Introduction

Photo: Louise Webb

Ten years ago, in 1994, Andrea Kowalski (of Vinegar Hill Press) and I got together after the Buk was planted at Green Hills Cemetery in San Pedro, overlooking the L. A. Harbor, and created the book from which this one got it's name.  Last Call: A Legacy of Madness was a tribute antho that featured myself, Jay Alamares, Gerald Locklin, T. Thrasher and Tracy Cleantis.  It was supposed to be a collection of poems that showed the influence of the Buk on the writers, but it fell short. What can I say?  We were young.

Now it's ten years later and I've gotten a crash course in Small Press literature (having edited and published the Lummox Journal for nearly as long - I feel like a grizzled, old veteran) and small press politics.  I wanted to do this right, so I've invited some of the old Bukowski gang as well as some of the younger/newer poets on the block to participate.

Those of you who are followers of the Buk will notice that some of the most recent purveyors of Bukowski lore are MIA.  This is either because they weren't interested in participating (time constraints, previous commitments, etc), they're submissions weren't what I was looking for (I didn't want this to be another "me & the Buk" lovefest) or they simply weren't invited (no hard feelings). 

I have selected work that I feel represents the hard, honest lines that Buk's writing has always meant to me (and I've been reading him since he wrote for the L. A. Free Press back in '69).  This anthology isn't going to be about drinking with Bukowski or puking with Bukowski or his impact on working class America.  I leave that to the propagandists and myth perpetuators.

Gerald Locklin once wrote that Bukowski celebrated the ordinary.  He wrote about things that, first of all, nobody was writing, much less being published, about. Secondly, he wrote about situations in a way that opened up the reader's mind.  It was almost a "pulp" mentality and he brought that mentality to a whole new audience; an audience of both readers and writers.

LAST CALL is a showcase for some of these writers (and artists, too).  I hope this peaks your curiosity and persuades you to buy a copy.

PS Now that the book has been published, I can tell you that, as of this date (9/10/04), there are less than two hundred copies left, so you best order them soon, as LAST CALL has only been out for three weeks!

Back to Last Call