S W E R V E
Taking on a set of basic constrains (involving dice, reference authors and texts, and geographic points), Swerve is a collaborative novel where each nested story is told by a different narrator who plays the role of detective and can be read in any order. Beginning in Ojai, the different detectives move across the US and beyond, uncovering pieces of a mercurial puzzle spanning time and reality. As each story is read through the other, they soon begin to collapse, return, rewrite, and finally illuminate each other. Part detective tale, part metaphysical farce, Swerve blurs genre, seeks the fine lines between fact and fiction, and asks what does it mean to pursue a question when answers lie within? Coming Fall 2019 from Astrophil Press!
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Lit Windows
Lit Windows is the story of an attempted murder and usurpation (based somewhat obscurely on Hamlet), but told by the victim in a kind of oblique and slap-stick Bernhard style. An ostensibly unnamed homeless narrator with no history, pursues a pragmatic routine to fill the days and establish and kind of consistency to his life. But when he discovers in the course of his routine a suit that fits him perfectly, this uncanny garment leads him to return home (sort of) and to find a life with his (maybe) wife and usurper. Following the narrator and his acutely observed digressions, the book questions our assumptions of family, identity, and the stability of rules that govern our daily lives. order it direct here, or at amazon. In select indie bookstores in April! With an elegance that is itself a kind of understanding, Saifi's prose delineates a sharp path of words that leads out into a concourse of startling beauty. -- Jesse Ball, author of A Cure for Suicide. Lit Windows rolls uneasily forward, like a car keeping pace with someone walking. Our task, as readers, is to keep our eyes on the road ahead and the mark beside us at once. Full of absurd minutiae and oblique horror, Saifi delivers us assuredly to a destination we've never been before. -- Jac Jemc, author of A Different Bed Every Time. Rowland Saifi is a writer of unquestionable talent whose Lit Windows inspires readers to unearth their own covetous desires as the intimate secrets in his prose are revealed on every page. -- Joseph Cooper, author of Porlock |
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The Minotaur's Daughter
Using the structure of a labyrinth, The Minotaur's Daughter tells the tale of an annual festival in a boardwalk town that celebrates the mystery of a dead man found with a cipher in his pocket. This tradition is brought to an unexpected conclusion when the narrator accidentally solves the cipher and, in the process, brings an end to the town itself. Left abandoned, the narrator now must find a way out of a labyrinth of language and confront the fragility of our notions of community and self. Order it here or at your local bookstore! Meanwhile read a review at Your Impossible Voice, by Mary Burger. or read a review and excerpt at the Power House Arena's Blog. |
Karner Blue Estates (a novella)
Published by Black Lodge Press in 2009, it is the story of an apartment, beige, and butterflies, sort of. Soon after moving into a new apartment complex, an unnamed narrator discovers one day that any key opens his front door. After painting his apartment one day only to return and find it repainted beige, he decides see if other apartments in the building are like his own.
Broadsides
“A Philosophical Tractate on the Columbidae,” Fact-Simile, 2012
Stories
“Salad” Newfound Journal (print), 2017
“If one were to be philosophical (a novel excerpt)” Summer Stock, 2011
“A Drama,” Brown Bag Magazine, 2008
“A Madrigal Romance,” Fact-Simile, 2008
“A Difficult Project,” Marginalia, 2007
“Lacunae's Proof,” Bombay Gin #31, 2005
Excerpt of “Oh Connor, My Olivier,” Transmissions, 2005
Excerpt, “the Button Stories,” Bed, 2004
Articles / Essays / Interviews
“An Introduction and Nine Notes on Anne Waldman,” Chicago Humanities Festival Blog, 2012
“Unfold is the Wrong Word: an interview with Bhanu Kapil” HTML Giant, 2012
“Knee-Jerk talks with Gary Lutz” Knee-Jerk Off-line, vol. 2, 2012
“Knee-Jerk talks to Brian Evenson” Knee-Jerk Online, Issue #27, September 2011
“Cairo Response #20 “ Cairo on the Length, limited edition art book by Amiria Hanifi 2010
“How to waste time the smart way,” article, F-News, 2007
“On St. Elizabeth’s Rabble,” review, Four Quarters Review, 2004
Introductions
“Reading an Open Palm” Mutations of Fortune, Erica Adams, Green Lantern Press 2011
Published by Black Lodge Press in 2009, it is the story of an apartment, beige, and butterflies, sort of. Soon after moving into a new apartment complex, an unnamed narrator discovers one day that any key opens his front door. After painting his apartment one day only to return and find it repainted beige, he decides see if other apartments in the building are like his own.
Broadsides
“A Philosophical Tractate on the Columbidae,” Fact-Simile, 2012
Stories
“Salad” Newfound Journal (print), 2017
“If one were to be philosophical (a novel excerpt)” Summer Stock, 2011
“A Drama,” Brown Bag Magazine, 2008
“A Madrigal Romance,” Fact-Simile, 2008
“A Difficult Project,” Marginalia, 2007
“Lacunae's Proof,” Bombay Gin #31, 2005
Excerpt of “Oh Connor, My Olivier,” Transmissions, 2005
Excerpt, “the Button Stories,” Bed, 2004
Articles / Essays / Interviews
“An Introduction and Nine Notes on Anne Waldman,” Chicago Humanities Festival Blog, 2012
“Unfold is the Wrong Word: an interview with Bhanu Kapil” HTML Giant, 2012
“Knee-Jerk talks with Gary Lutz” Knee-Jerk Off-line, vol. 2, 2012
“Knee-Jerk talks to Brian Evenson” Knee-Jerk Online, Issue #27, September 2011
“Cairo Response #20 “ Cairo on the Length, limited edition art book by Amiria Hanifi 2010
“How to waste time the smart way,” article, F-News, 2007
“On St. Elizabeth’s Rabble,” review, Four Quarters Review, 2004
Introductions
“Reading an Open Palm” Mutations of Fortune, Erica Adams, Green Lantern Press 2011