Featured – Vol. 1 Brooklyn

From Bereavement to Betterment: A Review of Charles Bock’s “I Will Do Better”

November 21, 2024 No Comments

"I Will Do Better"

Charles Bock hails from Las Vegas. And it’s clear right from the opening pages of this memoir, that he’s been dealt a tough hand. He’s a reluctant father and working novelist, and his beloved wife Diane has just passed away from leukemia, leaving him to care for his three-year old daughter, Lily. And things will only get worse before you leave Chapter One. The book has a Sisyphean feel to it because nothing is ever easy in this story, except the clear, persistent love the writer has for his daughter. That drives the narrative and allows you to see struggle, self-doubt, and sacrifice as the essential journey we’re on with this family.

Book Review, Books, Featured

Political Histories: On Ronnie A. Grinberg’s “Write like a Man”

November 20, 2024 No Comments

"Write like a Man"

Increasingly, the podcast Know Your Enemy has become one of my go-to sources for book recommendations. Sometimes this involves going to the backlist, particularly when it comes to Garry Wills; sometimes it involves checking out a more recent work, particularly when its author was a KYE guest. That’s how I came to read Ronnie A. Grinberg’s Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals. That’s an imposing title, but the book itself is eminently readable; more than that, it’s also deeply relevant, chronicling a compelling blend of literature, politics, and interpersonal rivalries.

Books, Featured, Interviews

Restless Ghosts and Haunted Places: An Interview With Corey Farrenkopf

November 14, 2024 No Comments

Coret Farrenkopf

When I first encountered Corey Farrenkopf online, it was due in part to his literary profile — he’s a writer, an interviewer, and a librarian with a wide-ranging sense of the uncanny. This year brought with it the release of his deubt novel Living in Cemeteries, set in a world similar to our own with one key difference: restless spirits sometimes take revenge on the living for the sins of their ancestors. It’s a wonderfully disquieting book, and we discussed its origins, its evolution, and what’s next for him.

Books, Comics, Featured

An Excerpt From “Metal Hurlant”

November 13, 2024 No Comments

Enki Bilal cover for "Metal Hurlant"

The long-running science fiction comics anthology Metal Hurlant is returning via publisher Humanoids, and there’s currently a Kickstarter campaign taking place for this new iteration. The new iteration of Metal Hurlant will be published quarterly, and Matt Fraction, James Stokoe, Brian Michael Bendis, and Simon Roy are among the writers and artists contributing to the new version.

We’re pleased to present an excerpt from “A New Dawn,” by artist Jorg de Vos and writer Jake Thomas.

Books, Books of the Month, Featured

Books of the Month: November 2024

November 7, 2024 No Comments

November 2024 books

This is going up in the wake of the election, s0 — we’ll be quick with this introduction. Maybe you’d like to read something. Maybe it’s galavanizing, maybe it’s inspiring, maybe it’s escapist. Here are 10 books due out this month that might fit that bill.

Books, Featured, Interviews

Trash Alchemy & Wasteland Portals: A Conversation with David Leo Rice

November 1, 2024 No Comments

David Leo Rice

At the start of the pandemic, Arundhati Roy, the author who introduced much of my country to the Booker Prize, declared that “historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.” After having lived four years inside this “next world” I wonder if we can say with certainty what kind of a portal 2020 was? Has whatever was supposed to have metamorphosed done so?

Books, Featured, Interviews

J.M. Tyree on Hitchcock, Horror, and “The Haunted Screen”

October 28, 2024 No Comments

J.M. Tyree

There’s a long and storied history of tales of American academics becoming unmoored far from home. J.M. Tyree’s The Haunted Screen is an impressive entry in this literary lineage: its protagonist is dealing with the erosion of his marriage and a the echoes of a past relationship, even as he muses on the influence of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. There’s also a possibly malevolent presence lurking in the woods and a sense that several characters know more than they’re letting on; it’s a concentrated dose of heady musings and travels into the uncanny. I spoke with Tyree about writing the book, the ways film can inform literature, and the nature of haunting.

Books, Featured

Alex Ries On the Creation of “Other Worlds”

October 23, 2024 No Comments

"Other Worlds" cover

Alex Ries’s illustrations encompass everything from prehistoric life to video game concept art and storyboards. The forthcoming book Other Worlds: The Art of Alex Ries includes an impressive overview of his work in all of its myriad dimensions. Here’s what Ries had to say about the creation of some literally otherworldly beings, along with a selection of images from the book, which is on Kickstarter now: