We’ve been telling you for awhile now that Barrelhouse 7 is here and it’s awesome. Now we thought we’d do something to prove it to you: here’s a little special section with stuff from and related to our new issue. We have a free sampler thing, one of our favorite stories, “The Atheist Reconsiders,” annotated with little thought-bubbles from author Michael Czyzniejewski, another one of our favorite stories, “The Ruined Child,” remixed by the author, Blake Butler, and a bunch of future related interviews.

Check it out for yourself:

Okay, so we use the word “awesome” a lot, particularly in reference to our little magazine. We understand you might be a little skeptical as to the awesomeness. That’s why we pulled out this little sampler from Barrelhouse Seven. Here you’ll find three stories and two poems, plus our “Dear Reader” letter, and some stuff from or special section on The Future.

Click here to download a printable/viewable PDF.

Or click below to view in that fancy little online format from issuu.com:

The Atheist Reconsiders, by Michael Czyzniejewski: Annotated with the Author’s Notes

Ever wanted to get into the head of a writer, to know what they were thinking when they wrote a particular phrase, how they got started with a specific idea, what parts of the story might still crack the author up, after all this time? Click here to get under the hood of one of our favorite stories.

The Passionate Male Prostitute: “The Ruined Child” as Remixed by the Author

Blake Butler’s The Ruined Child , which appears in Barrelhouse Seven, is one hell of a story. Like a lot of Blake’s work, it is beautiful and terrifying and you’re never quite sure what might be around the corner (a disgarded bloated talking baby, perhaps?).  As part of the early promotion for Blake’s collection of short stories, Scorch Atlas, which will include The Ruined Child, the always awesome Featherproof Books recently sponsored a contest in which people are asked to remix Blake’s story “Tour of the Drowned Neighborhood.” As part of our own special little promo thing, we’re happy to copy Featherproof, so here’s The Ruined Child, as remixed by Blake himself.  Strap yourself in and enjoy.

Interviews About the Future

Living POET LARGE: An Interview with Reb Livingston About the Future of Poetry Publishing
I don’t give two shits what all these inane “poetry is dead” studies and articles keep insisting. Could they just kill macrame already? Anyone who grew up in the U.S., with the exception perhaps being children of poets or artists, knows damn well very few people read ANY poetry — and that includes Billy Collins, Maya Angelou or any other “mainstream” poetry superstar….READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

Something In the Air: An Interview with the Future of Music Coalition
Actually, many indie labels are not just surviving the digital transition, they’re thriving. This is probably because they intuitively understood the internet better than the majors, whose first reaction was to fight it. When the whole file-sharing phenomenon first exploded, we said the only alternative to an illegal Napster was a legal one. And that’s what we’re starting to see now - more experiments in licensing content to emerging technologies. We just need to make sure we don’t lose the creators in all this deal-making…READ THE FULL INTERVIEW

An Interview with Visual Effects Supervisor Mark Russell
There are so many great future movies, but very few of them ever seem to hold up to technological scrutiny after even a short time. The ones that do hold up tend to be the films that deal less about specific technologies and more the human condition. One of my favorite films set in the future is Back to the Future II. They took some ideas that we were already familiar with and moved them forward in a way that was both creative and appealing, but the reason it worked for me was that I had a frame of reference to compare it with from the previous film. If you watch the movie now, its technology looks a bit silly, but the ideas behind it are still great. …READ THE FULL INTERVIEW