PRESS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
February 6, 2012
CONTACT: Mark Spitzer (501) 450-3339; toadsuckreview@gmail.com
By Taylor Gladwin
UCA Department of Writing
CONWAY ― The University of Central Arkansas’s literary journal, the Toad Suck Review, has just published its highly anticipated second issue, which is packed with American literary icons such as Charles Bukowski, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman and Shepard Fairey.
This issue also includes many emerging and established writers. Copies may be purchased through Amazon.com, Spdbooks.org, or at the upcoming Launchapalooza on the UCA campus, Friday, Feb. 24, at 8 p.m. in the Lewis Science Center room 102. T-shirts will also be on sale as well as books by contributors and editors.
Readers at the Launchapalooza, which will be the final event in UCA’s ArkaText literary festival Feb. 20-24, will include poet Terry Wright, whose latest chapbook, Fractal Cut-Ups, is due to come out this year; Fayetteville author Thomas Cochran, author of the novels Roughnecks and Running the Dogs; speech-path maestro Gary McCullough, whose work has appeared in CAIRN: The St. Andrews Review, The Nocturnal Lyric, and Papa; Little Rock native Frank Thurmond, who teaches literature at UALR, and Tim (T-Bone) Thornes, reading for the late Roy Trask, whose posthumous book Surreal Killer is celebrated as a postmodern masterpiece.
“We don’t have the bling like we did last year for a fancy fete at Michelangelo’s, but we are prepared to burn bright amidst the Bunson burners of Lewis Science Center, where we will wow the Toad Suck World, then continue on to the Bears Den for a gala reception in honor of our star-spangled local debut,” Editor-in-Chief Mark Spitzer said.
Wright, a UCA professor of writing, added: “The Toad Suck Review is a golden ticket that gets one beyond candied wonkification. It’s a bullet train that buzzes by the usual moral morasses and pulls up instead to your final destination: cultural evolution. A TSR live event is the meteor the dinosaurs of mainstream art and literature see before settling in for a well-deserved, multi-millennial hibernation in oozy bogs until one finally apprehends what these reptiles have become: polluting contaminants.”
The annual Toad Suck Review is published by the Department of Writing in the College of Fine Arts and Communication and is thrilled to be back as a powerhouse of cutting-edge poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. This issue includes a new section on eco-writing and a focus on literary translation as well as a spotlight on Arkansas writers.
The reception following the Launchapalooza will take place at 10 p.m. at Bears Den Pizza, 235 Farris Road in Conway. Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit toadsuckreview.org or contact Spitzer at (501) 450-3339 or toadsuckreview@gmail.com.
-30-
