Just the other day, when a friend of mine and I were arguing about Virginia Woolf, I told her that, however good it may be, you just can’t write with that kind of acrobatic Victorian ornament anymore. “You’d sound like a dingleberry,” I remarked. She disagreed — and if Stephanie…
Kelly Shortandqueer is small in stature but big on words, especially when it comes to the Denver Zine Library, which he co-founded with Jamez Terry in 2003. Over the past seven years, the library, a herculean underground effort to cataloue a variety of zines, from independent music chatter and literary…
Lots of authors dream of their books scoring glowing praise from the New York Review of Books, topping the bestseller lists, getting optioned for a Hollywood movie. But getting turned into a musical? How often does that happen? That could be the fate for Nine Lives, a nonfiction account of…
When you go through all the trouble of writing a book — and perhaps you don’t have any illusions of grandeur about being the next James Joyce or anything, but even a just-okay book requires an enormous amount of creative energy and personal investment — it must be tough when…
Poetry is the structural rhetoric used to evoke emotional qualities. Rap is, at the etymological root, the chanting of rhymed lyrics in time to a beat. The literary facet of poetry has been around for ages, long before the stories were translated into reading interpretations, while rap was used in…
Like cooking, the art of yoga is bound by that stolid type of sociological stereotype claiming that although more women on the planet earth cook — and in the modern world, practice traditional yoga — it’s the men who are always considered the greatest chefs… and yogis. But Neal Pollack,…
Say what you will about his policies, but it’s pretty much official at this point that Barack Obama is the most accomplished individual since Leonardo Da Vinci. For one thing, he’s president of the United States — which, okay, George W. took a little of the prestige out of that…
In the past decade, Ken Arkind has seen the Denver poetry scene morph and evolve. A fixture in the local scene for a decade, Arkind has made multiple trips to national competitions across the country, bearing the banner of Denver poets from the Mercury Cafe and earning a title spot…
You can’t judge a book by its cover, they say, but most people do. Because this is America, by God, and there has got to be a better way to judge a book than to actually read it. That’s why we’re bringing you One-Chapter Book Reviews, where we’ll pick one…
With the people’s boring choice of The Help for this year’s One Book, One Denver program selected, the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, which runs the program, is moving ahead today with the promotional push — but notably not with The Tattered Cover, certainly Denver’s flagship bookstore and arguably one…
If you give the people a choice, apparently, the people will choose the most boring option — also, the people are evidently big fans of the deep south. In a completely precedented move, the city announced its pick for this years One Book, One Denver, and yet again, it’s a…
You’ve heard the expression, but chances are, you don’t know the story behind it. The words were those of George Gipp, perhaps the most legendary football player of all time, who played in the 1920s for Notre Dame under equally legendary coach Knute Rockne. Then again, maybe the words were…
Who grabs the three titles, out of the blue, that we’re allowed to “vote” for each year in the first place? And what if we’re not exactly blown away by said choices? Don’t get me started. But the thing is, whether or not these books are really chosen by democratic…
From the quiet menace of Dracula to the over-the-top animal gorefest of From Dusk till Dawn, the range of interpretations of the vampire theme is pretty endless. There is, however, one thing they must all share in common — and it’s the thing that makes them both scary and intriguing:…
It always seemed to me that vampires must lead somewhat boring lives. Especially if it’s summer, because nights are much shorter than days, and of course vampires can’t be out in the sunlight, unless they’re vampires from Twilight, in which case they apparently can if they apply glitter. I’m just…
Denver-raised Journalist Micah Toub had a childhood like no one else’s: While other kids’ parents were content asking how their school day went, Toub’s parents, both Jungian therapists, were perhaps looking for something deeper in their son’s day-to-day existence. He apparently turned out all right, though, since he’s willing to…
The PR tag said it all: “If Pirates are bad and Vampires are worse, then pray you never meet the Vampirates.” I was already swooning over the needless capitalization of common nouns, but the portmanteau brilliantly combining “vampire” and “pirates” — which I could hardly believe nobody had thought of…
Dawn Schiller is a survivor. That much is apparent in the title of her heartbreaking (and, at times, horrifying) new memoir, The Road Through Wonderland: Surviving John Holmes. Schiller became entangled with the then-32-year-old Holmes at the tender age of fifteen; she spent five years in an unhealthy relationship with…
Last week, we reported on the Rocky Mountain Book & Paper Fair’s challenge panel, an attempt to name the best author of the 20th century, and decided to hold our own contest. Which was, sadly, pathetically attended. My link to the article on Facebook got more comments than the actual…
The Mercury Cafe’s slam poetry team isn’t resting on its laurels. Many key members of the Merc’s competitive poetry team are still out of state, having earned a spot in the semifinals during the annual national slam poetry competition in St. Paul, Minn. that wrapped up this weekend. But the…
As the bassist of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Munly & the Lupercalians, and Tarantella, Daniel Grandbois has played a foundational role in Denver’s music scene–particularly the spookier, twangier end of it. A similar haunting Americana permeates his prose. Grandbois’ 2008 book, Unlucky Lucky Days, is a dizzying pot of surreal,…
One of the changes Dana Cain made to this year’s Rocky Mountain Book & Paper Fair was beefing up the Friday, August 6 launch party from 5 to 9 p.m. (the $10 ticket includes admission to the actual fair on Saturday). There will be live jazz, wine and a challenge…
