Stingray Clapping by Andrew Choate

Insert Blanc Press is proud to inaugurate a new imprint, Knock-Out Editions, with it's first Knock-Out Edition, Stingray Clapping by Andrew Choate. 

Released for Pre-Sale over Memorial Day Weekend, Knock-Out Editions and especially Stingray Clapping by Andrew Choate will be so memorable you will likely be Knocked-Out by the memoriousness of it all.

Stingray Clapping (56 pages, 4.75" x 6.5") has been printed and hand made with luxurious card-stock covers, french flaps, and marbled flyleaf endpapers in an edition of 225 copies with 40 copies signed and numbered by the author and a Limited, Knock-Out Edition of 20 drawings (4.75" x 6.5") also signed and numbered by the artist. 

Stingray Clapping by Andrew Choate
Chapbook, 56 pages B&W
ISBN 13: 978-0-9814623-5-6
Dimensions: 6.5" x 4.75" x 0.25"
Pricing:
$12.00 Chapbook
$18.00 Signed & Numbered Edition 21-40
$36.00 Limited Edition drawing and Signed & Numbered Edition 1-20 (choose your drawing from the images on the book's page)

“Stringray Clapping is composed of particles swirling at the first remove from the proto world, casting torched breath into the phonemic.”—Will Alexander, author of The Sri Lankan Loxodrome (New Directions Publishing, 2010) and Compression & Purity (City Lights, 2011).

Of his new book, Stingray Clapping, author Andrew Choate says:
In 1999 I got a job working for Crain's Business Insurance magazine, proofreading entries in theirDirectory of Corporate Buyers of Insurance. I was primarily responsible for editing the half-sentence to one-sentence long descriptions of corporations. Never having been so intimately exposed to technical language before, I fell totally in love with the quality of the writing required to convey the much-vetted specificity of a corporate description. The fact that the words were crafted for the sake of clear legal and bureaucratic meanings, rather than for the sake of literature, encouraged me to read them as if they were both specific and evocative.

Considering the glut of language we're inundated with, it's difficult for a writer sensitive to that inundation to want to generate more text to send out into the world. My writings here attempt to do what those corporate descriptions do: be exact and polyvalent.

I like short texts that respect the reader's ability to read rather than pander to their manufactured desire to be overloaded. I like texts that avoid narrative, plot, concept, character and structure; texts that focus on these things feel like they are trying to dominate the reader. That's not what I am trying to do at all, I'm trying to give the reader an opportunity. Rather than explain every little thing, can't we consider words like colors to put on the page to savor. I mean actually generating (imagining/writing) phrases that can be read the way one listens to a favorite record: at different times of day and with different desires actively in play.

The words in Stingray Clapping are simply words without any kind of justification: not conceptual, narrative or otherwise. I imagined them and arranged them and was pleased and surprised by them.

Andrew Choate was born and raised in South Carolina and studied music and literature at Northwestern University and the California Institute of the Arts. His first book, Langquage Makes Plastic of the Body, was published by Palm Press in 2006. He has been publishing his writings on music and art since 1998 and his work has appeared in Urb, Coda, Wire, Signal to Noise, Art Ltd, d’Art International and Facsimile. His writing has been translated into Spanish, French, Hungarian and Czech. His radio plays and sound works have been broadcast on WDR in Germany, Radioarte Mobile in Italy, Hipersônica in Brazil, Resonance FM in England and various outlets in the US. His visual work has been exhibited at the Yerevan Center for Contemporary Art, the Torrance Art Museum, Barnsdall Art Park, High Energy Constructs and Overca$h.  He has given lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles ("Picturing Language"), CalArts ("Writing for Video Performance") and Hofer's Studio Roof ("I'm Turning Sideways In This Crowded Train So You Can More Easily Pass Me By").

A Really Big Update and an Intern Opportunity

There are so many things going on with Insert Blanc Press and our authors and artists and in the meantime we are looking for A Brilliant Insert Blanc Press Intern which you can find out about at the end of this post.

1. The PARROT series was featured in the exhibition Open Space: Micro-Press Works, 1950s to Present, from February 23 to May 11, 2012 at The Poetry Foundation's new Gallery in Chicago. Incidentally, you can still subscribe to the PARROT series and this is now the only way to get the full run of the series as most all of the first issues are already sold out. The following are some photos from the exhibition:

2. Insert Blanc Press Editor & Publisher Mathew Timmons is currently tweeting @Harriet_Poetry and if you're into Twitter that might interest you. Around here we are big fans of the twitters.

3. ship #x, Blanc Press Series by Christopher Russell is very nearly SOLD OUT! I highly suggest you pick one up today. Go to the ship #x page to find out more. Below is one piece from the series, ship #7:

4. Besides the first issue of Rabble coming very soon, Insert Blanc Press' Manifestoh! series will also be starting up with a new translation by Boris Dralyuk of manifestoes from the Russian Futurists, Joseph Mosconi's Fright Catalog will soon surface as a 100 page full color magazine, and the Insert Blanc Monograph series will begin with Artist's Monographs by Christopher Russell and Katie Herzog in large format, full-color, hardbound editions. If you were smart you would subscribe to Insert Blanc Press right now! 

5. Insert Blanc Press authors and artists are up to some amazing things. Brian Joseph Davis, author of The Consumed Guide has been getting a whole lot of press for his project The Composites. Kate Durbin, author of E! Entertainment and the forthcoming Diamond Edition, has a couple recent reviews by Mark Wallace on his blog and by Lisa A. Flowers of The The Poetry who also followed up with an interview, and Alissa Nutting had an interesting conversation with Kate over at The Offending Adam. Teresa Carmody, author of PARROT 10 - I Can Feel, recently released I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women which she co-edited with Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, and Vanessa Place. Dan Richert, .UNFO member and co-author of (!x==[33]), has put up the original script that created (!x==[33]) along with some moby wordlists and a text multiplier. Harold Abramowitz, .UNFO member and co-author of (!x==[33]), had a book of his recently reviewed at Jacket2 and he has some new work up at esque and in Sidebrow's new multi-author chapbook White Horse. Vanessa Place, author of Tragodía: Statement of Facts, Statement of the Case, and Argument very recently was featured on HTMLGIANT with a fairly exhaustive web retrospective of her work. Of course, this barely amounts to a drop in the bucket on the list of all the things the artists and authors on Insert Blanc Press have been getting up to. We will certainly endeavor to keep all you everybody more up to date in the coming weeks and months.

6. Are You A Brilliant Insert Blanc Intern!?

Insert Blanc Press is currently searching for two brilliant interns. I've already found one brilliant intern, maybe you can be another brilliant intern. Please post and share this widely and be in touch insertpress@gmail.com

An internship at Insert Blanc will offer you a glimpse into the secret insides of small press art and literary publishing from a not non-profit perspective. As an Insert Blanc Intern you will be at the center of the day-to-day workings of a small press, assisting with editorial decisions, book design and production, copy-editing and proof-reading. You will gain the experience of ushering work from initial idea to fully realized, beautifully produced and finalized project. You will also have the opportunity to assist in event planning for readings, special events and press benefits. You will gain a holistic perspective of the arts and literary landscape in Los Angeles as well as nationally and further abroad while working on publicity & marketing to promote Insert Blanc Press' various books, art series and other projects. You will assist in developing print projects through press releases, tracking and logging reviews and you will work with and help to develop the press' media assets to create web content, web updates and newsletters while building out various social networking platforms. You will gain a broad understanding of the publishing world while submitting books and publications for awards and working to increase book sales through developing partnerships with art and literary bookstores worldwide and locally while reaching out to larger institutions to encourage them to support the press and become subscribing members.

Please be in touch thru insertpress@gmail.com and in 3-5 short paragraphs explain why you would be a brilliant Intern for Insert Blanc Press. Interest in contemporary art and literature is a plus and so are excellent writing and communication skills. Knowledge of InDesign, Illustrator andor Photoshop and some familiarity with audio/video editing is a big plus. Those with adept abilities in the social media sphere are also sought after.

This position requires the ability to meet face-to-face and so any brilliant intern must live in Los Angeles and be willing to meet in the Silver Lake andor Echo Park area on a periodic basis.

A Brilliant Insert Blanc Press Intern

Insert Blanc Press is currently searching for two brilliant interns. I've already found one brilliant intern, maybe you can be another brilliant intern. Please post and share this widely and be in touch insertpress@gmail.com

An internship at Insert Blanc will offer you a glimpse into the secret insides of small press art and literary publishing from a not non-profit perspective. As an Insert Blanc Intern you will be at the center of the day-to-day workings of a small press, assisting with editorial decisions, book design and production, copy-editing and proof-reading. You will gain the experience of ushering work from initial idea to fully realized, beautifully produced and finalized project. You will also have the opportunity to assist in event planning for readings, special events and press benefits. You will gain a holistic perspective of the arts and literary landscape in Los Angeles as well as nationally and further abroad while working on publicity & marketing to promote Insert Blanc Press' various books, art series and other projects. You will assist in developing print projects through press releases, tracking and logging reviews and you will work with and help to develop the press' media assets to create web content, web updates and newsletters while building out various social networking platforms. You will gain a broad understanding of the publishing world while submitting books and publications for awards and working to increase book sales through developing partnerships with art and literary bookstores worldwide and locally while reaching out to larger institutions to encourage them to support the press and become subscribing members.

 Please be in touch thru insertpress@gmail.com and in 3-5 short paragraphs explain why you would be a brilliant Intern for Insert Blanc Press. Interest in contemporary art and literature is a plus and so are excellent writing and communication skills. Knowledge of InDesign, Illustrator andor Photoshop and some familiarity with audio/video editing is a big plus. Those with adept abilities in the social media sphere are also sought after.

 This position requires the ability to meet face-to-face and so any brilliant intern must live in Los Angeles and be willing to meet in the Silver Lake andor Echo Park area on a periodic basis.