In-Store Signing with Kevin Sampsell and Jeff Alessandrelli

Watermark Books & Cafe is thrilled to be hosting Kevin Sampsell and Jeff Alessandrelli. Kevin Sampsell is the author of several previous books. His latest is a collection of poetry entitled I Made An Accident, and is a work of collage art. Jeff Alessandrelli is also the author of several previous books. His newest is a work of speculative fiction entitled And Yet. Join us in-store to celebrate these two authors with an in-store signing on Sunday, September 18th at 1pm!

About Kevin Sampsell

Kevin Sampsell is the author of a memoir (A Common Pornography), a novel (This Is Between Us), and other books. He lives in Portland, Oregon and runs the influential small press, Future Tense Books. An award-winning bookseller, he has worked at Powell's City of Books since 1997. His collages have appeared on album covers, book covers, and in many publications like Kolaj Magazine, The Rumpus, The Weird Show, Chicago Quarterly Review, Black Candies, Ohio Edit, Entropy, Watershed Review, Queen Mob's Teahouse, and elsewhere. He is the co-curator of Sharp Hands Gallery, a website featuring international collage artists.Twitter and Instagram: @kevinsampsellTumblr: https: //kevinsampsellcollages.tumblr.com/ https: //www.sharphandsgallery.com/

About I Made An Accident

In 2014, after the release of his debut novel, celebrated writer and visionary publisher Kevin Sampsell switched gears and turned to a new creative obsession: making collage art. Initially influenced by the wild cutup language of William S. Burroughs, Sampsell soon discovered countless modern collagists that inspired him to take his art further and further from where it started. Years later, he finds himself at the center of a growing movement of 21st Century cut and paste.

I Made an Accident showcases over 200 of Sampsell's collages, exploring a range of styles: hilarious sight gags, subtle cultural jabs, elegant mysteries, colorful surprises, fragmented hauntings, and gloriously strange accidents. Combined with Sampsell's sharp and lively poems, this book is a feast for the eyes and brain and a nonstop entertainment.

About Jeff Alessandrelli

Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of the poetry collection Fur Not Light (2019), the speculative novel, And Yet (2022), and other books. His work has appeared in The American Poetry ReviewBoston Review, and The Kenyon Review, among others. In addition to his writing, he also direct the non-profit literary record label/book press, Fonograf Editions. He lives in Portland, Oregon. 

About And Yet

AND YET asks, what might be gained or lost from living one's life via text instead of directly participating in the world? Through aphorism, anecdote, observation, and personal narrative, Alessandrelli examines the complex entanglements of sexuality and desire. A profound and concise work of self-construction.-- Patrick Cottrell

What I find compelling about AND YET is its Leirisian insistence on the 'unattenuated crudity' of candid self-disclosure as it juggles its intellectual bricolage and its generational concerns with its speculative fictional narrative. Amid meditations on quotations revealing a fairly individual reading sensibility--Cyril Connolly --AND YET nonetheless takes on the momentum of a page-turner; I found myself wondering, 'What'll happen to the poor bastard? Will I still like him at the end?' like I was reading a thriller instead of a hybrid whuzzit investigating millennial dilemmas of sex, gender, and intimacy, one written in the grand tradition of poet's prose. In the immortal words of Bon Scott, 'It's harder than it looks ' --Garrett Caples

Composed in delicately and suggestively connected fragments, Jeff Alessandrelli's AND YET is a lyrical yet probing investigation of the nature of modern intimacy, full of heart but always meticulously thoughtful.--Joe Moran

In Jeff Alessandrelli's AND YET, love is a song he's afraid to sing. So he finds an unnamed singer to do it for him. Memoir and fiction mix with anaphora and shyness in this book, while quotes from Sontag and Jane's Addiction, Kafka and Flight of the Conchords conjoin the text. Through short sections like bursts, AND YET contends with the sexual crap and selfinvolvement of manhood to locate selfawareness and tenderness. AND YET circles a self in conversation with a self who might learn to get free, to love, himself, just yet.--Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel

Sunday, September 18, 2022 - 1:00pm
Event address: 
4701 E Douglas Ave
Wichita, KS 67218
Books: 
I Made an Accident By Kevin Sampsell Cover Image
$24.95
ISBN: 9781955904070
Availability: Available to order! Usually Ships to Store in 3-5 Days.
Published: Clash Books - July 19th, 2022

And Yet By Jeff Alessandrelli Cover Image
$33.00
ISBN: 9781948587235
Availability: This book may be unavailable. Please call us for price & availability: (316) 682-1181.
(This book is not returnable.)
Published: [Pank] - June 7th, 2022