TWO DOLLAR RADIO Books Too Loud to Ignore spring 2012
“[Two Dollar Radio] has released some of the finest works of contemporary fiction in the past few years.” The Brooklyn Rail “Aesthetically consistent, editorially adventurous.” Village Voice “I marvel at [their] idealism.” Times Literary Supplement
TWO DOLLAR RADIO is a family-run outfit founded in 2005 with the mission to reaffirm the cultural and artistic spirit of the publishing industry. We aim to do this by presenting bold works of literary merit, each book, individually and collectively, providing a sonic progression that we believe to be too loud to ignore.
Eric Obenauf Publisher/Editor in Chief eric@twodollarradio.com Eliza Wood-Obenauf Art Director/Editor elizajane@twodollarradio.com
Emily Pullen Editor/Outreach Director emily@twodollarradio.com
TWO DOLLAR RADIO
Books too loud to ignore www.TwoDollarRadio.com twodollar@TwoDollarRadio.com
twodollarradio.blogspot.com @TwoDollarRadio 141 East Town St., Suite 200 Columbus, OH 43215 740-504-7456
Cover: McCall Magazine Cover, Girl in Rain, 1943, Nickolas Muray (1892-1965), George Eastman House Collection
Brian Obenauf Senior Rights & Marketing Associate brian@twodollarradio.com
BABY GEISHA stories by Trinie Dalton Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9832471-0-4 US $16, JANUARY 2012 5.5” x 7.5”, 168 pages
stories
“Half ingenuous and half wily, winningly hard to pin down. The result is a kind of everyday fantastic. The effect is a poised instability, more uncanny than the magic the stories sometimes describe.” —Bookforum
Eye-popping stories that showcase an assured and exceptionally stylish talent. Baby Geisha is a collection of thirteen sexually-charged stories that roam from the Coney Island Ferris wheel to the Greek Isles. True to Dalton’s form, the stories in Baby Geisha are distinctly imagined while also representing a more grounded approach in the author’s style. There’s the Joan Didionobsessed starving journalist of Pura Vida, struggling to maintain a relationship with her performance artist sisters (or anyone, for that matter), on assignment in Costa Rica to write an article on sloth-hugging. Millennium Chill is about a woman who discovers that her body heat is mysteriously linked to that of an elderly beggar.
TRINIE DALTON has authored and/or edited five books. Wide Eyed (Akashic), Sweet Tomb (Madras Press), and A Unicorn Is Born (Abrams) are works of fiction. Dear New Girl or Whatever Your Name Is (McSweeney’s) and Mythtym (Picturebox) are art compilations. She’s written articles for venues such as Bookforum, Paper, Purple, Arthur, The Believer, and Bomb. She teaches book/arts and writing at Pratt and NYU, and is on the MFA Fiction faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Rights held: World, Film/TV, Audio
RADIO IRIS novel by Anne-Marie Kinney Literary Fiction, Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9832471-7-3 US $16, MAY 2012 5.5” x 7.5”, 208 pages
of the workaday world.” —T.C. Boyle
“Radio Iris is a revelation, a whimsical, charming and beautifully observed novel about quotidian life. Anne-Marie Kinney’s Iris is a contemporary version of Calvino’s Marcovaldo, caught between the rich expression of her own humanity and the random demands
“Radio Iris brings new shimmer and depth to the word ‘sensory’ - Iris’s perceptions are both keen and open, so mysterious and grounded, and the book builds a narrative of mystery and longing with visceral, ringing precision.” —Aimee Bender
A magnificent, new talent.
ambient dream
of a novel that heralds the debut of a stellar
Iris Finch is a socially awkward receptionist at Larmax, Inc., a company whose true function she doesn’t understand (though she has overheard her boss refer to himself as “a businessman”). Her world goes topsy-turvy when her co-workers begin disappearing and a mysterious stranger moves into the office suite next door.
ANNE-MARIE KINNEY is a graduate of the MFA Writing Program at California Institute of the Arts. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Indiana Review, Black Clock, Keyhole and Satellite Fiction. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband.
Rights held: World
Rights sold: Audio
I’M TRYING TO REACH YOU novel by Barbara Browning Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9832471-1-1 US $16, JUNE 2012 5.5” x 7.5”, 212 pages
“Exquisite storytelling at its finest. I’m Trying to Reach You cultivates our relationship addiction with YouTube and our desire for interconnectivity while illuminating what it means to strive, cope and love with all of our heart, brain, body and soul. It is all here. Browning writes with humor, wit, grace and passion to the human purpose, mortality and the joys of existence. Start reading.” —Karen Finley First Michael Jackson, then Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham... is someone killing famous dancers? A witty, creative, and seductive mystery. Gray Adams, a former dancer with the Royal Swiss Ballet at work on his dissertation at NYU, has a theory spurred by countless hours of YouTube-based procrastination: Someone is killing these famous dancers! (And he may bear an uncanny resemblance to Jimmy Stewart, circa Vertigo.) I’m Trying to Reach You is a moving and candid contemporary look at how we process grief, as well as how we love and communicate with one another.
BARBARA BROWNING has a PhD in comparative literature from Yale. She teaches in the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. She’s also a poet and a dancer. She lives with her son in Greenwich Village. The Correspondence Artist is her first novel.
Rights held: World, Film/TV, Audio
HOW TO GET INTO THE TWIN PALMS novel by Karolina Waclawiak Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9832471-8-0 US $16, JULY 2012 5.5” x 7.5”, 182 pages
“Waclawiak takes the immigrant novel and spins it on its head. A great addition to 1.5 generation literature, beautifully written, funny and touching.” —Gary Shteyngart
A hilarious and moving twist on the typical immigrant tale from the Deputy Editor of The Believer. How To Get Into the Twin Palms is the story of Anya, a young woman living in a Russian neighborhood in Los Angeles, who struggles between retaining her parents’ Polish culture and trying to assimilate into her adopted community. She lusts after Lev, a Russian man who frequents the Twin Palms nightclub down the block from Anya’s apartment. It is Anya’s wish to gain entrance to this seeminly exclusive club. How To Get Into the Twin Palms is an exceptionally funny and often moving book that provides a unique twist on the immigrant story, and provides a credible portrait of the city of Los Angeles, as it is literally burning to the ground.
KAROLINA WACLAWIAK is the Deputy Editor of The Believer. Her screenplay adaptation of the Sam Lipsyte story ‘Venus Drive’ is currently in development.
Rights held: World, Film/TV, Audio
Francis Levys
NOVELS BY FRANCIS LEVY
Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9826848-7-0 US $16, 5.5” x 7.5”, 146 pages
Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, 978-0-9763895-7-6 US $14, 5.25” x 7.5”, 162 pages
“The funniest American novel since Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask.” —Village Voice
“Sex is familiar, but it’s perennial, and Levy makes it fresh.” —Los Angeles Times
A provocative journey that merges sex and psychoanalysis through Rio’s tawdry netherworld of Sontag-quoting denizens as only an incendiary voice like Francis Levy could imagine.
A comedic, absurdist portrait of a modern-day romance that traces the relationship of James and Monica from explosive sex to alcoholism to television dinners.
THE ORANGE EATS CREEPS novel by Grace Krilanovich
Grace Krilanovichs
Introduction by Steve Erickson Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9820151-8-6 US $16, 5.5” x 7.5”, 172 pages
* National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ selection. *NPR Best Books of 2010. *The Believer Book Award Finalist. *Indie Bookseller’s Choice Award Finalist.
Rights held: World, Film/TV
“The book feels written in a fever; it is breathless, scary and like nothing I’ve ever read before. Krilanovich’s work will make you believe that new ways of storytelling are still emerging from the margins.” —NPR With a scathing voice and penetrating delivery, Grace Krilanovich’s The Orange Eats Creeps is one of the most ferocious debut novels in memory.
Rights sold: Audio
In the spirit of Cruddy and Jesus’ Son, Joshua Mohr has created a remarkable and unforgettable character in this charmingly poetic and maturely crafted first novel.
Rights held: World, Film/TV Rights sold: Italian, Audio
“What Joshua Mohr is doing has more in common with Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Haruki Murakami, all great chroniclers of the fantastic. He’s interested in something weirder than mere sex, drugs, and degradation.”
—The Rumpus
*San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller. *Oprah Magazine Terrific Read 2009. *Nervous Breakdown Best Book ’09.
SOME THINGS THAT MEANT THE WORLD TO ME novel by Joshua Mohr Literary Fiction, Trade Paper Original,
978-0-9820151-1-7 US $15, 5.25” x 7.5”, 205 pages
Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9820151-6-2 US $16, 5.5” x 7.5”, 180 pages
*Sacramento Bee Best Read of 2010. * New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
A biting and heartbreaking story of “bad love gone rotten.”
“No small achievement.” —New York Times Book Review “Explodes with pyrotechnic prose.” —Rain Taxi Rights held: World, Film/TV, Audio
DAMASCUS novel by Joshua Mohr
Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-978-0-9826848-9-4 US $16, 5.5” x 7.5”, 208 pages
It’s 2003 and the country is divided evenly for and against the Iraq War. Damascus, a dive bar in San Francisco’s Mission District, becomes the unlikely setting for a showdown between the opposing sides.
“Damascus succeeds in conveying a big-hearted vision.” —Wall Street Journal
“Mohr nails the atmosphere of a San Francisco still breathing in the smoke Rights held: that lingers from the days of Jim Jones and Dan White, a time when passionate World, Film/TV ideologies and personal dysfunction intermingled and combusted.” Rights sold: —New York Times Book Review Audio
Joshua Mohrs
TERMITE PARADE novel by Joshua Mohr
YOU ARE MY HEART AND OTHER STORIES stories by Jay Neugeboren Literary Fiction, Stories Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9826848-8-7 US $16, MAY 2011 5.5” x 7.5”, 190 pages
“[Neugeboren] might not be as famous as some of his compeers, like Philip Roth or John Updike, but it’s becoming increasingly harder to argue that he’s any less talented.” —Kirkus Reviews
Jay Neugeborens
Rights held: World English
From the secluded villages in the south of France, to the cattle crawl in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in South Africa, to the hard-knock adolescent streets of Brooklyn, Jay Neugeboren examines the great mysteries and complexities that unsettle and comprise human relationships.
1940 novel by Jay Neugeboren Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original 978-0-9763895-6-9 US $15, 5.25” x 7.5”, 274 pgs
Dr. Eduard Bloch, the only Jew for whom Hitler ever personally arranged departure from Europe, must now, living in the Bronx, face accusations “Jay Neugeboren traverses the Hit- over the special treatment he received.
lerian tightrope with all the skill and formal daring that have made him one of our most honored writers of literary fiction.” —Los Angeles Times * Long list, 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Rights held: World English
1940 focuses on Dr. Bloch’s relationship with Elizabeth Rofman, a medical illustrator who has come to New York to visit her father, only to find that he has mysteriously disappeared. The story grows more complex when Elizabeth’s son Daniel, a disturbed young adolescent, escapes from the institution in Maryland where his parents have committed him, and makes his way to New York.
THE DROP EDGE OF YONDER novel by Rudolph Wurlitzer Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original 978-0-9763895-5-2 US $15, 5.25” x 7.5”, 274 pages
“There’s a bawdy, lunatic thrill to the tale that seems somehow radical. It’s the kind of book someone will stick in a back pocket before heading out on the trail into the unknown.” —LA Weekly
Rights held: World
Rights sold: French, German, Audio
NOG
A NOVEL BY RUDOLPH WURLITZER A Trade Paperback Original; 978-0-9820151-2-4; $15.50 US
“[Nog’s] combo of Samuel Beckett syntax and hippieera freakiness mapped out new literary territory for generations to come.” —Time Out New York
FLATS / QUAKE
TWO NOVELS BY RUDOLPH WURLITZER A Trade Paperback Original; 978-0-9820151-4-8; $17 US
“Each book is short, but dense and trippy. Together they provide a tour of the dissolution of identity that was daily life in the late sixties.” —Michael Silverblatt, KCRW’s Bookworm
Rudolph Wurlitzers
The Drop Edge of Yonder begins in the mountains of Colorado and ends in the far reaches of the North*Time Out New York’s Best Book of 2008. west, a journey that includes the beginnings of a * ForeWord Magazine 2008 Gold Medal in Mexican revolution, a voyage across the Gulf of Literary Fiction. Mexico to Panama, and up the coast of California to San Francisco and the gold fields.
THE VISITING SUIT
THE CAVE MAN
Stories From My Prison Life
novel by Xiaoda Xiao
memoir by Xiaoda Xiao
Nonfiction Trade Paper Original, Gatefold & Deckle Edge 978-0-9820151-7-9 US $16.5, 5.5” x 7.5”, 263 pgs
Rights held: US & Canada, Audio
“Against great odds, in the grimmest of settings, he manages to find good in the darkness.” —New York Times Book Review
Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original 978-0-9820151-3-1
US $15.5, 5.25” x 7.5”, 184 pgs
* WOSU (a NPR member station)
Favorite Book of 2009. “As a parable of modern China, [The Cave Man] is chilling.” —Boston Globe Rights held: US & Canada Rights sold: Audio
Backlist Highlightss
THE PEOPLE WHO WATCHED HER PASS BY novel by Scott Bradfield Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original 978-0-9820151-5-5 US $14.50, 5.25” x 7.5”, 146 pgs “A billowy adventure of a book.” —New York Times Book Review “Brave and unforgettable.” —Los Angeles Times
The People Who Watched Her Pass By is often hilarious as well as startling, and a poignant new contribution to the body of literature of a respected prose craftsman.
Rights held: World, Audio
I SMILE BACK novel by Amy Koppelman
THE SHANGHAI GESTURE novel by Gary Indiana
Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original 978-0-9763895-6-9 US $15, 5.25” x 7.5”, 188 pgs
Literary Fiction Trade Paper Original 978-0-9820151-0-0 US $15.5, 5.25” x 7.5”, 207 pgs
“Explores with ruthless honesty a woman come undone.” —Bookslut
“If you simply enjoy parody, wordplay, scabrous humor and mind-spinning narrative developments - The Shanghai Gesture might be just your kind of jeu d’esprit.” —Washington Post
Rights held: World English Rights sold: Audio
Rights held: World, Film/TV, Audio