Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 152
March 31, 2012
March 30, 2012
Charles Bane Jr. Shelter Island. Curbside Splendor.
Starting today with the Shelter Island, the incomparable Charles Bane Jr. will now be blogging at Curbside Splendor every Friday, which is most awesomeness indeed. 
March 29, 2012
The Sky Conducting by Michael Seidlinger. Reading. And hyping. Though not necessarily in that order.
Which isn't to say it isn't in that order, it's just that, we are reading The Sky Conducting, though not as this very moment, or this one, but there is reading, and we are taking this opportunity to hype it regardless by drawing your attention to this quite kick-ass review by the Alex M. Pruteanu. Now how about some excerpt?"Seidlinger's prose is an exercise in brevity, with sentences, phrases, and dialogue coming at you like short jabs to the ribs, to the kidneys, to the jaw . . . advancing the story seamlessly. I liked the construction of the language, as well; building blocks stacked upon building blocks in short passages, making up the chapters."
March 28, 2012
March 27, 2012
March 26, 2012
We are Davis Schneiderman Big Other interview. We are not Ryan Gosling.
Here. Not here. And excerpt.Davis: Discourse the third, please…
Ben: And then most recently, my latest short story collection So Different Now was released by CCLaP who is based here in Chicago, both as a stand-alone e-collection, but also combined with an earlier collection I did with CCLaP called Repetition Patterns , a limited edition, hand bound, "hyper-fiction" collection titled The New York Stories . Repetition Patterns was a series of loosely related small town stories based on growing-up in upstate New York in a town named Binghamton, a place I know you know as well (Note: Davis went to grad school there).
Repetition Patterns was very much about teenagers and their interactions with the town, their parents, and becoming parents themselves. I did a blog tour for Repetition Patterns and, in answering questions about those stories, I started getting ideas for new stories, complimentary stories, and responses to the earlier ones. These stories became So Different Now and are more focused on those "teenagers" as adults and how the sins of the father impact them, us, in our adult lives.
Recently I was talking about this collection and started seeing how there might be a third set of stories in the offing, the death, or maybe re-birth of a dying town, and how people might be intertwined in that process. This was partially influenced by reading about Ethan Hawke and how there is talk of doing a third movie in the Before Sunrise, Before Sunset series. And no, I am not comparing myself to Ethan Hawke, though, for the record, unlike Ryan Gosling, he is not Canadian, and so the differences between us are just a little harder to discern.
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March 25, 2012
"So Different Now, shows that his already-impressive gifts for astute narrative observation have sharpened." So Different Now gets The Lit Pub'd. And likes it. A lot.
Quite a lot, big thanks to the Dave K. and The Lit Pub, and drinks on us, for sure, when next we meet. Now, how about some excerpt?
"Hell, someone who didn't get people couldn't write teenagers at all, I don't think – they'd read like miniature adults on the page. Tanzer's work, by contrast, makes statements like "good writers don't have to 'get' people" sound like flailing self-justification." [image error]
March 24, 2012
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. All Rinko. And Hemmings.
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. We have a new story, Rinko by Kyle Hemmings, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and ongoing primary prose love from Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy this edition and we appreciate all shout-outs and links. Finally, please note, we are hoping more of you will submit comix, and music, novel excerpts, and art, and video, yes, video, and combinations there of. And most finally, may the odds be ever in your favor.
March 23, 2012
We are INSTAFICTION.org. And we are having a day. Part Two.
We definitely think we are having a day and we are most definitely quite digging it. "The Gift," also of THE2NDHAND fame, as well as, the Repetition Patterns, got quite nicely highlighted today at the INSTAFICTION. Most sweet that and much appreciated. 
We are Orange Alert Podcast. And we are having a day. Part One.
It is true. The inestimable crew from Orange Alert most appreciatively captured TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer reading "Just Say No" at the AWP Kick-off party. Do enjoy and please do note that "Just Say No" originally appeared in THE2NDHAND and can now also be found in This American Life. 
