‘Slush’
Joshua Cohen01.09.09
It’s hard not to be gun shy in writing a blurb for this gem from Joshua Cohen. After all, it’s one of the king of quips, the slush pile lord, who gets his clock cleaned in it. Cohen’s recent work includes the novels Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto and A Heaven of Others, and Aleph-Bet: An Alphabet for the Perplexed (three texts). For more see his website. I command ye to read more Cohen, yes.
Online Help
Robyn Weisman08.26.08
The world of employment agencies and temp workers is a bizarre one, and when it intersects with a graveyard shift proofreading at a legal firm, things can can get downright maddening. Here, Robyn Weisman recounts the experience of working with the kind of woman that temp agencies just love – pleasant, chatty and eager to increase her words-per-minute – and watches her true identity emerge over the course of the night. Art by Danny Jock.
“Purple Dolphin”
Nick Sylvester06.18.08
Well we had to get this joke out of the way from the git-go…that it’s a true blast to finally read Nick Sylvester’s "real" fiction (which is to say if the gonzo reporting tradition was never your cup of tea, then there are plenty of News Corp. outlets out there now to get your "facts" from…). Here’s a chapter from Sylvester’s debut novel, the forthcoming Ten Minute Wait about "a secret society of waiters on the brink of exposure, a mistranslation that triggers a city-wide kitchen staff revolt, and a desperate downtown poet-waiter type who accidentally becomes famous off a silly pomo gag." Art by Danny Jock.
Wilderness Year
Sean Dungan05.05.08
Psychic messages from a military base bagboy. Sean Dungan just published his first collection of stories, Unwelcomeness, a book designed with class by Caryn Aono and beautifully illustrated by Gail Swanlund. Dungan, a west coast author, whose range and strangeness of vision harkens (to this blurber anyway, if I may take liberties) the work of George Saunders, Ben Weissman or Ben Marcus. Here’s a taste, the story "Wilderness Year" – featured in Unwelcomeness that is very welcome here on Fanzine. Art by Danny Jock.
Sitter
Rachel Sherman04.22.08
Like the teacher who thought you’d amount to nothing, or the boy in the third grade with the runny nose you couldn’t help having a secret crush on, it isn’t easy to forget your babysitters. Bet none of them were like this one. Fanzine first encountered Rachel Sherman, author of The First Hurt (a finalist for the 2006 Frank O’Connor prize), on Jaime Clarke’s Talk Show column. Here she brings to the table a flash work of fiction. Art by Danny Jock.
Gatlinburg
Douglas Light04.03.08
Here’s a deft dab of a story by Douglas Light, author of the 2006 Benjamin Frankling Award winning novel, East Fifth Bliss. In it, a couple, soon to be ‘Life-mate’s, find themselves at an impasse of words.
Manifest Destiny
Andrew Lewis Conn02.21.08
Andrew Lewis Conn returns to Fanzine with an unsparing short story about a father, a son, and the American Dream. Frederick Jackson Turner never imagined a theory of the frontier like this. Illustrations by Robin Brasington.
from The Season of Gene, a novel
Dallas Hudgens09.25.07
Dallas Hudgens, FANZINE regular and author of the rollicking Drive Like Hell, returns with another novel for sports fans and literati alike, The Season of Gene (available now). Here’s an excerpt (Chapter 20 in fact) of this tale of beer league baseball, mobsters and gamers, pain pills, lost love and lifted lids. Illustrations by Danny Jock.
Gardeners Anonymous
Trinie Dalton09.02.07
Trinie Dalton, author of Wide Eyed, delivers Fanzine a tale of ghosts, gardens and Pinocchio, just right for ringing out the summer! The story was inspired by the accompanying plant drawings by Dalton’s brother Greg, an avid botanist and artist based in LA.
Is this Ed Park?
Ed Park06.30.07
Ed Park’s first novel, Personal Days, will be published by Random House in 2008. While we wait, Park shares with us another peek at his Borgesian work-in-progress, The Dizzies. Illustrations by Park himself.
