by Dave Reidy
Acknowledgments
The Queensboro Realty Company did, in fact, pay for airtime on New York City’s WEAF to advertise the Hawthorne Court development. Brief excerpts of the original radio broadcast appear in this book. Matthew Lasar’s article, published at arstechnica.com in April 2010 under the title “AT&T’s forgotten plot to hijack the US airwaves,” and Elizabeth McLeod’s piece, published in 1998 under the title “From Hawthorne to Hard-Sell,” gave me valuable insight into the Hawthorne Court broadcast and its impact on radio.
Thomas H. White’s scholarly paper, published in January 2000 and titled “‘Battle of the Century:’ The WJY Story,” increased the breadth and depth of my understanding of Jack Dempsey’s fight with Georges Carpentier. White’s quotation of the broadcast’s climactic call is paraphrased in this book. I also reviewed one of White’s sources, an article titled “Voice-Broadcasting the Stirring Progress of ‘The Battle of the Century,’” originally published in a June 1921 issue of a magazine called The Wireless Age. Both White’s piece and the Wireless Age story have been republished at earlyradiohistory.us.
My appreciation for long-form improvisational comedy crystallized the night I saw T.J. Jagodowski and David Pasquesi invent credible (and hilarious) characters and scenes in front of an audience. Since that night, I have had the privilege and pleasure of taking in dozens of wildly funny characters and scenes created onstage by my brother, Pat Reidy, who made crucial contributions to the brief renderings of improvisation in this book, all of which were drafted and revised without a live audience. T.J., David, and Pat do instantly and in front of thousands what I can scarcely manage to achieve on the page with privacy and endless opportunities to edit. My hat is off to them.
Writers don’t turn blank pages into novels and manuscripts into books without a lot of help. Thanks to: Jac Jemc and Beau Golwitzer, who kindly read and commented on early drafts; Gretchen Kalwinski, whose thoughtful editing proved the springiest of springboards for the novel’s improvement; Jacob Knabb, Naomi Huffman, Catherine Eves, Alban Fischer, Ben Tanzer, Victor David Giron, and everyone at Curbside Splendor; my friends and colleagues at closerlook; my teachers and mentors, who know who they are; Robert Duffer, Mike Sacks, Ryan Bartelmay, Rene Ryan, Kevin Leahy, Patricia McNair, Nami Mun, Claire Zulkey, Steve Delahoyde, Mark Bazer, Liz Mason, Ryan Mason, the Trap Door Theatre Company, and Constance A. Dunn.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my family and friends; to my parents, brothers and sister for their love and support; to Donovan and Dawson for loving one another as brothers; and to Tiffany, who gave me much of the time I took to write this novel and enriched my art with her own.
Dave Reidy’s fiction has appeared in Granta and other journals. His first book, a collection of short stories about performers called Captive Audience, was named an Indie Next Notable Book by the American Booksellers Association. Reidy works at closerlook, inc., where he is the VP of Creative. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
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“In these fresh, sensual stories, Vargas bravely explores family, friendship and irreconcilable loss, and she will break your heart nicely.” —BONNIE JO CAMPBELL
Cyn Vargas's debut collection explores the whims and follies of the human heart. When an American woman disappears in Guatemala, her daughter refuses to accept she's gone; a divorced DMV employee falls in love during a driving lesson; a young woman shares a well-kept family secret with the one person who it might hurt the most; a bad haircut is the last straw in a crumbling marriage. In these stories, characters grasp at love and beg to belong—often at the expense of their own happiness.
ONCE I WAS COOL
ESSAYS BY MEGAN STIELSTRA
“Stielstra is a masterful essayist. From the first page to the last, she demonstrates a graceful understanding of the power of storytelling.” —ROXANE GAY
In these insightful, compassionate, gutsy, and heartbreaking personal essays, Stielstra explores the messy, maddening beauty of adulthood with wit, intelligence, and biting humor. The essays in Once I Was Cool tackle topics ranging from beating postpartum depression by stalking her neighbor, to a surprise run-in with an old lover while on ecstasy, to blowing her mortgage on a condo she bought because of Jane’s Addiction. Or, said another way, they tackle life in all of its quotidian richness.
