Unicorns
Joanna Ruocco01.17.10
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
Matt Bell01.06.10
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.
The Odditorium
Melissa Pritchard11.21.09
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’
Joshua Cohen11.04.09
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.
The H Word
Carlos Kotkin08.04.09
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.
Stay Busy Line
Dallas Hudgens06.27.09
Okay true it’s summer, and the Stanley Cup is firmly in Penguin hands till next year, but we got one more hockey story for you, some new fiction from Dallas Hudgens – the tale of a down on his luck semi-pro from Ontario who never quite learned his half and whole steps on the piano is battling to keep it together, at turns giving piano lessons to a young lady, stocking shelves in a Rite AID, while hallucinating the horrors of his father and body checking everyone who might breathe at him funny. Meet Serge in ‘Stay Busy Line.’ Art by Danny Jock.
First Signs of Life in the Desert Outside of Las Vegas
Kevin Paul Giordano06.19.09
If you’ve ever driven to Vegas on a wild itch to burn some money, raise hell, or…cough…take the family for a good wholesome time, you may have witnessed the grandeur of some of the sites that surround it, the desert in all its glory at sunset, the jackrabbits, cacti and purple silhouettes of mountains, or a little project from the Depression days known as the Hoover Dam. Vegas teems with desperation, and so does that which surrounds it. Here’s a story from Kevin Paul Giordano, art by Danny Jock.
100 Percent Handsome
Robyn Weisman06.14.09
"Did you get my profile?" I get in an email and a couple of surprise chats, and I’m like oh hell I am so behind with Ms. Weisman because the other piece she sent in was like 25 pages and I am thinking – profile, oh no, it could be longer – and I’m about ready for adderol therapy, but then breathe and then fall into that tunnel, you know that vortex of clarity and focus that means something’s good and realize we have a bona fide gem of hallucinatory gonzo style profilage on Fanzine’s hands, lizards and all, but just a taste now, like a lemon biscuit for tea. And heck I have a half chihuahua thing too, a dog, albeit!…but so you have to read this…NOW!
Bury My Heart at Tataouine
Brian Joseph Davis06.11.09
Who here recalls Westworld? – in which a robotic Yul Brenner made the bald-guy-in-cowboy-hat look hip long before today’s slew of Hair Club, Stetson-glued-on, Nashville stars? Well, that’s neither here nor there for this story, except that it’s a loosely cloaked sci-fi western. Brian Joseph Davis, author of the novels I, Tanya and Portable Altamont, and one of the editors at the esteemed lit site Joyland, puts Star Wars fanatics into a faux journalistic, Jodorowsky style western that’s dry and crisp like a fine Chianti washing down a spaghetti shoot-em-up. Enjoy a taste here. Art by Danny Jock.
‘The Candidate’s Daughter’
Elizabeth Searle02.19.09
Say your mother is running for Vice President of the United States and you are a pregnant teenager, stuck on the campaign bus tending to your mother’s latest baby and brooding about your hockey-player boyfriend. In real life, you might feel totally trapped, but in Elizabeth Searle’s fictional version, the candidate’s daughter decides someone in her life needs a plan besides ‘Mommy and God.’ The trick is how ‘Cristal’ can give mother and the national press corps ‘the slip’ and start building her own power base. So dial back into election mode, and remember that any resemblance to actual individuals, living or dead, is purely – or maybe not so purely – coincidental. Art by Danny Jock.
