Artifice Magazine

Artifice Elsewhere

Artifice Magazine is devoted to fiction and poetry aware of its own artifice: pastiche, mash-ups, cut-ups, experiments gone awry, sly metafiction with heart, whatever.

We're a print magazine tentatively scheduled to put out our first issue in Jan 2010 (tell your friends!).

Reach us with questions and comments at editors at artificemag dot com.

t & r, editors

The Future!

So you’ve probably noticed we’re not too active on the ol’ tumblr anymore. Since we’ve had the main site up and running, and an active facebook account, we’ve found that, unfortunately, there’s not a lot left over for this tumblr site to do, dear as it is to our hearts. So, while we’ll be keeping the site up for oldtimes’ sake, if you’re interested in what we’re up to these days, you should friend us on facebook. We’re very friendly, after all.

Also, for any of you in the Chicago area, we’ll be at the Printers Ball tonight, kickin it with the Chi-town literati. The event’s free and open to the public, so hope to see you there!

Jun
6th

Sat

Seriously, y’all? This bookstore is awesome. Give them money.

tylercoates:

Save Women and Children First!

Linda Bubon is no stranger to battling the economy. The co-owner of Women and Children First sounded the alarm two years ago, when it became clear the bookstore might not make it through the end of the year. Co-owner Ann Christophersen took another full-time job and pared down her duties at the store, but it still wasn’t enough. So in April 2007, WCF made a plea to its customers: Save us.

“The story got legs really fast,” Bubon says. “In-store sales that May were up nearly 70 percent.”

Membership at the store—for $25 a year, you get a 10 percent storewide discount—grew from about 300 to 1,000. Donations poured in, and the store finished up over the previous year’s profits for the first time in five years. It wasn’t a stay of execution so much as a vote of confidence from the citizenry. Women and Children First is one of the last feminist bookstores in the country and is revered for its selection and programming, which often features prominent women and gay authors. In 2004, Bubon and Christophersen created the nonprofit Women’s Voices Fund to support the programming.

But just as WCF seemed to have turned everything around, last fall’s downturn hit the store hard. Sales in October were 23 percent below the previous year’s, and the holiday season clocked in 13 percent under. With online megaretailers like Amazon exempt from charging sales tax and able to procure sweetheart discounts on bulk orders, Bubon says she’s not so sure Women and Children First can even compete in the business anymore.

Jun
3rd

Wed

Someone read this and tell me whether I should read it.

This. BTW it’s real long.

Jun
2nd

Tue

this makes me want to cry.

wolfandfox:

(via benjaminhilts)

May
31st

Sun

Today's haul from Myopic Books*

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel
The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman
Don’t Tell Me the Truth About Love by Dan Rhodes
Gold by Dan Rhodes
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Found by June Oldham

*I think someone angered Leonard, the cat that lives in Myopic, because everywhere in the bookstore smelled of cat pee.

May
29th

Fri

Bookninja just pointed me to Mine via a writeup on Slate and my mind is currently being blown.

May
27th

Wed

One thing I really like about the internet

is that you can ask it questions. For example, I just asked the internet “What is exciting?” and got a response.

And I have to admit, an explosion sailing on the ocean would be pretty dang exciting.

May
26th

Tue

Hello! It's Everyone Read "The Rise of Capitalism" Day!

Sample? No problem:

The first thing I did was make a mistake. I thought I had understood capitalism, but what I had done was assume an attitude — melancholy sadness — toward it. This attitude is not correct. Fortunately your letter came, at that instant. “Dear Rupert, I love you every day. You are the world, which is life. I love you I adore you I am crazy about you. Love, Marta.” Reading between the lines, I understood your critique of my attitude toward capitalism. Always mindful that the critic must “studiare da un punto di vista formalistico e semiologico il rapporto fra lingua di un testo e codificazione di un — ” But here a big thumb smudges the text — the thumb of capitalism, which we are all under. Darkness falls. My neighbor continues to commit suicide, once a fortnight.

Find the full text here.

May
25th

Mon

I’m so glad this happened.

jacobsknabb:

“Huh? What? Right? Uh.”

May
24th

Sun

Among the potato pictures that I have seen on tumblr, this is so far my favorite.

damhnait:

I had seen leaves poking up out of the vegetable basket and assumed that it was a handful of strange lettuce or herbs from the farmers market that I wasn’t familiar with. Then I discovered they were all growing out of this sweet potato. It might be time to say goodbye.