Fka Usa

“Mr. King looks at all our upcoming problems, and imagines a local reaction to each one. The result is often funny, usually sardonic, and always imaginative, what with all the mole rats, flesh drones, dimeheads, and especially ‘The Grifter’s Guide to the Territories FKA USA,’ a notable addition to the line of imaginary authorities.” —The Wall Street Journal Indie Next Pick for July Best of June: io9, AV Club, Amazing Stories, The Verge Reed King’s amazingly audacious novel is something of a cross between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, Douglas Adams’s A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. In Reed King’s wildly imaginative and possibly prescient debut, the United States has dissolved in the wake of environmental disasters and the catastrophic policies of its final president. It is 2085, and Truckee Wallace, a factory worker in Crunchtown 407 (formerly Little Rock, Arkansas, before the secessions), has no grand ambitions besides maybe, possibly, losing his virginity someday. But when Truckee is thrust unexpectedly into the spotlight he is tapped by the President for a sensitive political mission: to deliver a talking goat across the continent. The fate of the world depends upon it. The problem is—Truckee’s not sure it’s worth it. Joined on the road by an android who wants to be human and a former convict lobotomized in Texas, Truckee will navigate an environmentally depleted and lawless continent with devastating—and hilarious—parallels to our own, dodging body pickers and Elvis-worshippers and logo girls, body subbers, and VR addicts. Elvis-willing, he may even lose his virginity. FKA USA is the epic novel we’ve all been waiting for about the American end of times, with its unavoidable sense of being on the wrong end of the roller coaster ride. It is a masterwork of ambition, humor, and satire with the power to make us cry, despair, and laugh out loud all at once. It is a tour de force unlike anything else you will read this year.

A gripping short story from the New York Times bestselling author of Pieces of Her. A beautiful young girl was walking down the street―when suddenly… Julia Carroll knows that too many stories start that way. Beautiful, intelligent, a nineteen-year-old college freshman, she should be carefree. But instead she is frightened. Because girls are disappearing. A fellow student, Beatrice Oliver, is missing. A homeless woman called Mona-No-Name is missing. Both taken off the street. Both gone without a trace. Julia is determined to find out the reasons behind their disappearances. And she doesn't want to be next…

A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection * An Indie Next Pick * An Indies Introduce Selection * One of Reader’s Digest’s Best Summer Books of 2019 * One of The Millions’ Most Anticipated Books of 2019 * One of Real Simple’s Best Books of 2019 “[This] might be the most optimistic post-apocalyptic story ever written. It’s Sleepless in Seattle meets Station Eleven.” —The A.V. Club Carson is on the East Coast when the electrical grid goes down. Desperate to find Beatrix, a woman on the West Coast who holds his heart, he sets off along a cross-country railroad line, where he encounters lost souls, clever opportunists, and those seeking salvation. Meanwhile, Beatrix and her neighbors begin to construct a cooperative community, working to turn the end of the world into the possibility of a bright beginning. Without modern means of communication, will Beatrix and Carson be able to find their way to each other? The answer may lie with one fifteen-year-old girl, whose actions could ultimately decide the fate of the lovers. The Lightest Object in the Universe is a moving story about adaptation and the power of community, imagining a world where our best traits, born of necessity, can begin to emerge.

What kind of a reader does an artist make?This publication marks the conclusion of Para Fictions, a two-year commissioning series in which ten artists -Dineo Seshee Bopape, Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Mark Geffriaud, Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff, Laure Prouvost (2013 Turner Prize winner), Oscar Santillan, Lucy Skaer, and Rayyane Tabet- responded to works of literary fiction.Deploying strategies of allusion, vandalism, mistranslation and appropriation, the participating artists approached texts by writers such as Bessie Head, Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, and Virginia Woolf.In the publication, invited writers and curators respond to each work, completing a circle between text and object, to trace the lines of literary affiliation and tease the productive tensions that arise between a source material and its reinscription.Para Fictions (29 Jan 2016 - 31 Dec 2017) at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam:Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff (29 Jan - 10 Apr 10 2016), Oscar Santillan (22 Apr - 3 Jul 2016), Lucy Skaer (15 Jul - 2 Oct 2016), Mark Geffriaud (14 Oct 2016 - 15 Jan 2017), Laure Prouvost (27 Jan - 2 Apr 2017), Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel (14 Apr - 9 Jul 2017), Rayyane Tabet (21 Jul - 8 Oct 2017) and Dineo Seshee Bopape (20 Oct - 31 Dec 2017).

Advertising has always been a uniquely influential social force. It affects what we buy, what we believe, who we elect, and so much more. We tend to know histories of other massive social forces, but even people working in advertising often have a tenuous grasp of their field's background. This book slices advertising's history into a smörgåsbord of specific topics like advertising to children, political advertising, people's names as advertisements, 3D advertising, programmatic buying, and so much more, offering a synopsis of how each developed and the role it played in this discipline. In doing so, many firsts are identified, such as the first full-page color magazine advertisement, and the first point-of-purchase advertisement. This book also reaches back farther in search of the earliest advertisements, and it tells the story of the variety of techniques used by our ancestors to promote their products and ideas. Part textbook, part reference, the book is an advertising museum in portable form suitable for all levels of students, scholars, and arm-chair enthusiasts. (Please note that the hardback and eBook formats of this book feature full-color printing. The paperback is grayscale.)

"How are you involved in the art world? Are you related to any art scene? What would be the most productive place to present your work? What kind of curators do you like to work with and why? What does the art market mean for your work? In your opinion, what are centers for contemporary art for? What would you like to see them presenting?" "These are seven simple and open questions on different aspects of today's art world that were asked to every artist involved in Witte de With's program in 2006 and 2007. The resulting publication reflects on some of the topics touched upon in the program of the past two years - for example, in group shows such as Street: behind the cliche - looking at the best place for art, the role of the art institution and its curators, and the influence of "populist" forces on different forms of art production. The answers included here serve as time-documents, providing a "tour d'horizon" of artists' opinions, concerns and ambitions today, setting out a blueprint for the future role of the art institution and of its related actors (the artist, curator, critic, gallerist)."--BOOK JACKET.