How to Lose Your Mind With Lights On

by Kevin Sampsell

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

I am the publisher of Future Tense Books in Portland, Oregon. I work at Powell's Books and also make collage art. I have written reviews and articles for various papers and mags. I have a few books out. My memoir, A Common Pornography, was published by Harper Perennial and my novel, This Is Between Us, was published by Tin House Books. I also edited Portland Noir, a book of crime fiction published by Akashic Books. My book of collage art and poetry, I Made an Accident, came out in 2022 from Clash Books.

Here's a few links to some stuff:
My essay on the loss of a friend, the loss of a book, and depression
My Tumblr of collage!
Flash Fiction on X-R-A-Y
My essay on Prince nostalgia and going to see The Revolution
My essay about coronavirus closing down Powell's
Short story at Hobart
The sad history of my football fandom
Flash Fiction on Wigleaf
My Paper Trumpets collage column at The Rumpus
Excerpts from This Is Between Us
My Longreads essay about my mom's Alzheimer's.
My Salon essay about suicide.
Short story on Joyland
Short fiction at The Rupture
Memoir excerpt on Smith Magazine.
I Know Who You Raped Last Summer.
My essay on bookselling and winning a Patterson bonus
On my first three kisses
Poems on Ink Node
Flash memoirs at 3am Magazine
Bookslut Interview
Flash Memoir pieces on McSweeney's
Fiction piece ("Options") on Identity Theory

Interview on The Rumpus

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first paperback book and it was a hodge-podge of poems, fiction, and even collages. I still like some of it but I'm embarrassed about other parts. Still, there are a few people who really loved the weirdness of it all. Published in 1994 (about 600 copies printed--that's all I could afford!), this one is also really hard to find now.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was remarkably kooky and really, really funny. Kevin is so amusing and visits so many creepy-cool ideas. This little collection is a prime example of his fearless, all-encompassing imagination.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

the second best peice of the collection. raw and unwound, this is kevin sampsell's guts.