The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.
On Oneiric Inspiration, Revision, and Family Stories: An Interview with Nicole Chung
Nicole Chung’s new memoir, All You Can Ever Know (Catapult) is the moving story of Chung’s childhood as a Korean American adoptee with white adoptive parents, her search for her birth parents, and what she learned once she found them. The knowledge that her search yielded was not at all what she had expected or imagined; some of it was hard to take. But if we are going to entrust anyone, Giver-style, with knowledge, I nominate Chung for trustee. The overwhelming impression that emerges from the book is a portrait of Chung as a thoughtful, conscientious, compassionate, and even-keeled person who considered the feelings of others at every step of her search and, of course, during the writing of the story.
Six Ridiculous Questions: Whitney Collins
The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.
Functional Cities, Body Modification, and Crime Aesthetics: An Interview With J. David Osborne
It’s been a busy time for writer, publisher, and podcaster J. David Osborne. In the last year or so, he relocated to El Paso from Portland, Oregon; he oversaw new editions of two of his novels, By the Time We Leave Here, We’ll Be Friends and Blood and Water; he collaborated with Cody Goodfellow on the taut crime novel The Snake Handler; and he released the long-in-the-works followup to his book Black Gum, A Minor Storm. Like the best of his work, A Minor Storm blends a resonant sense of the familiar with a powerful dose of the surreal and dangerous. We talked about his new book, podcasting, and his experiences with Patreon via email over the course of a few days.
The Haunted Sounds of Distant Spaces: Helios on the Making of “Veriditas”
To call Veriditas, the new album by Helios, immersive would be an understatement. Helios represents one aspect of Keith Kenniff ‘s musical output: you might also know him from his more classically-oriented work as Goldmund, or his work in the pop group Mint Julep. Here, he channels a decidedly nocturnal mood, blending sonic spaces with field recordings to create something wholly unpredictable. I asked Kenniff about the album’s genesis, his literary inspirations, and the experience of recording outdoors.
Who The Fuck Are You: A Conversation Between Mike Kleine and Joseph Grantham
I first encountered Mike Kleine’s work when I was working at a bookstore in New York City. We carried his book Kanley Stubrick (We Heard You Like Books 2016). We kept it up by the front registers. After flipping through it, I decided that it was probably very good but I never read it or bought it.
A few months ago, I read about his latest novel Lonely Men Club (Inside the Castle 2018). John Trefry, who runs Inside the Castle, was kind enough to send me a copy. It’s a big expensive book and I was bored and lonely in San Francisco and it was nice of him to send me a free copy.
Six Ridiculous Questions: Lincoln Michel
The guiding principle of Six Ridiculous Questions is that life is filled with ridiculousness. And questions. That only by giving in to these truths may we hope to slip the surly bonds of reality and attain the higher consciousness we all crave. (Eh, not really, but it sounded good there for a minute.) It’s just. Who knows? The ridiculousness and question bits, I guess. Why six? Assonance, baby, assonance.
“Failure Is a Site of Possibility”: An Interview With Andrea Kleine
Eden, Andrea Kleine‘s new novel, is set in the aftermath of a harrowing event: protagonist Hope and her sister Eden were, as teenagers, kidnapped by a man with awful intentions. The novel begins decades later: Hope is a playwright grappling with financial and creative instability, and Eden has gone missing. Hope sets out in search of her lost sister–a plot which gives Kleine a space to explore a number of resonant and disquieting themes. I spoke with Kleine about the […]