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Exacting Clam
@exactingclam.bsky.social
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The Discerning Mollusk's Guide to Arts and Ideas. From @saggingmeniscus. Quarterly, in print and online, since 2021.
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exactingclam.bsky.social
Coming soon: the DADA issue!
November 8, 2025 at 6:32 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
October 31, 2025 at 6:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"The best poems inspire envy."

As do the best poets. Mike Silverton, Exacting Clam 18.

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https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/more-enduring-than-a-diamond/
September 18, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"every word Ophelia speaks, whether in the Second Quarto text or the First Folio, has to make its appearance in 'let me tell you'."

WJ Davies and Paul Griffiths on the latter's Ophelian (and somewhat Oulipian) novels.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/constraint-and-release/
September 17, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"I have previously stated that it is impossible to go to Brezakia. But it is possible to come from there."

Ron Ginzler on the little-known musical legacy of an even-less-known country.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/the-brezakian-symphony/
September 16, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
“My identity is not fully understood,” Issue 18 added.

And may never be. More Christopher Boucher metamagic. Exacting Clam 18.

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https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/the-book-and-the-sea/
September 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"It was in the castle of Tiffauges, the lair of Gilles de Rais, that I first encountered the sinister truth regarding that terror-stricken head . . . "

A new translation of Jean Lorrain, by RJ Dent. Exacting Clam 18.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/the-man-who-made-wax-heads/
September 14, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"Neither Shirley with her black coffee nor Mrs. Castle with her two eclairs stand on ceremony."

Kat Meads on Mavis Gallant's 'A Fairly Good Time', from NYRB Classics.

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https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/anatomy-of-a-scene/
September 13, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"No, here we have controlled scripting, deracinated sentences minus jouissance that audit a world gone wrong, gone bad . . . "

Michael Hampton on Sean Ashton's 'Massive Massive Oil Slick'.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/sean-ashtons-emmassive-massive-oil-slickem/
September 12, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"He embodied, more inescapably than anyone else, the absurdities, the affectations, the paradoxes and the perversities of the Decadent lifestyle and the Decadent world-view."

RJ Dent on Jean Lorrain. Exacting Clam 18.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/jean-lorrain/
September 11, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"I don’t think Homer has it quite right: with Circe’s first ointment (yes ok oinkment) the sailors don’t actually forget, they’ve just changed a bit."

Another Melissa McCarthy odyssey. Exacting Clam 18.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/category-errors/
September 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
" . . . a distillation of historical consciousness into poetry."

Charles Holdefer on 'A Black Doe in the Anthropocene' by Artress Bethany White. Exacting Clam 18.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/artress-bethany-whites-ema-black-doe-in-the-anthropoceneem/
September 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"We were like two nations
at war:
he some mysterious Greek,
I his Turkey."

Where is PJ Blumenthal going with this? Exacting Clam 18.

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https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/why-i-killed-pasolini/
September 8, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"The boulder was not magnetic and yet
it drew us to the creek bed
where it sat beside the dark waters
while we sat on it and looked and listened"

Nothing like Kurt Luchs. Exacting Clam 18.

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https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/the-boulder/
September 7, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
'But “anti-novel” is an over-used and imprecise term. Let’s use the term “novel-in-negative”—less snap but more precision.'

David Rose on Edmund Caldwell. Exacting Clam 18.

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https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/for-the-fallen/
September 6, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"The hotel’s rich with guests, the ones who came
And never left, who never wanted to be
Alone again."

Ernest Hilbert on sub-par accommodation. Exacting Clam 18.

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https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/hotel-antihistamine/
September 5, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"But in truth there are no rules except the tacit rules of intelligence and taste and instinct for what is right in the moment . . . "

Kurt Luchs on Robert Bly. Exacting Clam 18.

https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/hunting-everything-but-pheasants-with-robert-bly/
September 4, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"It’s one of many ways in which the voluntary constraint upon the writer becomes palpable and shared, a pleasure for the reader too."

Kevin Davey on Paul Griffiths. Exacting Clam 18.

https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/paul-griffiths-emlet-me-tell-youem-and-emlet-me-go-onem/
September 3, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"This is no place for such as you are now."

Fiction by Gregory Feeley, online and in print. Exacting Clam 18.

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https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/petraglyphe/
September 2, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"Ideally, I should aim to find myself less annoying . . . "

Jake Goldsmith on being miffed. Online and in print. Exacting Clam Issue 18

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https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-18-autumn-2025/on-annoyance/
September 1, 2025 at 4:00 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"A skilled writer who is highly attuned to the lies we tell each other, and to the lies we tell ourselves."

Charles Holdefer on 'Where I Went Wrong' by David Galef, from Regal House.

https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-17-summer-2025/david-galefs-where-i-went-wrong/
July 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"Taking offense, giving offense, ignoring, getting in the first shot, putting it out there, puzzlement and feigned ignorance. Nothing helps."

Fiction from Ian Boulton, Issue 17. Subscribe today.

https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-17-summer-2025/futureproofing-against-nominative-determinism/
July 3, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"The reader is left with the profound sense that we are inextricably connected to the people in our community and to the physical place itself."

Laney Lenox on Em J Parsley's "You, From Below" from Split/Lip Press.

https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-17-summer-2025/em-j-parsleys-emyou-from-belowem/
July 2, 2025 at 4:02 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"I remember these erasers. Do they still exist? (They do. Amazon offers them as collectibles, $19.50.)"

Mike Silverton on Ron Padgett. Issue 17. Subscribe today.

https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-17-summer-2025/ron-padgetts-empink-dustem/
July 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
exactingclam.bsky.social
"Andrew was the jealous type. When he saw how smitten Doreen was with Fred, he decided to put an end to it."

Fiction by Roberta Allen. Issue 17. Subscribe today.

https://exactingclam.com/issues/no-17-summer-2025/four-wise-women-who-were-not-always-wise/
June 30, 2025 at 4:02 PM