books – Vol. 1 Brooklyn

A Conversation with Guillaume Morissette

May 12, 2014 No Comments

One of my favorite Canadian authors is Guillaume Morissette. I just identified him as Canadian, because I really don’t read that many Canadians, but that shouldn’t matter. But it kind of does, because Montreal and Quebec and Concordia University play a role in the new novel from Guillaume–called New Tab (Vehicule Press, 2014). I first came across Guillaume via the Internets a few years ago, and really liked the easy fluidity of his story collection, I Am My Own Betrayal. […]

Books, Conversations, Featured, Poetry

Voicemail Poetry and Papercraft: A Conversation with John Mortara

January 28, 2014 No Comments

I’m rarely moved to immediate action, but for I went right away for John Mortara’s “Small Creatures / Wide Field” from The Newer York Press. Hypertext madness in a broken-down house, with odd mythological creature inserts and cheeky choices? Yep. With a killer design on the beta version of Creativist, the sibling to Atavist? ALL IN. John Mortara is a writer, poet and teacher who now lives in Massachusetts. We both went to the same small, regional college for grad […]

Books, Featured

My Year in Not Reading (Where Do I Start?)

December 17, 2012 3 Comments

Tis the season of lists. Rare is the literary critic who waits until January to fully understand 2012. Instead, Thanksgiving is that marker, because t’s the kiss of death for a book to come out in December, rather than a critical achievement like it is with film. But alas, I have a problem with my list-making this year. I didn’t read enough. I can’t make a good list that has enough of the generally accepted “critically acclaimed” books peppered […]

Bites, Books, Conversations

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

February 2, 2012 No Comments

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 […]