Description
Fiction. Art. Illustrations by Maryanna Hardy. ReLit Long Shortlist, 2015. Finalist, Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Winner, National Magazine Award, Silver Medal for Humour. One of the Telegraph Journal's Most Anticipated Books of 2014. The characters in I'M NOT SCARED OF YOU OR ANYTHING are invigilators, fake martial arts experts, buskers, competitive pillow fighters, drug runners, and, of course, grad students. This collection of comedic short stories and exploratory texts is the ninth book by the critically acclaimed and award-winning author Jon Paul Fiorentino. Deftly illustrated by Maryanna Hardy, these texts ask important questions, like: How does a mild mannered loser navigate the bureaucratic terrain of exam supervision? What happens when you replace the text of Christian Archie comics with the text of Helene Cixous? And, most important of all, what would it be like if Mr. Spock was a character in the HBO series GIRLS?
"I'm sure something scares Jon Paul Fiorentino, and maybe it drives him toward the deadpan magic he wields so masterfully in these pages. This is a daring and funny collection."—Sam Lipsyte
"Jon Paul Fiorentino writes the thoughts that we all might have, especially those of us who are loners, losers, or social misfits of one sort or another, using them to create surreal little worlds that show what it might be like to actually live them out. If you've ever suspected that the veil between the ordinary and the surreal was very thin—that just a small step to the left would take you to a place where things are not quite what they seem—then these stories, with their touch of absurd humor shrouded in darkness and often hazed over by drugs, drink, or mental illness, may be just what you're looking for."—Foreword Reviews
"This book leapt up out of the box. It is an outrageously funny book—deadpan. The prose is sharply sliced, clean, and precise. Fiorentino is a master stylist writing from a broad range of interest, drawing on a well of compassion."—The Hugh MacLennan Award for Fiction Jury
"Fiorentino smartly and brightly facilitates the reader's journey into his mind. He has a talent for pointing to profound topics on being and belonging, evoking empathy in the reader, and getting a laugh at the same time. The author does as Andy Kaufman did when, performing as Mighty Mouse, he said, 'I'm not sure if you're laughing at me or with me.' And everybody really laughed."—The Montreal Review of Books
Author Bio
Jon Paul Fiorentino is the author of the short story collection I'M NOT SCARED OF YOU OR ANYTHING (Anvil Press, 2014), the poetry collections, LEAVING MILE END (Anvil Press) and NEEDS IMPROVEMENT (Coach House Books, 2013), the novel Stripmalling, which was shortlisted for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and five previous poetry collections, including THE THEORY OF THE LOSER CLASS, which was shortlisted for the A. M. Klein Prize and INDEXICAL ELEGIES which won the 2009 CBC Book Club "Bookie" Award for Best Book of Poetry. He has written for The National Post, Walrus, Maisonneuve, subTerrain, The Huffington Post, The Montreal Gazette, The Barnstomer, New American Writing, Hobo, Joyland, The Capilano Review, Event, The Winnipeg Review, The Queen Street Quarterly, fillingStation, Prism International, Opium and many other publications. He lives in Montreal, where he teaches Creative Writing at Concordia University, is the editor- in-chief of Matrix magazine, is a poetry editor for Joyland, the poetry editor for the Snare Imprint of Invisible Publishing, and the fiction editor for the Serotonin/Wayside Imprint of Insomniac Press.
Author City: MONTREAL, QC CAN