
Permanent Exhibit
Matthew Vollmer(Author)
BOA Editions, Limited (Publisher)
Published on 25. October 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-1-942683-68-1 (ISBN)
Description
Matthew Volmer fuses the insight of extended meditation with the immediacy of social media in his new collection Permanent Exhibit. These collage-style essays experiment with stream-of-conscious musings as Vollmer opens a browser window into his own mind: letting his thoughts wander through a fast-forward montage of flying snakes, mass shootings, emojis, pop stars, stargazing, ghosts, circuses, and a hundred other things. Full of keen observations and unexpected insights, Permanent Exhibit reclaims the art of letting one's mind wander in the age of the status update.
Reviews / Votes
"Captivating journeys with a playful, winsome guide." -Kirkus Reviews"Who else but Matthew Vollmer would travel in status faux-updates from Justin Bieber to embalming fluids, from a presidential execution order to an Amazon order for cutlery? A thrilling, hilarious book about the difference between privacy and publicity, between exhibition and excavation, between ephemera and art (hint: the saving grace of life on earth is human consciousness)." -David Shields
"Becoming conscious of the process by which we are produced may be the only available step to enabling our status as players rather than simply played, though it is no exit from the game itself. And that, to me, is what makes Matthew Vollmer's fiction compelling at a much deeper level than the play of wit, sensibility, and intelligence in his craft." -The Brooklyn Rail
"Irresistible" -The New York Times
"Vollmer's writing is my new favorite example of what it must be like to see a life flash before your eyes." -Fiction Advocate
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Rochester
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 201 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-942683-68-1 (9781942683681)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Matthew Vollmer was born in Asheville, North Carolina and grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, he attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. He is the author of two collections of short fiction-Gateway to Paradise (Persea, 2015) and Future Missionaries of America (MacAdam/Cage, 2009; Salt Publishing, 2010)-as well as a collection of essays: inscriptions for headstones (Outpost19, 2012). His work has appeared in Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, Ecotone, New England Review, The Sun, Best American Essays, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. With David Shields, he co-edited FAKES: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, "Found" Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts (W. W. Norton, 2012), and he served as editor for The Book of Uncommon Prayer, an anthology of everyday invocations featuring the work of over 60 writers. A winner of a 2010 NEA grant for literature, he teaches in the English Department at Virginia Tech, where he is an Associate Professor, and lives in Blacksburg with his wife and son.
Content
Status Update
Hatchling
Last Blood
Robocall
Can't Feel My Face
33rd Balloon
Fool's Gold
Top Secret
Holy Hours
Bring Me the Head of Geraldo Rivera
Well of Souls
Out of Lives
Land of Enchantment
Note for the Annual Report
Signs of the Times
Stay Woke
Trick-or-Treat
Night Thoughts
Hands Up
Sinkhole
Spoiler Alert
Observatorium
Precious Metals
Permanent Exhibit
Treasure Box
Blood Soup
Stormbox
Gong Bang Cleanse
Brain Bank
Game Day
Eye of the Storm
Source Material
Cult Hymn
The Subordinate Fragment
We All Go into the Dark
Black Magic
Inferno
Fat Kid
Heron
The New You
Liftoff
Hatchling
Last Blood
Robocall
Can't Feel My Face
33rd Balloon
Fool's Gold
Top Secret
Holy Hours
Bring Me the Head of Geraldo Rivera
Well of Souls
Out of Lives
Land of Enchantment
Note for the Annual Report
Signs of the Times
Stay Woke
Trick-or-Treat
Night Thoughts
Hands Up
Sinkhole
Spoiler Alert
Observatorium
Precious Metals
Permanent Exhibit
Treasure Box
Blood Soup
Stormbox
Gong Bang Cleanse
Brain Bank
Game Day
Eye of the Storm
Source Material
Cult Hymn
The Subordinate Fragment
We All Go into the Dark
Black Magic
Inferno
Fat Kid
Heron
The New You
Liftoff