The following is excerpted from Manifesto: Maximalist Expressionism, or "Shut/-/Up(!) Fiction". A large part of the “work” my novel sets out to accomplish is to foreground the way in which self-knowledge is not an exact match for the narrative-of-self we carry around with us in our minds, a narrative subject to constant revision and emendation,…
Housebreaking the Muse – Excerpt
In the following excerpt from my novel-in-progress, Housebreaking the Muse, the primary narrative entity, a reformed Père Ubu, introduces the protagonist, Ray Burke, a graduate of a large state university in Middle-of-Nowhere Pennsylvania whose grand aspiration is to land a position as "a functionary in a large private university." Ubu Burke wandered down Mass Ave.…
Craft Notes: Voice Lessons
The following is excerpted from Manifesto: Maximalist Expressionism, or "Shut/-/Up(!) Fiction". In his afterword to Paul West’s novel Tenement of Clay, critic Bill Marx quotes West on the nature of his narratives (what Marx refers to, somewhat irritatingly, as West’s “streams of dreams”). These narratives, West said, “...which appear to be the voices of those…
Seeds of Housebreaking the Muse
Jacques Rigaut's Happiest Birthday: A Dada Bedtime Story In my August 12 post, I talked about how I stumbled across the figure of the French dadaist, gigolo, addict, and suicide, Jacques Rigaut and presented an excerpt from his appearance in my novel (in progress) Housebreaking the Muse. Some years ago, having "discovered" Rigaut, I worked…
Craft Notes: Paul West’s Technical Advice for Fiction Writers, Part II
The novelist Paul West has had the greatest influence on my development as a writer. I first had the great fortune of encountering this member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, winner of the Prix Médicis and the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, Literary Lion of the New York Public Library system, and…
Ed Desautels' Maximum Fiction 