David Corbett talks with Charlie Stella

Today on the group blog Murderati, Lineup #4 alum David Corbett talks with longtime Lineup fan Charlie Stella. They don't mention The Lineup, but do talk about writing and teaching, something still close to my heart, with some old-school football thrown in.

Duane Swierczynski interviews David Corbett

The thirtieth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour sees journalist, novelist, and comic book writer Duane Swierczynski interview Lineup #4 contributor David Corbett about Corbett's poem, "Bargain".

Hear The Lineup #4 on CrimeWAV

The Lineup's third appearance on Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV features seven poems from Issue 4:

"A Story to Tell Our Daughter" by Keith Rawson (read by Gerald So)
"Slider, Part 7" by Reed Farrel Coleman (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Bargain" by David Corbett (read by Corbett)
"Finding Opal" by Mary Agnes Dalrymple (read by Gerald So)
"Madonna Peed On My Face by Chad Rohrbacher (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Street Girls: Selected Memories" by Stephen Jay Schwartz (read by Schwartz)
"The Balance Lost" by Steve Weddle (read by Peter Linari)

Listen to The Lineup #4 on CrimeWAV.

Today is also Palms Sunday, named for Seth's debut novel protagonist, Jack Palms (Jack Wakes Up). The latest story featuring Jack, "Triad Death Match", is now available as an eBook.

From David Corbett

For the seventeenth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, the following post from contributor David Corbett:

Gerald So asked me to comment about the experience of being in LINEUP #4, or on why I wrIte poetry, or how it differs from fiction. Here’s what I managed to dig up from the sludge of my confusion on such issues.

Why write poetry?

Poetry keeps you humble. It keeps you honest.

Nowhere are words—or intentions—more naked than in a poem.

A poem is like a new lover, one you don't yet quite trust. She lulls you, tricks you, brings you up short. Tells you exactly what you need to know, but don't really want to hear. Which is why you're crazy about her.

Poems are pools in which everything is deceptively clear, all the way to the dark cold bottom.

A poem reminds you that it’s not just the devil but the divine that’s in the details. Small things are sacred—just by being there. Or vanishing. Because sometimes a poem resembles the lost thing that one curious morning you come across where you least expected it. And sometimes almost wish you hadn't.

But a poem about crime? Isn't crime too melodramatic, too inherently huge? An aria, maybe. (Ask Tosca.) A rock song, sure. (Cue the feedback and crash cymbals.) But a poem?

As I read my fellow contributors' poems in this collection, I saw again and again how so many sought to capture that shock of silence either before or after the violation. The pinprick daze, the web of static, the moment when you're not quite sure what happened, or are stunned as to why.

Not the melodrama but the mystery of it, in the larger sense. The small weird horror of violence, the gaping hole it leaves in things, the tumbling emptiness just beyond the fabric of normality that crime always betrays.

The narrators in these poems, like the poets themselves, stand just this side of dumbstruck. They know words are cheap. They strive to use them wisely. I'm proud and humbled to have my work included among theirs.

April 17: The Lineup's Third Episode of CrimeWAV

The Lineup's third episode of CrimeWAV airs next Sunday, April 17, featuring seven poems from Issue 4:

"Finding Opal" by Mary Agnes Dalrymple (read by Gerald So)
"Slider, Part 7" by Reed Farrel Coleman (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Bargain" by David Corbett (read by Corbett)
"A Story to Tell Our Daughter" by Keith Rawson (read by Gerald So)
"The Balance Lost" by Steve Weddle (read by Peter Linari)
"Madonna Peed On My Face" by Chad Rohrbacher (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Street Girls: Selected Memories" by Stephen Jay Schwartz (read by Schwartz)

Meanwhile on CrimeWAV, Mark Coggins continues to podcast his P.I. novel, The Immortal Game.

Sample Poems

Links to some poems that first appeared or were reprinted in The Lineup (Issue number in parentheses):

Patrick Shawn Bagley, "110 M.P.H. in a Stolen Pickup" (1)
David Corbett, "Bargain" (4)
Sarah Cortez, "Serial Killer" (3)
Anne Frasier, "Home" (3)
H. Palmer Hall, "The Collector" (4)
Peter Meinke, "What Wild-Eyed Murderer" (4)
Carol Novack, "Willie" (2)
Gerald So, "Witness Protection" (1)
Gerald So, "Mickey Spillane" (1)
John Stickney, "Creation" (4)
Wallace Stroby, "Independence Day, 1976" (3)
Charles Harper Webb, "Prayer for The Man Who Mugged My Father, 72" (4)

Visit our Books section to find or purchase The Lineup.

The Lineup #4 Coming to M is for Mystery

On Lineup #4 contributor David Corbett's recommendation, I sent a sample copy to M is for Mystery in San Mateo, California. Manager Pam Stirling has ordered five more copies. Very pleased to have our first location on the West Coast.

David Corbett

David Corbett is the author of four novels—most recently, 2010's Do They Know I'm Running?—plus a spate of short stories and a scattering of articles.