by Stanley Crawford (Knopf, 1972 – Dalkey Archive, 2008)

I’m always saying Pilot Books is for the now, the new, authors writing and publishing in times such as these. And that’s mostly true, with a few exceptions. (No rule to these exceptions, they’re entirely up to [my] whim.) Here’s one:

Stan Crawford’s Log was reprinted last year by Dalkey, with a charming new cover and an excellent afterword by Ben Marcus. I read it yesterday and can’t get it out of my head. A mere 107 pages of storytelling – in the voice of a woman plucked from society by her seafaring genius of a husband – Log draws the barest sketch of a 50-year union. But all the pieces are there. The story is complete. Whether the Unguentine marriage/hermitage was a catastrophe or wild success, you can’t say. Death-do-us-part vows are fast becoming historical artifacts here on land. In Log, they fuel a grand adventure where nothing happens and (I suspect) every act is a stopgap for love.

$12.95

by Matthew Rohrer (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009)

“Flip book poetry.” My new way to describe poems or books where each line is actually a complete poem or story, a series of non sequiturs, which combine to form a really tender piece of reading. “A Plate of Chicken” is a new book of poems and a flip book about eating chicken. I recommend it for people who liked David Carl’s Fragments (Green Lantern Press, 2008), flash-fiction-readers, Anthony Bourdain, emo kids, and atheists who meditate.

$15