By Bonnie ZoBell Tara Laskowski is interviewed by, ahem, James Bond for The Next Big Thing about her brilliant new book Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons. See interview here. See what James Bond is looking like these days here.
By Bonnie ZoBell Imagine being able to slip through a passageway in own your laundry room and arrive in a whole different life when yours isn't going so well. Personally, I wish I'd heard of this a long time ago and will be contacting Ellen Meister immediately for tips since this is exactly what happens [...]
By Bonnie ZoBell Open the cover, turn to the first page, and you are in a time capsule--China before Mao; France, Germany, Italy and Poland during World War II; San Francisco in a time when private eyes spoke strangled English to shapely, fawning, double-dealing babes; San Quentin prison when the death penalty was carried out [...]
By Bonnie ZoBell Nate Jordon's extraordinary new chapbook The Weekender holds nothing back but takes us right inside a jail and fairly slams us—no, not up Nothing is held back inside the Merced County Corrections Facility. Sure, there is the cheek spread and full cavity search we've all heard about, but here we're told in a human tone [...]
By Bonnie ZoBell BZ: Welcome, Vanessa! Loved your novel, The Coward's Tale. Thanks your willingness to talk. VG: Hi, Bonnie. It's delightful to be here and thank you for such a warm welcome! BZ: Tell us a little about you. VG: I am a Welsh writer, living in England. I’m a novelist, a short story [...]
Vanessa Gebbie has created a deep and passionate not to mention humorous story in her stunning debut novel, The Coward's Tale. Families and generations and individual tragedies are intermingled and come masterfully to life with her literary prowess. So beautiful and tender is her use of language that the name Dickens comes to mind. Gebbie [...]
When Myra Sherman, author of the disturbing and affecting new short story collection, JAILED published by Desperanto, creates scenes and characters in jails, she knows of what she speaks. These dazzling stories are full of authentic details. Her characters are heart-breaking. You become so engrossed you prefer to read way too late at night trying [...]
Review by Bonnie ZoBell The women in Myfanwy Collins' breath-taking debut novel haven't had an easy time of it. In Echolocation, published by Engine Books, the beautiful and haunting Geneva loses an arm when a saw kicks back and cuts through her forearm. She lives only because of her tenacity; despite the gushing blood, [...]
I've finally come to the end of my two-week stay at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony. This picture will give you an idea of how remote my cabin was, though it's a little misleading. The city of Temecula is only about a fifteen-minute drive away. Also, there's another cabin up the hill as well as [...]
Steve Almond at Skylight Reading June 2012 Such a great reading this turned out to be. Steve and Dan Bern were so funny together. You could tell they were old friends. The two talented man took turns--first Steve would read something, then Dan would sing something. I'd never been introduced to Dan [...]