Anthology fever

I gave a reading last night with Rachel Sherman and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh at the Lillian Vernon Writers' House (it was fun), for the students at the NYU summer session. There I also got to pick up a copy of They're At It Again: An Open City Reader, edited by Thomas Beller and Joanna Yas.

It's huge—I didn't realize it was nearly 800 pages. Who's in it? A quick glance yields Paul Bowles, Jonathan Ames, Geoff Dyer, Bryan Charles, the aforementioned R.S. and S.S., Davids Means and Shields, Sam Lipsyte, Martha McPhee, Mary Gaitskill, Rivka Galchen, Walter Kirn, James Lasdun, Victor Pelevin, Hal Sirowitz, Edmund White, Leni Zumas, Richard Yates (!), Charles Bukowski, Will Eno, Sylvia Foley, Hubert Selby Jr., Jessica Shattuck...the list really does go on...It's satisfyingly heavy, and I'm excited that my story "Bring on the Dancing Horses" (from Open City #30) is included...

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A slimmer book, but with nearly as many contributors, is No Near Exit, an anthology of writing from Post Road magazine, each one selected by a different writer, making for a vertiginous reading experience. Plus, some of the pieces are interviews with writers, and others are writers recommending books by other writers...

One night only!

Tonight at Housing Works: Park—Kunzru—Gaitskill! Part of Bookforum Reads.

Update! Time Out says:

When we saw Ed Park read last Saturday, he cracked us up, sharing a new, technology-infused story narrated by a man disgruntled with his girlfriend (a reviewer of übergeeky sci-fi and a grad student who studies “robot literature”) and his parents (who are selling all of his stuff on eBay). We’re not sure he’ll read the same thing tonight at an event organized by Bookforum, but it’s a safe bet that he’ll present something imaginative, idiosyncratic and deeply funny. Adding gravitas to the evening will be Mary Gaitskill—whose brave, chaotic and beautiful Don’t Cry was a 2009 TONY favorite—and Hari Kunzru, author of My Revolutions.

Triangulation

Here I am at "Impossible Geometries"!

That triangle is mesmerizing...

(Thanks to Light Industry and Triple Canopy...and to everyone for coming out!)

(Via Chapman/Chapman)

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My next reading is—Wednesday! At Housing Works, 7 p.m., with Mary Gaitskill and Hari Kunzru.

Check out this banner ad....Hmm, it looked bigger on the Bookforum site. If you click on it, though, you'll get a version that's about the right size for a bookmark. Print out, laminate—enjoy!

(Reminds me of Luc Sante's intro to the latest batch of Richard Stark novels—has a great line about never having to invest in a bookmark!)

(Click here for more info about the reading.)

Second/final tour date added!

A mere four days after the "Impossible Geometries" reading...I'll be at Housing Works with...



!!!

(More here.)

(I am pretty sure this will be the last time I'll be reading this winter/spring.)

February Believer

February Believer is out! It's all over the map. Don't get whiplash! Muriel Spark...New Zealand rock...Thornton Wilder's other writing...Travis Nichols talks to John Ashbery...Sheila Heti talks to Mary Gaitskill...Stephen Burt reviews Robyn Schiff's Revolver...Tom Bissell on videogames...MORE...The very funny Jack Pendarvis, with "The Fifty Greatest Things That Just Popped Into My Head"...Dzyd Khongster's food-centered micro-interviews...