The Fiction Issue 2010
Great Beatdowns in Literature
Street justice is a rare commodity in high literature. Unlike its companion universe of film, the realm of books is static and immutable.
Who's Afraid of Kathy Acker?
During the 70s and 80s, bisexual former stripper and groundbreaking author Kathy Acker penned a series of post-punk rewrites of classics such as Great Expectations, Huckleberry Finn and Don Quixote, with added abortion, rape, incest, and pornography.
Sam Lipsyte
2010 was when fiction critics decided to finally give Sam Lipsyte the two-fingered whistles he deserves.
Edward Albee
I arrived at Edward Albee’s Tribeca loft at 10 AM. The playwright’s last name is printed clearly next to his buzzer. His voice rumbled through the intercom: “Who is this?” I told him. Silence.
Amy Hempel
Together with writers like Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, and Mary Robison, Hempel has been canonized both into the “golden age” of the short story and as a minimalist writer.
The London Skate Scene
The summer passed in waves of gnarly violence. Bombs started going off in town almost every single week. There were seven in Zone One in July. Sometimes suicide bombs, sometimes car bombs, sometimes bombs left in a bin or a bag.
The Welcher
A box of Man Is the Bastard CDs named Dennis was riding a bicycle down the street. At the intersection, he ran into his old friend, a stainless-steel industrial sink named Hans. "Well, fancy meeting you here," said Hans.
Two Stories
Gina Berriault was not just a writer’s writer. She was a writer’s writer’s writer’s writer.
Mary Karr
Karr handles gruesome experiences with such compassion, charm, lyricism, vividness, and mordant comedy that the work transcends mere horror story or freak show. Her storytelling melds scrappy Texas slang with poetic precision and is totally addictive.