The new expanded edition of Merde à la Belle Époque is now available from Black Scat Books! I’ve selected, translated, annotated, and introduced scatological songs, stories, poems, and playlets from some of the most inventive and eccentric writers of the golden age of Parisian Bohemia: Alphonse Allais, George Auriol, Georges Courteline, Charles Cros, J. Eschbach, […]

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The 26th issue of Black Scat Review is now available! I contributed an alphabet, “Partners in Crime,” and my translation of “Upside-Down Stories: Mineral Waters,” by Charles Cros and Émile Goudeau (from my edition of those stories). The other contributors are a fine bunch: Tim Newton Anderson, Tom Barrett,  Margot Block, Robert James Cross, Farewell […]

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The 25th issue of Black Scat Review is now out and ready for you to read! This one is subtitled “Lewd, Nude, and Rude,” and contains three of my contributions: “King Merrimack,” in which the eponymous monarch and his physician Celso receive a boorish visitor; “The Noble Apothecary,” my translation of a 1664 story by […]

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The 24th issue of Black Scat Review is now available! The theme of this one is “Funhouse.” In it, you can find my short story “The Potato Farm,” as well as delightful verbiage and artwork by Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, David Berger,  Norman Conquest, R J Dent, Muriel Falak, Eckhard Gerdes, Richard Gessner, Alfred Jarry, Richard Kostelanetz, Amy Kurman, Mantis, Kate Meyer-Currey, Bob McNeil, Lillianne Milgrom, Lance Olsen, Paul Rosheim, Nile Southern, and Jim […]

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The 23rd issue of Black Scat Review is now available! It’s devoted to “wordplay,” and includes several pages of Doug Skinner: my translations of two poems by Raymond Queneau (depicted on the cover) and four pages of my upcoming comic book Shorten the Classics. Also on board are the stellar crew of Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, […]

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Principles of Cerebral Mechanics is now available from Wakefield Press! This is my third translation of Charles Cros (these are the others). Here’s how Wakefield describes it: Though lesser known among the scientific writings of Charles Cros, Principles of Cerebral Mechanics is a visionary work that further establishes the author’s standing as the inventeur maudit […]

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The 22nd issue of Black Scat Review is now available! This is the “Errata” issue, and contains my contributions “Shakespeare Misspelled” and “Typos on Title Pages.” It also features texts, comics, collages, and drawings by my lively colleagues Terri Carrion, Norman Conquest, Caroline Crépiat, Farewell Debut, S. C. Delaney, Jean-Pierre Duffour, Errorbiblioteca, Paul Forristal, Ryan […]

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The Children’s Hour was a monthly magazine edited by Timothy Shay Arthur. Arthur was a fervently industrious writer in the middle of the 19th century, turning out dozens of novels preaching morality and temperance, as well as publishing some 14 magazines. He’s best remembered today for his novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What […]

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July 4th marks the 9th year of Black Scat Books! To celebrate the occasion, they have released a special deluxe hardcover edition of their very first title, Alphonse Allais’s Masks — based on Allais’s story Un drame bien parisien, adapted and illustrated by Norman Conquest, with an introduction and notes by Allaisian scholar Doug Skinner. […]

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The 21st issue of Black Scat Review is now available from Amazon! My contributions to this special travel issue are a short story, “The Morning Walk,” and translations of two stories by Alphonse Allais, from my upcoming translation of his collection 2 + 2 – 5. I am, mind you, one of many contributors. My […]

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