Annals of Japery
May 10, 2013
The Adjunct 3
by Andrea Lawlor
Avoid passive voice. When you write in the passive voice you sound like a landlord or a lawyer; you sound like you mean to avoid responsibility. Is that true? Do you eschew responsibility? Were you up until four a.m. writing on the walls of girls’ Facebook pages before you started this paper?
April 26, 2013
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Poets 3
by Patrick Wensink
I once had a real-life encounter with a poet at four a.m. in a Las Vegas Denny’s. He leaned over the back of his booth, made some awkward introduction, and began reciting lines from a wrinkled paper about the haunting sound wind makes or some nonsense.
This encounter gave me an acute poet-phobia that lasted for years.
April 19, 2013
I Have So Many People to Thank 0
by Jeremy Blachman
My love of writing began in kindergarten, and so I would be remiss not to thank Mrs. Rosemary Porter and everyone at Chester Arthur Elementary School, from Principal Tucker to Esmeralda from the lunchroom, not to mention all of my classmates. Wherever all of you are, I hope you know that you have not been forgotten and your efforts to include me in your spirited games of kickball were not in vain.
April 1, 2013
Amazon Announces Purchase of English™ 24
by Michael Bourne
Plans are also in the works to acquire German, Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese, Bezos said, as well as several nonstandard dialects of English™, including African-American Vernacular English, popular among the highly desirable 18-25 upscale suburban demographic.
March 19, 2013
Conspiring Minds 1
by Matt Seidel
The often naïve heroes of conspiracy fiction must quickly learn to read the signs of an increasingly sinister world, and read I did. The students in my composition class on conspiracy fiction were in fact conspiring against me.
March 5, 2013
Announcing a New Reader Tax 2
by Chris Haven
It is with a mixture of regret and unrestrained joy that I would like to announce that I am now charging a $3.00 processing fee for all new subscription requests sent to me by literary magazines.