The Pleasures of Constraint

When did you start writing short essays? I’m often asked.  When I had children, I say.

This is a story about how form follows content.  Or, this is a story about how constraint becomes creativity.  Or, this is a story about why the novel-in-progress is still, well, in progress. (more…)

Since nobody has ever asked or checked, I thought I’d take a moment to tally up the ratio of female:male contributors and interviewees published in Cobalt’s first seven issues.

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I’ve always been wary of mixed tapes. You get one from a friend or an admirer never knowing what’s in store. The albums these mixes are culled from were planned for months, maybe years in advance; everything, from which songs to song placement, was orchestrated to create a specific experience when listening to the entire album. Then someone came along and started hacking up what had been so carefully built song by liner note by album cover. Sure, sometimes these new mixes are amazing, (if missing the cool album art) but sometimes—too many times—they absolutely are not. No matter how many good mixes I’ve been given, when someone hands me a mix and wants to know what I think I begin stress grinding my teeth in a way my dentist warns me is not good. (more…)

Hello friends -

This is not an apology. I am not sorry.

However, I am exhausted. Last night I slept for 7 hours and dreamed I slept 8. Just not catching any breaks.

So AWP was intense. It was the first time I had attended, and the first time that Cobalt was represented. We put on a good show, sold a lot of stuff and got the word out there. I did a pair of awesome readings, and attended many others.

We also got the contract signed by three of the four authors who wrote COBALT PRESS’s first book. So that’s something.

But here’s where things are getting a little weird: today was the day our March issue was due to come out.

Yeah, that’s not happening.

Don’t worry though, when I make it home tonight, I’ll give you some teasers that will keep you salivating for the next five days while we upload the rest of our content. You can expect ISSUE 7 to hit the stands on Friday, 3/15 (roughly 8AM).

Sophie Johnson, “Metro”

And, of course, there are some awesome people involved in this issue. I am very excited to publish my interview with Amber Sparks, author of MAY WE SHED THESE HUMAN BODIES. Also a publisher’s series interview with J.A. Tyler (Mudluscious Press). There’s Emily Mullin, Kevin Heaton, Courtney Hitson, Elizabeth Body, Carl Glickman, Allison Frase Reavis… Oh man. Just so good. Even a bit of artwork from Sophie Johnson, who you may remember from ISSUE ONE.

Wha-POW!

So use this time to think about ways that you can enjoy Cobalt Issue 7 differently on Friday instead of today. Maybe even share with us stories about where you like to read Cobalt: the toilet, the shower, your local Red Robin, aloud from the top of your apartment building?

ISSUE 7 teaser: Click here to read Emily Mullin’s “Emergency.”

ISSUE 7 teaser: Click here to read the first few questions from my interview with Amber Sparks.

Be merry,

Andrew Keating
Publisher

Some updates to the Jim Palmer Baseball Writing Prize:

We have so much love for our good friends over at Hobart that we didn’t want to create conflict with their wonderful annual all-baseball issue. So we’ve decided to make ours a more comprehensive All Star Line-Up to be published in July 2013. More details on that will come later.

The deadline for the Palmer Prize is now extended to June 25th, as a result of our publication date change. We will continue to have rolling acceptance for the July issue, until we believe it to be full. So don’t waste any time.

We have decided to open this contest, and only this contest, to previously published materials. As an “All Star Line-Up,” we want to feature the best of recent baseball writing; therefore, if you have great stuff that’s been published since 4/1/2012 and have the rights to get it reprinted, we want to read it!

Visit the submission manager to send us your best work. Email us at cobalt@cobaltreview.com if you have any questions.

Also, check out Hobart’s great all-baseball issue, which comes out in April.