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Vanessa Veselka

Goodreads Author

Born

in Houston, Texas, The United States

Website

http://vanessaveselka.wordpress.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction

Influences

ideas of nature versus torture, dreams of grandeur, work and money. Ar ...more

Member Since

July 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/vveselka

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Vanessa Veselka is a writer and musician living in Portland, Oregon. She has been, at various times, a teenage runaway, a sex-worker, a union organizer, a student of paleontology, an expatriate, an independent record label owner, a train-hopper, a waitress, and a mother. Her work has appeared in Bust, Bitch, Maxmum Rock ’n’ Roll, Yeti Magazine and Tin House. Zazen is her first novel.

A special note for the Goodreads community... I am not a critic. I leave that task to others. Writing books is something like trying to catch a handful of water in a stream; we get what we get at that moment. I only post books I like and I give everyone five stars.

67 posts
Vanessa Veselka's Blog

US 395, Joshua Tree, Ghosts and Bad Things to Do in the Desert, and the Southern Route…

US 395

The original section went on a little longer–often my fascination with something extends well beyond a reader’s, which is why I’m a bore at parties and show up rarely–when there were parties.

The Alabama Hills and Lone Pine are fascinating because of how they were named and the kind of movies shot there. As I say in the book, Gunga Din and How the West was Won were both filmed there–along wit

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Vanessa Veselka’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 3,668 ratings · 666 reviews · 10 distinct works • Similar authors

	Zazen 3.59 avg rating — 1,294 ratings — published 2011 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Great Offshore Grounds 3.69 avg rating — 1,055 ratings — published 2020 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Violence: Guillotine #1 by Vanessa Veselka (Goodreads Author), Lidia Yuknavitch (Goodreads Author) 4.79 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fort of Young Saplings 3.71 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Great Offshore Grounds: Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction 2020 3.29 avg rating — 7 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	L'autoroute des disparues by Vanessa Veselka (Goodreads Author), Emmanuelle Aronson (Translator), Philippe Aronson (Translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Essays 2013 by Cheryl Strayed (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Robert Atwan (Series Editor), Poe Ballantine (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.91 avg rating — 1,142 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Black by Richard Thomas (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Laird Barron (Goodreads Author) (Foreword), Brian Evenson (Contributor) 4.15 avg rating — 323 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Untold Gaze by Stephen O'Donnell, Stephen Arndt (Contributor), Liz Asch (Contributor) 4.86 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2018	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Litro #132 - The Fairer Sex by Dan Coxon (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Vanessa Veselka (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Maia Jenkins (Contributor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Related News

Debut Author Snapshot: Vanessa Veselka

Bomb threats and terrorist attacks are part of daily life in her scary and yet humorous dystopian novel, Zazen. Would you stay or would you go?

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Vanessa’s Recent Updates

Vanessa Veselka wrote a new blog post US 395, Joshua Tree, Ghosts and Bad Things to Do in the Desert, and the Southern Route… US 395 The original section went on a little longer–often my fascination with something extends well beyond a reader’s, which is why I’m a bore at part Read more of this blog post »
Oct 15, 2020 12:24AM · like
Vanessa Veselka is now following Matthew Baker Author of If You Find This
Aug 01, 2020 07:36AM · like

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Quotes by Vanessa Veselka

“The world is a violent child none of us will get to see grow up.”
― Vanessa Veselka, Zazen

11 likes

“But I know what it means to crave what you're not. To want to sew up that rift because it's exhausting to hold it open. Sometimes you just need to be someone else, someone who doesn't care about anything at all. I know I do. I want emptiness but I can't have it.”
― Vanessa Veselka, Zazen

9 likes

“I looked at the woman crying over the doll and felt something else. I was sick of people acting against their own interests. Mooing about how to refinance the slaughterhouse. Putting skylights in the killing pen and pretending the bolt in the brain was a pathway to a better field. I paid my bill. Save your fucking pennies for a gun and a history book, I thought.”
― Vanessa Veselka, Zazen

tags: grief, history, misery, suffering

8 likes

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