Ben Spivey is the author of a novel, Flowing in the Gossamer Fold (Blue Square Press 2010) and a chapbook The Body Between The Glass (forthcoming from Mud Luscious Press). His work has been published in Abjective and Everyday Genius. He lives in Atlanta and blogs at yourbrainsblackbox.blogspot.com.
what are you reading now
Right now I am reading Child of God by Cormac McCarthy and How They Were Found by Matt Bell.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
Lolita
last book you finished in a single sitting
I don't usually read books in a single sitting, maybe ten years ago I finished a D&D book in a single sitting.
book you borrowed and never returned
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
strangest book you’ve ever read
In Candyland It's Cool to Feed on Your Friends by James Chapman
if you could take a cross-country road trip with any literary character
Clamence from The Fall by Albert Camus or Marvin K. Mooney from The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney, a novel by Christopher Higgs.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Infinite Jest
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Annalemma is amazing.
best thing you’ve read online recently
“Phone by Darby Larson” by Darby Larson in the April 2010 issue of The Collagist
most anticipated upcoming release
There Is No Year by Blake Butler and 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
recommended reading list:
Books That I’ve Removed from My Bookshelf and Stacked in Piles Because I Associate Them in Some Way, or I Like Looking at Their Spines, Etc.
Stacked Pile #1:
- When All Our Days Are Numbered by Sasha Fletcher
- EVER by Blake Butler
- The Fall by Albert Camus
- Log Of The S.S. the Mrs Unguentine by Stanley Crawford
- The Stranger by Albert Camus
- Midnight Picnic by Nick Antosca
Stacked Pile #2:
- Prose. Poems. A Novel. By Jamie Iredell
- Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever by Justin Taylor
- Fugue State by Brian Evenson
- Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg
- Good, Brother by Peter Markus
- The Failure Six by Shane Jones
- Motorman by David Ohle
- Ugly Man: Stories by Dennis Cooper
- Wolf Parts by Matt Bell
Stacked Pile #3:
- Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
- Firework by Eugene Marten
- Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis
- Stories In The Worst Way by Gary Lutz
- Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
- Burning Chrome by William Gibson
- The Way Through Doors by Jesse Ball
- The Singing Fish by Peter Markus
- South Of The Border, West Of The Sun by Haruki Murakami
- Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler
19.10.10
2.10.10
Lindsay Hunter
Lindsay Hunter is a writer living in Chicago. She co-hosts the Quickies! reading series, and her collection of stories, Daddy's, is out now from featherproof books. Find her at lindsayhunter.com.
what are you reading now
Right now I'm reading Hellfire, a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis. Been getting more obsessed with the Killer lately. It heals me to learn about the depths of freak in other artists.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
There are so many! I feel like I read all the time but never get anywhere. I've never read any J.M. Coetzee, for instance. Or Thomas Pynchon. And I'd love to read The Brothers Karamazov. Fucking The Count of Monte Cristo even! I'm truly a sham of a writer.
last book you finished in a single sitting
I think it was Steve Martin's autobio of his comedy life, Born Standing Up. If I saw him on the street I'd probably tongue his ear or something. I think I also read Mary Robison's Why Did I Ever in one sitting - dammit that book is good.
book you borrowed and never returned
My friend just let me borrow Amy Hempel's Reasons to Live, and then she moved to New Orleans. Oops. I've also been lent Slash's biography and Y: The Last Man, Book One, and I have no idea when I'll get to those. Never lend me anything, future friends.
if you could take a cross-country road trip with any literary character
I'd love to be in the car with Roberta/Clyde and her father in Cruddy. I'd likely be filled with a resigned kind of dull terror and sitting in a cooling puddle of urine.
most treasured book in your collection
My husband, for my 30th birthday, got me a first edition copy of The Stones of Summer. It's on the shelf above my laptop so I can look up at it and remember to take risks, try to build something in my writing, and to do it for no other reason but for the pleasure of the words. Of getting the story out and just right, even if that means it's a fucking mess. But a good mess.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Oh man. I don't have a coffee table, but I do remember an advisor asking me who I was inspired by, and I'd just read The Sound and the Fury, so I said I liked Faulkner, and the advisor said "Now, did you just say that to impress me?" and I was stunned, and I think probably yeah, I said Faulkner because it sounded better than saying V.C. Andrews or something.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Probably the Ninth Letter. Or Hobart. Or Artifice. There are too many.
best thing you’ve read online recently
I keep telling people about this story in the Somnambulist Quarterly by Athena Nilssen. It's a year old but it's here and it's incredible. "A Flower for You."
most anticipated upcoming release
Patrick Somerville's new collection, The Universe in Miniature in Miniature, from featherproof books. It's gonna rule. And earlier this summer I had the privilege of hearing Blake Butler read from his forthcoming book, There Is No Year, and I cannot wait to read the whole thing.
recommended reading list:
Books About Murder For People Who Want to Vomit When Watching NCIS or CSI or Bones, and Hey, These Are All Written by Women
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- In the Woods by Tana French
- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
- The End of Alice by A.M. Homes
- Crime Album Stories: Paris 1886-1902 by Eugenia Parry
what are you reading now
Right now I'm reading Hellfire, a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis. Been getting more obsessed with the Killer lately. It heals me to learn about the depths of freak in other artists.
classic you’ve been meaning to read
There are so many! I feel like I read all the time but never get anywhere. I've never read any J.M. Coetzee, for instance. Or Thomas Pynchon. And I'd love to read The Brothers Karamazov. Fucking The Count of Monte Cristo even! I'm truly a sham of a writer.
last book you finished in a single sitting
I think it was Steve Martin's autobio of his comedy life, Born Standing Up. If I saw him on the street I'd probably tongue his ear or something. I think I also read Mary Robison's Why Did I Ever in one sitting - dammit that book is good.
book you borrowed and never returned
My friend just let me borrow Amy Hempel's Reasons to Live, and then she moved to New Orleans. Oops. I've also been lent Slash's biography and Y: The Last Man, Book One, and I have no idea when I'll get to those. Never lend me anything, future friends.
if you could take a cross-country road trip with any literary character
I'd love to be in the car with Roberta/Clyde and her father in Cruddy. I'd likely be filled with a resigned kind of dull terror and sitting in a cooling puddle of urine.
most treasured book in your collection
My husband, for my 30th birthday, got me a first edition copy of The Stones of Summer. It's on the shelf above my laptop so I can look up at it and remember to take risks, try to build something in my writing, and to do it for no other reason but for the pleasure of the words. Of getting the story out and just right, even if that means it's a fucking mess. But a good mess.
book you’ve planted on a coffee table to impress someone
Oh man. I don't have a coffee table, but I do remember an advisor asking me who I was inspired by, and I'd just read The Sound and the Fury, so I said I liked Faulkner, and the advisor said "Now, did you just say that to impress me?" and I was stunned, and I think probably yeah, I said Faulkner because it sounded better than saying V.C. Andrews or something.
if you could subscribe to only one literary journal
Probably the Ninth Letter. Or Hobart. Or Artifice. There are too many.
best thing you’ve read online recently
I keep telling people about this story in the Somnambulist Quarterly by Athena Nilssen. It's a year old but it's here and it's incredible. "A Flower for You."
most anticipated upcoming release
Patrick Somerville's new collection, The Universe in Miniature in Miniature, from featherproof books. It's gonna rule. And earlier this summer I had the privilege of hearing Blake Butler read from his forthcoming book, There Is No Year, and I cannot wait to read the whole thing.
recommended reading list:
Books About Murder For People Who Want to Vomit When Watching NCIS or CSI or Bones, and Hey, These Are All Written by Women
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- In the Woods by Tana French
- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
- The End of Alice by A.M. Homes
- Crime Album Stories: Paris 1886-1902 by Eugenia Parry
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