Dislocate Magazine

by Wilson Peden, Managing Editor

As we’ve mentioned in the last few posts, this is busy, exciting time for everyone at Dislocate. Issue #4 rolls off the presses this week, our reading period for Issue #5 is underway, and to celebrate both issues, we’re throwing a launch party—Thursday, September 25th, 7pm at the Loft. Local writers Dylan Hicks and Katrina Vandenberg will be reading, and of course the Dislocate staff will be there. Come pick up a copy of Issue #4. Come and listen to the readings. Come talk to the staff—you might even convince some of us to go out for a drink afterwards. There will be snacks. If you live in the Twin Cities area and you love good writing and/or snacks, then come on out, because this party is our little gift to you.

It wasn’t easy to get to this point; the process of assembling Issue #4 was long and difficult. So as we release that issue out into the world, maybe it’s worth stopping to ask: why are we doing this? After all, putting together a literary magazine is a lot of work; it’s work that we love, but it’s still work. Sometimes the work stressful; we get tired and cranky and we snap at each other. And personally, I sometimes stop to think about the bazillion other literary magazines already out there, many of them are publishing very nice work, and I ask, what do we do that is different from what they do? What do we have to offer?

Well, I might mention our staff, a smart, thoughtful group of individuals whose solid judgment and idiosyncratic tastes are unique to Dislocate, and I could certainly point to Issue #4 as evidence of the fine work that comes from those tastes and judgments. I might mention the issue we are working on now, the Transitions Issue, an issue we hope to fill with writing that plays with the boundaries of form and addresses the themes of change and motion that seem so present in the world and so incredibly important right now. And I’d mention that some of the writing we publish—some very, very good writing—might not ever be read if we didn’t publish it.

Anyone who’s worked for a literary journal or small press knows there’s not much money in literature. Certainly that’s the case for Dislocate. And yet, despite the hard work and the lack of monetary compensation, there are many, many literary journals already on the market. These journals are in many ways are our competitors, but in some ways, we’re not competitors at all. As the poet, essayist, and all around smart guy Lewis Hyde has pointed out, art and literature don’t always have to move within the confines of the marketplace. Sometimes art moves better in a gift economy.

Writers don’t send us their work with any expectation of monetary reward—they send their work as an offering, a gift they hope we will pass on to our readers. Some pieces we publish; some we cannot, but we’re no less grateful for the gift. Of course, we do charge a (very small) fee for copies of our magazine—as much as we’d like to give it away for free, we do have expenses to cover—but in the end, this process is still about the exchange between writer and reader. We’re happy to facilitate the exchange.

In that spirit, this launch party, and this whole endeavor, is a gift—to the readers and writers and sponsors and all the many people who support Dislocate. So come out, join us at the Loft this Thursday—this one’s for you.

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 01:38 AM | Permalink

You're invited to attend. Local poet Katrina Vandenberg and local writer/musician Dylan Hicks will read at the launch party of Dislocate #4! Celebration begins at 7:30 p.m. on September 25 at Open Book. The fourth print issue features hot new poems, essays, fiction, interviews, and the extraordinary graphic art of Brian Ness. Open Book is located at 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis. This event is free and open to the public - please join us!

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 07:20 PM | Permalink

By Shantha Laura Susman, Editor-in-Chief

To say that it's springtime would be obviously incorrect, but no one can refute that I have two new plants on my windowsills. There's a palpable feeling of change in the air. For those of us in academia, it's the spring of a new school year. For those of us on Dislocate staff, we're anticipating the imminent birth of the 2008 issue. For those of us anywhere in the United States, these next few months will bring political change in our school boards, city councils, in congress, and in the white house. Of one thing I'm sure: things are going to be different around here.

As the new Editor-in-Chief of Dislocate, I want to welcome our new staff members and say, on behalf of all of us, we're excited to read your work! Our 2008 issue is set to launch on September 25th at the Loft Literary Center, and the reading period is open on our 2009 issue. Send us your amazing short story, creative nonfiction essay, or a few poems that rearrange the world, and we'll consider your work for publication. This will get you a peachy publishing credit, the admiration of our readers and staff, and a couple of contributor copies as a thank you.

To reflect the changes in our world – new staff, new issues, new politicians, new plants! – this issue's theme is Transitions. Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, who was born on a back-to-school September day in 1941 and died on the first day of spring, 1960, wrote that transition doesn't happen gradually, but in spurts of action after long periods of stasis; punctuated equilibrium. How fitting that we have a number of excellent short form authors visiting the University of Minnesota campus this semester, prose poets like Nin Andrews and Peter Johnson whose stories flash on the page, sudden and whole.

To honor our visiting authors, we're holding a flash fiction contest. We're scouring the writing world for the best flash fiction we can find. And we plan to publish the top three entries in the 2009 Transitions issue of Dislocate!

Whoa! Tell me more about the Dislocate Flash Fiction Contest!

$10 per entry. One entry per person. Entry should be under 1,000 words.



Sounds great! What do I get?

First Prize: $400, publication, 5 contributor copies.

Second Prize: $150, publication, 4 contributor copies.

Third Prize: $50, publication, 4 contributor copies.



When do you need it?

Deadline for contest (and for regular submissions): December 1, 2008.



Can I send you a flash fiction contest entry AND a regular submission?
Why, sure!



What are you looking for, Dislocate?

We want excellent writing that rearranges the world. To dislocate is to put out of order. Change the way we think about creative writing, and change the way we see the world. 



Where do I send my flash fiction entry?

Send your manuscript, cover letter (name, mailing address, email address, phone number, title of piece, and brief bio), and check for $10 payable to Dislocate Magazine to:

Dislocate—Attn: Dislocate Flash Fiction Contest

Department of English

222 Lind Hall
207
Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0134



What about my regular submission?

Same as above, but without the check.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted; previously published work or e-submissions are not. Please include a SASE for reply; if you would like your manuscript returned, make sure you include adequate postage. We will get back to you within 2-4 months; if you haven't heard from us in 4 months, feel free to query about the status of your manuscript, but please don't before then.

For more information email us at dislocate.magazine@gmail.com.

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 10:22 PM | Permalink

My goodness at the lag. I am the worst blog editor ever.

The truth is, a few of us here at Dislocate were overwhelmed by minor trifles like finishing our Masters' theses and crapping our literary bloomers at the prospect of being unemployed again at the end of our graduate careers. Some of us were just too busy updating our resumes and and laundering our bloomers to update the blog.

That is going to change, I hope, with the newfound resolve and discipline of the interim blog editor (who bears a curious resemblance to the full-time blog editor) and the fresh talent we've got coming in to staff Dislocate in the fall and put together Dislocate #5.

Meanwhile, Dislocate #4, the ass-kickingest Dislocate yet, is on its way back to the printers and should be hitting shelves soon. And this space will be updated more regularly. Like, anywhere from a week to six months from now.

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 11:58 AM | Permalink

Minneapolis, Minn. — Your neighbor bursts through your front door, stumbles about the house to wherever you are, and falls to the floor, just a few feet away from your feet. She—yes, she is a she—is short of breath. She is injured. She has been shot in the abdomen. The blow is fatal, and you both know she will die in minutes.

A dog runs in after her and jumps up at your waist, pawing at your mid-section. During your neighbor's last minutes, the two of you take turns petting the dog.

"What's its name?" you ask.
"Just picked it up from the pound," she says. "Doesn't have one."

Your neighbor dies.

The whole scenario is bizarre. No one's overlooking that. The very minute your neighbor returns from the pound with a brand new dog, without even having enough time to lock her car with her remote, someone shoots her in the abdomen, and she dies. But not before stumbling through your door, and collapsing just a few feet away from your feet. Bizarre. But, you know what you must do.

You call the police, the paramedics, her family (in that order), and that night you are interviewed by several local news outlets. You are not a suspect. No one is. Whichever hands were responsible for your neighbor’s death will not be cuffed today (or ever, c’est la vie). Throughout the investigation and the interviews, you are cooperative and appear calm and articulate. Given the circumstances, you are. But for some reason, some inexplicable reason, you never tell anyone about the dog, and no one asks. They assume the dog is your dog and always has been, and you let them. The dog doesn't seem mussed by the discrepancy either. So the dog becomes your dog, as if it always were your dog.

Weeks go by, then months. A year passes.

Finally, one night, with no one around, you confront the one detail left unsettled about your neighbor's death: What do you name the dog?

- Michael Garberich

[Disclosure: a dog named craig is the name of Dislocate intern Michael Garberich's blog, which is his mildly obsessive, occasionally compulsive approach to experiencing the newspaper and other publications.]

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 06:26 PM | Permalink

It's been a while since our last entry, but everyone here at Dislocate has been busy. We're culling material for Issue #4 and getting ready to send it to the printers ... always an exciting time. And, we just returned from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs annual conference, held in New York City.

This year's conference was supposedly the biggest one yet, and I had no trouble believing it. The sheer number of panels, panelists, and especially journals, writing programs, and publishers present at the bookfair (filling three floors of the midtown Hilton) was staggering. As such, it was hard to digest everything, or make it to every panel that looked interesting, but I tried. I saw a great panel about hybrid forms in nonfiction—a hard concept to explain, so I won't even try—that featured the inimitable Ander Monson delivering a fascinating talk about video games. I browsed the bookfair enough to accumulate a fair amount of publishing envy. And I talked with a host of people from other writing programs and publishing houses.

Overwhelming, yes. But well worth it.

- Jake

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 05:35 PM | Permalink

As you've no doubt noticed, the Dislocate website is boasting a brand new look. We'd like to thank Carol Lemke and Karen Bencke, the lovely web development people at the U of M's College of Liberal Arts, for all their help getting the new site up.

Take a look around the links on the left. And welcome!

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 10:12 PM | Permalink

Cara Blue Adams has reviewed Dislocate's second issue for Newpages, an online repository of news and information about literary magazines. Check it out!

We'll be sure to send her Issue #3.

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 04:46 PM | Permalink

by Holly Vanderhaar

In 1997, Vanity Fair's James Wolcott pejoratively referred to Lee Gutkind as "the Godfather behind creative nonfiction." Though it wasn't Wolcott's intention, his dismissive remark brought Gutkind and the genre to the awareness of countless Vanity Fair readers, and as we all know, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Gutkind started America's first MFA program in creative nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh, and is the founder and editor of the literary journal Creative Nonfiction. He has written or edited twelve books, most recently Almost Human: Making Robots Think (2007).

I had the opportunity to work with him last spring at Arizona State University, where he was the Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. Thanks to Lee, I came away with a new awareness of the importance of structure, and a new mantra: "The building blocks of creative nonfiction are scenes.� I recently chatted with him about immersion journalism, MFA programs, and the role of the internet in the genre of creative nonfiction.

Continue reading "An Audience with the Don" »

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 06:13 AM | Permalink

(or, "How Long Until Pitchers and Catchers Report?")

by Kevin O'Rourke

Timing is everything. Just when I couldn’t have been more distraught over the end of the 2007 baseball season, and moreover the manner in which it concluded (another sweep?!), my mother gave me a book. Namely Michael Chabon’s highly entertaining and evocative Summerland (Miramax, 2002). His tale of children & baseball & a fantasy world which exists in tandem with our own certainly did its very best to raise my spirits. So what if the book is supposed to be for kids? So was a certain other series about a boy wizard and his adventures. I enjoyed that one too, even if it meant removing the books’ dust jackets whenever reading them on the subway.

But I digress. Full disclosure: I am a huge baseball fan, I participate in a fantasy baseball league, and my idea of a good time tends to involve watching a game and jawing about, say, Rickey Henderson’s lifetime stats. I mean, the man stole 1,406 bases! Number two on the all-time list, Lou Brock, stole 938. Look at it this way: Henderson had 10,961 at-bats during his career, and his OBP (on-base percentage) was .401. That means he got on base about 4,395 times. Which means he stole a base approximately 32% of the time he was on base. This is completely ridiculous.

Continue reading "Tug McGraw’s Leap: Baseball and the Literary Arts" »

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 04:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Ryo Yamaguchi

All the poets and I here at Dislocate are huge huge fans of Kristy Bowen's latest chapbook, feign, out from New Michigan Press last year, 2006. Okay, I have been trying to find a deft, definitive reason for why I am so enamored of this book, and short of solving any of my own life problems (inability to sleep, lack of rhythm, that reoccurring smell of copper), I have come upon a conclusion: I love these poems for the way they bring an otherwise associative sensibility into a strong sense of scene: how Bowen discovers within and at the corners of her stagings these shadow worlds: or a jar lifted to open the air over the curio: so everything has a pitch toward a silent figure: even has her mind leaps, it finds an accumulating logic: or maybe, just have a look at a few of these lines, from one of my favorites, "Girls Reading Novels:"

Violet is named for lavender equations, the glitter at the end of your spine. Avenues grow contradictory, the length of the chain-link divided by the water's murky circle. Kitchen floors tilt at a seventy degree angle while intricate societies are discovered among the broken dishes. My limbs are symmetrical, polite.

Oh, oh that exquisite tone, the abeyance, until we get the ending:

Some terrible violence in the way I say open.

These are careful poems, even as wild as they are. A measured mental conflagration, hoorah! So, so, the real bit here: this has prompted us to invite Kristy Bowen to kick off our series of:

Awesome Interviews with Awesome Writers

Continue reading "Interview: Kristy Bowen" »

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 08:55 PM | Permalink

Dislocate, a literary journal at the University of Minnesota, announces its first Dislocated Poetry Contest: Poems on the theme of Dislocation.

The Winner will receive $500 and publication in the 4th print issue of Dislocate.

All entrants will receive a copy of Dislocate and be considered for publication.

Entry fee: $10
Page Limit: 5 pages
Deadline: January 31, 2008

We welcome both experimental and traditional forms which stretch the boundaries of poetry.

Each contest submission must include an entry fee. Submissions must also include a self-addressed stamped envelope and cover letter with your name, address, phone number, e-mail, and entry title. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities English department students and faculty are ineligible for this contest.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted; previously published work or e-submissions are not.

Manuscripts will not be returned without a SASE and correct postage. Make entry checks payable to Dislocate Magazine.

Send all entries to:

Dislocate—Attn: Dislocated Poetry Contest
Department of English
222 Lind Hall
207 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0134

*Please note that non-contest submissions for poetry, fiction, and non-fiction do not require an entry fee and are welcome from September 15 - December 15 every year.

Contact us at dislocate.magazine@gmail.com with questions. To view previous issues, visit our website at www.dislocate.org.

Posted by Dislocate Literary Journal at 10:49 AM | Permalink