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the berlin summer sucks but beach sloth scores while an american grandmother blows up a beautiful buick

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July 23, 2012 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

Beach Sloth said:

«I really love your work. Will you ever do any readings here in America?»

— i replied: «hi, i love your work, too! i always find it hard when my work is liked by someone whose work i find just so-so. i suppose that is a natural limit to the number of fans i can have. i think i have about 50 real fans now, while i have got no more than 3 really good, close friends. but i have 350+ facebook fans and 6000+ twitter followers. the numbers fry my crocodile brain. when i began, i wanted 100,000 readers from all over the world: my hope was that they would help me support myself—$1 per year from each of them would settle everything. now this thought strikes me as mad, crude and lacking in humbleness. it makes me want to write prose poems on shells, stones and bones again and thrust them into the ocean as artefacts, as unique as a scent or a squeaking chair in the room where i sit writing this, alone. i will turn this letter (is an e-mail even a letter?) into a blog post, knowing that i’m serving the triple-toed god of paradox when i do it, but it’ll also bring you more readers. in you last collection, «I want to YouTube down the Rivers of America», i especially like «American»:

Tastes like the tears of a collapsed 72 Buick | Right before the old grandmother takes out a shotgun and blows the car to hell | Yum | I got the stomach to be an American.

damn beach sloth, this is so good. best $5 i invested this week. do you think i should self-publish my penguin posts? thanks about asking about me reading in the US: i sure hope i’ll go there, mate. and you should all come to berlin. the weather sucks but the city’s hot like a clever gorgeous woman with yellow hair who hides herself in a thick smelly sweater.»


[Posted at ReviewForward - an online group for indie authors — more here][Image: modified cover of Beach Sloth's chapbook][Beach Sloth about me][Beach Sloth is Alt Lit][View at 1000 Shipwrecked Penguins]. [Frank Hinton: "Beach Sloth seems a worthy person to pay attention to and follow. He has peaked my interest to higher levels than most blogs. He says that his "writing has become highly attentive to internet poetry with a strong focus on Steve Roggenbuck, Poncho Peligroso and the tribe of HTMLminimalist boykittens meowing about the litsphere."]

3 thoughts on “the berlin summer sucks but beach sloth scores while an american grandmother blows up a beautiful buick

  1. susanaisy says:

    Beach sloth is my idea of how to spend a summer’s day. Enjoyed your thoughts, B.S.

    • This poetic animal, is totally worth checking out, not just because of the quality of the writing but also because of the distinct voice, which may have to do something with beach sloth’s other incarnation as a music critic. In any case, the alt lit crowd loves this guy, much like Steve Roggenbuck who is a different cup of tea though.

  2. [...] This was for PANK’s Christopher Forsley who reads my blog, too. And for the alternative crowd. Beach sloth is one of my favorite sloths in that crowd. I’ve written to/about B.S. [...]

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Marcus Speh

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I am German writer who lives in Berlin. My short fiction has been published in elimae, Mad Hatter's Review, kill author, PANK and elsewhere. First published in 2009 at Metazen, I've been nominated for a Micro Award, two Pushcart Prizes, two Best of the Net awards and two Million Writers Awards, and a novella of mine was longlisted for the Paris Literary Prize. My short fiction collection "Thank You For Your Sperm" is published in 2013 by MadHat Press. My mosaic novel "Gizella" is forthcoming from Folded Word Press. I have a lush web site at marcusspeh.com (English), I blog on Tumblr und Deutsch auf marcusspeh.de. Join me on Facebook, on Twitter, Pinterest or send me an email.

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