Tobias Carroll

“I’m Looking For the Surreal Moments of Real Life”: An Interview With Jac Jemc

October 8, 2019 No Comments

Jac Jemc

Whether she’s navigating the secrets people keep from one another or venturing into the world of the uncanny, Jac Jemc has established a particularly haunting corner of fiction where she explores the unpredictable and disquieting. This week brings with it the release of False Bingo, her second collection of short fiction, and one which demonstrates Jemc’s impressive range as a writer. I talked with her about the collection’s origins, her work in both the supernatural and realistic, and caught a glimpse of what might be next from her.

Featured, Interviews, Lit., music

Sonic Monoliths, With Poetry: Kid Millions and Sarah Bernstein on Their New Album “Broken Fall”

September 17, 2019 No Comments

What happens when two supremely talented musicians collaborate on a new recording, and then throw some poetry into the mix? That’s the case with Broken Fall, the new album from Kid Millions and Sarah Bernstein. Millions demonstrates his fondness for frenetic rhythms, while Bernstein summons up fantastically atmospheric sounds with her violin and voice, creating a haunting and unpredictable sound from beginning to end. I talked with both musicians about the process of making this one, how it relates to their prior work, and how they got some of the album’s most distinctive sounds to emerge.

Featured, Interviews, Lit.

The Future of Bibliophilia: Inside the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair

September 5, 2019 No Comments

The 6th edition of the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair will be held this weekend (September 7 and 8) at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint. The volumes that will be on sale from a host of dealers are only one part of the festivities, however: the fair will include everything from a seminar on collecting occult books to an art show exploring the history of Afrofuturism. We talked with the festival’s Creative Director, Brian Chidester, to learn more—and to get a sense of what attendees might expect.

Book Review, Featured, Lit.

A Very Subtle Body Horror: Naomi Booth’s “Sealed,” Reviewed

August 28, 2019 No Comments

"Sealed" cover

Some of the most unsettling horror taps into a primal and very real fear: that our bodies will somehow turn on us. It’s the sort of case where only the severity needs to be increased for a taste of the uncanny to emerge. We wrestle with our own bodies’ failures all the time, from chronic conditions to sudden illnesses. We struggle with our own health and we reckon with the health of those closest to us. Horror doesn’t need to do much to strike a chord here.

Featured, Interviews, Lit.

“Discomfort Is Pretty Universal”: Jaime Fountaine on Her Novella “Manhunt”

August 19, 2019 No Comments

My first encounter with Jaime Fountaine came via her role as one of the two hosts of Philadelphia’s Tire Fire Reading Series. Then we had the good fortune of publishing her essay “19, 16, and 1” here at Vol.1 Brooklyn, showing off another side of her literary works. This summer brings with it the release of her debut novella Manhunt, the story of a teenage girl dealing with her complex relationship with her mother, the mundane horrors of growing up, and the restrictions of suburbia. I talked with Fountaine about her book, suburban landscapes, and the game that gave her book its title.

Featured, Interviews, music

Making Postpunk in the Shadow of History: An Interview With Trupa Trupa

August 7, 2019 No Comments

The music made by Polish post-punks Trupa Trupa finds a haunting balance between intensity and off-beat melodies, even as the group’s lyrics juxtapose the absurd with the harrowing. Their next album, Of the Sun, is due out next month on Lovitt Records, and they’ll be touring the US in October — including a stop at Union Pool on October 8. I talked with singer-guitarist Grzegorz Kwiatkowski about the group’s music, his poetry, and the place where they all converge.

Book Review, Featured, Lit.

Stories Echoing Into the Cosmos: A Review of Lindsey Drager’s “The Archive of Alternate Endings”

July 26, 2019 No Comments

“What will survive of us is love,” Philip Larkin wrote in his poem “An Arundel Tomb.” It’s a phrase that comes to mind when thinking of mortality, a humanistic sentiment that’s both unnerving and reassuring. Lindsey Drager’s new novel, The Archive of Alternate Endings, also poses the question of what might be left behind after a life ends: legacies of the cultural, emotional, and familial sort are all part of the mix here. But Drager is also after something larger here, examining what might be left behind after the entirety of humanity has gone extinct.

Book Review, Featured, Lit.

Reimagining First Contact: A Review of Cadwell Turnbull’s “The Lesson”

July 18, 2019 No Comments

Cadwell Turnbull’s novel The Lesson is a solid entry in the reliable genre of novels telling the story of humanity’s first contact with extraterrestrials. What helps to make it stand out even more is its intense humanism: Turnbull’s characters fervently debate religion and philosophy even before the aliens show up, and there’s a generosity that he extends to nearly all of his characters that help accentuate his themes of community. Turnbull also benefits from the specificity of this narrative: there aren’t a whole lot of science fiction novels set in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but Turnbull uses the setting to his advantage, furthering his chosen themes as this novel’s plot deepens.