About the Author
On
He finished writing Generation of Strainers: A Life
on Paper, a series of three books.
On September 1, he started writing TRADE
SHOWS, the first book of 40-Year
Run: A Celebration.
40-Year
Run: A Celebration will be a book a
month, posted online, daily, at The Daily
Bulletin (www.thedailybulletin.com).
Sometimes Saunders calls 40-Year Run his stack. A stack is an unpublished, or underpublished
shelf. At the end of 40-Year Run:
A Celebration, Saunders’ stack will stand at 415 volumes.
Then he’s going to quit writing books and
become a songwriter.
Maybe.
Saunders has published ten books, by
himself or through small presses.
He has posted 233 books online, at The Daily Bugle, roman-feuilleton.com,
and The Daily Bulletin.
He has published 245 pamphlets, chapbooks,
fliers, and four-page sheets. Pamphlets
like Writing as Growth: The Presentation.
He reads from his books at book-release
parties, poetry readings, and writers conferences. Usually for a conference he will write
several pamphlets and hand them out at his presentations.
He sees readers at events like this and
talks to them, face-to-face. He knows
many of his readers. Some them write him
about his work and he replies to their comments in the books.
That is, they download, print out, and
read the online books, at work, at home, or at the public library.
Some of them have been reading Saunders
for years. What he is doing doesn’t seem
crazy to them.
It seems splendid.
Maybe they’re hooked.
Maybe it’s an addiction.
What do they get out of it? It’s just anecdotes and ravings.
Anaxiforminges. Scabs of a lasting pox.
Ezra Pound worked on his Cantos for 40 years. Was he crazy?
Charles Willeford wrote,
Today there are still enough highly literate readers in the
world for the immobilized hero novel to exist as a sub-literary force in the
world of literature. However, as the
electronic impact of immediate information forces literature of all kinds into
microfilms where it can be stored and forgotten, the immobilized hero novel
will gradually disappear. Instead of man
reading about man writing about man writing, immobilized hero novel readers
will be reduced to small groups of semi-literate men reading the immobilized
hero novel as small groups of graduate students meet today to read Beowulf.
I used to call myself bee-wolf, or
bear. From Berserker, or Wearer of the Bear
Shirt. Invincible in battle.
Compare the Seminole Indian chief
Osceola. From Asi Yaholo, Crier of the
Black Drink. An emetic tea, drunk before
going into battle. Black drink was
brewed from the yaupon holly, Ilex
vomitoria. Contained a lot of caffeine.
Writers drink a lot of coffee.
