Mark SaFranko, cult author of 'Hating Olivia: A Love Story', the excellent sequel 'Lounge Lizard' and countless short stories, plays, poems and songs, was the Guest Editor at Beat the Dust for March. You can read his thoughts on this role, the writing he has read as Guest Ed and why he selected the work he did in the March 08 Beat the Dust Chap-book.
Michael Grover: So how are you? M.D.G: What are you talkin' about? This is ridiculous. You know how I am.
Michael Grover: How did you get into poetry? M.D.G: It started when I was born. I have always been a writer. My father noticed my interest in writing and started passing me down his old books. Ginsberg's "Howl", "The Communist Manifesto", James Kavanaugh, stuff like that. I grew up in South Florida which is a really oppressive place. I kept my writing to myself or started zines and published myself. When I moved to LA in the late nineties I started meeting real poets that really performed their stuff with a lot of passion. I went to the same readings as them and started working hard so I could perform beside them. I got into underground publishing around the same time, and here I am.
Michael Grover: Tell us how Covert Press got started. M.D.G: I started just publishing my own chapbooks on it. Then a man who I consider one of the best poets alive, John G. Hall of Manchester, England asked me if I would publish and edit a collection by him. I couldn't refuse. Since then I've published another chapbook of my own and John Dorsey from Toledo, Ohio who's kind of an underground press legend. We are planning on publishing Dorsey's second manuscript on Covert Press.
Michael Grover: What are your influences poetically? M.D.G: I'm more influenced by the oral poets that use sound as much as they do written word. Poets like Bob Kaufman and Amiri Baraka. I'm also very influenced by hip-hop.
Submission Date:
15 Mar 2008
Category:
Poetry
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
currency
Excerpt:
As a Poet I understand The value of words. I don't waste many; Not...
Q. David, first let me say I really enjoyed your work on that TV show. A. That wasn’t me.
Q. Ya, sure it was. I remember names alright: David Cross – you’re a funny guy! A. That’s a different fellow
Q. Oh, I see…you create a different persona for yourself when you’re writing, like Chinaski. A. No, it’s just me. Another guy has the same name but without the “S” in the middle.
Q. And what’s his name? A. Who?
Q. The other David Cross A. Yes
Submission Date:
08 Mar 2008
Category:
Poetry
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
are we there yet?
Excerpt:
I always felt I was never quite there Where I wanted to be Where I...
pollock: why the hell do you keep writing poems about me?! sweet: because you're my favorite poet. pollock: but i'm a painter, you dumbass! and a semi-literate one, at that! sweet: but still..... pollock: no - no "but"! stop writing about me! do something else! get drunk! get laid! Just leave me alone! sweet: ummm.. aren't you supposed to be asking me questions? pollock: i said LEAVE ME ALONE!
Submission Date:
01 Mar 2008
Category:
Flash fiction
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
and these are violent times
Excerpt:
And eleven hours later, I’m 400 miles away from home and sitting at the bar. I’ve read my poems to indifferent silence and now I’m sitting at the bar drinking a coke. The guy that read before me is sitting to my left, and of course we’ve never heard of each other, and we have n...
CF: You’re a limey square john never done a bit in your life. The hell gives you the right to write about the joint, about guys like me? SE: I write about what I have to. It’s where my head lives, where my heart takes me. Something grabs hold of me, an idea, an experience and that’s it, I run with it, transform it in the imagination, make it mine. By the time pen hits paper, it’s not about guys like you – you’re just content - it’s about me. CF: Just content, huh? You better watch your mouth, fake-ass tough guy. You got to be makin’ a million from this. Where’s my end? SE: Up that cell-bitch’s ass, what I hear – remember Lewisberg? CF: (Leaps up from his chair.) MUTHAFUCKA! I’ll tear out your fuckin’ windpipe - SE: Hey bro’, cool it. Don’t forget, you’re dead, up there in heaven with those monks that turned you at Springfield. You’re supposed to be setting an example. CF: I guess. Shit. (Resumes sitting.) That goddamn temper of mine. SE: That was always your problem bro’. Isn’t that what I have you say in JerUSAlem? CF: Yeah. (Sighs.) JerUSAlem. That’s the greatest literary work of the twenty first century. I know that for a fact because I’m in heaven and I got a kick-ass overview. You gotta have a publishin’ deal for that by now? SE: It ain’t happening bro’. CF: Those guys are assholes. SE: Yeah.
Submission Date:
01 Mar 2008
Category:
Poetry
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
J-A-C-K
Excerpt:
“I would just like an apology of some sort. A little conside...
Crap Vampire: what is your favourite thing to eat? Pablo Vision: my favourite thing to eat is not food. Crap Vampire: what is your favourite number? Pablo Vision: I do not have a favourite number. I am, however, of the opinion that 239 is the most melancholy of the three digit numbers. Crap Vampire: what do you like best out of sultanas or Santana? Pablo Vision: Santana from 1969 is better than sultanas from 1969. Sultanas from the present are better than Santana from recent times.
Submission Date:
01 Mar 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
a day in the life
Excerpt:
Her hand moves slowly, from my breasts, and over my stomach, with exquisite touch, and tantalising purpose. There is an agonizing moment where she stops. I thrust my sex towards that hand and those fingers. She slowly moves back up. My desire is overwhelming, but she is in control; her mouth busy su...
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