KGB Bar

Melville House is pleased to announce the addition of Lore Segal’s LUCINELLA to their acclaimed Contemporary Art of the Novella Series
Lore Segal was born in Vienna, Austria in 1928. She emigrated to New York in 1951 and soon began selling to The New Yorker and other magazines. She is the author of Other People’s Houses. After Lucinella, which went on to receive numerous writing prizes, including an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for her 1985 novel Her First American. Her most reent book, the story collection Shakespeare’s Kitchen, was a finalist for the 2008 Pulizter Prize. She reads from her novella, Lucinenlla.

“Lucinella is a shamelessly wonderful novel, so flawless one feels civilized reading it.” Stanley Elkin

TAO LIN was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1983, the son of Taiwanese immigrants.  His father was a pioneer in the field of laser eye surgery, and soon moved the family to Orlando, Florida, where Lin spent his childhood.  He moved to New York City in 2001 to attend New York University, where he earned a B.A. in journalism and an undergraduate creative writing prize.  He became well known while still an undergraduate for his literary website, Reader of Depressing Books, which took a close and often controversial look at mainstream literary culture.  In 2006, he published a poetry collection, You Are A Little Bit Happier Than I Am, followed in 2007 by the simultaneous Melville House publications of his story collection Bed and the novel Eeeee Eee Eeee.  His work expressed strong sentiments against mainstream culture and in favor of alternative lifestyles such as veganism.  The books became underground sensations and Lin became known for staging outrageous conceptual art events in support of them, such as giving a reading where he repeated the same sentence over and over again; blanketing New York City with stickers saying simply “Britney Spears”; and a successful online campaign selling “shares” in a future work for $2,000 apiece.  In 2008, Lin published his next poetry collection with Melville House, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.  It has been assigned as a text in several college-level psychology courses.  Lin’s next novel, Richard Yates, will be published in the fall of this year.

ZACHARY GERMAN was born in southern New Jersey in 1988. In 2006 he dropped out of high school and moved to Philadelphia, PA. He delivered pizza and other things on his bicycle, and later worked at a thrift store. In 2007 his story “letting me out first part” was selected by Dennis Cooper for inclusion in the Userlands anthology from Akashic Press, and an early excerpt from Eat When You Feel Sad was published as an e-book by Bear Parade. In 2008 he moved to Brooklyn, NY, where he completed Eat When You Feel Sad. He currently works as a dog walker in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. 

About the Series: KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction

The KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction showcases the finest in contemporary fiction from new and emerging writers.

Suzanne Dottino/fiction curator,