Odyssey Works

Odyssey Works infiltrates the life of one person at a time to create a customtailored, life-altering performance. It may last for one day or a few months and consists of experiences that blur the boundaries of life and art—is that subway mariachi band, used book of poetry, or meal with a new friend real or a part of the performance? Central to this book is their 2013 performance for Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm. His Odyssey lasted four months and included a fake children's book, introducing the themes of his performance, and a cello concert in a Saskatchewan prairie (which Moody almost missed after being stopped at customs with, suspiciously, no idea why he was traveling to Canada). The book includes Moody's interviews with Odyssey Works, an original short story by Amy Hempel, and six proposals for a new theory of making art.

Okanagan Odyssey is a quirky and lyrical examination of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Sticking to the backroads and byways, Gayton gently pokes and prods local ecosystems, histories, vineyards and people. From Osoyoos in the south to Armstrong at the head of the Valley, the author revels in the biological and social diversity while sampling local wines and fruit along the way. In his unique version of wine pairing, Gayton matches up local books and landscapes with local vintages, giving terroir a whole new meaning. An ecologist by profession, Gayton deftly negotiates the tension between the Okanagan that is home to many endangered species and ecosystems, and the same Okanagan that is a mecca for developers and urban refugees. Okanagan Odyssey is not a travel guide, but represents travel writing at its idiosyncratic best. Please visit Don at www.dongayton.ca.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • At last, a book that shows you how to build—design—a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage • “Life has questions. They have answers.” —The New York Times Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home—at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.

"While visiting his grandparents' vineyard in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada, Colin has a chance meeting with the famous lake creature known as the Ogopogo"--Page 4 of cover.

From the prize-winning author of Supper Club comes a wickedly funny and slyly poignant new satire on modern life - for fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Convenience Store Woman, and J. G. Ballard's High Rise 'This book is a serious vibe' Cosmopolitan 'Lara Williams is the queen of smart modern satire. I could read her all day' Emma Jane Unsworth Meet Ingrid. She works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner, where she spends her days reorganizing the merchandise and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the changing rooms. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship and gets blind drunk on whatever the local alcohol is. It's not a bad life. And it distracts her from thinking about the other life she left behind five years ago. Until one day she is selected for the employee mentorship scheme - an initiative run by the ship's mysterious captain and self-anointed lifestyle guru, Keith, who pushes Ingrid further than she thought possible. But sooner or later, she will have to ask herself: how far is too far? Utterly original, mischievous and thought-provoking, The Odyssey is a merciless takedown of consumer capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests for something to believe in. And as its title suggests, it is a voyage that will eventually lead its unlikely heroine all the way home. Though she'd do almost anything to avoid getting there...

"Doing things by the book" acquires a whole new meaning in Brandon R. Schrand's memoir of coming of age in spite of himself. The "works cited" are those books that serve as Schrand's signposts as he goes from life as a hormone-crazed, heavy-metal wannabe in the remotest parts of working-class Idaho to a reasonable facsimile of manhood (with a stop along the way to buy a five-dollar mustard-colored M. C. Hammer suit, so he'll fit in at college). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn informs his adolescent angst over the perceived injustice of society's refusal to openly discuss boners. The Great Gatsby serves as a metaphor for his indulgent and directionless college days spent in a drunken stupor (when he wasn't feigning interest in Mormonism to attract women). William Kittredge's Hole in the Sky parallels his own dangerous adulthood slide into alcoholism and denial. With a finely calibrated wit, a good dose of humility, and a strong supporting cast of literary characters, Schrand manages to chart his own story--about a dreamer thrown out of school as many times as he's thrown into jail--until he finally sticks his landing.

“[A] moving, funny, hauntingly brilliant memoir about marriage.” —Caroline Leavitt, The San Francisco Chronicle Rick Moody, the award-winning author of The Ice Storm, shares the harrowing true story of the first year of his second marriage in this eventful, month-by-month account At this story’s start, Moody, a recovering alcoholic and sexual compulsive with a history of depression, is also the divorced father of a beloved little girl and a man in love; his answer to the question “Would you like to be in a committed relationship?” is, fully and for the first time in his life, “Yes.” And so his second marriage begins as he emerges, humbly and with tender hopes, from the wreckage of his past, only to be battered by a stormy sea of external troubles—miscarriages, the deaths of friends, and robberies, just for starters. As Moody has put it, "this is a story in which a lot of bad luck is the daily fare of the protagonists, but in which they are also in love.” To Moody’s astonishment, matrimony turns out to be the site of strength in hard times, a vessel infinitely tougher and more durable than any boat these two participants would have traveled by alone. Love buoys the couple, lifting them above their hardships, and the reader is buoyed along with them.

An inspiring guide to the practices of contemporary experimental creative writing, this book explores experimentation within both traditional writing genres and 'post-genre' modes such as hybrid texts, Non-creative writing, textual materiality, creative re-purposing, performance and new media technologies. Combining the practices, history, social context, and philosophical backgrounds of experimental work with a broad anthology of models in-book and online, Experimental Writing gives you the toolkit of techniques and skills to confidently engage with forms previously perceived as intimidating so that you can reinvigorate your craft. In addition, the book includes sections on new approaches to the workshop model, emphasis on community and collaboration, and institutional critique. These chapters will provide you with a “big picture” perspective and the motivation to question the templates you work within, giving you the where-with-all to shape your own ideals for writing, no matter what their stylistic choices. Within its broad scope, Experimental Writing covers: - a comprehensive survey of relevant movements, texts, authors, and techniques of non-traditional forms - a survey of evolving trends with exemplars of how genres can be disrupted to help you appreciate experimental styles - demonstrations of how more diverse and innovative pedagogical interventions have the potential to inspire your creativity and create more original work - an examination of the institutional forces that have shaped the creative writing landscape you inhabit, to prompt you to re-examine the pressures, cultural biases, and power structures that have shaped both your aesthetic vision and potential future career paths - frameworks for independent research, practitioner interviews, and motivating questions to get you thinking and questioning before you encounter each new topic With each chapter accompanied by stimulating pedagogical features such as a timeline of experimental writing, free writes, games and constraints, reflections, exercises, prompts and case studies throughout, this invaluable text reveals wider horizon for your artistic endeavors and will activate your critical thinking about a range of issues and ideas. Additional online resources for this book can be found at http://www.bloomsburyonlineresources.com/experimental-writing-a-writers-guide-and-anthology.