les savy fav, frankie sparo, the shins, the smiths, etc.
Movies
inland empire, hannah takes the stairs, annie hall, henry fool
Television
peep show, home movies, twin peaks
Books
knut hamsun, richard brautigan, j.d. salinger, william saroyan, james salter, joy williams, lorrie moore, raymond carver, david shrigley, carson mccullers, lydia davis, richard yates, tao lin, denis johnson, frederick barthelme, ann beattie
'Chris Killen's first novel is either disturbingly brilliant or brilliantly disturbing. Whichever, I loved it.'
STEVEN HALL, author of The Raw Shark Texts
'The Bird Room is miraculous. It is an astonishingly good debut and Chris Killen has accomplished something rare: he has, in no small way, made the novel new; has done things I've not seen done before. I was gripped from the first page and deeply impressed by the last.' M.J. HYLAND, author of How the Light Gets In and Carry Me Down
'Chris Killen's writing surprised me sometimes and made me think "that is funny" sometimes and I never felt bad reading it because I knew (by reading the sentences) that he had worked hard on being sincere, concise, and interesting.'
TAO LIN, author of Eeeee Eee Eeee and Bed
'An extremely engaging combo of sex, melancholy and killer one-liners - The Bird Room is a beautiful Chinese puzzle of a novel.'
TOBY LITT, author of Hospital, Ghost Story, etc.
'The Bird Room is amazing. Beautiful, laconic, and chockablock with uneasy sex – like having a threesome with your girlfriend and Richard Brautigan.' RICHARD MILWARD, author of Apples
'Killen has taken a rough stone and polished it into a gem. A book that succeeds in turning daily banality into a thing of great beauty.' EWAN MORRISON, author of The Last Book You Read and Swung
'[A] strangely merry look at the agony of true love and unfaithfulness.'
DAZED & CONFUSED
Beatrice Lamwaka is a female writer in Northern Uganda, who has been nominated for the PEN/Studzinski award. Read about her life as a writer in Northern Uganda and about her nominated story on www. serendipitypoetry. com.
I am playing at Abode in Chorlton-cum-Hardy tomorrow afternoon/evening.
I'm not sure exactly when I'm playing yet but I will let you know tomorrow if you can make it. I will be playing the ukulele if that influences your decision at all.
Issue 8 is now available for purchase at our website.
It includes stories by Sam Pink, Blake Butler, D. Harlan Wilson, Rhys Hughes, Ofelia Hunt, Cameron Pierce, Mike Young, Matthew Simmons, Darby Larson, Aaron Sitze, and Adam Breckenridge.
Fantastic article about Richard Brautigan in Transmission, love Revenge of the Lawn, you inspired me to seek out his other writing, though not all at once otherwise I may never write again.
Enjoyed reading about the reading in NY, though it makes me even more determined to try and get other people to read my stuff in September... starting a poetry MA at MMU... (I've already got other people to read stories aloud over photo slideshows...)
Anyway, how indulgent... Hi, I'm Eli... looking forward to your book!
