We Regret To Inform You

To our readers, our fans, our friends and the rest of you keyboard cowboys

We regret to inform you that our command center recently experienced a partial system crash.

We are currently recovering from the afforementioned damage, repairing and relocating our archival works and data to other personal computers for safe keeping

and so publications can resume shortly.

We will continue to accept submissions, manuscripts etc.

both for UNI-VERSE and for other publications.

However, minor to moderate computer errors

have led to publishing setbacks and limbo deadlines.

Expect a little less activity in the coming months as we are working diligently to restore everything to its original state.

UNI-VERSE, The ART-ery and future publications will resume when our systems are fully operational.

We will post updates periodically on our activities and on the publications progress,

so stay tuned!

Thanks for your support and understanding.

Sincerely,

Justin Parrinello

Editor

&

The Folks at

READ & DESTROY

UNI-VERSE: NUMBER TWO

The second sneak peak installment of our ongoing anthology is now available for free as a pdf download.


Number Two features the poem "Mohonk Preserve Blues" by Robert Milby.


For the afforementioned download, free poetry and other goodies visit our storefront at

http://stores.lulu.com/readanddestroy

UNI-VERSE COMMENCES

The first sneak peak installment of the thirty part anthology is now available for free as a pdf download.

Number One features the poem "14" by Teresa Marta Costa.

For the afforementioned download, free poetry and other goodies visit our storefront at

http://stores.lulu.com/readanddestroy

PRESS RELEASE: Gehenna

READ & DESTROY

is proud to announce the publication

GEHENNA

by Ludovico De Medici

Gehenna can be ordered as an E-book (PDF) for $2.50 at http://stores.lulu.com/deadtrees

OR

You can order a hard copy of the book for $5.00 from
Read & Destroy Press P.O. Box 1572 Pleasant Valley, NY 12569
Send all online orders and inquiries to read.and.destroy@gmail.com

The Busiest Bard in the Underground
A Review of Justin Parrinello’s newest book of poems, Gehenna

Love his verbose paradoxical contortions of unusual wordplay
and literary grotesqueries or not
experimental poet
Justin Parrinello has definitely set the pace for the intriguing,
the bizarre and avant-garde all at rapid-fire speed.

Gehenna, the newest collection under his longstanding pseudonym Ludovico De Medici,
is the follow-up to the eulogistic melancholia of January’s
The Hair Falls Out in Clumps of Languages Long Dead
and
the radical progressive approach to automatic writing and word salad exhibited in May’s
Complete and Utter Rubbish Compiled with a Goal of Generating Cash.

Gehenna is a collection of seven poems narrated in the same cryptic, prophetic tone you’ve come to expect, only this time around Parrinello’s abandoned the concept driven narrative framework of which he’s well known and has instead
set a series of potent linguistic landmines that detonate with power and purpose
one after the other.

The author himself described Gehenna in a interview with
Ellen Connelly of the poetry zine
The Ephemera Exchange as
“A series of night gallery episodes that all have a sort of romantic paranoia in common. There‘s something for everyone, There’s bits about dead sea scrolls,
a crank-lab explosion, the sephira,
booster-shots of flavor-aid laced with cyanide,
and at least one love poem for good measure.”

The book begins with an interesting piece entitled Strawberry Cough,
which manages to frankenstein the historical account of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination with the squirmy, scaly imagery you’d find in a film by
David Lynch or Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Pieces like You are Dead, Because the Lord is not Your Armor and
Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid help to reinforce Parrinello’s atypical technique and ominous discourse with a slew of occult allusions, and a slapstick tenor of topics ranging from the Tylenol Murders, drug mules, religious excommunication, tales of love after life, and the end of civilization as we know it.

This book is edgy, thought-provoking, and literally bleeds with mood and style.
It packs a plentiful and at times unsettling punch, but by the end of the final poem
Let Them Eat Crack,
it all becomes very clear that this exercise in alienation, surveillance culture,
and loss of god has been the authors intention all along.
Once you’ve finished the book you’ll find yourself wanting to revisit the strange balance of utopian and dystopian imagery and clever language patterning Parrinello’s so artfully devised.
Go with your instincts, you’ll thank me in the long run!

Review by Brian Hill
of the Outsider Writers Collective

PRESS RELEASE: Free Speech by Katie Alekseev

READ & DESTROY

is proud to announce the publication of

by
Katie L. Alekseev

FREE SPEECH is available for $5.00 directly from R&D Press.
Email or orders, inquiries, etc. to
read.and.destroy@gmail.com
or
READ & DESTROY PRESS
P.O. Box 1572 Pleasant Valley, New York 12569

FREE SPEECH is the first volume of a three book set.
Each book deals with a different aspect of American military history, with book one focusing primarily on the inception of the civil rights movement.

The hard copy is printed on 27 lb paper with a glossy cover
and pro-stitch binding.

-BIOGRAPHY-

Katie L. Alekseev

Katie is a certified nurse's assistant by day,
novelist, activist, and performance poet by night.
She lives in Glen Spey, New York with her fiance and sphinx cat Vlad.
She enjoys kayaking, cooking, and travel.

UNI-VERSE [Update]

It's been several months since we first announced the Uni-verse series,
so it seemed only right to update everyone on the project, its progress and the new deadline.

First and most importantly,
we're pushing the deadline for the website/anthology back to December.
We apologize for this, but promise that the end product will be well worth the wait!

As for the printable material,
the first block of hand-outs is scheduled for an August release.

We're very pleased with the work we've received so far and want to thank everybody immensely for their wonderful words and unwavering support for Read & Destroy
and the rest of the underground literary movement.

Stay tuned!

PRESS RELEASE: Complete & Utter Rubbish...

READ & DESTROY

is proud to announce the publication of

Complete & Utter Rubbish Compiled

With a Goal of Generating Cash

by Ludovico De Medici

"Complete & Utter Rubbish"

is a discursive absurdist vers-libre sideshow

showcasing a unique assortment of

literary experiments.

From automatic and disassociative writings to word salad and the

the psychadelic reverse-engineering of altered states of consciousness.

Rubbish is

Guaranteed to uplift and unsettle,

to make many sudden turns to unexpected places,

and if at the very least challenge the stiff formalities and crass classification

of modern free verse.

This tasty batch of oddball wankery can be downloaded

as a free pdf file at

http://stores.lulu.com/deadtrees

or can be viewed online at

http://www.rubbish.cjb.net

A "Dead Tree" version can be ordered directly from the press!

Send all physical mail orders to

READ & DESTROY PRESS

P.O. Box 1572

Pleasant Valley, New York 12569

You can place orders online by emailing us at

read.and.destroy@gmail.com

The booklet is printed on 24 lb paper with a color cardstock cover

and saddle-stapled gutter.

This publication as well as hand-outs, broadsides, chappetes, mini-chaps, etcetera...

may be available gratis at select locations.

Check out the authors blog at

http://www.notadeatree.blogspot.com/