Neil Gaiman, Ben Fountain, Chris Adrian, Thomas Pynchon and more...

INTERVIEWS

Fragile Things: An Interview with Neil Gaiman
Interviewed by Eric Lorberer
In the complete Rain Taxi interview, the prolific and enchanting fantasist talks about publishing, Peanuts, and porn.

Brief Encounters with Ben Fountain
Interviewed by Shin Yu Pai
The author of Brief Encounters With Che Guevara discusses leaving law, getting published, and researching stories in Haiti.

Passion and Precision: An Interview with Clare Dudman
Interviewed by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
The underappreciated Welsh author of 98 Reasons for Being talks about how she transforms history and science into fiction.

Gina Frangello
Interviewed by Jeanie Chung
Other Voices and OV Books editor Frangello discusses her first novel and more.

FEATURES

Making Comics and Communities: The Influence of Scott McCloud
Essay by William Alexander
William Alexander investigates some practical applications of Making Comics, the latest book by the guru of comics theory.

The Beat Goes On: Celebrating Allen Ginsberg
Reviewed by Christopher Luna
Fall 2006 was the 50th anniversary of the publication of "Howl," an occasion marked by the appearance of three new books illuminating the life and work of Allen Ginsberg.

Postcard from Rome: "Shakespeare" at the Teatro Furio Camillo
Essay by Linda Lappin
The king of Naples, a shipwreck, an alchemist, and a trunk full of waterlogged pages... sound familiar? Linda Lappin recounts a theatrical experience in Italy.

REVIEWS: FICTION

Against the Day
Thomas Pynchon
The virtuoso author turns in a madcap, uneven picaresque. Reviewed by Scott Esposito

The Children's Hospital
Chris Adrian
Eluding the end of the world in a children's hospital-cum-ark, survivors adapt, struggle, fail, and succeed in a humorous and insightful second novel. Reviewed by Kelly Everding

Escalator
Michael Gardiner
Horror lurks beneath the banal in a exploration of alienation and automation by the Scottish theorist Michael Gardiner. Reviewed by Spencer Dew

The Disappearance: A Novella and Stories
Ilan Stavans
In a collection of two short stories and one novella, the cultural critic fashions uncanny examinations of Latino-Jewish culture. Reviewed by Katie Harger

Vera & Linus
Jesse Ball and Thordis Björnsdottir
A cross between the Brothers Grimm and the Marquis de Sade, this collaboration explores the horrors of childhood. Reviewed by Laird Hunt

Floating Clouds
Fumiko Hayashi
Hayashi tells the story of two on-and-off lovers who meet in French Indochina near the end of World War II. Reviewed by Scott Bryan Wilson

Bottomfeeder
B. H. Fingerman
A fresh take on the vampire mythos, this is the story of a reluctant vampire stuck in a dead-end job, dining on the dregs of humanity. Reviewed by Jessica Bennett

The Potbellied Virgin
Alicia Yànez Cossìo
This 1985 novel, recently translated into English, recounts the lives of two families in a small Andean town. Reviewed by Kristin Thiel

REVIEWS: POETRY

Twenty-One After Days
Lisa Lubasch
Lubasch's experiments in form and substance make for an attentive, graceful book both to read and to gaze upon. Reviewed by Amanda Nadelberg

Angle of Yaw
Ben Lerner
Lerner's second collection is a quirky, "Benjamin-esque," and philosophically hefty pastiche. Reviewed by Joyelle McSweeney

Portrait of the Artist as a White Pig
Jane Gentry
Think globally, write locally: the Kentuckian poet Gentry uses a personal approach to address broader issues. Reviewed by Matthew Duffus

Poeta en San Francisco
Barbara Jane Reyes
Reye's second collection of poems explores the translatable and untranslatable collisions of writing self and culture. Reviewed by Craig Perez

Everything Preserved: Poems 1955-2004
Landis Everson
In this collection of poems spanning five decades, the daily world feeds insights which, mixing innocence and experience, might be called "divine." Reviewed by Adam Fieled

Astoria
Malena Mörling
This book of poems provides a manual to this world's experience, traveling at the speed of light, or memory. Reviewed by Miguel Murphy

I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone
Anna Moschovakis
Moschovakis questions authority, in particular the authority of language, in this engaging volume of poems and sequences. Reviewed by Jason Ranon Uri Rotstein

REVIEWS: NONFICTION

The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality
Walter Benn Michaels
Given blurred cultural distictions and in the absence of true biological differences, what does race really mean in America today? Reviewed by Brigitte Frase

A Faithful Existence: Reading, Memory, and Transcendence
Forrest Gander
A gifted poet and translator shares appreciations, close readings, and meditations, showing how poetry can be an ethical struggle. Reviewed by Elizabeth Robinson

Feeling Like a Kid: Childhood and Children's Literature
Jerry Griswold
The director of the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature delivers a warm, if old-fashioned, analysis of a broad and varied field. Reviewed by Emma Shafer

Real Sofistikation: Essays on Poetry and Craft
Tony Hoagland
The poet's first collection of essays lets the master of metaphor shine in another genre. Reviewed by J. MacNeill Miller

Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant
Gregory L. Blackstock
Blackstock's painstaking drawings catalogue the mundane in an attempt to exert some order over the chaos of things. Reviewed by Eliza Murphy

Sailor on Snowshoes: Tracking Jack London's Northern Trail
Dick North
North takes the reader on an expedition to follow the travails of Jack London during the year he spent searching for gold in the Klondike. Reviewed by Ryder W. Miller

What Did I Do Last Night?: A Drunkard's Tale
Tom Sykes
Sykes recounts the do's and don'ts of drinking in this humorous memoir. Reviewed by Matthew Schneeman

REVIEW: GRAPHIC NOVELS

Y: The Last Man
Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, José Marzán, Jr., et al.
As the series gains momentum towards what's sure to be a stunning finale, we take a look at where this post-apocalyptic road-trip has gone so far. Reviewed by Rudi Dornemann

REVIEW: MIXED GENRE

The Night I Dropped Shakespeare on the Cat
John Olson
As hard to classify as it is to put down, Olson's latest book offers streams of words that span the distances between poetry, fiction, essay, and memoir. Reviewed by Ellen Twadell