ARTHUR BRADFORD’S first book, Dogwalker, was published by Knopf in 2001. His first feature film, a documentary called How’s Your News?, was broadcast on HBO/Cinemax in 2002 and is now out on video.
JENNIFER BELLE is the best-selling author of two novels, Going Down and High Maintenance, and a book for children, Animal Stackers. Her stories and essays have appeared in Black Book, Ms., The New York Times Magazine, The Independent Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and Mudfish. She lives in New York City, where she leads a writing workshop in her home and is at work on her third novel.
ERNESTO QUIÑONEZ was raised in Spanish Harlem. He is the author of the novels Bodega Dreams (Vintage, 2000) and Chango’s Fire (HarperCollins Rayo Imprint, 2004). He lives in New York City.
DARIN STRAUSS is the award-winning author of the international best-seller Chang and Eng, and of the New York Times Notable Book The Real McCoy, which was named one of the 25 Books to Remember of 2002 by the New York Public Library. He is also a screenwriter and has adapted Chang and Eng for Disney films. He teaches at New York University, and his work has been translated into thirteen languages.
JUDY BUDNITZ is the author of the books Flying Leap, If I Told You Once, and a forthcoming story collection. Her stories have appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Fence, Story, Prize Stories 2000: The O. Henry Awards, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003, Lost Tribes, and others.
DAVID EBERSHOFF is the author of the novels Pasadena and The Danish Girl and the story collection The Rose City. He Lives in New York City and is finishing a new novel, The Lost Family. He can be reached at www.ebershoff.com.
ELISSA SCHAPPELL is the author of Use Me, which was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award, a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Ornes Best Book of the Year, and a Border’s Discover New Writers selection. She is currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a founding editor and now editor-at-large of Tin House magazine. Her work has appeared in, among other places, The Paris Review, Spin, Spy, Nerve. She lives in Brooklyn.
ZEV BOROW has written for Spin, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Details, Wired, Vibe, ESPN the Magazine, and McSweeney’s. He also writes scripts for television and is the cofounder of G-NET Media, which produces video-game-related TV projects.
NELSON GEORGE is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction works, including Hip Hop America and Post-Soul Nation, a history of the ’80s in black popular culture. His next novel is The Accidental Hunter. He also executive produced the HBO film Everyday People. He can be reached at www.nelsongeorge.com.
JULIANNA BAGGOTT has published dozens of short stories and poems in such publications as The Southern Review, Chelsea Poetry, and Best American Poetry 2000. A recipient of fellowships from the Delaware Division of Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, and Bread Loaf Writers Conference, she won the 1998 Eyster Prize for short fiction. She is the author of two novels, Girl Talk (Pocket Books, 2000) and The Miss America Family (Pocket Books, 2001) and a collection of poems, This Country of Mothers. She lives in Newark, Delaware, with her husband, poet David G. W. Scott, and three children.
MATTHEW MIELE created and developed the idea for Lit Riffs in order to reinvent the musical experience through literature. While a literary agent with John Hawkins & Associates, Inc., he handpicked the hippest and most celebrated storytellers of our time to imaginatively compose stories inspired by songs.
Prior to his publishing career, Miele wrote and directed the feature film Everything’s Jake—starring Ernie Hudson, Graeme Malcolm, Debbie Allen, Robin Givens, and the late, great Lou Rawls—and was a sound designer/music composer for film and television.
Lit Riffs, Volume 2, also edited by Miele, is coming soon from MTV Books.
*Ironically, about fifteen years after this incident, Mark was hired as an engineer by the Raytheon Corporation and has devoted his professional life to developing high-tech ordnance for the U.S. military.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Introduction by Neil Strauss
Lester Bangs “Maggie May” (1981)
Jonathan Lethem “The National Anthem” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Speeding Motorcycle” by Daniel Johnston as performed by Yo La Tengo
Amanda Davis “Blue Guitar” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Blue Guitar” by the Cowboy Junkies
JT LeRoy “Unfitted” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters
Tom Perrotta “Dirty Mouth” inspired by the music and lyrics from “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty
Tanker Dane “Hallelujah” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen as performed by Jeff Buckley
Lisa Tucker “Why Go” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Why Go” by Pearl Jam
Aimee Bender “All the Security Guards By Name” inspired by the music and lyrics from “The Lobby” by Jane Siberry
Anthony DeCurtis “She Once Had Me” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” by the Beatles
Hannah Tinti “Milestones” inspired by the music from “Milestones” by Miles Davis
Neal Pollack “Death in the Alt-Country” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Mama Tried” by Merle Haggard
Touré “I Shot the Sheriff” inspired by the music and lyrics from “I Shot the Sheriff” by Bob Marley
Victor LaValle “A Simple Explanation of the Afterlife” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Aluminum” by the White Stripes
Heidi Julavits “The Eternal Helen” inspired by the music and lyrics from “I Found a Reason” by the Velvet Underground as performed by Cat Power
Arthur Bradford “Swampthroat” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC
Jennifer Belle “Bouncing” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Graceland” by Paul Simon
Ernesto Quiñonez “Graffiti Monk” inspired by the music and lyrics from “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Darin Strauss “Smoking Inside” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Remedy” by the Black Crowes
Judy Budnitz “The System” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Way Down in the Hole” by Tom Waits
David Ebershoff “Four Last Songs” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Four Last Songs” by Herman Hesse and composer Richard Strauss
Elissa Shappell “Dying on the Vine” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Dying on the Vine” by John Cale
Zev Borow “Rio” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Rio” by Duran Duran
Nelson George “King Heroin” inspired by the music and lyrics from “King Heroin” by James Brown
Julianna Baggott “The Bodies of Boys” inspired by the music and lyrics from “Spirit in the Night” by Bruce Springsteen
Author Bios
Lit Riffs Page 33