Mud Luscious Mini-Chaps Get Anthologized

Most luscious of the output of J.A. Tyler’s Mud Luscious are the limited edition 4×4 “mini-chaps,” published each month in trios. Recent news that Mud Luscious is publishing an anthology of all 43 of the chapbooks in January 2010 is a boon to readers since the chaps are printed in one run only and sell out almost immediately. Subscriptions are closed until January.

Pocket-sized and with hand-stamped covers, these go with me everywhere to help keep active that part of my brain that feeds on fresh voice and syntax. But though they are so small, so pretty and so nice to touch do not be deceived. The stories in these chaps, all between 500-1000 words, are demanding and require focus. They do weird things with language sometimes, make you have to let go a little and give in to another’s logic. But in letting go you will be rewarded.

Here are some examples of stories that have recently caught my attention. Some elements I have come to think of as embodied by Mud Luscious stories are: heart, an urgent and satisfying destabilization, and extreme concern for detail. That so much can be packed into so small a package is continually surprising. But I think the best way to show you is to show you, and let you see for yourself what I mean. Here are excerpts from five stories:

thunderstorm as familial convulsion – ryan call (this ongoing project to “produce a new and much needed field guide to north american weather” is an analysis as insightful of the singular turbulent nature of the North American family as it is of thunderstorms.)

“Such a transformation is rarely appreciated, however, until after the thunderstorm has passed, revealing to those left behind the forgotten corners of their lives, how they shine in the sun, how the brittleness has gone away, how guilt can only accompany someone equally attuned to love.”

from the hip – mary hamilton (I was as amazed by the control and consistency in this piece as I was by the ingenuity of Mary Hamilton’s language)

“The man in black doesn’t notice, but you does, & so does I, bike messenger.

I hears the sound of an orchestra playing in her mind.

I feels the tremors of a big band traipsing across Marta’s skin.

I sees a man all dressed in black & we mistakes you for the Maestro.”

a thousand & one others, yes – elizabeth ellen (this one is heartbreaking. that’s all I’ll say. If you want a fuller review, there’s one just up at The Chapbook Review.)

so dark in the wolf’s maw – kevin wilson (this conveyed all the wonder and fear I felt as a child reading fables)

“She thinks of the handful of seahorse fry that she ate earlier, the babies less than a quarter inch long, the bones dissolving on her tongue without the need for chewing.”

parts – molly gaudry (parts is an excerpt from the novel(la) WE TAKE ME APART forthcoming from Mud Luscious Press)

“ovules

that upon fertilization become seeds

like sequins I sewed those ovules to the hems

of those women’s dresses & liked to

think of them shining & glittering as they

undressed before the watching eyes of lovers”