Carol Novack
, (1948–2011), founded Mad Hatters’ Review in 2005, was the former recipient of a writer’s award from the Australian government, author of a poetry chapbook, and an erstwhile criminal defense and constitutional lawyer in NYC. In 2010, she moved from a Greenwich Village co-op to a mountain residence (future “retreat” for individuals and collaborators) in Western North Carolina, importing her KGB Bar reading series, “Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes” to The Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center, and founding the non-profit arts organization, MadHat, Inc.
Carol’s collection of fictions, fusions, monologues and poems, Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack, was published in Fall 2010 by Spuyten Duyvil Press. The book is beautifully illustrated, mainly by artists who’ve graced the pages of Mad Hatters’ Review.
The late poet, Hugh Fox called the collection: “THE most seductive, original, impacting work I have seen for years. A fascinating combination of Kerouacian street-talk plus a trip through the museum of Modern Art in Chicago, plus a nod-off to Kosty's furthest out experimentalism. Magnifique!”
Here is a full (though not complete) list of Carol’s publications, interviews and links:
Books:
Felicia’s Nose (with Tom Bradley, illustrated by Nick Patterson, MadHat Press, 2012), Giraffes in Hiding: The Mythical Memoirs of Carol Novack (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2010), Living Alone Without a Dictionary (Makar Press, 1974; reissue forthcoming, MadHat Press)
Audio:
Inventions II: Fictions, Fusions, & Poems, Carol Novack with Don C. Meyer & Benjamin Rush Miller (2008)
Anthologies:
New Cross Musings on a Manic Reality (Dog Horn Publishing, 2011), Heide Hatry: Heads and Tales (Charta Books, 2009), The &NOW Awards (&NOW Books — Lake Forest College Press, 2009), Diagram III (Del Sol Press, 2008), The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets (Penguin, 1986), The Tabloid Story Pocket Book (Wild & Woolley, 1978), Mother I'm Rooted (Outback Press, 1975)
Journals:
5_trope, Action Yes, American Letters & Commentary, Anemone Sidecar, Apostrophe, Big Bridge, Caketrain, Cellar Door Magazine, Diagram, Drunken Boat, Elimae, Exquisite Corpse, Fiction International, Gargoyle, Journal of Experimental Fiction, knock, La Petite Zine, Lamination Colony, Laura Hird Showcase, LIT, LITnIMAGE, Mad Hatters’ Review, Metazen, Milk, Mindfire Renewed, Mississippi Review, Muse Apprentice Guild, Necessary Fiction, Newtopia, Notre Dame Review, Opium Magazine, Otoliths, Pindeldyboz, Retort Magazine, Salt Flats Annual, Salt River Review, Scythe, Scythe Literary Journal, Segue, Sein und Werden, SmokeLong Quarterly, Susurrus, Tears in the Fence, The Angler, The Beat, The Del Sol Review, The Jivin' Ladybug, Underground Voices, Unlikely Stories, Unpleasant Event Schedule, Void Magazine, Wheelhouse, Wild Strawberries, Word Riot, Yankee Pot Roast
Interviews:
The Short Review
Rimbaud
Web Del Sol
Smokelong Quarterly
Orange Alert
Metazen
Reviews:
Rain Taxi
American Book Review, here and here.
Outside Writer’s Collective
Eclectica
Necessary Fiction
PANK
Sein und Werden
Big Other
Michelle Bailat Jones
Readings / Audio / Video:
At Quimby’s Bookstore, Chicago, 2010
Joe Milford Poetry Show, August 2009
Sunday Salon in Brooklyn, NYC, Jan 2008
“Violet’s Dream” (Read by Bec Garland), Caketrain
Carol Novack's last book, Felicia's Nose, is available through MadHat Press: