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Chelsey Clammer

clammer-author-photo-2Managing Editor and Nonfiction Editor Chelsey Clammer talks about her journey to Eckleburg, how she craves to dive into a text, and how to approach writing as if your sanity depended on it.

Q) How did you learn about/become involved with Eckleburg?

Chelsey Clammer: I submitted an essay to Eckleburg thinking they might like the tone of it. Sure enough, “The Mountains are Bloody Beautiful” was accepted and published in the summer of 2012. Upon acceptance of my essay, Editor In Chief Rae Bryant approached me and asked if I wanted to write a weekly humor column. Hell yeah! And a few months later I was invited to be an Assistant Nonfiction Editor. Hell yeah again! And then a few months after that I was invited to be the Nonfiction Editor. Again! Again! Hell yeah! After becoming the Nonfiction Editor, I thought I was out of Eckleburg-related situations to which I could say hell yeah. And then this happened: it is now a year after  I submitted “The Mountains are Bloody Beautiful”, and I find myself as the Managing Editor. I am still completely in awe that I get to be so involved with a journal I have loved for such a long time. To say the least, it’s been a splendid year. Hell yeah it has.

Q) What genre do you edit/what role do you have?

CC: My main focus is reading and editing nonfiction, though if any of the other departments needs some feedback or another opinion on a submission, then I shape shift into a reader of other genres. As Managing Editor, I get to help the incredibly talented Eckleburg staff with whatever they need help on—reading, editing, formatting, brainstorming, planning, &etc. So I jump around a lot with my duties, which is something I absolutely adore. Also, I’m teaching the Eckleburg online writing workshops with the help and guidance of the most amazing, passionate, and intelligent woman and editor in the entire world, ever, Rae Bryant.

Q) What are you looking for in submissions?

CC: Something odd. Something beautiful. Something raw. Something lyrical. I want those quirky ideas and I want that vulnerable writing. I want to read pieces that don’t force or overkill a theme, but rather stories that trust the reader will understand  what all is going on, will make their own conclusions as to who these people are. I want to read pieces that I can’t resist, pieces in which all I ever want to do with the rest of my life is dive into that text, to soak it in, to move with its currents, to watch how it moves me.

Q) What have been one or two of your favorite pieces you have seen in Eckleburg so far?

CC: I loved Amelia Neirenberg’s essay “We are Woman.” After reading just the first few paragraphs, I fell in love with its pace and rhythm, with the high quality of writing, and with how she digs deep into discovering how different generations of women influence each other throughout their lives, how they come to know they are forever connected with who came before them and who will come after them. This essay completely took me away, especially when I found out the author is still in high school.

Q) What are some publications you have/accomplishments you want to share?

CC: In 2012 I won the Editor’s Pick Award from Revolution House for my essay “BodyHome.” Later on that year, I also won another Editor’s Pick Award for another essay, this one called “I Have Been Thinking About” from Cobalt. I’m also really proud of the publication of my essay “Cut” in The Rumpus, specifically because I am so vulnerable in that essay and yet it got out there and I had some really good responses to it. Finally, The Coachella Review has published two of my essays in the past (“Sabrina” and “Sarah”), and the editors over there are so encouraging and interested in their authors. I loved working with them, and was excited when they interviewed me.

Q) How do you approach writing?

CC: As if it’s the only thing that keeps me tied to this world, that  keeps me connected to everyone here—whether I know them or not—and I come to it (in my good and hopeful moments) with a compassionate understanding. As in, I come to it with the intention of just writing, allowing my brain and body and soul to open up to where ever that writing might go, and not berate myself for not writing profound sentences on every page. It doesn’t work like that. I simply write in every hour of the day that I can, and I open up to whatever might happen with that writing. Mainly, I approach my writing like this: “I’m responsible for the effort, not the outcome.”

Q) In 5 words or less, describe what kind of a journal you think Eckleburg is.

CC: Paragon of feminist & intelligent creativity. (An ampersand doesn’t count as a word, right?)

Q) Any other promotion/interesting fact/random tid bit you want to share?

CC: I’m enrolled in the Rainier Writing Workshop program this year, and I can’t wait to see where my writing goes because of it. And I’m also running those Eckleburg writing workshops with Rae Bryant that YOU JUST HAVE TO CHECK OUT BECAUSE THEY KICK SO MUCH ASS! I got me a website: www.chelseyclammer.com. I run 50 mile races. I smoke a pack a day. And my favorite activity as a child was to suck on my older sister’s toe.

 

 Chelsey Clammer received her MA in Women’s Studies from Loyola University Chicago. She has been published in THIS, The Rumpus, Atticus Review, Sleet, The Coachella Review and Make/shift among many others. She received the Nonfiction Editor’s Pick Award 2012 from both Revolution House and Cobalt, as well as Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations. She is a weekly columnist for The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review as well as the Managing Editor, Nonfiction Editor and a workshop instructor for the journal. She is also the Creative Nonfiction editor for The Dying Goose, and a volunteer prose and poetry reader for Memoir Journal. She is currently finishing up a collection of essays about finding the concept of home in the body, as well as a memoir about sexuality and mental illness. Chelsey lives in Denver, CO.

 

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STAFF SPOTLIGHT | Rae Bryant, Editor-In-Chief

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Rae Bryant, the creator of, the Editor-In-Chief of, and the mastermind behind The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review shares the journal’s history, what she’s looking for in submissions, and how to approach writing like the tip-toeing Elmer Fudd.

Q: How did you learn about/become involved with Eckleburg?

Rae Bryant: Eckleburg started as Moon Milk Review in 2010. I’d been working as an assistant editor with a few other journals and after a time felt I had acquired enough skill to start my own. It began very small, just me and my computer. I never thought it would become what it is, today. In fact, one of my primary business strategies has been small steps in an effort to retain sustainability. I’ve seen so many fantastic journals headed by thoroughly talented and motivated people shut down due to what has appeared to me a result of taking on too much too soon. Burn out.

I thought of the title, Moon Milk Review, while taking “Experimental Fiction” at Hopkins. Richard Peabody had assigned “The Distance of the Moon” by Italo Calvino to us and the rest just fell out from there. When the Hopkins M. A. in Writing program decided to house MMR, I liked the idea of adopting a title for the journal that reflected our location. The Great Gatsby had always been one of my modernist favorites, particularly the Eckleburg glasses section, because it seemed so strange and gritty and surreal in this very real NY decadence, so it stuck.

Q: What genre do you edit/what role do you have?

RB: Heh. I wear many hats.

Q: What are you looking for in submissions?

RB: Raw truth.

Q: What have been one or two of your favorite pieces you have seen in Eckleburg so far?

RB: I can’t answer this. I adore them all. I play on the front page of Eckleburg and click the music clips, view the art, read the excerpted stories, essays and poetry. A tapestry of Punk and more traditional voices. I love it. We’re very lucky to have the contributors we have.

Q: What are some publications you have/accomplishments you want to share?

RB: I’ve recently completed a novel manuscript titled MARROW. The manuscript is with my agent right now. Fingers crossed. It’s difficult to discuss in concept, but I guess you could say it’s the story of twisted events in a twisted life. Woman meets herself in a dark alley sort of thing or a ‘you’d be crying if you weren’t laughing’ and ‘you’d be laughing if you weren’t crying’ and ‘you would probably be sitting in tweed and quiet reflection if you weren’t wearing a Sid Vicious meets Virginia Woolf T-shirt, punching the air, saying fuck yeah, I know how that shit feels’ kind of read. I like wry, dark, humor mixed with socio-political that is relatable and pushes into otherworldly inner-spaces. Excerpted stories and related essays can be found at McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and Missouri Review, Gargoyle Magazine and other journals. 

Q: How do you approach writing?

RB: Tiptoeing, sort of like Elmer Fudd with a shotgun and a really weird laugh. Sometimes, a blowtorch.

Q: In 5 words or less, describe what kind of a journal you think Eckleburg is.

The quirky Everyjournal. Punk Nouveau.

Q: Any other promotion/interesting fact/random tid bit you want to share?

RB: I’m very excited to have a short story coming in Sunday Salon Magazine and to be participating in the Writing on It All project on Governor’s Island in NY this summer. This project is an intermedia project directed by Alexandra Chasin (The New School, Brief, Kissed By) and includes writers and artists from all over the country. We published work by Alex at Eckleburg and are always astounded with her intermedia and innovative projects. I’ll also be exhibiting a portion of this work at our Rue de Fleurus Salon & Reading Series this June 27th at the Johns Hopkins campus off Dupont Circle in DC, featuring Rick Moody as our reader. This event is open to the public and begins at 7:30 pm. We will be running a Rue de Fleurus event each semester with a plan to circulate between DC, Baltimore and NY. When Hopkins goes back to Florence, we will plan to hold a Rue there, too. The first event was kind of covert and wonderful and spectacular, a few writing and poetic friends collaboratively gathered at Brazenhead Bookstore in Manhattan. A very hush hush and small affair with whiskey and wine. Those with an aficion for worn and lovely books and spectacular art and good friends will understand how deeply in love we are with Brazenhead and how committed we are to creating a salon and gathering point that bridges this Atlantic corridor of cities so often isolated and isolating for writers. I’ve been fortunate to find good friends across the country, spend time with them in person, as well as online. I want to offer this to Eckleburg readers and contributors, too. The next event will be in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus. We are also running our second annual Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction 2014 guest-judged by Cris Mazza. First prize $1000. Our annual Eckleburg No. 18 is NOW on the bookshelves and we are beginning our brand new Workshop Series including an Essays Workshop with Chelsey Clammer and an upcoming workshop titled “How to Suck Less When Writing about Women.”

 

Rae Bryant’s short story collection, The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals, released fromPatasola Press, NY, in June 2011. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review,The Missouri Review, StoryQuarterly, McSweeney’s, Huffington Post, BLIP Magazine, Gargoyle Magazine, and Redivider, among other publications and have been nominated for thePen/Hemingway, Pen Emerging Writers, and Pushcart awards. She has won awards in fiction from Whidbey Writers and Johns Hopkins as well as fellowships from the VCCA and Hopkins to write, study and teach in Florence, Italy. She earned a Masters in Writing from Hopkins where she continues to teach creative writing and is editor in chief of the university-housed literary and arts journal, The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. She has also taught in the International Writing Program at The University of Iowa. She is represented by Jennifer Carlson with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

 

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GALLERY | Andy Warhol: Patron Saint of Art and Don’t Give a F***

 

Andy Warhol, our Patron Saint of Art and Don’t Give a Fuck, in this 1964 interview responded to questions regarding his Brillo Box exhibit.

Interviewer: Andy do you feel that the public has insulted your art?

Andy Warhol: Uh, no.

Well, why not?

Uh, well I haven’t thought about it.

It doesn’t bother you at all then?

Uh, no.

Well, do you think they’ve shown a lack of appreciation for what pop art means?

Uh, no.

Andy, do you think that pop art has reached the point where it’s becoming repetitious now?

Uh, yes.

Do you think it should break away from being pop art?

Uh, no.

Are you just going to carry on?

Uh, yes. 

 

The Stable Gallery, NYC, 1964

 

Now showing at The Andy Warhol Museum is Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years. “For decades, critics have observed that Andy Warhol exerted an enormous impact on contemporary art, but no exhibition has yet explored the full nature or extent of that influence. Through approximately forty-five works by Warhol alongside one hundred works by some sixty other artists, Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years juxtaposes prime examples of Warhol’s paintings, sculpture, and films with those by other artists who in key ways reinterpret, respond, or react to his groundbreaking work. What emerges is a fascinating dialogue between works of art and artists across generations. Organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with major loans from the collection of The Andy Warhol Museum, Regarding Warhol will be installed throughout the museum and reveal Warhol’s extraordinary impact on contemporary art production” (The Andy Warhol Museum).

 

 

andy-warhol

A Very, Very Brief Bibliography for Andy Warhol (from The Andy Warhol Museum)

The Andy Warhol Museum: The Inaugural Publication. 208 pp. Pittsburgh: The Andy Warhol Museum; New York: Distributed Art Publishers; Stuttgart: Cantz Publishers, 1994.

Andy Warhol: 365 Takes. By the staff of the Warhol Museum. 743 pp. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2004.

Andy Warhol. 319 pp. Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Art Gallery, 2007.

Angell, Callie. Andy Warhol Screen Tests. The Films of Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné. 319 pp. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2006.

Bourdon, David. Warhol. 432 pp. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1991. Originally published 1989.

Colacello, Bob. Holy Terror. Andy Warhol Close-up. 514 pp. New York: HarperCollins, 1990.

Comenas, Gary. www.warholstars.org 

Dillenberger, Jane Daggett. The Religious Art of Andy Warhol. 128 pp. New York: Continuum, 1998.

Feldman, Frayda and Jorg Schellman, eds. Andy Warhol Prints. A Catalogue Raisonné 1962-1987. Fourth Edition. 383 pp. New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2003.

Frei, Georg and Neil Printz, editors. The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 01, Paintings and Sculpture 1961-1963. 503 pp. New York and London: Phaidon Press, 2002. (and Volume 02, 1964-1969. 423 & 449 pp., 2004)

Garrels, Gary, ed. The

Work of Andy Warhol. Dia Art Foundation. 96 pp. Seattle: Bay Press, 1989.

Goldsmith, Kenneth, editor. I’ll be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews. 427 pp. New York: Carrol & Graf, 2004.

Koch, Stephen. Stargazer. The Life, World & Films of Andy Warhol. (Revised and updated). 153 pp. New York, London: Marion Boyars Publishers, 1991 (1973).

Koestenbaum, Wayne. Andy Warhol. 224 pp. New York: Viking Penguin, A Lipper/Viking Book, 2001.

Meyer-Hermann, Eva, editor. Andy Warhol: A Guide to 706 Items in 2 Hours 56 Minutes. 256 pp. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2007.

Pratt, Alan R., ed. The Critical Response to Andy Warhol. 306 pp. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Smith, John, Mario Kramer and Matt Wrbican. Andy Warhol’s Time Capsule 21. 286 pp. Cologne: Dumont, 2003.

Smith, Patrick S. Warhol: Conversations About the Artist. 384 pp. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Press, 1988.

Success is a Job in New York: The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol. 89 pp. Donna M. Di Salvo, editor. Exhibition catalog, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, and Grey Art Gallery, New York, 1989.

Warhol, Andy.

a: a novel. 458 pp. New York: Grove Press, 1998. Originally published 1968.

Warhol, Andy. America. Unpaginated. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.

Warhol, Andy. The Andy Warhol Diaries. Edited by Pat Hackett. 839 pp. New York: Warner Books, 1989.

Warhol, Andy. Andy Warhol’s Exposures. 255 pp. New York: Andy Warhol Books/Grosset & Dunlap, 1979.

Warhol, Andy and Pat Hackett. Andy Warhol’s Party Book. 159 pp. New York: Crown, 1988.

Warhol, Andy. THE Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B & back again). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.

Warhol, Andy and Pat Hackett. POPism: The Warhol ‘60s. 310 pp. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.

Watson, Steven. Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties. 490 pp. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.

Who Is Andy Warhol? Edited by Colin MacCabe, Mark Francis and Peter Wollen. 162 pp. London: British Film Institute and Pittsburgh: The Andy Warhol Museum, 1997.