Before the Internet, there were zines: xeroxed pages combining comics with collage and held together by staples and passion. Strictly appealing to long tail market segments, zines were never about money. They were about expression. They... Read More

A short story collection is like a meal. How it’s consumed depends on the reader. A lazy Sunday afternoon can vanish as one enjoys a literary dim sum, sampling from this or that part of the book as pages flip by like waiters with trays... Read More

Everybody knows cookies are a no-no before dinner. Of course, people still ruin their appetites because nothing compares to the joy of destructive self-indulgence. But serious self-indulgence comes with a higher price than a bellyache.... Read More

Over the past decade, ’50s and ‘60s pulp fiction novels written for men, known as “men’s adventure stories” or, less graciously, the “armpit slicks,” have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. Massive collections like The Big... Read More

As the countdown to the end of the Mayan calendar nears, humanity is being overwhelmed by a flood of doomsday messages. And while some obsess over the idea of a rock predicting the end of the world, most focus on the changing... Read More

In an article about writer-director Kevin Smith for The New Yorker, Tad Friend found himself resorting to code. Each time Smith referenced an intimate body part during his Carnegie Hall performance, Friend replaced it with “Wayne... Read More

Nothing changes faster in the gay community than a young person’s coming out experience. In most of the United States, the isolation that once accompanied the realization of one’s homosexuality has gone. Thanks to a growing public... Read More

One of the toughest challenges faced by a novice novelist, beyond self-editing, is defining the hero. The hero emulates the story’s moral core, which in turn allows readers to identify with the character or buy into the story. The lack... Read More