About

The Henry Miller Library champions the literary and artistic legacy of Henry Miller. This cannot mean only the writings of Miller himself. Miller existed at the peripheries of American literature, but his sources, and his influence, extend far beyond this country, to the international literary avant-garde.

Ping•Pong literary journal sees itself as a current and vital part of that same impulse. It represents a living connection to the centers and margins of contemporary literary culture, both in the US and beyond. As such, not everything published in Ping•Pong will be pretty.

Miller himself was not a pretty writer. But he was vital. That is why even when Miller was hardly read in the US, Kenneth Rexroth describes himself meeting “…miners in the Pyrenees, camel drivers in Tmelcen, gondoliers in Venice” who all asked, “Do you know M’sieu Millaire?”

The work published in Ping•Pong seeks that same vitality. It seeks it in art, with the works of such luminaries as Portland, Oregon’s Susan Harlan. It seeks it in all forms of writing: fiction, poetry, non-fiction, plays, even in new forms, such as David Larsen’s “neo-benshi”, a poem/play intended to be read to a scene from the movie Troy.

Thus American writers who exist, as Miller did for so much of his career, just under the radar of the mainstream literary world, are represented in Ping•Pong; writers like Graham Foust, Daniel Nester, Shanna Compton, Charlie Anders, Laura Mullen, Chad Sweeney, Trinie Dalton, and K. Silem Mohammad.

Miller was and is as much an international literary figure as he was/is an American one; therefore, Ping•Pong reaches beyond our shores in order to bring unknown, or lesser known, writers from around the world into more prominence in English. For this issue we have compiled writings by Mark Young of New Zealand, Nakahara Chuya of Japan, Maria Davico of Brazil, and Edith Sodergran of Sweden.

Ping•Pong understands itself as furthering Miller’s legacy by tapping into the contemporary literary and artistic milieu. The writers and artists represented in Ping•Pong are heirs to Miller’s legacy, and were Miller alive and writing today, these would be his peers and contemporaries. It has been argued, that were Miller writing in 2007, he would be no more a part of the mainstream US literary world than he was in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s or 60’s. He was not a writer for the market. He would not appear on Oprah. He would be denounced as vulgar, as obscene, as barbaric as he was then.

The work in Ping•Pong is similarly not written for the market, but for the ages. It is challenging, it asks much of its reader. It’s not easy. It is, though, a vital continuation, and contribution, to Henry Miller’s literary legacy.

Maria Garcia Teutsch is a poet and fiction writer living in Santa Cruz. She is widely published as Maria Garcia Tabor. She has served as editor of three literary journals, The Atlantis, The Cold Mountain Review (on the East Coast), and The Homestead Review. She is cofounder of Poetic Voices/Voces Poeticas intercollegial poetry competition/festival involving the colleges in Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties. She is a passionate supporter of the arts and artists, believing that if you supply a space, artists will fill it up with wonder. She also serves on the board of the Henry Miller Library. www.marialoveswords.com

James Maughn's poetry has been published in Lungfull!, Parthenon West, Moria, Can We Have Our Ball Back, Pettycoat Relaxer, MiPoesias, Order and Decorum, and is forthcoming in Pindeldyboz. He holds a Master's in English from SUNY Binghamton and lectures at Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz. He is the curator of the New Cadence Poetry Series in Santa Cruz.

Jessica Breheny received her PhD in Literature from UC Santa Cruz in 2004. She is presently a full-time faculty member at San Jose City College. Jessica is a fiction writer with stories published or forthcoming in Other Voices, Fugue, Lit, Santa Monica Review, and 580 Split. She is working on her first book, a collection of short stories, to be called Broken City.

Dan Linehan is a full-time freelance writer and editor. He has over seventy publications, ranging from poems in local papers to articles in scientific journals. He has won awards for editing, publishing, poetry, and screenwriting. He wrote the chapbook Spindrifting Through Ocean Archways: Poetry of Monterey and published Passing Through, a poetry collection by David Gitin. He is currently writing about his expedition to Antarctica and its surrounds. www.dslinehan.com