Search results for ""Three Rooms Press""

Two seminal figures of the Beat movement, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, discuss literary influences and personal history in a never-before-published three-day conversation following the release of the David Cronenberg film of Burroughs’ classic novel Naked Lunch. The visit coincided with the shamanic exorcism of the demon that Burroughs believed had caused him to fatally shoot his common law wife, Joan Vollmer Burroughs, in 1951—the event that Burroughs believed had driven his work as a writer. The conversation is interspersed with photographs by Ginsberg revealing Burroughs’s daily activities from his painting studio to the shooting range. DON'T HIDE THE MADNESS presents an important, hitherto unpublished primary document of the Beat Generation.

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Simon, New York’s top organic grocery store owner has a secret: his dad is the head of one of New York’s biggest mob families. When his dad dies, Simon agrees to head the Family, provided that instead of murder, numbers and other rackets, the mob uses its muscle to enforce green regulations and promote healthy eating habits. At first the mob’s hit men and extortionists resent being pressed into green service, but they soon become Simon’s biggest supporters. Seemingly overnight, the city becomes literally cleaned up. Simon, who had planned on succeeding his dad temporarily, now finds he likes his new position as the head of the Family. However, the green world doesn’t accept him because he’s running a crime family, and the crime world doesn’t trust him because he’s run afoul of the Feds. Simon takes his wife, Marla, to his ancestral homeland in Italy, for a much-needed sabbatical – and gets even further into trouble.Loosely based on Mario Puzo's runaway hit The Godfather, THE GREENFATHER showcases Marshall’s comic dialogue, honed year after year in late night television, in the grand tradition of classic mob comedy, like Analyze This and Analyze That. Packed with larger than life goons, right-hand men, Feds and green fanatics, THE GREENFATHER satirizes the environmental movement, crime, families, and crime families.THE GREENFATHER is sharp, hilarious, and takes no prisoners, except the ones who are supposed to go there. It goes well with a light salad of radicchio and cherry plum tomatoes.

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A trio of compelling, cutting edge plays on notorious rebels including radical feminist and Warhol attacker Valerie Solanas ("SCUM: The Valerie Solanas Story"), Dada instigator Arthur Cravan ("Art Was Here"), and a twisting tale of Jack the Ripper and T.S. Eliot ("Jack the Rapper"). Playwright Kat Georges paints each of these plays with bold, innovative strokes that expand the boundaries of the theatrical milieu. As compelling to read off the page as to perform, these three plays offer sharp dialogue and prismatic views of their rebellious subjects, casting aside stereotypical bullet-pointed personalities to establish new perspectives on the subjects of each play. In THREE SOMEBODIES: Plays About Notorious Dissidents, poet-playwright Kat Georges offers a trio of fascinating, cutting edge plays about notorious dissidents—people who shook up the world— for better or worse, including “SCUM: The Valerie Solanas Story,” “Art Was Here,” inspired by poet-pugilist and Dada precursor Arthur Cravan, and “Jack the Rapper,” a mash-up of Jack the Ripper and T. S. Eliot. Shakespeare had his kings and princes. Georges chose royalty of the infamous variety: Valerie Solanas, author of The SCUM Manifesto, who famously shot Andy Warhol. Arthur Cravan—nephew of Oscar Wilde, wild child pugilist and poet—whose legendary antics preceded and influenced the Dada movement. Jack the Ripper as sculpted through the words of Eliot’s poem “Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” All three plays received their world premieres at San Francisco’s notorious Marilyn Monroe Memorial Theater, known for its focus on “demolished texts, deconstructed classics, and new works.” As such, the plays in THREE SOMEBODIES are not representative of standard “bio-dramas.” rather these are stripped down, twisted, juxtaposed, hard-bent works intensity designed to bring each subjects life three-dimensional portraits, examine particular personas from inside out. They refused be handcuffed by linear drama so they roar in twists shouts, psychedelic tremors, whirlwind ebullience. Playwright Georges paints each of these plays with bold, innovative strokes that expand the boundaries of the theatrical milieu. As compelling to read off the page as to perform, these three plays offer sharp dialogue and prismatic views of their rebellious subjects, casting aside stereotypical, bullet-pointed personalities to establish new perspectives on their subjects.

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A provocative collection of personal and political essays by an American writer, Raising Girls in Bohemia chronicles the life of a father raising three perfectly bilingual, culturally bifurcated, Czech-American daughters. While tracing what fatherhood has taught him about the world, Katrovas delves into a range of intricately related yet far-flung subjects including fine dining, sexual epithets, gender identity, racism, poetry, and education, tracing the contours of his ignorance about all things. Through the course of these fine essays, Katrovas unveils what it means to be an American and to be a man, and especially what it means to be a father of three daughters, born in Prague, in what we can only hope is the twilight of patriarchy.

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In photos, drawings and words, Sign Language pays homage to the lost art of urban outdoor sign painting. In a working environment both novel and ambitious, author John S. Paul found success, noting, "No other job gave me such a direct impact on the urban landscape, or such physical engagement. Painting signs over Broadway in 1984 was a rare look down from the elevated height of a heroic messenger." Few books have ever provided such an insider perspective into this unique livelihood of days past. In 40 photos and 30 poems and stories, the author creates an immersion into a rarefied world on danger and beauty, raising the sense of the importance of moments and blurring the boundary between public and private space.

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Playwright Peter Carlaftes presents three compelling, funny, and biting dramas in Triumph for Rent: Three Plays. The plays include Spin-Dry: An hilarious wild ride through a 90s rehab center for celebrities; Hunger: a heartfelt drama-inspired by the Knut Hamsun novel-about a starving writer struggling to keep his integrity alive as the borders blur between fantasy and reality worlds of rocker chicks, hookers and convicts; and Frontier A-Go-Go, a tragi-comedy in which a man living on a man living on the Nebraska plains circa 1872 uses a time machine to summon a hippie drifter and a budding feminist who have just conceived a daughter at a rock concert in 1972, and then summons the daughter, aged 25, from her 1997 date with a cybergeek.

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In her second poetry collection, Kat Georges consciously searches for joy in a world of growing darkness. Georges (Our Lady of the Hunger) has an adamant insistence on seeking light in the darkest of places, setting her work apart in a media-driven world bent on promoting grief and devastation for the sake of clicks. Georges provides both solace and inspiration for the reader. These new poems combine humor and deep insight into human nature to capture moments of much-needed wonder and enchantment. Kat Georges is an internationally-acclaimed poet, playwright, editor, and designer, whose work has been widely published in journals and anthologies, including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder’s Mouth Press), Arriving at a Shoreline (Great Weather for Media), From The Inside: NYC Through the Eyes of Poets Who Live Here (Blue Light Press), The Verdict Is In (also editor; Manic D Press), Love, Love Magazine (Paris), and Ladyland: Anthologie de Littérature Féminine Américaine (13E Note Editions), and many other publications. She lives in New York City.

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Award-winning author, screenwriter, and editor Gary Phillips gathers his most thrilling, outlandish, and madcap pulp fiction in an 17-story collection that straddles the line between bizarro, science fiction, noir, and superhero classics. Aztec vampires, astral projecting killers, oxygen stealing bombs, undercover space rangers, aliens occupying Los Angeles, right wing specters haunting the ’hood, masked vigilantes, and mad scientists in their underground lairs plotting world domination populate the stories in this rip-snorting collection. In these pages grindhouse melds with blaxploitation along with strong doses of B movie hardcore drive-in fare. Phillips, editor of the Anthony Award-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir, and author of One-Shot Harry and Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem, said this about pulp. “The most common definition of pulp is it’s fast-paced, a story containing out there characters and a wild plot. There is that. But certainly, as we’ve now arrived at the era of retro-pulp, these stories have elements of characterization: not just action, but a glimpse behind the steely eyes of these doers of incredible deeds.” As an added bonus, Phillips resurrects Phantasmo, a Golden Age comics character created by Black artist-writer E.C. Stoner in an all-new outing of ethereal doings (includes 4 original illustrations by cover artist Adam Shaw).

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A whirlwind tour of San Francisco’s fabled queer bohemia in the waning days of the 20th century, as the city’s budget bon vivants work to save their eccentric lifestyles in the face of tech gentrification by LAMBDA award finalist Alvin Orloff. Harris, San Francisco’s most annoying gay barfly, doesn’t mean to be bitchy, passive aggressive, or insulting. But he’s so bedazzled by his own critical brilliance he feels morally obliged to share his scathing opinions with the world at any and every opportunity. This irritates no one more than his roommate, Maxine, an avant-garde transsexual cabaret singer. When she overhears him badmouthing her on the phone she flies into a rage and expels him from their apartment. This crisis couldn’t come at a worse time. The year is 1999 and the “dot com” boom has rendered cheap housing nonexistent, and Harris, who works as a part-time telemarketer, is—as usual—low on funds. Will he be able to convince one of his eccentric, semi-dysfunctional friends with a rent-controlled apartment to let him move in? Vulgarian Rhapsody immerses readers in a fading bohemia of queer dive bars, drag clubs, and countercultural cafes. The book’s narrator (a longtime frenemy of Harris who’s every bit as snarky and annoying as he is) tells the story with sadistic relish and an ironist’s eye for the absurd. Anyone feeling sickly from too many uplifting stories of personal empowerment, precious coming-of-age tales, or sugarcoated romances will find the perfect antidote in this hilariously acidic comedy of manners. A must-read for fans of Brontez Purnell, Phillippe Besson, and Ryan O’Connell.

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Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Books: Young Adult Literature —LAMBDA LiteraryMust-Have 2023 Queer Book Releases —The Nerd DailyMost Anticipated Young Adult Books —LGBTQ ReadsRecommended LGBTQ+ YA —Reads Rainbow Acclaimed musician Jessamyn Violet’s debut LGBTQA+ novel sizzles with a coming-of-age story set in an industry of ambition, secrets, lies, and utter joy. Eighteen-year-old Kyla Bell dreams of one day being a professional musician... but gets little to no support from her parents. Still, she practices every day and performs locally, harboring her own secret hopes. One night, her dreams are answered in the form of sultry rocker Ruby Sky, the magnetic frontwoman of her favorite band, Glitter Tears. Ruby hears Kyla perform and asks her to join the band on keys for their upcoming tour. In order to accept, Kyla must drop out of her Western Massachusetts high school and move to Los Angeles immediately to live with a renowned yet highly volatile producer who has agreed to put her through "rock star boot camp" in a matter of weeks. Blindsided by her emerging feelings for Ruby Sky, Kyla tumbles through the lights and shadows of the 90s music scene in Los Angeles.

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"A smorgasbord for those who are sick and tired of it." —Seattle Book Review The 2021 edition of the premiere journal of contemporary dada writing and art considers humankind past and present with a collection of contemporary dada art and writing driven by the theme “HUMANITY: THE REBOOT.” More than 242 creators from 31 countries establish that social protest can be creatively achieved via risk-taking art. The premier journal gathering the work of internationally-renowned contemporary Dada artists and writers, MAINTENANT 15 offers compelling proof that Dada continue to serve as a catalyst to creators more than a century later. The annual MAINTENANT series, established in 2008, gathers work of contemporary Dada artists and writers from around the world. The new issue features cover art by renowned Cuban American artist Edel Rodriguez, whose provocative work has been featured on the covers of TIME, The New Yorker, Der Spiegel, and more. Past issues of MAINTENANT include work by artists Mark Kostabi, Walter Robinson, Raymond Pettibon, Nicole Eisenmann, Jean-Jacques Lebel, and Kazunori Murakami; writers include Gerard Malanga, Charles Plymell, Andrei Codrescu, and more, with a strong contingent of artist-writers from the world of punk rock. MAINTENANT 15 contributors include: Derek Adams • Alexey Adonin • Jamika Ajalon • Youssef Alaoui • Linda J. Albertano • Austin Alexis • Joel Allegretti • Santiago Amaya • Elizabeth Ashe • Gaëlle Audic • Liz Axelrod • Mahnaz Badihian • Amy Barone • Vittore Baroni • Amy Bassin • Regina Lafay Bellamy • John M. Bennett • C. Mehrl Bennett • Volodymyr Bilyk • József Bíró • Mark Blickley • Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier • Clemente Botelho • John Bowman • Jeff Boynton • Gedley Belchior Braga • Bob Branaman • philipkevinbrehse • Kathy Bruce • Imanol Buisan • Fork Burke • Irene Caesar • Billy Cancel • Peter Carlaftes • Virginia Carroll • Mona Jean Cedar • Robert Cenedella • Mutes César • Leanne Chabalko • Sarah M. Chen • Ross Cisneros • Lynette Clennell • Andrei Codrescu • Chuck Connelly • Roger Conover • Anthony Cox • Lars Crosby • Tchello d’Barros • Steve Dalachinsky • Zoë Darling • Allison Davis • Holly Day • Avelino de Araujo • Quỳnh Iris de Prelle • Laylah DeLautréamont • Bart Dewolf • Peter Dizozza • Sam Dodson • Bruce Louis Dodson • Carol Dorf • Robert Duncan • Jeff Farr • Amoye Favour • Rich Ferguson • Kathleen Florence • Gioivanni Fontana • Texas Fontanella • Robert C. Ford • Kofi Fosu Forson • Abigail A. Frankfurt • Barbara Friedman • Thomas Fucaloro • Joanna Fuhrman • Ignacio Galilea • Sandra Gea • Kat Georges • Christian Georgescu • Robert Gibbons • Gordon Gilbert • Mark Glista • Benjamin Goluboff • S. A. Griffin • Fausto Grossi • Meghan Grupposo • Egon Guenther • Genco Gulan • Elancharan Gunasekaran • John S. Hall • Janet Hamill • Bibbe Hansen • David Hargreaves • Nour Hassan • Heide Hatry • Aimee Herman • Karen Hildebrand • Jack Hirschman • Mark Hoefer • Lawrence Holzworth • Mane Hovhannisyan • Joël Hubaut • Heikki Huotari • Matthew Hupert • Ayushi Jain • Annaliese Jakimides • Marta Janik • Ruud Janssen • Mathias Jansson • Debra Jenks • Jerry Johnson • Boni Joi • Milana Juventa • Jerry Kamstra • Allan Kausch • Marina Kazakova • Donna Joy Kerness • Rose Knapp • Doug Knott • Ron Kolm • Mark Kostabi • Eleni Kourti • Paweł Kuczyński • Anatoly Kudryavitsky • Béné Kusendila • David Lawton • Serge Lecomte • Jane LeCroy • Patricia Leonard • Linda Lerner • Adam Li • Alexander Limarev • Laurinda Lind • Goran Lišnjić • Yvonne Litschel • Richard Loranger • Sarah Maino • Jaan Malin • Sophie Malleret • Bibiana Padilla Maltos • Giovanni Mangiante • Mary Manspeaker • Phil Marcade • Fred Marchant • Eliette Markhbein • Sara Cahill Marron • Malak Mattar • Bronwyn Mauldin • Ellyn Maybe • John Mazzei • Jesse McCloskey • Philip Meersman • R. S. Mengert • Lawrence Miles • Lois Kagan Mingus • Charles Mingus III • Richard Modiano • Mike M. Mollett • Thurston Moore • Tim Murphy • Alexander Nderitu • Gerald Nicosia • Anna O’Meara • Valery Oisteanu • Ruth Oisteanu • Marc Olmsted • Suzi Kaplan Olmsted • Jane Ormerod • Yuko Otomo • Csaba Pál • Lisa Panepinto • Gay Pasley • John S. Paul • Paulo • Giorgia Pavlidou • Ernst Perdriel • Puma Perl • Raymond Pettibon • Alex Andy Phuong • Charles Plymell • Leslie Prosterman • Lauren Purje • Renaat Ramon • Nicca Ray • C. R. Resetarits • Mado Reznik • Wes Rickert • Benjamin Robinson • Bruce Robinson • Aliah Rosenthal • Alison Ross • Bradley Rubenstein • Mashaal Sajid • Ralph Salisbury • Martina Salisbury • Aram Saroyan • Phil Scalia • Jack Seiei • Silvio Severino • Craig Shannon • Susan Shup • Bertholdus Sibum • Denise Silk-Martelli • Angela Sloan • Valerie Sofranko • Orchid Spangiafora • Dd. Spungin • Laurie Steelink • Samantha Steiner • J. J. Steinfeld • Christine Sloan Stoddard • Rich Stone • W. K. Stratton • Lucien Suel • Neal Skooter Taylor • Michael Thompson • Fred Tomaselli • Zev Torres • John J. Trause • Ann Firestone Ungar • Yrik-Max Valentonis • Luca Vallino • Anoek van Praag • Lynnea Villanova • Barbara Vos • Silvia Wagensberg • Tom Walker • George Wallace • Scott Wannberg • Mike Watt • Jennifer Weigel • Poul R. Weile • Ingrid Wendt • Syporca Whandal • A Whittenberg • Maw Shein Win • Yaryan • Gerald Yelle • Logan K. Young • Lorene Zarou-Zouzounis • Larry Zdeb • Leonard Zinovyev • Nina Zivancevic • Joanie HF Zosike

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In a medieval French courtroom, animals are put on trial for "crimes" against mankind and must rely on preposterous legal diatribes by a court-appointed lawyer to defend them—great for fans of Umberto Eco, Edward Carey, and Amor Towles. Historical fiction has never been more uproarious as master storyteller Stephen Spotte unleashes this wild tale of opposing attorneys battling to defend or prosecute accused animals—including a rat and a pig—facing penalties of being hanged or burned alive at the stake: Think Willard meets The Name of the Rose. Based on actual court records, Spotte captures the wit and bluster of the era, where courtrooms were packed with cheering and heckling spectators in ever-more opaque, convoluted, and dilatory trials. By the end of this novel, Spotte uses his critically-acclaimed storytelling skills to explore still-relevant theories on legal precedent, the church vs. the state, mankind’s place in nature, and animal rights. Hilarious insights into pride, greed, and some of the most bizarre court trials in the history of the world. "Spotte is a master storyteller,” says Library Journal and in ANIMAL WRONGS, this acclaimed author is at his peak.

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“Read this book immediately if you like truth, drugs, generation gaps, guitars, and lifelong quests for freedom and kicks.” --Craig Finn, The Hold Steady Thomas Ransom, born to a severely dysfunctional southern family transplanted to New York City, is left to his own devices by neglectful parents, and spends his childhood shadowing his criminally-inclined half-brother and roaming the city with hard-drinking teenage pals. He eventually finds an outlet as the flamboyant singer of a downtown rock band, and later as the young editor of the Detroit-based magazine that invented punk, only to return to New York, at the height of the 1970s bacchanal, and crash. But it isn’t music that saves him. It’s a soft-spoken painter, who turns out to be the most outrageous character of all. With echoes of Almost Famous and Just Kids, LOUDMOUTH tracks an impassioned musician and writer out among the punks, hippies, and wild geniuses of rock when music was the center of the world. Author Robert Duncan was barely out of his teens when he started writing for the influential music magazine Creem, becoming its managing editor at 22. He went on to write for Rolling Stone, Circus, Life, and dozens of other publications, interviewing hundreds of rock stars at the top of their game. In the process, Duncan became a rock Zelig: he shares tales of his time with a young, scrawny Bruce Springsteen while driving him around Detroit; he introduces The Clash‘s Mick Jones and Joe Strummer to a broken-down piano player of dubious ability, leading to a hilariously disastrous recording session with the band; he works alongside legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, witnesses his tragic spiral, and finally discovers him dead of an OD in the apartment next door. These experiences, and many others, provide the fuel for his debut novel, LOUDMOUTH, making it what Brian Jonestown Massacre's Joel Gion calls, “A sonic wail of a tale about the youthful beginnings of one of the Mount Rushmore ‘heads’ of rock ’n’ roll journalism.”

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Today’s war is for the survival of the planet. In Maintenant 14: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, the weapon of choice is Dada. Today, everyone in the world is affected by the growing impact of climate change, pollution, plastics, and lack of sustainability. The 2020 edition of the premiere journal of contemporary dada writing and art confronts the situation with a bold and rebellious collection of work that shows the absurdity of continuing the practices that have taken earth to the precipice of extinction. Using the theme “UN-SUSTAIN-A-BULL-SH*T” Maintenant 14 creators turn poetry and art into weapons that expose, confront, and lambast policies that have taken the planet to tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. The premier journal gathering the work of internationally-renowned contemporary Dada artists and writers, Maintenant 14 offers compelling proof that Dada continue to serve as a catalyst to creators more than a century later. The annual MAINTENANT series, established in 2008, gathers work of contemporary Dada artists and writers from around the world. The new issue features cover art by neo-pop artist/provocateur Walter Robinson. Past issues include art by Mark Kostabi, Raymond Pettibon, Nicole Eisenmann, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Charles Mingus III, and Kazunori Murakami; writing by Gerard Malanga, Charles Plymell, Andrei Codrescu, Anne Waldman, and more, with a strong contingent of artist-writers from the world of punk rock.

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Tales from the Eternal Cafe, author Janet Hamill's debut short story collection, offers a thrilling, unwinding trail of tales that excite and mystify; drift then deliver a powerful punch that readers will devour. Like Karen Russell, George Saunders, Jose Luis Borges and Isabel Allende, Janet Hamill's writing lures readers willingly into a labyrinth of surprise and suspense, with humor lurking just on the other side of pathos; a tear just moments away from bright, well-deserved laughter. The seventeen crisp stories included in Tales from the Eternal Cafe offer a plethora of fascinating characters and scenarios: a brief memoir from Baudelaire's publisher; a letter from a writer who knows he is going mad; an exasperated Italian film director unable to inspire Europe's most famous actor during the shooting of a brothel scene. The book includes an introduction by the author's lifelong friend, singer-songwriter-poet-author Patti Smith, whose book Just Kids, received the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2010.

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Every science-fiction story is a voyage of some kind—to a world of a far-off galaxy, to our own world of the distant future or the remote past, to some interior corner of the human soul. In VOYAGERS: Twelve Journeys through Space and Time, Science Fiction Grand Master Robert Silverberg collects twelve of his finest short stories and novellas, all of which carry readers to the next level of imagination and into a new universe of the mind. This new collection spans 60 years of work by the Hugo Award-winning Silverberg, traveling from one end of the universe to the other, from the dawn of time to its final hours. A journey through its pages reveals time-travelers from the future come back to witness a catastrophe of our own time, Spanish conquistadores looking for—and finding—the Fountain of Youth, a tourist in Mexico stepping into an alternative universe, and spacefarers among the stars making a surprising discovery. The range of these stories, the kinds of voyages they describe, just begins to demonstrate the scope of science fiction, and the lengths to which Silverberg's sparkling imagination can leap.

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Nicholas Ray was cinema. The legendary director of such classic films as Rebel Without a Cause was an innovative force who dramatically changed the Hollywood landscape. He was also Nicca Ray’s dad, Nick. After he disappeared from her life in 1964, Nicca began to imagine her father as a hero who would return and whisk her away from a life in LA where she never felt safe. However, the man who finally reappeared was not the legendary figure she dreamed of. Through his movies and letters along with her intimate interviews of family members and Hollywood icons, Nicca stitches together the seemingly disparate pieces of the real Nicholas Ray: A man so devoted to his craft he insisted on spending the last hours of his life surrounded by a film crew; a man who lost everything to drugs and gambling; an absentee father she longed to connect with. Both well-researched and deeply personal, Ray by Ray: A Daughter's Take on the Legend of Nicholas Ray unravels the lives entangled in Nick’s, including those of Gloria Grahame, Dennis Hopper, John Houseman, and the Ray family itself. Nicca tracks her father’s whereabouts during the years he was missing from her life and works to reconcile his artistry with his persona. In discovering the truth about her father, she navigates her own path beyond the shadows cast by the Golden Age of Hollywood. An essential new perspective on Nicholas Ray, with more than 50 photos and letters from the author's personal archive, Ray by Ray redefines this legendary figure through the eyes of a daughter searching for the truth about her father.

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Exile on Bridge Street details teenage Irish immigrant Liam Garrity's struggle to adulthood in pre-Prohibition Brooklyn. Back home, Ireland's fight for its own independence erupts with the 1916 Easter Rising. The fate of Garrity's father, an Irish rebel, is unknown, which leaves his mother and two sisters vulnerable on the family farm as British troops swarm, seeking reprisals. Garrity must organize their departure to New York immediately. In Brooklyn, Garrity is adopted by Dinny Meehan, leader of a longshoremen gang based in an "Irishtown" saloon under the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. Meehan vows to help Garrity and his family. But just as Ireland struggles for independence, Garrity faces great obstacles in his own coming of age on the violent Brooklyn waterfront. World War I, the Spanish Influenza, the temperance movement, the rise of Italian organized crime, police, unions and shipping and dock companies all target the Brooklyn Irish gang and threaten Garrity's chances at bringing his family to New York. When "Wild Bill" Lovett, one of the gang's dockbosses vies to take over, both Meehan and Garrity face a fight for survival in New York City's brawling streets mirroring Ireland's own fledgling independence movement. Compelling writing by a master of historical fiction, as evidenced in the authors critically-acclaimed prequel Light of the Diddicoy.

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Last Boat to Yokohama tells a story of both tragedy and grandeur in the 20th century. It recounts the life and work of Beate Sirota Gordon: the influence of her father, Leo Sirota, one of the greatest pianists of his generation; her secret work ensuring women's equality while helping to develop the post-WWII Japanese constitution--at the age of 22; her broad influence on hundreds of Western artists such as Robert Wilson, David Byrne and Peter Sellars--who were introduced to leading contemporary Asian music, dance, theater and visual artists through her extraordinary cross-cultural efforts. The book relives Beate's drive, talent, ambition, and influence, with intimate diary excerpts from her mother, an introduction by Beate herself, and an afterword from her daughter, Nicole.

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With more than 70 produced plays and many produced screenplays, playwright/director/author Israel Horovitz presents a new dimension to his creative output in Heaven and Other Poems, the 75-year-old author's first-ever authorized poetry collection. A tour-de-force of emotion, empathy and deep, melancholic beauty, Heaven and Other Poems is a stunning collection of work crafted over a lifetime. From the epic poem "Stations of the Cross" with its startling, tenderly crafted images of familial love and loss, to the punchy and pointed aphorisms of the twin "Defining the French Novel" and "Defining the American Novel" Horovitz displays a remarkable range, and--throughout--a deep understanding of humanity. As the most-produced American playwright in French theatre history, Horovitz sets many of his in France, where he often directs French-language productions of his plays. The collection is filled with surprises and special gifts, such as the never-before-published translation of one of his poems by master playwright Samuel Beckett, from whom Horovitz found thematic and stylistic inspiration for his own work. A truly inspired poetry collection, which is, in turn, truly inspiring and fulfilling to its audience.

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I Fold With The Hand I Was Dealt by Peter Carlaftes furthers the exploration of the ups and downs of modern life by a true master of contemporary poetry. Carlaftes offers a brilliant poetic voice, filled with drop-dead humor, searing insight and resilient originality, even while resonating with overtones of Bukowski, Baudelaire, Dave Barry and Kurt Vonnegut.

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In a bilingual collection (Greek-English) dedicated to the contemporary struggles of the Greek people, George Wallace rivets readers with his thoroughly original, modern day beat flow, elevating bakeries to the temples of gods and love to a powerful river. "Like no other poet you've read before...Wallace doesn't want to simply remake the conventions of the contemporary free verse poems as we understand them; he seems to want to remake the reader herself, to alter her aesthetically and psychologically," says Terri Brown-Davidson, Pedestal Magazine. With stunning translations to Greek by Lina Sipitanou, this book is like no other you've read before.

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DrunkYard Dog by Peter Carlaftes is a collection by a poetic master who has honed his intense, insightful and inspiring poetic voice on the playgrounds of the Bronx, and, later--the bars of Manhattan. Tales of bartender blues and bliss, injected with hope in a mileau of madness. Lush portraits of urban personas like Goodtime Charlie, the Battling Brothers, Ronnie the Cop and Uncle Willie. Cinematic swirls of downtown denizens in stark raving shades of shot-infused clarity. A poetic pub crawl that picks up the pieces of a dismantled present and puts them back together in a brand new cocktail. Carlaftes offers a brilliant poetic voice, filled with drop-dead humor, searing insight and resilient originality, even while resonating with overtones of Bukowski, Baudelaire and Bogart.

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Winner, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year: Young Adult Fiction!In Nigeria-born, America-based author Ebele Chizea’s stunning debut novel, teenager Ada and her mother flee the civil war of their West African home and come to America in 1966, where Ada soon discovers—and blossoms within—the US counterculture movement, developing a drive for anti-war activism which she takes with her back to Nabuka only to uncover new truths about herself as well as family secrets that threaten to shatter her plans for the future. While protesting the Vietnam war in America, Ada forges friendships with other nonconformist youth: free-spirited Stacey, a boisterous hippie, and Sal, a philosophical wanderlust. Soon she seeks independence from her mother, love on her own terms, as well as sexual autonomy. College provides Ada with opportunities for academic success, personal experimentation, and full independence, as well as heartbreak. Despite loss and grief over a decade, Ada’s heart becomes her own true compass and guides her to fully become the leader and activist she’d always been deep inside. Chizea's brilliant prose and storytelling skills are fully apparent as she reveals a young woman's struggle to find balance in her life and in herself while straddling physical and social borders of two distinctly different cultures.

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Meet intuitive & charming sleuth T. R. Softly, who must solve the case of a secret agency threatening to topple both the mafia & the US government—perfect for fans of Chris Hauty, David Baldacci, and Joseph Finder. A federal plea deal in Manhattan goes off the rails when a mob boss inexplicably recants his testimony days after voluntarily confessing to a lifetime of crime, and immediately, an FBI agent involved with the case goes missing. To find out what happened, the Feds call in T. R. Softly, detective fiction’s newest and most intuitive sleuth. Softly’s search takes him to Washington, D.C., where the “oddest of the forty-odd presidents of the United States” is suddenly laying plans to evaporate the U.S. government, as assassination rumors percolate in dark corners. Co-opted into partnering with a secret government agency, Softly struggles to understand how many games are being played and by whom. Is he master of his fate or has he been the unwitting agent of friends and foe? A twisting, rollicking tale that enthralls readers until the last page.

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Gold Medal Winner, Best Young Adult Fiction, Foreword Indies Award"30 Must-Read Queer Fairytale Retellings For Pride" —Book Riot "Best LGBTQA+ Books of 2021" —She Reads "Eight Queer Young Adult Books Coming This Fall" —Lambda Literary What happens when Tinker Bell is in love with both Peter Pan and Wendy? In this sparkling re-imagining of Peter Pan, Peter and Wendy’s granddaughter Hope Darling finds the reclusive Tinker Bell squatting at the Darling mansion in order to care for the graves of her two lost friends after a love triangle gone awry. As Hope wins the fairy’s trust, Tink tells her the truth about Wendy and Peter—and her own role in their ultimate fate. Told in three alternating perspectives—past, present, and excerpts from a book called Neverland: A History written by Tink’s own fairy godmother—this queer adaptation is for anyone who has ever wondered if there might have been more to the story of Tinker Bell and the rest of the Peter Pan legend.

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The voice of disgraced love guru Brooks Nixon seems to haunt Hope Townsend, showing up at inopportune moments to deliver unwelcome commentary on her hapless romances. Brooks―who once doled out cliched dating advice to millions―fell out of favor with his fanbase when a life-altering experience shifted his counsel to a free-wheeling, anti-monogamy platform. The about-face earned him the moniker “Narcissus Nixon” and made him slightly less annoying to Hope, a goth music devotee who prefers animals over people. Hope’s dueling traits of misanthropy and compassion often hinder her progress in relationships as well as jobs, as she provides home-care to the elderly―listening to their stories while wading through her own―and does administrative work at a shady psychic hotline. Little by little, she finds herself more influenced by the new Nixon than she’d care to admit. To shake off his hold on her thoughts and come to terms with her own destiny, she must uncover the truth behind Nixon’s transformation and draw the line between his recommendations and her authentic desires. Through playfully witty dialogue weaved into eccentric storytelling, NARCISSUS NOBODY is a brilliant―often humorous―story of a woman who is driven to embody free-spirited independence in the face of society’s more conventional expectations. Author Gina Yates is the youngest daughter of the late celebrated author Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road), and with this novel―ingenious, with crack-up moments of cleverness―she makes her mark as a writer of sparkling originality.

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WINNER, 2020 Golden Grown Award, Best Young Adult Novel WINNER, Silver Medal, Foreword Reviews Indie Award, Best Young Adult Fiction WINNER, 2020 Golden Crown Award, Best Debut Novel Fifteen-year-old Eleanor Fromme just chopped off all of her hair. How else should she cope after hearing that her bully, James, just took his own life? When Eleanor’s English teacher suggests students write a letter to a person who would never receive it to get their feelings out, Eleanor chooses James.With each letter she writes, Eleanor discovers more about herself, even while trying to make sense of his death. And, with the help of a unique cast of characters, Eleanor not only learns what it means to be inside a body that does not quite match what she feels on the inside, but also comes to terms with her own mother’s mental illness.Set against a 1993-era backdrop of grunge rock and riot grrl bands, EVERYTHING GROWS depicts Eleanor’s extraordinary journey to solve the mystery within her and feel complete. Along the way, she loses and gains friends, rebuilds relationships with her family, and develops a system of support to help figure out the language of her queer identity.Through author Aimee Herman's exceptional storytelling, EVERYTHING GROWS reveals the value of finding community or creating it when it falls apart, while exploring the importance of forgiveness, acceptance, and learning how to live on your own terms.

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"This inspiring collection makes a strong case for how women can design their work lives to meet both personal and professional needs.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review Womentality: Thirteen Empowering Stories by Everyday Women Who Said Goodbye to the Workplace and Hello to Their Lives is a collection of powerful, personal essays from enterprising women around the world who came to the same realization: work shouldn’t have to be painful and demeaning. Armed with an internet connection and plenty of creativity and ingenuity, they prove that it is possible to redefine the nine-to-five work paradigm and create a flourishing career that is flexible and fulfilling outside the corporate structure. The thirteen women—from diverse countries such as Uganda, Venezuela, Poland, Palestine, and the Philippines—approach independent work in different ways, but are all motivated by the same impulses—to escape the drudgery of office life, to have control of their time, and to enjoy the freedom of working for themselves. Importantly, many discover that—outside of the office—it is possible to triumph over global pay disparities that favor men. Womentality is not a book about people who do not work—on the contrary, these women work hard and their stories illustrate how they overcame challenges to achieve their goals—whether they sought freedom to travel, to spend more time with the family, escape demeaning office politics, or simply to control their career. The essays in Womentality prove that a life of independence is not reserved for elite, American workers. It is possible for anyone. As the women who contributed to Womentality can attest: escaping the nine-to-five life isn’t easy—it takes guts and persistence—but it’s absolutely worthwhile.

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Last Boat to Yokohama tells a story of both tragedy and grandeur in the 20th century. It recounts the life and work of Beate Sirota Gordon: the influence of her father, Leo Sirota, one of the greatest pianists of his generation; her secret work ensuring women’s equality while helping to develop the post-WWII Japanese constitution—at the age of 22; her broad influence on hundreds of Western artists such as Robert Wilson, David Byrne and Peter Sellars—who were introduced to leading contemporary Asian music, dance, theater and visual artists through her extraordinary cross-cultural efforts. The book relives Beate's drive, talent, ambition, and influence, with intimate diary excerpts from her mother, an introduction by Beate herself, and an afterword from her daughter, Nicole.Note: This edition is the Persian translation of the English edition.

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In My Watery Self: An Aquatic Memoir, author/scientist Stephen Spotte traces a fascinating trail through a life that began in West Virgina coal camps, drifted through reckless bohemian times of countercultural indulgence in Beach Haven, New Jersey, and led to a career as a highly-respected marine biologist. Together, these stories form a view not just of one man's life, but that of a generation that often refused to take a direct path to the workplace, insisting instead on a winding unveiling of true self-realization, to achieve previously-unimagined outcomes. For Spotte, the key was water: His years of beach living led to a self-initiated study of literature and the sea. He eventually returned to college and received his training as a marine biologist, and discovered, through his singular voice, a wet and occasionally very weird perspective on the world. His writing is engrossing throughout, the stories he shares--such as his stint as curator of the New York Aquarium at Coney Island at the tail end of the hippie era--are compelling and thoroughly enjoyable as he elevates the people and situations he encounters to mythical levels, blending empirical observation with literary prose.

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Light of the Diddicoy is the riveting and immersive saga of Irish gangs on the Brooklyn waterfront in the early part of the 20th century, told through the eyes of young newcomer Liam Garrity. Forced at age 14 to travel alone to America after money grew scarce in Ireland, Garrity stumbles directly into the hard-knock streets of the Irish-run waterfront and falls in with a Bridge District gang called the White Hand. Through a series of increasingly tense and brutal scenes, he has no choice but to use any means necessary to survive and carve out his place in a no-holds-barred community living outside the law. The book is the first of Irish-American author Eamon Loingsigh's Auld Irishtown trilogy, which delves into the stories and lore of the gangs and families growing up in this under-documented area of Brooklyn's Irish underworld.

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Punk Avenue: The New York City Underground 1972-1982 is an intimate look at author Paris-born Phil Marcade's first ten years in the United States where drifted from Boston to the West Coast and back, before winding up in New York City and becoming immersed in the early punk rock scene. From backrooms of Max's and CBGB's to the Tropicana Hotel in Los Angeles and back, Punk Avenue is a tour de force of stories from someone at the heart of the era. With brilliant, often hilarious prose, Marcade relays first-hand tales about spending a Provincetown summer with photographer Nan Goldin and actor-writer Cookie Mueller, having the Ramones play their very first gig at his party, working with Blondie's Debbie Harry on French lyrics for her songs, enjoying Thanksgiving with Johnny Thunders' mother, and starting the beloved NYC punk-blues band The Senders. Along the way, he smokes a joint with Bob Marley, falls down a mountain, gets attacked by Nancy Spungen's junkie cat, become a junkie himself, adopts a dog who eats his pot, opens for The Clash at Bond's Casino, opens a store named Rebop on Seventh Avenue, throws up in some girl's mouth, talks about vacuum cleaners with Sid Vicious, lives thru the Blackout of 1977, gets glue in his eye, gets mugged at knife point, plays drums with Johnny Thunders' band Gang War, sets some guy's attache-case on fire, listens to pre-famous Madonna singing in the rehearsal studio next to his, gets mugged at gun point, O.D.s on heroin, gets saved by a gentle giant named Bill, lives at night...Never sleeps...A very funny book.

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In Atrium, award-winning Palestinian-American poet Hala Alyan traces lines of global issues in personal spaces, with fervently original imagery, and a fierce passion and intense intimacy that echoes long after initial reading. The book received the 2013 Arab American Book of the Year Award for Poetry, an astounding achievement for a first collection. In addition, Alyan was recently tapped as a finalist in the Nazim Himet Poetry Competition. Already in her young career, Alyan has etched her mark on other award-winning poets who are universal in their praise: "Don't miss the dazzling Hala Alyan. Wow. When she says 'the poetry like a spear,' she isn't kidding." --Naomi Shihab Nye; "Hala Alyan's poems startle us with their beautiful, enigmatic images and capture us with their passionate engagement with the world. A powerful debut." --Chitra Divakaruni; "For all the stunning angularity in this vision, we do not doubt that what we are seeing and sensing here is a surprising, sharp-edged sense of the real, of a world that had been there all along, just waiting for this poet and these poems to reveal. Start to finish, these poems convey a singular vision and represent an important new voice in the international poetry arena." --Fred Marchant Hala Alyan's Atrium is truly a remarkable debut by a poet of stunning virtuosity and range.

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On a winter break from school that should have been nothing but goofing around with his best friends, teenager Khioneus Nevula soon realizes his recent peculiar dreams and visions are cries of help from the strange, mystical, parallel world of Elkloria, whose inhabitants need his special powers to survive. Adopted from unknown parentage, he has always been marked as different by his purple eyes. Now he begins to understand who he really is, and what he must do: open the door to Inferna to save the people of Elkloria. In the mystical land of Elkloria, he meets his twin sister, a proficient mage, a slightly mad scientist, and a princess. In this land, Khioneus is a prince, and he finds himself and his new friends caught in a war between the inhabitants of Elkloria and an ancient and powerful evil. THE DOOR TO INFERNA, Rishab Borah’s debut novel, is a middle-grade story (ages 11-16) that creates a fantasy world as fully realized as those of Rick Riordan or Tamora Pierce. Elkloria draws on Borah’s interest in mythology, science, and linguistics as well as the imaginative lands he and his friends once inhabited in play—open to all to explore.

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