If William Gibson, Michael Connelly, and Neil Gaiman wrote a series, it might end up looking like The Familiar. Continue reading The Familiar, Volume 5: Redwood, by Mark Z. Danielewski @ NYJB
“The Familiar” series weaves a series of interrelated narratives together. It combines different genres and styles, ranging from hard-boiled Los Angeles noir to stream-of-consciousness psychological introspection. It is referential and self-referential with typographic experimentation and excesses. At times the traditional arrangement of paragraphs shatter, explode, or blur. In other instances the words form pictures, the boundaries between word and image disappearing altogether. Continue reading The Familiar, Volume 4: Hades, by Mark Z. Danielewski @ NYJB
“Beautiful Berlin Boys” by Ashkan Sahihi resounds as an affirmation of the beauty and individuality of the gay man.” Continue reading Beautiful Berlin Boys, by Ashkan Sahihi @ NYJB
When does an experimental novel become formulaic? Is formula inherently a bad thing? When will Xanther give the little one a name? Continue reading The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain, by Mark Z. Danielewski @ NYJB
Thought experiment: George R. R. Martin is The Beatles. R. Scott Bakker is The Velvet Underground. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: The Great Ordeal (The Aspect Emperor: Book Three), by R. Scott Bakker
What do Henry Darger, the Prophet Joseph Smith’s mother, J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, and Gilbert Sorrentino have in common? They are subjects of my new essay series, American Odd. Continue reading An Introduction to American Odd
My review of this year’s winners and runners-up for the 2014 Nebula Awards, in an anthology edited by Kij Johnson. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Nebula Awards Showcase 2014, edited by Kij Johnson
Countdown to CONvergence 2014! Are you excited? Continue reading Countdown to CONvergence 2014
This week Karl Wolff reviews, “Matriarchy: Freedom in Bondage,” by Malcolm McKesson for the penultimate installment of his essay series, The NSFW Files. Continue reading The NSFW Files: Matriarchy: Freedom in Bondage, by Malcolm McKesson
The Megapolitan Flâneur is a series of short travel essays. These essays will focus on my trip to Chicago – September 4 – 6, 2013 – and what I experienced. Neither chronology or inventory, the essays will be reflective, free associative, and impressionistic. Full Disclosure: I am a staff member and assistant editor for the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP). While I did wander and amble throughout Chicago, this was a “working vacation” for me. “A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, … Continue reading The Megapolitan Flaneur: Part 3: Objects and Meaning
The Driftless Area Review 