening at the 14K Cabaret that also includes Blaster Al Ackerman, Ingrid Burrington, and Sweatpants.







And Tuesday, December 1, there will be a short from I Will Smash You, the segment concerning the awesome Adam Robinson, It Will Be Monumental, at the CineCity Film Festival in Brighton, England, along with shorts by Stewart Copeland and others.

I'm Not Trying to Trick the Reader

I have an interview with Brian Evenson up at my interview column for The Faster Times, Writers on Writing. We talk about Fugue State, irresolvable narrative, the ending of The Open Curtain, and form as it relates to the novel, the novella, and the story collection.

More interviews @ Writers on Writing:
I Am Not a Camera: Gary Lutz
A Ribbon of Language: Blake Butler
What People Do When No One is Watching: Rachel Sherman
Justify Every Sentence: Laura van den Berg
Most Violence Is Intimate: Ben Tanzer

DEAR EVERYBODY: The Innermost Feelings of Real Feeling

There is a really nice Chinese review (scroll down) of DEAR EVERYBODY at Bardon, which says, in part, that "Dear Everybody ... touches the heart of hearts ... snowflake-like letters ... exquisite ... the innermost feelings of real feeling."

The Baltimore Grill

Baltimore Magazine made me their last page--The Baltimore Grill. We talk about rejection, an obvious motto for Baltimore, smashing things, the value of reducing somebody's life to a postcard, and the most generous and attentive reading audience I have ever been around.

[It's not online, but click the scan. It's kind of big enough to read.]

Shape of a Box: A Video Review of Dear Everybody

At Shape of a Box, Jessie Carty gives a thoughtful video review to DEAR EVERYBODY in which she says that DEAR EVERYBODY is "a beautiful book, inside and out," among other nice things. Thank you, Jessie.

Most Violence Is Intimate

I have an interview with Ben Tanzer up at my interview column for The Faster Times, Writers on Writing. We talk about Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine, dialogue, narrative speed, pop culture references, and what characters want from fiction.

More interviews @ Writers on Writing:
Gary Lutz
Blake Butler
Rachel Sherman
Laura van den Berg

By Everybody For Everybody (BEFE)

The good Jen Michalski asked me why I opened the life story project to everybody who wants one or wants to write one. The nice little interview is up @ JMWW. Thanks, Jen.

Justify Every Sentence

I have an interview with Laura van den Berg up at my interview column for The Faster Times, Writers on Writing. We talk about What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, mythological creatures, endings, and what it means to justify every sentence.

More interviews @ Writers on Writing:
Gary Lutz
Blake Butler
Rachel Sherman

Mountain Bike, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

Just in time for Halloween, I tore up my calf while out on a mountain bike ride. My shoe was squishy with blood loss by the time I made it home. I cleaned it up in the hopes that I wouldn't need stitches, but it was pretty gruesome and wouldn't stop bleeding.

The gash: 3cm wide x 9cm long.

# of stitches: 12.

Two Film Things Coming Up

Friday, November 13th, Dear Everybody (the short film) is going to be part of Creative Alliance MovieMakers (CAmm), which is an evening of shorts that also includes Travis Mays' adaption of Poe’s Tell Tale Heart, Ryan Thomas' premiere of The Debt Collector, as well as shorts by up-and-comers Hunter Nesbitt, Dankwa Brooks and Matthew Hahn.
Q & A follows. Doors/ bar open at 7pm. 8pm. $10.

Friday, November 20th, there will be a screening of I Will Smash You, part of a Shattered Wig evening at the 14K Cabaret that also includes Blaster Al Ackerman, Ingrid Burrington, and Sweatpants

What People Do When No One Is Watching

I have an interview with Rachel Sherman up at my interview column for The Faster Times, Writers on Writing. We talk about LIVING ROOM, the third person, a beautiful sentence, loneliness, and touching.

There's also an amazing interview with Gary Lutz there. And there's a thing where Blake Butler and I talk about acoustics. In the next few weeks, there will be interviews with Brian Evenson, Laura van den Berg, Ben Tanzer, Joanna Howard, and Robert Lopez.

Dear Everybody (Or: When a Poet Writes a Novel)

There's a really thoughtful review of DEAR EVERYBODY up at The Lesser of Two Equals. It says, in part: "Kimball’s background as a poet is apparent in his ability to isolate and frame small moments of a particular character’s experience. Fine attention to detail is exercised both as an art and as a special effect ... It has a surprisingly strong dark humor for being about such a serious topic, his observations are keen and quirky, and he knows how to let imagery make a scene swell." And I liked this bit about Jonathon's suicide letters: "This writing spree has all the highs and lows of a drug binge."

This Blog Will Change Your Life

Ben Tanzer has a super nice write-up, at This Blog Will Çhange Your Life, in which he calls me "the dark overlord of all things writing, film and interview" and in which he calls DEAR EVERYBODY "moving, even paralyzing"--and notes that "pain can be captured on the page both sparsely and lyrically, an achievement that is magical."

Thank you, Ben Tanzer.

Directors Notes

As Luca Dipierro says, Directors Notes is the best podcast for independent filmmaking, which is nice because they posted an interview with Luca and me, where we talk at length about I WILL SMASH YOU and about our next project 60 WRITERS/60 PLACES. You can listen to it directly on the website or save it on your computer and listen to it whenever you want.

First Screening of I WILL SMASH YOU

We had the first screening of I WILL SMASH YOU at the PPOW Gallery and here are a few photos to prove it. We'll also be screening 60 Writers / 60 Places at the PPOW Gallery on December 12. Thank you, Jamie Sterns.

If you're interested in setting up a screening of I WILL SMASH YOU in your city, leave a comment or email me and I'll send you a DVD.

Barrelhouse Mixtape: Indie Lit in Charm City

Barrelhouse Magazine just put up its first Mixtape, which focuses on indie lit in Baltimore. I talk with them about Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard), kind of the long version of the NPR interview. There's also Publishing Genius, Adam Robinson, on IsReads. Plus, there's a Josh Maday poem and there's Mike Ingram reading the postcard life story of Barrelhouse Magazine, which is also here. Nice.

A Ribbon of Language: Blake Butler and Michael Kimball Talk About Acoustics

Blake Butler and I talk about acoustics--how we think about acoustics, how we use acoustics, and where we feel acoustics. We called the talk A Ribbon of Language. It originally appeared in Unsaid #4. Now it's posted in my interview column at The Faster Times, along with a Gary Lutz interview.

Full of Crow Interview Series

The good Peter Schwartz interviewed me for the Full of Crow Interview Series. We talk about other people, their stories, things to do with sledgehammers, and being honest. Thanks, Peter.

Baltimore Book Festival & Baltimore Hostel

I have two readings this weekend. The first is a 510 Reading on Saturday, the 26th. It's from 5-630pm in the CityLit Tent at the Baltimore Book Festival (near east side of the monument). And I'm reading with an great bunch of writers: Terese Svoboda, Dan Fesperman, Shanthi Sekaran, John Dermot Woods, Justin Sirois, Savannah Schroll Guz, and Jen Michalski. There is a lot more information here.

The second reading is Last Sunday, Last Rites. That's Sunday, the 27th, at 7pm at the Baltimore Hostel. There I'm reading with Sarah Miller, Joseph Crespo, & Emily Peterson. There is a little more info here.

I hope to see you there or there.

I WILL SMASH YOU @ PPOW GALLERY in NYC September 24--Doors @ 630--Screening @ 730

The first screening of I WILL SMASH YOU is September 24th at the PPOW Gallery in New York City. If you're interested in setting up a screening of I WILL SMASH YOU in your city, leave a comment or email me and I'll send you a DVD. We have screenings set up in NYC, Baltimore, Toronto, and are working out dates for Detroit and Los Angeles. There's more info, as well as stills and trailers, at the new website for Little Burn Films.