essay collection

Out of Which Came Nothing by Laurie Blauner

Laurie Blauner’s Two New Works

Superstition Review
Laurie Blauner | Out of Which Came Nothing by Laurie Blauner (Spuyten Duyvil 2021)

Congratulations to Laurie Blauner for releasing a new novel and a book of short stories. Her latest novel is titled Out of Which Came Nothing. Enter a parallel universe with Aaron, a boy wholly dependent on religious cult caretakers in this stunningly lyrical and descriptive world. This novel was published in September 2021 by Spuyten Duyvil and is available now on their website and Amazon.

The sense is almost one of a world somewhere between a fairy tale and a fever dream; a nightmare with ill-defined limits that is both all-encompassing and self-contained.  This is not a contradiction by any means. It is a state of being that is as specific as a recurring nightmare we can’t let go of, a nightmare that takes over our being and drags us deeply into a well of consciousness where voices in the darkness are threatening to follow us into an uncertain darkness. And we go. Because we have no choice not to.

Misfit Magazine

Laurie Blauner’s newest release, I Was One of My Memories, is an essay collection published by PANK magazine since winning its 2020 Nonfiction Book Award. In this book, you will find more of her lyrical prose as she covers topics such as obsession, lies, aging, and what it really means to be human. You can order this book from PANK.

I Was One of My Memories does one of the things that I love most about the thing we call creative nonfiction: it shows us its thinking, its flawed and idiosyncratic and completely delightful thinking. It is a thinking shaped by experience, pleasure, grief, and disappointment, while the diverse forms, the small essays, little animals of the mind, might be read as recursive attempts toward sense making.

J’Lynn Chapman, Contest Judge and author of To Limn / Lying In
I Was One of My Memories by Laurie Blauner (PANK 2021)

You can find Laurie’s contribution to Superstition Review in Issue 21, which features one of the essays in I Was One of My Memories under the same title, and Issue 8, which features her poetry. You can also check out these books and more on her website.

Contributor Update, BJ Hollars: Harbingers

Superstition Review

Today we are happy to announce the news of past contributor BJ Hollars! BJ’s collection of nonfiction stories titled Harbingers was just published early this month by Bull City Press. The tryptic of essays explores the possible harbingers present in the lives of atomic bomb scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, civil rights activist Medgar Evers and the author himself. Hollars notices that while a harbinger is defined as a sign of something to come, it is often best interpreted in the aftermath.

More information about the collection can be found here, his fiction piece for S[r]’s Issue 6 can be found here, along with his nonfiction piece for Issue 10.

Congratulations BJ!

Contributor Update: Laura Esther Wolfson’s Essay Collection Release

Superstition Review

Laura Esther Wolfson Book CoverToday we are happy to announce Laura Esther Wolfson’s essay collection, For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors, is set to debut June 1st, 2018. The collection is being published by University of Iowa Press and is available for pre-order.

For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors is also the recipient of the 2017 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction.

Laura participated in Superstition Review’s Issue 14 Nonfiction section with an essay titled the same as her forthcoming collection, “For Single Mothers Working as Train Conductors”. Additionally, Laura has participated on the blog multiple times via Guest Posts and Authors Talks.

Congratulations Laura!

Contributor Update: Sloane Crosley Releases Look Alive Out There

Superstition Review

Sloane Crosley's Look Alive Out There CoverToday we are pleased to announce the recent release of Sloane Crosley’s, Look Alive Out There. The collection of essays, which was released April 3rd, 2018, is available through multiple outlets including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Sloane will also be touring for Look Alive Out There; the list of date and locations are available on her website.

Sloane contributed an interview in Superstition Review Issue 7. Former Superstition Review Editor Britney Gulbrandsen and Sloane touch on several of Sloane’s works where epigraphs and inspiration are just a part of the conversation. The interview is a great introduction, and wonderful read, if you are unfamiliar with the author.

Congratulations Sloane!

#ArtLitPhx: Hanif Abdurraqib at Changing Hands Bookstore

Superstition Review

Poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib visits Changing Hands Phoenix (300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, Arizona 85013) on Monday, March 26 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm with his acclaimed essay collection They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us. The collection was named a 2017 book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, The Chicago Tribune, and others.

About the book

In an age of confusion, fear, and loss, Hanif Abdurraqib’s is a voice that matters. Whether he’s attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day after visiting Michael Brown’s grave, or discussing public displays of affection at a Carly Rae Jepsen show, he writes with a poignancy and magnetism that resonates profoundly.

In the wake of the nightclub attacks in Paris, he recalls how he sought refuge as a teenager in music, at shows, and wonders whether the next generation of young Muslims will not be afforded that opportunity now. While discussing the everyday threat to the lives of black Americans, Abdurraqib recounts the first time he was ordered to the ground by police officers—for attempting to enter his own car.

In essays that have been published by the New York Times, MTV, and Pitchfork, among others—along with original, previously unreleased essays—Abdurraqib uses music and culture as a lens through which to view our world, so that we might better understand ourselves, and in so doing proves himself a bellwether for our times.

About the author

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New York Times, and MTV News, where he was a columnist. His first full length poetry collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much, was published in 2016 by Button Poetry and is a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award for Poetry.

SR Pod/Vod Series: Writer Adrianne Kalfopoulou

Superstition Review

Each Tuesday we feature audio or video of an SR Contributor reading their work. Today we’re proud to feature a podcast by Adrianne Kalfopoulou.

Adrianne KalfopoulouAdrianne Kalfopoulou has had her work appear in print and online journals including Hotel Amerika, World Literature Today, ROOM magazine, The Broome Street Review, Web Del Sol, VPR (Valparaiso Poetry Review) and Fogged Clarity. She lives and teaches in Athens Greece, and is on the faculty of the creative writing program at NYU. Adrianne written a poetry collection, Passion Maps (Red Hen Press), and her collection of essays, Ruin, Essays in Exilic Life, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in September 2014.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel.

You can read along with the work in Superstition Review.