I’ve selected, translated, and annotated a choice selection of plays by Alphonse Allais for this book. First performed in the cabarets and theaters of Paris in the rollicking 1890s, these plays include satire, absurdism, he-she sketches, a burlesque operetta, even a play for dogs.  You’ll find ten monologues, three one-act plays, and twelve shorter skits […]

[Read more →]

Oulipo Pornobongo 3 is now available from Black Scat Books!  Edited by Norman Conquest, this anthology collects smut written under formal constraints.  I contributed an alphabet (“Hybrids”), a homophonic translation (“A Homophonous Restoration of the ‘King James’ Text of Psalm 23”), and a univocalism (“Gus Fucks Lulu”).  There is also work by Maria Schurr, Tom […]

[Read more →]

The eighth issue of “Black Scat Review” is now out!  It contains my short but unpleasant story “Hardwood Mulch,”  as well as seductive works by Suzanne Burns, Doug Rice, Steven Teref, Kurt Cline, Charles Holdefer, Paulo Brito, Jhaki M.S. Landgrebe,Tara Stillions Whitehead, Maria Morisot, Fox Harvard, Charlie Griggs, Monika Mori, and Tom Whalen.  You can […]

[Read more →]

Translating verse is difficult enough; it’s harder to try to retain the rhyme and meter.  Some paraphrase is always required, but it often comes closer to the original poem than a more literal rendition.  It is, at any rate, a challenging writing exercise.  Here’s my version of a verse by Jean de la Fontaine, from his […]

[Read more →]

I delivered this brief talk at the “Congress of Curious Peoples,” at the Coney Island Museum, May 1, 2014.  It concerned the attempts by fans of the pulp writer Richard Shaver to build the machines he described in his stories.  Here’s the first page…

[Read more →]

Bill Irwin, Michael O’Connor and I performed The Regard of Flight frequently between 1980 and 2003.  It seemed, at times, that we would spend the rest of our lives doing it.  Its last run at the Signature Theater in NYC, however, laid it peacefully to rest.  I wrote this verse in 1991, as we prepared […]

[Read more →]

The sixth issue of Black Scat Review is now out; and it contains my translation of “The Unicolorist” by Jules Moy, a monologue about monochromatic painting from 1897.  I also contributed an introduction about Moy, and about the history of monochromatic painting in the Belle Époque.  It also contains delightful work by Nin Andrews, Ivan […]

[Read more →]

Merde à la Belle Époque is now available from Black Scat Books! Doug Skinner has chosen, translated, and annotated a choice selection of scatological texts from Paris’s Bohemian heyday. The texts range from 1883 to 1902, and include poems, stories, a play, a rebus and a letter. You will find Alphonse Allais, George Auriol, Georges […]

[Read more →]

Videos of me reading from my translation of Alphonse Allais’s book, Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks, have been posted here and here.  Thanks to Farewell Debut for shooting them; and to Derek Pell for posting them.  And thanks to Anthony Matt for the photo.

[Read more →]

Although I had sometimes suspected this was true, it was gratifying to see it in print.  Linette Lao and Mark Maynard visited Italy in 2003, and wrote some travel notes for the 14th issue of their magazine, Crimewave USA.  I had given them some useful advice, which, fortunately, they finally remembered.

[Read more →]