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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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Louis Theroux hangs out with unusual people. He spends time with pimps, Neo-Nazis, porn performers, UFO believers, cultists, and folks that enjoy life outside the mainstream. Fascinated by sub-cultures, Theroux probably throws a helluva cocktail party. Born in Singapore to American novelist Paul Theroux and his British wife Anne Castle, Theroux holds dual American-British citizenship. [...]

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When we typically think of controversial books, we envision lurid exposes of deceased royalty. We picture tell-all memoirs from well-connected upper class madams naming the names of their famous clientele. We see stacks of books about global warming, economic theory, the war on terror, or examinations of political administrations.  However, the controversy doesn’t need to [...]

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Mark McNay was raised in a mining village in central Scotland. After fifeen years doing odd jobs, McNay entered the University of East Anglia Creative Writing Course in Norwich, England. He graduated from that program with distinction and, in 2007, he received the Arts Foundation Fellowship for New Fiction. McNay’s debut novel Fresh was published by [...]

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At the back of a two-story warehouse, “there was a door wide enough for large cargo that led into a dim chamber,” Tom Zoellner writes. “Dead electric bulbs hung from wires in the ceiling. The two soldiers behind me unslung their rifles. They were held casually, but the muzzles were pointed at the approximate region [...]

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Author Steven Blush was firmly entrenched in the hardcore punk music scene. Irrevocably changed by the music of Black Flag, he built a career as a journalist and music expert. He wrote American Hardcore: A Tribal History and served as writer/producer for a documentary film inspired by that book. But then, the bluesy riffs of Tom Keifer and [...]

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Old friends have a quality to their voice that immediately warms your soul upon hearing it. You can go years without speaking to that person and then one day the phone rings, you say hello, and with one word that voice negates the passage of time and unleases a flood of memories. A rare few writers have [...]

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In addition to being an excellent writer and musician, Zack Wentz also conducts a damn good interview. He recently stepped up to the Slushpile.net plate and spoke to multi-talented Kevin Samsell for us. Their chat was a great meeting of artistic minds. Here’s Zack…  ***** The Pacific Northwest has always been a hotbed (despite being such a cold, damp [...]

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If your first best seller is a surprisingly intellectual examination of a controversial artist’s place in American culture, what’s a better way to round out your game, to show you’re capable of both highs and lows, then to write a book narrated by a famous penis? Sitting by notorious musician Tommy Lee’s pool and sampling [...]

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The movies get it all wrong. You don’t just spew out some Latin, crank up Judas Priest, draw a pentagram on your notebook during study hall, and summon the devil. As serious necromancers know, conjuring a demon is a grim business, full of risk and threat. And it’s far from being an exact science. The denziens of the netherworld [...]

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Many editors are coy when asked about the type of books they want. They pay lip service to the ideal of furthering great literature and artistic experimentation and then they publish a Nicole Ritchie novel. However, Jeremie Ruby-Strauss is straight-forward, direct, and to the point. When an interviewer once asked him what kind of books he was [...]

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 At a time when young authors earn lavish advances for books about drinking or their wealthy parents, Anya Kamenetz stands apart. Her first work, Generation Debt: Why Now is a Terrible Time to Be Young is a serious book, seriously argued, about a serious subject. One of the youngest columnists for The Village Voice, Kamenetz rejects [...]

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