TIMOTHY WILLIS SANDERS is the author of the short story collections Modern Massacres (Publishing Genius, 2022) and Orange Juice and Other Stories (Publishing Genius, 2010), and the novel Matt Meets Vik (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2014). He lives in San Francisco.
David Leo Rice has been keeping busy. Since we last spoke (about A Room in Dodge City, Volume 2), he’s published a collection of short stories, edited a book of essays on David Cronenberg, and written another novel, The New House, which provided me an excuse to sit down with him again to discuss his new novel and talk more about Jewishness in American literature, heresies, and capital-A Art (among other things). The New House is available now from Whisk(e)y Tit.
LEE MATTHEW GOLDBERG is the author of ten novels including The Ancestor and The Mentor, as well as the YA series Runaway Train. He’s been a finalist in various scriptwriting contests—Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay—and his books are in various stages of development for film and TV. He is also the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series in New York City.
SHY WATSON wrote Horror Vacui (House of Vlad Press, 2021) & Cheap Yellow (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018) & co-founded blush lit. Find more work at places like New York Tyrant, The Rumpus & [PANK].
RAVI MANGLA is the author of the novels The Observant (Spuyten Duyvil) and Understudies (Outpost19). He lives in Rochester, NY.
JORDAN CASTRO is the author of The Novelist: a Novel (Soft Skull Press, 2022) and two poetry books. He is from Cleveland, Ohio.
KELBY LOSACK is the author of several novels, the latest of which is Letting Out the Devils. One half of the Agitator podcast with J. David Osborne. He lives with his wife and son in Gulf Coast Texas.
There aren’t many authors today who are willing to revisit the Holocaust and write about it. But then again, most authors aren’t Jerry Stahl, who has the chutzpah to pull it off masterfully. The author of Permanent Midnight (1995), I, Fatty (2004), and OG Dad (2015), was feeling depressed in 2016, and he wanted to feed his unhappiness to quell his demons. So, he scheduled a trip to Poland and Germany to tour the Nazi death camps. His mode of travel – a charter bus replete with a tour guide who was well-versed on Hitler, Koch, Mengele, and other lunatics who found joy in torturing and killing Jews. Stahl chronicles his experience in Nein, Nien, Nein! One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust. Throughout the book, released this week, Stahl writes exactly what he thinks, and some of his thoughts – such as “Hitler ripped the world apart like a child tearing the head off a doll” – reminds reader of just how horrific the events that occurred at the death camps were. The author’s witty prose is appreciated because without levity a trip around the concentration camp horn would make any man or woman beg for mercy. His ability to provide his readers with a seat on the bus to experience the tour is exceptional. There was only one man for this job, and that man is Jerry Stahl.