Of all the Brooklyn books I like, my favorite is one that does not exist on its own: it’s buried in a much larger novel about World War II and the death camps.
June 29, 2010 Classic, Featured Writers, Guest Authors
“Matt is impossible today,” his teacher said when she wearily passed him off to me. I could only see a 4-year-old whose large, frightened eyes were wet with tears. He looked lost and lonely and I immediately found myself wanting to shelter him. I was a 23-year-old kid myself, barely paying rent on a rundown railroad in Bushwick. This was the first real job I had landed, yet I was only a novice, an uncertified preschool librarian in Brownsville.
May 25, 2010 Featured Writers
This essay by Heather Kristin is the first in our non-fiction series The New 8 Million, chronicling the lives of New Yorkers in their own words. Besides being a native of this fair city, Heather Kristin is a memoirist, novelist, playwright, violinist, composer, ex-actress, former subway performer and new mom who is currently writing a memoir about growing up in New York City. Here is an excerpt.
May 19, 2010 Classic, Featured Writers
Throughout the five-boroughs, the aliens leveled all apartments, condos, townhouses, brownstones, high-rises, and houses systematically with top-of the line laser death-rays. Afterward, new buildings were constructed, and nearly everyone was relocated to a new apartment; a 10-foot by 10-foot living space with an incredibly low ceiling and a sliver of a window. That is, except for a few railroad apartments in Bushwhick.
April 15, 2010 Boroughing, Classic, Featured Writers, Fiction, Guest Authors
Life is tough working a shift at the Park Slope Food Coop.
March 30, 2010 Boroughing, Classic, Featured Writers
DEPTH OF FIELD—I didn’t really mind being assigned the class. I guess I’ve developed a reputation for being good with the ED kids, and pretty much all the kids at Automotive are emotionally disturbed, so I was surprised when Mr. D took the time to run it by me beforehand.
March 2, 2010 Classic, Featured Writers
Nola squints in the sunlight that has just spilled over the rooftops and illuminated Williamsburg’s McCarren Park in all its dewy spring splendor. Slipping her Chanel sunglasses down over her eyes, she sips her latte and makes a sweeping gesture toward the jogger-strewn park, its busy dog run, and the new high-rise condos that have sprung up along its borders.
“There is no way I’d be living here without my nurse hat, if you know what I mean. This place is going to look like Park Slope in a few years. They might dress like hipsters, but they’re just yuppies with vintage wardrobes.”
February 19, 2010 Boroughing, Classic, Featured Writers, Guest Authors
DEPTH OF FIELD—I read on the internet the other day that Europeans brought the rat to Hawaii, and it took over the island in a New York minute. But what exactly it took over isn’t clear to me. Alleyways? The space between walls? Everyone has space between walls. That’s where the outside meets the inside and they find their balance, like in a decompression chamber. You don’t want to let the outside in.
February 18, 2010 Boroughing, Classic, Featured Writers
The Adventures of the Oblivious Manhattanite in the Other Borough are true accounts of spontaneous excursions by a natural explorer distantly descended from a Montauk princess and an infamous Dutch family that helped settle New York. Here, in the vein of Diedrich Knickerbocker, J.K. Van Tassell shares her feral tales in the Brooklyn. In her final episode, the Oblivious Manhattanite needs a paper bag to breathe Into because she cannot see Manhattan from Shrublick.
March 27, 2009 Featured Writers
The Adventures of the Oblivious Manhattanite in the Other Borough are true accounts of spontaneous excursions by a natural explorer distantly descended from a Montauk princess and an infamous Dutch family that helped settle New York. Here, in the vein of Diedrich Knickerbocker, J.K. Van Tassell shares her feral tales in the Brooklyn. In part five she goes loft hunting with Kitty Jihad and is attacked by cheese grits.
March 18, 2009 Featured Writers
The Adventures of the Oblivious Manhattanite in the Other Borough are true accounts of spontaneous excursions by a natural explorer distantly descended from a Montauk princess and an infamous Dutch family that helped settle New York. Here, in the vein of Diedrich Knickerbocker, J.K. Van Tassell shares her feral tales in the Brooklyn. In part four the Oblivious Manhattanite romances a self-imposed exile in the Other Borough.
February 26, 2009 Featured Writers
The Adventures of the Oblivious Manhattanite in the Other Borough are true accounts of spontaneous excursions by a natural explorer distantly descended from a Montauk princess and an infamous Dutch family that helped settle New York. Here, in the vein of Diedrich Knickerbocker, J.K. Van Tassell shares her feral tales in the Brooklyn. In part three she goes zig-zagging through gruplets, awaits the faulty WTF train in a quest for bordeaux.
February 16, 2009 Featured Writers
The Adventures of the Oblivious Manhattanite in the Other Borough are true accounts of spontaneous excursions by a natural explorer distantly descended from a Montauk princess and an infamous Dutch family that helped settle New York. Here, in the vein of Diedrich Knickerbocker, J.K. Van Tassell shares her feral tales in the Brooklyn. In Part Two she goes exploring St. Gumbo and Cider Hill with some thirsty frogs in a snow squall.
January 27, 2009 Featured Writers
The Adventures of the Oblivious Manhattanite in the Other Borough are true accounts of spontaneous excursions by a natural explorer distantly descended from a Montauk princess and an infamous Dutch family that helped settle New York. Here, in the vein of Diedrich Knickerbocker, J.K. Van Tassell shares her feral tales in the Brooklyn. Some names of Kings County’s charming burgs and establishments are misnamed because she is dyslexic and oblivious. In her expeditions she is always accompanied by Sophie Dulac, another oblivious character from France, and the sometimes present and much needed Frampton, their Brooklyn Sherpa. The Oblivious Manhattanite lives near City Hall and very rarely goes above Canal Street. Her view from this humble abode is of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges which beckon her constantly, along with a chorus of hyped up articles that appear in New York Magazine and the New York Times about rejuvenated places like Blowanus and Yellow-Blue Hook.
January 20, 2009 Classic, Featured Writers
