AltWeeklies Wire
Novel Goes For Something Sweet Rather Than Scandalnew
A 20-year-old Elvis Presley -- a hillbilly with a funny-sounding name who's just beginning to get noticed on the country music scene -- shares an extended, intimate correspondence with the straight-talking Achsa McEachern, a prodigal 14-year-old Atlanta girl who has skipped three grades in school and is racing toward a bright future in New York City's theater scene, even as her family slowly self-destructs.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-01-2005 |
Fiction
At Play in the Fields of the Borgnew
Paul Di Filippo is not a sci-fi master -- not yet, anyway -- but he is a skilled journeyman who has explored more of the sci-fi universe than most.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
08-25-2005 |
Fiction
Gay Man Fired For Writing About Gay Porn Industrynew
Rich Merritt's sexuality was a non issue with his employers, the Atlanta law firm of Powell Goldstein LLP, until he informed them of the impending release of his autobiography, Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star, which includes graphic descriptions of the gay porn industry.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
08-11-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Book Written as Letter to Bin Ladennew
The novel is written as a letter to Osama bin Laden from a distraught unnamed woman whose husband and son were killed in an al-Qaeda bombing of a London football stadium. It was released in Britain on the same day as the real-life bombings of the London mass transit system.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
08-04-2005 |
Fiction
Author Channels Monty Python In New Booknew
Though there are no Knights Who Say "Ni" in Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail, author Christopher Dawes was clearing channeling Monty Python in his real-life quest aimed at "converting [my] loft and/or finding Holy Grail."
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
07-28-2005 |
Fiction
It's Plain to See in the Illusionist's Transparent Boxnew
Is Adair's final revelation the real transcendent deal or merely a philosophical sleight of hand? Such a cynic you are! It's all there plain to see in the illusionist's transparent box.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
07-22-2005 |
Nonfiction
Nikki Giovanni and the Power of the Wordnew
Can we still call Nikki Giovanni an heir to Langston Hughes when the poet, activist, essayist and writer has long since given birth to many of her own literary heirs?
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
07-14-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Sixth Book Concludes the 'B-Boy Blues' Seriesnew
For those of you who have been following the now six-book saga, James Earl Hardy is at last giving these two black same-gender lovers the happy ending they deserve in A House Is Not a Home.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
07-07-2005 |
Fiction
Author Writes Admiringly About Americanew
Verso has come out with an updated edition of V.G. Kiernan's multidisciplinary history of America, from colonial days forward.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
06-02-2005 |
Nonfiction
Book Has Plenty of Requisite Wild Flourishesnew
The People of Paper's dispelling of magic realism is plenty funny and as exhilaratingly freeform as the best of the McSweeney's canon.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
05-26-2005 |
Fiction
Author Suggests God Didn't Write Biblenew
Calling for the people of all faiths to "lift up what is our most precious gift," John Shelby Spong finds God alive and free -- and very much overlooked by those who keep their faith bound in a book.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
05-12-2005 |
Original Work
Novel Has Deep Shadows and Sharp Edgesnew
Novelist Joshilyn Jackson explains how she developed her odd blend of Southern humor and violence.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
05-05-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Good Read for a Day of Not Doing Muchnew
Atlanta author Patti Callahan Henry's novel is the story of a middle-aged Buckhead woman who suddenly realizes that she's faking her way through life and rushes off to find her true unedited self at ... the beach!
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
04-28-2005 |
Fiction
Author Steve Almond Chows Down Againnew
Steve Almond's new collection includes an entire family of yacht-club-credentialed Republicans, convinced they have all been abducted and implanted with "cartridges" by our alien caretakers; an analysis of the meaning of Michael Jackson's dick; and the pleasures of equine and eye socket sex.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
04-07-2005 |
Fiction
How America Almost Destroyed the Vineyards of Europenew
The Americans (probably) didn't do it on purpose, though you hardly could have blamed them given all the nasty things the Europeans were saying about New World wines and the American palate.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
03-31-2005 |
Nonfiction