The Thing Quarterly is a periodical in the form of an object. It's like a magazine, except that each issue is conceived of by a different contributor and then published as a useful object. Internet (The Thing): Ben Marcus is the author of the novels THE FLAME ALPHABET and NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN and the story collection, THE AGE OF WIRE AND STRING. His new book, LEAVING THE SEA, will be published by Knopf in January of 2014. His writing has appeared in Harper's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, The Believer, The New York Times, McSweeney's, Time, Conjunctions, and Tin House. He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, and the fiction editor of The American Reader. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, a Creative Capital Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in fiction, a literature award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and three Pushcart Prizes. He is a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow, and 2013 Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He lives in New York City and Maine. Metaphor Organic was conceived by Errol Davis (writer) and Adam Bienvenu (conceptual artist) in the fall of 2009 as the culmination of several years of thought and dialogue. An important question at the heart of their investigation continues to be "can a business model also function as an artistic statement?" In line with the French avant-garde writing group, OULIPO, a primary feature of the Metaphor Organic model is constraint. Metaphor soapmakers limit themselves to natural and, when possible, organic ingredients and an entirely hand-made process that is also literally an athletic feat, as the bars are delivered by bicycle to stores within biking distance. One hope is that the care behind each production decision is communicated through the artisanal product. In a collision of art, commerce, and ethics, our process poses the question "how may one live the good life in relation to global environmental challenges?" This philosophy invites the buyer become a collaborator versus merely a consumer. While this attempt remains largely a gesture, Metaphor Organic works to constantly improve its triple bottom line, to not only meet, but also to keep raising the standard for sustainable business. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.