Alex Kudera’s award-winning novel, Fight for Your Long Day (Atticus Books), was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea. Auggie’s Revenge (Beating Windward Press) is his second novel. His numerous short stories include “Frade Killed Ellen” (Dutch Kills Press), “Bombing from Above” (Heavy Feather Review), and “A Thanksgiving” (Eclectica Magazine).
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Fante's Hunger
"From the bookcase behind his writing table, I pulled down a copy of Hunger by Knut Hamsun. This book, my father used to say, caused him to become a writer. I held it in my hand and flipped through the old pages. Somewhere in the middle, I discovered a sheet of typing bond that had been folded in quarters. It looked to have been used as a bookmark. It was yellow from age at the top where it had been exposed to the air.
"I unfolded the make-shift bookmark and immediately recognized the handwriting as my father's. But over and over, the signature written was Knut Hamsun. Knut Hamsun. Knut Hamsun. A paper was filled to the bottom of the page. The eccentricity jolted me because I'd done the same thing a hundred times, filling legal tablets with E. E. Cummings' signatures. The old man and I had things in common after all."
~~ from Chump Change by Dan Fante
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Life got away from me
"We drank coffee together standing in the kitchen. He wanted to know what had happened to me. Why had I landed in the nut ward? He was a very intense guy, and his directness came from a fear that what I had, might be inherited by him too.
"I had not planned to be crazy, I said. Arrests for lewd practices in public were things that happened when I drank. I'd not planned on being a degenerate. Life got away from me. Out of hand. I couldn't figure it out either . . .
"We talked about him too. Fab was proud that he had put himself through college and into grad school mostly from working in a supermarket. When the old man had gotten sick and his only income had been his Social Security and Writers Guild Pension, my brother had paid for his education by himself. At one store, working his way up from box boy to checker to assistant manager. Union wages. Vacations. Dental benefits. Six years at USC. The CPA exam."
~~ from Chump Change by Dan Fante
Friday, April 21, 2023
#fridayreads
Don't be shy about messaging me if you'd like a signed copy of Auggie's Revenge or Fight for Your Long Day.
Monday, April 17, 2023
Sunday, April 16, 2023
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We're still waiting on a time, but we've added The Ivy Bookshop to the famous 2012 Goodman-Kudera book tour. So this is what we know...
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If you, or anyone you know, becomes burdened with the gift of an electronic reading device this holiday season, you're welcome to take a...
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I'm happy to announce that I'll be reading from " Frade Killed Ellen " or Auggie's Revenge at 3 p.m. as part of an ...
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Smashwords: http://www.short-fiction-ebooks.com/_/_/571510/turquoise-truck Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/turquoise-truck/id10...
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My interview with Olga Gardner Galvin of ENC Press is available here: http://whenfallsthecoliseum.com/2009/06/22/interview-with-olga-gardner...
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"[B] ut the fact that [Roberto] Arlt wrote 'badly' is what made him important. Because Arlt’s style was no style at all—an abra...
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Meanwhile, over at the Author's Guild , Scott Turow reminds us of how hopeless it is for all but the chosen few of the publishing world ...
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Portrait of the blogger with a copy of Keith Hoeller's Equality for Contingent Faculty : Vanderbilt Press is on it. Are you?... -
At the SEIU conference in Washington D.C. last November , one student group reported that they are fighting to make income-based repayment t...
