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To the outsider, the world of books and publishing is sometimes perceived as a stuffy, stodgy, genteel world of college professors, pipes, and tweed jackets with elbow patches. Now imagine that quiet book reading, with a string quartet playing the corner, being crashed by a bunch of unwashed, drugged out rockers. That clash of cultures [...]

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Earlier this week, news broke that one of Slushpile’s favorite indie publishers Dzanc Books signed on to release two new books by one of our favorite writers, Stephen Graham Jones. You might recall Jones from one of our two interviews with him. After the news broke, I asked Jones for a little more detail about [...]

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The Southeast Review has a fantastic interview with Daniell Woodrell. Damn, now I’m going to have to dash home and devour Give Us a Kiss again. [via Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind]

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Who knew collegiate a cappella was such a big deal? Mickey Rapkin, senior editor at GQ a veteran of the a cappella circuit at Cornell, knew. Besides his own life experiences, Rapkin noticed several a cappella references sprinkled throughout recent popular culture. Popular television shows such as The Office and 30 Rock joked about the [...]

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In American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon,, outdoorsman and writer Steven Rinella chronicles his own hunt for a wild buffalo in the Alaskan wilderness. Mixed in with his own adventure is a recounting of the buffalo’s history and its unique place in American culture. The book received acclaim from a number of critics. [...]

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In The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange, Mark Barrowcliffe describes a life most of us can understand. In this funny and endearing memoir, Barrowcliffe details his life-consuming obsession with the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons. As a child, the writer was a socially awkward, self-described “nerd.” Attending an all-boys school, growing [...]

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In 2005, Matt Bondurant published The Third Translation, a book that blended the study of Egypt, professional wrestling thugs, cults, London musuems, extensive research, and hieroglyphic puzzles. The debut novel received critical acclaim and was published in a number of countries around the world. Now, Bondurant is back with a dramatically different tale. Based on [...]

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In The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, Benjamin Wallace combines the knowledge of a sommelier with an investigative reporter’s tenacity mixed in with a heavy dose of a Hollywood thriller writer.  Wallace’s work has appeared in GQ, Food & Wine, and he was the executive editor for Philadelphia [...]

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With a resume that would make many blush, Mike Edison has seen it all. He has performed in bands such as Sharky’s Machine, the Raunch Hands, and the Edison Rocket Train. He opened for the Ramones and played CBGB, He recorded and performed with the notorious GG Allin. He even commissioned luthier Joe Naylor of Reverend [...]

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When he was nine years old, Cameron Johnson started a business creating stationary, greeting cards, and invitations for friends and family. Since then, he has launched dozens of successful companies while usually maintaining a healthy social life and serious focus on school. When he was fifteen-years-old, one of Johnson’s companies was actually bringing in fifteen [...]

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Admit it. You’ve done it. We all have at one time or another. As kids in our bedrooms. As drunken adults at a wedding reception. You might have done it in the car on the way to work today. Play air guitar, that is. But some people take air guitar beyond just a simple, spontaneous [...]

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It was hard to be objective with this one. I first learned about Joe McGinniss Jr. through the much discussed news item on Publishers Marketplace announcing the sale of his novel to Grove/Atlantic. Then a personal and obviously time-consuming email appeared in my inbox from McGinniss. As opposed to most of the pitches I get that are spewed [...]

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So A.J. Jacobs likes to do things. Strange, challenging things. And then he writes about them. Seems simple enough. But in this world of people slipping into easy gimmicks to masquerade as entertainment, the sincerity (and the extent) with which Jacobs immerses himself in the experience is refreshing. First, he read the encyclopedia from start to finish [...]

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It’s been a while for me. Fiction hasn’t been moving me much lately. And even my love of short stories had let me down. Nothing was exciting me. Until I read Richard Lange’s Dead Boys: Stories. This wonderous literary collection has enough tint of noir to be thrilling and the author’s voice is undeniable. Full of [...]

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