Kingdom of Alt (2010)

Cover image: Bronwyn Lloyd / Cover Design: Brett Cross (2010)

(September 23) Kingdom of Alt. Short Stories & a Novella by Jack Ross. ISBN 978-1-877441-15-8. Auckland: Titus Books, 2010. [iv] + 240 pp.

Marginalia


1. Trauma: Journal (21/7-5/8/05 & 14/4-21/5/98)
2. Haiku Diary (4/3-1/4/04; 29/8-12/9/05)
3. The Isle of the Cross (18/9-4/10/05)
4. The Purloined Letter (5-31/10/05)
5. Notes found inside a text of Bisclavret (16/11/04-16/9/05)
6. Finding His Stash (29/9-15/10/05)
7. antaŭ la katastrofo / Before the Disaster (30/11/07-14/2/08)


8. Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit (11/6/08-11/2/09)

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Titus Books


Marginalia

Outside of literati farm, this sort of thing has a very limited life expectancy

– Joe Wylie, Takahe 54 (2005): 63.

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Coursebook
found in a Warzone:

A Whodunit

Novellas … boy, as far as marketability goes, you in a heap o’ trouble. You look at your manuscript dismally, twist the cap off a beer, and in your head you seem to hear a heavily accented and rather greasy voice saying: “Buenos dias, señor! How was your flight on Revolución Airways? You like eet pretty-good fine I theenk, si? Welcome to Novella, señor! You going to like heet here pretty-good-fine, I theenk! Have a cheap cigar! Have some feelthy peectures! …”.

– Stephen King, Different Seasons (New York, 1982) [1]

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Jack Ross: Kingdom of Alt (2010)

Blurb:

Is writing about staying on the sidelines, or getting involved - marginal observation, or "skyline operations" (Auden)? [2] This book offers a series of takes on the possibility of a truly engaged literature. Not all the conclusions it comes to are entirely pessimistic.

"You'll all have your own story about how you first encountered the magic kingdom of Alt. As a teenager growing up in the depths of the Auckland suburbs, I believe that discovery saved my life."

- Roger Horrocks [3]

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Notes:

[1] Stephen King. Different Seasons. 1982 (London: Futura, 1984), 556.

[2] "... resisting the temptations / To skyline operations." W. H. Auden, "Missing". Collected Poems. Ed. Edward Mendelson. 1976. Rev. ed. (London: Faber, 1991), 30-31.

[3] Roger Horrocks, Launch speech for Monkey Miss Her Now (Auckland: George Fraser Gallery, 24 October 2004).

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