“We’re All Sicker Than We Think”: Talking “Happy Mutant Baby Pills” With Jerry Stahl

Jerry Stahl’s latest novel Happy Mutant Baby Pills (Harper Perennial), is a sexy, gore-filled, glorious train wreck. Transfixing us with characters who hurtle towards disaster, Stahl captures both the rapture and raciness of destructive, addictive love. Lloyd writes copy of pharmaceuticals, trying to diminish the dastardly side effects (bad breath, depression, death) while happily shooting heroin on the side. But when Lloyd meets Nora, a fucked-up femme fatale on a cross country bus ride, he falls into a toxic, torturous, […]

Continue Reading

Family Misfortunes and the Past’s Patterns: An Interview With Gabi Gleichmann

“I think writers should kill someone and go to jail. Then they will have a real experience to write about,” jokes author Gabi Gleichmann over a glass of champagne. Gleichmann recently visited New York from Oslo, where he lives with his wife and sons. We shared a cheese plate, bottle of wine and Gleicmann chatted with me about his debut novel The Elixir of Immortality (Other Press). Focusing on a historical Jewish family full of shame and silence, the Spinozas, […]

Continue Reading

Stylish Russians and Iowa Short Fiction Award Winners: Vica Miller’s Soho Literary Salons

Stylish Russians are staples at Vica Miller’s Soho Literary Salons. Along with authors like Simon Van Booy, Miller invites other authors, editors, agents and fabulous foreign friends to attend her elegant private readings. The St. Petersburg native also has plenty of wine and throws her salons exclusively in art galleries both on Spring Street and the Upper West Side.

Continue Reading

A Report From the Standard Spelling Bee

Spelling had the crowd on the edge of our seats. We had been instructed by Jesse Sheidtower, the editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary that revealing gasps or groans by the audience must be kept in check, but it was hard to comply, as famous literary contestants bravely sounded out the letters in some truly perilous words (such as “barouche”).

Continue Reading