Publisher Description
What would you write if no one knew who you were?
In the spirit of the demolition derby, where drivers take heedless risks with reckless abandon, welcome to the first convocation of the Secret Society of Demolition Writers. Here is a one-of-a-kind collection by famous authors writing anonymously–and dangerously. With the usual concerns about reputations and renown cast aside, these twelve daredevils have each contributed an extreme, no-holds-barred unsigned story, each shining as brightly and urgently as hazard lights.
Unconventional and unapologetic, this publishing equivalent of a whodunit features an eclectic group of fictional characters, including a delusional schizophrenic narrator, an egg donor with second thoughts about her decision, a pharmacist who forms a weird crush on a woman who beat both of her parents to death, and a little girl who understands that an old safe is the threshold to another, ghostly, world. Equally diverse and surprising are the authors themselves: Aimee Bender, Benjamin Cheever, Michael Connelly, Sebastian Junger, Elizabeth McCracken, Rosie O'Donnell, Chris Offutt, Anna Quindlen, John Burnham Schwartz, Alice Sebold, Lauren Slater, and Marc Parent, the editor of the collection. Never before has such a wide-ranging and talented group of authors been assembled to such explosive and entertaining effect.
The Secret Society of Demolition Writers is an intriguing puzzle in itself, but it's also an important addition to the careers of some of our finest storytellers–even if we never really know who wrote what. Its boundary-smashing fiction offers exhilarating proof that for an artist, withholding your identity can mean gaining your freedom.
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About the Authors
Aimee Bender is the author of several novels and story collections. The Butterfly Lampshade was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Award in 2020. Her works have been widely anthologized and have been translated into sixteen languages.
Benjamin
Cheever, son of the novelist John Cheever, is the author of four adult fiction
novels, one children’s book, and two nonfiction books. He has also been an editor at Reader’s Digest and a newspaper reporter
for the New York Times, Nation, and New Yorker. He has taught at The New School for Social Research and
the Benning MFA program and has hosted a television show called About Writing. He lives in
Pleasantville, New York, with his wife and sons.
Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of several books. Together with Tim Hetherington, he directed the documentary Restrepo, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and has been awarded a National Magazine Award and an SAIS Novartis Prize for journalism.
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of The Giant’s House, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and Niagara Falls All Over Again, a winner of the PEN/Winship Award.
Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers list. She is the author of several novels. While a journalist, her New York Times column “Public and Private” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Her column appears regularly in Newsweek.
John Burnham
Schwartz
is the author of several novels, including Claire
Marvel, Bicycle Days, and Reservation Road. His books have been
translated into more than fifteen languages, and his writing has appeared in
many publications, including the New York
Times and New Yorker. He lives
with his wife and their son in Brooklyn.
Alice Sebold is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Lovely Bones, The Almost Moon, and Lucky, a memoir. She won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel in 2002 and the ABA Book of the Year Award in 2003, both for The Lovely Bones. The book was also made into a movie starring Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, and Saoirse Ronan. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, the University of Houston, and the University of California, Irvine.
Lauren Slater is the author of Welcome to My Country, Prozac Diary, Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, and Opening Skinner’s Box, among other books. She has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT. Opening Skinner’s Box was nominated for best science writing by the Los Angeles Times, and her work has been reprinted numerous times in The Best American Essays.
About the Narrators
Alan Sklar, a graduate of Dartmouth, has excelled in his career as a freelance voice actor. Named a Best Voice of 2009 by AudioFile magazine, his work has earned him several Earphones Awards, a Booklist Editors’ Choice Award (twice), a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and Audiobook of the Year by ForeWord magazine. He has also narrated thousands of corporate videos for clients such as NASA, Sikorsky Aircraft, IBM, Dannon, Pfizer, AT&T, and SONY.
Ellen Archer has narrated numerous audiobooks and has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards, as well as the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She is an actress, and singer with a degree in opera performance from the Boston Conservatory. She has performed extensively on the New York stage and in regional theaters.