Please Help Jon and Amelia Fullmer

How You Can Help Jon and Amelia Fullmer

On the evening of May 24th, our friends Jon and Amelia Fullmer lost their apartment and belongings to a 2-11 alarm fire. They had just started to settle into their new place, preparing the way for their first child (due this June). The details of what they will be able to salvage from the fire are still unknown and while they fortunately had renters insurance, they will ultimately be starting again from scratch. This donation site will begin to help them re-build their lives. Contribute as much as you are willing and able. No amount is too small.

Jon is one of the editors of Knee-Jerk Magazine, published online and in print out of Chicago, where he’s an enthusiastic and supportive member of the literary community. He’s offered so much of his time and talent to others over the past few years, and now it’s our turn to help him and his family. We hope that our community can come together now to support one of its members in need.

Feel free to pass the link for this donation site to those in your own life who would be willing to help. In addition to this site, a fundraiser is being organized that will most likely take place at The Book Cellar. Stay tuned to The Book Cellar website (bookcellarinc.com) and The Book Cellar Facebook page for details.

On behalf of Jon and Amelia, Thank you for your support.

Donate:

Please go to http://www.mdbell.com/fullmer-donations/ to donate.

Jon’s and our friend Matt Bell was gracious enough to host this page on his site. If you have any questions, please feel free to email Matt at mdbell79@gmail.com.

Chapbook Contest Winner Announced!

Congratulations to Lauryn Allison Lewis, winner of Knee-Jerk‘s 2011 Chapbook Contest. The Beauties, selected by guest judges Mary Hamilton and Lindsay Hunter, will be published in the fall.

Winner
Lauryn Allison Lewis – The Beauties

Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Kate Cantrill – Hello Friends and Neighbors
John Fleming – Lost Tribes
Ravi Mangla – Hear Ye Knives
Pedro Ponce – The Little Book of Conspiracies
Chad Simpson – Open Mic Night at the Fat Fish Pub
Jon Trobaugh – L’Anguille and Other Stories

A big thanks to Mary and Lindsay, and to the many writers who submitted collections.
If our bank account was a bit more Franzen-like, we’d go ahead and publish a bunch of these chapbooks.

In short, we’re incredibly excited to publish The Beauties. We think you’ll love it.

Steve and Casey Published at HyperText

So Steve and Casey were asked to produce something for HyperText Magazine’s Valentine’s Day love-themed issue. They came up with this…this thing. Dear Steve/Dear Casey

We’ll let it speak for itself.

Take a look, then check out everything else in HyperText’s latest issue.

2 Knee-Jerk Events at AWP ’12

Knee-Jerk to Co-Host Two Events at AWP 2012 Pencil these two events into your AWP Trapper Keepers, friends. Join us Thursday, March 1st and Saturday, March 3rd for readings, drinkings, and dancings. Pick up a copy of our brand new print issue, Knee-Jerk Offline, Vol. 2, and challenge C. James Bye to a Rodney-Off. Everything Will Be OK Thursday, March 1 Billy Goat Tavern @ 9pm 430 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60611 Presented by Heavy Feather Review, Knee-Jerk, Big Lucks, & The Way We Sleep Readings from J. Bradley, Anhvu Buchanan, Chloe Caldwell, Larry O. Dean, Sean Kilpatrick, Alissa Nutting, Sam Pink, Joseph Riippi, J. A. Tyler, & Brandi Wells. Poster design by Alban Fischer.  Before We Go Saturday, March 3 Beauty Bar @ 7pm 1444 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL 60622 Presented by Big Lucks, Gigantic Sequins, Knee-Jerk, Magic Helicopter, and Rose Metal Press. Readings from Amanda Auchter, Jason Bredle, Adam Drent, Loren Erdich, Adam Golaski, Christie Ann Reynolds, Matthew Siegel, Justin Sirois, Jordan Stempleman, & Ben Tanzer.

Matt Bell Signs Your Book

Our Kickstarter campaign for Offline Vol. 2 is just about at the halfway point. So we have a new reward to offer:

For your $50 contribution you can receive signed copies of Knee-Jerk contributor (and all around swell guy), MATT BELL’s HOW THEY WERE FOUND (Keyhole Press) and the forthcoming CATACLYSM BABY (Mud Luscious Press)! Plus a copy of KNEE-JERK OFFLINE, VOL. 2 & The Risk-Taking Gene, mp3’s of the songs we wrote for our backers last year and audio of our Harold Ramis interview.

Cataclysm Baby isn’t even out yet! There’s only one of these sets available, so scoop it up now! Or, if you can’t spare 50 bones, how about pre-ordering an issue of VOL 2? Check out everything that’s available HERE!

Sarah Rose Etter Wants to talk with you…

We have a special offer on our Kickstarter right now and only one person will be lucky enough to take advantage of it:

For $40 get an autographed copy of VOL. 2 contributor SARAH ROSE ETTER’s TONGUE PARTY (Caketrain), a copy of KNEE-JERK OFFLINE, VOL. 2 & The Risk-Taking Gene, a phone call from Sarah describing the terrible things she did over the weekend, and mp3s of the original songs.

Go HERE so Sarah won’t feel lonely.

Knee-Jerk Offline VOL Two Is HERE

Hello friends,

The second annual print edition of Knee-Jerk Offline(VOL 2) is heading to the printers and will be available soon. As we did last year, we’re running a Kickstarter campaign to help with some of the printing costs.

I hope you’ll more so look at this as a way to pre-order the new issue. All donations over $3 will be rewarded with various tokens of our appreciation. But starting with a donation of $13 you will receive a copy of the new issue along with a PDF version of our recent chapbook publication, The Risk-Taking Gene by Steve Tomasula. For $15, you’ll receive print versions of both books. And so on and so on; the more you’d like to help, the more great rewards we’d like to send you.

You can find all you need to know about the new issue, rewards, and how to help by clicking this link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1706005210/knee-jerk-offline-vol-two

Jon, Steve, and I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer and hope that you’ll enjoy the work that we and all of our amazing contributors have put into VOL 2 and Knee-Jerk’s other projects as a thank you for your generosity. We’d also like to ask those of you with social media accounts if you would be willing to help spread the word with a link or a blog post. Of course, if you’re unable to help this time around, we’ll completely understand and will still love you and give you a big hug next time we see you!

For those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it’s a website designed to help fund creative projects. Knee-Jerk set a goal ($500) of what we need to cut our out-of-pocket costs to produce the new issue and a date by which we hope to be funded. If we make the goal by midnight on February 25th, we’ll receive funding, minus 5% that goes to Kickstarter. If we don’t reach our goal by that point, the money donated will not be taken out of your account and we do not receive funding.

This volume features nearly 200 pages (including color illustrations) of all new content from some of our favorite writers and artists:

Schuyler Anderson

Kyle Beachy

Tom Bissell

Michael Capozzola

Trinie Dalton

Sarah Rose Etter

Pete Gamlen

Kelsey Heinrichs

Gary Lutz

Adam McOmber

Dinty W. Moore

Hal Niedviecki

Ben Percy

Shann Ray

Rowland Saifi

Adam Schuitema

Drew Shannon

Brenda Sieczkowski

Patrick Somerville

Chris L. Terry

Donna D. Vitucci

Leni Zumas

Your donation will help put a huge dent in our printing costs. In return for your generosity, we have several gift offers (including free print issues and copies of our chapbook by Steve Tomasula), listed to the right. Even the smallest donation will be greatly appreciated and help get this magazine into bookstores and in your hands. Thank you!

The Mispronouncer (Adam Drent) New Album Available Now

Knee-Jerk contributor and creator of the Bedtime Stories mp3 series has just dropped his second album, The Free Refill.

The new album is available to stream or download at no cost to you whatsoever.

18 tracks of perfect beats for leaning back into a lawnchair, slurping a slushy, and dealing with this summer heat.

www.themispronouncer.bandcamp.com

We’re Throwing a Party!

Casey Bye is Memphis-bound! Our Co-Founder, Arts & Media Editor, and Cutie-in-Residence will be taking his talents to the birthplace of Crunk by mid-July. To celebrate the time we’ve spent with our bespectacled human beatbox, Knee-Jerk is hosting a going-away reading, featuring fellow Casey Bye-enthusiasts Noelle Hufnagel, Geoff Hyatt, Mason Johnson, Jacob Knabb, Lauryn Allison Lewis, Simon A. Smith, Leah Tallon, Ben Tanzer, Chris Terry, and Brandon Will! We’ll also have music from DJ Jeremy Alvarez! Feel free to pass this along to friends, neighbors, and whoever else you think might like watching Casey re-enact his tiger pee story. It starts at 7:00 pm Wed. July 6th at

Beauty Bar Chicago 1444 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago, Illinois

Love, The Other 2/3s of Knee-Jerk

Steve Gets Punched 4 Times (our final Essay & Chapbook Contests promo)

Last chance to enter our Essay & Chapbook Contests before midnight, June 30th, 2011.

Guest judges for the Chapbook contest are Lindsay Hunter and Mary Hamilton. Win publication and up to $500.