Chris Barsanti's Blog

I reviewed four fall comics collections and graphic novels for The Minnesota Star Tribune:

Many writers get to work once they have a concept. Have idea, everything else follows. Edward Albee disagrees: I don’t have ideas. I have people. They meet. Things happen. They are changed. Find out why these people are in your head. Eventually they’ll say: ‘Write me’

Pop culture is eating itself, according to the next book from W. David Marx.

The books of Mark Z. Danielewski (House of Leaves, especially) are complex, dense, and thrillingly visual. He tells BOMB that his process is a lot like construction: Writing is so much about laying down brick after brick, and yet you can’t just stack bricks, because then you’re making a tomb. There has to be this …

Continue reading Writer’s Desk: Building Your Book

Patti Smith on her morning writing routine: I get up and if I feel out of sorts I’ll do some exercises. I’ll feed my cat, then I go get my coffee, take a notebook, and write for a couple of hours. Then I just roam around. I try to take long walks and things like …

Continue reading Writer’s Desk: Coffee, Roaming, and TV

My review of the latest confection from Edward Berger (Conclave) is at Slant Magazine: Ballad of a Small Player is a fevered, neon-drenched film about a man on the run from his crimes and himself, and it wants to simultaneously revel in the glamor of high-end gambling and critique the unending gluttony that fuels it. This …

Continue reading Screening Room: ‘Ballad of a Small Player’

Alain de Botton (The Consolations of Philosophy) had a problem, as many do, with insomnia and focus. So he decided to go to work at an office. It allowed him to escape:  One of the most welcome aspects of office work is that you do not need to be fully yourself. It demands that those …

Continue reading Writer’s Desk: Get Yourself an Office

In Claire Denis’ arch and darkly funny film, The Fence, colonialism isn’t history, it’s not even past.

The second edition of my calendar for Workman, The Writer’s Year: 365 Days of Inspiration, Prompts, and Quotes is now on sale! Think of it when shopping for that friend or relative who has always talked about being a writer but needs a push. Or take a look when stalled on your own project (shopping …

Continue reading Shameless Self-Promotion: ‘The Writer’s Year 2026’ on Sale Now

I reviewed Father Mother Sister Brother‘s U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival for PopMatters: If there is a lesson Jim Jarmusch is trying to impart in his latest feature, Father Mother Sister Brother (and dear Lord, let’s hope he is not), it is this: Nobody knows anybody. Even when you are related. Maybe especially when …

Continue reading Screening Room: ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’