Archived entries for HAL news
News: Unshod Quills releases Issue Two 9/15/11
Superman Down - Photography - Jillian Brall of Unshod Quills
We at HAL are happy and proud to inform you that our sexy sister site in Portland has released the second edition of Unshod Quills, containing art, fiction, videos, and more; all the finest in hip literature in pandemic format. A good amount of HAL authors are including in this issue (you remember the China-US cross-writing exercise we did at Groupthink? You see people, there’s a plan with everything we do, promise!), look out for Jason Lasky, Lucinda Holmes, Ginger wRong Chen and Catherine Platt, just to mention a few. Oh, and your favorite HAL editor debuts as a photo artist. In all modesty as always, needless to say. Big congratulations to Dena and UQ, HAL loves ‘ya!
Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL? HAL: Affirmative
Note: This is a true story. Some names have not been changed to protect the innocent.
Deep in the wilds of Western Oregon, HAL contributor and foreign correspondent Dena Rash Guzman was in the midst of a coffee fueled all night editing bender, with only the damp chilly summer air and some howling coyotes in the river gorge for company, when a text message from an unrecognized number appeared on her phone.
What’s the name of your publisher?
And do you have an email for them?
Though somewhat startled, Dena was not ever in the mood to miss out on a submission for HAL. She responded to the text.
You are likely thinking of HAL Publishing.
My email is dena@haliterature.com
They are in Shanghai but I am
Managing Director North America so
I can direct your query. Who is this?
A few moments later came this response.
You’ll be receiving a message soon.
United Verses
One day a group of really talented and really attractive poets got together and said, “You know what nobody is doing? Nobody is getting English and Chinese poets together and melding them into one massive poetry machine.” A joyous “Yop!” went up around the table and these wonderfully talented poets knew that they had something special. So it was that Richard Watkins, Laura McCrae, Andrea Fassolas and our very own talented Tom “the man” Mangione created United Verses. A show to end all shows. A Show that would bring local and ex-pat poets together in the spirit of brotha/sistahood. Using the ancient art of “Translation,” lovers of poetry who ain’t be knowin’ how to speak or read no not other language but their own, can now enjoy Chinese poems in English or the other way around!
Come on out to Anar on Saturday, July, 23rd (address on the beautiful poster above!) and get ready to enjoy the poetic stylings of some of Shanghai’s best and brightest poets working in tandem to bring you some sick, kick-ass poetry!
Restock!
Dear Party People,
In case you didn’t know we are restocking Garden Books with HAL Publishing’s Party Like It’s 1984: short stories from the people’s republic of. Now would be a great time to get on over there and pick up a copy before the big event this Saturday. For more details check out our EVENTS page.
SLAM Theatre Tonight at the Ke Center
HAL and SRT open the curtain tonight for Shanghai’s first ever SLAM Theatre performance. Four teams have been locked up inside the Ke Center since last night eight o’clock, and will emerge this evening before your eyes, live on stage with four completed original one-act plays. Read more about it here and here.
Address is 613-B Kaixuan Lu (near Yan’an Xi Lu),凯旋路613号,近延安西路, down the road from Yuyintang. Doors open at 7PM tonight (Sunday). Be there! Below pictures from last night and this morning, just to give you an idea.
Dena Launches Unshodquills.com into Your Veins
HAL is exceptionally proud to present to you the latest brainchild of our NA director, Ms Dena Rash Guzman: unshodquills.com
Introduction of this new project below, in editor-in-chief Dena’s own words. HAL takes hat and pants off, and applauds.
Unshod Quills: a Pandemic Journal of the Arts and Letters is the newest project from HAL’s trusty foreign correspondent, Dena. Unapologetic in her admission that she was inspired in large part by her experiences working with HAL, Dena presents an online arts and literature journal with every plan of bringing it from the computer screen to print within a year. Ambitious? Yes. Dena also plans to bring Unshod Quills to the people, with plans for live event featuring poets from UQ.
Each issue of Unshod Quills will feature authors writing on topics assigned by the editor. This issue’s topics include lipstick, beasts, When We Two Parted, sonnets, and transportation. The next reading period for Unshod Quills begins on June 15 – see the website for more details, or email the editor at dena@haliterature.com to be included on the mailing list.
Dena Rash Guzman: poet, visual artist and HAL Director of North America, and recently editor of UQ out of rural Portland, Oregon, formerly of Las Vegas, honorarily of Shanghai, China. The Unshod Quills Writers Collective, including UQ’s first featured writer, Ms. Wendy Ellis of Pennylvania’s Amish Country and UQ’s first featured artist, Ms. Eva Steil of Las Vegas, Nevada. Plenty of writers from the Hai, including Renee Reynolds, Josh Stenberg (the great tiger tamer from 1984), Susie Gordon and Bjorn Wahlstrom.
The mission of Unshod Quills is to give voice to emerging writers from around the world, and to show the work of established writers and artists as well. Unshod Quills wants to shake up what is expected from the standard American lit journal by providing a forum for artists and writers of all disciplines. There is no one’s work UQ does not want to see. The editor hopes for continued collaboration with HAL and the entire population of the planet. Unshod Quills hopes to be very contagious. Everyone will get it.
H.A.L. Vicious Flash Fiction Charms Southern Belle
Sipping proper bourbon, H.A.L. courted the crowd at Southern Belle with some good ‘ole down home vicious flash fiction. Eight great writers rose again to face off in 1,000 words or less. SLAMHAI Round II victor / H.A.L. librarian Susie Gordon kept those saucy writers in check (we already did Shanghai Erotic Fiction Night, after all), but you can’t keep a naughty writer down as newcomer Lindsay Redifer proved with her kinky stories that won her the night.
Join H.A.L. again with Shanghai weapon of freestyle destruction Icenine as we present a night of lyrical freestyle frenzy in the third and final installment of Shanghai BARd Fight: the Rap Battle. Thursday, March 31. 8pm, Lune.
More photos after the jump…
H.A.L. Slams more than Tequila at Crocus
The crowd packed tight into Crocus, tables and chairs spread out in the bar around a small red stage. The usual murmur of the crowd, the clinking of glasses broke suddenly with the bellowing of MC W.M. Butler reigning in the night. Five H.A.L. poets and five brave souls plucked from the audience took the stage to face off in poetic combat. From the start of the night, all pieces were composed on the spot, from round one all the way to the final lighting round where the final three poets had three minutes to complete their poems. The final went to HAL newcomer Dan Plunkett, who rolled on stage with the calm of a monk and dropped his rhymes like fists from a Kung Fu master.
Join HAL again this Thursday at Southern Belle for Vicious Flash Fiction, with SLAMHAI, Round II winner Ms. Susie Gordon overseeing the mayhem as eight Shanghai based writers face off with short stories of less than 1,000 words.
More pictures after the jump….
