*Adolf Hoffmeister (1902-1973), Czech writer, playwright, painter & caricaturist. His reviews and interviews with the avant-garde scene in 1930s Paris & New York have been collected in Podoby (1961; Images) and Předobrazy (1962; Adumbrations). His most notable works include his interviews with James Joyce and his 1932 first-ever Czech translation of “Anna Livia Plurabelle” a fragment of Work … Continue reading
*“Afterword” to André Breton, Co je surrealismus? Tři přednášky [What is Surrealism? Three Lectures], Brno 1937 NOTE: Well-known are André Breton’s visits, in 1934-35, to Prague, during which he delivered three crucial lectures, hailing the city as “the magical capital of old Europe […], one of those cities that electively pin down poetic thought, which is … Continue reading
I can’t remember. We’re just below the hospitality hoax at the riverend. By then I was sold: low ebb of gravity hence had already the vision. The things that hatched out of the eggs resembled lizards.[1] Readability bears this mourning: a phrase can be readable, it must be able to become readable, up to a … Continue reading
JUAN GOYTISOLO +4.6.2017 “And it’s true that my own birth as a writer coincides in fact with the destruction of my literature, of the literary moulds which in routine fashion I took from tradition.” So reflected the author of alienation & exile, Juan Goytisolo – who this Sunday passed away – in a 1984 interview … Continue reading
By Lisanne Meinen From April 10th to April 13th, Týden Diverzity, or DiverCity Week, will be taking place in a recently renovated building at 4 Hybernská Street. This free four-day festival, run by Charles University, is themed on ‘City and Emotions’, connecting Prague with exhibitions, lectures, discussions and workshops. Events begin at 10am and continue … Continue reading
In the chapter of his book, Design and Debris: A Chaotics of Postmodern American Fiction, devoted to what he calls American “proceduralism,” Joseph M. Conte makes further distinction between proceduralism and mere structural formalism. Whereas the value of the latter—common to all literary writing observant of formal/generic conventions—is largely based on its conformity with the … Continue reading
*Excerpt from Thor Garcia’s long-awaited opus magnum Pink Alligator, forthcoming with Equus Press in autumn 2017. Editor’s Introduction My experience working with Captain Chip Traybon Walkner, which included editing this manuscript, was illuminating and rewarding. In addition to his other attributes, Captain Walkner is a gifted observer and interpreter of human behavior. I think you’ll agree … Continue reading
*Marking the 35th anniversary of his death, David Vichnar’s piece reviews George Perec’s oeuvre in terms of its commitment to experimental innovation in the best modernist fashion. Even today, more than thirty years after his death, Georges Perec (1936-82) is still a member of the Oulipo group, which—and this ties in with what has been … Continue reading
End of radio blackout. Equus Press is proud to announce the release of the 2nd “pocket” edition of Louis Armand’s The Combinations aka The Big Combo. Order here or enter the Goodreads giveaway here (starts Mar 8), or write directly to us for review copies. Why bother with firebricks when you can stuff 139 of these … Continue reading
*Marking yesterday’s passing of the great (and only) American Oulipian writer Harry Mathews is David Vichnar’s article below, reviewing his novelistic career from the 1960s to the 90s. The article is extracted from the forthcoming study, The Avant-Postman: James Joyce and the Postwar French & Anglophone Avantgarde. Harry Mathews (1930-2017) was a writer officially Oulipian, who was born in New … Continue reading
*By Louis Armand; republished from The Organ Grinder’s Monkey: Culture after the Avant-garde (Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2013) 1. “Savage thought,” in Claude Lévi-Strauss’s oft-repeated dictum, “can be defined as analogical thought.” Analogical thought: a primitive mode of reason inhering in the grammar of to, with, between – hence a predilection for, and dependence upon, tropes of … Continue reading
*By Tim König, co-translator of Melchior Vischer’s 1920 Dada masterpiece Second through Brain (Equus: 2015). Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream.[1] An “instrument of terror”[2] For a long time, Arno Schmidt was an underdog of German literature in the Anglophone world. After 2016, this could change, as his huge … Continue reading
*Originally published online in 3AM Magazine on Aug 16, 2016. ‘Armand distrusts authentic reader/writer experience no matter how ironised or sentimentalized. He’s seen it happen, the domestication of ‘experimental writing’ where ‘independent’ and maverick’ become code words for ‘rogue vested interest.’ ‘Realism’ becomes a matter of having the last word ‘whilst handing over scapegoats if only to … Continue reading
*Equus Press is proud to announce the planned publication (for April, 2017), of THOR GARCIA’s new novel Pink Alligator. Why does the pink alligator choose YOU? That’s the question Chip Walkner and his wife Jaycee must confront when Crunchie the pink alligator appears on their doorstep. The growing, always-hungry gator adds excitement and adventure to their flagging … Continue reading
*Equus Press is proud to announce the planned publication (for April, 2018), in one volume, of PHIL SHOENFELT’s novel trilogy Stripped. A memoir of Shoenfelt’s New York years (1979-84), Stripped examines what follows after all social norms have been rejected, detailing the struggle with the legion of demons lurking at the bottom of every addiction, drug or other. Remembering a New … Continue reading
