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40 Likely to Die Before 40: An Introduction to Alt Lit
"Those who are creating the modern composition authentically are naturally only of importance when they are dead because by that time the modern composition having become past is classified and the description of it is classical." --Gertrude Stein
"One hundred years from now everyone in this anthology will be dead. According to Stein that means Alt Lit will finally be considered 'classic.'" --Christopher Higgs
Featuring work by Sam Pink (1.), Chelsea Martin (2.), Megan Boyle (3.), Beach Sloth (4.), Diana Salier (5.), Guillaume Morissette (6.), Jordan Castro (7.), Gabby Bess (8.), Alexander J Allison (9.), Janey Smith (10.), Michael Heald (11.), Juliet Escoria (12.), Jereme Dean (13.), Noah Cicero (14.), Mike Bushnell (15.), Tara Wray (16.), Spencer Madsen (17.), Laura Marie Marciano (18.), Jackson Nieuwland (19.), Carolyn DeCarlo (20.), Heiko Julien (21.), Stephen Tully Dierks (22.), Lucy Tiven (23.), Timothy Willis Sanders (24.), Ana Carrete (25.), Chris Dankland (26.), Oscar Schwartz (27.), Steve Roggenbuck (28.), Luna Miguel (29.), Crispin Best (30.), Lucy K Shaw (31.), Andrew Duncan Worthington (32.), Frank Hinton (33.), Sarah Jean Alexander (34.), Willis Plummer (35.), Keegan Crawford (36.), Richard Chiem (37.), Tao Lin (38.), Mira Gonzalez (39.), and Scott McClanahan (40.)
Also included--"Poetry and the Image Macro" by Michael Hessel-Miel and an Afterword by Christopher Higgs.
Paperback
First published June 30, 2014
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About the author
Cameron Pierce
54 books197 followersCameron Pierce is the author of eleven books, including the Wonderland Book Award-winning collection Lost in Cat Brain Land. His work has appeared in The Barcelona Review, Gray's Sporting Journal, Hobart, The Big Click, and Vol. I Brooklyn, and has been reviewed and featured on Comedy Central and The Guardian. He was also the author of the column Fishing and Beer, where he interviewed acclaimed angler Bill Dance and John Lurie of Fishing with John. Pierce is the head editor of Lazy Fascist Press and has edited three anthologies, including The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade. He lives with his wife in Astoria, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 30, 2022
3.5 stars. Some of my favorite authors are in here but there are some duds too.
December 27, 2013
I'm coping.
September 13, 2018
I'm already a fan of Tao Lin and Sam Pink; I've at least enjoyed Scott McClanahan and Noah Cicero, so I was hoping to find other writers associated with them who I'd like. Alas, no.
Most of the other writers here are obstinately -- childishly -- obsessed with themselves. Uninterested in politics, history, or any aspect of the world beyond the bedrooms they frequent. Their work is generally humorless, earnest, and vague. There is surprisingly little structural experimentation. A few aim for clever and fall short; others aren't clearly aiming for anything.
Obviously this review is unfair because 1) out of the remaining 36, there actually were a few writers, e.g., Jereme Dean, who seemed potentially interesting, 2) many pieces were too short for me to get a good sense, 3) 36 new voices are way too many to take in, let alone absorb, 4) Sam Pink's contribution is just so very, very strong that the others seem especially pale in comparison. Pink's work, which is often in the form of sequences of odd/familiar/sad/funny/precise thoughts as single-sentence paragraphs, is like the jittery path of a 20-sided die as it bounces along a table: a jagged series of hops, unpredictable, yet with direction. Maybe it will fall over the edge. He'll often write a series of three or four sentence/paragraphs, each shorter than the last, condensing/amplifying/accelerating, and yet changing direction. Consider the following:
What if I have a heartattack tonight and say something really dumb when it happens, like, "oh jeez" and then make a dumb face when I fall.
What if that happens to me right now.
People would laugh.
I would laugh.
Oh my.
The Tao Lin piece is relatively old; his style has evolved considerably into something much odder and affecting in terms of what gets reported and what suppressed/unnoticed. I'd recommend either Richard Yates or Taipei for something more brilliant.
I'm still left to wonder: what is alt lit? The concluding essay isn't helpful. If there is a way in which this writing is informed by / made possible by / different because of / the internet and the online publishing world -- I don't see it. A more common theme: young people whose lives have gotten complicated or confusing, who don't yet see their part in it, nor the broader societal and political forces at play.
I'm sure I've missed or misjudged some great talent here. I won't cross any of these writers off my list; I'll just say I'm not impressed -- yet. I'd appreciate any comments suggesting other work I might try by any of them, or others in the movement (if it really is a movement).
Most of the other writers here are obstinately -- childishly -- obsessed with themselves. Uninterested in politics, history, or any aspect of the world beyond the bedrooms they frequent. Their work is generally humorless, earnest, and vague. There is surprisingly little structural experimentation. A few aim for clever and fall short; others aren't clearly aiming for anything.
Obviously this review is unfair because 1) out of the remaining 36, there actually were a few writers, e.g., Jereme Dean, who seemed potentially interesting, 2) many pieces were too short for me to get a good sense, 3) 36 new voices are way too many to take in, let alone absorb, 4) Sam Pink's contribution is just so very, very strong that the others seem especially pale in comparison. Pink's work, which is often in the form of sequences of odd/familiar/sad/funny/precise thoughts as single-sentence paragraphs, is like the jittery path of a 20-sided die as it bounces along a table: a jagged series of hops, unpredictable, yet with direction. Maybe it will fall over the edge. He'll often write a series of three or four sentence/paragraphs, each shorter than the last, condensing/amplifying/accelerating, and yet changing direction. Consider the following:
What if I have a heartattack tonight and say something really dumb when it happens, like, "oh jeez" and then make a dumb face when I fall.
What if that happens to me right now.
People would laugh.
I would laugh.
Oh my.
The Tao Lin piece is relatively old; his style has evolved considerably into something much odder and affecting in terms of what gets reported and what suppressed/unnoticed. I'd recommend either Richard Yates or Taipei for something more brilliant.
I'm still left to wonder: what is alt lit? The concluding essay isn't helpful. If there is a way in which this writing is informed by / made possible by / different because of / the internet and the online publishing world -- I don't see it. A more common theme: young people whose lives have gotten complicated or confusing, who don't yet see their part in it, nor the broader societal and political forces at play.
I'm sure I've missed or misjudged some great talent here. I won't cross any of these writers off my list; I'll just say I'm not impressed -- yet. I'd appreciate any comments suggesting other work I might try by any of them, or others in the movement (if it really is a movement).
September 13, 2017
Should have ended on the Scott McClanahan masterpiece; "Poetry and the Image Macro" really just ruined the whole experience. Other than that literary buzzkill, though, this book is brilliant.
February 16, 2016
It's difficult to talk about the content of this book without feeling like I'm immediately pigeonholing it. The concepts & forms of the authors are so all over the place that to say "it was good" or "it was bad" feels like an inadequate judgment. I liked more of the stories/poems than I didn't like, and there were a few that stuck out as really excellent work.
The afterward describes Alt Lit as contemporary writers under the age of 40 embracing current technology and creating an "internet style" of poetry & prose. The biggest criticism I've heard about this kind of writing is that it cheapens the content with obscure/esoteric references. Does it, though? I read it as more of a cultural marker, something the reader can use to further frame the context of their work, rather than some Seth-McFarlane-jokes-a-million bit. When Henry Miller mentions that the movie theater is playing "Metropolis" in Tropic of Cancer, it doesn't impact the quality of the prose in that part of the book. Rather, it gives the scene a much more dynamic frame and adds to the reader's understanding of the time, place, etc. I'm sure there are better examples than that, but you get it. Whether or not this concept is your cup of tea, I don't believe the classification of "Alt Lit" detracts from the quality of these stories/poems when they are at their best.
Overall, the best quality of this volume is that it gives readers a chance to experience a pretty large swath of talented authors who they might not have heard of. Hopefully this means they will go out and buy a book from an author in it that they like, but also it gives them the freedom to skip over the ones they don't like and try something new. As an introductory volume, it's solid and worth the investment of your time.
The afterward describes Alt Lit as contemporary writers under the age of 40 embracing current technology and creating an "internet style" of poetry & prose. The biggest criticism I've heard about this kind of writing is that it cheapens the content with obscure/esoteric references. Does it, though? I read it as more of a cultural marker, something the reader can use to further frame the context of their work, rather than some Seth-McFarlane-jokes-a-million bit. When Henry Miller mentions that the movie theater is playing "Metropolis" in Tropic of Cancer, it doesn't impact the quality of the prose in that part of the book. Rather, it gives the scene a much more dynamic frame and adds to the reader's understanding of the time, place, etc. I'm sure there are better examples than that, but you get it. Whether or not this concept is your cup of tea, I don't believe the classification of "Alt Lit" detracts from the quality of these stories/poems when they are at their best.
Overall, the best quality of this volume is that it gives readers a chance to experience a pretty large swath of talented authors who they might not have heard of. Hopefully this means they will go out and buy a book from an author in it that they like, but also it gives them the freedom to skip over the ones they don't like and try something new. As an introductory volume, it's solid and worth the investment of your time.
August 3, 2014
I've never been entirely sure how to define alt lit, and to be honest I've never really worried much about that. I probably couldn't define it any better after reading this anthology, but it did expand my conception of it. There is a good mix in here of authors I already am familiar with and know I need to keep an eye on along with authors I'm newly enchanted by. There are so many different approaches, so many unique voices. I'd be hard pressed to find a single piece in here that didn't have something in it that intrigued me. Intriguing is probably the best word I could use to describe the book, because there was always something that stuck out at me and demanded to be turned around in my hands for a while. I definitely applaud any collection that can do that.
August 23, 2017
Interesting and worth a look if you haven't yet explored alt lit.
June 8, 2020
This and Celine's Journey to the End of the Night are the only two books over 400 pages that I love.
July 29, 2025
most of it is pretty shitty but some of it shines
September 21, 2020
Very refreshing voices. A long collection of short writings. Perhaps a little bit too fresh, and young, but then that must be why the book is named as it is. So some might criticize "Alt Lit" as apolitical and when from the white suburban point of view even somewhat priviledged but then that seems to be an underlying ominousness in the tone of many of the pieces: "we haven't really experienced the world in all its political goriness but we know that that is out there and we probably will as we grow older." So wisdom in cynicism, even while young. And a celebration of expressing that in the now. Intense self awareness. -And then a couple pieces thrown in that really sit right in the middle of modern tragedy, such as Jereme Dean's 'In Retrospect the Days Were Fresh and Easy' which seems to know that I'll be reading it like tragedy-porn and encapsules his whole life story into one mini-mega chunk of multi-complex vitamins.
July 25, 2016
Definitely not 'alt' in the sense I was expecting (edgy, new, 'underground'). Apparently 'alt' here means same content as typical msm-literary fiction but with a new Internet-inspired (or actual?) form. To me the form resembles first draft, quickly-written, or conversational writing than anything like experimental or avant-garde. Utterly underwhelming.
September 23, 2014
These words tasted good in my head.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews