Synopses & Reviews
Many of today's most celebrated and up-and-coming writers have climbed the narrow staircase to the splintered podium at New York City's KGB Bar to share their work at the Sunday night fiction series. This funky East Village watering hole, once the expat meeting house of Ukrainian socialists, has grown over the last decade into one of the choicest venues for literary talent.
On the Rocks compiles stories from some of the most talented writers of today, including David Gates, Mary Gaitskill, Jonathan Lethem, and Aimee Bender. Edgy, hard-bitten prose comes shoulder to shoulder with the lyrical and the fanciful, capturing the full range of voices in contemporary fiction. In subject and style, these pieces roam far and wide, but they all share the spirit of a night at KGB: provocative, daring, and dynamic.
Review
"United only by their uniformly high level of originality and artistry, these innovative stories make for a top-flight anthology, a treat for anyone who wants to sample the best in contemporary fiction."—
Publishers Weekly"[Donner], the series' literary director, has selected 20 stories from writers who have read at KGB and whose work exemplifies its spirit as "a place where risk is celebrated and boundaries are transcended."—Library Journal
"White lightning in printed form . . . Enjoyable, terrifying, addictive: the kind of anthology readers deserve."—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Rebecca Donner has been Literary Director of the KGB Sunday Fiction Series since 1998, and received her MFA from Columbia University. Her first novel will be published in Spring 2003.
Table of Contents
Editor's Acknowledgments
Foreword by Denis Woychuk
Introduction by Rebecca Donner
Victoria Redel, He's Back
Philip Gourevitch, Morality Check
Max Ludington, Thaw
Elizabeth Tippens, Make a Wish
Sylvia Foley, y's story
Dani Shapiro, Plane Crash Theory
Aimee Bender, Dearth
Jonathan Lethem, Planet Big Zero
Mary Gaitskill, Dream of Men
Francine Prose, The Witch
Ben Marcus, The Least You Need to Know About Radio
Jason Brown, She
Karen McKinnon, Kindred
Victor LaValle, Getting Paid
Judy Budnitz, Hook, Line and Sinker
Dale Peck, Cities of the Plain
Thom Jones, Thorazine Johnny Felsun Loves Me
Joyce Carol Oates, In Hiding
Peter Ho Davies, What You Know
David Gates, George Lassons Moon
Contributors
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