Franklin Park is Magic

1. Mihal Ansik, Rhoda Belleza, & Melissa Perez-Halley, who are all members of the Crown Heights Writing Group. Belleza edits a YA anthology tentatively titled “Cornered,” which will be put out by Perseus. 2. (Back row) Readers Zetta Elliott, Alexi Zentner, Ned Thimmayya, & Anthony Tognazzini. (Front row) Franklin Park Reading Series intern Jamie Reich, reader Helen Phillips, & Franklin Park Reading Series curator Penina Roth.


It was “Myth and Magic” kind of night yesterday at Franklin Park. The bar, as usual, was crowded. And so was the patio—people everywhere, at every table, drinking beer, talking, even working on laptops and reading books. My friend commented that between the spaciousness and the spring air, it felt like she had been transported out of cramped little Brooklyn into somewhere big and warm, like California or Texas. Such is the power of magic.

Read the rest of this entry »

Judson Merrill Drafts an Acknowledgments Page

My literary career is young but it’s never too early to begin monogramming the hand towels of posterity. For the benefit of scholars and fans alike, I will use this space on The Outlet, on a semi-regular basis, to release a selection of my correspondence and other papers. Enjoy. (Universities interested in acquiring the complete Judson Merrill archive should contact me through my web site.)


While I, of course, deserve the lion’s share of the credit for this novel, many people helped bring it to life. Though many have modestly asked not to be named in connection with this book, I would be remiss not to thank them.

The book’s main idea was born two years ago when I was arrested and processed by a beautiful policewoman. We had a decided chemistry and though, annoyingly, my wife posted bond before I could get her badge number, A Night in Cell Block Love is probably what would have happened between us given more time. My very heartfelt thanks to that law enforcement officer for her inspiration.

Dozens of trusted friends, colleagues, and street people read or listened to me read early versions of the book. Herman Longe, Gregg Otell, Cookie, and Greta Klein all gave invaluable feedback and pushed me to make the book “less creepily autobiographical.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Meanwhile, in California: The LA Times Orgy of Books @ USC

1. The ever-broadening comedian/actor/writer/super-fan Patton Oswalt reads from his first solo publication, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, and curses before an audience of adults and children. 2. Velvet voiced Irish poet and fictioner Nuala Ni Chonchuir, with a narrative closeness that reminded me of Carson McCullers, reads from her new novel, You. It’s a character study about a 10-year-old girl growing up with her fragmented family in semi-urban ’80s Ireland. 3. Irish fictioner Kevin Power reading from his first novel, Bad Day in Blackrock, a tense study of how the violent accidental murder of a teen effects the adolescence of his fellow boys school peers in suburban Dublin. “We made fifty cups of tea a day. We never drank any of it, it was just something to do.”


With the summer heat mounting as quick as resentment, the promise of a free, positive, weekend ‘outing’ designed to relieve the cycling insanity of parenthood and LA civilian life drew large crowds surging restlessly with the hope of enlightenment and/or swag. However, among the frenzy of shoulder to shoulder stroller traffic shaded by yellow ‘Hoy’ umbrellas and clutching rolled-up, unloved posters for Tron, among the sunburns, the constantly passing airplanes, the sweet aroma of horchata, and the life-size, stone faced, movie promotion Smurfs posing for photos, there were five stages of non-stop literature.

Read the rest of this entry »

REVIEW: And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips

And Yet They Were Happy

by Helen Phillips

Leapfrog Press

180 pp/$14.95

And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Phillips can be likened to a magical kaleidoscope. Every time you turn the page the colorful crystals rearrange to form a new beautiful, fantastical scene that is both familiar and alien, quite real and yet also entirely fictitious. The book is a collection of vignettes, if they may be so called, each of which takes up exactly two full pages. Together they form a kind of impressionistic collage depicting the life of a young couple in New York (or some parallel universe version of it) as they date, become engaged, marry, and live together in a state that may not quite amount to marital bliss but that does not, as the title suggests, preclude the possibility of happiness.

Read the rest of this entry »

May Mix by Benjamin Hale

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This is a mix of songs that mean a great deal to me and songs that I just happen to have been listening to lately.  I tried to arrange them in an order that kind of makes sense.  Enjoy.

1. I Put a Spell on You – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

As sexy and terrifying as a werewolf.  There’s something chilling about the dark sparseness of this song: behind the understated rhythm and horns, the background is black and empty as the void, framing and isolating Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ absolutely psychotic voice.  This song was banned from radio when it was released in 1956—for no clear reason other than that it sounds like he wants to eat you alive: “I don’t care if you don’t want me—I’m yours.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Monkey Business

1. Motoyuki Shibata, the editor of Monkey Business, & Ashley Martin, the Assistant Editor of A Public Space. Notice Shibata’s supercool sweatshirt, which was a gift from reader Rebecca Brown. 2. Zack Zook of Book Court & Anne McPeak, the Managing Editor of A Public Space.


Five years ago, A Public Space launched their very first issue, which included a special Japan portfolio. Motoyuki Shibata was the co-editor of this portfolio and so the seeds for collaboration  were planted, from which Monkey Business in English has naturally evolved. We celebrated at Book Court last night, complete with Monkey Business-brand wine (which is not endorsed by the lit mag).

Read the rest of this entry »

“Perfect Throws” – Excerpt from PAPERBOY by Bob Thurber

In the dream I’m riding this red Schwinn Stingray Fastback—26-inch wheels, nubby tires, high-rise handlebars. Very cool bike. Same model Jack & Harry’s Hardware sticks in the window every Christmas. Same candy-apple red, same slick nail-polish shine.

I’ve got my name stenciled in gold across the chain-guard, two chrome-wire baskets mounted saddlebag style, and another deep basket bolted to the handlebars. All baskets are full, heaped with newspapers, each paper neatly tucked and tri-folded and secured by a green rubber band. I’ve still got my dirty canvas bag looped across my chest, but it’s empty, a useless sack. I wear it just to remind people what I am, and to advertise the name of the newspaper.

There’s no traffic—the only cars in sight are parked in driveways—and I’m cruising down the middle of this smooth, black asphalt street, riding the centerline, barely pedaling as I reach and toss. A throw to my left, a throw to my right. Every house is a customer and I work in a regular snap rhythm. All my tosses are perfect. Each paper travels in a high arc, then lands soft, dead center on each porch’s welcome mat like it was placed there by careful hands. People open their doors, look down in amazement. Everyone smiles and waves.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dungeon of Fiction

1. Artist Andrew Bulger & reader James Yeh. The duo collaborated on a chapbook entitled “Rejection From Prominent Cultural Magazine and Other Stories,” which I highly suggest you check out because it is simultaneously a) adorable b) awesome and c) sneakily haunting. Excerpt here. 2. Writer Lynne Tillman & reader Abdellah Taïa.


Yesterday was gorgeous –  flowers blooming, new green growth on trees, clear sunshine – so I took the opportunity to head over to Cake Shop to hang out in their dark, dark basement for The Enclave Reading Series.

Read the rest of this entry »