110 Stories

by Baer, Ulrich

• ISBN13: 9780814799352
• ISBN10: 0814799353
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-11
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

Visit the 110 Stories web site Read the Table of Contents Read the IntroductionNamed as one of USA Today''s most promising books on September 11th.Vivid, creative.--ForecastA smart idea...[drawing from] the incredible talent pool of New York City writers to consecrate the attack on the World Trade Center.--Kirkus ReviewsThe wide range of writing styles and viewpoints, as well as Art Spiegelman''s striking cover art, make this anthology a popular read. --Library JournalThe works collected here capture both the diversity of the people of New York and how surreal the catastrophe felt for those close to Ground Zero. A touching and memorable collection.--Carlos Orellana, Booklist, September, 2002110 Stories, with an arresting cover image by Art Speigelman, presents a fractured view of last year''s events...What we''re left with is the way the tragedy fits into individual lives, the impression it makes on impressionable, expressive people.--NewsdayEffective in producing a wonderful sense of alienation which allows the reader to perceive language and events afresh.-- Politics and Culture[A] heartfelt collection of poems, recollections, and short works.-- School Library JournalA testament to the power of words to transform trauma into something manageable.--The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionEven if you found the event itself sufficiently searing, many of these pieces provide a new way of approaching the devastation, loss, bewilderment, the sense of morality-- and immorality-- connections and disconnects that it engendered.-The East Hampton StarNew York University professor Ulrich Baer turned to literature to escape post-9-11 media commentary and political rhetoric...The book creates a community of writers and a place to collect memories.--The Jewish WeekNew York is a city of writers. And when the city was attacked on 9/11, its writers began to do what writers do, they began to look and feel and think and write, began to struggle to process an event unimaginable before, and even after, it happened. The work of journalists appeared immediately, in news reports, commentaries, and personal essays. But no single collection has yet recorded how New York writers of fiction, poetry, and dramatic prose have responded to 9/11.Now, in 110 Stories, Ulrich Baer has gathered a multi-hued range of voices that convey, with vivid immediacy and heightened imagination, the shock and loss suffered in September. From a stunning lineup of 110 renowned and emerging writers-including Paul Auster, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Edwidge Danticat, Vivian Gornick, Phillip Lopate, Dennis Nurkse, Melvin Bukiet, Susan Wheeler-these stories give readers not so much an analysis of what happened as the very shape and texture of a city in crisis, what it felt like to be here, the external and internal damage that the city and its inhabitants absorbed in the space and the aftermath of a few unforgettable hours. As A.M. Homes says in one of the book''s eyewitness accounts, There is no place to put this experience, no folder in the mental hard drive that says, ''catastrophe.'' It is not something that you want to remember, not something that you want to forget. This collection testifies to the power of poetry and storytelling to preserve and give meaning to what seems overwhelming. It showcases the literary imagination in its capacity to gauge the impact of 9/11 on how we view the world. Just as the stories of the World Trade towers were filled with people from all walks of life, the stories collected here reflect New York''s true diversity, its boundless complexity and polyglot energy, its regenerative imagination, and its spirit of solidarity and endurance.The editorÆs proceeds will be donated to charity. Cover art donated by Art Spiegelman.List of Contributors: Humera Afridi, Ammiel Alcalay, Elena Alexander, Meena Alexander, Jeffery Renard Allen, Roberta Allen, Jonathan Ames, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Auster, Jennifer Belle, Jenifer Berman, Charles Bernstein, Star Black, Breyten Breyt

Author Biography

Ulrich Baer is Associate Professor of German literature at New York University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	x
Introduction	1	(9)
Ulrich Baer
Circumference	10	(3)
Humera Afridi
night of unity	13	(6)
Ammiel Alcalay
Circum	19	(2)
Elena Alexander
Aftermath; Invisible City	21	(2)
Meena Alexander
It Shall Be Again	23	(3)
Jeffery Renard Allen
The Sky Was So Blue	26	(2)
Roberta Allen
Womb Shelter	28	(4)
Jonathan Ames
A First Kiss	32	(2)
Darren Aronofsky
Random Notes---September 11, 2001, 4:00 P.M.; Underground	34	(3)
Paul Auster
Gelato Is Gelato	37	(3)
Jennifer Belle
Prologue: The Book of John	40	(2)
Jenifer Berman
Report from Liberty Street	42	(5)
Charles Bernstein
Perfect Weather	47	(2)
Star Black
New York, 12 September 2001	49	(2)
Breyten Breytenbach
from Manhattan Rhapsody	51	(3)
Melvin Jules Bukiet
Union Square	54	(3)
Peter Carey
The Quick and the Poor	57	(3)
Lawrence Chua
Holy Smoke	60	(2)
Ira Cohen
The Same Tune	62	(2)
Imraan Coovadia
on the day of the dead	64	(1)
Edwidge Danticat
Senseless	65	(3)
Alice Elliot Dark
The Therm	68	(4)
Eric Darton
Grammar Questions	72	(3)
Lydia Davis
Echoes	75	(3)
Samuel R. Delany
The Ruin	78	(2)
Maggie Dubris
Shorebirds Atlantic	80	(6)
Rinde Eckert
Baby Lust	86	(3)
Janice Eidus
Man on the Path	89	(4)
Masood Farivar
``9/11 Victim's Identity Discovered Only through Investigation Led by Hairdresser''	93	(4)
Carolyn Ferrell
Conversation Between Mr. X and Mr. Y	97	(3)
Richard Foreman
I Saw You Walking	100	(2)
Deborah Garrison
Neighbors	102	(4)
Amitav Ghosh
The Death of a Painter	106	(4)
James Gibbons
If I Forget Thee	110	(3)
Carol Gilligan
True Stories	113	(3)
Thea Goodman
How I Read since September 11th	116	(2)
Vivian Gornick
I Think I Understand the Various Theories of Rain	118	(5)
Tim Griffin
Pitching September 11th	123	(5)
Lev Grossman
from A Few Stout Individuals	128	(3)
John Guare
Mile High	131	(3)
Sean Gullette
Notes from a New York Diary	134	(4)
Jessica Hagedorn
Boerum Hill Tanka	138	(1)
Kimiko Hahn
The Lives of Rain	139	(1)
Nathalie Handal
America everything has changed	140	(2)
Carey Harrison
Dog Walking	142	(3)
Joshua Henkin
Finding the Center	145	(3)
Tony Hiss
The Price of Light and Air	148	(3)
David Hollander
We All Saw It, or The View from Home	151	(3)
A.M. Homes
Fallacies of Wonder	154	(2)
Richard Howard
Still Life with Snow and Hammer	156	(2)
Laird Hunt
The World Trade Center	158	(2)
Siri Hustvedt
The Orders (from Pariah)	160	(4)
John Keene
Travel Log	164	(2)
John Kelly
Super 8	166	(4)
Wayne Koestenbaum
Unimaginable	170	(2)
Richard Kostelanetz
24 September 2001, or Manhattan Seen in a New Light	172	(2)
Guy Lesser
Entry of Buildings	174	(4)
Jonathan Lethem
Shopping (3:58 P.M. September 11)	178	(3)
Jocelyn Lieu
Various Slo-Moving Clouds Are Damaged	181	(4)
Tan Lin
The Grief Technician	185	(4)
Sam Lipsyte
Altering the World We Thought Would Outlast Us	189	(3)
Phillip Lopate
The Dumpster	192	(3)
Karen Malpede
A Rat's Life	195	(2)
Charles Mcnulty
Ode: The Day After	197	(3)
Pablo Medina
His Friendship with Fear	200	(3)
Ellen Miller
Rio/Iguassu/Sao Paolo	203	(3)
Paul D. Miller
DJ Spooky
Time and King David	206	(2)
Mark Jay Mirsky
Potato Stories	208	(3)
Tova Mirvis
Some Place, No Place	211	(2)
Albert Mobilio
Earlier Winter	213	(2)
Alex Molot
The Night Marchers	215	(3)
Mary Morris
Steeple-Peeple	218	(5)
Tracie Morris
Thought Experiments	223	(2)
Anna Moschovakis
Mister Equanimity	225	(2)
Richard Eoin Nash
My Son's Views	227	(3)
Josip Novakovich
After a Bombing	230	(2)
Dennis Nurkse
A History	232	(3)
Geoffrey O'Brien
The Pond	235	(3)
Larry O'Connor
Last Seen	238	(2)
Robert Polito
A Plague	240	(2)
Nelly Reifler
Keeping Vigil	242	(3)
Rose-Myriam Rejouis
River	245	(3)
April Reynolds
Christmas Music	248	(3)
Roxana Robinson
This Was a Test	251	(3)
Avital Ronell
Upon Seeing a Shooting Star on the Lawn at Tanglewood Two Days after the World Trade Center Disaster	254	(2)
Daniel Asa Rose
Postcard	256	(2)
Joe Salvatore
In the Foreground	258	(2)
Grace Schulman
Near November	260	(3)
Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Now They Are Leaving	263	(2)
Dani Shapiro
Bonus	265	(3)
Akhil Sharma
Nurse	268	(3)
Suzan Sherman
Instructions for Surviving the Unprecedented	271	(4)
Jenefer Shute
The War at Home; What to Save for Death	275	(2)
Hal Sirowitz
Elvis	277	(3)
Pamela Sneed
Hinge	280	(4)
Chris Spain
Re: Covers	284	(3)
Art Spiegelman
Staffing	287	(4)
Catharine R. Stimpson
Shakespeare & Punk	291	(3)
Liz Swados
Save Me from the Pious and the Vengeful	294	(3)
Lynne Tillman
Bad Luck	297	(2)
Mike Topp
Skylines	299	(1)
David Trinidad
Concert at St. Paul's Chapel, Fulton St.; From the Other End	300	(2)
Val Vinokurov
The Persistence of Who We Were	302	(3)
Chuck Wachtel
from Howler	305	(2)
Mac Wellman
A Terror for Terror	307	(3)
Owen West
A Trampoline in Wayne	310	(2)
Rachel Wetzsteon
[The movie set on the horizon glows]	312	(2)
Susan Wheeler
New York Does Not Exist	314	(3)
Peter Wortsman
The Morning after That One	317	(2)
John Yau
Two New York Memoranda: October, 2001	319	(2)
Christopher Yu
About the Contributors	321	(12)
Permissions	333