AltWeeklies Wire
How Popeye Lost His Eyenew
Little Red Riding Hood, Dick Tracy, Popeye the Sailor Man ... don't let the characters fool you. Big Lonesome isn't written for kids, at least not for the pasteurized milk-fed children of the Disney generations.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
10-13-2005 |
Fiction
A Near War on Junk Foodnew
Like the film Traffic on sugar and triglycerides, Christopher Largen's novel Junk takes us on a tour of a near future "war" on junk food, complete with a food czar, a Food Enforcement Agency, and mandatory sentences for possession of hamburgers, doughnuts and milk shakes.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
10-06-2005 |
Fiction
Author Loves Her Gunnew
Kayla Williams tells her story of being a woman in what is still largely a man's Army, in which every woman is considered either a bitch or a slut.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-29-2005 |
Nonfiction
A Marriage Coming-of-Age Storynew

The Commitment is a memoir sprinkled with polemic on gay marriage (in the absence of legal recognition) and gay family life (in the absence of established norms).
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-22-2005 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Dan Savage, The Commitment
Atlanta Author Calls on Kindred Country Spirit in Comeback Bidnew
Paul Hemphill resembles the subject of his new book in more ways than one.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Doug Monroe |
09-15-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Stories From Papers You Don't Bring Home to Mothernew
In Notes from the Underground, you'll find stories of train-hopping hobos; high-priced, semi-retired call girls; marijuana; pedophilia; and polygamy. Yup, making our J-school mentors proud.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-15-2005 |
Nonfiction
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
The Essential Pleasures of Natural Foodsnew
Gina Mallet takes a few of the most significant foods in the Western Hemisphere and gives you a sobering account of how they've changed for the worse in the age of industrialization and paranoia.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Bill Addison |
06-30-2005 |
Nonfiction