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"This is one of those times, a time choked in the weeds of academic and civilian formalism. To put it mildly, most of what we see in print in North America is unbearably trivial and singularly devoid of courage."--Andrei Codrescu, The Disappearance of the Outside. Known to the general public as a radio commentator on National Public Radio, Romanian-born essayist and poet Andrei Codrescu has developed a variety of voices throughout his career: Transylvanian humorist on NPR, surrealist poet in his many volumes of poetry, academic essayist in his philosophical writings and historical novelist. Taking seemingly everyday events in seemingly mundane places, Codrescu is able to link the random deta...
"Intro to Poetry Writing is always like this: a long labor, a breech birth, or, obversely, mining in the dark. You take healthy young Americans used to sunshine (aided sometimes by Xanax and Adderall), you blindfold them and lead them by the hand into a labyrinth made from bones. Then you tell them their assignment: 'Find the Grail. You have a New York minute to get it.'"--The Poetry Lesson The Poetry Lesson is a hilarious account of the first day of a creative writing course taught by a "typical fin-de-siècle salaried beatnik"--one with an antic imagination, an outsized personality and libido, and an endless store of entertaining literary anecdotes, reliable or otherwise. Neither a novel n...
For two decades NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu has been living in and writing about his adopted city, where, as he puts it, the official language is dreams. How apt that a refugee born in Transylvania found his home in a place where vampires roam the streets and voodoo queens live around the corner; where cemeteries are the most popular picnic spots, the ghosts of poets, prostitutes, and pirates are palpable, and in the French Quarter, no one ever sleeps. Codrescu's essays have been called "satirical gems," "subversive," "sardonic and stunning," "funny," "gonzo," "wittily poignant," and "perverse"—here is a writer who perfectly mirrors the wild, voluptuous, bohemian character of New Orlea...
A poetry selection that follows the upswell, downfall, and wake of 41 years of wrestling the muse.
A “brilliant” novel of Elizabeth Bathory, the notorious sixteenth-century Hungarian aristocrat who bathed in the blood of virgins (St. Petersburg Times). Turmoil reigns in post-Soviet Hungary when journalist Drake Bathory-Kereshtur returns from America to grapple with his family history. He’s haunted by the legacy of his ancestor, the notorious sixteenth-century Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who is said to have murdered more than 650 young virgins and bathed in their blood to preserve her youth. Interweaving past and present, The Blood Countess tells the stories of Elizabeth’s debauched and murderous reign and Drake’s fascination with the eternal clashes of faith and power, violence and beauty. Codrescu traces the captivating origins of the countess’s obsessions in tandem with the emerging political fervor of the reporter, building the narratives into an unforgettable, bloody crescendo. Taut and intense, The Blood Countess is a riveting novel that deftly straddles the genres of historical fiction, thriller, horror, and family drama.
Inspired by the classic Kerouac tradition of mixing writing with wanderlust, poet and National Public Radio regular Andrei Codrescu chronicles his own picaresque trek through America in this raucous, resonant memoir. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year in Hyperion hardcover.
In Codrescu's own words: "I wrote my first book of poems, License to Carry a Gun (Big Table, 1970), when I first lived in New York City, 1967-1970. Those were troubled times and I was 21 years-old. Decades later the city has changed and the times are still troubled. These poems, 2016-2018, try to find out just how changed my dear city and how troubled my days."
Award-winning author Andrei CodrescuOCOs ""Bibliodeath: My Archives (With Life in Footnotes)"" surveys the evolutionary relationship between language and technology by examining his own career as a prolific American writer for more than four decades. Born in Transylvania, Romania, CodrescuOCOs journey spans from his earliest days as a scattered poet in the 1960s to his founding of the journal"" Exquisite Corpse"" in 1983 to his ongoing commentary today on National Public RadioOCOs All Things Considered. Amid the release of some of his most celebrated books, the authorOCOs story is an insightful address of the survival of the literate world and the transformation of print, told through suspenseful reflection and alluring, signature footnotes."
A modern-day Faust embarks on a wild romp through the peculiar and preposterous American landscape When the Devil shows up in Wakefield’s living room to announce that his time is up, the bookish “de-motivational” speaker tries to strike a deal. The Devil agrees to prolong Wakefield’s life—for now—on the condition that within the next year he finds a more authentic existence. For Wakefield, who is estranged from his family, nearly friendless, and excellent at his job of lowering expectations in a positivity-crazed world, living “authentically” is a tall order. But he will try: an extra 12 months might be worth it. Wakefield’s bargain sets in motion a cross-country quest to find his life’s purpose. Along the way, he encounters an array of all-American weirdness from plastic surgeons and sadomasochistic strippers to phony New Age yoga gurus and billion-dollar tech start-ups. Codrescu’s astute observations and quick wit illuminate the comedy found in our national culture of narcissism and self-improvement.