One Writer's Life

Robert Vaughan reads “Shore Leave” by Lynda Hull (by...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:11:52 -0400

Robert Vaughan reads “Shore Leave” by Lynda Hull (by Robert Vaughan)

Robert Vaughan reads “Stitches” by Lucas Farrell (by...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:58:26 -0400

Robert Vaughan reads “Stitches” by Lucas Farrell (by Robert Vaughan)

"Trying to Raise the Dead" by Dorianne Laux

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:23:12 -0400

"Trying to Raise the Dead" by Dorianne Laux:

For National Poetry Month, today I read “Trying to Raise the Dead” by the amazing poet Dorianne Laux.

My short story, Arrival, is up at Birdville Magazine

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:20:47 -0400

My short story, Arrival, is up at Birdville Magazine:

This short story, originally published in 2010, is now live at Birdville Magazine out of Sydney, Australia!!!

Today I read "some haircuts" by Evelyn Hampton for National Poetry Month

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:42:32 -0400

Today I read "some haircuts" by Evelyn Hampton for National Poetry Month:

Robert Vaughan reads “some haircuts” by Evelyn Hampton

National Poetry Month

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:24:58 -0400

National Poetry Month:

Today I read “Naming” by James L. White from his wonderful Graywolf poetry book, The Salt Ecstasies.

Forget It

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 22:25:00 -0400

Forget It:

My 100 x 100 piece, “Forget It” is up at Marco Polo Arts Magazine. Thanks editor, Darin Beasley! Also check out all the rad content on this site while you’re there!

April is National Poetry Month

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:42:00 -0400

No April fools here! Just poets…

New blog at One Writer’s Life where I launch a video poem each day for April:

Robert Vaughan | MICROTONES @ Cervena Barva Press

Have a great one!

Books at Fictionaut: my new book, Microtones, has a review by Christopher Allen

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:26:33 -0400

Books at Fictionaut: my new book, Microtones, has a review by Christopher Allen:

Ever feel like you are making your debut on Broadway? Welcome to this moment. Fortunately, I have amazing, smart, talented writing associates. Christopher slays this review of Microtones at Fictionaut, and I am eternally grateful.

Spring 2013 issue of JMWW is available!

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:23:00 -0400

Spring 2013 issue of JMWW is available!:

This issue we have a great line-up of flash fiction with pieces by AWP HEAT Contest winner Caroljean Gavin, and short fiction by Jules Archer, Carly Berg, Jen Knox, Joel Kopplin, Len Kuntz, J.P. Reese and Jess Stoner. Enjoy!

Robert Vaughan reads Larry Levis's poem, "Adolescence" from Winter Stars

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:05:39 -0400

Robert Vaughan reads Larry Levis's poem, "Adolescence" from Winter Stars

cuttyspot: [ROBERT VAUGHAN VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE] * Robert...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:11:07 -0400

cuttyspot:

[ROBERT VAUGHAN VIDEO INTERVIEW RESPONSE]

*

Robert helped edit Thunderclap

he now helps edit the magazines JMWW & Lost in Thought

(all of which he speaks abt thoroughly in his video response)

he shouts out India

‘there’s beautiful things that flow through me that come out of my pen when I’m there’

he just published his first book called Microtones

& has another chapbook coming out this summer

some of my favorite moments from the interview:

‘at this age of my life most of my friends are people like myself who have lived dozens of places, keep kind of traveling around & doing sort of a caravan style of life […] most of my friends are like me - they’re searching - & somehow always never quite finding it’

‘I’m so inspired by Tumblr - I love it’

‘when I came out of college, everything was snail mail, so I didn’t submit that often. it was a pain in the fuckin’ ass’

Mind Warp at AWP Boston

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 08:54:59 -0400

My Mind Warp, a blog post about AWP in Boston is up at JMWW Blog. Thanks Jen Mishalski!

http://jmwwblog.wordpress.com/

Microtones

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:46:00 -0400

My new chapbook is out!!! Microtones is 24 prose/poems and Gloria Mindock published from Cervena Barva Press: http://www.cervenabarvapress.com

Here is the gorgeous cover and I’m over the moon:

Turbidity

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:23:32 -0500

Holidays are hard:

I’m going to take

a walk, escape the

silence of this house

I was never home,

home on the range

hospital corners are still

“beats me?”

Invisible, unlike drift wood

tossed ashore, under pewter

skies, elephantine clouds

where seldom is heard

an encouraging word

no slow cookpot solutions

while you’re no longer talking

and I’m no longer hearing

there’s nothing cooking here

There’s something I forgot

nunmilk: “The real damage is done by those millions who want to...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:40:17 -0500

nunmilk:

“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘get by.’ The ordinary men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies.

Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, love small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you.

But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does.

I choose my own way to burn.”

HUMP it up!

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:50:44 -0500

Hello friends! It’s that time for lists, prizes, for nominations, holiday music and ribbon candy. There is lots going on in the literary world. So much to read! So little time!

To honor World AIDS Day on December 1, 2012, I added my poem, “What Some Boys Do” to the Fictionaut site: http://fictionaut.com/stories/robert-vaughan/what-some-boys-do

Also, ‘tis the season of anthologies. Here are a few in which my work appears, and I am ever so grateful:

* In Those Days We: http://bendinglightintoverse.com/2012/11/24/in-those-days-we-released/ (thanks editor, Jennifer Tomaloff)

* Estuary: http://www.blurb.com/books/3811083 (thanks editors, Harriette Lawler and Agnes Marton)

* Flash 101: Surviving the Fiction Apocalypse: http://fastforwardflash.wordpress.com/books/ (thanks editors, Leah Rogin-Roper, Stacy Walsh and Dustin Dill)

* Santa Fe Literary Review: http://www.sfcc.edu/files/SFLR/SFLR2012-TOC.pdf (thanks editor, Meg Tuite)

Alex Pruteanu has a story called “Apparatus” up at Yareah Magazine: http://yareah.com/war-stories-apparatus-0263/

Nicolette Wong and her A-Minor staff have exciting news: http://aminorpress.com/

Andrew Stancek wins a mighty prize with his story in Gemini Magazine: http://www.gemini-magazine.com/stancekalways.html

NAP reminds us that Tyler Gobble is Stoked: http://issuu.com/tylergobble/docs/stoked_issue1_iii

The Best LGBT Books of 2012: 87 Authors Select Their Favorites: http://bandofthebes.typepad.com/bandofthebes/2012/11/the-best-lgbt-books-of-2012.html

The latest issue of Negative Suck has new work by James Claffey, “The Wrong Corner of the Sky” and more: http://www.negativesuck.moonfruit.com/ - /current-content/4571513710

Jim Harrington at Flash Fiction Chronicles asks his 6 questions of Bakers Dozen editors, Michelle Elvy and John Wentworth Chapin: http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.ca/2012/12/six-questions-for-michelle-elvy-and.html

Howie Good is up at Drunk Monkeys: http://www.drunkmonkeys.onimpression.com/featured/love-surrounds-us-like-a-posse-in-bulletproof-vests-by-howie-good/

And finally, I will be participating in a group reading at the venerable KGB Bar in NYC’s East Village. The writers’ collective, 52/250, will be featuring works read by members and friends on December 16th, 7-9 p.m. Please come, bring friends and help spread the magic:

(1) 52|250: A Night of Flash

What Some Boys Do

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 11:06:56 -0500

I posted this poem at Fictionaut in honor of World AIDS Day on December 1, 2012:

I sat on the bus

same seat as yesterday

heat of a mid- June afternoon.

Earlier my teacher,

Mrs Starr, asked:

Why is the sky?

How is the ocean?

“What’s in the bag?”

Joe Ferris presses.

His breath smells of

tuna fish. I squeeze the

soft bag tighter

between my legs.

Craig Neff peers

over their seat.

“Answer him, faggot.”

This is what some boys do.

I’m tight-lipped, breath held,

face flung.

I am flying through the sky now,

skimming over the ocean.

The brakes squeak as

the bus pulls over.

Mrs. Nolan, bus driver,

bellows “Turn around, Neff!”

My mother never warned

about the scarf I was

knitting for Grandma Meyer.

It was pink, her favorite color.

My mother never explained

this is something you do

at home. She never said

this is what only some boys do.

What she did say is

when your grandma sees

this scarf, you will make

her very proud.

“What Some Boys Do” by Robert Vaughan — Fictionaut

"When I put my hands on your body on your flesh I feel the history of that body. Not just the..."

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:15:27 -0500

“When I put my hands on your body on your flesh I feel the history of that body. Not just the beginning of its forming in that distant lake but all the way beyond its ending. I feel the warmth and texture and simultaneously I see the flesh unwrap from the layers of fat and disappear. I see the fat disappear from the muscle. I see the muscle disappearing from around the organs and detaching iself from the bones. I see the organs gradually fade into transparency leaving a gleaming skeleton gleaming like ivory that slowly resolves until it becomes dust. I am consumed in the sense of your weight the way your flesh occupies momentary space the fullness of it beneath my palms. I am amazed at how perfectly your body fits to the curves of my hands. If I could attach our blood vessels so we could become each other I would. If I could attach our blood vessels in order to anchor you to the earth to this present time I would. If I could open up your body and slip inside your skin and look out your eyes and forever have my lips fused with yours I would. It makes me weep to feel the history of your flesh beneath my hands in a time of so much loss. It makes me weep to feel the movement of your flesh beneath my palms as you twist and turn over to one side to create a series of gestures to reach up around my neck to draw me nearer. All these memories will be lost in time like tears in the rain.”

- David Wojnarowicz (via aseawithin)

HUMP back

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:15:26 -0500

HUMP Back

Holidays are fun! Which is why there was no post last week for HUMP DAY…enjoying family, and spending time outdoors and laughing a ton. Good times! But I’m back…and so here are ten (or more) literary things currently happening:

1 Necessary Fiction published my “Seven Shades of James” with guest editor Ben Tanzer at the helm for November. A million thanks to Ben for this opportunity:

http://necessaryfiction.com/writerinres/ShadesofRobertVaughan

2) IN THOSE DAYS WE- Released!!! Writers include Meg Tuite, Len Kuntz, David Tomaloff, Ryan Bradley, Molly Gaudry, Marcus Speh, Parker Tettleton, Chadwick Reddon, Jesse Bradley, J.A. Tyler, Ben tanzer, Kyle Hemmings, Robert Kloss, Norman Lock, Kathryn Rantala, Andrew Borgstrom, and me. I have two pieces in this anthology- “Buried,” and “California Tan.” Thanks editor, Jennifer Tomaloff!!!

http://bendinglightintoverse.com/2012/11/24/in-those-days-we-released/

3) My flash fiction “In it to Win It” is included in Fast Forward Press’s FLASH 101: Surviving the Fiction Apocalypse. Thanks to Stacy, Kona and editorial team:

http://fastforwardflash.wordpress.com/

4) Issue 9, The Collaborative Issue of Red Lightbulbs, is online: http://redlightbulbs.net/issue9/index.html

5) My badass boss at JMWW, Jen Michalski interviews Paula Bomer in “Bringing Up Babies,” at Nervous Breakdown: http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/jmichalski/2012/11/bringing-up-babies-an-interview-with-paula-bomer/

6) Extie Ex provokes like no other at Nothing to Say with “Hymen Big Trouble”: http://www.notimetosayit.com/2012/11/hymen-big-trouble.html

7) David Tomaloff has a strong and amazing piece at Necessary Fiction, thanks to that guy, Ben again: http://necessaryfiction.com/writerinres/Homage

8) This is one helluva poem by Jeanann Verlee, “Unsolicited Advice to Adolscent Girls with Crooked Teeth and Pink Hair.” Thanks Michael Gilliam Maxwell for sending me the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYZkLy0GHZ0&feature=related

9) Lynn Neary’s article “Independent Bookstores Find Their Footing” is up at NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2012/11/26/165911904/independent-bookstores-find-their-footing

10) Impossible Mike writes “The Obsolescence of Publish or Perish: How to Get (& Keep) Attention” at HTMLGiant: http://htmlgiant.com/

11) Josh Denslow is at The Lit Pub with his essay on The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. Well, some of it, anyhow: http://thelitpub.com/featured-books/the-pale-king/

12) ‘Tis the season, so they say, and here are the fortunate NEA Grants awarded to some great writing talents: http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/13grants/litFellows.php

I love getting new books. I still experience that over-stimulated feeling I had when my mother would take my little sister and I to our local library and we were allowed to bring home no more than five books. Yesterday a book I’d long anticipated arrived “Fire In the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz.” To say DW is one of my mentors is a given. I am one of the fortunate folks to have known him in real life. Needless to say, I’m devouring this book like some exotic treat. What are you reading? Does it engage you? Enthrall you? Bore you?