Open City #20

Open City Magazine #20

by Daniel Pinchbeck, Paul Bowles, Maxine Swann

Open City presents today's best new writers and artists, energizing the literary-journal format for today's readers by blending daring, edgy voices with classic storytelling. The magazine is also known for presenting writing and artwork by popular alternative rock musicians, such as Stephen Malkmus, David Berman, Thurston Moore, and Dean Wareham. Open City #20 features stories by Chuck Kinder (author of The Honeymooners), Mark Poirier, and Cynthia Weiner; poetry by Eamon Grennan, C.K. Williams, Eileen Myles, and Carolyn Forche; and artwork by Alix Lambert and Lord of the Rings star Viggo Morensen.

250 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 2005

About the author

Daniel Pinchbeck is an American author. His books include Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, and Notes from the Edge Times. He is a co-founder of the web magazine Reality Sandwich and of the website Evolver.net, and edited the North Atlantic Books publishing imprint Evolver Editions. He was featured in the 2010 documentary 2012: Time for Change, directed by Joao Amorim and produced by Mangusta Films. He is the founder of the think tank Center for Planetary Culture, which produced the Regenerative Society Wiki.

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although he's omitted from the description and author sections above, Scott Smith ("A Simple Plan", "The Ruins") wrote the opening story, "The Egg Man"—a novella, actually—toward which this review is directed entirely. Smith fans know he has only published two novels in 26 years, awakening from literary cryosleep within the last few to churn out three horror shorts (for Christopher Golden anthology works). This one, however, feels special, but admittedly more as an event than an achievement in story. It was originally published in Open City in 2005, just moments before readers saw Smith take (perhaps) his permanent pivot toward sci-horror with The Ruins (2006), a shift which here is made unabashedly plain to the reader, two or three outrageous sentences in. How the story straddles two Smith-onian eras between "Plan" and "Ruins" will surely delight fans eager to read all his works.

[Daniel Pyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read Scott Smith’s “The Egg Man,” which was strange in all the best ways. Anyone curious about Smith’s transition from A Simple Plan to The Ruins should get a kick out of this one.