The Lineup and the Library of Congress

I received word today that two copies of each issue of The Lineup will be held at the Library of Congress.

Buy Indie Day

The brainchild of thriller writer Joseph Finder: Support independent bookstores (like Houston's Murder By the Book) by buying from them on May 1.

Spread 'Em

Click on the image to enlarge.

We've ordered proof copies of Issue 2. Once we iron out any last kinks, the book will officially go on sale.

From Declan Burke

The author of Eight-Ball Boogie and The Big O:

“What does poetry have to do with crime?” asks Patrick Shawn Bagley in his thoughtful introduction to ‘The Lineup 2’, the second anthology of poems on crime edited by Gerald So. Poetry brings stillness and clarity to thought and vision, a precise bearing on the random chaos of everyday life, of which crime is an ever-present. The poems of this collection belong for the most part in that all-too-brief pause between the lurid headlines of journalism and the dramatic reconstructions of fiction, lines that wriggle their way into the crawl-space in our minds that lies between judgment, prejudice and consequence. If poetry is about anything, is about poignant, haunting truth. In ‘Visiting Hours, State Pen’, Amy MacLennan writes:


“Her lipstick

fresh, she unpins a nametag

(an all-night market),

from her blouse.”


...and your heart breaks, or should. “Crime,” wrote W.R. Burnett, “is but a left-handed form of human endeavour.” Crime fiction poetry might well be a left-handed endeavour, but boy, that Southie can punch a hole in your heart.

Pounding the Pavement

I've queried the following independent mystery bookstores about stocking The Lineup:

Partners & Crime - New York, NY
The Mystery Company - Carmel, IN
Mystery One - Milwaukee, WI
Big Sleep Books - St. Louis, MO
Seattle Mystery Bookshop - Seattle, WA
Mystery Loves Company - Oxford, MD
Aunt Agatha's - Ann Arbor, MI
The Poisoned Pen - Scottsdale, AR
"M" is for Mystery - San Mateo, CA

If any Lineup fans frequent these stores, feel free to put in a good word for us. If your favorite shop isn't listed, e-mail me its contact information, and I'll give it a go.

And remember, The Lineup is available now at Murder By the Book (Houston, TX) and on its way to Once Upon a Crime (Minneapolis, MN).

The Lineup 2 Web Banner by John Collis

To place the banner (full size: 480x60 pixels) on your Web site with a click-through to our Lulu.com storefront, copy and paste the following HTML code:

<a href="http://stores.lulu.com/geraldso"><img border="0" alt="Support independent publishing: buy The Lineup on Lulu." src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0h8ysaQRp2pIwYNzOaRXhvwpM8-iBov476Pc7zM0iNJ0bQebT3pYo421BQeiC1TqG3Au6LnwJHmMXiJd9BSFmpxZ7PgFtW1w80gxmMvFzaasIwnisq6Ea4D4DXBrLJxq8GpKDxZccvl6e/" title="Support independent publishing: buy The Lineup on Lulu." /></a>

Spreading the Word

Detectives Beyond Borders' Peter Rozovsky blogged briefly about The Lineup Issue 2, writing in part, "Fans of narrative concision and crime songs might also want to check out The Lineup and open their minds to poetry about crime."

Hit List Signing at Murder By the Book

From Murder By the Book's Web site:

Friday, May 8, 6:30 p.m.
Anthology group signing!
Hit List (Arté Publico Press)

A group of authors will sign & discuss their contributions to a new groundbreaking anthology of short fiction by Latino writers, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery (edited by Sarah Cortez & Liz Martinez; Arte Publico; $19.95). The anthology features an intriguing and unpredictable cast of sleuths, murderers and crime victims. The stories run the gamut of the mystery genre, from traditional to noir, from the private investigator to the police procedural, and even a “chick lit” mystery.

“The Right Profile” follows a Miami private investigator who goes undercover to prove a deadbeat father can pay child support. In “The Skull of Pancho Villa,” someone has stolen the family heirloom and it’s up to Gus Corral to get it back. And in “A New York Chicano,” a successful bachelor from El Paso now working in Manhattan gets his revenge against a xenophobic newscaster.

The authors of stories featured in Hit List lead us through their barrios where executions, vengeance and mayhem are carried out with a bang. Contributors include award-winning writers such as Carolina García-Aguilera, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Rolando Hinojosa, John Lantigua, Manuel Ramos, Lucha Corpi, and Sergio Troncoso, as well as emerging writers who deserve more recognition.

The anthology contains a foreword by Ralph E. Rodriguez, Ph.D., author of Brown Gumshoes: Detective Fiction and the Search for Chicana/o Identity (University of Texas Press, 2005).

Editor Sarah Cortez, a poet, educator, and law enforcement officer, is the author of a poetry collection, How to Undress a Cop (Arte Público Press, 2000), which won the PEN Texas Literary Award in Poetry. She edited Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write Their Lives (Piñata Books, 2007), which won a 2008 Skipping Stones Honor Award. She lives and works in Houston, Texas.

Editor Liz Martinez, a New York State investigator, has published short stories in numerous anthologies and magazines, including Manhattan Noir (Akashic Books, 2006) and Police Officer’s Quarterly. She lives and works in New York City.

Arte Público Press is the nation’s largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters, and customs of Hispanic culture in the United States. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books and the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Hispanic literary arts and creativity. For more information, please visit www.artepublicopress.com.

Authors confirmed for the signing: Sarah Cortez, Lucha Corpi, Rolando Hinojosa. More to come!

And of course, Murder By the Book also carries The Lineup #1 featuring works by Hit List authors Sarah Cortez and R. Narvaez.

The Element of Surprise

Detectives Beyond Borders' Peter Rozovsky is reading Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely and praising the writer's use of figurative language. He asks, "Is surprise the key to vivid description and successful metaphor?"

Chandler is often called one of crime fiction's most "poetic" writers, so the question can be asked, "Is surprise the key to description and metaphor in poetry?"

I don't believe it is. As often as not, extended metaphor and quirky description can distract readers from the image a poet means to present. I think it's more important to deliver a clear picture than one that is surprising or unnecessarily embroidered. There are times when metaphors make us think, "Yes, that's exactly how it should be described," not "Wow, I never would have thought of that."

It's easy to get carried away with figurative language. It should be controlled to lead readers to the intended mental image, not used simply for style or surprise. Some of Chandler's metaphors and similes are great, but their overall impact is diluted by how often he used them.

He may not have made the same metaphor twice, but his frequent use of the technique made it less original over time, such that even writers who surprise with metaphor today are said to be copying Chandler.

Figurative language is a dramatic tool. Good drama doesn't rely on it to the extent Chandler made it seem.

Coming to CrimeWAV

On May 10th, CrimeWAV—the crime short story podcast hosted by Seth Harwood and produced by Aldo Calcagno—will be airing a special episode of poems from The Lineup.

From Issue 1:

"110 M.P.H. in a Stolen Pickup" by Patrick Shawn Bagley
"Prayer of an Arson Investigator" by Sarah Cortez
"Metro" by R. Narvaez
"Don Henley Will Be Mine" by Misti Rainwater-Lites
"Four Minutes" by Gerald So


From Issue 2:

"Visiting Hours, State Pen" by Amy MacLennan
"A Whisper of Smoke" by Stephen D. Rogers
"A Wild Flaw Amongst Us" by Christopher Watkins


We're currently recording for the episode. Some poems will be read by the poets, others by Seth Harwood and friends. My thanks to Seth and Aldo for the opportunity.

The Nitty Gritty

On the First Offenders blog, crime novelist Alison Gaylin contrasted her daughter's early prowess for poetry with her own lack of knack for it. Opening the floor for comments, she asked, "Is there any type of writing you've always wanted to be able to do, but just can't?"

I commented:

I wanted to write spy fiction, create a character as loved as James Bond or Jack Ryan. I enjoy reading Reacher and Rain today, but the super-competent adventure character never seemed to ring true when I wrote it.

Crime fiction may come easier to me because everyone has at least thought about committing a crime, and the protagonists of crime novels don't have to be all that capable of committing the crime. I can also write dialogue-based stories as I'm very conscious of how people talk and the nonverbal stuff they reveal when they talk.

As a working poet, I find that many people who aren't into poetry have a specific idea what poetry is, usually associated with rhyme scheme or number of lines. And while poetry does require focus, it can be informal. Finding the truth behind a poem's subject and holding to that truth is the most important thing, just as in any type of critical or creative writing.

From Baron Wormser

The former Poet Laureate of Maine on The Lineup #2:

Since poets are by definition metaphysical detectives, this collection makes brilliant sense. The poets never flinch nor do they romanticize. Rather they write tersely and deftly of violence large and small, motives confused and clear, endings bloody and mundane. Collectively, they show how poems are bullets of essence that can pierce some very dark shadows.

From Bill Cameron

The author of Chasing Smoke on The Lineup #2:

The mystery of poetry is in its capacity to surprise, to alarm, to reveal, to inspire. At its best, poetry draws you back, again and again, each time to a new discovery, to satisfy a new unrealized need, to discomfit, to illuminate. The Lineup is all this, poetry at its best.

Sarah Cortez Interview on La Bloga

Manuel Ramos interviewed Sarah Cortez about The Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, but they also got to talking about crime poetry and The Lineup:

Manuel Ramos: Your poetry was featured in the first issue of The Lineup, a magazine devoted to crime poetry. What is crime poetry and how is it different from other kinds of poetry?

Sarah Cortez: I’m glad you asked about The Lineup, the chapbook series so wonderfully edited by Gerald So, with Patrick Shawn Bagley, R. Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone. The poetry featured deals with some aspect of criminal behavior whether from the victim’s, criminal’s, or another’s perspective. In trying to define what is different about crime poetry from other poetry, I would say that the subject matter focuses the poet’s eye very particularly. So that in trying to accomplish that “great” poetic task we talked about above – putting the inexplicable into words – the poet must unflinchingly hone in on physicality, whether the physicality of the crime scene, the victim, the suspect, and so on. What I see when I read poems from Lineup is the unremitting eye of each poet beginning in the sensory world of the crime’s occurrence. And, of course, the higher the emotional content of an event, the harder it becomes to write about it with elegance. Writers, especially fiction writers, joke about how hard it is to write love/sex scenes and have them turn out well. That’s because of the high emotional content and the enormous number of hackneyed clichés surrounding love/sex scenes. Well, crime scenes carry a lot of those same burdens for the writer/poet. The poets chosen for Lineup do a fantastic job.

Manuel Ramos: I think The Lineup is an innovation with much potential power to dramatically change the poetry/crime fiction scene. I hope more readers find it. I'm delighted to note that I have a poem in the upcoming second issue, due later this summer.

From Craig McDonald

Edgar®-nominated author of Head Games and Toros & Torsos:

It’s been said true poets don’t invent. The Lineup #2 bristles with spare, sharp and unflinching dispatches from the desperate places where poverty, passion and bloodlust push grifters, moonshiners and stone killers to the far, dark margins of themselves. Real, raw and riveting, these poems on crime land their shots hard and true and do it with bone-bruising conviction.

April is National Poetry Month

...and we're almost ready to send PDF copies of The Lineup #2 to prospective blurbers. In the meantime, I invite you to support our efforts this month by placing a Lineup widget on your blog or Web site.