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NAILED Magazine’s first event is a fundraising social for creatives and readers of NAILED

If you wish to donate to NAILED, and cannot attend the event, you can do so via Paypal:

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Robert Lashley is the author of The Homeboy Songs (Small Doggies Press, 2014). A semi finalist for the PEN/Rosenthal fellowship, and a Jack Straw Writers fellow, Lashley has had poems and essays published in such Journals as Feminete, No Regrets, NAILED, and Your Hands, Your Mouth. His work was also featured in Many Trails To The Summit, an anthology of Northwest form and Lyric poetry. To quote James Baldwin, he wants to be an honest man and a good writer. Read some of his work here.

Margaret Malone is the author of the story collection People Like You (Atelier26 Books). Her stories and essays can be found in The Missouri Review, Oregon Humanities, Swink, Propeller Quarterly and elsewhere. She lives in Portland, Oregon where she is a co-host of the artist and literary gathering SHARE. Read some of her work here.

Zach Ellis writes creative nonfiction. He lives in Portland, Oregon and works as a hospital concierge when he isn’t writing. He is the father of an eight-year-old, who gives him plenty of things to write about. He has written for The Gravity of the Thing and has traveled to Glasgow, Scotland to read his poetry at In Our Words: an LGBT literary festival. Read some of his work here.

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You are cordially invited to attend the NAILED Magazine Premier Social, where creatives of all stripes can come together to enjoy music, readings, food, drink, and connection. As an online magazine, it is important for us to interact with our audience in person.

Readings by: Robert Lashley, Margaret Malone, and Zach Ellis
Music by: DJ Misdemeanor, and * Very Special Musical Guest TBA *
Beer, wine, and delicious homemade tamale bar! (cash bar)
Fortune Telling by Dino Tarot
Raffle with dozens of awesome prizes
Gift bags with goodies for all attendees

The first 40 tickets sold will receive an additional special prize from NAILED!

This event will be pre-sale tickets only, and 21+ only. Please bring valid ID.

Doors open at 7pm, event ends at 11:30pm.

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The post NAILED Magazine Premier Social Event appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

How to Participate in Deathwish

DEAR KIND PEOPLE,

Please accept this invitation to participate in the Deathwish feature on NAILED magazine. There are 4 parts to the assignment:

1) Have a friend take a picture of you according to the layout featured in the above image. Horizontally justified, a portrait of your upper body and face, eyes trained directly on the camera but with a natural expression, in an environment where you spend a lot of time (could be anywhere). Image should be at least 650 pixels wide, and less than 1000 pixels.

2) Then, PLEASE ANSWER ONLY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING IN 500 WORDS OR LESS. DON’T OVER-THINK THE ANSWER – SHOOT FROM THE HIP AND BE PAINFULLY HONEST.

• What thing would you regret not doing the most, before you die?
• What do you think you would want written on your headstone?
• Write about a very specific dream you had where you were convinced that you knew how you would die.
• Have you ever considered suicide? Tried it before? Write about it in as much detail as possible.
• What would be the worst way that you could imagine dying? Why?
• What would be the best way that you could imagine dying? Why?
• If you plan on being cremated, where would you want the ashes to be spread and why?
• Are you afraid to die? Talk about why.
• Do you often think about dying? What are some of those thoughts?
• Do you know how you’d like your funeral to be celebrated? Describe the event in detail, including who is there, what acts they perform, where does it happen, etc.
• Have you ever had a near-death experience? Describe it in vivid detail to the best of your ability.

3) Include the city and state where you were born, followed by the city and state where you currently live.

4) Finally, please invite 3 of your closest friends to participate.

Please complete the assignment in full, and pass a link to this page on to three of your closest friends, who you know will likely participate in the project quickly.

Thanks for your time and attention. We look forward to seeing your work on NAILED magazine.
Matty Byloos

The post DEATHWISH on NAILED appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

In our monthly Response Column, NAILED asks readers to respond to a particular word or topic. We seek to publish raw, honest personal responses that aim less to answer questions and more to raise them. Responses in the form of art, photography, essay, story, poem, and rant have been considered for publication.

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PREVIOUS RESPONSE COLUMNS:

November 30, 2015: CHEATING.

October 26, 2015: BROKE.

September 28, 2015: FACEBOOK.

August 24, 2015: WILD.

July 27, 2015: BREAKUP.

June 29, 2015: FATHER.

May 25, 2015: SKIN.

April 25, 2015: ADDICTED.

March 30, 2015: CRUSH.

February 23, 2015: LIES.

January 26, 2015: MASTURBATION.

December 29, 2014: ALONE.

November 24, 2014: GENDER.

October 27, 2014: FAT.

September 29, 2014: VIOLENCE.

August 25, 2014: SECRET.

July 30, 2014: SLUT.

The post Monthly Response Column on NAILED appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU NAILED IT?

The last time I nailed it was when I decided to get my shit together this year. I quit drinking, and actually decided to seek counseling for a lot of the shit that was going on with me. For the longest time, I had been playing a role — the sweet yet tragic black male artist archetype, and I didn’t want to play it anymore. I’ll tell you a story that might not seem germane at first, but bear with me. Last year, my Uncle Gee demanded I do two things. The first: re-read Blind Faith, the story of Lula Mae Hardaway, Stevie Wonder’s mother. The second:  listen to Talking Book, the first of Wonder’s staggering 70′s albums. At first, I didn’t necessarily get why he wanted me to take these two in together: I was horrified by Wonder’s pimp of a father, moved deeply by Wonder and his mother overcoming horrific obstacles, and moved by the genius of that album. And I didn’t know what he was getting at. Then I listened to “Blame It On The Sun,” one of the several love songs he wrote about his breakup with Syreeta Wright, (particularly the bridge).

But I’ll blame it on the sun
the sun that didn’t shine
I’ll blame it on the wind and trees

I’ll blame it on the time that never was enough
I’ll blame it on the tide and sea
But my heart blames it on me

And with that last line, it clicked for me. In owning up to his own mistakes in “Sun,” Wonder not only wrote a great song, he took agency of his own life and any power his father had over his. Listening to the album afterwords, the motifs from that song pop up over and over — an artist growing to be an adult, making his own decisions, willing to learn and grow from failure, and not letting the past speak for individual mistakes.I am tired of letting Bob Lashley speak for my mistakes. In so many ways, I had let him dominate the actions in my life. From the incident that led to my grandmother’s death, till I was 23 and a half, I was a self-pitying asshole. Even when I started to do the complex, continuous work of being a male ally worth a damn, my severely self-destructive behavior was dominated by my past. Yes, I was doing a lot of good, and had a lot of good qualities, but by being this sweet-sad/drinky/druggy black man with one foot in the grave, this person who was hurtful toward himself instead of other people, I had hurt the people who loved me as much as I did before, if not moreso.I didn’t want to hurt them anymore. I didn’t want to hurt myself anymore. I had repeated sexual contact with my father from age 9 to 14, and the man did enough traumatic, epically abusive shit outside of that. The sentence is hard to write, hard to even read, triggering for friends to hear, and unspeakably difficult to have as a reality. But I want to live. I want to show love to my friends. I want to grow as a writer. I want to grow as a person. I want to add, not take from the world. I want to find some kind of happiness everyday.

I still got things I need to work on, obstacles I need to overcome, and a brain that’s frazzled beyond belief because of trauma, but that doesn’t stop me anymore. My issues are MINE and MINE ALONE, and I will keep improving as an individual. Bob Lashley doesn’t speak for me. I can’t find the words to the joy I feel in that sentence. That’s one of the reasons why I keep writing.

–Robert Lashley

The post Robert Lashley Nails It appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU NAILED IT?

I was in Sao Paulo for Thanksgiving where I made a huge – and hugely successful – Thanksgiving dinner with a lot of improvised ingredients for a bunch of Brazilians who had never celebrated it before. The secret, as is with most delicious things, is butter.

–Travis Mathews

The post Travis Mathews Nails It appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU NAILED IT?

Nailed it? Answer: Right now. At this URL: here

–Kenneth Goldsmith

The post Kenneth Goldsmith Nails It appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU NAILED IT?

“I don’t really think that way. I just write as well as I can, then let it go. It’s not about me nailing it or not, or about me at all.”

–Barry Graham

The post Barry Graham Nails It appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU NAILED IT?

“I wish I could remember the last time I nailed it. I can’t make Portland work for me and I can’t meet anyone. It has always been kind of a disaster for me, as far as relationships go. I’m actually moving to Seattle in the spring. I really don’t remember, it’s been over a year.”

–T Edward Bak

The post T Edward Bak Nails It appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU NAILED IT?

“Uh, I think when I was talking to that guy up front and I asked him what he did and he had some sort of finance job so I just stopped performing… I think that was a good decision that I nailed.”

–Todd Barry

The post Todd Barry Nails It appeared first on Nailed Magazine.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU NAILED IT?

“Nailing it, like living the dream, isn’t something you can do every day. God… there’s poetry, deathmetal guitar, sex, and making money. The last time I nailed it was in the studio [last] June. I was putting down the guitar for a single-song 44-minute deathmetal opera at 230 beats per minute. I played the remainder of the song, about 20 minutes, and improvised an ending. It worked perfectly on the first shot. I killed it.”

–Mattie Bamman

The post Mattie Bamman Nails It appeared first on Nailed Magazine.