THE2NDHAND

BROADSHEET no. 34.2 released, featuring Atlanta-based Jamie Iredell b/w Keyhole Magazine Editor Gabe Durham

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:05:46 -0500

No. 34.2: Part dictionary of the outrageous, part chronicle of the manic twists and turns of American life, Atlanta writer Jamie Iredell's BOOK OF FREAKS (due fall 2010 from Future Tense) is A+ material, the best of its bits spawning raucous laughter and righteous anger read after read after. Check out several of the "freaks" in this issue, part of our mini-broadsheets series, along with Nashville-based Gabe Durham's similarly structured selections from "Fun Camp," a work in progress, on the back side. Durham is Keyhole Magazine's new editor. Readers, please share with interested parties. Available in pdf and easily printed via THE2NDHAND.com/printjump.html, our mini-broadsheets are designed for portability on mobile devices and for print via readers' desktops. Print pages 1 and 2 on the front and back sides, respectively, of 8.5x11-in. paper, read, distributing in mini-stacks or singly in your neighborhoods’ reading-friendly establishments’ bathrooms and other spaces.

SKI AERIALS, by aka Peer

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:35:41 -0500

A father's concern for his daughter's potential death v. daughter's singular ambition.

TESTIMONIAL, by aka Peer

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:21:06 -0500

"My mom made me a true believer in the redemptive power of self-help workshops," writes N.Y./Utah split regional personality aka Peer, the scribe behind this story. About a mother's flip-flopping devotion to a sometimes-abusive boyfriend -- and how she overcame addiction to said devotion through to "Power Living for Chicks," it's a tragicomic read from an excellent writer. Watch for more from Peer later this week.

RACING STRIPES, by Paul Lask

Sun, 8 Aug 2010 09:36:25 -0500

Think comix writer Adrian Tomine without all the distracting illustrations... This story of a failing relationship is by Chicago resident and writer Paul Lask.

AT THE HILTON GARDEN INN NASHVILLE AIRPORT, by Spencer Dew

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:52:30 -0500

A story of love and death, of exorcism and the brilliance of the casual-turned-profound, from one of THE2NDHAND's stalwarts and among the best fiction writers working in the U.S. today. Spencer Dew lives and writes in Chicago...

HIDEOUS BOUNTY: ONE WITH WOLF

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:29:05 -0500

Find here the newest in the hideously comic illustrated series, a beautifully mannered yet cosmic distillation of man unmoored. Artist Andrew Davis brings it to you from Indianapolis, Ind., where he works with ceramics, college students, comics and paint -- the series began in November 2008.

NARCOLEPTIC, by Foust

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:28:06 -0500

Based in Richmond, Va., Foust offers this exquisite panegyric of a sleeper's existence -- "Sometimes, I continue working after I'm asleep. Usually this happens when a job is something repetitious, like stuffing envelopes or collating. Piles of paper get moved around, but usually my sleeping self does a lousy job and I have to undo everything and start over again when I wake up. So far, this has never caused a problem. I get assignments no one else wants to do, so my temporary employers don't complain if I'm slow. They just want someone to do the crummy job. . . ."

JUST SAY NO, by Ben Tanzer

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:40:45 -0500

Tanzer returns to these halls with this confession/address by the leader of the "Just Say No to Premarital Sex Club"....

ASYMPTOTES (For Heather), by Michael Balatico

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:41:11 -0500

Chicago-based Balatico has penned a brief but explosive meditation on the myriad of chance encounters that make up this story -- or could make up this story. "Could blue eyes and black eyes bridge the swaying aisle between them and impart knowledge? Are we asking too much of these functions?..."

We think just enough.

BROADSHEET no. 34.1 released, featuring decomP editor Jason Jordan, short story writer Rick Henry

Mon, 5 Jul 2010 08:01:39 -0500

What do you do when your best friend in high school has a peculiar ability to pull bones from a "compartment on the underside of his left forearm"? Why, built a skeletal replica of him, of course, or such is just one of the conclusions of the antagonists at work in Louisville-based writer and decomP mag editor Jason Jordan's "Sternum as 3" short, originally written on the occasion of Jordan's performance at the March 2010 installment of the THE2NDHAND/Keyhole Press coproduction the Nashville Brick Reading Series. "Sternum" is the lead story our latest mini-broadsheet, now available here. Also included, five prose poems from Rick Henry's "Then" collection. Henry has published fiction and articles in a variety of journals and anthologies. Among his books are Chant: A Romance (BlazeVox 2008) and Lucy's Eggs, and Other Stories (Syracuse 2006). The following prose poems from his 'Then' collection he describes as responding "to the first half of the 20th Century... moments in a community, sometimes a discovery, sometimes a song, sometimes a disease that stretches across the nation. And sometimes, a mote in a moment, a scrap of ennui in the in-between." Readers, please share with interested parties. Available in pdf and easily printed via THE2NDHAND.com/printjump.html, our mini-broadsheets are designed for portability on mobile devices and for print via readers' desktops. Print pages 1 and 2 on the front and back sides, respectively, of 8.5x11-in. paper, read, distributing in mini-stacks or singly in your neighborhoods’ reading-friendly establishments’ bathrooms and other spaces.

BROADSHEET no. 34 released, featuring Scott Stealey, Todd Dills

Sun, 2 May 2010 21:30:54 -0500

Scott Stealey’s "Cold Was the Ground" has us more excited about story than we’ve been in quite a while. Gina, protagonist, a rather lonely condo dweller/office manager, strikes up a fleeting friendship with one Porgo, an Eastern European construction worker who is burying on her property what Gina takes for a time capsule. But the metaphorical fix is in -- Porgo, an ESL student, may be leading Gina in directions she can’t exactly get her head all the way around. Enjoy. Chicago writer Stealey is editor of the Please Don’t online mag and has been published in several venues.

THE2NDHAND editor Todd Dills penned a short for a Pitchfork Battalion round-robin on the theme of Building With Brick at the inaugural Brick Reading Series, a THE2NDHAND coproduction with Keyhole Press. It's included here, part of a series of stories based on his father's jokes.