A New Novel from Terry Bisson: ANY DAY NOW

Award winning author Terry Bisson returns with a literary tour de force, ANY DAY NOW, available now. This impeccably written novel combines the coming-of-age story of a Middle American boy growing up in the 1960s with a surprising reimaging of American politics amid the radicalized culture that emerged in the Vietnam War era.

Torn between the hippie counterculture and the anti-war movement, a young Clay Bauer shuffles between Kentucky, New York City, and a commune in the Southwest, creating an exciting road movie of a novel filled with heartbreak, hope, and hauntingly original prose.

. . .

A word from Terry Bisson on writing his novel:

Like many others, I was washed in the rain of the Sixties, but I have always resisted the idea of writing about it. Everybody knows how things turned out. Why not write science fiction (excuse me, speculative fiction) instead? That kept me busy for thirty some-odd years. Then one day I thought, why not change how things turned out? What's a novelist anyway but a little god in pajamas? That kicked open a door. I was always surprised that Philip Roth (The Plot Against America) didn't seem to realize that he was writing in an old and established sub-genre of science fiction, the alternate history. He seemed to think he'd invented it! So I needn't apologize for stealing a scene from him. Turn-about is fair play and ours is just one universe among many.

. . .

EARLY REVIEWS

Bisson pays homage to the beat poets as he embraces the social atmosphere of the late ’60s and early ’70s in staccato, pared-down prose that suits the novel’s coming-of-age narrative…He shows true finesse in capturing the mood of a generation. Though shy of 300 pages, the novel feels epic. —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Those interested in American social and political history, the Beats, and sociology will find this portrait an artistic, authentic rendering of life across America in the mid-twentieth century. In the beginning, Clay seems destined to become a Holden Caulfield, but he quickly comes of age. From there, the focus of the story broadens to chronicle an entire subculture." —Foreword Reviews

In this unsettling but always interesting alternate-history novel, which offers much subversive commentary on contemporary society, Bisson’s jazzlike prose summons a utopia whose adherents seek personal freedom only to find that their basic civil liberties can vanish in an instant. —Booklist

The author, a writer of (probably under-appreciated) SF and Fantasy novels, here deftly resurrects Sixties America. As history is gradually subverted and chronology reshuffled, the reader is slightly jarred and then fascinated by the dramatic world presented. Highly recommended for its literary quality and creativity of vision.—Library Journal

AUTHOR QUOTES

"A personal masterpiece, a book which will drop you through the floor of your assumptions about coming of age inside the politics and counterculture of the Vietnam era and into a fresh new-old world, in which you'll live, for the duration of this book, as your own."--Jonathan Lethem

"An unsettling, funny, freaky reimaging of America, impeccably written, by one of our most consistently interestingtransgressors of literary boundaries."—Michael Chabon

"A great novel…Here's a deeply convincing story of what was, what is, and what might have been. Terry Bisson, always one of the most starling writers on the planet, was born to write this book." —Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls Rising

"I'm in awe of his skills now, as I was forty years ago. Treat yourself to this book, but be warned. I'm still trying to find the hole he pulled me through. Some things you learn, there's no way back." —Peter Coyote, actor and author of Sleeping Where I Fall.

"Bisson makes that most dramatic era pop to life in a most startling way. This is the great novel of the Sixties. —Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Red Mars

"This is the best fiction about what's called the Sixties ever written. If you were there then, this is where you were." —John Crowley

TOUR SCHEDULE:

3/6: Booksmith; San Francisco, CA, 7:00 PM

3/7: Moe's Books; Berkeley, CA, 7:00 PM

3/8: Capitola Bookstore; Santa Cruz, CA, 7:30 PM

3/18: Left Forum, NYC

3/21: KGB Bar; NYC, 7:00 PM

3/29: Book Passage; Corte Madera, CA, 7:30 PM

3/31: Anarchist Book Fair, San Francisco, CA

4/2: Mercyhurst College; Eerie, PA, 8:15 PM

4/7: Borderlands Books; San Francisco, CA. 3:00 PM

4/23: University of Washington Bookstore; Seattle, WA, 7:00 PM

4/24: Village Books; Bellingham, WA, 7:00 PM

Happy Valentine’s Day; Breakup Night at KGB

Dateless this V-Day? Don’t sweat it, you’re actually not alone. As last week’s post on the subject of Valentine’s Day explained, even the single can survive February 14^th through the company of the right book. So drop that heart-shaped box of chocolates, cancel those flowers you had sent to yourself, and visit your local library or bookstore. Maybe you’ll even meet the book nerd of your dreams browsing the stacks.

Even if finding true love on Valentine’s Day it isn’t that simple, reading the right book can still help mitigate the loneliness of a partnerless holiday. If this year’s festivities find you celebrating solo, we have the perfect literary antidote to your dateless day of solitude—the new paperback edition of It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Poetry of Breakup, edited and introduced by Jerry Williams.

Last February Jerry was generous enough to stop by the blog to share an anti-anti-Valentine’s Day poem titled “Bed, Bath, and Beyond,” and this year he returns again (in video form) along with It’s Not You contributors Beth Gylys, Ravi Shankar, and Donna Masini, who all shared the stage during last week’s Breakup Night at KGB. If you skipped the reading you missed a boozy evening of heartrending verse performed by the industry’s most seasoned and humorous veterans of heartache, but thanks to the magic of Youtube, you can still enjoy them here today. Check out the videos below!

Jerry Williams opened the night with a reading of his poem, “Exegisis of a Hard Case”, exploring the grief regimen entailed by the four breakups that nearly killed him. Don’t know what a reverse cuckold is? We recommend you google it (potentially NSFW).

Beth Gylys, who is a professor at Georgia State University and the award winning author of two collections of poetry, as well as two chapbooks shared “Song of an X” and “Through the Glass,” both included in It’s Not You, It’s Me.

Ravi Shankar (no relation) followed up with a series of poems that hued closely to the night’s theme of harrowing breakup, including “Double Rainbow” (related), “Curacao,” and “Surface Tension.”

The night’s final reader, Donna Masini, began her set with a reading of Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” in commemoration of the poet’s birthday, before plunging into her It’s Not You contributions, “Slowly” and “Longing.”

A Very Jerry Williams Valentine's Day

We've got a special Valentine-y guest post today from Jerry Williams, who edited (and wrote the introduction for!) IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME: THE POETRY OF BREAKUP. If you're looking for a fun activity for this evening that won't involve underwhelming prix-fixe menus and "he went to Jared," stop by KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St., NYC) at 7 p.m. to hear Jerry (with Donna Masini, David Lehman, and Kenneth Hart) wax poetic. Hope to see you there!

Happy Valentines Day, everyone. I was thinking about calling the internet to find out where the apostrophe goes in Valentines, but I’m going to restrain myself. That’s not to say the apostrophe isn’t an incredible piece of punctuation, especially on V-Day, although it does imply possession—e.g. Tim’s television, Shelby’s apartment, Jerry’s old typewriter. No one should own anyone in a relationship. Yes, this seems like a pretty obvious directive, but who among us has not witnessed instances of what I call Interpersonal Colonization: one person lording it over another for reasons known only to the couple? I’ve been waiting years to use this terminology, but I could never find the context—until now, as they say in movie trailers and infomercials. That said, tonight you should attend an anti-V-Day poetry reading triggered by my anthology, It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Poetry of Breakup, featuring David Lehman, Donna Masini, Kenneth Hart, and yours truly. I can’t believe I just wrote that. Yours truly. Who says that? Anyway, the reading is at KGB Bar at 85 E. 4th Street at 7 p.m. Since you’ll probably hear a lot of very negative material about romantic love, I thought I would offer up an Anti-Anti Saint Valentine’s Day (I looked it up) poem that I wrote a couple years ago. Up to that point, rest assured, I was just like you, suffering through one relationship debacle after another—boom! boom! boom! like a relationship blitzkrieg. So here’s that poem. For my wife, Shelby. On Valentine’s Day.

Bed, Bath, and Beyond

Days, maybe weeks, before the first

whole night together,

I ventured down Second Avenue

to buy a new pillowcase for the optional

third pillow, your pillow.

In the past, there had been

a maroon pillowcase

and a navy blue pillowcase

and a bottle-green pillowcase.

One refused to accept bribes;

one pretended to drink holy water;

one took a full-time job crying.

According to the packaging,

your pillowcase is oyster, obliterates

the selfishness of regret,

and looks like a fresh sheet of paper

against your brown skin,

your brown skin that seems

so crucial and complementary

against my white skin

in the warm, reflective dark.

Now that my body feels like a pulpit,

and I am my body's messenger,

I will keep this life.

Jerry Williams teaches creative writing at Marymount Manhattan College. In 2003, Carnegie Mellon University Press published his collection of poems, Casino of the Sun, and a new collection, Admission. His poetry and nonfiction have appeared in American Poetry Review, Tin House, Pleiades, and many other journals. He lives in New York City.

Praise for It's Not You, It's Me


“A fine new anthology…featuring terrific poets…Williams is as good a prose writer as he is a poet. Get hold of this guy’s stuff and read it.” -- Entertainment Weekly

“Jerry Williams, has had some experience with romantic disappointment, as he details in his slightly painful introduction…This collection is split into three sections — ‘One Foot Out the Door,’ ‘In the Middle of the Storm’ and ‘The Aftermath’ — and it gathers many of the poems that have helped Williams (a poet himself, with two books to his name) through his rooms of anguish over the years. Happily, they’re pretty great.” – PaperCuts

“In It's Not You, It's Me: The Poetry of Breakup today's big contemporary poets make breaking up and even divorce sound painfully beautiful. You'll want to read with a box of tissues, a pint of chocolate ice cream and sappy love songs playing in the background.” – Lemondrop

It's Break-Up Night for the Poets of IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME on February 25 at KGB Bar in NYC

Join Jerry Williams and a stellar cast of heartbroken poets for evening of poetry at KGB Bar in Manhattan, Thursday, February 25, at 7pm.

It's Not You, It's Me editor Jerry Williams will be joined by Peter Covino, Martha Rhodes, and Linda Gregg for poetry readings, storytelling, and non-stop entertainment!

Jerry Williams teaches creative writing at Marymount Manhattan College, and has two collections of poetry Casino of the Sun (2003, Carnegie Mellon University Press) and Admission (2010, Carnegie Mellon University Press). His poetry and nonfiction have appeared in American Poetry Review, Tin House, Pleiades among others. He currently lives in New York City.

Linda Gregg is the author of seven poetry collections: Too Bright to See; Alma; The Sacraments of Desire; Chosen by the Lion; Things and Flesh; In the Middle Distance; and All of it Singing: New and Collected Poems. In 2006 she received the PEN/Voelcker Award in Poetry for her career achievement. She live in New York City.

Peter Covino is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Rhode Island. Winner of the 2007 PEN America/Osterweil Award for Emerging Poets, he is the author of Cut Off the Ears of Winter as well as the chapbook Straight Boyfriend. Recent poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, and others. He is the founding editor of Barrow Street.

Martha Rhodes is the author of three collections of poetry: At the Gate, Perfect Disappearance, and Mother Quiet. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, and in the M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College. She is also the founding editor and director of Four Way Books.

FUNNY BOYS Author Warren Adler at KGB Bar's Sunday Night Fiction Series on March 16

The New York literary landmark KGB Bar, will host Warren Adler, author of Funny Boys, and Nina Siegal, at this Sunday's Fiction Series, March 16, 7-9pm. Warren Adler is the author of 30 books, including 5 collections of short stories and 25 novels. He is known worldwide for his classic tale of battling spouses, The War of the Roses. His new novel, Funny Boys, will be published on March 26.