behind the punctured canvas

Born in San Francisco, the precocious only child of Sicilian immigrants, [Philip] Lamantia discovered the expressive mode that would drive his imagination when, in 1942, exhibitions of the work of both Dalí and Miró arrived in the city. Entranced by images that appeared to emerge from an unknown reality, the fifteen-year-old immersed himself in Surrealist texts and resolved to attempt with words what he had seen done with paint. […]

     In 1953 Philip Lamantia read at what is probably America's most famous poetry reading. It was Allen Ginsberg's inaugural presentation of 'Howl,' which made the event at San Francisco's Six Gallery historic. Lamantia avoided the spotlight that night, but his Collected Poems reveal a turbulent and risky writer—one who was perhaps even braver than his Beat cohorts."
— Albert Mobilio, BookForum
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Short. Sweet.

"What exactly is a short short story, I wondered, as I opened Ethel Rohan's second story collection, Goodnight Nobody. Are her micro fictions, most between three and five pages, sawed-off longer stories to be read with the same expectation for plot, character development, setting and illumination that I hold for longer stories? Or are these flashes to be read like poetry, with an eye and ear for rhythm, extremity and intensity, an experience of the words?

     Rohan's bright, engaging fictions immerse us in the lives of characters from her native Ireland to her adopted home of San Francisco, and points in between. Some satisfied my criteria for stories, some for poetry, while the most successful contained elements of both."
— Audrey Ferber, San Francisco Chronicle
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