| Title | : | HST Quarterly: Fall 2016 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1611710014 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781611710014 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Unbound |
| Number of Pages | : | 24 |
| Publication | : | Published September 28, 2016 |
sleaze, adj: contemptibly low, mean, or disreputable
trash, n: literary or artistic material of poor or inferior quality
Welcome to the inaugural issue of HST Quarterly, the curated collection from Horror, Sleaze and Trash.
HST Quarterly: Fall 2016 Reviews
-
EDUCATORS, TAKE NOTE
the recent
and bewildering
trend
of tumblr-poets
getting book deals
and selling thousands of copies
of these books
is redefining poetry
in the minds of impressionable
kiddies
as
'any thought that pops into your head
as long as you hit enter
a bunch of times.'
and even though
these poems here
are full of blowjobs,
and whale-on-human sex,
and blowjobs,
and hand jobs,
and blowjobs,
and drinking,
and bird-murder,
and blowjobs,
they are still better examples
of 'poetry'
than anything
lang leav
will ever write,
and by that rationale,
more appropriate to be included
in a grade-school poetry lesson
than the
emogasms of
any of
those cyberpoet hacks. -
I only read it for the poems.
See Bryana's full spread (quite literally)
here. -
An refreshingly unpretentious collection of poetry containing witty, sardonic and relatable entries.
-
This arrived a while ago in a care package sent to me by the author/editor. (Arthur Graham CARES, people! He bloody well does!)
My husband saw the cover, and the slender book disappeared for a while. It later appeared, slightly mangled, near the shitter, and I finally got to read it. (On the back porch. Not the shitter.)
There's some really wonderful stuff here, including poems by some Goodreads members. It's hard to pick a favorite, though
Johnny Scarlotti's Blue Whale made me snort with laughter. Trust Johnny on this - never swim with a whale . . .
the ocean is fucked.
I'm never going in there again.
Did you know that if you send a message to
Arthur Graham, he will GIVE YOU an ebook. (Because he FREAKIN' CARES!) I recommend doing this since you won't have to worry about your husband doing God-only-knows-what to the cover.
And. for Joulupukki's sake, stay out of the ocean! -
Full Disclosure
I sucked dick
In exchange
For a free
Copy of
HST
Quarterly.
No honest
Review was
Required.
Arthur said
It was great,
Anyway.
Well-Bred Poets Knitting Circle
Dare I say it, my only qualm with this book is that it wasn't horrible, sleazy or trashy enough. To my untrained eye, it actually stands as a collection of reasonably good contemporary poetry. To the extent that occasionally so-called objective standards might lapse, it's usually compensated for by a sense of humour or (self-) parody (i.e., it's fun!). The book is both well laid and well laid out. The whole is even greater than the sum of its parts. I enjoyed the whole and much more than some of the parts. It made me want to pluck my eyebrows, shave my legs and read more HST poetry. I can't wait for the next quarterly to come! Hopefully, one more swallow will make a spring of good reading. -
There’s a lot more depth to these poems than I had expected for a collection that’s primarily concerned with Horror, Sleaze and Trash. The poems themselves might dwell on attributes of those three themes, but the poetry itself isn’t trashy or sleazy. For a selection of various poets, this works very well as a collection, where the individual pieces combine to make a satisfying whole. My favourites were the introductory ‘Contemporary Poetry’ by Michael Marrotti, ‘hand in hand’ by J. J. Campbell, ‘Sigourney Weaver Reminds Me of My Mum’ by Andy Carrington, ‘Too Drunk To Drink’ by Chris Butler, ‘Trash’ by Thom Young, and ‘Editors Can Be Dicks’ by Angelica Fuse. I didn’t know most of the poets in this collection, but it’s been great to make their acquaintance.
-
I interviewed Arthur about this book and more, and you can listen
here!
I'm holding my review hostage.
Enjoy these saucy pics instead!!
http://www.horrorsleazetrash.com/art-... -
...........And the winner for this year's best cover goes to Bryanna. From the title and description I was expecting some filthy, violent and scary poetry, the collection is not as shallow as that. It starts off a bit sensible, then gets angry and quite shouty, then things start to get a bit rude and then near the end things take a serious turn. The ordering of the poems and the layout has been perfectly done.
I'm quite proud of myself because I have read stuff by 4 of the poets, quite an achievement for me. Amber Decker is new to me and her poem was the best, the perfect poem for HST, She sounds like she could be quite scary in real life. Certificates by Chris Butler had me laughing out loud, only 7 lines long but genius. The mighty Johnny Scarlotti does a little documentary for us about the Blue Whale.
Has anybody seen the Nationwide adverts on TV? Some person sat in a café lecturing about humans and stuff? I quite like them, it would be awesome if John Grochalski was to read his poem, the longest in the book, on one of those adverts.
A fine collection here and some new names for me to check out...it's only downfall was that it just isn't long enough, over way too soon. -
Zero stars from me cause I'm in it.
-
There's a lot of poetry that I look at condescendingly because I'm not a 15-year-old angst-ridden teen anymore. This is not that kind of poetry. These poems tend to focus on what it's like to be both a low-life (in the non-judgmental sense) and a poet. While I'm not a poet, I can appreciate the meta-narrative aspect here. It sounds like being a poet really, really sucks, so maybe I made the right decision? I don't know. There are all kinds of horrors (in the non-monster sense) associated with it in this zine—emotional, economic, sexual, existential...
So, I still don't really get poetry, but if you do like poetry that's gritty and a little bit off into left-field, I'd highly recommend this.
Oh, there's also a whole sleaze pictorial online you might want to check out if you like thighs and vaginas. -
Brief but sly collection of mind vomit paper napkin poetry, some drollness amongst the weariness, sometimes the good stuff does require unthinking. I liked that this didn’t go on too long. Wanting more is one of those good things.
It seemed like it was having a conversation with itself, and I was eavesdropping. Another good thing. Shows that someone had actually thought about what was included, or that had at least happened as a happy accident. Whatever the case, these poems complement, sometimes battling the pain of self awareness so acute it writes itself moot, sometimes surrendering to the simplicity of the indirect aside, grabbed from thin air before it gets away. This short collection had more to it than I’d expected, which is always a decent surprise. -
Personally, as someone who compiles/publishes various types of writers, I really respect what HST has done here. It was a full spread of silly, fearless, and personal poetry, and I love a full spread (thank you bryana)
I'm looking forward to reading the next quarterly, and hopefully contributing again. -
HST quarterly is, and will continue to be, something I read to satisfy that nook of my brain that craves things witty and cynical.
-
A great collection and I can't wait to get my hands on more!
-
thought this was a decent collection overall -
poems that stood out to me were cosmic loophole by ally malinenko, what might have been by arthur graham, and big shot by ben john smith -
Well, I was in the middle of Petrarch's lyrical poems listening to him go on and on about Laura. 366 poems about the love of his life that he never spoke a word too. The guy was completely obsessed. Today there would be a restraining order or he would be sharing a cell with John Hinckley sharing Laura and Jodie Foster stories. The guy was even jealous of the earth because when Laura died the earth would embrace her forever and he never could. That might be normal for a medieval poet but what about normal 21st-century poets? Then I picked up HST Quarterly.
HST is a quarterly poetry publication It stands for Horror, Sleaze, and Trash. So think of it for the very open minded, NC-17, cool kids market. I t does have shock value, but Ginsberg and Wilde shocked people too. This may be an opportunity to get in on future classic poetry. Things change. I mean Queen Elizabeth was at the 2012 Olympic opening ceremonies while "Pretty Vacant" was being played. For all we know, Liz and Johnny could have been high-fiving in the stands.
What to expect. If you are expecting Johnny Rotten, you will be as disappointed as someone expecting Carl Sandburg. But, if you want an original poetic experience and something to read in the shop and not have the guys laugh at you for reading poetry....this is it. The poetry is surprisingly good considering the expectations that the publication's title offers. I have read a lot of bad poetry and this is not it.
Most of the poetry is for an adult audience although nothing too graphic. Chelsea Howard would make Petrarch gasp and inspire Dante’s second circle, but they are old guys and out of touch. JJ Campbell writes of what could only be a married couple with a long, long marriage. Angelica Fuse writes "Editors Can Be Dicks," while the publication's editor contributes two poems. All the poems are good and definitely worth reading. Johnny Scarlotti, however, cranks it up to eleven, twice. "Blue Whale" takes dolphin encounters to a brand new level and explains why it's not the great white sharks that make it not safe to go back into the water. He follows up with "Toucan" a poem of seemingly new hope when seeing that there are others who are just a bad off as we are. There is that heartwarming feeling... and then there are the lines written on the side, as sort of a post script.
Overall, I did not read a poem I didn't like which is odd in an anthology. I keep mentioning this is adult writing, the cover will give that away, but not too adult. HST does for poetry what R Crumb did for comics.
This fine publication is available at:
http://www.horrorsleazetrash.com/
I can't wait to get to the Winter issue. -
As part of my New Year's reading, I plan on reading
Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
Henry Miller, and
Milan Kundera and I will be working my way through those author's oeuvre. I'm also going to finish off
Italo Calvino, who I started last year. Each year, I also re-read all of
J.A. Carter-Winward's works. Of course, I still have a couple of
Charles Bukowski's books sitting in the bathroom.
With this type of year of reading on tap, I also realized that I've carried most of the HST Quarterlies in my "Currently Reading" status on GoodReads, because I never got around to reviewing them the way I thought I should review them. I'm actually thoroughly impressed by
Arthur Graham's ability to curate these quarterly collections that somehow manage to capture the edge of creating art, seeing life in its most profane, and finding it all so fulfilling and meaningful. I found myself relating to Ben John Smith's last poem in this collection, Big Shot, and how he has lost the fuel for his poetry and has traded it in for "the good life." But that is the beauty of these quarterlies -- the horror, sleaze, and trash is actually part and parcel of the good life. -
RTC
-
Cheers to the gods of sex, wine, and poetry.
-
Always entertaining. Great cover.
My favorite poem this issue was "hand in hand" by J.J. Campbell.
Also enjoyed Andy Carrington's piece on Sigourney Weaver, "Dangerous" by John D. Robinson (insight at the urinal), Ryan Quinn Flanagan's unique take on workers comp, and the poems of John Grochalski and Ben John Smith.
HST never fails to deliver. Recommended reading.
