haute-cover-fcsfrom Patrick Trotti at JMWW, regarding Tarpaulin Sky Press’s three 2013 prose titles: my own Haute Surveillance, Claire Donato’s Burial, and Joyelle McSweeney’s Salamandrine: 8 Gothics; all of which, writes Trotti, “continue the press’ solid run of publishing innovative and hybrid form titles.”

claire-donato-burial-coverThey all eschew plot for style, linear narrative for experimentation and the end result, for all three much like the majority of the press’ catalogue, is something original in both content and technique…. In all three, there are elements not only of prose, poetry, essay, and hybrid forms, but theatre, movie, and television sneak their way onto the page. There’s a three-dimensional quality to these books that gives them a pulse, beating just below the surface, somewhere deep in the gut…. Avant-garde writers of the past are put through a blender topped with equal parts muscle relaxer, speed, acid, and a new, distinct style forcing the reader to down the contents in one giant gulp. salamandrine-fcsIt will leave you feeling as though they just went speeding through a backyard makeshift house of mirrors ride that was rigged with no brakes, bending through the maze of tight corners to the point where you can the feel the sharp shards of glass on your forearm if you don’t keep your hand inside the ride that is their minds.

Read the rest.