Mark Leidner

A collection of stories that focus on love, lost love, death, the absurdity of the human condition, relationships, and beauty. There is also a story about insects that is more human than most D.H. Lawrence. Mark Leidner's fiction is deeply infused with poetry, but never turns purple. "Let's see how merciful you really are," she mutters to God, then with shaky hands she points the gun at her own chest and pulls the trigger. The blast spins her around twice and she falls limp crossways over the soldier, gushing blood all over his body from a hole over her heart. The impact of her fall, however, wakes the man from his unconscious slumber. He sees her face tilted just above his. He looks up into her eyes. Her eyes grow wide. She's ecstatic that he's alive, but horrified that she's about to die. He tries to mouth something, but he can't because she's crushing his lungs. She tries to roll off of him, but she's lost so much blood that she's too weak to roll very far, and she only rolls a few inches. The wound on her heart is bleeding onto his face. He's blinking and choking on her blood while despairing, not at his own pain, but at how awfully she has been hurt. "We should have just broken up," the man finally manages to say, coughing and spitting between gulps of blood. "I know," says the woman. Mark Leidner is a poet. He also writes fiction and screenplays. He lives in Oregon.

Under the Sea

Poetry. BEAUTY WAS THE CASE THAT THEY GAVE ME is Mark Leidner's first full-length collection of poems. A collection of poems that might make you feel like a flower, like a black hole, like punishment meted out at night by a giant tractor, like you have to get on fire, then slowly walk around your old neighborhood, like the town was real, like she thinks swoon is a funnier word than mulligan, and he thinks swoon is a funny word too, but no way in hell is it funnier than mulligan, like he's searching for the Holy Grail and she has little Holy Grail-shaped pupils, like an effusion of steam, like what's cool changes, like hemisphere paint, like a blue flower, like the house you have lived above forever.

Beauty was the Case that They Gave Me

The followup to his beloved debut collection Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me, Mark Leidner’s Returning the Sword to the Stone is simultaneously profound and irreverent, in the same way that the world is flat as we walk and round as we live. “A child surprised that a neon sign / isn’t hot the first time they touch one / knows how it feels as an adult to achieve one’s goals” states the speaker of “Youth Is A Fugitive” and this sentiment is one of the central precepts of Returning the Sword to the Stone. Congealing directly off the page, these are poems that only Mark Leidner could have written.

Returning the Sword to the Stone

It is refreshing and exhilarating to read a poet this sincere, this demanding and lucid in his aspirations toward art and his analyses of our time. –Publishers Weekly Mark Leidner is a poet and my favorite person on Twitter, just a constant source of amazing little images and aphorisms. I've read this book straight through beginning to end once each night since I got it last week. –Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day Such a truly lovely book in all respects. –Dennis Cooper

Aphorisms

The Angel in The Dream of Our Hangover

Tao Lin

Chelsea Hodson

Blake Butler

Sarah Manguso

Kathryn Scanlan

David Nutt

Annie DeWitt

Christine Schutt

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Sam Pink

Yuka Igarashi

Raegan Bird

Scott Mcclanahan

Kristen Iskandrian

Nicolette Polek

Precious Okoyomon

Patty Yumi Cottrell

Mallory Whitten

Ann Beattie

This anthology collects original writing and art by novelists, poets, and academics about their pets, including a killer chihuahua, a catatonic toy poodle, a contraband cat, a backyard full of endangered desert tortoises, five forgotten parakeets, and a skinny ex-racehorse named Joe. From legends like Ann Beattie and Christine Schutt to cult figures like Scott McClanahan and Tao Lin, this anthology collects writing from some of today's best literary talent. Edited by Jordan Castro with contributions by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Ann Beattie, Raegan Bird, Blake Butler, Ryan C. K. Choi, Michael W. Clune, Patty Yumi Cottrell, Annie DeWitt, Chelsea Hodson, Yuka Igarashi, Kristen Iskandrian, Mark Leidner, Tao Lin, Scott McClanahan, Sarah Manguso, David Nutt, Precious Okoyomon, Sam Pink, Nicolette Polek, Kathryn Scanlan, Christine Schutt, and Mallory Whitten.

Pets

21 Extremely Bad Breakups

Romantic Comedies

Mark Leidner

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