Hardcore Fiction: Tyler McMahon on “How The Mistakes Were Made”

Posted by Josh Spilker I read Tyler McMahon’s How The Mistakes Were Made (St. Martin’s Press, 2011) with some anticipation: I’m a sucker for (most) rock music-related fiction. The world of bands in fiction always seems under-served to me and you would think there would be more natural overlap with how many music critics there are. How The Mistakes Were Made steps in quite nicely thank you, with a rise-from-obscurity 90s Seattle tale and a congruent one set in grittier […]

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Conversations: Emily Gould

Tonight at Housing Works, people will gather to celebrate the official launch of Emily Books, the ebookstore started by Emily Gould and Ruth Curry. We figured it was no better time to talk to Gould about the last year-and-a-half of her life which included putting out her first book, bringing a popular web series to a close, and becoming a business owner.

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Conversation: Lisa Wells

Interview by Tobias Carroll As we head into the middle of November, I think it’s safe to say that Lisa Wells’s collection Yeah. No. Totally. (released by the Portland-based indie press Perfect Day Publishing) is a safe bet to be recorded as one of my favorite books of the year. Through the work collected here (mostly essays, with one short story — more on that balance below), Wells examines the city in which she lives through various manifestations of culture […]

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Conversation: Dennis Cooper

Interview by Jon Reiss Dennis Cooper has been called “America’s most dangerous writer,” and thus, it’s no surprise that he’s also one of the most publicly criticized writers on the literary scene.  For many, Cooper is a character, the guy who writes that really out there shit, a figure most comfortably marginalized rather than explored.  Cooper’s work has been compartmentalized as “shock fiction” or “gay fiction “ or “ gay shock fiction” and has existed as a mainly underground, cult […]

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Which Authors Thrill You in Your Bathing Suit Area?

Posted by Nick Curley Scrolling lists with eye-popping headlines are the mango-on-the-stick of the fruit vending cart that is literary journalism.  “T.S. Eliot’s Ten Girthiest Erections”. “Grad Programs in Order of Proximity to Good Burritos”.  “Super Starred: The Coolest Footnotes of All Time”.  And those are just the freebies that I’m firing off at will!  Pop culture countdowns are notorious among bloggers for their ability to rack up that handful of extra Web 2.0 followers that will pull us all […]

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Rose Peddles – The Best of Charlie Rose Interviewing Authors: Slavoj Žižek

Posted by Nick Curley Case File: Slavoj Zizek Air Date: October 26th, 2011 Botanica (Summary): In his first appearance on the show, Zizek – Slovenia’s hottest Lacanian philosopher – praises PBS from right outta the gate, while sporting the look and gesticulations of a Muppet born of the Children’s Television Workshop.  This meeting of the minds came last week in the midst of Zizek’s brief but storied tour of our fair city, which included transcribed speeches at St. Mark’s Bookshop […]

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