justinrcarter

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Two new poems of mine.

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Wrote about a show I threw in high school where my best friend got kicked in the throat.

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Three new poems in table//FEAST

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“Bottle Curve” by Justin Carter, from my book Brazos

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“What We Can’t Leave Behind” by Justin Carter

From the book BRAZOS

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Haven't been on this website in years-- a decade, maybe. I'm sure everyone I followed on here has gone elsewhere. I'm screaming into the void right now.

But my first book came out last month.

I'm really proud of it.

You can buy it here: https://bellepointpress.com/products/brazos

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Sadness Submissions Redux

In conjunction with Banango Editions, who are putting out a chapbook of short essays I wrote about divorce, grief, love and loss next month called ‘Is This The Most Romantic Moment of My Life?’, I am reopening the Sadness Submissions and will be taking submissions over the next couple of weeks.

The Sadness Submissions were a project I did in 2014, where I asked people to share a sad story with me and I would share a sad story in return. A kind of grief exchange program, if you will. I did it in hopes of helping break down some of the stigma around talking about grief and loss. It was (and is) difficult for me to understand a society that expects us to both never ask for help and privately swallow all of our grief and loss. Fuck that, is what I think. It’s part of why I wrote this chapbook, because I was desperate to have a conversation that no one was having, with the exception of cheesy, overly cheery self help books, that felt completely devoid of real human emotion.

If you have a sadness you’d like to share with me, I encourage you to do so. I hope to be able to respond to all submissions, as I was able to last time, but this time I’d like to attach the caveat that I am in school full-time so I am a bit more limited on time.

I’ve scheduled reblogs for the next week of some of my favorite Sadness Submissions I received last time around, if you’d like to read them and get a feel for what they’re about.

Otherwise, please submit! (or send an ask, if you want to be anonymous)

@banangolit

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Want to win a copy of Hannibal’s letter to Bedelia? Well here’s how!

Info:

There will be five (5) letters being given away on Tumblr and two (2) letters being given away on Twitter. Each winner will receive an official prop copy of the letter, but due to there not being enough envelopes, only one winner (randomly selected from the seven) will receive their letter in an envelope.

For those who don’t know what this letter is, it is the unshown letter Hannibal sent to Bedelia in episode 3.10 (And the Woman Clothed in Sun). An HD scan has been posted here.

How to Win:

Like and/or reblog this post ONCE to be entered into the draw.

Retweet and/or favourite this tweet

No sideblogs or giveaway blogs

You don’t have to be following me but there will be more giveaways in the future so it’s always nice to stay updated!

Must be willing to provide me with your address and have your inbox open

Winners have 24 hours to respond before a second name is chosen

Contest closes at 11:59PM (EST) on Sunday, September 6th, 2015

Best of luck to all who enter! Please feel free to message me with your questions.

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Weston Cutter--Regulation Ghost

>>>>>>>FREE PDF HERE<<<<<<< Weston Cutter’s Regulation Ghost reveals its spirit in the first poem: “from here/I exhume the past”. With a glittering pickax, Cutter clears away the sediment from sentiment, and shows us what lives in the bright “flickering reels” of his memory – the search for, loss, and finding again of love, beauty, youth, and home. The past life/life passed in these poems never seems like one lamented for, but one that is used as a tool to locate oneself in the present, and “for where into the narrative to stitch myself”, using experience as a way to find meaning in the present “even if it all meant nothing”.  This collection is full of so much gorgeous wisdom, energy, and “music where you least expect” with lines that build upon themselves the way the past builds upon itself: a natural stacking that could feel claustrophobic if it wasn’t infused with so much agility and light. The Regulation Ghost of these poems acts as a divine pulley that yanks us back and forth between what we have and have yet to experience, between the “nothing…[we] wake to” and the “hopes that have taken names”. After reading these poems, you will see that Cutter, like “the lightning of the living has left/deep black burns on the inside of your mind”.

–Meghan Privitello, author of A New Language For Falling Out of Love

Regulation Ghost is an ecstatic soundtrack—a mixtape of blissful melodies. Weston Cutter is an astonishing poet. These poems reveal the metaphysics of the supermarket, the exuberance of days both cluttered and lonely, how all the things we know—from the birdfeeder to a lover’s skin—are connected, are knotted with kissing, and that all our failures and confusions will remain, but they are permanent with a thousand kinds of love. It is simple: Cutter’s exhilarating poems improve the quality of life. There is no poet I’d rather read.

–Alex Lemon, author of The Wish Book and Happy: A Memoir If you enjoyed Regulation Ghost, please consider making a donation, 100% of which goes to the author. 

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Help Me Out With This Project!!

Hi all!

  Since December, I’ve been writing poems inspired by a series of books I read as a kid-- Ghost Stories Of Old Texas-- plus some other ghost stories/ legends I’ve heard floating around. One of these poems won the Devine Fellowship from BGSU & another is forthcoming in NANO Fiction later this year.

  It gets a little boring, though, to write from the same source material. That’s where you come in!

  I’ve been struggling financially all summer, trying to get by on six hundred dollars a month and figure out how I’m going to afford a move from Ohio to Texas to start my PhD. The upside of this is I have plenty of free time to write poems, though!

  So, here’s an idea:

  First, you find a ghost story/ small town murderer rumor/ etc. that really interests you, something you’d like to see me turn into a poem or flash piece, something that exposes the spooky side of the world, or the seedy side of 19th century small towns, or something of the sort.

  Second, send me all the info you have on it. My email is justinryancarter@gmail.com.

  Third, paypal me (justinryancarter@gmail.com) something-- maybe five to seven bucks for each poem you want written.

  When I finish the poem(s), I’ll send them to you so you can know that I actually wrote them. When I go to submit them places, they’ll include a “for YOUR NAME” epigraph with them. If they get put into a book some day, your name will go in the acknowledgements section.

  If enough people pitch in, maybe I’ll end up with a solid batch of these that I can try to put into a chapbook. That chapbook will also feature you in the acknowledgements section.

  Thanks,

Justin Carter

Edit: Here are some poems I've published for an example of style.

http://thecollagist.com/the-collagist/2013/12/20/2003.html

http://www.ninthletter.com/web_edition/issue/2/poetry.html

http://www.nightblockmag.com/e3carter

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Happy 2014!

I don't blog much on here, but I am feeling all joy & proudness & happy today, so I am right now.

I've had three wonderful places publish my poems this week & I want to thank everyone involved with The Collagist & Ninth Letter & Pentimento. Here are some links to the poems:

http://www.pentimentojournal.com/#!carter/c22u6

http://www.dzancbooks.org/the-collagist/2013/12/20/2003.html

http://www.ninthletter.com/web_edition/issue/2/poetry.html

So, thanks thanks thanks!

Karissa & I have some collaborative football poems forthcoming in Split-Lip & Thrush, poems about Randy Bullock & Nick Foles & Josh Gordon. These will be my first published collabs & I am so happy THANK YOU EVERYONE!

The new Banango Street just came out. Thanks to everyone that sent stuff in to it. Here is a link: http://banangostreet.com/issue6/

I'm in the middle of applying to PhD programs. Will someone let me in? Maybe!

Everyone is beautiful.

I'm writing a story right now about buying stuffed animals & selling them on Amazon. I'm also writing a story in my other tab about going to a punk show in a really, really small town.

My thesis is almost done!

Thanks thanks thanks to everyone for everything ever!

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Banango Street Issue 6, prose guest-edited by Ben Tanzer, is now live! Go forth & read excellent poetry & prose by: Raena Shirali, William Fargason, Jill Talbot, Christopher Kempf, Joseph G. Peterson, Emily Kendal Frey, Sarah Jean Grimm, Justin Brouckaert, Lorenzo Conte, Zoe Dzunko, Anne...

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I have a poem about football & my grandfather in The Collagist today: http://www.dzancbooks.org/the-collagist/2013/12/20/2003.html

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Two Poems @ Hobart

I have two poems up today at Hobart. One is about drunk driving. One is about the Bible.

http://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/two-poems--9

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Sports Sports Sports

I have a piece from a now-abandoned project up today in Sundog's Games issue. Check it out here: http://sundoglit.com/justin-carter/

I also made my first post at a new blog that Karissa & I started. The blog is called "Poets on Sports." The blog post compares the Houston Astros to a Zachary Schomburg poem: http://poetsonsports.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/because-it-comes-right-at-you-does-not-mean-it-comes-to-save-you/

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Banango Street Issue 5—the mega-issue—is now live! Folks, we’re real proud of this one. Guest prose editor: Natalie Sypolt Feat. poetry & prose by: Kathleen Rooney & Elissa Gabbert, Kristina Marie Darling & Carol Guess, Gale Thompson, Nate Pritts, Kyle McCord, Alexis Pope, Julia Cohen, James Vavis, Matthew Zingg, Jeffrey Wasserboehr, Purnendu Patri (trans. Jayinee Basu), Weston Cutter, Megan Peak, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Jason Kapcala, Amy Willoughby-Burle, Renée K. Nicholson, Chuck Young, Bridget Dooley,Victoria Sélavy, Gina Keicher, & Colleen Louise Barry

Artwork by: Will McEvilly, Mette Norrie, Ira Joel Haber /// Additionally, submissions are now open until November 15th. A guest prose editor will be announced shortly.