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
- Trauma: Journal (21/7-5/8/05 & 14/4-21/5/98)
- Haiku Diary (4/3-1/4/04; 29/8-12/9/05)
- The Isle of the Cross (18/9-4/10/05)
- The Purloined Letter (5-31/10/05)
- Notes found inside a text of Bisclavret (16/11/04-16/9/05)
- Finding His Stash (29/9-15/10/05)
- antaŭ la katastrofo / Before the Disaster (30/11/07-14/2/08)
- Coursebook found in a Warzone: A Whodunit (11/6/08-11/2/09)
Outside of literati farm, this sort of thing has a very limited life expectancy– Joe Wylie, Takahe 54 (2005): 63.
•
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]
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]
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).
•
