Study of a Shanghai Street Sweeper in the Rain on the Way to Morning Coffee - Shanghai, China, 12/11 - Dena Rash Guzman - on the theme of Coffee
Dear Readers,
DAVID BOWIE DAVID BOWIE DAVID BOWIE!
Unshod Quills is a theme based publication, centered around themes chosen by the editor or other participants in the Unshod Quills Writing Collective. DAVID BOWIE! One of my dream themes, and this issue is very much about him. With just the beerlight to guide us, we also feature works based on the themes of love, coffee, Joan of Arc, dancing about architecture, and enough rope.
Speaking of coffee, David Bowie and enough rope, this is how I spent my pre-Christmas unvacation:
My publisher, HAL Publishing, flew me to its hometown of Shanghai earlier this month. I was there to stage, for an audience of over 300, a group performance of my smutty little short story, “A Brief History of Dan Orange of Shanghai.” This was a multimedia presentation featuring myself and a truly international cast of artists including Estel Vilar, UQ Contributor Ginger wRong Chen, UQ contributor Katrina Hamlin, the enigmatic Barbara A., and Mr. Brian Keane. Video backdrop was provided by Colorado’s own Jerimiah Whitlock. The occasion? The River South Arts Festival, a four day celebration of independent Shanghai art and literature, featuring Slamhai3 and the release of HAL’s second collection of short stories,
Middle Kingdom Underground: short stories from the people’s republic of
The US edition should be ready for sale around February 15 and I’ll have two stories in the book, one co-written with HAL founder and regular UQ contributor, Mr. Bjorn Wahlstrom. The book’s theme of vice in modern China is heavy and dark, and the stories by fifteen authors, both local and non-native to China, are accordingly complex and delightful.
In the meanwhile, a click to the title above will take you to the stunning and beautiful and bizarre Middle Kingdom Underground book trailer, produced and directed by September Unshod Quills contributor, Portlander Posie Currin. In addition, the HAL book release was filmed and will soon be broadcast internationally on the new fine arts internet TV network Bravoflix.
Where do coffee, David Bowie and enough rope come into the above recap? Let me write you a prose poem, that will make no sense, in order to explain myself.
Coffee – I drank a lot while I was in China. Not so much tea. Coffee. I learned that I make a terrible pot of French press. David Bowie – that’s Bjorn, but minus any glitter and plus a freighter of stardust. Bjorn wears all black all the time, unless it’s raining, and then he wears white leather tennis shoes. Enough rope – after nearly setting his neighbor’s kitchen on fire with my suitcase, I learned that Bjorn keeps enough rope on hand to escape out a window just in case of some such event as a clumsy American starting fires with suitcase and a hotplate in a stairwell. There are no fire escapes in those old buildings. Rope is good. He’s four stories up and to get in or out one must pass through two neighbor’s kitchens and twisty flights of narrow, steep stairs. It’s a gorgeous place, though, and Bjorn has a cat that is in the process of self-actualization. Perhaps soon big fat Blackie cat will get his own rope.
I’m grateful to HAL for having me as a guest performer at their book release party, and for all the support they’ve shown to Unshod Quills over the past year.
Meanwhile, back in America, managing Editor Wendy Ellis and I struggled to confine our selections of art and literature for December to a reasonable number. That is why we chose not one, but two featured poets for this issue.
Having worked with James H. Duncan a number of times over the past four years, I am already acquainted with his eloquent ornate minimalist style, and have long been a fan. James was an easy choice to feature, and we hope you enjoy his work as we do.
Our second feature is an amazing writer who sent a suite of submissions on the theme of childhood alone, and our skirts were blown nearly clean off by the gale force of their brilliance. Be sure to look at the poetry of Catherine Woodard.
Both of our featured poets are based in New York City. We get it, New York: we want to be a part of it, too.
December’s featured artist is from another part of the universe: Greece. Sugahtank John Roubanis is a talented graphic design artist and illustrator; his King Kong poster take this month’s front page. We love his work, from the scratchy, ropy sketches of near-human figures to the sublime political graphics to his logo work. Sugahtank’s vision told us it needed a good sharing with the Unshod Quills readership. It actually spoke to us.
We are also happy to see the return of Kevin Sampsell. His Bowie piece is hilarious and I for one will never be able to look at him the same way, fiction or not. Rusty Barnes is in this issue with some uniquely elegant and rough country flavored fiction, while Timothy Gager tells you you’re gonna need a bigger sandwich. Order up. Also look for the work of Portlander Jenny Forrester and the best middle school Bowie obsession fiction we’ve ever read – Jenny Hayes is in the house. HAL Publishing’s W.M. Butler shares a treacherous story about bullies and rabbits and the beauty and brutality of childhood, and it’s an editorial favorite. We have the work of Frank Reardon, Matty Byloos and Nancy Flynn… Ryan Werner kills it with his minute by minute rundown of Bowie and Jagger’s video for “Dancing in the Street.” I love Bowie, yes, but everyone makes mistakes. Look for UQ’s own X. Joloronde and Robert Myer on Joan of Arc, too.
I could go on but just look to the right and click away. Thanks for visiting, and we’ll be releasing our next call for submissions on New Year’s Day – I’ll let you know now that one of our themes will be David Lynch.
Spread these writers around like the pandemic they are.
Ever yours,
Dena Rash Guzman
Editor
Unshod Quills
in the woods near Portland, Oregon, USA
Dena Rash Guzman, seated, listening to Ginger wRong Chen in Shanghai - 12/11
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