Artichoke Haircut Wins Best in Baltimore

Thanks, Baltimore City Paper, for awarding Artichoke Haircut Best Little Magazine. We are honored to get the award and to be to be included with such great company. Not to brag or nothing, but we also have some pretty awesome and (most importantly, far more important than their literary abilities) really sexy friends who also kicked some CP ass:

• Rupert Wondolowski (a beautiful "eccentric weirdo") via Normal's Books & Records. Rupert, aside from running hands down the best place to blow a bunch of money on things other than alcohol, is also one of this cities best poets. Published in AH Vol. 4.
• Adam Robinson, good friend and proprietor of Publishing Genius Press, won Best Publishing Company. Look out for Genius Haircut, a collaboration in the works for November, which will be found on Everyday Genius's site.
• Tracy Dimond, contributor (vol. 5) and sometimes reader at You're Allowed, won Best Chapbook for Sorry I Wrote So Many Sad Poems Today, published by Ink Press.
• Jen Michalski won Best Fiction for her novel, The Tide King. She was a featured reader in May 2012.
• Justin Sirois, who should have also won Best Texas Looking Guy Who Actually Has Never Lived in Texas, in fact won Best Fake App for the app which accompinies his new cereal/novel novel So Say the Waiters. He has read for us many times and his poetry was published in vol. 4.

Go Baltimore.

New Magazine Available (For Sale) Online

Artichoke Haircut Vol Four :: Fall 2012

This took a while. We know and we're sorry. But here it is. You can now, after many trials and tribulations, hellfire and gale-force winds, much yelling and tearing hair out because "what the hell, what mad bastard came up with HTML, I don't know that shit, who knows that shit, oh... hold on, did that work, that worked, why did that work, who gives a shit as long as it did, well that's stupid, I though I... I'm sure I tried that already, oh well" and anyway, now it works. And you can buy a copy of our latest magazine online.

Look to your left. That little grey rectangle with the tiny pics that look like magazine covers. That's our store. And you can get all of our available magazines there. It uses PayPal so its safe and works and I cannot begin to tell you how happy we are that it finally works.

Read all of your favorite, super-great writers in the shiny new volume of AH:

C.L. Bledsoe
Cliffton Price
Justin Sirois
Lily Herman
Rupert Wondolowski
Larry O. Dean
Brooke Carlton
Conner McNamara Stratton
Barrett Warner
Sid Gold
Kristi Carter
Joel Dailey
Ivan de Monbrinson
John J. Trause
Tonny Leuzzi
Elena Botts
Casey Lynn Roland
Richard Martin
Carabella Sands
Lindsay Daigle
Jeremy Dae Paden  

You're Allowed :: Nov. 1

Featuring the poetry of Chris Toll. Read by his friends.

John J. Trause :: Artichoke Haircut Vol. 4

Cezanne, "Still Life with Skull"

A poem by John J. Trause, a contributor in the current issue of the magazine (Vol. 4). If you want to read more, Vol. 4 will be on sale as soon as we unbreak our PayPal widget.

Kora in Palm Beach

She never really liked oranges,
but once while she was eating one
she accidentally swallowed six seeds.
She now spends half the year in Florida.

You're Allowed :: Oct. 4th

Michael Kimball reading from his new novel "Big Ray," followed by gypsy folk band Orchester Praceviza

You're Allowed :: Sept. 6th

Magazine Release Party

To celebrate the release of our fourth magazine we're doing something special... the same thing we always do: having ourselves a litty shindig.

As always, we are featuring some great talent from our brand new magazine:

Lily Herman
Barrett Warner
Carabella Sands
CL Bledsoe
Brooke Carlton
Justin Sirois
Sid Gold
Rupert Wondolowski

and more to be announced.

Doors open at 8:15pm, readings start at around 9.

You're Allowed :: May 3rd

Jen Michalski & Stephanie Barber

New Magazine Out Now :: Volume Three

It's a shame this new issue took such a long time to come out – our publishing schedule still leaves something to be desired, but we're working on it. But there is good news, Artichoke Haircut Vol. 3 is now available! And, if I must say so myself, which of course I must, it is well worth the wait.

You can pick up your copy at the online-store widget on the right, or, if you live in Baltimore, you can pick one up at Atomic Books and Normals Bookstore.

Featured in the current issue:

-Megan Boyle
-Chris Toll
-Dave K.
-Gerry LaFemina
-Kenneth Kruse
-Naomi Neal
-Lily Herman
-James Claffey
-Sean Wilson
-Elanor Leonne Bennett
-C.L. Bledsoe
-Alison Whittenberg
-Andrés Amitai Wilson
-Katie Long
-Lyn Lifshin
-Ernest Williamson III
-Amy Willoughby-Burle

You're Allowed :: Magazine Release Party

This event is always a huge release for us. It marks the time following our frantic interactions with printers, hour-long arguments and circular discussions about the merits of a single comma. Yet now all of this is over and done with. Now it is time for us to relax, drink a few beers and listen to some of our favorite writers say some words into a microphone. For this reading we will feature a few of the local Baltimore writers that can be found between the pages of our new Spring 2012 issue: Chris Toll, C.L. Bledsoe, Lily Herman, and more TBA.

But until the 2nd we'll continue to have nightmares about the magazine not showing up in time for it's release. And when everything actually does work out, as it normally does, we'll get drunk and celebrate. Hope to see you there.

Spring 2012 :: Sneak Peek

 
Here is a sneak peek at the cover of our upcoming issue. Stay tuned for info on the release party at Dionysus, and ways to get your hands on this beautiful book.

It will end on the day of thieves :: Submission deadline

It will end on the day of thieves, merchants and orators. A suitable sentiment for either end-time prophecies or submission deadlines. At Artichoke Haircut we do occasionally collude, conspire, share tea and fondle what some call fringe groups or crazies or cults, but we'll leave those discussions for another time. For now we'll just assume this sentiment means it's getting to be the "end-times" (wink) for submissions. It's the last week to submit in time for our Spring 2012 issue. The deadline is December 15th. This Thursday. Get 'em in.

Read guidelines here: Submit
Send things here: submit [at] artichokehaircut [dot] com

You're Allowed :: November 3rd

It feels like forever since we've done one of these, these, reading-things. Though it's only been a little over a month. But no matter, we've missed the hell out of you, my darlings (note the hint of Royal Tenenbaums).  So this month, in order to get back into the swing of things, we're coming back to Dionysus with a bang. We are proud to feature two great poets, Mike Young and Kendra Kopelke. And as always we'll cap the night off with an open mic.

See ya'll on the third floor.

-Mike Young is the author of Look! Look! Feathers (Word Riot Press 2010), a book of stories, and We Are All Good If They Try Hard Enough (Publishing Genius Press 2010), a book of poems. He co-edits NOÖ Journal and runs Magic Helicopter Press. He lives in Baltimore, MD.

You can read some of Mike's work here or here or here or here or here or here.

-Kendra Kopelke is a widely acclaimed poet and a fixture on the Baltimore literary scene. She directs the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and was named “Best Poet” by Baltimore Magazine in 2001. Kopelke’s poetry collections include: Eager Street; Carpe Diem, Ants (the link has nothing to do with the book, it just reminded me of the title); Bladderville; and Hopper’s Women. She is also included in the anthology, When Divas Dance. She is founding editor of Passager, a national literary journal.

DogDownDirty Halloween Party :: You're Allowed

DogDownDirty from Melissa Streat on Vimeo.

For the October reading we've decided to change things up a bit: we've dropped the pretense that anyone cares about words or literature* and for this month only we're just going to have a party, a gore-filled, rafter-swinging, dark, dirty, dance-crazy Halloween party. Why would we do this? Well, we decided to make the change from our normally scheduled reading series for two reasons: one, we just wanted to; and two, all the editors of Artichoke Haircut are themselves writers, and, as you probably know, there are a few things all writers love: one, masks (read persona), and two, carnivals, big debauchery filled carnivals, where every rule you've decided for whatever reason to follow is simply thrown out of consideration for really no reason at all. The whole of the world is one huge masquerade, and what other holiday in all of Christendom allows one the opportunity to have all these at the same time: Halloween (yeah, I know, I thought of Mardi Gras too, but this is Baltimore not New Orleans). So Halloween it is.

A Film, a Contest, and Lots of Submissions

Artichoke Haircut Presents "You're Allowed" from Melissa Streat on Vimeo.

For Artichoke Haircut, the coming months are going to be filled with readings, benefits, conferences, the opening of submissions for our winter magazine (see more on this below), etc. etc. But for now, let's just take a second to bask in video's warm glowing warming glow.

Preview of Artichoke Haircut Vol. Two

Open publication - Free publishing - More fiction

Here is a quick preview of some of the work you'll find in our newest issue. If you like it you can buy a copy at our online store to your right. Enjoy.

Artichoke Haircut Volume Two is now available!

The response we have gotten for our latest issue of Artichoke Haircut has been incredible. Our magazine release party last night at Dionysus could not have been more of a success. Harwood could not have sounded better. The submissions we included in this issue could not have been more enlightening, more funny, more moving, more well written, etc., etc. And, I guess it goes without saying, our egos are now swelling.

In all seriousness, we really are humbled by the response. We could not have asked for a better group of writers and readers who constantly surprise us with the quality of their work, and with their support. Keep sending in your work, and keep coming to our readings, and we'll keep trying to put out the best magazine we know how to.  

You can get the latest copy of the magazine at our online store to the right of this post. Also we will be stocking area independent bookstores in the coming weeks.

For pictures of Artichoke Haircut Vol. Two release party click here.

Words & Whisky :: You're Allowed

For the second installment of our monthly reading series we have quite a treat for you. Artichoke Haircut is releasing the second volume of their odd little magazine, and to celebrate there will be drinking, readings from the contributors, an open mic (as always), and a live set from Harwood. The magazine is fresh off the press and we're excited to open the box to the world. Though saying it like that reminds me of Pandora's box––maybe I should delete that last sentence. Nah. We promise, there are no plagues or diseases in this box, just a bunch of shiny, happy books.  

Same time and place as always (see the flyer for details). Come on down.

Pretty Absurd, Absurd Pretty Pictures

Hayagriva has fallen to musing.

We don't have a lot of money. But what we do have is a murder of talented friends (just incase that doesn't make sense: "murder" is a term used to describe a flock of crows – e.g. a murder of crows – but I like it here: a group of artist, or cantors squawking for a purpose comprehensible only by themselves; and if they're doing it right, waking people up in the early morning with their bull shit and bombast). Anyway, some very talented friends of ours are making a short-short Artichoke Haircut film, which should be up on our website in the coming weeks. This is just a taste. A few stills from the set. Click here to see a few more.

Photos by Melissa Streat

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." Dr. Samuel Johnson

Editors' Shorts :: Vol. 1.5

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

So we received about 230 submissions (over 500 individual pieces) for issue number two.  We’re happy to have had the chance to read/discuss/analyze the hell out of some great pieces.  We’re even happier to be getting some new blood into this issue.  We will be publishing writers from faraway places.  We will be publishing photography.  Most importantly, though, we won’t be publishing ourselves.  It’s great to finally have so much to work with.

We are, however, still arrogant and self-centered, so we the editors compiled some of our recent work in an online issue, which we hope you will download.  It’s free, and we put a lot of work into it. 

For anyone still wondering what our magazine is all about, take a look.  Maybe you can derive some sense of what our criteria might be.  If you figure it out, maybe you could give us a heads up.
 
Thanks for reading, and keep watching for new stuff.

(To download click here and go to the far right box with the down arrow, otherwise you can just read it online.)

CityLit Festival :: April 16, 2011

Photo by Melissa Streat

Time is such a pain in the ass. There’s writing to be done, edits to be obsessed over, submissions to read, blogs to blather into, page layouts to suck the minutes out of the day – all to be done in seclusion, all to be done in the riptide of imagination, mine or someone else's. I’m not complaining. We, I, publish a magazine and write not because it’ll make us famous or get us laid, but because we love it, because... what else are we going to do. Actually, with every step deeper into the swamp that is the literary world, anyone can see the opportunities for celebrity slip further into absurdity. But we didn’t want to be famous anyway. Right? Fuck you world. I'll do what I do, and you can pay attention or not.

This, of course, is it’s own delusion. It’s own narcissism. One born of long hours in front of a screen insisting to your computer that your words are all that matter.