PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
coming this summer, AN INSPIRED SEQUEL…
Author: Black Scat Books
Publishers of Sublime Art & Literature Since 2012
Think Spring!
Looking ahead (no pun intended) to April, it’s going to be a Scatastic month. Back in 2013, we issued a little limited edition chapbook titled HOW I BECAME AN IDIOT by Francisque Sarcey. It was actually written by the brilliant French humorist Alphonse Allais, who signed Sarcey’s name to a series of columns that appeared in the bohemian journal Le Chat Noir. Sarcey, a well-known drama critic, became the butt of jokes among the literati for his stodgy, conservative views (e.g., he blasted Alfred Jarry‘s absurdist classic UBU ROI).
Our limited edition sold out quickly, but it was just a sampler. Now Doug Skinner has compiled and translated all the columns in a delicious 200+ paged trade paperback edition: I AM SARCEY.
These texts reveal Allais at his wicked best and the book is a must-have for fans of hilarious black humor. This volume marks the seventh title in our Alphonse Allais Collection, and our resident Allais scholar, Doug Skinner, provides a sublime introduction and notes on each text.
Only an idiot would pass up I AM SARCEY when it rolls off the press on April 1st.
****
Also on tap is a special (redesigned) April Fools Issue of LE SCAT NOIR. You can download a copy on our web site (BlackScatBooks.net) on April 1st for FREE.
No joke!
Mark your calendars.
Scat’s New Face on the Web
No, wait, that’s not right. We haven’t changed our logo and mascot. But we’re pleased to announce that we’ve just launched our new web site. So now, when you think of Black Scat Books, think NET, as in our new address:
We think you’ll find the new site easy to navigate and fun to browse. Instead of scrolling for miles on this blog, our catalog is organized by categories via a convenient drop down menu. So please check it out and bookmark the site in your browser.
As for this blog, we’ll still be posting here, but will slowly phase out the pages.
Sister Carrie Has Arrived!
“When Sara White boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of the clothes she was wearing, a small blue suitcase, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse. Now she stood stark naked in front of twenty other spellbound young women, and two men fully conscious.”
Theodore Dreiser meets the Marquis de Sade (and other pornographic writers) in Tom Bussmann’s innovative new novel. Here the author seamlessly melds texts to form a compelling narrative of, among other things, Victorian lust.
Bussmann’s wicked little novel has several tricks up its sleeve. Using Dreiser as narrator, his tale steers a candid autobiography into the surreal fast lane—where explicit hyperbole is common in forbidden Victorian lit. Yet the story also manages to hint at the author’s personal reading habits and reveals an abiding fascination with St. Louis and the American west.
Sister Carrie Came is an incendiary work of erotic semiotics.
CLICK HERE to order your copy.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…insane!
These plays, plays by Axelrod, Mark, the other Axelrod, not the one who worked for Obama, Obamaless, the other Axelrod, his plays, are. And are the plays of Axelrod, no
t the one who worked for Obama, Obamaless, and are the plays of Axelrod, Axelrodian. Yes, in all manner of speaking, speaking high or low, they are and you, the Reader, Reader of Axelrod, not the one who worked for Obama, Obamaless, the other Axelrod, should read these plays with relish. For without relish, they would not be as absurd.
—Samuel Beckett
Can Superman avoid deportation?
Will Van Gogh survive an IRS audit?
Does Donald Trump talk to himself?
Has the world gone mad?
This outrageous and timely collection confronts our contemporary nightmares with devastating wit and insight. In the provocative title play, Superman stands trial as an illegal alien. In “A Colloquy of Birds,” Axelrod takes aim at a flock of notorious Republican women — the “politically effete.” And just when you thought it was safe to applaud, experience the maniacal monologues of Chairman Trump.
Here are eight rousing absurdist dramas destined to be modern classics.
SUPERMAN IN AMERICA & OTHER ABSURD PLAYS
by Mark Axelrod
Trade paperback, 354 pp., $16
In the wings, these special things…
Get it while it’s hot…
The February issue has just launched and you can read it for free at THIS LINK.
LE SCAT NOIR #220 features works by an international cast of misfits: Christopher Barnes, Paulo Brito, Eckhard Gerdes, Thomas Gresham, Colin James, Michael Leigh, Terri Lloyd, Samantha Memi, Frank Pulaski, Jason E. Rolfe, Merve Semsar, Doug Skinner, and Franciszka Themerson.
“LOOK, MA, IT’S DADA!”
Yes, Virginia, Black Scat Review does DADA FORGERY. But is it anti-art?
You be the judge.
#17 is loaded with incendiary art & texts by Captain Anonymous, David Moscovich, Tristan Tzara, Anna Keeler, Christy Sheffield Sanford, Karl Waldmann, Ruth Crossman, Norman Conquest, Paulo Brito, Harry McCullagh, Michael Leigh, Gregory Autry Wallace, Eîlot Tuerie, Terri Lloyd, Doug Skinner, and Joseph Heathcott.
This is the last issue of BSR and a fitting finale it is. Don’t miss this one, folks, it’s destined to wind up a collector’s item on the ash heap of art history.
Happy New Year!
THE SCAT’S OUT OF THE BAG and we’re starting the New Year off with a BANG —the January issue of Le Scat Noir — crammed with art, fiction, poetry, translations, advice, horoscopes, lists, inspired doodles and detritus. Featuring contributions by an international roster: ALPHONSE ALLAIS, PAULO BRITO, PINK BUDDHA, SIMON CHILD, NORMAN CONQUEST, ECKHARD GERDES, RUSSELL HELMS, HAROLD JAFFE, JAN VANDER LAENEN, TERRI LLOYD, SAMANTHA MEMI, SHEILA PELL, FRANK PULASKI, RON RIEKKI, STEPHEN SILKE, DOUG SKINNER, MADALINA TANTAREANU, TOM WHALEN, & CARLA M. WILSON.
LSN is published monthly by Black Scat Books and is available free online. You can download the new issue HERE.
Spread the good turd.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Come One, Come All
blackscatbooks.com 