The Porch profile picture

The Porch

About Me

Beginning as a weekend gathering of a handful of UNT Creative Writing program students who would meet on someone's back porch to discuss each other's work and carouse, and growing to a bi-weekly reading/music series, magazine, and festival, the Porch's expands on Whitman's notion that great writers must first have great audiences by acknowledging the need for good tunes and good drink as well. The writers here are influenced by everything from Irvine Welsh and Thomas Pynchon to Bachelard and Deleuze, from T.S. Eliot to Elliot Smith, Bach and chainsaw sculpture.... Finding both the coffeeshop and academic poles of writing a bit distant from our desired aesthetic, the Porch hopes to offer a venue for quality, engaging writing that doesn't insult its audience by telling too much, doesn't bore or alienate them by being overly indebted to critical discourse but remains intelligent and critical; writing that shares the stages with music, acknowledging and celebrating the songwriter as storyteller, as bard, as twin. Throw all of this in a bar, add dense smoke and a few pints, and there you have it.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 14/10/2004
Band Members: Harlin Anderson, Ashley Bender, McNasty, Aaron Leis.
Influences: Far from an exhaustive list, but all I've gathered so far....Acoustic guitars, Al Brilliant, Alex Pettit, Beowulf, blank pages, Borges, Buck 65, Coleridge, conviviality, David Bowie, Death Cab, Don DeLillo, Donald Barthelme, Elvis Costello, Gaston Bachelard, George Strait, graveyards, Ernest Hemingway, Hugh Hefner, Dwight Yoakam, Jacques Derrida, Matthew Klam, Tim O'Brian, Susan Faludi, Depeche Mode, Guinness, Hayden, ink, Irish folk songs, Irvine Welsh, Jack Daniels, Johannes Gutenberg, Keats, Lord Byron, Marquez, Metanarrative, minstrels, Nick Cave, Nirvana, Obsessive-compulsive disorders, Rilke, Semiotics, Shakespeare, Textual Criticism, The Rat Pack, Thomas Pynchon, Tom Preston, Tom Waits
Sounds Like: Sometimes poetry, sometimes music, sometimes fiction
Record Label: Porch Records (on the horizon)

My Blog

Lumberjack Fest IV

Featuring:The HeelersBirth to BurialPVC Street GangGun GunDeep SnapperLow DosagePinebox SerenadeMake BelieversAM RamblersMauve XGigiMaster of Ceremonies:Draknastula
Posted by on Wed, 21 May 2008 07:47:00 GMT

Hiatus, etc.

Due to insano-busy schedules, dissertations, theses, and other random acts of the cosmos, The Porch is going on hiatus for a while. Our long-awaited fourth issue--featuring an interview with the Scot...
Posted by on Tue, 08 May 2007 13:17:00 GMT

Lumberjack Fest III (February 24)

12:45-1:30  Spitfire Tumbleweeds 11:50-12:30  jetscreamer11:00-11:35 Current Leaves 10:10-10:45  RTB29:20-9:55  Pinebox Serenade8:30-9:05  Chris Flemmons8:10-8:30  Katy Margolis7:30  8:00  St...
Posted by on Sun, 04 Feb 2007 11:49:00 GMT

Reading the pile

Heading into the next issue now that the chapbook is out.  Though the next issue is full, my submission pile has stacked up a bit and I'm endeavoring to read through everything.  Just wanted...
Posted by on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:14:00 GMT

Chapbook Release Party at SHQ!

Fri. Nov. 10 - 7 to 10 at Secret Headquarters (210 E. Hickory)BYOB - FREE A Porch Chapbook Release Party Bluecollar and Tipping by Michael McConnell Illustrations by Ryan Smith. Music by Isaac Hoski...
Posted by on Wed, 08 Nov 2006 22:41:00 GMT

Submission Info. and Guidelines, Booking Info (Closed)

Submissions Info, Guidelines, and BookingThe Porch is currently seeking submissions for upcoming issues.  While we are currently focusing our attention locally and regionally to the Denton, DFW, ...
Posted by on Thu, 06 Apr 2006 00:11:00 GMT

Lumberjack II (Jan. 21st)

Though the weather refuses to be in season, we're pulling out the flannel again for our second Lumberjack Festival.  The lineup features some old friends and some new ones.  We're particular...
Posted by on Wed, 04 Jan 2006 12:31:00 GMT

Porch Documentary Trailer Online

Hey all, Our friends at Black Marmot Productions have finished a trailer for the Porch documentary they've been working on and have put it up on their site at http://blackmarmot.com/porchdoc.html. ...
Posted by on Fri, 14 Oct 2005 13:25:00 GMT

Issue Three and the Day of Rock

We're pressing the covers on the Porch's third issue as I type, and since we like any excuse to add another festival to this town's schedules, we're rounded up some of the rockin'est local bands to ma...
Posted by on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 19:23:00 GMT

Lumberjack Fest and Issue 2

We started printing and binding the next issue this last weekend. In it is part one of Scott Porter's Bones McCafferty saga, an interview with Dan of Silverleaf fame, some great poems from Denton and...
Posted by on Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:27:00 GMT