Prison Noir
edited by Joyce Carol Oates
Some prisoners are encouraged to write, but few are encouraged to write crime fiction set behind bars—in some institutions, doing so is even prohibited. With Prison Noir, Joyce Carol Oates has done an outstanding job of curating a top-notch collection of stories that evokes an absolutely new perspective on prison literature. Features brand-new stories by: Christopher M. Stephen, Sin Soracco, Scott Gutches, Eric Boyd, Ali F. Sareini, Stephen Geez, B.M. Dolarman, Zeke Caligiuri, Marco Verdoni, Kenneth R. Brydon, Linda Michelle Marquardt, Andre White, Timothy Pauley, Bryan K. Palmer, and William Van Poyck.
“The blood jet is poetry—these words of Sylvia Plath have reverberated through my experience of reading and rereading the stories of Prison Noir. In this case the blood jet is prose, though sometimes poetic prose; if we go a little deeper, in some chilling instances, the blood jet is exactly that: blood … There is no need for fantasy-horror in a place in which matter-of-fact horror is the norm, and mental illness is epidemic. Vividly rendered realism is the predominant literary strategy, as in a riveting documentary film.”
—Joyce Carol Oates, from the introduction
Copycat
And a Litter of Other Cats
by David Yow
“I love cats. Always have. The only time I didn’t have a cat was a brief hell in Chicago where I lived in an apartment whose landlord didn’t allow them. At that place, I had a life-sized cardboard cutout of a cat which I named Toody. I also love wordplay. I’m the only adult I hang out with who still gets a kick out of puns. I make up palindromes. I used to write songs and poems (these days, I leave that for the songwriters and poets); in this book of cat-pun drawings, I have made a concerted effort to come up with ideas that range from really funny to really amusing. The entire litter of animals in this book are line drawings that are ‘colored in’ with photographic textures, and each cat is dropped into a photographic setting. Yep, that’s the truth.”
—David Yow on Copycat
For the first time, the striking, hilarious, and beautiful cat portraits of David Yow—best known as the singer of the band the Jesus Lizard, arguably the best and most popular indie rock band of the 1990s—are captured here in book form. Each portrait is based around a pun, but they capture so much more than wordplay. All cat lovers will find something to relish in this gorgeous coffee-table book, which is the perfect gift for cat enthusiasts, animal lovers, and anyone with a playful sense of humor.
For more information on the books, check out the official Akashic Books website.