Articles by Blake Butler
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Suck on the Monolith
Ken Baumann is best known for his role as Ben on ABC Family’s teen drama show, 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager,' but offscreen he’s of a wholly other mode. Besides spending his TV dollars as publisher of Sator Press, an independent publishing house that traffics in ambitious genre-defying prose, he’s just dropped his own brainbending first novel, 'Solip,' from Tyrant Books. Full story
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Anton Chekhov Versus Jeffrey Dahmer
For some reason I think about the cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer every time someone mentions Anton Chekhov, a forefather of the contemporary short story. I can’t help but want to draw them out, to put them together in a cage and watch their brains bump. And so the oth… Full story
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Sarcophagi of Prisoners Covered in Cocaine
Johannes Göransson new book, 'Haute Surveillance,' is kind of like a novelization of a movie about the production of a play based on Abu Ghraib, but with way more starlets and cocaine and semen. Full story
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Tupac, Neck Braces, and Suicide: An Interview with Harmony Korine
In 1998, after his feature-length directorial debut, 'Gummo,' Harmony Korine published a novel called 'A Crackup at the Race Riots.' For years the book has been out of print, fetching prices upward of $300 online—until recently, when it was repackaged. Harmony was kind enough to… Full story
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The Unrelenting Novels of Thomas Bernhard
Often characterized by a seething loathing of social decor, patriotism, and ego, and fed by years spent suffering from tuberculosis and a gathering madness that would eventually force him to spend two years in a sanatorium, Bernhard's work is some of the blackest, most bare-teeth… Full story
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Shapes That Make You Dizzy
Coconut Books is the print arm of the longest-running online poetry publisher I can think of. In the past several months they’ve released a slew of wicked new books. Here are my thoughts on three of them, along with an excerpt from each. Full story
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One Hundred Literary Rumors
I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’ve heard a lot of shit. People whispering in hallways and Gmail chatting about all kinds of dark secrets. People up in parties with their coats and hair all looking nice and their mouths just full of you wouldn’t even want to know. I’ll tell… Full story
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The March Madness of Fast Food
After spending several days sprawled out watching men on TV throw a ball at a hole in an effort not to get eliminated from a competition, I decided to subject the glorious fast food restaurants of America to a similar contest. I seeded 64 of our most popular corporate fast food c… Full story
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Scott McClanahan’s Animal Magnetism
I think of Scott McClanahan as a kind of reauthenticated version of everything that’s good about Southern writing. I’ve seen him silence a room at least five different times now with just the words that came out of his mouth. Scott just released his first full-length book of nonf… Full story
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A Day in the Life of an Alzheimer's Caregiver
My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about three years ago. After an extended stay at the hospital and stints in two different rest homes, my mom brought him home to care for him herself. There is an unseen routine in the lives of most home caregivers that makes Michael Haneke’s… Full story
The Wizard of the Saddle Rides Again
The Dark Specter of History in Memphis 
Hung Like a Gastropod
The Rigors of a Snail-Genital Illustrator 
Topless Jihad
Hanging Out with the Ladies of Femen 
This Is What Winning Looks Like
Chaos and Corruption in Afghanistan 
James Franco on 'Gatsby'
Great Book, Good Film 
Suck on the Monolith
ABC Family Hires the Best Writers 
