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Big Other Reading Series #7

Mel Bosworth reads an excerpt from Ben Brooks’s An Island of Fifty.

An Island of Fifty (an excerpt)

By Ben Brooks

Autumn came with rains & the sea crept into the room beneath the mill.
It washed sobriety into the eyes of the Saints & Michael woke them all
with his plan:

WE ARE BLEEDING INTO THE BRICKS OF THIS TOWN. Concrete is a vice but we
are Saints (Catherine coughed). Let us lead these few from here. Promised
land, a holy town. There must be something. A guide will manifest, God
wills it. We will lead these men from the clutches of the tide of evil, OF
INDUSTRIAL CIVILISATON! We shall save them, salvation. They shall be Gods
people, free & joyful. Let us promise them grass & trees, for these they
shall have. They will be happy beyond the dreams that hands can claw. They
will see clear glass as far as their eyes will care to look.

An Island of Fifty is forthcoming from Mud Luscious Press (June, 2010). Pre-order HERE.Visit Ben Brooks HERE.

  • John Madera is the author of Nervosities (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024). His other fiction is published in Conjunctions, Salt Hill, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His nonfiction is published in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, New York State Council on the Arts awardee John Madera lives in New York City, Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.

7 thoughts on “Big Other Reading Series #7

  1. I just finished reading an ARC of Ben’s book last weekend — it’s AWESOME! I wonder if you considered performing the font-shifts, Mel? (i.e. shouting the caps bits and whispering the tiny bits?) Anyway, these videos you’re producing are very cool.

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