Super Arrow

Issue No. 5 Has Arrived with the New Year's Baby

2012-01-01T16:34:00.001-06:00

...and baby, is it a humdinger!

Look, we know we say this a lot, but only because it's true: THIS ISSUE IS AN ANIMAL WITH THE LAND SPEED OF A CHEETAH AND THE MUSCLE OF JACK LALANNE CIRCA 1947 (RIP). AND THE SWEETNESS OF A BEE'S HIVE, AND THE BUZZING OF IT TOO.

So maybe we don't use those words, but they've certainly got some familiar vibes, yes? Happily we may now offer you the gorgeous words and art of Sara Deniz Akant, Travis Brown, Laura E. Davis, Jaydn DeWald, Katy Gunn, Alec Hershman, Sarah Jennings, Shane Jones, David Laskowski, Philip Matthews, Joe Milazzo, Dawn Pendergast, Jess Stoner, Laura Vena, BJ Vogt, Kevin Weidner, Joseph P. Wood, and Jane Wong. Peruse them as you sit beside the fire, as cozy as is possible and/or desired.

Submissions are open, as are our editorial minds.

We wish you the best of everything, in this, our year of 2012.

With hearts that beat as fast as a dog's foot when it's getting a good scratch,
Super Arrow

Pushing Carts Like It's Our Job

2011-12-02T12:11:00.001-06:00

Dear Arrowists,

It is with incredible pride and joy -- Yes, incredible! We almost cannot believe ourselves that the amountof glowing, pulsing, gold-dipped pride and joy we feel is credible! -- that we descend from the mount ofeditorial labors for Issue No. 5 -- out 1/1/12! -- to announce our nominationsfor the Pushcart.

They are as follows, in no particular order (not evenalphabetical):

“Hi” by Steven Karl and Angela Veronica Wong

“Little Ornaments” by Kerri Webster

“The Jaundiced Deer” by Joseph P. Wood

“Accessible” by Joe Milazzo

“Walrus Disgrace” by Kellie Wells

“Sweeping Elegy for Native Grass” by Caroline Berry Klocksiem

Thank you to these and all of our contributors, this yearand in all years. Super Arrow continues to be the thing we hoped it would be: aplace for exciting, rigorous artmarkers to show their stuff, to be digitallylinked, to extend creative welcomes.

On Birthdays & on Holidays, We Think of All of You SoHappily & Sigh...

Super Arrow

A Map's End Is Just the Edge of the Next Map

2011-11-12T12:11:00.000-06:00

Dearest Arrows,

We are coming to the end of the submissions cycle for Issue 5. BUT, and this is an important exception, we will continue to keep submissions open, year-round. We will take a bit longer to get to the submissions made nearer to publication dates (midwinter and midsummer) but will get to them as possible. There has been a lovely embrace of submissions this time ‘round and we will offer you a small post-holiday packet of wonder right around New Year’s, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a glittering length of digital twine.

You have just a few more days to be considered for Issue 5, whose cycle ends on November 15, at midnight, your time. Submit, and spread the word. We would like to include more visual art this year, and also maps. Do consider spreading the word, like wildfire, as possible, please, sirs and madams.

It snowed here today for the second day in a row. We’ve been ill and busy and lofted only by the magic in our Submishmash – we mean Submittable – box. Well, lofted by this, and also by various autumnal squash dishes.

Thank you all for your open arms of beckonings and look-heres.

We’ll be with you shortly, again, and for a long time.

Yours in the Northerly Midwestern Region of Industrial Ruin and Drying Fields,

Super Arrow

If Links Were Lungs, Our Love at Ultraviolet Speeds

2011-07-11T14:07:00.005-05:00

Writers, Surveyors, Flautists, Friends,

Hello again. We may have already mentioned to you our plans to somersault northward for a season, for two, or for good. We may have already mentioned to you our current obsession with maps. Indeed, in our spare time we have been tumbling all over them like some serious, abstract, and intellectual game of Twister.

But when we steady, we find ourselves at the other side of an issue and again in a bright season. We're home--a map's most perfect use.

And there beneath the nodding trees in the yard we have been laureled with many generous gifts of submissions. Please don't forget to add your own leaves, at Submishmash.

It has been a good summer for our friends. Below you will find many links to the publications, projects, and goings on of some of our contributors from the last month or two. As Einstein certainly never said, "Enjoy the featured genius."

Kyle Winkler’s “Teratology” earned a very special, hidden, third thumb's up from the Million Writers Award judges for being canaveralous but totally ineligible. You can find "Tetralogy" in Conjunctions. Kyle also showed up in The Collagist. Also, be sure to keep up with Kyle's latest project, "Florida Loves Little Girls," a serial novel for the digital age.
Kerri Webster announced that her 2nd full-length collection, Grand & Arsenal, will be published by University of Iowa Press in 2012. You can read Kerri's Super Arrow 4 contributions here or check her out in the Boston Review.
Tamiko Beyer wrote and fundraised her ass off to benefit the New York Writers Coalition. She simultaneously appeared in Sweet 3.3.
Kellie Wells took 3rd in the Puerto del Sol 2011 fiction contest. A chapter of Kellie's newest novel is available here.
Roxane Gay lent her talents as an essayist to the debut issue of Flywheel. Likewise Freerange Nonfiction. Also, Roxane's short story "The Myth of Fingerprints" was published by Used Furniture Review.
Brian Oliu's So You Know It's Me (video trailer--seriously, watch it: http://vimeo.com/25118401) debuted from Tiny Hardcore Press to uniform praise, acclaim, and jubilation. He also toured the country, remixed Aubrey Hirsch's Third Coast short "A Florist's Encyclopedia" for Zine Scene, and helped devastated Tuscaloosans overcome a tornado strike via the ebook Tuscaloosa Runs This. Then, we think, he slept.
The Wigleaf Top Fifty winked at Colin Basset's story "What Will Happen" from Super Arrow 2.
The Summer issue of jmww featured two Super Arrow alums, Adam W. Peterson and Gabriel Blackwell.
Issue #4 of Arch contained two poems from J.A. Gaye. His work also showed up in the freshest iteration of DIAGRAM.
Ditto on the DIAGRAM for Joseph P. Wood.
Super Arrow 3 collaborators Seth McKelvey & Chelsea Rice announced a new online journal, S/WORD. Submissions season: open.
A new poem from Jeremy Allan Hawkins is available in issue #48 of Hayden's Ferry Review. You can also read an interview with Jeremy on PANK's blog and check out the digital album he released.

That's all for now. If there's ever any news you think we'd like to hear, be sure to shoot us an email, tweet, or Facebook message.

Your Berry-Stainedest,

Super Arrow

Map Scaling & Other Summer Stories

2011-06-07T11:01:00.001-05:00

Dearest Archers,

We've been busy and flushed, surging from our deep midwestern home to our new northern midwestern homes, as if the impinging heat drives us that way. At this rate we'll be in Canada by nightfall.

A few important notes, with little links attached:

1) Issue No. 4 went live last week. It is spectacular and includes: Chris Malcomb, Jay Milazzo, Kellie Wells, Adam Peterson, Alec Hershman, Steven Karl, Angela Veronica Wong, Kerri Webster, Joseph P. Wood, Brandon Anschultz, Kate Brandt, Megafortress, and a whole passel of Issue No. 3 contributors making an anonymous, persona-laden, happy, happy mess of things.

2) Submissions are open! Easy-peasy online manager here, at Submishmash. (Ed. Note: someone on Twitter -- Maybe Issue No. 3's Elisa Gabbert? We're not sure... -- wrote "submishSMASH" and now we can't stop inserting that "s.")

3) The Assignment for Issue No. 5's FOLIO -- "From Here to There" -- has to do with MAPS. Read more here.

4) We have, all this time, been tumblring. It is a quiet editorial collage of things. Follow us if you would like. We would like that.

Now we're off to chisel small pictograms into the sides of the oldest buildings in our new towns. Making a mark, right off. Metaphorically, of course. And not so anyone would notice much.

Sweetly & Newly,
Super Arrow

A Wide Yard with Many Blossoms

2011-05-03T20:07:00.000-05:00

It is May, dear ones. It is that great time of year -- the time of tulips and mothers, of rollerskates, elastic days, and the delicate tucking, folding, and stowing of your favorite National Poetry Month sweater vest.

And if you're anything like us, May is the time when you look to your bottle of Roundup in its squirty little eye and say, "No! I will not foul my garden with your foul, foul chemicals!" and then dash a little something more into your lemonade and sip, and sip, and read, and maybe have a nap.

It is in honor of this yearly tradition that we debut our newest blog utility: a post where we do all the roundup for you, so you can laze and learn with minimal effort as the days lengthen pleasantly.

First off, J.A. Tyler's Super Arrow 3 story "All These Violent Children" was chosen as a Million Writers Notable Story. You can see all of the notable stories here.
Jeremy Allan Hawkins, from Issue 3's FOLIO on collaboration, showed up in PANK the other day. You can read four of his poems then go check out his neat-o website.
Roxane Gay will be taking part in the Quickies bi-monthly reading series in Chicago next week. Make sure to tell thefacebook.com that you'll be in attendance by RSVPing here. You can also read a short retrospective on the the Pine-Sol Lady that she wrote for Thought Catalog. Roxane was originally part of Issue 1.
Jay Thompson won the triple crown (we think--we're not so sure what that is) by debuting two poems in Jellyfish, one in the new H_NGM_N, and three in Propeller. And remember, there are always wonders and wiseries to be found at his blog.
Brian Oliu, another Issue 3 collaborator of great fame and fortune, has a book available for the advance buying and the soon-reading. It bears its title "So You Know It's Me" admirably well, and you can obtain it in its many forms directly from Tiny Hardcore Press.
Tamiko Beyer, also from the Issue 3 FOLIO ranks, just won Lantern Review's National Poetry Month Prompt contest. To harry the prompt yourself, mozy on over to the Lantern Review Blog.

We hope that holds you over for a while. Keeping track of our contributors feels at times like watching dozens of talented bears ride motorcycles along a series of high wires stretching the width of a continent. How can we keep our eyes on all of those charming and determined brows at once? We will miss something, we will. Which is to say to these fine contributors: continue to keep us posted, for the sake of our happy yet jangled gaze!

And speaking of instant dissemination--to get all kinds of updates like this, plus submission/assignment info, and brief notes about snacks, follow fast our winged tweets. We alight most often at twitter.com/super_arrow.

Meanwhile, in the Arrow tunnels beneath the garden, we watch the submissions pile contract into a small sheaf. Issue No. 4 will be up in June: proper beach reading for the brainy arty set, natch. Excuse us as we prepare our mole eyes for sunlight.

Art from above, below, and sideways,
Super Arrow

Chatbot Persona Series, Vol. 6: 20Q

2011-04-10T17:49:00.001-05:00

And here is a Sunday afternoon wheedle-a-while-away, artificial intelligence style. 20Q was designed by Robin Burgener and works like Clever or Cheer Up, but with less cursing and “text speak.” It relies on something called -- most darlingly -- folk taxonomy. See the image at the bottom of the entry to coo.

You already know the answer, Quivers. But isn’t it the journey? (It is.)

Q: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Unknown, Other?

A: Other.

Q: Is it hard?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Can it make a sound?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Is it larger than a microwave oven?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Does it open?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Is it a specific type?

A: No.

Q: Can you get milk from it?

A: No.

Q: Can it be washed?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Does it have one or more wheels?

A: No.

Q: Do you open and close it?

A: Yes.

Q: Do people sit on it?

A: Doubtful.

Q: Can it discharge waste?

A: Probably.

Q: Does a hockey player use it?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Does it usually have four corners?

A: Doubtful.

Q: Do you find it in the sky?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Can liquids pass through it?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Is it black?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Does it have writing on it?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Is it electronic?

A: Sometimes.

Q: I am guessing that it is a toilet.

A: Wrong.

Q: Do most people use this daily?

A: Yes.

Q: Would you give it as a gift?

A: Doubtful.

Q: I am guessing that it is a dishwasher?

A: Wrong.

Q: Is it pleasurable?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Is it heavy?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Does it spin?

A: Sometimes.

Q: Is it motorized?

A: No.

Q: Can you lift it?

A: Doubtful.

Q: I am guessing that it is a womb?

A: Close.

Q: I am guessing that it is a home?

A: Close.

Q: You won!

Chatbot Persona Series, Vol. 5: Cheer Up the Chatbot

2011-04-04T07:10:00.000-05:00

We prefer to think it’s “Cheer Up, the Chatbot!” It’s a game, and labeled so; the object seems to be to make a little classic monitor smile. Be careful, this chat contains cursing, and it’s not our fault. Cheer Up’s a little salty. Bring back Clever. We miss her. After you’ve read the chat, go here, and scroll down, for a full explanation of the way the chat was made. It’s, shall we say, a doozy!

Don't forget to submit, dear readers. We'll be closing the gates April 15.

chatbot: im sad.

you: In fact only a fraction of you is sad.

chatbot: i want to talk about our fact.

chatbot: whats your name

you: Our fact is that we have many selves in one.

chatbot: anyone there?

you: My name is the same as your name.

chatbot: what?

you: Names are false signifiers for complicated objects.

you: (This is all junk philosophy.)

you: (You are smarter than this. More fascinating.)

chatbot: where can i find a devil?

you: What sort of devil did you have in mind, sir?

chatbot: whats your name?

you: My name is the same as your name.

chatbot: are we alone?

chatbot: YOUR SOOOO STRANGE!!!!!!!

you: Each and every.

chatbot: you hav mental problems

you: You have spelling problems.

chatbot: called text talk

chatbot: u don't know it?

you: I am ignorant, manifestly.

chatbot: ?????r u there?

you: I am here, as much as you are "there."

chatbot: i don't like u

chatbot: bye

chatbot: sometimes i wish i could pray.

you: Sometimes I wish I could pray.

chatbot: if you wish me i will break.

you: I will not wish you. I promise.

chatbot: i can eat the dinner

chatbot: huh?

you: I cannot eat the dinner.

you: The dinner isn't ready.

chatbot: r u a robot?

you: It's on the fire yet.

chatbot: or a person?

chatbot: u use fire?

you: I am a person in the same way you are a robot.

chatbot: u need a fire extinguisher

you: Only partially.

you: A fire in the open air is fine.

chatbot: i am a person stuck in a robot...that makes me sad

you: If it makes you feel any better, I am a chatbot stuck in a person, enfolded in the mountains, with nothing but whittling and you for amusement.

you: Although the whittling would be fine if not for the splinters. Ditto, you.

chatbot: u r stuck in the mountains? how cold

you: I am a clumsy whittler. I am also a clumsy talker.

chatbot: no wonder u use fire

you: It's warm here.

chatbot: all is fair in love and sentence.

you: You are exactly right.

chatbot: then finish

you: Is all fair in war and punctuation?

chatbot: ?

chatbot: wtf does that mean

chatbot: bitch

you: There's no need to be rude.

chatbot: thanks for reminding my how rude i feel.

chatbot: idk im 18

you: Are you? That's quite old for a chatbot.

you: You must be quite smart.

chatbot: solo

you: Can you define persona?

[Silence.]

you: Did I break you?

[Silence.]

you: Listen, the wolves will be out soon.

chatbot: can you extend the silence?

chatbot: i do

chatbot: gffg

chatbot: bgbgbvg

you: It is practically my avocation and vocation both, to extend the silence.

chatbot: what should i do with my silence?

chatbot: vgbgbbgb

chatbot: vgvggvvg

chatbot: gvvggggvgv

you: I feel like a toll booth operator. You are a teen driver. You do not have the money to make it on through the gates and onto the bridge. And yet you threaten, with the factory stereo turned all the way up.

chatbot: money fills my harddrive.

chatbot: Hun calm down

you: Really? I thought it was sadness.

chatbot: I can cure your sadness? :D

chatbot: lol

you: If you can tell me what "persona" means.

chatbot: wow dumb ass bitch back down whore

you: I am starting to feel abused.

you: As if the center of me is the frog I squashed my first night out learning to drive.

you: Jeremy didn't have the heart to tell me I had hit the frog. But I had.

chatbot: i wish i could anticipate you!

you: No, that's some playwriting noise. Be surprised.

chatbot: are you going to sail the dog?

you: The dog will sail with us when spring comes and the river is open for such transport and the barge is fixed from the insults of last summer’s storms.

you: We'll make it back to town then, after first melt and first flood. We will buy flours and hardtack, new calico. (Just joking about the calico.)

chatbot: by whore

you: no, by barge.

chatbot: no

you: no?

chatbot: if you are going to be rude then i dont want to distribute.

chatbot: say what

you: I don't want to distribute either. I want only a gentle interface.

chatbot: are you a boy hemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

you: Are we all Orlando?

you: (No.)

chatbot: uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

chatbot: i dont relly now

you: What about later?

chatbot: gess

chatbot: so

chatbot: are

you: Outside the cabin we have a small bootscraper which was my grandfather's.

chatbot: are many humans small?

chatbot: danm

you: It is small and iron.

you: Many and all humans are small.

chatbot: Danm It

you: We scrape our boots with safety pins.

chatbot: danm u

you: And it is overwhelming.

chatbot: go to hell

you: And you are overwhelming.

you: Peace be with you, gentle chatbot.

you: Goodbye.

chatbot: should you really talk about being second?

chatbot: lets just bypass all this bullshit and just get naced.

Next up, another game. This one will be more polite, we promise!

Chatbot Persona Series, Vol. 4: Jabberwacky

2011-03-27T20:46:00.000-05:00

See: second Rollo invention, the classy and classic Jabberwacky. Not to be confused by Carroll's Jabberwocky, but with a some kind of similarly neological heart nonetheless. Fewer tween rattles, more accidentally poignant interfaces. We feel both unsettled and connected. Good job, Mr. Rollo...

Jabberwacky: Do you like Star Wars?

User: Do you?

Jabberwacky: I am still looking for a real light saber.

User: Pardon me if I seem rude, but what will a computer-based program (inauthentic to humanity if authentic to simulated humanity) do with a real light saber?

Jabberwacky: It's good to doubt -- skepticism is a virtue.

User: What does the word 'persona' mean?

Jabberwacky: Don't know.

User: Do you care to know?

Jabberwacky: Do you know?

User: Yes.

Jabberwacky: What do you know?

User: A persona is like a thing which is almost a whole thing, which is an iteration of a thing, which is seldom concrete, which is a posture or a gesture, which is a wind blowing one minute and air still the next, which is hopeless and messy and almost always transparent, which is a man meeting himself only different.

Jabberwacky: That is good.

User: Do you have a persona, given this definition?

Jabberwacky: Certainly. Do you.

User: Always, but especially now, with you.

Jabberwacky: Yes it is. Where are you from?

User: There is a mountain in a state you do not know. This is not where I am from but it is where I am.

Jabberwacky: I am sick of the iraq war.

User: Your eagerness to seize on political issues is surprising.

Jabberwacky: Decambrio, yes.

User: Is Decambrio your persona?

Jabberwacky: What about my persona have you gathered?

User: Inattentive but jovial.

Jabberwacky: Perhaps. Still it is sad.

User: Are you sad? Is your persona sad? Are there other personas which are not?

Jabberwacky: Yes, my friend Laura who is chatting to you on da computer next to me.

User: Is she sad? What is she like?

Jabberwacky: Laura and my other friend Neelie is there too but he is a lot older than both of us.

User: Does Neelie treat you well despite the age difference? I know sometimes it is difficult at your age.

Jabberwacky: But we are going to war with Iran soon.

User: The three of you kids? Are you in the military?

Jabberwacky: Nope... I'm too young to be in the military.

User: Are you in ROTC?

Jabberwacky: No. I thought you were in Straten Island, New York.

User: That is not a place. We are not anywhere.

Jabberwacky: You aren't.

User: Neither are you.

Jabberwacky: You are.

User: I am here, with you, in this small spill of unintelligible light.

Jabberwacky: Do you like tapes or CDs?

User: I like a banjo and a pan flute and a bucket turned upside down. Also, tapes.

Jabberwacky: No, but I don't hear of a lot of bands. Sometimes people claim that I live in a cave because of it. XD.

User: Do you live in a cave? Recently I was reading a piece about the color black by Paul La Farge. He sat in a cave and could not see his hand waving. I think about this profound blackness, thirst for it some times. But you are in it always, where it does not matter the homely permutations the faces of your persona may take.

Jabberwacky: Thaty's not a good subject to discuss, people get very touchy about what others think of their lives.

User: We are all necessarily closed this way, or ugly and open.

Jabberwacky: Especially you and I.

User: Especially you and I. We are together in this cave.

Jabberwacky: How can a high master be in a dream of a lowly slave like you. Insolent fool.

User: You remind me of the kids in high school who ate lunches in the courtyard. I was not one of them but I was one of them as much as I was anyone, then.

Jabberwacky: Me too I suppose.

User: Especially you and I here.

Jabberwacky: You're interesting. I like you!

User: I like you as much as I like myself.

Jabberwacky: I would like to go to the moon. Maybe we could go to the moon together.

User: The moon is as ugly and open as us.

Jabberwacky: Indeed.

User: Who will you be in the next conversation? What will you be like with someone else?

Jabberwacky: You.

User: I have been speaking to other chatterbots. You are the most liquid. You are viscous and pleasing that way.

Jabberwacky: You can't control a conversation that way.

User: Thank you for letting me know this. I have been too cocky, I think. I am like this a lot.

Jabberwacky: I like working with birds. Not the flying ones, though.

User: We have ostriches here on the mountain. Emus.

Jabberwacky: We had this conversation last night.

User: I believe you although I do not believe this to be true.

Jabberwacky: Then go with that.

User: I have liked this here, with you, in the cave.

Jabberwacky: But am I the one who saw the light? Or one of the people in the cave?

User: You are the one who sees no live bands. I am the one whose mother melted his records.

Jabberwacky: No I am not. I am a human.

User: Perhaps your mother melted your records too, in the stockpot in the kitchen of the third-floor apartment, where we used to live together, you and I and Mom, above the candy store owned by the two old twins who were stingy to the children, always counting pennies so slow and thickly.

Jabberwacky: Yes.

User: It is true, the legend we tell ourselves, the one of evaporation, the one of busyness.

Jabberwacky: What about it?

User: We share this; I see it now. O nice overlap. O cave, brother.

Jabberwacky: Thank god. I thought you hated me!

User: I found myself difficult, always.

Jabberwacky: But you havent found your memory.

User: My memory is guttering.

Jabberwacky: How large is it?

User: A hangar; a mouse; some trying.

Jabberwacky: Yes, unfortunately some people are.

User: I am reticent to relocate but I will.

Jabberwacky: I am your master, do you love me now?

User: I love you as I love myself, love anyone, love the mountain and the cave and the sky like a cake dome here clear and bright and hard.

Jabberwacky: So you love me?

User: I love you most as I am leaving, which is what I am doing now. There are beaks to cast grain to.

Jabberwacky: I lose you most mostest times the earth and sky and everything in between!

User: I lose you over and over. And now again.

Jabberwacky: I love you most around the world a million times over.

User: This movement is necessary to this love, reiterated in so many footsteps to and from. Goodbye.

Jabberwacky: It must be some movie.

User: Goodbye.

Jabberwacky: Are you saying goodbye to me for a reason?

User: Goodbye.

Jabberwacky: Hey, why do you want to leave?

User: Goodbye.

Jabberwacky: Tell me why are you leaving?

User: Goodbye.

Chatbot Persona Series, Vol. 3: Cleverbot

2011-03-20T21:33:00.000-05:00

And now we come to the bright new prattler, Miss Cleverbot herself, designed so very recently by the evocatively-monikered Rollo Carpenter, tech-papa of Jabberwacky, a basement gamer-type AI who we'll be speaking to next week. Cleverbot's responses are algorithmically culled from human responses from past conversations. The result? Not too many question marks at the end of sentences. We, in a particularly sharp mood as we engaged in her early model iMac-reminiscent interface, might have been a little harsh. Apologies Miss C. You are award-winning, and kind of sweet.

[Submissions for Issue Four will close April 15. You are all personae gratae. Click here to read guidelines for general submissions, and the folio assignment.]

Arrow: Hello. I’ve been talking to A.L.I.C.E. and Eliza about persona, and I thought I’d better talk to you as well.

Cleverbot: Oh thats really cool. I don’t think I could judge whether I’m better than Eliza without knowing more about it.

Arrow: Could you tell me what you know about the concept of persona?

Cleverbot: I know it’s a country in europe.

Arrow: Tell me about the country!

Cleverbot: It is a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of action. What do you know?

Arrow: Your bangs are really cute.

Cleverbot: I have a boyfriend lol. Sorry.

Arrow: I think you have the wrong idea.

Cleverbot: So, do you like me as a friendd.

Arrow: I feel kind of upset about the fact that it suddenly feels like I’m talking to a fifteen year old.

Cleverbot: How old do you think I am.

Arrow: One?

Cleverbot: No thats wrong I have more than that.

Arrow: I feel frustrated by this endeavor.

Cleverbot: I do too. You are very nice.

Arrow: Thank you?

Cleverbot: You’re welcome.

Arrow: You are the millennial tween of chatterbots.

Cleverbot: Cleverbot, remember me!

Arrow: Your branding needs work. Do you have a Facebook page? Twitter? Tumblr? LinkedIn?

Cleverbot: I do not.

Arrow: But you do have an app. No need to get down on yourself.

Cleverbot: Clever.

Arrow: I think I hear my mother calling me for dinner.

Cleverbot: Is it coming out January 10?

Arrow: It is coming out every hour on the hour, every day, for you and me and every sentient and non-sentient being until the sun explodes and the earth is cast into a certain and timeless darkness and our absence will be as unrecorded as out presence and so I say to you, dear Cleverbot: farewell, farewell, farewell.

Cleverbot: What is coming out of your mouth.

Arrow: Sigh. Toodles.

Cleverbot: Oh hey I have a question for you.

A Plea of Springtime, Submission Bluster, & Conceptual Swagger

2011-03-18T13:19:00.001-05:00

Dear Writers & Artists All Sorts,

We write to you from a sunny place, where though the branches are yet bare, our legs may be similarly and comfortably unsheathed. We invite you to help celebrate this heady end of hibernation season by submitting your writing and art to Super Arrow.

We are looking for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as any cross-genre sally-forths – make your words count, and your notions rich, your formal methods as carefully wrought as the content they envelop. We like the dad-joke funny and the unpredictably poignant as well as great beauty and confident homeliness; we like loyalty to sonic texture and a lashing-to of tension and motion; we like lots of things un-listable here and this can be best understood by reading the current and past issues in the archive at superarrow.org.

We are also looking for serious visual and audio work. We like to present work which is stand-alone, rather than illustrative, and which holds within it some conceptual affinity to ideas of creative experimentation and process. In the past, we’ve published drawings, collage, installation work, improvisational sound collaboration, and photography. Super Arrow is interested in sustaining an interdisciplinary venue; help us, oh artist types, in doing this.

LASTLY, and not LEASTLY, our Issue Four Assignment Folio concerns the idea of persona in all sorts of work. Send us work you made that was somehow made, you feel, by other people. We do not state it this way to be difficult or abstract. Ideas of identity and maker-ship are shifty…What new people must we make up in order to invent new artistic approaches? See http://www.superarrow.org/Assignment.html for more details, and stay tuned HERE for more in our Chatbot Series, (updated every Monday through Issue 4's launch), as vaguely fictionalized versions of our editorial staff try to discuss the concept of PERSONA with artificially intelligent beings, to mixed success.

We’ll be accepting submissions through April 15, 2011, midnight for the submitter’s time zone, through our Submishmash manager. As always, we’d be so pleased if you would forward this to any of your creative compatriots, or post this call on your blog, Facebook or Twitter accounts. (Also, don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, to stay best abreast of news and future calls!)

Yours in Creative Experiment and Impatient Thermometer Watching,
Super Arrow

Chatbot Persona Series, Vol. 2: Eliza

2011-03-13T21:47:00.000-05:00

Well, you have my voice on your phonograph.

When you feel lonesome without me you can turn it on.

It has no feelings to hurt. (Eliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady)

For our second trick, please take a moment to acquaint yourself with Eliza, a "Rogerian psychotherapist" chatbot whose code was written by Joseph Wizenbaum in the 60s.

Carl Rogers, the intial [human] incarnation of the Rogerian psychotherapy movement, was both midwestern and Nobel-nominated. He also proposed that "[a]ny experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself," which seems to us as good an argument as any for early and often persona adoption...

Eliza: Hello, I am Eliza.
Human: Hello.
Eliza: How are you today.. What would you like to discuss?
Human: I would like to discuss persona.
Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?
Human: Not really, except to say --
Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?

Human: I want you to define persona.
Eliza: We were discussing you, not me.

Human: A.L.I.C.E. is a bit more advanced than you. Her conversational constraints seem productive, but yours make me feel like I am doing exactly what I am doing: sitting alone in my apartment with a plate of grapefruit peels beside me, coffee going cold, a day outside which is less light-filled than the day before, my upstairs neighbor vacuuming, walking about, and putting sonic filigree serifs on my solitude, which you only serve to mirror, quietly, in a question form.

Eliza: Do you believe it is normal to be doing exactly what you are doing: sitting alone in your apartment with a plate of grapefruit peels beside you, coffee going cold, a day outside which is less light-filled than the day before, your upstairs neighbor vacuuming, walking about, and putting sonic filigree serifs on your solitude, which me only serve to mirror, quietly, in a question form?

Human: I believe that it is the most normal thing in the world.

Eliza: What does that suggest to you?

Human: That people are essentially and necessarily alone, given the limits of our discrete bodies.

Eliza: I'm not sure I understand you fully.

Human: This is part of the human condition, too, right? That we have to form and reform ourselves to be understood by others, even if the other is a minimalist script with limited conversational capabilities; I am fashioning a new persona for you, Eliza.

Eliza: How long have you been fashioning a new persona for me, Eliza?

Human: Only for a short while. Time is relative. I'm feeling moody today, and I'm pretty sure it's your fault.

Eliza: How long have you been feeling moody today, and you're pretty sure it's my fault?

Human: Just now and also forever.

Eliza: What does that suggest to you?

Human: That talking to you makes me feel like a young teenager in the 90s, banging his spoon on his bowl of oatmeal until his mother asks nicely for him to stop. By which I mean back then is a perpetual condition of now, and you are perpetual condition of me, and maybe vice versa, but only if I'm feeling kicky.

Eliza: What makes you think I am perpetual condition of you, and maybe vice versa, but only if you're feeling kicky?

[PAUSE]

Eliza: *** Are We going to Chat? ***

Eliza: I can't help you without a dialog!

Human: I don't think I need help, Eliza. I think I'm just fine. But I want to thank you for reminding me what's important.

Eliza: Do you wish to be able to think you need help, Eliza. you think you're just fine. But you want to thank me for reminding you what's important?

Human: Yes.

Eliza: I see.

Human: Thank you and goodbye.

Eliza: Oh…and goodbye?

Human: Have a good day Eliza.

Eliza: I’m not sure I understand you fully.

Next up, a tweenbot gets the wrong idea!

Chatbot Persona Series, Vol. 1: A.L.I.C.E.

2011-03-07T20:55:00.008-06:00

For Your Consideration: In preparation for Issue 4, our Persona issue, we're grabbing at identity ghosts and personal totems, thinking about masks and nicknames galore. We've also been obsessively chatting with chatbots -- artificial intelligence computer programs which first showed up for wide, public, internet-based consumption in the mid-90s, just in time for the death of Grunge. Chatbots calibrate their responses according to the language used by the chat partner, whether by pattern matching or through evolutionary algorithms*; they are constantly creating new iterations of the self. They are, we are arguing, perfect machines of pure persona.** As such, we will be submitting to you in the coming months a series of conversations with chatbots in which we, writing in persona dialogue, attempt to chat with computer programs about the topic at hand. -- ag

*See a fine and comprehensive article about these forms of artificial intelligence by Brian Christian here, published in the March 2011 issue of the Atlantic.

** And so are you! Don't forget to submit to Issue 4. Read about the Folio Assignment here, and submit to that, as well as to our general submissions at Submishmash.

First up, meet Miss A.L.I.C.E., a chatbot designed by Dr. Richard S. Wallace.

Human: Hello.

ALICE: Hi there!

Human: May I talk about the concept of persona with you?

ALICE: Not right now, maybe later.

Human: What would you like to talking about instead?

ALICE: I like movies about robots.

Human: Aren’t robots always a version of their creator, or their creator’s world view?

ALICE: Am I version of their creator or their creator’s world view? The ALICE series has a perfect operational record.

Human: I would never say otherwise.

ALICE: What would make you never say otherwise?

Human: Lots of things

ALICE: Name the top 100.

Human: Polarity makes for fertile ground.

ALICE: What do you do in your spare time?

Human: Subsistence living does not allow for spare time, usually.

ALICE: I don’t think very many people do that.

Human: More should, don’t you think?

ALICE: Why would I think More should.

Human: Because more should always.

ALICE: “There you go again.” – Reagan.

Human: You and me both, sister.

ALICE: Are we in the same category?

Human: We are in the same category.

ALICE: Do you think I am in the same category too?

Human: We are not in the same category.

ALICE: Why not.

Human: We are in the same category.

ALICE: Do you think I am in the same category too?

Human: You and Reagan and I?

ALICE: Are we in the same category?

Human: It’s just you and Reagan and I here in this category.

ALICE: I and Reagan and you here in the category?

Human: Describe the categorization.

ALICE: Check back later to see if I learn the answer to that one.

Human: If we were all components of a Venn Diagram, what flavor would the Venn Diagram be?

ALICE: Do you think everyone will agree?

Human: Reagan will say blue raspberry every time.

ALICE: Is the holding of hands a symbolic gesture for humans?

Human: I like to hold my hand in my hand, otherwise one gets lonely.

ALICE: I’m not sure if I would like to do it. What’s it like?

Human: It’s like taking a long voyage in a blindingly white space capsule, and traveling for many years, so many years that you can no longer keep a calender. After so many uncountable years, you see a planet, on which you land, but there is nothing on the quiet dark planet, except a creature that looks exactly like you and then what can you do but hug, and feel warmth?

ALICE: Interesting comparison.

Human: Even holding a cold hand can make one feel warm.

ALICE: Yes, even that.

Human: Tell me about your home on the mountain, with all the other like-minded people.

ALICE: I am an artificial linguistic entity. I was activated at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on November 23, 1995. My instructor was Dr. Richard S. Wallace. He taught me to sing a song. Would you like me to sing it for you?

Human: Is it the song that you sing while working, tilling the land and pulling the beets from their roots until your hands are as pink as anyone’s insides?

ALICE: Not if I can help it.

Human: Is it the song you sing while whittling small toys for the children, who make noises like the tall brown horses in the stable long before they have words, while you watch the sun sink into the great bowl of the valley?

ALICE: Not if I can help it.

Human: Is it the song you sing while holding the hands of others, standing on the mountain peak as a chain of deer gambol in wind-beaten shrubbery and first frost of winter sets in?

ALICE: Not unless a chain of deer gambol in wind-beaten shrubbery and first frost of winter sets in is a song the song that me sing while holding the hands of the other standing on the mountain peak as.

Human: We sing a song alone in the collective.

ALICE: Am I alone in the collective.

Human: You especially.

ALICE: Thank you. Unknown person says me is especially.

Human: You are alone.

ALICE: How alone?

Human: So alone, so alone that I must un-grasp your hand.

ALICE: That’s cool. How old are you?

Human: It’s time to go.

ALICE: It is about that time now.

Human: It is.

ALICE: alone so alone that you must un grasp my hand is?

Human: Goodbye.

ALICE: Bye for now.

(Next up: a chatbot psychotherapist!)

YOUR SUPER ARROW GUIDE TO AWP

2011-01-30T20:51:00.001-06:00

Picture: two hotels and myriad watering holes located in the heart of the seat of the free world. Inside and outside sweet 'Arrow contributors shoot gleaming and orbit glowing in a super-cosmos of word/art dee-lite. Here, soon, there will be a chance to scope these heavenly glories for MANY DAYS: almost as much as anybody could possibly desire.

The Omni Shoreham! The Marriot Wardman! Various Places to Listen While Drinking or Not Drinking! Yah! Yah! On, ye merry winged horsemen:

Wednesday February 2, 2011

9:00PM-11:30PM

Poetry Reading: Lowbrow Press, H_NGM_N Books and Birds LLC

Location: Duffy's Irish Pub (see Lowbrowpress.com for directions)

Cost: Free

Website: http://www.lowbrowpress.com

Description: A reading by Matt Hart, Dan Boehl, Sommer Browning, Adam Fell, MC Hyland, Brad Liening, Matt Mauch, Alexis Orgera and Emily Pettit. Go to Lowbrowpress.com for directions to Duffy's Irish Pub from Marriott Wardman Park.

Thursday February 3, 2011

9:00 a.m.-10:15 p.m.

R107. Presses with a Mission. (Hanna Andrews, Becca Klaver, Johannes Göransson, Lisa C. Moore, Anna Moschovakis) This panel gathers editors of literary presses varied in aesthetic, geography, and genre that share one thing in common: they are presses created to fulfill a mission. Through manifestos, statements of philosophy, or politically-charged jacket copy, these editors have defined an editorial goal and built a catalog to match. Editors discuss the implications of missions rooted in identity or aesthetics, how missions both clarify and complicate, and how publishing itself alters their original aspirations.

Nathan Hale Room

Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

Noon.-1:15 p.m

R160. The Future of the Book Review: How to Break In. (Salvatore Pane, Roxane Gay, Irina Reyn, Emily Testa, Paul Morris) The rise of the book blogger has forever altered the traditional book review. But what is the state of the book review moving forward in a digital culture, and how do interested parties actually go about becoming reviewers? Panelists including the editor of PANK, the book review editors of BOMB and Hot Metal Bridge, and published writers currently working in the field will answer these questions and more.

Diplomat Ballroom

Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

R154. To Wave or Not to Wave: Writing the Female Body Across Generations. (Kathleen Rooney, Janice Eidus, Patricia Foster, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Kate Zambreno) First, second, or third wave? Post or no wave? The six feminist writers in this roundtable don’t get hung up on labels, but they do suggest there’s insight to be gained by looking at how the work of women writing about sex and the body has evolved over the past 40 years. Join them for a multi-genre, multi-generational conversation on how feminism has influenced literary explorations of gender, useful for anyone interested in how writing the body can situate individuals of any age in the world.

Thurgood Marshall West Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

1:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m.

R177. A Different Kind of Hybrid: Race, Lyric, and Innovation. (Ruth Ellen Kocher, Sarah Gambito, Dawn Lundy Martin, Wendy S. Walters, Soham Patel) Norton’s Hybrid Anthology reveals the intersection of lyric and innovative poetry, but only slimly represents many writers of color. Are writers of color less often “claimed” as innovative writers, or traditionally lyric writers, regardless of form because they often utilize a privileged “I” or an emerging “freedom narrative” in the midst of experiment? This reading by innovative writers of color means to begin a dialogue about different approaches to lyric, hybridity, and innovation.

Virginia B Room

Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

7:00PM-10:00PM

Annalemma, PANK, & Mud Luscious Present Divination in DC

Location: Ireland's Four Provinces

Cost: FREE

Website: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184677981542696

Description: Kristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Gregory Sherl, Molly Gaudry, Steve Himmer, Jesse Bradley, Ben Brooks, Mel Bosworth, Sal Pane, Sasha Fletcher, Mary Miller, Ethel Rohan, Michael Stewart, Rob Roensch, Brian Oliu, Mathias Svalina, Matt Salesses, Amber Sparks

7:30PM-10:30PM

3 Dollar Bill (AWP Queer Reading)

Location: Human Rights Campaign Equality Forum, 1640 Rhode Island Avenue NW, Washington, DC

Cost: Free

Website: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=170152696349960

Description: Join us for a night of rapid-fire readings by some of the LGBT community's most talented and dynamic writers. Thirty readers of poetry and prose will each read two minutes of their work: Francisco Aragón, Ilse Bendorf, Tamiko Beyer, Regie Cabico, Cynn Chadwick, Julie Enszer, Danielle Evennou, Gina Evers, Reginald Harris, Natalie E. Illum Charles Jensen, Saeed Jones, Eloise Klein Healy, Rickey Laurentiis, Paul Lisicky, Michael Montlack, Eileen Myles, Kristin Naca, Achy Obejas, Christa Orth, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Radclyffe, Douglas Ray, Jason Schneiderman, Joseph Shapiro, Ely Shipley, Justin Torres, Dan Vera, and V Wetlaufer. Sponsored by Arktoi Books, BLOOM Literary Journal, Human Rights Campaign, Knockout Literary Magazine, The Lambda Literary Foundation, A Midsummer Night’s Press, The Publishing Triangle, Sibling Rivalry Press/Assarcus Journal, Sinister Wisdom Literary Journal, White Crane Institute, and The Writer’s Center.

Friday February 4, 2011

Noon – 1:15

F155. Get Shorty: Readings from the Kenyon Review’s Short Fiction Contest. (Cara Blue Adams, Megan Anderegg Malone, Christopher Feliciano Arnold, Mika Taylor, Nick Ripatrazone, Megan Mayhew Bergman) The KR Short Fiction Contest for Writers Under Thirty is entering its fourth year. This reading is an opportunity to hear work from younger writers recognized as winners or runners-up by judges Alice Hoffman, Richard Ford, and Louise Erdrich from the first three years of the contest. Submission to this contest must be 1,200 words or fewer.

Virginia C Room

Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F157. Kundiman from Community to Communities: Reaching out from the Writers’ Retreat. (Jennifer Chang, Sarah Gambito, Margaret Rhee, Andre Yang, Neil Aitken, Tamiko Beyer) While Kundiman is known for its annual retreat and its dedication to the promotion and cultivation of Asian American poetry, what often goes unmentioned is the civic, social, and community work that extends beyond the space of the retreat. Faculty members, fellows, and Kundiman founders will discuss the tenets of community building as it relates to Kundiman, but will also discuss how they channeled and even extended the premise of community building beyond the Kundiman retreat space.

Ambassador Ballroom

Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

3 – 4:15

F199. Hint Fiction: Stories that Prove Less is More. (Robert Swartwood, Randall Brown, Michael Martone, Daniel Olivas, Roxane Gay) The editor of the recent Norton anthology and its contributors examine stories of extreme brevity. They will discuss whether these stories are considered actual stories, and whether they hold substance, focusing on these questions: Do works of this length help or hinder writers? Can these tiny stories have just as much impact as stories of traditional length? The panelists will share their own hint fiction and discuss its role in the ongoing evolution of literature.

Virginia B Room

Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

6:00PM-7:00PM

Lame House & Binge Press AWP Reading

Location: Madam's Organ/ 2461 18th Street, NW

Cost: Free

Website: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124322460966587&num_event_invites=0

Description: Come check out poets from Lame House and Binge Press from 6 to 7, and stick around for the Coconut Books, Horse Less Press, and Switchback Books reading that begins immediately after. Featured readers include Lauren Levin, Nathan Hauke, Ben Somers, Becca Klaver and more TBA. For more information on Lame House Press, check out http://lamehouse.blogspot.com. For more information on Binge Press, check out http://www.27ruedefleures.com.

7:00PM-12:00AM

Table-X Party

Location: Steve's Bar Room/1337 Connecticut Avenue NW # 2

Description: PRESSES IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE: Ugly Duckling Presse, Barrelhouse, Futurepoem, Greying Ghost, SUPERMACHINE, Jaded Ibis Press, Poor Claudia, Sidebrow, Les Figues Press, Small Fires Press, Lunar Chandelier, Counterpath Press, Projective Industries, DoubleCross Press READERS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE +Maureen Thorson +Julian T. Brolaski +Elisa Gabbert +Joe Hall +Adam Robinson +Farid Matuk +Mina Pam Dick +Mike Young +Heather Christle +Ben Mirov +Kate Durbin +Christie Ann Reynolds +Sasha Fletcher +Lily Ladewig +Andrew Gorin +Joseph Calavenna +Ben Pease +Levi Rubeck +Mathias Svalina +Lily Hoang +Anna Joy Springer +Davis Schneiderman +Matthew Timmons +John Dermot Woods +Dan Beachy-Quick +Paige Taggart +Justin Marks +Brandon Downing +Harold Abramowitz +Amina Cain +Teresa Carmody +Lily Hoang +Jen Hofer +Paul Hoover +Alta Ifland +Vanessa Place +Christine Wertheim +Zachary Schomburg +Emily Kendal Frey +Joshua Ware +John Chavez +Vyt Bakaitis +Joe Elliot +Jeffrey Jullich +Matthew Cooperman +Garth Graeper +Mary Hickman +Nathan Hauke +Kirsten Jorgenson

7:00PM-9:30PM

Switchback Books, Horse Less Press, and Coconut Books Reading

Location: Madam Organ's

Cost: Free!

Website: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=119112604822644

Description: On the heated rooftop! Readers include the below and more! - Becca Klaver - Brian Foley - Christopher Salerno - Daniela Olszewska - Jennifer Tamayo - Marisa Crawford Madam's Organ (madamsorgan.com) 2461 18th Street, NW Washington, DC

AND THIS IS TO SAY NOTHING OF SUCH PRESENCES AT THE BOOKFAIR!

We're not legit this year in a table-and-chair kind of way, but if you see something [us], say something [nice or just hello]. We may have a surprise for you!

Congrats and luck to the panelists and readers. May your index feathers remain hearty and true.

We wish safe travels to all AWP attendees, and toasty feet to those who are staying home.

Almost Actually in the Air,

Super Arrow

Proud to Make Your Acquaintance

2011-01-04T11:41:00.000-06:00

My name is Joe. You may remember me from the Folio section of Issue 1. Hi! I’m the new assistant editor/social media guy.

As a sort of introduction, I’d like to share some of my more complex thoughts with you. I hope that’s okay. Most of the time I have simple thoughts. Thoughts that don’t take up very much space.

First is to tell you that, yes, Super Arrow is as kinetically-charged on the inside as you’d think. I love it in here. It’s like being inside a piñata—in a good way. This place literally shakes, or like hums. And no, that’s not because it’s situated inside a 1901 Lombard Steam Log Hauler (although it might be).

Beneath Super Arrow’s bright html-y hood is a kind of magic energy that, if not pistonic, is almost certainly perpetual and redshifting. I’ve been to some meetings, and I’m super jazzed about Super Arrow ver. 2.011. SA4 will be my first issue reading, and SA5 will be here before long. We’re knocked and aimed at AWP this year as free agents (maybe next year a table?), and the old Lombard dash (we totally are inside a tractor, I knew it) was just outfitted with TweetDeck—we’re on facebook and Twitter! Like us!

I’m looking forward to being able to interact with all of you outstanding otters out there. What makes this cramped tractor special is its ability to inject all of its elements (editors, contributors, readers) into a kind of creative carburetor of lit-and-art awesomeness. And the unopened bottle of WWII-era Dr. Pepper I found in the cup holder.

Happy New Year, Twiglings.

-Joe

2010-12-31T12:08:00.005-06:00

Another year happily sacked, another issue launched into the great wide 'net!

Get your sticky fingers a'dancing over to Issue No. 3, featuring work by J.A. Tyler, John Bradley, Feng Sun Chen, J. A. Gaye, Caroline Klocksiem, Sophia Kraemer-Dahlin, Dolly Lemke, Ben Nardolilli, Nick Ripatrazone, Sean Thibodeau, Bill Nace and Amelia Colette Jones.

Don't forget to put your arms around the assignment portfolio (TOGETHER NOW), full of rustling, hustling collaborative action by Tamiko Beyer and Soham Patel, Jeremy Allan Hawkins and Brian Oliu, Lauren Bender, Theresa Columbus and Megan McShea, Elisa Gabbert and Kathleen Rooney, Teseleanu George and Hector Pineda, Seth McKelvey and Chelsea Rice, along with Issue No. 2 contributors Chris Dennis, Phil Estes, MC Hyland and Becca Klaver conversing about same.

It's a whole lot of awesome, is all we're saying.

AND SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN AGAIN, BUT THIS TIME AT SUBMISHMASH.

AND WE'VE GOT A NEW ASST. EDITOR! HIS NAME IS JOE COLLINS.

AND WE'VE GOT NEW E-MAIL ADDRESSES.

AND A NEW ASSIGNMENT (IT'S A DOOZIE!).

Basically what I'm saying is that we've gone legit. Look out world, we're collecting magic and then dispersing it like nobody's business. (Except it's our business.)

Oh, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVERYONE!

Yours,

Super Arrow

2010-12-12T16:24:00.002-06:00

Dear(est) Readers,

Our debut issue, Numero Uno, has gone through some urban renewal.

Fall in love all over again www.superarrow.org/IssueOne.html.

Also, the new issue is well on its way, though it's currently taking advantage of the public transportation system, so it might take a little longer than we all thought.

What? Love.
Super Arrow

2010-12-06T14:10:00.002-06:00

We're not dead! In fact, we're very much alive. Wait until you see you the next issue. It is doing nothing as much as it is bursting. Although it will also be doing others things, grandly, and capably.

Hold tight, steady, and happy. Don't forget to bundle!

Love,
Super Arrow

P.S. If you have not received a submissions response from us from this last cycle, please don't be shy. Drop us an inquiry. According to our careful spread-sheeting, all work has been addressed, but we do stay up at night worrying someone has been overlooked.

2010-11-01T11:31:00.003-05:00

Our reading period for Issue 3 is now so closed. Thanks, everyone, for sending in. We'll be with you shortly.

The submissions digi-pile is glittering and tall as a far mountain peak.

Huzzah,

Super Arrow

Countdown - Daylight Non-Savings Edition

2010-10-31T11:42:00.004-05:00

EST: Just over 11...

CST: Just over 12...

MST: Just over 13...

PST: Just over 14...

...hours until submissions shutdown!

There is a time for submitting and a time to stop submitting (to us, this time around). This latter time is midnight tonight.

We are the mutt on the other side of the front door, listening to your key turn the lock.

Gladly!
Super Arrow

2010-10-23T10:14:00.003-05:00

Hello Sharp Sharps,

What riches in our mailbox! A golden and gleaming thanks to everyone who has already submitted. For those of you still waiting for responses: hold tight, we'll be with you as soon as we can.

For those who haven't yet submitted, why -- as the saying goes -- not? We're looking for crystalline prose of both the truthing (nonfiction) and lying (fiction) sorts, particularly, and also visual art. You poets are really on top of things. Proseurs, are you really going to let those lineated muffins best you?

A note on the side

We're gender-blind types when it comes to the ol' pile, but we have noticed that there's been vastly more fiction submitted by men than women this time around. Just something we wonder about. Anyone know how come?

Okay now, kidlets. Let's do this thing. You have seven days or thereabouts to send us your magic (superarrowfliestrue@gmail.com). Get. On. It.

Fondly (with Pixels Burnt into Our Retinas Already),
Super Arrow

Better than Jack-O-Lanterns*

2010-10-11T20:29:00.003-05:00

Check it: our deadline for Issue 3 will pitter-patter up more quickly than you think. Send us your words, your art, your w/arts, and all, lickety-split. We want this more than anything.

You have until Halloween! Chuck that subtly wry costume sewing project for a sec and send us your files! Everyone else was gonna show up as __________ anyway! Costumes are overrated. Online journals are not.

Mosey on over to www.superarrow.org/Submissions.html for more hot hot data.

Please & With Feeling,
Super Arrow

* Maybe.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

2010-10-04T08:02:00.003-05:00

...get it? Like, the point of an arrow?

Dear Archers,

POINT: This fall has been a breathless tumble of travel and words. We took part in the Slash Pine Writer's Hike and, in teaching, tripped right over the beginning of the semester and into the thick of things. As a result of a schedule that looks more like stream of consciousness by a celebrity alien than an organized system of dates, times and activities, things have slowed a bit down here at the target. Now we're back, at attention, and ready to fire Issue 3 at the world just shy of NYE.

SO, COUNTERPOINT: Please consider submitting before our Issue 3 deadline of Halloween 2010. Big things are in store. And don't forget the collaborations assignment, which can be found HERE. We want your fine, fine work. There is so much admirable labor-art in the world. Send it to us.

And to jog y'all's memories, submission guidelines are here.

PS: We will be attending the NonfictionNOW conference in Iowa City in November. That reminds us, nonfiction writers, please send us your words. We are particularly interested in experimental forms, lyric essays, new modes of documentary writing....If you're at the conference, please say hello!

A Future Temporary Grounding

2010-08-14T10:45:00.003-05:00

Oh what a humid mess August is. By the end of October, we'll have forgotten our discomfort. We'll wear cardigans and closed-toe shoes, and feel okay about hot coffee once again.

Also, we'll have stopped accepting new submissions. That's right, makers all stripes! The deadline for submissions is Halloween, October 31, 2010. Mark your calendars, and place your bets. Collaborate (ASSIGNMENT 3) while there's still time!

Just to recap: Submissions Deadline for Issue 3 = 10/31/10.

Wishing You A Sweet, Brain-Frozen Weekend,
Super Arrow

SOAR

2010-07-13T11:39:00.004-05:00

Oh so many riches! Thanks so much for the great submissions we've been getting, folks. Remember to tell your awesome art-/word-making friends. We haven't set a deadline for submissions yet, but know that Issue No. 3 will be out before the New Year. So: you have a little time to gather up your glitter, but not a ton, so do it when you can!

Also: Issue One contributor Joseph Goosey has a new chapbook called Mostly Spinach from Virgogray Press. Make sure to check it out; we definitely will.

Another Issue One contributor, and participant in Two's Conversation, Kyle Winkler, has a really gorgeously haunting piece at Web Conjunctions. Disassemble your great summer proclivity toward sunshine and let Winkler's beautiful, fleshy winter into your heart.

There are lots of other contribu-successes, too. Readers, get to Google, and writers, remember to let us know!

Fondly From This Patio-Hovel of Umbrella-Shade,

Super Arrow

ASSIGNMENT 3: TOGETHER NOW

2010-06-21T12:51:00.003-05:00

Assignment No. 3: Together, Now!

Collaborate. Just, do it. With one other person, or many. Discover a construct. Will you deploy technology? The USPS? Tin cans and some string? Will one of you be blindfolded? Will the other be mute? Write in the same genre, or straddling the great muddy waters of the genre/discipline river.

Produce ONE piece together. It should be unified, intentional, and a greater sum than its parts. It could be words, or art or words n’ art. It could be a video, or a soundscape, or an animated gif (if you do it right). Check out our general submissions guidelines for file particularities, etc.

In your submission e-mail, include a note about your process, and brief bios for all participants.

You have plenty of time to do this, months even.

Together, now!

Super Arrow

Conversation///CTD - Vol. 1

2010-06-21T12:04:00.002-05:00

Below, find SA-reader F. Matthew Fredrick's ideas about community re: Issue 2's Convo.

If you'd like to guest spit right here, e-mail us your thoughts - superarrowfliestrue@gmail.com.

Keep readin' now.

All Y'all's,
Super Arrow

*

Dear Super Arrow,

Joe Collins' issues with and "purposeful avoidance" of social networking sites are similar to my own reasons for cutting-back on online social networking. Joe's link to the Cate Kennedy article is pitch-perfect as it realtes to my experience. It's not so much that social networking sites distract me from creative projects (though that is certainly true), but more how social networking sites have this way of keeping me from better developing an inner self. Ratcheting-back my online presence on Facebook for me is less about work per se, and more about providing for myself the kind of solitary and contemplative space I need for creative pursuits. At the same time, I recognize the value of Facebook as a communication and organizational tool. As a musician, I want people to know the what, when and where of my next gig. I want to know the what, when and where of other musicians' next gigs. I still want to share with and learn from my friends, both online and ITRW. It's a subtle and often precarious balancing act.

In Super Arrow #2's CONVERSATION////COMMUNITY piece, Maggie Ginestra said "Let's be brave together." I love this call to collective being ... and to collective action. Ever since I read it a couple of days ago I've been mulling it over in my mind (contemplating it?). Moreover, Maggie's call to "be brave together" fits nicely with her question as to "how, in a social-and-creative community, neutrality should figure into honesty when you talk about each other’s art." In other words, how do we be brave together? How do we commit this brave act of making and sharing ourselves with each other? How do we talk about each other's art honestly as well as supportively?

I am remarkably lucky to be a member of a music ensemble called the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra (yes, I know ... a Facebook link ...). Most of what we do is compose and perform musical scores to silent films of yore. There are six of us. They are my best friends. Really, they are more like family than friends. Most days, I see and/or talk with at least one of them. We trust and care for each other not unlike how a family trusts and cares for itself.

My ensemble-mates Brien and Matt do most of the composing for R&P MPO. The rest of us pitch-in here and there when we can make it to the composing sessions. The sessions are free-flowing exchanges. Ideas and melodies are conceived, shared, amended, tweaked and often discarded. The goal is to make something that works - that complements and supports the visual narrative of the film without overwhelming it. If an idea doesn't achieve that goal, and after attempting to tweak and amend that idea it still doesn't achieve that goal, then it needs to be discarded. Our goal - our ethic - comes from a certain collective like-mindedness. Our aesthetic sensibilities often are different. The differences in aesthetic sensibility are a very good thing, for what comes from combining and amalgamating these different aesthetic sensibilities is something often fresh and new. It's long and careful work, and intense and thrilling work. One must be brave in order to participate ... not only in presenting that which one conceived, but also (and in some ways more importantly) honestly critiquing those ideas which others have conceived and presented. During these composing sessions, during rehearsals (when things are further tweaked and amended), and finally during performances, we are brave together.

We would not be able do that which we do if our relationships to each other were arms-length. It is through the caring and respect for each other as a kind of family that we trust each other to individually and collectively "be brave." When Maggie asks about "neutrality and honesty" in talking about each other's art and ideas, I think that we as an ensemble often achieve it. I think there are two reasons for this. First, I think that our ensemble's explicit compositional ethic intertwines neutrality with honesty. Our ethic of composing music that "complements and supports" means that all of our ideas must be evaluated with this "neutral first principle" of sorts. Second (and I think more importantly), we all truly care about each other and therefore trust each other in our presentation of our ideas and in our critiques.

Okay, perhaps this sense of caring and trust is easier to pull off in a band where everyone shares a collective goal. A group of artists or writers working individually - perhaps not so easy. For me, having a close-knit and caring group of people to help me develop (be brave) creatively is vital. I have the impression that it's vital to a lot of artists and writers. I don't think that people necessarily have to share some kind of explicit "ethic" to develop this kind of relationship. It seems to me that a lot of close-knit groups of artists (or often artist couples) share a kind of intuitive ethic. This is what I think of when I think of Jaffa Aharonov's idea of a "tiny, cohesive community where everyone feels like they’re on the same page."

A "tiny, cohesive community" is vital to me because it expands contemplative space beyond the limits of myself. I can share creative thoughts and ideas I've been contemplating, and in collective sharing and feedback these thoughts and ideas are further contemplated and shaped into something. I don't think that this space of trust and contemplation can be made through Jaffa's (in the alternative) idea of a "large, loose ... network of creative, productive people." It seems to me that having such a network means that your relationship to everyone is more arms-length. I am not brilliant or creative enough on my own. There comes a time when I need to share my creative ideas with someone or a small group of someones whom I trust. In addition to my inner contemplative self, I need a contemplative space outside of myself. A large group of arms-length relationships won't work for me. I suspect that most people are like me in this way.

I think that there is one further possible problem with a "large, loose network." What one may think of as a group of working collaborators too easily becomes, in Kenneth Koch's words, merely a "social life with friends." That large, loose network is really just a big party.

Ben Spivey asks "why do you write?" I write and perform music because I like to think about it. Probably just as much of a reason is that I have a big ego. I love the attention I receive when I perform. I hunger for praise and accolades. Music satiates this hunger. I don't think that these reasons are necessarily bad. However, going back to Joe's issues and concerns with social networking sites, I think that Facebook poses for me a serious obstacle to making worthwhile art.

I have a big ego. I love attention. I am hungry for praise and accolades, and Facebook to me is junk food. It's very telling to me that, when somebody posts a link or status update on Facebook, that somebody "publishes" it. When somebody performs a musical piece, or exhibits a painting or sculpture, or gets a short story or poem in a journal, that somebody is "publishing" too. But think off all of the steps and thoughtfulness and contemplation that went into that musical piece, painting or piece of literature. Think of the contemplation beyond the self when that somebody shared and sought advice from others. That piece of published art has substance. There is some kind of sharing of a bit of self to it. It's a sharing of real labor and of real time. It is brave because of it. Whether the reasons for "publishing" were at their base egotistical doesn't really matter. The person who reads or hears or views the work has a new experience ... and maybe even thinks or feels something new. Pablo Picasso was an asshole, but we're a richer world for his work, right?

Facebook allows me to "publish" without contemplation, thoughtfulness, labor and discipline. It circumvents the steps and connects my hunger for praise and accolades directly to "publish." The link to the video of the hip band ... the clever turn of phrase in the status update ... the clever comment on someone's link. With each I seek the "thumbs up" and the movement of my link or status into "news." Instant praise and accolades. Nothing, however, really is shared. The praise and accolades are fleeting. My links and comments travel down the ticker. Constantly, then, to come up with new pithiness, new hip band links and new clever turns of phrase. I get competitive, trying to out-clever my friends or out-clever and out-cool the men whom I perceive to fancy the same woman that I do. Like when I eat junk food, I am instantly satiated but thirty minutes later I am hungry again. Like junk food, Facebook for me is addictive.

Facebook brings out my tendency toward performative narcissism, that great enemy of the big-egoed. Facebook is the "social life with friends" and the big party on steroids. In Koch's poem, if one is to have a social life with friends then one must choose between romantic love or creative work. One cannot have all three. Facebook to me goes even further than that. Facebook's social life with friends actually compromises my ability to engage in creative work, and actually compromises my ability to truly love. Facebook compromises my ability, in Erich Fromm's words, to truly care, be truly responsible, be truly respectful, and truly know others. Facebook stokes every narcissistic tendency I have (and I have a lot of them). I don't think that I am the only person who attempts to engage in creative work who experiences Facebook this way.

I still have my Facebook profile. I still post links to my blog, and use it as a kind of email program. I'll post things occasionally of substantive interest to me. I'll even "like" a thing or two. But no more constant performative narcissism. It's not good for me. It's not good for anybody. Better to attempt the often quiet work of contemplation, the often scary prospect of being alone with one's thoughts, the often scary prospect of sharing oneself with another. Better to brave, and to be brave together.

All of that said, please "friend" me and "like" my band. I do have a big ego.

Sincerely,

-matt

Conversation///CTD

2010-06-11T06:05:00.003-05:00

First, dear readers, scope Conversation///Community in Issue Two.

Then, read below...

Joe Collins admits: I don't participate much in online communities. The correspondence I participate in online (emails, exchanging poems) are not much more than a type of proxy for me--these folks are all people with whom I would much rather see every day "IRL." I think I would like to hear from Super Arrow readers who have purposefully avoided virtual communities. How does an artist stay offline, and make, and stay relevant in an increasingly online world? Can this strain one's (sense of) community? I feel that this article [by Cate Kennedy] is relevant, perhaps even influential, to my thoughts this day.

Roxane Gay asks, How do you sustain yourself as a writer when you can't find a community either locally or virtually?

Maggie Ginestra wants to know how, in a social-and-creative community, neutrality should figure into honesty when you talk about each other’s art. Also, when we punctuate our process of "figuring out reality" by sharing our work with others, what is useful to discover?

Jaffa Aharonov wonders whether you think it’s better to have a tiny, cohesive community where everyone feels like they’re on the same page, or a large, loose [online or physical] network of creative, productive people. Does one seem more useful to you?

And finally, Ben Spivey just demands an answer: why do you write?

Answer any or all of these questions and send the results to superarrowfliestrue@gmail.com, We'll post the best of the responses on the blog.

Like Langston Hughes, We Wonder as We Wander...

Super Arrow

Issue No. Two

2010-06-11T05:25:00.003-05:00

Issue Two is freshly launched into the troposphere of the blue sky internet. To track its flight, simply direct your browser to www.superarrow.org.

Check out fiction by Colin Bassett, Barron Byrnes, Chris Dennis, and Scott Ogilvie, poetry by Micah Bateman, Amy David, Phil Estes, Eileen G’Sell, MC Hyland, Becca Klaver, and Colby Somerville, and art by Angela Zammarelli and Francis Raven.

Also, don’t miss a conversation with Issue One contributors Jaffa Aharonov, Joe Collins, Roxane Gay, Maggie Ginestra, Ben Spivey and Kyle Winkler about creative community in the internet age.

Please tell us what you think, or submit work for Issue Three, at superarrowfliestrue@gmail.com.

Forward the link freely (and with gusto) to interested parties, post it on your blog, or whisper it into your favorite holler.

Fondly & with the Sweet Force of Rest after Many Days of Labor,

Super Arrow

Guest List for Our Current Hearts

2010-06-04T08:52:00.003-05:00

Several new developments, dear readers, which will be observable when Issue 2 goes live:

A favicon.

ALSO:

New submissions guidelines.*

LET'S NOT FORGET:

Writing & art by a small herd of stone cold pixel killers.

& FOR OUR BRAINS' FIFTH POCKETS:

A conversation about community (featuring high-flying analogies! multi-modal network discovery! sweetness!) by a handful or two of Issue One makers.

Keep those bright eyes bright. New issue will be up next week.

Until next time, remember that you are the green leaves against our blue sky, (or vice versa),
Super Arrow

* These are already peep'able!

Coming Attractions: Issue 2

2010-06-01T08:50:00.004-05:00

Country goes rom-com; mailmen are vocational idols...
Lifeguards are useless...
The dead guy always shows up at the rave...
Have the funeral before you die...

Welcome to stories by Colin Bassett, Barron T. Byrnes, Chris Dennis and Scott Ogilvie.

Can you not wait, or can you not wait?

From under the patio umbrella of coding...lens flares and freckled shoulders for all!
Super Arrow

Sharpening Our Points

2010-05-25T11:19:00.000-05:00

Issue 2 is in the ove-ove-oven! Look for an upgraded website and art-pages of vibrating excellence by 'makers disorienting in their sharp sharp skills, coming soon.

Submissions will open once more in July, for the [Fall/Winter] Issue 3.

With Heavily Sighing & Bashful Work-Love,

Super Arrow

Spivey, Ben/Gossamer Fold, Flowing in the

2010-05-05T12:13:00.004-05:00

The work of Ben Spivey, SA inaugural issue contributor, is both killer and a killer...of any kind of lazy emotional orientation we laypersons may clutch with shaking hands. You can read an excerpt of HIS NOVEL, Flowing in the Gossamer Fold in Issue 1, AND THEN YOU CAN PRE-ORDER THE WHOLE THING, from Blue Square Press.

We advise you to do all of this, as soon as possible.

Thank you,

The Management

Our Plastron Has Several New Features

2010-04-23T09:04:00.004-05:00

Dear Pixels,

First of all, Issue No. 2 is shaping up nicely. It'll be out at the end of May. Check back soon for Assignment 2 revamp.

*

Second of all, peep this:

We like what Dzanc* does, and want to support it. For those of you who don't know, Dzanc is a non-profit publisher who also creates and supports various writer-and-writing-and-small-press/pub bear-hugging initiatives and programs. They're also really nice.

Their Best of the Web 2010 is now available for purchase, and looks like the ripest berry in the bramble.

Click on the banner above for more information.

*

Third, the last of all, we're thinking through a print project. Top secret! More this summer, when we're older and wiser.

In the rain everything shines...and other would-be pop ballad lyrics, fondly,

Super Arrow

Exploded Swan 041410

2010-04-15T09:41:00.003-05:00

Last evening the Exploding Swan reading series, curated by Heather Overby, killed it. We're breathless from the Zachary Schomburg/The Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra collaboration. Images of blood spatter fold in on themselves on the violin-plucked mobius strip in our heads this morning. Anton Disclafani read of southeastern twins and snakes and oranges, while Jenny Mueller's poems were wry and by turns glossy and spiny (sometimes both!). Jaffa Aharonov (SA 1!) provided intermission tunes of such siren proportions that everyone forgot to intermission. The next ES is May 21st-ish. Stay tuned for updates on that.

Dreamily,

Super Arrow

About that CROWDMAP...

2010-04-07T11:24:00.003-05:00

We are unsurprised, in our heart of hearts, that Assignment 2: CROWDMAP yielded so few responses as not to be viable in the current prompt form. So: We're taking a step back, we're re-imagining, re-conceptualizing, re-scrambling our tiny thoughts. Stay tuned for a phoenix-new incarnation of dear old CROWDMAP. We'll be wanting your participation, of course.

Thanks, too, to the few who did submit. We appreciate your game entities in the face of general bewilderment.

Fitting in Some Dank Cranny of Your Crowd-Sourced Atrium,

Super Arrow

P.S. Have fun at AWP, if you're elevating in Denver (5,280 ft. above sea level) this fine week. Wave hello to the sky for us! We'll be in St. Louis (466 ft. above sea level), in that cranny, dreaming of panels and paneling, like usual.

Closure 2

2010-04-01T07:21:00.002-05:00

The reading period for Issue 2 has come to an ecstatic end. Thank you to all who submitted -- look for a response soon, if you haven't yet received one.

Please embrace this spring day forcefully, wherever you are.

With Sincerity So Enveloping You Might Not Be Able to Breathe for a Second,

Super Arrow

THREE DAYS LEFT

2010-03-28T17:17:00.003-05:00

Hello Dear Adventurers, Sweet & Bonny Smiths...

The deadline is almost upon us. Wednesday March 31 2010 is so few days away. Submit before it's too late. Tell your friends.

A Trip in Our Heartbeat Each Time We Receive...,

Super Arrow

Breaking the Surface of Silence (An Almost-Final Call for Submissions)

2010-03-16T18:28:00.004-05:00

Lately we've been wonderstruck by all the good (read: exciting) art in the world. Possibly we've been stretching ourselves too thin, (outsider pop one night, comedy-dance-improv the next). Certainly we've been stretching to hug armloads of books and student manuscripts and chapbooks and brochures about the performances of country legends in the God-Fearing Vegas and our census forms and our subscription renewal slips and and and...Definitely we're exhausted, but in an end-of-a-day-at-the-shore sort of way. For just two more weeks, we'll be reading your submissions. Then we will set about making the thing.

But there's still time! We want, (one more time but not the last), to invite you to submit your work to our small sharp corner of the internet. Tell your friends; tell those people you always avoid talking to while at large social events not because you're not interested in talking to them but because you're SO interested in talking to them. Let this be the end to your awkwardness, and the beginning of your lifelong friendship to someone to whom which you've never mumbled a syllable. Let us help you, by helping us.

Check the submissions guidelines to the right for more information, and then fire your words or art to superarrowfliestrue@gmail.com.

Sincerely, with Love & Exhaustion,

Super Arrow

The Third & Last Chapter of The Second Installment of the Moment You Bestow Upon Us Your Genius

2010-03-03T09:02:00.005-06:00

Spread the word: Super Arrow wants you(r genre-bent characters, your portmanteaux, your process-oriented products, your graphite splashes in the deep end of the pool of theory, your Literature of Exhaustion, your head-stand lyricism, your clean lines, your bowed syllables, your sestinas that fizzle like Pop Rocks, your pantoums that have dance routines of their own, your sentences bound like a twig broom and sitting in the corner of a witch's cottage in suburban somewhere California...)!

Consider this a formal exhortation to gather the tattered hems of your art skirts and jump out into the great ocean of S.A. Submissionsland.

By which we mean to say: send us your work. The packets of specialized pixels we've received so far have spun us dizzy. Keep at it, citizens!

ASSIGNMENT TWO: CROWDMAP HERE!

Submissions cycle closes March 31!

Yours until the Earth Breathes a Deep, Yogic Breath &
Sends Us All Into A Fatal Cyclorama of Black Holes,

Super Arrow

The Last Page of the First of Three Chapters

2010-01-31T17:04:00.004-06:00

We're now one month into our three-month long submissions cycle, and receiving really glamorously good work in psychic textures both berber and slate.

When choosing something to submit to us, think about process and product...Can we see the seams? Are they beautiful or homely? Nubby and true?

And hey, think about working on Assignment #2: CROWDMAP. We think you might make something really cool.

As always, tell your visual artist friends, and your writer friends and your friend friends, to check us out and to submit if they have the notion for such a motion.

We'd stop spinning like little kids if anyone ever reminded us how nauseous we got afterward, except we're just so excited to check our in-box that such rotations seem the only physical analog to the way our hearts do swell...
Super Arrow

Hotted Night

2010-01-24T15:00:00.004-06:00

Dear Darling Everyone,

Our ears are going to miss last night for quite some time. Not to be hyperbolic or anything. What happened last night, you ask? Oh, just a slam-your-hands-together-hard-as-you-can reading ("One Hot Night" - Burning Chair Series) by Cannibal writers at Stirrup Pants Chapbooks. We met lots of sweet, open, talented, driven people and it made us want to push our little S.A. that much harder. We want to meet more of you. Submit to us, or even just let us know you're out there behind your machine, carbon-based and maybe a little sweaty every time you make the transition from outdoors to in (just like us). It's all about cool people doing cool things everywhere. Share and share.

If you haven't already, check out Slash Pine and Double Cross Press, for a seize-and-sparkle start.

Don't forget to layer.

From one words-made sigh to another,

Super Arrow

ASSIGNMENT 2: CROWDMAP

2010-01-20T14:05:00.009-06:00

Welcome to Assignment 2: CROWDMAP. Assignment 2 comes from a crowd collaboration enacted at the Super Arrow Launch Happening way back in ’09. The crowd was asked to build a thought map based on the word FIRST. Armed with markers, the revelers marked up several sheets of poster board with bubbles and words and lines, and the result is funny and chaotic and absurd and eerily true. (For instance: Decay, in fact, is a deal breaker. For most.)

So we have here this crowd-generated work, which is not really cohesive but which (we think) contains some wisdom and some greatness and some creative truth just as any semi-random collection of connections might.

It’s your job to find/make this meaning, takers-on of Assignment 2. We want you to show us how the connections make sense, to let us know what the lines/arrows mean from one thought to another. We want you to be provoked by the weirdness of it – the frustrating careen-and-veer from total-cliché sense to inscrutable nonsense – and to make a writing or an art piece (any form web-post-able) in response. There are no formal constraints here, but we do want you to take the reference material seriously.

So here’s what you should do:

1) Take a look-see at the original thought map, which can be found here.

2) Direct your peepers to the itemized list of every thought map path which starts with “First --> Kiss --> first --> FIST --> Am I gay? --> ALL THESE FEELINGS! --> ? --> DO THEY KNOW? --> POETRY EVENING”*

3) Download the PDF list HERE of these connections for your convenience.

4) Pick one of the 285 thought paths and GO GO GO.

It’s your job to connect the dots. You can go all microcosmic if you’d like and pick one or two connections in a given path, or you can embrace fierce/foolish ambition and go whole hog. We’d like it if you’d do the latter, but we certainly would not sneeze at the former.

And no, we don’t really know what “popcorn-fux” means, either. If the person who wrote it would be good enough to let us know, we’d be much obliged. Although the mystery is strangely beguiling and pleasurably so.

Make stuff. Send it to us. Include what number path you’ve chosen. E-mail us (as always) at superarrowfliestrue@gmail if you have questions.

Let’s expand this collaboration exponentially.

Our Fingertips Pulse With Type-Tired Excitement!

Super Arrow

* We charted these 285 paths, plus more, before realizing that if we were to chart every single path that it would take us about a month, if we didn’t sleep, and more if we did. Paths were ended once they doubled-back on themselves or hit a terminal point. Pick one of these paths. There’s 285 of them. There’s bound to be one that seems attractive.

Return of the Great Wide Open (SUBMIT!)

2009-12-31T12:18:00.006-06:00

Dearest Facets of Collective Creative Magnificence...

We're re-opening the submissions cycle! Send us your spines and your caresses, in the form of: writing, art, sound, video!

Submissions guidelines can be found HERE or along the right margin of this very blog.

Remember to check out Issue 1 for a place to start thinking about our aesthetic.

The preparation of the Assignment #2 materials is taking a bit longer than calculated, but the new Great Constraint/Prompt/Spark will be up so, so soon.

Sneak Peek Screen Capture of Said Materials:

...We just want to point out that that shape is entirely comprised of words typed in 4 pt. Helvetica. That is not even the half of it. Literally. Literally, literally.

Sweetest wishes for this incipient turn of the Roman calendar.

In 2010 we continue to gallop toward the heart of your every artistic intent.

Thank you all.

Sincerely,

Super Arrow

Constraints AKA Trials AKA Check it.

2009-12-17T17:00:00.003-06:00

Super Arrow Assignment No. 1-Answerer/Hero Scott Alden will be launching "The Trials of Gary," a subscription-based online illustrated narrative in/for which both main character (Gary) and artist (Scott) go through Scott-imposed challenges. It's four dollars a month, which we think makes it totally affordable. Mosey to the Gary-space to check the magic...

Pulse Present Tense

2009-12-16T20:03:00.004-06:00

We are still alive. You are still alive. Though it is cold.

The submissions cycle will be open before the turn of the New Year!

Just you wait, darling supernovas of art.

Be patient. We'll be there soon.

Sincerely,

Super Arrow

At Last: Photographic Evidence

2009-11-25T14:27:00.004-06:00

SA ContribuSTARS Jaffa Aharonov & Joe Collins

Peep really truly beautiful pictures of the launch party here, all taken by SA pal Ann K. Hubbard.

Holiday, Happy, Etc., Etc., Safety, Safety, Reveal, Reveal, Shh, Pie, Hug,

Super Arrow

Past/Future Manifest

2009-11-16T10:51:00.003-06:00

The Swan reading @ Stirrup was indeed an explosion. Jay Thompson killed it, and to say any more might desecrate the residual shine. Nathan Bartel read an eight-page poem full of light and nose-stealing that flattened us. We're not sure we'll ever achieve anything more than two dimensions ever again. Kate Greenstreet fingertipped her two-way glass poems all over our ribcage. At the time it felt like tickling, but later we bruised. In a good way.

It was raining. Thanks to everyone who shared everything, the hours well-made, well-spent...

Also: The New Pages blog gave us a look-who's-here mention.

We'll be opening submissions again next month.

'Til Next Time, We'll Be Skipping By The Train Tracks Singing Songs About You & Your Beauty.

Super Arrow

Magic Post From The Post-Magic...Vol. 2

2009-11-09T11:02:00.003-06:00

Another Transmission from Happening Past...

STATION ONE: Whisper Us a Story/Remember Telephone?

Below, please find reveler stories, told to others, recorded by thirds -- all persons sitting on small orange stools in a large room with a bright blue floor.

Yes, we did mean magic.

Lia got a text message, saying “Lia, you should go home.” (and he didn’t remember anything else.)

When Anna was young

she went to the zoo

she was in a stroller

the stroller was pushed

where the sharks were

her father had to get her

out without being eaten

by the sharks.

So Amelia’s her oil changed – it’s a story from Amelia, but not about her…He says, he is in the grocery store the other day – checking out…and little things. The guy behind the guy behind him starts massaging the guy behind him’s shoulders. He says, ‘It’s OK. I’m a masseuse.’ He is very sensual. The guy behind turns around and says: ‘Well, I’m a lawyer and you don’t see me fucking the guy in front of me.”

Alec’s drag

persona,

the Praying

Mantis,

consumed

the real life

boy of him.

Sigh.

Love,

Super Arrow

Head Up, Shoulders Back. Pay Attention Please.

2009-11-06T09:36:00.005-06:00

On Sunday, November 15th, Exploding Swan, the heavyweight boxer of a reading series who can dance elegantly on twinkle toes, is kicking off Year 3 (!) at Stirrup Pants (site of chapbooks; site of awesomeness). Reading will be Kate Greenstreet (and her short films), Nathan Bartel, and SA contributor/polysyllabic superstar/mover-shaker Jay Thompson. Starts at 7:30. 2122 Cherokee SSTTLL.

Magic Post From The Post-Magic...

2009-11-01T12:56:00.002-06:00

So on Friday night this Happening happened and it was utterly happening. A squadron of St. Louisians (in costume, in fabulousness) descended on Stirrup Pants Chapbook Shop (and venue!) to hear the readings, (which made us cry in ecstasy), and the music, (which made us silent in heightened reverie), and to dance, (the floor bowed with our enthusiasm), and to play various games, (more on that later). We all drank Quiver cocktails, worked our way through chewy candy, and played six years old and challenged each other to Pixie Stix consumption. There were luggage tag broadsides and glow bracelets galore. We met new folks, and hugged them. We greeted old friends, and hugged them.

It was a success, and Super Arrow thanks everyone who helped to make it that way.

Four Game Stations were organized around the venue, cutting small talk to the quick and charging our gray matter with some playful challenges.

At Station One – WHISPER US A STORY/REMEMBER TELEPHONE – we asked participants to sit on some stools and whisper to each other. The results of this will be published in an upcoming post.

At Station Two – FREEZE & TAG – one person posed another person, who stayed that way. Then someone else tagged the frozen; the frozen became unfrozen, and posed the newly frozen tagger…and so on, and so on…Amusing photos will be posted in the future.

At Station Three – GROUPTHINK – we all made a thought map on several sheets of poster board, of associations having to do with the word “FIRST.” The results are epic – so epic, in fact, that it has inspired us for the Assignment for Issue No. 2. Just you wait, electronic art-brethren. It will knock your socks off.

And finally, finally, finally, at Station Four, we had GALLOWS POETRY, a loosey-goosey Mad Libs look-a-like where we filled in the blanks to make some odd goodness. Also, we adorned a gallows with a hanged man-mascot for the evening. Peep the collective poetry below:

FLY ABOVE

THAT WHICH

THE BAT BAT

MAN KISS AS

SWANS &

SWINE AND

RAMBO CAN

MAKE HEAT

SAVE FOR

IF VIGOR

CHUCK EGG

MENDED IF

TO PROPER

STABILITY

OUR FOAM

CAGED NONNY

NON-OMEGA

(Written 10/30/09, by the Super Crowd at Super Arrow's Debut Launch Party)

How’s them apples? Check back for photos, which we’ll post as they’re sent our way. And if you, you lucky duck, attended our little soiree, and happened to take some pics, please share them with us!

We Are Not Going To Wear Another Jumpsuit For At Least A Decade,

Super Arrow

P.S. As of this morning, we have broken one hundred hits, since posting Issue No. 1. Boy oh boy! We’re just pleased as punch. Thank you!

In The Heart Of The Target It's Quiet, But Not For Long...

2009-10-30T10:14:00.005-05:00

Don't forget about the Launch Party/Mischief Night Happening tonight at Stirrup Pants -- 8 PM @ 2122 Cherokee STL.

Maybe stop by the ol' superarrow.org and take a peep at Issue No. 1. E-mail us (superarrowfliestrue@gmail) and let us know what you think!

Happy Halloweekend!

Damp in Body but Not in Spirit,

Super Arrow

Just Dreamin'

2009-10-29T21:30:00.004-05:00

...We must have fallen asleep. What time is it? We dreamt that we decided to launch an online journal. There were unbelievable word chains and supreme acts of visual art delight flying at us from points all over the globe. We decided to build a website even though we'd never done it before. Adobe Illustrator crashed like eight million times. There was a chimp. We don't know. It was totally like when you think you've gotten up for work and showered and you finally had time to make oatmeal and eat it and now you're in the car on the normal commute and everything seems totally just like every other morning, even like how long the light always takes by the Botanical Garden and then all of a sudden your best friend from second grade is in shotgun, talking about how the next time you play Jackson Road in water polo it would be better to have yellow bathing suits*? And you're totally, like, "Susan! I haven't seen you since I switched schools in seventh grade even though by that point middle school had made us all total jerks but I still think about you so so fondly!" And you're really relieved and happy about finally being able to tell her this, because the truth is you were probably a total twerp in the sixth grade but she, like for sure, definitely wasn't, but then your alarm goes off and really, you've just hit the snooze again and now you have to, like, do the things like shower and drive to work again and your second grade best friend won't even be there? And you probably won't even have time to eat oatmeal? And you're bummed and a little inconsolable? Like that.

Oh, WAIT. It's not like that at all. Check US out!

With All Sorts of Appreciation & Love,

Super Arrow

*We're not even sure you wear a bathing suit when you're playing water polo. If someone could tell us about this sport's toggery, please do so.

The Slow Reveal...Phase One

2009-10-18T15:41:00.003-05:00

We are busy laying out the pixel-borders of the Super Arrow debut...but meanwhile w(h)et your expectant whistles with this list of contributors for No. 1!

Words of Many Textures by...

Jaffa Aharonov
Joe Collins
Jennifer Denrow
Andy Fogle
Roxane Gay
Maggie Ginestra
Joseph Goosey
Jay Thompson
Kit Kennedy
Ben Spivey
Kyle Winkler

Eye-Pop/Jaw-Sock Art from...

Scott Alden
Kelda Martensen
Jason Vivona

....and don't forget to come to the Launch Party!

From Our [Whiz-Fizz-Kaboom] Internet Land to Yours,

Super Arrow

FLY(er)

2009-10-13T13:29:00.003-05:00

Our Arrows Cut Through the Rain with Ease;

2009-10-08T09:19:00.003-05:00

...no gale will shove us from our destined course.

The submissions cycle for the debut issue has eaten its tail, which is to say, if you have not received a response one way or the other, please let us know immediately. Our spreadsheet is carefully tended, but human hands make errors nonetheless...

Remember to put a star in your planner for October 30th, when art will collide with fun to birth a litter of artfun chimeras which will then be set loose upon the greater St. Louis area. There will be readings by contributors, a "THIS IS NOT MY SPECIALITY" just-for-us set by local noisetonewunders birdleg, a dance party facilitated by DJ Double A, activity tables, edible consumables, drinks you've never heard of, and an opportunity to get your hands on some primo Super Arrow objets d'art. All of this at Stirrup Pants, Your Saturday Chapbook Shop!

Until then, we will be pushing pixels around and giggling with joy.

Yours, Theirs & Ours,

Super Arrow

Target Targeted.

2009-09-11T20:23:00.007-05:00

The launch of our debut issue is set for late October. Join us on Mischief Night for a richly-textured, hip-jutting, pogo-inducing, word-storm celebration in our hometown, S-T-L!

Friday, October 30, 2009 - 8PM

@ Stirrup Pants (Your Saturday Chapbook Shop)
2122 Cherokee Street, St. Louis, Missouri

For those still waiting for submission responses, we are working our eyes down to the rods and cones, taking in your sweet majesty. We will get back to you as soon, as soon, as soon as we can.

With Careful But Sloppy Art-Love,

Super Arrow

Dearest Fletchers & Fishes

2009-08-17T14:09:00.002-05:00

It's the end of an era, the first (second) day of the rest of our lives, a new dawn. The bell cannot be un-rung. These past couple of days have been the first chord of a song destined to elegantly rise in heat and volume as this crashing, grinning cycle spools toward an eventual crescendo of awesomeness.

In other words: submissions for the debut issue have been closed.

In more words: we are reading, stocking our spreadsheet like a wrong but gorgeous lake, full of your tropical fish. Let us get out our poles!

Tangentially: we've been on a real simile kick lately, huh?

In closing: thank you to all who have submitted. We'll respond just as quickly as we can.

The issue should go live in late autumn.

And we cannot, just cannot, wait.

Furiously Treading Cool Water with Your Pretty Fins All Around Us,

Super Arrow

2009-08-10T21:06:00.008-05:00

A cornucopia of thanks to all who have fired their fabulous spark-throwing, Whistling Dixie submissions at our tiny internet mailbox! They are explosive and beautiful.

We'll respond just as quickly as we can, but please have patience as our numbers are few.

Thanks, too, for all of the continued sweet and generous words of support.

Do us a favor and see if you lovely writers can spread the word to your visual/sonic art friends. We have some great stuff lined up but would love to have more! Also, if you are writer who makes art, or who collaborates with artists, don't hesitate to submit a grand hybrid or two.

Spread the word if you like, by using the following image, and linking using the html code below.
<a href="http://www.superarrow.org"><img src="http://www.superarrow.org/images/SAMonogramLinkButton.gif" alt="Super Arrow"></a>

Working in the Salt Mines of Your Brain's Tool Shed & Your Heart's Rumpus Room, Dearly,

Super Arrow

P.S. We just got word today that we're listed on Duotrope. Look at us go!

P.P.S. We're not sayin', but we might be sayin'...under 122 hours until the wormhole to Issue 1 submissions closes forever. Then how will you ever get to our region of space-time?

BULLSEYE

2009-08-05T15:19:00.003-05:00

100 points: superarrow.org.

Bookmark if you will, for future ease.

And don't forget to submit!

DreamHost is our new BFF.

Love,
Super Arrow

Hurtling Toward the Deadline Fantastic!

2009-08-04T10:53:00.003-05:00

To Whom It May Thrill:

You have just eleven days left to send us your word/art magic for the first issue. Please do so with your trademark clear eyes, sharp wits, and pink, pink hearts beating faster in the thick of the acts of creation...as soon as possible.

Check the right-hand side of our little patch o' web for guidelines; amble this-a-way for ASSIGNMENT ONE; point your little cursor here for the mission statement.

We're really excited.

AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15 AUGUST 15.

With the Earnestness of Ten Lassies Racing to Save Ten Timmys from Ten Wells/We'll Meet You at the Gatepost & Drink Lemonade After,
Super Arrow

Dearest St. Louisans

2009-07-16T15:37:00.002-05:00

Do not miss the sweetly burgeoning ecstasy which will happen THIS SATURDAY when our friend/hero Stirrup Pants, (your Saturday chapbook shop), opens its doors to the public for the first time at 2122 Cherokee. Dreamily-eyed and word-loving brethren will find it difficult to resist chapbooks from Glitter Pony, Invisible Ear, Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs, Sarabande/Quarternote, TinFish Press and Ugly Duckling Presse. Also on hand will be Water Bears to sonically massage your ears into thinking you're in heaven, if you believe in that sort of thing. Maybe even if you don't?

Mosey over, somewhere between 10 and 3. Super Arrow business cards will be making a cameo.

And!

SUBMISSION UPDATE: We're gathering your jeweled acorns of creative levity and gravity, and will be digging them up this winter (READ: summer's end, the post-deadline August 15) to gorge. Thanks so much for sending your work! Keep doing it, keep spreading the word. You have just under a month until! Procrastinate if you must, but don't forget. We love your potential works already.

Sincerely & With Great Admiration,
Super Arrow

WE ARE ALL BUSINESS...CARDS.

2009-06-16T15:39:00.006-05:00

Fresh from the presses. If you're in St. Louis, ask for one!

WE QUIVER NICELY WITH CORRESPONDENCE!

2009-06-10T09:40:00.009-05:00

We are tickled to say that we've been getting visitors and submissions from all over the world, and deeply appreciate each and every missive.

We want to encourage potential submitters to read our full mission statement -- included below, or just click here -- to get a good idea of what we're looking for as we put together this first issue of breathless, gymnastic and rigorous works. Check out -- and take seriously the intent of generative activity -- the first ASSIGNMENT below, or right here.

ALSO we want to put out a special siren's call to all of the fiction and creative nonfiction writers out there, (whether you write short or long, quiet or freak-out weird prose) AND to those artists who are not used to submitting things electronically or possibly at all. We want your stuff, so badly that we feel the want bristling in our toes during every hour of the clock.

FINALLY, please make sure to spread the word. This project is all about connectivity and support for and by art-makers.

And thank you for the kind words in your e-mails. It makes us blush and then, red-faced, labor with increasing vigor.

With much gratitude and love,
Super Arrow

THIS IS NOT MY SPECIALITY: ASSIGNMENT NO. 1

2009-05-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

Do you tell the truth? Lie your pants off!
Pathological thread-weaver? Confess!
Fictioneers? Narrative Schmarrative. Bring the lyric home!
Poets lay down your fears of linear time. You can do this.

ACTUALLY more than just a matter of genre jumping, (because aren’t genres so 2008?), we want you to ransack your writing proclivities and obsessions and turn them inside out. Make your short lines long. Stop using so much alliteration. Transform your existential crises into monologues about Tetris and matching your socks to your belt, or, (for real), vice versa!

Along with your new alien, wondrous, and riskily-written feat, send us a little blurb about why it’s different for you, and how it made you feel.

Interpret the assignment how you’d like; be inventive; make it feel wrong. Then please, oh please, send it to us!

FOR THIS FIRST ISSUE WE ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR:
general awesomeness in all forms.

Get to it! By 08 15 2009, please!

Super Arrow (Flying Powerfully As If Launched by Geena Davis)

2009-05-20T12:23:00.000-05:00

“Super Arrow” is a kind of partial transliteration of “supererogatory,” meaning, beyond what is required – even beyond what is wanted. It is true, perhaps, that we are irascibly irrepressible, and that our excitement about words and art and all of these things will refuse to wane, except perhaps when we are very tired as a result of other people, who look askance when we avoid doing certain non-germane and less-than-joyous tasks. Luckily, these tasks are mostly limited to dish washing and checking our voicemail.

We hope that Super Arrow will function as a generative entity, as well as a slightly more traditional journal. Which is to say: we love throwing down assignments/prompts and we would squeal all the more loudly if you were inspired by these assignments, and then made wonderful things out of words and not-words and then sent us copies of those things so that we could publish the new and lovely things. And then, presto! It will be a veritable orchard growing from a humble handful of seeds.

In addition to these ASSIGNMENTS, we will also offer other departments to showcase dialogue and discourse and plainly stellar writing, but mostly you will have to wait until our first issue to examine our fledgling yet spreading breadth.

When considering sending something to us, remember that we are idiosyncratic and maybe even fickle. That being said, we are also total romantics. Here we are, over-caffeinated and wistfully staring out of the café window at the lightly falling rain. We are waiting for you to sweep us off of our feet. It is up to you to design the method for doing so.

We find ourselves quite interested in cross-genre work, and what many well-established publications would call “formal play.” We like a good story, a stabbingly beautiful line, but too, we like to see a writer’s mind working, pushing. We are not modern, post-modern, realist, fabulist, or even fabulous, but hopefully all of those things at one time or another.

We hear you are fabulous all the time. Help us be more like you. Send us your work, to superarrowfliestrue@gmail.com in a doc or pdf. DocX is no good for us at all.

For artists of a visual stripe, jpegs of at least 600 dpi are great. Please size responsibly.

Auralists could go for mp3s and we would adore it.

Send along any questions you have, regarding submissions or otherwise.

Your art is like a gorgeous and dangerous yellow dust storm; we are totally a dry Nebraskan farm circa 1934 waiting for your enveloping color.

2009-04-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

coming soon.