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Reverse-Gentrification of the Literary World

Akashic Books

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News & Features

“The Last Stud” by Paul Renault

On the few days out of the year when the range was closed he’d get out the duct tape and stick the PVC-and-wadding suppressor on his Ruger .22 pistol. He’d load it with subsonics. He’d open the window, take out the screen, and throw some empty beer cans out in the yard. Then he’d stand back in the dark of his room and make them dance . . .

Dark Days in Port-au-Prince (Part 6, Roxane Gay)

Read part six of DARK DAYS IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, our Haiti-set noir short story that was written by Haiti Noir and Haiti Noir 2: The Classics contributors in the style of an exquisite corpse, a collaborative writing process in which each author builds a story based upon what his or her predecessors have provided. Haiti Noir 2: The Classics contributor Roxane Gay returns to finish this haunting short story.

“Across the Alley” by Raymond Miller

When Cold-bone described beating his girlfriend unconscious because she threw up on his shoes while giving him a blowjob, Burnadette decided that she wasn’t hungry after all . . .

“Jesus Returns” by Sasha Frere-Jones

To celebrate the release of The Jesus Lizard Book, Akashic will be featuring excerpts from Book on our website once a week throughout March. Today, we bring you Sasha Frere-Jones’s 2009 essay, “Jesus Returns,” originally published in the December 14, 2009 issue of the New Yorker.

“The Widow Never Showed” by Nathan Ward

We had switched from beer to a pair of hot rums dubbing around in a reporters’ bar across from the women’s prison downtown. Outside it was storming in late-October style, the first chilly rain that gnaws like winter, and from our polished stools we watched the people tilt their umbrellas at one another like blind knights as they passed . . .