Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 79
February 12, 2014
Williams. Bates. Olszewska. Horton. Tanzer. Hobart Reading. Literati Bookstore. February 18th. Ann Arbor.
More. More. More. Here. Sweetness. Totally.
February 11, 2014
The Goreyesque, yo.
It just might change your life.
February 10, 2014
February 9, 2014
This Book Will Change Your Life - Understudies by the Ravi Mangla.
We are on the train coming home from work. It is packed. People are on the phone. They are reading. Talking to one another. Staring off into space. There is even a fight over the etiquette of wearing one's backpack on a crowded train. Space and all that. We are immersed in Understudies by the Ravi Mangla. The book pressed up to our face. And as we read a scene where the high school teacher protagonist joins one of his students and his friends to play in their band, and learns that one of the friends is named Cuisinart, we look-up and see that the person crammed in front of us is holding a Cuisinart. Just like that. We don't want to pretend that there is anything magical about this, or even that there is deeper meaning. But, some people are named Cuisinart, and others buy Cuisinarts, some take trains, and many go to work. Some of this interesting, some is not, and some of it we observe, and other things we miss completely. An observation that is also not so profound. But writers tend to see more, and try to make sense of it. Much of it is small, and otherwise meaningless, but when captured as Mangla has done in a series of culminating moments that involves neighbors, and mothers, and significant others, and dead fathers, it is life. And in capturing those ebbs and flows, there is a certain poetry that we all recognize as our stories too. All of which could, is, enough, but Mangla adds one more wrinkle: the sudden presence of a celebrity in the lives of the characters, and how such a presence reminds us of the flatness of our lives, and our need to project our wishes, dreams and hopes on them. Because even in the midst of negotiating trains, neighbors, and Cuisinart purchases, we want more, need more, and we just want to believe that we can somehow change our lives.
February 8, 2014
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. All sale. And full of Malinenko.
The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live, and we are thrilled to have new poem, Garage Sale, from the Ally Malinenko, and (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and endless debt ceiling debate 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, much snow, much Polar Vortex, much what?
February 7, 2014
This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Seventy-Eight - Weird Space, starring the Willy Nast and Karen Shimmen.
We are so weird space and podcast and laundry and All Write Already! And there is so much goodness. Not to mention Joan Didion, Gary Shteyngart and Junot Diaz. Any, or all, of which just might change your life. So do hit it all post-haste and such. Now. Thank you.February 6, 2014
Orphans is truth.
Courtesy of the Emma Mae Brown.
February 5, 2014
And then there was the time that the Victor David Giron talked story, Curbside Splendor, and Lost in Space with the Chicago Literati.
He did. And it was lovely. Excerpt? Word.What projects are you excited about working on for Curbside in the coming year?
We have some really great projects coming out this year, starting with February’s blues-road-novel Don’t Start Me Talkin’ by Tom Williams. Tom is the head of English at Moorehead State University. In terms of reading to experience great writing, to be transported fully into the lives of fictional characters and to learn something in the process, this is the book that does all that. Then there’s Ben Tanzer’s essay collection about fatherhood and pop culture, Lost in Space: A Father’s Journey There and Back Again. Tanzer’s made a name for himself with his punchy pop-lit novels and avid writing. This book showcases his writing chops but at a much more personal and engaging level. Then there’s Once I Was Cool, Chicago storyteller and teacher Megan Stielstra’s amazing essay collection coming out in May. Megan’s work was recently featured in the Best American Essays of 2013 anthology. Then there’s The Old Neighborhood coming out in April, an amazing debut novel by Chicago street thug turned boxer turned writer Bill Hillman. It’s a grand Chicago streets, coming-of-age story about a teenager growing up amidst street violence packed with punches page after page. We’re launching the first books under our neo-noir, speculative fiction, horror imprint Dark House Press this Spring/Summer, of which I’m especially looking forward to Echo Lake, a supernatural, southern gothic thriller by Colorado resident Letitia Trent that will captivate readers this summer. And this is all under our Spring/Summer catalog. Don’t even get me started on our Fall/Winter 2014 catalog!
February 4, 2014
We are so utterly Thumbnail 5, yo.
And it is so utterly available here, so utterly wonderful, and so utterly sure to change your life, as it has so utterly changed ours. That's all.
