FANZINE

Happy Rock

02.08.10

Matthew Simmons is the author of the short story collection A Jello Horse and a recurring contributor to the Believer. Here he limns that eternal question: Is humanity regressing or did I just move back to my hometown?

Accompanying images of "Graybows" are from artist Joe Hardesty.

86’d Stories: Interview with bouncer Frankie Clinton

01.27.10

George Orwell recounts his experience of being shot while fighting in the Spanish Civil War: "Roughly speaking it was the sensation of being at the center of an explosion. There seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light all round me, and I felt a tremendous shock––no pain, only a violent shock, such as you get from an electric terminal; with it a sense of utter weakness, a feeling of being stricken and shriveled up to nothing." Here Frankie Clinton describes what it was like to be stabbed while working as a bouncer outside a Manhattan night club. His advice on human interaction is essential reading for any potential bouncers out there and for fans of workplace tourism. Learn more about Jennifer Blowdryer’s 86’d project here.

Unicorns

01.17.10

Joanna Ruocco’s writing is packed with odd and intelligent linguistic adventures and has received praise from Robert Coover and Carole Maso. In her first short story for Fanzine, she addresses Derrida’s football scholarship, drinking gimlets in body stockings, gluten allergies, the Cuban revolution and the self-conscious feeling that arrives when we become concerned that our thoughts and fantasies are determined by the power structure. "Unicorns" is from her forthcoming short story collection Man’s Companions. The accompanying images are from Portland-based artist and designer Sarah Gottesdiener, who is also one half of the performance duo, The Gay Deceivers.

Greyson, Griffin, Guillermo

01.06.10

In the still nebulous world of internet fiction, Matt Bell is a writer who embraces its possibilities. He edits Dzanc Books’ online fiction journal The Collagist and when his novella, The Collectors, praised by Brian Evenson and Deb Olin Unferth, quickly sold out its limited print run, Bell posted the PDFs of the book on his website for anyone to read or print. His first short story for Fanzine "Greyson, Griffin, Guillermo" has a kind of old testament gruesomeness and the accompanying images are courtesy of painter Joshua Hagler, who shares his captivating and unsettling aesthetic. Hagler is also the creator of the comic book The Boy Who Made Silence. 

86’d Stories: Rob Shapiro

12.13.09

Jennifer Blowdryer, editor of Good Advice for Young Trendy People of All Ages (Manic D), brings us this interview with Rob Shapiro, twin brother of comedian Rick Shapiro, in which he discusses purse snatching, sexiest life guard competitions, ass-less hospital gowns, the heyday of Studio 54, making out covered in blood and betrayal by trusted service workers. At least three bodily fluids make cameo appearances. Also, in a previous installment of 86’d Stories, Sammy Reid and Jeff Dickinson discuss hustling, speed and Bellevue. Art by Danny Jock.

The Odditorium

11.21.09

Believe it or Not oh ye future genius writers to be, who slave away for free as interns and fact checkers at various magazines around the world, just know this – that behind every great magazine, great published story, or great huxter of the world, like say a Robert LeRoy Ripley of grand sideshow fame, there is usually a great "fact checker," as it is reveled here in Melissa Pritchard’s great story, "The Odditorium".

‘Indentical City’

11.04.09

Scary doesn’t end abruptly each year at the 24 hundred hour, 10/31. We’re gonna keep up the creep through the new year if we can help it… thusly, here’s a nervy piece from Joshua Cohen. One of the most productive and inventive authors we’ve read in years, Cohen is always a pleasure to have on Fanzine. His teeming talent is metered by an earthy humor and humility (when I wrote him and said I thought he was more Joyce than Faulkner based on a recent Rumpus interview, he said actually all the inspiration comes from The Uncle Floyd Show). ‘Identical City’ is from his Genizah series, which he will be reading from November 6th at the Writers House at New York University (58 West 10th St., 5pm. Come if in NY). Art here by Danny Jock.

86’d Stories: Sammy Reid and Jeff Dickinson

10.17.09

Over the last several years, Jennifer Blowdryer has been conducting an oral history project of friends and acquaintances who have been 86’d — kicked out and never allowed to return — from various places: restaurants, bars, apartments, houses of celebrities, computer hardware stores and others. In this first of three installments Sammy Reid talks about one of his many evictions and Jeff Dickinson tells a tale of lost shoes, stolen gas masks and the Bellevue psychiatric ward.

Riding the Hoboken Ferry

09.03.09

When the world you live in is a world that’s constantly shifting (i.e. New York City) it’s good to have an anchoring voice that grounds you back in the ways that things once were before the hipsters started taking over and changing the landscape. Pete Hausler waxes a nostalgia of sorts, riding the Hoboken Ferry from the city back to the Mile Square City, home of The Feelies and Maxwell’s, remembers times when he was just a young’un picking up girls and feeling a little Kerouacian on his lunch break from work. Hausler meanders between Kerouac and Blaise Cendrars in the piece, melding his own writing style with theirs while conjuring up some terrific scenery of times past, and wraps it all into a seemingly innocuous and everyday break from his day job. Art by Danny Jock.

The H Word

08.04.09

When ChickenWhisperer finally meets up with BeachVixen78 via an online dating site, sparks of only a minor velocity fly. Things begin as these things do, which is to say, pleasantly. Several misunderstandings later, coitus ensues. Like many daters, ChickenWhisperer was a fan… then he had this date, and maybe developed a misgiving or two. Surprise, surprise. So will he end up burning her house down? Will she be able to tell that he did, if he indeed chooses to, in the ensuing two weeks post-date number 3? Read the story to find out. Art by Danny Jock.