Matt Bell and The Brooklyn Rail recently invited me to chat about Scandamerican Domestic, and that interview went live at the Brooklyn Rail just a few days ago. I could not feel more fortunate! Matt Bell is of course the most generous and gracious man in letters today, and he was kind enough to […]
Press
Largehearted Boy posts SDs Book Notes!
So awesome to create an annotated playlist for Scandamerican Domestic at Largehearted Boy’s Book Notes! Thank you, David Gutowski and Largehearted Boy for the invitation, and for creating such a cool space–and for including me! Here is a small example of me searching for musical words to help better understand my writing and work…
KGB Bar & Lit Mag calls SD “possessed of cold, uncompromising beauty”
A really phenomenal review of Scandamerican Domestic came in today from KGB Bar & Lit Journal‘s David Burr Gerrard. Burr Gerrard notes that “Merkner’s sentences are crisp and cruel” and contends “the book resembles the movie Fargo with its heart fed through the wood chipper.” Awesome. Thank you, David Burr Gerard! But I am most pleased with …
Star Tribune calls Scandamerican Domestic “profound & terrifically fun”
Great review came in on Sunday (1/12) from Peter Geye at the Star Tribune: “Merkner’s stories are strange, funny, serious, sad and, at times, preposterous. His is a fresh and profound voice, and terrifically fun….No doubt this will not be the last we hear from this Scandamerican.” (!)
And We’re Launched!
Huge thanks to McNally Jackson Books for collaborating with Coffee House Press, Two-Dollar Radio and Elephant Rock Books on Indie Press Night. Independent press authors Jacob Appel and Barbara Browning and me (!) presented our books and chatted about writing and publishing with our amazing independent book publishers! We had a smart, lively audience and a great […]
Largehearted Boy & WORD Bookstores Book of the Week!
WORD Bookstores — independent neighborhood bookstores in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Jersey City, New Jersey — and Largehearted Boy have named The Rise & Fall of the Scandamerican Domestic one of their books of the week! Of Scandamerican Largehearted Boy says, “Coffee House Press delivers yet another original, absorbing book. Merkner’s Midwestern backdrop and icy storytelling makes the familiar alien and the grotesque […]
Chicago Tribune Books Sends A Scandamerican!
Chicago Tribune Books is sending my story, “We Have Them to Raise Us,” which is in Scandamerican Domestic, with the December 15th issue of their Printer’s Row Journal!