About me: I am the author of "Everyday" [Social Disease Publishing, 2007]. I am also the founder and editor of scarecrow - an online lit-zine (Matthew Coleman is my inimitable co-editor) - and I am co-editor (fiction) at 3AM Magazine. I also review books for RSB. I often write for The Guardian, The Observer, Dazed and Confused magazine and my fiction has appeared in 3AM Magazine, Laurahird.com, Zygote in my Coffee, BLATT, The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, Word Riot, Lamport Court, Blank Page, and numerous online zines and literary pamphlets.
"Many of the books we see these days perched perfectly in high street seasonal window displays are written by static, worn-out, curmudgeonly blatherskites, pitiful zombies who write by numbers. It's not their fault, they're writing for the tastes forced upon us. But they do not walk amongst us; they do not walk our streets. They sit, motionless, staring at blank walls, waiting for instruction. They write their books, these books are posted to publishers and agents in plain brown padded envelopes to be opened in modern, minimalist foyers, to be published in nice, clean pastel shades, to be displayed in identikit formulae - barbed fishhooks to catch the drab passer-by's eye. These manuscripts have never touched our streets. They've been created for another purpose - and it isn't ours. We do not belong. We are elsewhere."[Lee Rourke, Scarecrow Editorial 8].
"EVERYDAY is a guide book of sorts: a dark, twisted, hysterical and macabre map of the twilight city which lurks underneath our nation's capital. This magnificent collection is living proof that the short story is alive and well and living in London". [Tony O'Neill, author of Digging The Vein, Seizure Wet Dreams, and Songs From the Shooting Gallery].
"Sick, depraved and utterly mad, with no redeeming features whatsoever. I
loved it". [Stewart Home].
"Both contemporary and nostalgic, EVERYDAY peers beneath the surface of life in the capital and around it, documenting every moment that passes and unflinching in despair at what it finds. This is a celebration of the banal, avoiding the pretension of the modern novel". [A. Stevens, Editor, 3AM Magazine].
"EVERYDAY is an essential read for misanthropes, alcoholics and slubberdegullians." Dazed and Confused.
"Everyday marks an exciting debut. Glibly humorous and with a big, blackened heart, Rourke is a leading light of 'The Off-Beat Generation' . . . Here he delivers a stunning collection charting the tormented lives of everyday misanthropes." ShortList Magazine.
"So this is what EVERYDAY is, then. Not Dubliners but Londoners; a Dostoevskyan tale of Poor Folk; a proletarian classic inflected with a modern(ist) sense of absurdity in all its comic and tragic reverberations. A book of outsiders, from outside hegemonic culture; tales from the margins; a drama of superfluous men and women. Sometimes they have literally been made redundant, which is what they have always been anyway." Ellis Sharp [Author of Walthamstow Central, The Dump, Aria Fritta].
"Rourke portrays a London strung between mysterious history and bland modernity . . . He peoples his brief fictions with happy-slapping teenagers, office juniors miserable to the point of hallucination, murderous amateur psychogeographers and even, in his most visceral illustration of capitalism’s sharp-end, a putrefying corpse performing as a lapdancer. These misfits, cynics and disappointed dreamers don’t show the reader much of a good time, and yet somehow you feel enlivened for having crossed their path." Chris Power, BBC Online.
"Everyday is Lee Rourke’s first collection of short stories for tipped publisher Social Disease and is a work deserving of any reader’s attention. A disparate set united by boredom, ennui and a London backdrop, leading light of the self-styled Off-Beat Generation Rourke stakes his claim as heir apparent to greats such as Ballard, Joyce or Houellebecq. In these dark-hearted insights explored with supreme finesse, he succeeds in writing arguably the first believable London book of the decade." Ben Myers, The Guardian [author of 'The Book of Fuck' and 'The Missing Kidney']
"Rourke’s stories are dense with authentic London detail – only someone who regularly takes the 38 bus can understand why it might be appropriate to set a story on it – and manage to be at once bleak and jaunty." John O'Connell [Time Out].
"The people in his stories float in and out of each other's lives, via a chain of bad dates and brief sexual liaisons, wine-misted meetings in bars. Events frequently turn violent, even – on one occasion – murderous. People snap, they break up, they break down, they break out, or at least, they try to. London has a strong hold, its grip is tight. A common theme is the chucking in of a dead end job, of people reaching their snapping point, hitting their limits and walking away. It's a familiar urban impulse, to just stop. Or, alternatively, to keep going – and going – to break free of the grind, to ride the tube to the end of line, to hop off the bus at a stop that's not yours [...] Rourke's writing is brisk, fresh and supremely readable." Natasha Tripney, RSB.
"That sense of Chekhovian boredom (where a conversation "is becoming a bore;" dinner "rouses in me nothing but boredom and irritation;" "you could die of boredom;" "sheer boredom;" "his life is dull, nothing interests him;" "life is a snare and a delusion;"), the "continuous shifting and shuffling" through everyday life, and an indifference ("philosophers and sages are said to be indifferent. It isn't true. Indifference is paralysis of the soul, premature death") permeates these fragments of Rourke's. Admittedly it is hardly original, yet this writer, by looking at the pavement and writing from the point-of-view of the pigeons, has crafted miniature masterpieces, made all the more captivating for his enduring fascination with repetition." Susan Tomaselli [Dogmatika]
"Zeitgeist is such a post-modern word, but it seems appropriate as we are resting on the cusp of literary change. Little points such as Kundera’s essay on literary evolution, Martin Amis’ appointment as professor of creative writing at Manchester and Zadie Smith’s long literary manifesto in the Guardian suggest a lapse into introspection of the current literary establishment. They are examining everything they stand for and the ideas that have formed their writing. It’s the kind of self-conscious analysis that has always foreshadowed death. The recent attention given to the Brutalists and the Off-beat generation reveal that we are ready for something new. Something fresh and honest." [Wesley Weyers, 3AM Magazine].
If you haven't yet had the intense literary pleasure of immersing yourself in a Sue Miller novel, please meet: Sue Miller, our feature author.
Also in this issue: our feature poet, Harry Owen, Poet Laureate of Cheshire, England.
Wander through four pages of poetry by many fine poets from various points across the globe... then lose yourself in a collection of stories, essays, and a memoir that will haunt you for days. Continue your tour of Greece, part two, then don't forget to read the book reviews. Gracing these pages with watercolor and oil paintings, etchings and charcoal sketches is the artwork of Viestarts Aistars.
Very good article in the Guardian about books on boredom. Hunger by Knut Hamsun is one of my favourite books. Canongate have a lovely edition out with an enlightening introduction by Paul Auster. Sweet. Keep up the excellent work, squire.
THE SMOKING POET: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – SPRING 2008
A fine cigar and good literature: two of life's finer pleasures.
THE SMOKING POET publishes flash fiction; fiction; nonfiction; poetry; feature author with novel excerpt; feature poet; book and cigar reviews. We publish work that ignites our imagination, inflames our passion, leaves us with a smoky aftertaste. The Smoking Poet also shares an extensive list of links and resources for writers and the cigar aficionado.
Submissions open year round. Send with editor’s attention in subject line: poetry, cigar reviews and stories to Zinta Aistars; fiction/non-fiction to Russell Rowland. For book reviews, please query first.
For full submission guidelines and contact information, visit: The Smoking Poet
Spring 2008 Issue Deadline: February 28, 2008
The Smoking Poet First Annual Short Story Contest Deadline: May 31, 2008
The Smoking Poet also seeks cigar reviews of between 100 and 300 words. Let our readers know what your favorite smoke might be — maybe it's a Nat Sherman Explorer, a Punch Rare Corojo, or a Romeo Y Julieta Reserva Real, or whatever you'd care to share with us. Tell us what you like and why, and maybe even when you like it. Maybe there's a cigar lounge, where everybody knows your name, at which you stop nightly to unwind on your way home from work. If so, tell us about it.
hi y'all..
got two last redbricks nights in november before the winter kicks in for real so try one of these out for one last look above ground before the hibernation begins...
our weekly monday run at the cedar room continues tonight with another impressive FREE line up that runs,
10.00 my summer as a a salvation soldier
9.15 dan clews
8.30 mary hepworth
lee gorton and friends will be playing records with the usual fine blend of fucked up folk and mellow psychedelia.
on thursday november 29th we've got our flagship 'down at the redbricks' night which has now established itself on the english maid, a boat on the thames, pretty much opposite the houses of parliament.
the venue's amazing and these gigs always feature our toughest redbricks line ups and this one's no different..
the moon music orchestra
the burning leaves
adam beattie
colorama
it's a fiver on the door, which is still a snip, but if you send us an email to theredbricks@hotmail.co.uk we'll put you and your friends on the £3.00 guest list.
hopefully see y'all soon..
x
Ta for the add, looking forward to your collection of short stories-is there a release date yet? I enjoy your guardian blogs immensely, especially the recent one on the old miser JG.
Hey Lee. Looking fwd to having a drink again soon with ya.
Meanwhile, for those of your friends who haven't heard of this momentous project... -- If you or your kid brother's band would like to feature in the first PBHP online compilation, now's the time to submit. But what the f**ck is PBHP? Well, have a look here.
Hi Lee, thanks for befriending Hecale. Hope you like the site. Words directory always open to submissions of poetry/short fiction (inc previously published) to showcase writers.
Impressed by Scarecrow - hell of a lot of good material to delve into. Made a banner for it in the ezine listings on Hecale.
THE SMOKING POET: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS - FALL 2007
A fine cigar and good literature: two of life's finer pleasures.
THE SMOKING POET publishes flash fiction; fiction; nonfiction; poetry; feature author with novel excerpt; feature poet; book and cigar reviews. We publish work that ignites our imagination, inflames our passion, leaves us with a smoky aftertaste. The Smoking Poet also shares an extensive list of links and resources for writers and the cigar aficionado.
Submissions open year round. For book reviews, please query first.
For full submission guidelines and contact information, visit: The Smoking Poet
hey y'all.. redbricks in the sticks has been moved back a week so it's on this afternoon, sunday 17th, if anyone's up for it.. it's all free! anyone who's played with us before is welcome to bring their guitar and do a few tunes..
also, down at the redbricks kicks off it's new mothly run this tuesday 19th at proud galleries in camden.. just give us a shout if you wanna get on the cheap list.. cheers, lee. x
Great magazine. Look forward to reading more in the future...
Here's a new strapline for your tag: There is No-0ne That Will Take Care of You. Its a Palace Brothers album though it sounds like a Bukoswki poem I know!
also, down at the redbricks kicks off it's new mothly run this tuesday 19th at proud galleries in camden.. just give us a shout if you wanna get on the cheap list.. cheers, lee. x
