A Concise Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality is now out from Black Scat Books and available on Amazon! I was one of many scholars who contributed to this essential reference work. Here’s Black Scat’s description:

First came the groundbreaking Le Scat Noir Encyclopaedia in 2017. Three years later we launched the pataphysical classic Le Scat Noir Encyclopédie et Dictionnaire de la Pataphysique, des arts et du savoir humain: Volume Deux (in English of course). Today we’re pleased to announce a handy reference destined to become a bestseller among scholars and sex fiends: A Concise Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality — a conveniently sized paperback – perfect for beach orgies or boring church sermons. It’s a volume you’ll want to keep within reach in the bedroom or bath. And it’s guaranteed to answer all your questions. (If not, it’s packed with illustrations to ogle and drool over.)

The Encyclopedia features this distinguished panel of 24 experts of various sexual proclivities: Tim Anderson, Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, Cathy Bryant, Lenny Cavallaro, Norman Conquest, Rémy Dambron, R J Dent, Eckhard Gerdes, Jesse Glass, Malcolm Green, Rhys Hughes, Victor Hugo, Amy Kurman, Michael Leigh, David Moscovich, Opal Louis Nations, Peter Payack, Derek Pell, Sourav Roy, Jessica Ross-Dreher, Paul Rosheim, Doug Skinner, and Tom Whalen.

That remarkable Welsh writer, Rhys Hughes, edited this delightful anthology, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: light verse about life and other heavy things. I’m one of 39 contributors, with seven fables in verse. It’s published by Gibbon Moon Books, and can be found on Amazon.

The Man Who Ate His House is now available from Black Scat Books and available on Amazon!

For this curious little volume, Derek Pell and I selected plots from the cautionary writer’s manual 101 Plots Used and Abused (James N. Young, 1945), modified and combined them in various ways, and fed them to ChatGPT. The sixteen stories that resulted are funny, surprising, and not quite human. A.I. might never replace human literature, but we’re proud of our robot pal’s efforts.

A few reactions:

“A brilliant concept: A bot writes stories based on tried-and-true tropes (that are ostensibly to be avoided under the guidance of the 1945 manual: 101 Plots Used & Abused). The stories in The Man Who Ate His House run the gamut of laugh out loud humorous, sardonic, tear-jerking, and engaging—often ending with a moral to ponder. There is a thread that runs through each story that points directly to the algorithmic life experience of the bot. As a short story writer, I am not sure whether to view A.I. as a fraud to be outed, or as a viable contender in the literary world. One thing that I do know is that if A.I. is ever given a soul, we are all doomed.” —Amy Kurman

“These delightful entertainments are funny, smart, and slick.” —D. Harlan Wilson

“You’ve heard about A.I., but have you ever read sixteen A.I. generated stories? The result will surprise and delight.” —Adrienne Auvray

“This book is a lifejacket for those who fear artificial intelligence.”—Paul Rosheim

“A tour de force of inanity.” —Tom Whalen

Some fairly lush piano music, based on the major sixth chord (or minor seventh chord) in various inversions. According to the composer and music historian Alec Wilder, the major sixth chord has a “compelling power,” so here’s a string of them.

Corinne Taunay holds up her striking portrait of Alphonse Allais, from my translation of Let’s Not Hit Each Other.

I never expected to write so many literary translations. They keep adding up, however. Here’s a list, arranged by author, of both books and shorter pieces, for anyone who’s curious.

Albert-Birot, Pierre: “Four Poems” (Typo 2, 2023)

Allais, Alphonse: Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks (Black Scat, 2013)
Selected Plays (Black Scat, 2014)
The Squadron’s Umbrella (Black Scat, 2015)
The Blaireau Affair (Black Scat, 2015)
Double Over (Black Scat, 2016)
I Am Sarcey (Black Scat, 2017)
Long Live Life! (Black Scat, 2017)
No Bile! (Black Scat, 2018)
The Alphonse Allais Reader (Black Scat, 2018)
Pink and Apple-Green (Black Scat, 2020)
2 + 2 = 5 (Black Scat, 2021)
Loves, Delights, and Organs (Black Scat, 2022)
Let’s Not Hit Each Other (Black Scat, 2023)
We Are Not Sheep (Black Scat, 2023)
My Rent Is Due! (Black Scat, 2024)

Apollinaire, Guillaume: “Introduction” (The Zombie of Great Peru, Black Scat, 2015)
“Victory” (Typo 2, 2023)

Auriol, George: “A Little Semi-Hieroglyphic Tale” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Bertrand, Aloysius: “Instructions to the Typesetter” (Typo 3, 2023)

Blessebois, Pierre-Corneille: The Zombie of Great-Peru (Black Scat, 2015)

Cami, Pierre: “The Man in the Iron Mask” (Black Scat Review 1, 2012)

Caradec, François: “Absinthes” (Black Scat Review 3, 2013)

Casanova de Seingalt, Giacomo: “English Etiquette” (from Histoire de ma vie) (Black Scat Review 25, 2022)

Courteline, Georges: “A Stubborn Case of Constipation” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Crépiat, Caroline: Le Chat Noir Exposed (Black Scat, 2021)

Cros, Charles: “Song of the Sculptors” (Black Scat Review 18, 2019)
Collected Monologues (Black Scat, 2018)
Upside-Down Stories (with Émile Goudeau) (Black Scat, 2019)
Principles of Cerebral Mechanics (Wakefield Press, 2021)
The Science of Love (Wakefield Press, 2024)

Descaves, Lucien: The Rat Wins! (Black Scat, 2024)

Donneau de Visé, Jean: “The Noble Apothecary” (Black Scat Review 25, 2022)

Farnoux-Reynaud, Lucien: The Cocktail Hour (with Marcel Requien) (Corps Reviver, 2017, with Gaylor Olivier)

Forneret, Xavier: “It’s — A Dream” and “Selection from Dreams” (Strange Attractor Journal 3, 2006)

Gautier, Théophile: A Filthy Letter: Letter to La Présidente. (Black Scat, 2024)

Gill, André: “The Anderlique of Landerneau” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Goudeau, Émile: Upside-Down Stories (with Charles Cros) (Black Scat, 2019)

Haraucourt, Edmond: “Philosophy: A Shameful Sonnet” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Hyspa, Vincent: “The Flatulist: A Song Without Music” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Isou, Isidore: Considerations on the Death and Burial of Tristan Tzara (Black Scat, 2012)

Jarry, Alfred: “Mobilization of Tourists” and “Hanging” (Le Scat Noir 225, 2017)
The Pope’s Mustard-Maker (Black Scat, 2019)

Jouy, Jules: “The Functionaries” (Black Scat Review 18, 2019)
“The Little Shits’ Journal” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

La Fontaine, Jean de: “The Glutton,” “The Farmer Who Had Lost His Calf,” and “Sister Joan” (The Doug Skinner Dossier, Black Scat, 2015)

Lautrec, Gabriel de: “Cubist Tale” (Typo 4, Black Scat, 2024)

MacNab, Maurice: “The Clyster-Pump” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Masson, Armand: “The Eye” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Mirbeau, Octave:”The Fugitive Cucumber” and “Explosive and Ambulatory” (extra stories in Allais’s 2 + 2 = 5) (Black Scat, 2021)

Moy, Jules: “The Unicolorist” (Black Scat Review 4, 2016)

Nazari, Giovanni Battista: Three Dreams: On the Transmutation of Metals (Magnum Opus Hermetic Sourceworks, 2002)

Palatino, Giambattista: “Squared Ciphers” (Typo 1, 2022)

Queneau, Raymond: “Lipogram” (Le Scat Noir 227, 2017)
“The Statue People on the Lawn” and “Place de la Bastille” (Black Scat Review 23, 2021)

Renard, Jules: “Alphonse Allais Gives a Talk” (Black Scat Review 3, 2013)

Requien, Marcel: The Cocktail Hour (with Lucien Farnoux-Reynaud) (Corps Reviver, 2017, with Gaylor Olivier)

Rimbaud, Arthur: “The Accursed Cherub” (Merde à la Belle Èpoque, Black Scat, 2022)

Roussel, Raymond: “Travels with Raymond” (excerpts accompanying images by Derek Pell, Typo 3, 2023)
“Chroniquettes” (Typo 7, 2024)

Russolo, Luigi: The Art of Noises (Black Scat, 2022)

Salis, Rodolphe: “Messire Satanas in the Colickie Comfit-Box” (Merde à la Belle Époque, Black Scat, 2022)

Satie, Erik: “A Letter to Conrad Satie” (Merde à la Belle Époque, 2022)

Tabarin: “The Louis XIII Jokeshop” (Typo 5, 2024)

Tailhade, Laurent: “Hydrotherapy” (Black Scat Review 18, 2019)

Taunay, Corinne: Marcel Duchamp: Paris Air in New York (Black Scat, 2022)

Verne, Jules: “To Morphine” (The Doug Skinner Dossier, Black Scat, 2015)

TYPO 2 is now out and ready to be read!

This sporadic periodical calls itself a “Journal of Lettrism, Surrealist Semantics, and Constrained Design.” I contributed brief articles on alien alphabets and the principles of double talk, the score for my musical transcription of “lorem ipsum dolor,” and translations of Guillaume Apollinaire, Pierre Albert-Birot, and Gaston de Pawlowski, The editor and designer is Norman Conquest (aka Derek Pell); the other contributors are Mark Axelrod-Sokolov, Tom Barrett, Allan Bealy, Miggs Burroughs, Jahan Cader, Janina Ciezadlo, Farewell Debut, R J Dent, Karen Eliot, Paul Éluard, Paul Forristal, Ryan Forsythe, Jesse Glass, Rick Henry, Rhys Hughes, Rory Hughes, Alfred Jarry, Richard Koman, Márton Koppány, Amy Kurman, Peter F. Murphy, Pata-No UN LTD, Harry Polkinhorn, Tom Prime, Jason E. Rolfe, Ded Rysel, Giovanni Antonio Tagliente, Félix Vallotton, Andrew C. Wenaus, Adolphe Willette, Carla Wilson, and William Wordsworth.

Available, like so many things, on Amazon.

An Afternoon in the Arboretum is now available on Bandcamp! This album contains solely instrumental music, mostly for keyboard, from as early as 1976 to as late as 2022. All selections were composed and performed by Doug Skinner, and recorded and mixed by Brian Dewan:

An Afternoon in the Arboretum (2020)
Radio Valentine (1976)
Ulterior Misgivings (2020)
Twinge (2021)
Stint (2012)
Nocturne (2012)
The Gateway to the Getaway (2022)
Aftermath (2020)
Spillover (2017)
Gilding the Pyrite (2001)
Under the Weather (1983)
A Slot Machine for Wooden Nickels (2022)
On a Theme by Lewis Carroll (1994)
Lorem Ipsum Dolor (2010)

Let’s Not Hit Each Other is now available from Black Scat Books!

This collection by the incomparable Alphonse Allais includes a flying whale, an inflatable colonel, telepathic snails, a summer crime, the insularization of France, missionary parrots, an amphibious herring, twin cousins, and proposals for billboard dogs, deodorized urine, calming the sea with varnish, and crossing the English Channel with swings. You will also meet Mr. Fish, who travels with capsules of American air, presaging Duchamp’s “Paris Air” by decades. This is the first English translation of this remarkable volume, first published in 1900.

Translated, annotated, and introduced by Doug Skinner, and designed by Norman Conquest. This edition includes an original portrait of Allais by Corinne Taunay.