The Faster, Redder Road

From UNM: This collection showcases the best writings of Stephen Graham Jones, whose career is developing rapidly from the noir underground to the mainstream. The Faster Redder Road features excerpts from Jones’s novels—including The Last Final Girl, The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong, Not for Nothing, and The Gospel of Z—and short stories, some never before published in book form. Examining Jones’s contributions to American literature as well as noir, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.’s introduction puts Jones on the literary map. From me: In 1995, I think it was, I was living in Apple Creek apartments in Denton, Texas with my new wife. I was in the PhD5 program at UNT, studying with William J. Cobb, a program I’d abandon momentarily for FSU. But, for the moment I was there, taking a critical theory course from a Dr. Preston (brilliant, wonderful dude; I still come back nearly daily to what-all he taught me), I was given permission to write a story instead of a paper. So of course I jumped on that, especially since it was my idea, my bargain, “I’m not a critic,” all that. Only guideline for the story was it had to engage or be in dialogue with some article or book we’d been reading for class. The story I kicked up—actually I kicked two up, both of which got published—was to be my first-ever publication in a national rag, “Paleogenesis, 1970.” That “1970” was how I completely disguised myself, as I’m born in 72. Nobody could ever see through a scrim like that, could they? The  . . . → → →