Live at LPR: Macaulay Culkin's iPod

I've been helping produce a series of podcasts for LPR and this is the first episode.

InDigest presents An Evening of Flash Fiction

Calling something "an evening" of something makes it sound so damn fancy. This won't be that fancy. Though I might wear a tie. I'm going to be drinking whiskey, but not fancy whisky, cheap whiskey. I think there will be some laughs, not belly laughs, but subtle laughs that are really funnier when you think about it. Maybe some super serious people will, instead of laughing, just smile and nod knowingly. That happens at readings sometimes. I also think there will be at least one person there who teaches in some capacity. So if you're coming to learn and I fall short of your expectations (I most certainly will) you can always go talk to that person. So this will also be educational, probably, if you put out some effort. You can't expect to learn unless you put out some effort.

Look, I know you're not supposed to say it, but I like flash fiction, and you do too. It'll be our secret, we don't have to tell anyone that this reading was the best thing you've ever been to afterward, when people ask. People will say, "Who's at this reading right now? It's not as high brow as this super boring Joanthan Franzen reading I'm going to tonight." And I'll say, "[quietly] Everyone...shh...[then louder] No one in here but us chickens." And we'll all have a drink and laugh at the people who don't know how to have any fun.

Also, don't you think it's not really fair that I listed the readers in alphabetical order? Robb is always last then. You should clap extra hard for him if you come. I hope you come. I'll clap extra hard.

This is going to be super fun. All these readers are great, and fun, and there will be drinks and laughing and high fives and low fives and side fives and Five Alives. Come hang out and see some stuff.

InDigest presents an Evening of Flash Fiction
w/ Ann Dewitt, John Jodzio, Robert Lopez, Lincoln Michel, Shya Scanlon, and Robb Todd
7pm | FREE
at The Gallery at (Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker St, NYC

And thanks to Zan Emerson for the flier design that I think is pretty great.

Geocachers Season 2 Trailer

We're almost ready to release season 2 of Geocachers. I'm pretty excited. We've got some really great guests for the second series, and some other surprises in store.

We've got a brand new look and a brand new issue over at InDigest.

The new issue features work from Justin Alt, Joseph Bates, Andrew Booth, Allen Edwin Butt, Lindsay D'Andrea, Molly Dorozenski, Sally Grossart (who made the TS Eliot paper person above), Matthew Guenette, Anne Cecelia Holmes, Gregory Lawless, Rebecca Porte, Sampson Starkweather, Amber Tamblyn, and Matt Wilkinson.

We're pretty happy with the new design and the new issue. What do you think? Let us know how it looks, how it reads, and how you've been.

And thanks if you supported our new site project on Kickstarter. It means a lot. You made it possible for us to get this new thing going.

InDigest Issue #24 Launch Party Tonight!

Tonight is the InDigest Issue #24 Launch Party. We'll have drinks and then readings from Dave Hill, Sampson Starkweather, Mitchell S. Jackson, Joseph Riippi, Lindsay D'Andrea, Molly Dorozenski, Allen Edwin Butt and Andrew Booth. It'll be better than an ear wig.

HOWL Festival Today

Today is the HOWL Festival in Tompkins Square Park from 1-4pm. I'm reading at 2:30pm. I'll be having beers at 2:40pm. Join me, please.

There are also lots of other great writers reading like Christie Ann Reynolds, Leah Umansky, T.M. De Vos, and others. Full schedule below.

1:00pm: Rachel Boyadjis
1:10pm: Lisa Marie Basile
1:20pm: T.M. De Vos
1:30pm: Liz Axelrod
1:40pm: Jennifer Williamson
1:50pm: Emily Linstrom
2:00pm: Erin Lynn
2:10pm: Meghann Plunkett
2:20pm: Carina Finn
2:30pm: Dustin Luke Nelson
2:40pm: TBA
2:50pm: Leah Umansky
3:00pm: Justin Sherwood
3:10pm: Michael Lala
3:20pm: Christie Ann Reynolds
3:30pm: Rachel Herman-Gross
3:40pm: Robert Cunningham
3:50pm: Lauren Hunter

Today I Will Be a Compensated Spokesperson

I've got a new poem up at Opium today called "Today I Will Be a Compensated Spokesperson." Which, I've discovered, will take you about two minutes to read.

Update: These kind of posts are most useful when I provide a link.

Last Day of Our Kickstarter Campaign

Today is the final day of our Kickstarter campaign for InDigest.

Dapper Abe

Hell Yes Press' "21 Love Poems"

Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!

Tonight a couple of my Abraham Lincoln poems will be read by actors for Emotive Fruition at the Bowery Poetry Club at 8pm. It's $5. Should be good times. Poems by Jen Knox, Monica Wendel, and Martin Rock will also be read.

Also, in Minneapolis tonight, Hell Yes Press is releasing the cassette anthology 21 Love Poems with a little shindig at Boneshaker Books. I'll be there in spirit, and they're playing a short video I made of the Abraham Lincoln poem on the cassette.

Thank You, Mr. Postman

I like my postman because he brought my this cassette poetry anthology:

And he brought me the new issue of Twin Cities Metro...

...and that's good, even though he bent it a little, because I have a poem in this issue!

And then he also brought me this, which I'm excited to read.

New Poem at METRO

Got a new poem up at Twin Cities METRO. The poem is titled "The Argument is as to Whether or Not These Pages End," and it's from the manuscript I'm finishing up at the moment.

InDigest and Kickstarter

Geocachers: Chris Koza and Rogue Valley

Check out the newest episode of Geocachers where Sam interviews Chris Koza and Rogue Valley.

A Man, A Penguin, A Plan, Panama

I interview Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov about his life in Ukraine and his novels, which are great. (You should read both Death and the Penguin and The Case of the General's Thumb...which we can get because Melville House is bringing his work to America.) I did the interview for John & Molly Knefel's Radio Dispatch podcast. You can get the episode here.

Things googled, which may have accidentally led you here

According to Google Analytics, some of you who are reading this blog may have searched any of the following terms:
fonz jump the shark
abe lincoln awesome
pregnant guy with gun taint
jeremy messersmith brand glasses
godzilla guitar

Those are real things people searched, and somehow wound up at this blog. Thank you for your awesome searching anonymous people.

Happy Presidents Day

I do this sometimes

I forget to post when new poems are up. I just added some poems to the list on the right though. I thought I'd add some stuff from a couple of series I've been working on over the last year. Ok. If you click a link, thanks.

Draw Me a Map of the World

I'm trying to get a maps project off the ground and I need a little help. I'm hoping that you'll take five minutes and draw me a map. The hope of this project is to create a sort of personal geography. I hope the juxtaposition of these maps will tell a story about how we live in the world and create a collective biography about how we experience the world.

If you do this your name will never appear with the map, and the goal is definitely not to make fun of anyone's lack of geographical knowledge.

Here's what I'm hoping you can do:

1. DRAW and LABEL a map of the world without any aides, visual or otherwise. The last part is important. Please, no prior research or studying, and no looking at a map, list of countries, or anything that could help make your map more complete. Just use what you already know. This is the key to this project. Maximum of two drafts. Let it be messy if it's messy; get creative if you want to get creative. If your process shows through, all the better.

2. On a SEPARATE piece of paper write your initials, a list of cities you have lived in (even if it was just for a few months), and a list of countries you've visited.

3. You can mail your map to me at this address, c/o Dustin Nelson. (Sorry for the run around, thought maybe it's weird to just throw my address on the blog for the spam-bot-o-tronics.) I will gladly reimburse postage, as I want to have the original copy of your map and not a copy or an e-mailed image.

If you have any questions you can e-mail me at dlukenelson [at] gmail [dot] com.

I hope you'll participate, and if you have friends who'd like to participate please pass this along. I'm hoping to get people from all over the world involved, and to see a wide spectrum of demographics (though I won't know who are, as I'm throwing away any identifying information).