Mark Fullmer

COURAGE: a portrait of the man as an artist (2009)

with an introduction by Mark Fullmer

Nick Courage is a Brooklyn-based poet, rocker, and visual auteur who is a pioneer in avant-pop aesthetics and the new deliberatism. Though his philosophy defies categorization, he variously identifies as deleuzean, ecofeminist, and luddite. This collection of moments, exploits, and enlightenments is a literary offertory that memorializes the man without mythologizing. Contributors include Lad Tobin, Jen Guterman, Eileen Fenn, Lindsay DiGianvittorio, Mordicai Knode, bat matthews, L.A. Henkel, Mark Fullmer, Katie Howell, Edwin T Merrick V, Mike Milazzo, Sara Jackson, and Angie Brammer. look inside

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(will be added to the latest printing of COURAGE: a portrait of the man as an artist)

Tweet, Tweet: A mysticotelegraphic fistbump panegyric to the American open road odyssey (2009)

This collection of documentary micropoetry features 56 twitter poems of exactly 140 characters composed on the road from Brea to Flagstaff to Taos to Denver to Provo to Ferdley to Big Sur and back.

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On the Beautiful Sea: Eight Stories

On the Beautiful Sea (2008) is Fullmer's first collection of linked short stories, offering a fragmented glimpse at a protagonist identified variously as John, Johnny, and J.B. Moving in reverse chronological order, each subsequent story reveals something more of the preceding ones. The stories were written over a period of three years.

The Stories
1. What's a Novena?
2. match.com
3. The Rachmaninoff Vocalise
4. On the Beautiful Sea
5. The Girl in the Park
6. Funny Valentine
7. Day Sleepers Welcome
8. Dairy

Thoughts for "On the Beautiful Sea"

"You have a way with words that creates the character in rhythms and tone, and I felt drawn into this world, and especially, this perspective."
--Elizabeth Graver

"My favorite aspect was the sort of alternative artifacts--equations, counseling center questionnaire, index page--that you scattered. The main character seems very well developed. This is a very unusual moment you're describing."
--Jen Guterman

"the ebbing and flowing narrator evinces an unpresuming, emotable fragility - a vulnerability that steers clear of solipsism, instead reaching gently outward, rubbing the back of the inner-artist we all guard so preciously. having set aside the ego that characterizes our contemporary literary milieu, ON THE BEAUTIFUL SEA asks us not for adulation, but for self reflection."
--Nick Courage

"It could be potentially overly-sentimental, but instead approaches the subject from a more disturbing (and interesting, I believe) slant. This, of course, is quite macabre, but also very effective."
--Christina Seremetis

"I must confess I did not know what to make of the ending, and hence, the point. I've been pondering the possibilities all week to no definitive conclusion."
--Amanda Martinez

"You have created a very rich relationship here."
--Marissa Matteo

"It's the kind of writing that stuck with me for a few days, which is a good sign. There are so many incredible things happening here--the cataloguing language, the astute details, author's personality and lives, dialogue, the actual writing itself. Truly an enjoyable read."
--Meg Gordon

"Wow."
--Erin Haddad-Null

"I enjoyed this very much--especially the tone and the rhythm of it. What does that mean, though, anyway? I liked the narrator's pomp and humor, his inclination to use big words and long sentences, with a dry kind of eloquence."
--Jessica Smith