AWAKE! - Because insomnia isn't just for Christmas anymore!
Ok, so I'm a bit of a fair-weather blogger, but here I am, back at ya, and this time I've got some real news.
Just three days ago, on December 21, my latest book was released. Why December 21? Because it's the Winter Solstice, meaning the longest night of the year - and since the book is about insomnia, well, what better way than to force it not so gently into that bad night?
“AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless” is for the insomniac in you or the one you love. It's not a dry how-to-sleep guide, though. No cures here. And no (well, almost no) advice. This is more an homage to the act of sleeplessness, an evocation of the surreal un-dreamtime between the darkest midnight and the gleaming wee hours, that time when everything seems to glow with a luminescent aqua-green AM clock radio gloaming. In other words, this is a place for the sleepless, a between-the-covers rather than between-the-sheets experience of wakefulness in all its various facets and meanings. From anguished to punch-drunk hysterical to just plain nuts (in the best sense) this is the book that Salvador Dali and Franz Kafka might have written had their work mated to cerate a literary lovechild. It's one helluvah collection if I say so myself. And, well, I'm saying it, so there!
Among those included in AWAKE are poets, writers, artists, bloggers, picker-uppers of found objects, stand-up comics, creators of commix and even a photographer slash Suicide Girl.
Here are some names (see how many you recognize for an exercize in feeling in-the-know): Charles Simic, Joyce Carol Oates, James Tate, Margaret Atwood, Franz Wright, Aimee Bender, Simon Armitage, Lydia Lunch, Steve Almond, Lynne Tillman, Jonathan Ames, Shannon Wheeler, Neal Pollack, Howard Cruse, Davy Rothbart, Louise Bourgeois, Cricket Suicide and Catie Lazarus, just to name a few.
Oh, should I mention that among the above there are Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winters, as well as acclaimed young stars on the rise, leading artists of the 20th Century and legendary punk rockers?
No, of course I shouldn't. You knew that. You're obviously in-the-know.
So why not help your less cool friends become the same? Run-madly shrieking, waving your arms in the air-to your nearest bookstore and insist, loudly, angrily and repetitively that they get this damn book, now, NOW DAMN IT! Then, once they do, buy it and buy it again. Trust me, you'll feel better after you do. Hell, you might even be able to get your sorry self to sleep. Or at least you might help me do so. I mean, it's not easy making a living putting together these entertainments for you. It's damn hard work. And it pays almost didlley squat.
Then again, that's not why I do it. I do it for you, dear readers, you my friends out there in cyberland. Thank you for being such a wonderful wonderful crowd.
Happy holidays … and Rest In Peace!
sb
P.S. Oh yes, AWAKE! Is published by super-cool Soft Skull Press. www.softskull.com/
Just three days ago, on December 21, my latest book was released. Why December 21? Because it's the Winter Solstice, meaning the longest night of the year - and since the book is about insomnia, well, what better way than to force it not so gently into that bad night?
“AWAKE! A Reader for the Sleepless” is for the insomniac in you or the one you love. It's not a dry how-to-sleep guide, though. No cures here. And no (well, almost no) advice. This is more an homage to the act of sleeplessness, an evocation of the surreal un-dreamtime between the darkest midnight and the gleaming wee hours, that time when everything seems to glow with a luminescent aqua-green AM clock radio gloaming. In other words, this is a place for the sleepless, a between-the-covers rather than between-the-sheets experience of wakefulness in all its various facets and meanings. From anguished to punch-drunk hysterical to just plain nuts (in the best sense) this is the book that Salvador Dali and Franz Kafka might have written had their work mated to cerate a literary lovechild. It's one helluvah collection if I say so myself. And, well, I'm saying it, so there!
Among those included in AWAKE are poets, writers, artists, bloggers, picker-uppers of found objects, stand-up comics, creators of commix and even a photographer slash Suicide Girl.
Here are some names (see how many you recognize for an exercize in feeling in-the-know): Charles Simic, Joyce Carol Oates, James Tate, Margaret Atwood, Franz Wright, Aimee Bender, Simon Armitage, Lydia Lunch, Steve Almond, Lynne Tillman, Jonathan Ames, Shannon Wheeler, Neal Pollack, Howard Cruse, Davy Rothbart, Louise Bourgeois, Cricket Suicide and Catie Lazarus, just to name a few.
Oh, should I mention that among the above there are Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winters, as well as acclaimed young stars on the rise, leading artists of the 20th Century and legendary punk rockers?
No, of course I shouldn't. You knew that. You're obviously in-the-know.
So why not help your less cool friends become the same? Run-madly shrieking, waving your arms in the air-to your nearest bookstore and insist, loudly, angrily and repetitively that they get this damn book, now, NOW DAMN IT! Then, once they do, buy it and buy it again. Trust me, you'll feel better after you do. Hell, you might even be able to get your sorry self to sleep. Or at least you might help me do so. I mean, it's not easy making a living putting together these entertainments for you. It's damn hard work. And it pays almost didlley squat.
Then again, that's not why I do it. I do it for you, dear readers, you my friends out there in cyberland. Thank you for being such a wonderful wonderful crowd.
Happy holidays … and Rest In Peace!
sb
P.S. Oh yes, AWAKE! Is published by super-cool Soft Skull Press. www.softskull.com/
posted by G-D at
2:15 PM
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