PEN Center USA and Narrow Books proudly announce:

THE RATTLING WALL ISSUE 3 SLATE

Joyce Carol Oates and David L. Ulin to appear in the issue, which is set to be released in fall 2012.

Los Angeles, CA: PEN Center USA and Narrow Books have announced the slate for The Rattling Wall, Issue 3, which will be released in the fall of 2012. The Rattling Wall, a literary journal based in Los Angeles, specializes in short fiction, travel essays, and poetry.

The Rattling Wall, Issue 3, includes new work by: Sean Carswell, Weston Cutter, Trinie Dalton, Ben Epstein, Matthew Fluharty, Panio Gianopoulos, Benj Hewitt, Rhoda Huffey, Mandy Kahn, Sophie Klahr, Jim Krusoe, Joseph Lapin, Jillian Lauren, Suzanne Lummis, S.P. MacIntyre, Bev Magennis, Joseph Mattson, Kyle McCord, James Meetze, Joshua Mohr, Amelia Morris, Angel Nafis, Emily Rapp, Kate Reeves, Rachel Reynolds, Brian Rooney, Marytza K. Rubio, Robert Silva, David L. Ulin, Amy E. Wallen, Kim Young, and an excerpt from the forthcoming novella Daddy Love, by Joyce Carol Oates.

The Rattling Wall, Issue 3, artist will be announced in the coming weeks, as well as details regarding The Rattling Wall, Issue 3: Reading & Release. Previous launches have been held at The Hammer and The Standard, Hollywood, and both drew large crowds.

The Rattling Wall is edited by Michelle Meyering. Ms. Meyering is Director of Programs and Events at PEN Center USA. She holds degrees from University of Redlands and American University. She currently teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

The Rattling Wall is generously funded by PEN Center USA and published by Narrow Books.

PEN Center USA, a literary nonprofit based in Beverly Hills, has a membership of more than 600 professional writers. PEN Center USA strives to protect the rights of writers around the world, to stimulate interest in the written word, and to foster a vital literary community among the diverse writers living in the western United States. PEN Center USA has a long, successful history planning literary events in and around Los Angeles; special programming has taken place at The Hammer; Hotel Café; Largo at the Coronet; The Echo; Actor’s Gang; The Standard, Hollywood; the Saban Theatre; the Comedy Store; the Pacific Design Center; and the Beverly Hills Hotel.

To purchase The Rattling Wall, Issues 1 and 2, please visit www.narrowbooks.com.

For more information on The Rattling Wall, please contact Michelle Meyering, Director of Programs and Events, at PEN Center USA: michelle@penusa.org.

PEN Center USA is raising money to support the earth-friendly printing of The Rattling Wall, Issue 3. Help us reach our goal! We want a US printing and Enviro, antique paper, made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials!

Today is the The Rattling Wall’s birthday! On May 11, 2011 we released Issue 1 at The Hammer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD_e3B6F8x8) and have enjoyed superb readings and packed audiences (not to mention Issue 2) since! Thanks for your support, everyone. We’ve got mad love for our fans and friends.

The Rattling Wall is accepting sophisticated short fiction, travel essays, and poetry submissions until November 1, 2012.

In April, I asked contributors to The Rattling Wall to write new flash fiction or poetry inspired by Lyndsey Lesh’s cover of Issue 2. Here’s the second submission we’re publishing online. Enjoy. 

—Michelle

ORACLES | Jim Ruland

I remember these little pants. I remember when these pants fit the person I used to be. The person that used to please you.

Two old women down in the street. Pass a pumpkin past your belly, one whispers to the other.

I remember what you used to say. These pants aren’t pants. They’re panties with pockets.

Crush la ruda with your fingers and put it in a jar with honey.

I remember how you measured the place between the buttons: the soft cove of my navel and the rough metal sewn to the denim that you clenched between your teeth.  

A complicated geometry, you called it.

Write your name on a piece of paper and seal it in a jar.

I remember your disappointment: These pants are too revealing. Oh, I asked, one eyebrow beckoning, the other an admonishment, and what do they reveal?

Not the future.

No, I agreed, and went looking for my robe.

Pray over it and put it in the river.

These pants have cooled. I don’t know why I kept them. Their magic has grown cold. I don’t know what makes me hold on. They are a window into a time when this flesh became unwanted. A remembrance I would prefer to forget.  

(End)

In April, I asked contributors to The Rattling Wall to write new flash fiction or poetry inspired by Lyndsey Lesh’s cover of Issue 2. Here’s the first we’re publishing online. Enjoy. 

—Michelle

A TRIPTYCH TO “YOUTH” | Erik Wennermark

I started reading Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 at the beach back in November. The beach, Mui Ne, is a strip of road wrapped around a cove, anchored at one end by an old fishing village. Travelling in the semicircle of the cove, one first goes through a passel of nouveau-riche Russian-owned vacation bungalows. Blondes and their bulky boyfriends mill in packs only to be separated by the call of spas, salons, and massage parlors’ Russian-language neon signage—the women to those with a more reputable look; the men, well, you know.

Afterwards, the wives and girlfriends, now with blindingly colorful finger- and toenails, buy cheap swimwear and cheap straw hats so that the men, mute and docile with release, may not sunburn their tender Slavic noses.

The novel—I put it down after Book 1 and have yet to pick it back up—carries on Murakami’s interest in Jazzbos, Lady Assassins, and Little Monsters. This preoccupation seemed to fit well with the environment of the Novela Muine lounge where I spent some pages and a couple/few stiff G & Ts, deftly entertained by the strains of George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” as played by the Essence Band, two Filipina women of uncommon talent and beauty.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhPKMjgc22Q&context=C41f7c39ADvjVQa1PpcFOXcFBkVPNVB7U_viYGXgyDg9cSQdxwWn4=)

—-

Power Station epitomizes the term “supergroup.” Sparked in 1984, when a temporary break in Duran Duran’s touring schedule became an extended hiatus, the group brought together members of that seminal eighties pop band along with always dapper vocalist Robert Palmer. Filling out the lineup was drummer Tony Thompson of Chic. The group is best known for its high-voltage single “Some Like it Hot” along with its rendition of the T. Rex classic “Get it On (Bang a Gong),” which in many senses usurps the power of the original. Audiences also remember Power Station from their role in the critically acclaimed soundtrack to the immensely popular film Commando, staring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Their electric contribution, “We Fight for Love,” follows the theme of the film in its moving tribute to the unbreakable current between parent and child. The jolting refrain “We fight for love!” only matched in shocking urgency by the first verse, “I am a mountain, surrounded by your love / You are a mountain that dreams are made of.” If that were Power Station’s only contributed wattage to the canon of late-twentieth century music, their blinding light would still not be dimmed.

—-

Next to the Resurrection Palace in downtown Saigon is a biergarten decorated in the traditional German style. The waitresses are dressed as milkmaids. A father and son troupe provide entertainment, playing Eric Burdon’s “House of the Rising Son” over and over again on their guitars. A balding Japanese man in his late fifties sits with a stunning Vietnamese prostitute and lazily watches the performance. Despite the late hour he is wearing dark Ray Ban sunglasses. He has a Bluetooth device in his ear and a leather satchel slung around his chest. His watch is Tag Heuer. His shoes are loafers, Yves Saint Laurent. He and his woman are drinking margaritas.

The pony-tailed Vietnamese sings: “Mudder, terr yer chidren, not ter do wat I herv dun…Pain an misry, in der hourse of the riding sun.”

Empty margarita glasses collect on the table and the man is increasingly drunk, slumping into his chair. The whore sits straight-backed watching the musicians, waiting for the turn from her client. Will it be violence or generosity? The man stands unsteadily, bracing two hands on the table, and knocks off one of the glasses, which shatters on the floor sending milkmaids in increasingly wild oscillations. His mouth opens and shuts like a thirsty fish; a trickle of drool reaches the collar of the Armani suit jacket he wears over a powder-blue, V-neck T-shirt. “Carl Perkins,” he shouts into the collected silence of the awestruck patrons and the sweeping sounds of milkmaids. The band changes mid-tune to “Blue Suede Shoes.”

Los Angeles fans: Your poems about our city knocked me out. Thanks for sharing your work with The Rattling Wall.

The Rattling Wall is pleased to announce a one-week poetry contest for fans living in the Los Angeles area. The submission cycle for the contest opens today and closes on Thursday, April 19, at midnight. Winners will be announced online on Friday, April 20.

Contest Rules:

Email your best poem (one poem, got it?) about Los Angeles to the editor of The Rattling Wall, Michelle Meyering, here: michelle@penusa.org.

The poem should appear in the body of the email. Use Arial, 12 pt font.  Blah, blah, you know the drill. The email should also include your full name, contact information, and a short bio.

Also, Michelle wants to showcase big, badass, bold poems in this contest, so don’t send her any sentimental, sing-songy, prissy-pants poems. You won’t win.

The Loot:

Contest winners will receive a free copy of The Rattling Wall, Issue 2, and will read their poems to the adoring masses at a pre-party for the 2012 Jubilee. The pre-party will take place on April 26, 2012, at Bootleg Theater (2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057).

Ready? Set? Go.