So: to be filed under “long-in-the-works projects,” Daphne Carr and I are starting an independent press. The first title will be the next installment of the Best Music Writing series. There’s presently a fundraising campaign afoot. You will, I’m sure, be hearing more about the press in question in the weeks and months to come.
Category Archives: Books
Me @ Volume 1- Afternoon Bites: Book art, Dusted and Fluxblog turn ten, Joyland on Greenpoint, and more
- There Is a Documentary About Linotype. We Think This Is Awesome.
- Afternoon Bites: Carl Wilson’s 2011, Emma Straub makes a mix, Justin Davidson on Philip Glass, and more
- Hillary Jordan’s “When She Woke”: A Discussion
- Afternoon Bites: Steve Erickson talks politics, Mikhail Bulgakov gets unreal, Pam Houston on mentoring, and more
January 19, 2012, Author: , Leave a comment
In Which a Kickstarter Campaign Is Undertaken
Categories: BooksI’m re-reading Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City for one of the book groups I’m in, and I figured it might make sense to delve into Kevin Avery’s biography of Paul Nelson, Everything Is An Afterthought. (Robert Christgau points out in his review of Avery’s book that Nelson was the inspiration for Chronic City‘s Perkus Tooth.) So … Continue reading
Two more 2011 lists for your consideration, both at Vol.1: my favorite 2011 books read in 2011, and my favorite non-2011 books read in 2011. In-depth thoughts on both are at the links, but here are the lists: -2011- Dana Spiotta, Stone Arabia (Scribner) David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (Little, Brown and Company) Vanessa Veselka, Zazen (Red Lemonade) Justin … Continue reading
As promised: here are a few more year-end lists from me. At Vol.1, I’ve listed some of my favorite writing about music for the year. And at Big Other, I talk about some of my favorite live music of 2011.
So hey, the year 2011 is nearing its end, which tends to mean that it’s time to muse on the year’s artistic offerings in concise form. In other words: there will be year-end lists. And so: here are a few of mine, with more to come. (I’ll have a couple of pieces up at Vol.1 … Continue reading
Titus Andronicus | FOR NO ONE from FOR NO ONE on Vimeo. Ah, late November. Soon I’ll be off to pay a visit to the county from which I came. Last year, I did some exploration and revisiting of old haunts. This year, I’m less sure of what to expect — maybe another trip to … Continue reading
Thinking out loud a bit here. A couple of weeks ago, a story of mine called “The Clutch” turned up on Vol.1. It’s a weird story, and the story of how it came to exist is (possibly) relevant: I wrote it for a reading that was part of a genre-themed series. My night’s theme was … Continue reading
November 3, 2011, Author: , Leave a comment
New (seasonally appropriate) fiction: “The Clutch”
Categories: Books, MeA few months ago, I wrote a short horror story for a night of genre-inspired works at Blue Angel Wines in Williamsburg. That story, “The Clutch,” has wound up on Vol.1, as it seemed strange not to have a story that wasn’t somewhat creepy up around Halloween. By the third morning, the air’s density had … Continue reading
August 15, 2011, Author: , Leave a comment
ALL HANDS ON (is an anthology I am in)
Categories: Books, MeI arrived home to find this in my mailbox. (More specifically: it was on the floor below it. My mailbox is fairly small.) The book in question is All Hands On: THE2NDHAND After 10, and it’s a collection of work from the long-running Chicago-and-Nashville-based literary broadsheet (and website). I’ve had some stories appear in both … Continue reading
Last week, I contributed an essay to the excellent “Write Place, Write Time” series of, well, short essays about where writers do their thing. I’m going to need to sketch out a shared history for the three primary main characters — including former bandmates, families, classmates — as well as a small town near the … Continue reading
June 21, 2011, Author: , Leave a comment
New fiction: “Winter Montage, Hoboken Station”
Categories: BooksThe fine people at Storychord have published my short story “Winter Montage, Hoboken Station.” You can read it here. Here’s a short excerpt: Transit always reminds me of transit. The light rail that runs along the Hudson calls back every trip I’ve ever taken to the Twin Cities — if the cars used on each … Continue reading
Word has come that Tim Kinsella — of many fine bands, including Joan of Arc, Owls, Cap’n Jazz, and Make Believe (pictured below) — has a novel forthcoming on the fine indie press featherproof. I ended up writing a short blurb about this for Vol.1. What I wasn’t able to work in there was a … Continue reading
A number of very smart, very astute people have written elegant pieces as of late on why you should pick up Out of the Vinyl Deeps, an anthology of Ellen Willis’s rock criticism. There isn’t much I can add to this. I will say, though, that I spent the last few days reading the anthology, … Continue reading
Last month, I joined WORD’s classics book group. This month, we’re discussing the first half of Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls. Until now, it had fallen into the strange category of classics looming unread on my shelf — alongside Ulysses until a few months ago. Looking at the book itself, its densely written paragraphs, and its … Continue reading
Apparently, I have been immortalized in an HTML Giant tag. You learn fascinating things when you periodically google yourself.