421

Earlier this year*, I bought a little bungalow called the 421. So far, there is a signature 421 cocktail and a 421 pizza. There is a 421 breakfast sandwich. Linguistic maps here.

Also this year**, I printed COLLECTED ADULT LESSONS, a small book of poems, a few of which appeared in my 2010 chapbook Selected Adult Lessons from Agnes Fox Press, the rest of which were previously uncollected.

As I prepared CAL for publication, in consultation with publishing and editing don Adam Robinson, I discovered that, in addition to a bungalow, cocktail, pizza, and breakfast sandwich, 421 would become a press, starting now. So, here goes!

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* 2013, which won’t always be *this* year, admittedly.

** See *

4:21 on 4/21: Announcing 421 Atlanta's First Anniversary Chapbook by LK Shaw!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

4/21/14  4:21 PM EDT

421 Atlanta will release a short fiction chapbook by LK Shaw in November 2014. It will be released on or near 421 Atlanta's first anniversary as a press so the chapbook will be its first anniversary release. 

Lucy K Shaw is the founding editor of Shabby Doll House. This month, she is the guest editor of Everyday Genius. Her short prose can be found at Illuminati Girl Gang, Thought Catalog, and Keep This Bag Away from Children.

The Passion of Joan of Arc by William Todd Seabrook

The Passion of Joan of Arc
by William Todd Seabrook

7x8.5" 36 pages
Release date: May 15
$8 + shipping

Winner of the First Annual 421 Chapbook Prize in Short Prose, Selected by Mary Miller

William Todd Seabrook received his MFA from University of Colorado at Boulder, and is currently a PhD candidate at Florida State University. His work has appeared in Tin House, Mid-American Review, PANK, CutBank, Quiddity, New Ohio Review, and 30 Under 30 Anthology. Mud Luscious Press published his chapbook This Semi-Perfect Universe in 2011, and his second chapbook, The Genius of J. Robert Oppenheimer, won the 2012 Firewheel Editions Chapbook Contest. Recently he also won the 2014 Rose Metal Press Chapbook Contest.

421 Atlanta does Seattle!

Above is the menu for Brunch Ranch, Offsite AWP's only brunchside reading, featuring writers from Publishing Genius, Future Tense, Mammoth Editions, and Magic Helicopter -- and free homemade brunch! 421 Atlanta is hosting the brunch with HTMLGiant, and every menu item is named after one of the readers or their latest book. The brunch will be held at the HTMLGiant Ranch (details on ticket) at 11am on Friday, February 28.

You can get your ticket by purchasing a book on Thursday on the conference floor, either at one of the 421 Atlanta and Vouched Books roving cigar? cigarette? chapbook? tables, or at table Q-24. Tickets are very limited, so make your move early! 

Also, about those roving tables -- look for us! The exquisite Lauren Traetto, vicereine of Vouched San Francisco, and I, Amy McDaniel, czarina of 421 Atlanta, will be slinging merch, dressed to the nines, ready to chat about chapbooks. 

At night? Late on Friday, you know you can find us at the FSG Originals Presents Literature Party. Besides that? We'll be wherever there's cheap beer, bearded men, dirty hoodies, sweaty bathrooms, and a laundry list of incredible readers. 

Announcing the Winner of the 421 Chapbook Prize in Short Prose: Todd Seabrook

I'm pleased to announce that contest judge Mary Miller has selected, from among eleven worthy finalists, our winner and the next chapbook from 421 Atlanta: The Passion of Joan of Arc by Todd Seabrook.

Honestly, though, I feel like the winner of my own contest: I'm the one who got to read all the submissions without knowing who wrote what, and I got to choose eleven finalists that I'd be thrilled to publish, and then I got to daydream about which one our esteemed judge might choose. And now I get to publish the winning chapbook!

421 Atlanta is a new press, so I took the fact that we got such a huge response in submissions (mostly from people I don't know, which means numerous kind souls spread the word) -- around eighty manuscripts -- well, I took that trust in my fledgling press very seriously, so -- with the help of Adam Robinson of Publishing Genius, who stripped names so I could select finalists anonymously, and of course Mary, who dedicated her careful concerted effort to choosing a winner within a few days of receiving the finalists chosen -- we announced a winner within NINE DAYS of the contest deadline.

Before that happened, I wrote a very confusing update and sent it to all the people who entered the contest. It was meant to simply tell them where we were in the process -- basically, finalists sent to Mary, decision within a week -- but several people thought I was telling them they were NOT finalists, and several thought I was telling them they WERE, depending, I guess, on the rosiness of the color of their glasses. So, I do not win the prize for email clarity. But once I explained, everybody was so gracious and lovely about it. Goodwill soared.

AND THEN, even when I contacted everyone with the results -- which meant, for most people, that Mary didn't even read their manuscript (which was the whole draw for lots of people in the first place, judging by their lovely and complimentary-of-Mary's-writing cover letters), and for the rest, except Todd, that they came close but no chapbook-cigar -- even then, EVERYONE WAS STILL SO LOVELY AND GRACIOUS! Like, "let's be friends, thanks for doing this, awesome."

And what could be better than that?