summer 2018 catalog Contents Junk .......................................................................2 Who Is Vera Kelly?...........................................................4 The Seas...................................................................6 Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing....................................8 Tin House Magazine.........................................................12 Contact.and.Distribution.Information..........................................14 POETRY Building.on.IRL.and.Nature Poem,. Tommy.Pico’s.Junk.is.a.book-length. Junk break-up.poem.that.explores.the. poems by TOMMY PICO experience.of.loss.and.erasure,.both. personal.and.cultural.. he third book in Tommy Pico’s Teebs T trilogy, Junk is a breakup poem in couplets: ice floe and hot lava, a tribute to Janet Jackson and nacho cheese. In the static that follows the loss of a job or an apartment or a boyfriend, what can you grab on to for orientation? The narrator wonders what happens to the sense of self when the illusion of security has been stripped away. And for an indigenous person, how do these lost markers of identity echo larger cultural losses and erasures in a changing political landscape? In part taking its cue from A.R. Ammons’s Garbage, Teebs names this liminal space “Junk,” in the sense that a junk shop is full of old things waiting for their next use; different items that collectively become indistinct. But can there be a comfort outside the anxiety of utility? An appreciation of “being” for the sake of being? And will there be Chili Cheese Fritos? MAY $15.95.·.Trade.Paper.·.6”.x.9” ISBN:.978-1-941040-97-3 ·.eBook:.978-1-941040-98-0 TOMMY “TEEBS” PICO Rights:.World is the author of Nature Poem, IRL (Birds LLC, 2016), and the zine series PROMOTION & PUBLICITY Hey, Teebs. He was a Queer/Art/Mentors inau- •. National.interview.campaign gural fellow, 2013 Lambda •. Extensive.ARC.distribution.to.chains.and. Literary fellow in poetry, indies and his poems have appeared in BOMB, Guernica, Tin House, and the Offing. Originally from the Viejas •. Giveaways.on.author’s.popular.social. Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now media.pages lives in Brooklyn and co-curates the reading series •. Advertising.in.Tin House.Magazine.and. Poets With Attitude (PWA) with Morgan Parker. other.literary.journals •. High-profile.NY.launch.and.select.author. appearances.nationwide 2 PRAISE FOR NATURE POEM “A thrilling punk rock epic that is a tour of all we “Pico centers his second book-length poem on the know and can’t admit to. Pico is a poet of canny trap of conforming to identity stereotypes as he instincts, his lyric is somehow so casual and so so ponders his reluctance to write about nature as a serious at the same time. He is determined to blow Native American . In making the subliminal overt, your mind apart, and . you should let him.” Pico reclaims power by calling out microaggres- sions and drawing attention to himself in the face —ALEXANDER CHEE of oppression.” “Mix of hey that’s poetry (uncanny resistance) with —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred Review hey that’s a text and smashing goals & fulfilling them along the way & saying my parents fulfilled them. Do- “Humor lays the groundwork for a hard truth and, ing it differently being alive & an artist. I love this for poet Tommy Pico, that hard truth is about living work. Unpredictable & sweet & strong to continue.” as an indigenous person in occupied America. Pi- co’s poetry builds a contemporary Native American —EILEEN MYLES persona, one that occupies multiple spaces simulta- “The self-conscious labor of these poems explores neously: New York City, the internet, pop music, and a culture of asides, stutters, stammers, and media Grindr. It’s an identity that’s determined to be heard glitches. It’s no wonder Tommy Pico manages to by the culture at large.” name and claim identity while also reminding us of —THE ORGANIST/KCRW his (and our!) limitlessness. Nature Poem is a book about our true nature.” “Instead of following the conventions of the pastoral tradition, in which nature is revered, Pico adopts a —JERICHO BROWN tragicomic view. On the one hand, the land of his “A poet who will not hesitate calling out winter as native people can be described with great rever- a death threat from nature, Tommy Pico hears the ence, desert nights that ‘chill and sparkle and swoon wild frequencies in the mountains and rivers of cit- with metal/ lighting up the dark universe.’ On the ies. The marriage of extraordinary sharp writing other, that same landscape carries and extends lega- with the most astute commentary on almost every cies of racism and genocide that Pico is determined possible thing a human will feel, think, do, dance like, not to forget.” or smell like.Then, suddenly, he asks, “What if I re- —THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE ally do feel connected to the land?” I read this book in one sitting. Then I read it in one sitting again the “Pico has pulled me out of a poetry slump. His po- next day. The staying power of this poem I will bla- ems make me want to live with more poetry, to tantly say is without doubt!” read, write and revel in poetry as a form that does not have to be a container.” —CACONRAD —BROOKLYN MAGAZINE “[Nature Poem] finds Pico incorporating or indirectly referencing his surroundings in freewheeling, inti- “Few people capture New York, queerness, and the mate verse, while turning a humorous lens on life artful use of hashtags in a poem quite like Tommy as a queer man.” Pico.” —OUT MAGAZINE —NYLON 3 “Who Is Vera Kelly? is the twisty, literary, woman-driven spy novel you’ve always wanted to read. Vera Kelly hopscotches from Brooklyn to Buenos Aires, fueled by gin and cigarettes, on the run from her past and equipped with a case of listening devices. But this is no ordinary adventure novel: Rosalie Knecht is a sensitive and gifted writer with a lyrical voice that imbues this dazzling novel with unexpected emotional depth.” —AMY STEWART, New York Times bestselling author of Girl Waits With Gun Dear Bookseller, This book came out of a family story. My maternal grandfather, Charles Jennings, worked for the CIA after WWII, analyzing Soviet radio broadcasts. He was fired during the McCarthy era because of connections to leftists that he may or may not have had in his youth. In 1961, he fell from the roof of the family home in Chevy Chase, Maryland while cleaning the gutters. He died a few days later. If there’s anything more mysterious than a grandparent who never reached old age, it’s one who was in the CIA and had a disputed political history. My mother barely remembers him. He was from Montana; he liked to take my grandmother to the theater; he may have had a drinking problem. My grandmother lived into her 90s and loved to talk, but never said much about him. This novel came from my grandfather’s exile from the CIA and his eventual accidental death, but they’re not in it. If you read this book, and I hope you do, you’ll find that nobody’s father works for the CIA and nobody falls off a roof (well, some inmates of a juvenile detention facility jump from a roof, but they all survive). That often happens to me, that I start writing from an image or event that I eventually hide, efface, or remove. Maybe fiction is all the things we say to keep from repeating the same old true story, which is a little too sad, even though it happened a long time ago. Vera is a young woman who grew up in the wake of a loss, and who is adept at running, evading, and hiding. She’s also a CIA spy. I hope you enjoy her story. XO FICTION An.exhilarating.page.turner.and. perceptive.coming-of-age.story,.Who Is Vera Kelly?.introduces.an.original,. Who Is wry,.and.whip-smart.female.spy.for.the. twenty-first.century. Vera Kelly? a novel by ROSALIE KNECHT ew York City, 1962. Vera Kelly is N struggling to make rent and blend into the underground gay scene in Greenwich Village. She’s working night shifts at a radio station when her quick wits, sharp tongue, and technical skills get her noticed by a recruiter for the CIA. Next thing she knows she’s in Argentina, tasked with wiretapping a congressman and infiltrating a group of student activists in Buenos Aires. As Vera becomes more and more enmeshed with the young radicals, the fragile local government begins to split at the seams. When a betrayal leaves her stranded in the wake of a coup, Vera learns the Cold War makes for strange and unexpected bedfellows, and she’s forced to take extreme measures to save herself. JUNE 1 1 $15.95.·.Trade.Paper.·.5 /2”.x.8 /2” ROSALIE KNECHT is a ISBN:.978-1-947793-01-9 ·.eBook:.978-1-947793-02-6 social worker in New York Rights:.North.American City and was born and raised in Pennsylvania. She is the translator PROMOTION & PUBLICITY of Cesar Aira’s The Seamstress and the Wind •. Deluxe.ARC.packages.for.booksellers and has been a Center •. Featured.author.at.Winter.Institute for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow and a Fulbright •. In-person.meetings.with.New.York.media English Teaching Assistant in Argentina. Her debut novel, Relief Map, was published by Tin House •. Book.club.marketing.campaign Books in 2016. •. Extensive.galley.giveaways.via.Goodreads. and.Tin.House.Galley.Club 5 FICTION “An.aqueous.affair,.flooded.with.. water.themes.......Hunt’s.writing.is.. The Seas free.of.affectation.and.carries. a novel by SAMANTHA HUNT surprising.conviction.”.