Rudy Wurlitzer Blogs at Maud Newton!

Rudy Wurlitzer has succumbed to the digital age and contributed a guest blog at MaudNewton.com.

The really fascinating piece tackles Rudy's history in publishing and Hollywood, and is called "Rudy Wurlitzer regretfully declines the invitation to tap dance on your rubber raft."

You Know Neil.

In 2006, marking the launch of Two Dollar Radio con distribucion - a significant milestone in the history of our company - we released Anthony Neil Smith's second novel, The Drummer.

What makes the memory that much sweeter is that it happened with an amazingly talented author who also happens to be a great person.

In May, The Neil celebrated the release of his third novel, Yellow Medicine, with Bleak House Books.

Publishers Weekly called the book "well-written ... contemporary noir," and Booklist says "Smith has a powerful voice and delivers quite a romp."

Ch-ch-check it out.

Nog, the first novel by Rudolph Wurlitzer.

I have an uncontrollable erection as I type this: We're happy to annouce that we will be re-releasing Rudolph Wurlitzer's first novel, Nog, in 2009.

Nog was originally published in 1969 by Random House, and, throughout the years, has survived several incarnations. (Despite someone, somewhere dubbing it a "headventure". Ummmm.)

Here's what people said about Nog when it was first released:
"The Novel of Bullshit is dead. Rudolph Wurlitzer is really, really good." -Thomas Pynchon.

"Nog is to literature what Dylan is to lyrics." -Jack Newfield, Village Voice.

Plenty more to follow, so stay privy.

Crust the Hot Topic.

On Boston Globe's Brainiac Blog, Joshua Glenn has written a piece on Lawrence Shainberg's "hotly anticipated novel "Crust".

The Opening to the Article: "It's finally here! I'm talking, of course, about "Crust," the hotly anticipated novella by Lawrence Shainberg, author of "Memories of Amnesia" (a neurosurgically acute piece of fiction in which a brain reports on its own deterioration), not to mention one of the most entertaining books I've ever read about Zen Buddhism, "Ambivalent Zen." The literati have been buzzing about this book for a couple of years now, so I almost thought it was an April Fool's joke when it arrived in the mail.

"Published by Two Dollar Radio, Shainberg's footnote-laden, Vonnegut-worthy satire recounts how one Walker Linchak, a highly decorated but bored author in his late 40s, accidentally helps pioneer and promote a Scientology-like movement that combines science, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and theology. The movement is called Nasalism, for reasons which immediately become obvious, and George W. Bush is one of its fervent adherents. In the book, I mean; I don't know where the president comes down on this issue in real life."

And in Closing: "But what the book really satirizes is American culture and media -- the way trends are conjured out of nothing, thanks to a few blog posts here, a tenure-track academic looking for a hot topic to theorize about there, and of course, newspapers like this one.

"I can't reveal any more, at this time, because the book is embargoed until October. But let me just add my two cents to the excited blurbs contributed by the novelists Jonathan Lethem ("One of the most perverse and single-minded satires I've ever read") and Norman Mailer ("It's wild as sin and revolting as vomit and as exceptional as the lower reaches of insanity itself"). I think that Two Dollar Radio has picked a real winner."

Fun @ Pilcrow

We had a blast at the first inaugural Pilcrow Lit Fest in Chicago.

Here are some good folks whose acquaintance we made over the Memorial Day weekend: author Jami Attenberg, Zach and Jonathan at Featherproof Books, the future of books Kevin Sampsell, Jennifer and Willy of Impetus Press, Jon Resh of Undaunted design, author Timothy Schaffert, Lauren Cerand, among others. Be sure to check out their work.

Also, a sincere virtual congratulations to Amy Guth and Leah Jones, the masterminds behind Pilcrow who managed to raise $4,000 in support of the New Orleans Public Library. We should all be so inspired.