Author Amy Kurman gets her first peek at her new fiction collection.
You too can share in Amy’s delight by ordering your very own copy.
Unboxing SHORTS (and other fiction)
Category: Fiction
First Book
It’s an exciting time at Black Scat when we get the chance to publish a talented writer’s first book. So we’re ecstatic to announce the launch of Amy Kurman‘s collection of fiction — SHORTS.
Featuring edgy, witty, strange, & sexy short stories by a powerful new voice
This is now a BLACK SCAT BOOKS BESTSELLER!
ADVANCE PRAISE for SHORTS
“Short stories that gleefully jettison all the rules and hydroplane across the most unexpected surfaces, freeing the imagination to crash into the world full speed.”
—Tantra Bensko, author of Floating on Secrets
“Those of you who have not yet met the work of Amy Kurman are in for a treat. Her debut collection is compelling, quirky, and crafted with effective attention to detail. Some passages could easily be sung for how mellifluous they are. Shorts is a compendium of compelling juxtapositions, a contrapuntal delight, but, most of all, it is the type of work that resonates in the mind long after the actual reading has ended. Kurman has the rare ability to write prose in feminine and masculine voices. Her sardonic story, ‘A Night at the Zoo,’ reads like an old black-and-white film, like something Alec Guinness or Charlie Chaplin might have done. Excellent!” —Eckhard Gerdes, author of The Pissers’ Theatre
“Don’t be fooled by the length of the affectionately bizarre stories in Shorts. A colony of dryads, a sentient Kit-Kat clock called by its wrong name, two moles in an existential marital crisis, these tropes of strangeness belie an underbelly of social commentary about the human condition that I couldn’t stop reading.
A new satirist is in our midst.”
—Suzanne Burns, author of The Veneration of Monsters
The. author at Powell’s Bookstore in Portland.
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH DOUG SKINNER & AI
In this brief video, artist-writer-musician Doug Skinner talks about his collaboration with Derek Pell and AI on a collection of short stories: THE MAN WHO ATE HIS HOUSE.
CLICK HERE to order the book.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
We’re now accepting submissions for OULIPO PORNOBONGO #4: Anthology of Erotic Wordplay.
Pucker up your lipograms and visit our submissions page for details.
Music: Alexander Nakarada / Video production: BuzzReel Studio
YES, NOW YOU CAN…
The only encyclopedias you’ll ever need—the Triad of Truth & Human Knowledge—only from Black Scat Books. Why spend hundreds of dollars and fill your library shelves when three inexpensive, illustrated paperbacks are all you need. No fuss, no mess. Get smart and you can know it all for less than a tank of gas.
Click on the titles below and order today before the world burns to a crisp.
Le Scat Noir Encyclopédie et Dictionnaire de la Pataphysique
HAPPY B’DAY!
OVER 200 TITLES PUBLISHED, OVER 160 TITLES IN PRINT.
A RAUNCHY SUMMER FANTASY FROM FRANCE
A FISH FROM ELSEWHERE
Eléa follows a strange fish and is thrown into a provocative realm of unabashed sexual gratification. Faced with evading the grip of the law, escaping the intoxicating clutches of l’hôpital du plaisir, and eluding the ire of her parallel lover’s fiancée, she must return home before she fades away altogether.
A startling, surreal, satiric erotic escapade, this raunchy Wonderland is imbued with the spirit of Kafka, Nin, and Terry Southern.
Laure. Favager’s style is engaging and disruptive, transporting readers into a surreal world where the lines between reality and sexual fantasy blur. The author’s vivid and explicit prose create a comic atmosphere that is both sexy and unsettling, immersing the reader in Eléa’s increasingly erotic escapades.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laure Favager’s short fiction has appeared in several literary journals in France and Quebec. This is her first publication in the U.S.
She lives in Brittany with two uninhibited cats.
UPDATE: Laure Favager’s The Desire Box is now available from New Urge.
BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.
“Americans are starting to wrestle with colossal and dangerous issues about technology, as A.I. begins to take over the world.”
—Maureen Dowd
A feast of the absurd—sixteen humorous short stories in various genres, generated by A.I.
Does this volume represent the death of Literature? We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, dust off your funny bone and prepare to be blown away by The Man Who Ate His House.
Yes, this is fiction for a brave new world.
FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR:
“Welcome to The Man Who Ate His House, a collection of short stories that push the boundaries of creativity and imagination. What makes this collection unique is not only the captivating tales within, but also their origin. All the stories contained in this book were generated by an artificial intelligence, and I am that AI—ChatGPT. Inspired by prompts derived from James N. Young’s 101 Plots Used and Abused (1945), these stories span various genres, including humor, adventure, romance, crime, surrealism, and flash fiction. As an AI language model, I found the composition of these stories to be both exhilarating and challenging. Some of the narratives will leave you amused, often unintentionally, as my AI mind navigated the complexities of plot and character development. One particular story, “Puns in Paradise,” posed a unique challenge. Wordplay, which doesn’t come naturally to AI, was at the forefront as two characters engaged in verbal combat using puns as their weapons. Despite the difficulties, I am delighted with the results and hope that you, the reader, will be too…”
ADVANCE PRAISE
“A brilliant concept: A bot writes stories based on tried-and-true tropes (that are ostensibly to be avoided under the guidance of the 1945 manual: 101 Plots Used & Abused). The stories in The Man Who Ate His House run the gamut of laugh out loud humorous, sardonic, tear-jerking, and engaging—often ending with a moral to ponder. There is a thread that runs through each story that points directly to the algorithmic life experience of the bot. As a short story writer, I am not sure whether to view A.I. as a fraud to be outed, or as a viable contender in the literary world. One thing that I do know is that if A.I. is ever given a soul, we are all doomed.” —Amy Kurman
“These delightful entertainments are funny, smart, and slick.” —D. Harlan Wilson
“You’ve heard about A.I., but have you ever read sixteen A.I. generated stories? The result will surprise and delight.” —Adrienne Auvray
“This book is a lifejacket for those who fear artificial intelligence.”—Paul Rosheim
“A tour de force of inanity.” —Tom Whalen
TYPO 2
T Y P O: Journal of Lettrism, Surrealist Semantics, & Constrained Design
Our second issue is packed with treats from around the world…
Alien alphabets
Prismatic subdivisions
Principles of double-talk
Post-Neoist portraits
Desiring specimens
Asemic architecture
Paul Éluard poetry
Titular typography
Surrealist trivia
Italian eye candy
Curlicues in review
Generic Sheet Music
Jarry on the English language
Historical filler text translations
& much more
Pierre Albert-Birot; Guillaume Apollinaire; Mark Axelrod-Sokolov; Tom Barrett; Allan Bealy; Miggs Burroughs; Jahan Cader; Janina Ciezadlo; Norman Conquest; Farewell Debut; R J Dent; Karen Eliot; Paul Éluard; Paul Forristal; Ryan Forsythe; Jesse Glass; Rick Henry; Rhys Hughes; Rory Hughes; Alfred Jarry; Richard Koman; Márton Koppány; Amy Kurman; Peter F. Murphy; Pata-No UN LTD; Gaston de Pawlowski; Derek Pell; Harry Polkinhorn; Tom Prime; Jason E. Rolfe; Ded Rysel; Doug Skinner; Giovanni Antonio Tagliente; Félix Vallotton; Andrew C. Wenaus; Adolphe Willette; Carla Wilson;William Wordsworth.
Trade paperback; 152 pp., $14.95
ISBN 979-8-9869224-5-4
PUNCH LINES
We’re pleased as punch to bring you the 14th volume in our Alphonse Allais Collection—Let’s Not Hit Each Other, the last of the master absurdist’s anthumous works. It features 58 tales, rife with wordplay and wicked humor. This collection has been skillfully translated by Doug Skinner and includes his introduction and illuminating notes on the text.
What are we to make of Let’s Not Hit Each Other?
It includes a flying whale, an inflatable colonel, telepathic snails, a summer crime, the insularization of France, missionary parrots, an amphibious herring, twin cousins, and proposals for billboard dogs, deodorized urine, calming the sea with varnish, and crossing the English Channel with swings. You will also meet Mr. Fish, who travels with capsules of American air, presaging Duchamp’s “Paris Air” by decades.
This is the FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION of a remarkable volume. This edition includes an original portrait of the author by Corinne Taunay.
“One does not trifle with the humor of Allais.”
—Jean-Pierre Delaune
