Issue #4: “And what has happened to our dream of beauteous America, Jack?”
Contributors and Friends,
Happy birthday, Kerouac! In your honor, we present our latest collective contribution to the world.
Electric Windmill Issue #4: “And what has happened to our dream of beauteous America, Jack?” is here!
It will never be our intention to temper submissions by specifying concrete themes for upcoming issues, but as we review pieces for each issue, we tend to notice recurring themes. Call it our minds, or call it serendipity—those who submit to us seem to be on our wavelength. Our concerns at any given phase of our lives are also your concerns—and you have chosen to write them out, in your own unique ways, and beautifully. Issue #4 feels, to me, our most cohesive effort to date. Let us know what you think.
Thank you for allowing us the privilege to read and publish your work. It’s an honor that you would entrust us with works so precious to you—and the flattering e-mails you’ve written us, and the fact that some of you are (or will be) regular contributors—we can’t accurately express the gratitude we feel, and our excitement for the future, so why not let Issue #4 do our talking for us?
The title for this issue is credited to the inimitable Gregory Corso—a line from his great poem, “Elegiac Feelings American.”
Moving on … 2012 is planned to be a big year for Electric Windmill Press. As announced in Issue #4, we will be releasing our second book—a brilliant collection of poems by Kevin Ridgeway, a regular contributor since Issue #2, a friend, and a poet of considerable talent and sincerity whose work we’re sure will be of great interest to you. More on that soon.
In this issue we feature four pieces of editorial content: A collage by Jess Dykstra, entitled, “So long, Mr. Kerouac,” as well as a prose piece called “Relieved and Remorseful: A Thanksgiving Story”—and two pieces by Brian Le Lay (that’s me!)—an article entitled “Self-Publishing and the Reclaiming of the Individual Spirit” and a prose piece called “An Informal Education.” We hope you’ll enjoy!
Once again, we extend sincere thanks to those who have been patient with us. We’ve been hampered by sparse internet availability, but we also managed to keep this thing afloat when we lived in a car for two months, so we ain’t going anywhere. Scratch that, rewind the tape: we’re going everywhere.
- Brian Le Lay, editor
PS: One more thing! Through the end of April, receive a free e-book of Don’t Bury Me in New Jersey with a PayPal donation of any amount.
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Electric Windmill Press
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Photo with 3 notes
Happy New Year, friends and followers of Electric Windmill Press! We hope you’ve enjoyed a warm holiday season with friends and family and good books.
For the past four months, we have been everywhere from Seattle to San Francisco to Los Angeles, to Dallas to New Orleans to New York. As you may already know, a little over a month ago, we released “Don’t Bury Me in New Jersey,” the debut for both Electric Windmill Books and for the author, Brian Le Lay. This book was written in New Jersey, edited in Seattle and San Francisco, and completed and released from Phoenix.
We rang in the new year with Electric Windmill’s first reading event, which we recorded and are looking forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks.
We want you to know that much excitement is in store for Electric Windmill in 2012—Everything from readings, to conventions, to new book and zine releases, to a new place to call home.
The first of several New Year’s gifts we’d like to offer you is 40% off Brian’s book! Now through 11:59pm PST on January 6th, use the coupon code ONEMORETHING at checkout for a total of $7.65 + shipping.
Buy print here: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dont-bury-me-in-new-jersey/18693466
Read excerpts here: http://www.electricwindmillpress.com/dbminj.html
Publication Date: 24 November 2011
Size: 6 x 9
Length: 98 pages / 40 poems
Price: Print: $12.00 $7.65 (plus shipping), E-Book: $6.00 A post for the e-book sale is coming soon!
Here’s to another marvelous year of adventure, travel, art… and books!
-Jess
P.S. Be on the lookout for Issue No. 004 in the coming days. It will be a double release for November/December.
Checking in as we traverse the American Southwest, where the deer and the antelope play,from Phoenix en route to New Orleans.
Theres another juicy double issue to anticipate. Think we’ll be settling down for awhile.
Photo reblogged from Don't Bury Me in New Jersey with 9 notes
Electric Windmill Books Presents—
Don’t Bury Me in New Jersey
A book of poems by Brian Le LayPublication Date: 24 November 2011
Size: 6 x 9
Length: 98 pages / 40 poems
Price: Print: $12.00 (plus shipping), E-Book: $6.00My first full-length book of poetry will be available for purchase this week! Check out http://www.electricwindmillpress.com/dbminj.html to read excerpts.
ON SALE TODAY! 30% off at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dont-bury-me-in-new-jersey/18693466 with the coupon code CYBERTUESDAY. Code can be used until 11:59 Pacific Standard Time. This makes your total $8.40 + shipping.
Also, e-book is available here for $6: http://electricwindmillpress.com/dbminjebook.html
Source: electricwindmillpress
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Even with the gold coke spoon swinging
from his neck like a pimp’s medallion,
And his ten million staged heart attacks for Elizabeth,
Redd Foxx is still the most entertaining sideshow on TV,
And if I’ve suffered heart failure (and I have and I will)
from diabetes pharmaceutical schemesOr a Mercedes slams into me on the corner of 7th
and West 19th the man in the ten-gallon cowboy hat
says I can sue nameless executives
out of their Parisian brownstone estates
for several million dead presidents,Their wallets I dream laughing like the talking shoes
of Port Authority’s homeless souls.
But what about my heart?
I don’t want my heart to be a failure anymore.
Quote with 7 notes
Rather than baseball cards in the spokes of our bicycles
we collected endless battalions of macho stepfathers
who wooed our mothers from the tops of telephone polls
with measuring tape, homophobia and a handyman’s belt.With Nintendo showering its dumb dusty grey cartridges
on America’s young skulls full of adolescent oatmeal
you could explore the various ways
to rip out someone’s pulsing heart
to your own heart’s contentOr simply drown out the noise of your father
throwing beer bottles at your mother’s head
with the laugh track’s loving applause,
Quote with 3 notes
Your life is a ball of flesh-colored yarn
unraveling beside the reclining chair
while you watch a show about women
who finally love themselves after a surgeon
has made them someone else.
Quote with 13 notes
Pretty soon we are going to be born limbless.
No arms to carpenter crosses,
to drive the nails and no divine arms to nail.And we’ll have to look each other in the eyes again,
humble, words will have depth again,
and snowgloves will hang on metal hooks
like slabs of meat, and boxers will have to hide
behind backhanded compliments instead of left-hooks,and curly-haired wristwatch models
will be ordinary slaves to time like everybody else
and we will no longer shovel our way
out of snowy days trying to forget
that Mother Nature is the only landlord,
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