Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 18

We are quite the Mesilla book release with Robert James Russell at the Literati Bookstore on September 25th.

Mesilla's out the week of 9/25 w/ the official launch/release at @LiteratiBkstore on 9/25! And @BenTanzer will be joining me! Come!— Robert James Russell (@robhollywood) August 14, 2015

For reals. And so many more details here.

We are so the Mesilla book release with Robert James Russell at the Literati Bookstore on September 25th.

Mesilla's out the week of 9/25 w/ the official launch/release at @LiteratiBkstore on 9/25! And @BenTanzer will be joining me! Come!— Robert James Russell (@robhollywood) August 14, 2015

For reals. And so many more details here.

The David Masciotra is all Metallica's Metallica and 33 1/3.

And we couldn't be more excited, or prouder, yo. So do learn more here, much, much more.

We are so totally Mortified.

Like totally so. We are also all live and such too at Mortified Chicago on August 29th Lincoln Hall and you should like totally attend. To buy a ticket please go here and for more details please go here and thank you in advance for getting Mortified with us. 

"I found myself dissecting the collection like a sommelier in training." The New York Stories. The Goodreads. Much dig and love.

So much dig and so much love. Excerpt? Word.

"I detected hints of Sherwood Anderson’s, Winesburg, Ohio, or Edgar Lee Masters’, Spoon River Anthology, in that through glimpses of these characters’ lives, we are able to see a larger picture of a place. There were also hints of Raymond Carver detected in the stories. Like much of Carver’s work, they were intense and portrayed a gritty realism."

Monologue Contest judge we are.

And from the Monologging no less. Also, cash prizes, prompts and a twist: Spoken Word. So do check it out, it just might change your life.

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Special Live Edition - Meat Sweats, starring the Michael Czyzniejewski.

We are so special live episode. We are also podcast, readings, questions asked, and answered, the Czyzniejewski and I Will Love You For The Rest of My Life: Breakup Stories at The Book Cellar in Chicago. So do hit, it just might change your life.

"So rich and so engaging." The New York Stories is much appreciated Small Press Book Review review love.

So appreciated. Truly. Excerpt? Word.

"The New York Stories is a combination of three previous volumes by Tanzer: Repetition Patterns (2008), So Different Now(2011), and After the Flood (2014). While each catalogs life in Two Rivers—a stand-in of sorts for Tanzer’s hometown of Binghamton, NY—they do so much more than that. Throughout, Tanzer has his characters battle with the mundane as well as the life-changing in small town America. In “The Babysitter,” for example, the narrator wrestles with memories he has of his babysitter, Tracey, and her friends. While everything—from sleeping around to having babies out of wedlock with teenagers—seems to be going on around him, the narrator sits and observes, steady as a rock. Towards the end, he says, “And me, I never leave the neighborhood. I don’t see any reason to. It’s quiet and I like it that way. I stay long enough, in fact, to watch everyone eventually move back.”  It’s this point of view—that of the diligent observer—that makes Tanzer’s stories so rich and so engaging. His eye for detail is the eye that his characters use to get through life."

"The literary equivalent of Linklater’s Boyhood." The New York Stories is most appreciatedly Alternating Current review.

Quite appreciatedly really. Excerpt? Word.

"The timeline of the collection follows the aging of the children from volume to volume. These kids grow up with dysfunctional parents and, in the second volume, become dysfunctional themselves. By the third volume, just before all the pieces of their lives fall, a flood comes into Two Rivers that threatens to destroy anything they have left. During the early parts of the second volume, this reader started to feel like an experienced Two Rivers observer. I “got” these people. I felt Tanzer gain momentum with this world. By the third volume, when the rains come down, all bets are off. The stakes in their personal lives are as extreme as the weather. He doesn’t just put his characters up a tree and throw a few rocks at them—these trees are underwater. These trees lose their roots. These rocks are mountain-sized. These pages are intense."

Jason Fisk and Abigail Cashman and the Sadly Beautiful.

Most Sadly Beautiful it is. So do hit it. It just might change your life.