Live from New York…

March 15, 2013March 16, 2013Leave a comment

nyc1

Literary legends Yuriy Tarnawsky (left) and Alain Arias-Misson at the Emily Harris Gallery reception last night. It was a glittering & festive evening marking Alain’s return visit to the Big Apple for a series of readings & performances (see previous post here). He holds in his hand a spanking new copy of his fiction collection, THE MAN WHO WALKED ON AIR & OTHER TALES OF INNOCENCE, published by Black Scat Books.

<<UPDATE—MARCH 16>>

Alain Arias-Misson reading from his new collection of erotic “tales of innocence” to a packed crowd at the Ukrainian Institute of America. Everyone’s talking about The Man Who Walked On Air. You can catch Alain tonight at the White Box for an “Avant-Garde Variety Show”‏—don’t miss It. 329 Broome Street, New York, NY 10002 | Tel: 212-714-2347.

Where is Kirghiz Steppes?

March 7, 2013May 19, 2014Leave a comment

Or perhaps the question should be what is Kirghiz Steppes?

It’s a new collection of verbo-visual art by M. Kasper.

A glance at the stunning cover photograph by Toby Kasper beckons us to visit a barely describable world of weirdness. Weird yes, but subtle enough that one may easily mistake it for our own.

Then again, maybe it is.

M. Kasper’s verbo-visual art has appeared—mirage-like—in many small press magazines and journals over the years. The artist’s exquisitely designed books—e.g., The Shapes and Spacing of the Letters (highmoonoon/Hollywood & The London Institute of ‘Pataphysics)—are legendary and highly collectible.

Kirghiz Steppes is a unique, limited edition album featuring one-page pieces mixing words and pictures—parodies, comics, captioned collages, concrete poems, etc.—made since the 1970’s. It is truly a world unto itself.

We think you’ll enjoy the journey.

UPDATE 5/18/2014 — THIS TITLE IS OUT OF PRINT

Hip! Hip! Allais! Alphonse! Hooray!

February 1, 2013February 15, 2013Leave a comment

[TRUMPETS BLARING; BANNERS WAVING; BABIES SHRIEKING; READERS CHEERING; etc.]

Black Scat proudly announces the publication of Captain Cap by Alphonse Allais—the first of three volumes in a series of “captails” translated from the French by grand maestro Doug Skinner—who also illustrated the edition and produced its sublime cover.

Vol. I (“Captain Cap Before the Electorate”) covers the captain’s notorious political career—including an unexpurgated appendix of his favorite cocktails**.

That this work by Allais has never before appeared in English makes this a literary event worthy of balloons, noise-makers, champagne, and an inebriated marching band.

~~And to celebrate the Captain’s launch we’re christening this limited edition by offering a FREE Captain Cap campaign button to the first twelve connoisseurs who order a copy.~~

UPDATE (2/15): All the buttons are gone, alas.

Now if you’ve read this far and are wondering who Captain Cap was, here’s a brief excerpt from the translator’s introduction:

“Many discerning readers think Alphonse Allais was
the finest humorist France ever produced. I will have
to concur. Many go further, and class him simply as a
master of the short story. I will have to agree with that
as well. And many claim that his greatest creation was
that hard-drinking adventurer and inventor, Captain
Cap. I will go along with that too, but with one quibble:
Captain Cap really existed.

His real name was Albert Jean Baptiste Nicolas
Caperon, and he was born in Paris in 1864. His father,
Paulin Caperon, had inherited a fortune in his twenties,
and devoted himself to radical politics, bibliomania,
and banking, in no particular order. It was while
practicing the last that he sold railway shares in Alsace
to a Swiss bank; when Germany annexed Alsace in
1871 after the Franco-Prussian war, Germany confiscated
the stock. The Swiss bank wanted its money
back, leaving Caperon in an uncomfortable situation.
He resolved it by fleeing to Belgium, and then to
America, where he adopted the name of Peter Coutts,
and bought land in Mayfield, California (now Palo
Alto).”

We would be remiss did we not mention that the first title in our Absurdist Texts & Documents series was Masks by Alphonse Allais, for its author embodies the spirit which inspires this small press.

Captain Cap is limited to 125 copies, so we suggest you order quickly before it’s too late.

CLICK HERE AND CAST YOUR VOTE FOR CAPTAIN CAP

And have a drink on him!

___________________
**Be sure and try the recipe for Corpse Reviver (pg. 53)

The Man Who Walked On Air & other tales of innocence

January 17, 2013January 19, 2013Leave a comment

JUST PUBLISHED: A major new collection of short fiction by Alain Arias-Misson—a master of literary mischief. These fifteen “tales of innocence” are erotic, poetic, mysterious, funny, and always surprising.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE MAN WHO WALKED ON AIR & OTHER TALES OF INNOCENCE

“The title story of Arias-Misson’s The Man Who Walked on Air is emblematic of the fiction collection. Ruminative, cultivated, formally venturesome, smoothly (but not slickly) written, and erotic—a nuanced eroticism that takes deliciously improbable turns. A daring collection in its way, yet always engaging.”
–Harold Jaffe

“Augustus, Alain Arias-Misson’s alter ego in the book, levitates when he has an erection. Arias-Misson levitates when he writes. Take the hand he offers you. He will lead you above the coarseness and banality of much of contemporary writing to a delightfully innocent world of erotic fantasies.”
–Yuriy Tarnawsky, author of Short Tails

Order the book on Amazon

Word-Freaks of the World, Unite!

December 30, 2012February 11, 2021Leave a comment

Lexicon

A new year, a new imprint: Black Scat Scholastic Classics (“A Wealth of Knowledge at Your Fingertips”), our premiere educational reference series.

We’re pleased to announce the first volume in the series—The Complete Unabridged Lexicon by Opal Louis Nations. Excerpts from this seminal (albeit eccentric) dictionary have appeared over the years in obscure little magazines and avant-garde broadsides, but now Black Scat Books unleashes the entire unexpurgated edition in a deluxe 128-page trade paperback. OUT OF PRINT

lexicon-cover

As for the OED…it’s time to toss that dusty dinosaur in the dumpster and make room for this contemporary masterpiece which, according to The Brighton Daily Herald “…gives new meaning to the word definition.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

photo by Ellen Nations

Opal Louis Nations was born in Brighton, England. During the mid-1960s he worked as lead vocalist in London clubs with the late Alexis Korner’s Band, and later his own group, The Frays. He helped popularize American soul-based R&B and gospel music in Great Britain. After brief periods with various London R&B bands, he turned his back on singing and began a career as an experimental fiction writer. His textual work, sometimes strange, sometimes humorous in nature, appeared in over 200 small press magazines around the world. He is the author of over 30 books of fiction, including The Strange Case of Inspector Loophole (Véhicule Press), Stabbed to Death with Artificial Respiration (Coach House Press), and Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen of Good Society (Obscure Publications), as well as drawings and collage. As an editor, he brought to the public’s attention fresh young poets and writers, both in the publication of books and through his literary magazine periodical, Strange Faeces. Nations currently spends his time interviewing gospel performers, writing articles on a regular basis for Blues & Rhythm, Soul Bag, and Dr. Jazz magazines (to name a few), conducting music research and compiling CD reissues for English and U.S. record companies.

Merry Xmas from the NRA

December 12, 2012December 14, 2012Leave a comment

from IT’S FUN TO BE RICH IN AMERICA by Norman Conquest & Michael Leigh

UPDATED (12/14) A young man clad in black and carrying two handguns shot up an elementary school in a small Connecticut town on Friday, leaving 18 small children and eight adults dead in one the nation’s worst school massacres, law enforcement officials said.

We think it’s long past time America gets rid of the NRA lobby and the politicians they’ve paid off.

X-ray Visions

November 29, 2012November 24, 2021Leave a comment

acrylics on x-ray by Monika Mori

When we first discovered the paintings of Austrian artist Monika Mori (known internationally as “Moo”) we were mesmerized by her abstract forms and bold colors. Her powerful imagery on x-rays using a palette knife opened a door to a world of fresh visions.

Black Scat is proud to announce the publication of Mori’s Shattered Rainbow—a highly personal series which includes both paintings on x-rays and works on stretched canvasses in mixed media. This is the first book publication of the artist’s work in the U.S. The unique Black Scat edition is limited to 150 copies. SOLD OUT

Scattered Rainbow is a stage where emotions collide, splinter and re-animate. It reflects the artist’s belief that art is a mediator of the unspeakable.

“Conference on Snow”

November 22, 2012Leave a comment

Trailer for the novel The President in Her Towers by Tom Whalen,
based on the chapter “Conference on Snow”.

Click here to order the book from Ellipsis Press.

This Book Has Legs

November 8, 2012November 16, 2012Leave a comment

Sexy legs and a whole lot more.

Let yourself be seduced by a new comic voice. Meet talking Tampax, rebellious stilettos, singing lizards, weeping Lamborghinis, and heroines to die for—Guinevere, Marie Antoinette and, of course. Kate Moss.

These eight twisted tales by British writer Samantha Memi will dazzle, shock, and surprise.

CLICK HERE to order.

Election Year Special

September 20, 2012September 20, 2012Leave a comment

We’ve just unleashed a new edition of IT’S FUN TO BE RICH IN AMERICA by artists Norman Conquest and Michael Leigh. Originally published as an eBook by BOA, this new, perfect-bound paperback edition is packed with full-color collages celebrating the joy of Vulture Capitalism. It’s guaranteed to scrub away the Election Year gloom and delight the 99%. It’ll certainly piss off the 1%, and we think that’s reason enough to own a copy.

Order the book here.