He can't get the facts even remotely straight about his favorite painting.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
recent praise and blurbs for for Falcons on the Floor
... a distressingly vital novel.
Bret McCabe, independent journalist, ex-Baltimore City Paper arts editor
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Justin Sirois’s debut novel is exciting and eye-opening, with a sad finish that will leave the reader with a fresh disgust for war.
Robert Tumas, for The L Magazine (NYC)
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Falcons on the Floor has a distinct advantage over many books being published today. That is, it feels deeply, drastically important to read.
Shane Jones, author of Light Boxes
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This book is important.
Christopher Newgent, Vouched Books
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Sirois has done something pretty damn beautiful here, both culturally and in terms of mixing the poetic with the prose, so respect must be paid, and the book highly praised.
J.A. Tyler, author of Inconceivable Wilson and A Man of Glass & All the Ways We Have Failed
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Falcons on the Floor is the rare novel about war that re-humanizes everyone involved. Through excellent writing and a deep understanding of what occupation does, to civilians and soldiers alike, Sirois and Alshujairy take the reader on a deeply personal journey where we are shown how and why war should be avoided at all cost.
Dahr Jamail, independent journalist and author of Beyond the Green Zone
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Sirois disproves that art has no place during times of war. He illuminates the absurdities and complexities of war, details a ravaged, gorgeous landscape and the hearts of men in a way only a novel can do. Compelling, heartfelt, intelligent- Falcons on the Floor shows us how young men, all over this sad planet, become pawns in a world beyond their control.
Paula Bomer, author of Baby and Other Stories
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The battle of Fallujah seen on the ground by Iraqis. Two young men slip out of the city under siege to walk through desert patrolled by Coalition commandos to Ramadi. Two young men with conflicting appraisals of the situation, and with the loyalties and lusts of youth and hopeless hopes. The writing of this complex novel makes it a lyrical and sensuous poem – an astonishing and mesmerizing book.
Alphonso Lingis, philosopher and author of The First Person Singular and Body Transformations
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I hesitate to call this a brilliant first novel. It is a brilliant novel. Sirois demonstrates a succinct mastery of active language that manages to strike a lyrical cadence. The prose is poetry at times... the dialogue and action move so fluidly and with such grace that it feels like he is retelling a personal experience, or like he stumbled upon such a story, which just happened to take place on the eve of the sieges.
Seth Amos, Dark Sky Magazine
http://darkskymagazine.com/review-falcons-on-the-floor-by-justin-sirois/
Labels:
Falcons on the Floor
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
HTML Giant - Everyday Genius: The June Issue
To celebrate The June Issue, Everyday Genius’s first ever print issue, Publishing Genius giving a prize to three people who order it before Friday, June 1 (previous orders are being entered to win as well). The prize is a PGP care package, which includes recent books Falcons on the Floor by Justin Sirois (review at The L Mag), Meat Heart by Melissa Broder (review at The Rumpus), Rachel B. Glaser’s Pee On Water (just reviewed brilliantly at The Nervous Breakdown). ALSO included will be Joe Hall’s Post Nativity and Stephanie Barber’s book/DVD these here separated. ALSO also included, Joseph Young’s Easter Rabbit and David NeSmith’s El Greed. Finally ALSO also also included, a PGP tote and a PGP koozy cuz why not cuz it’s summer.
CNN Money.com says Nasdaq up 2,513 points
Well, here's to wishful thinking. Maybe Facebook finally figured out how to embed ads in their phone app.
Friday, May 25, 2012
in the works
So like, after this new manuscript is finished, after I’ve
handed it off to an editor and Haneen and my marine friend, I’m going to write –
or sit down and try to write – a series of short novels set in current day Baltimore.
It’s going to draw from both my bartending / night club promotion days (see
Taxlo) and from my Federal office job days (see my current situation). Baltimore
readers will recognize The Talking Head (Davis St.) and other locations. And
the books will have a lot of MICA, local music scene, and bike culture
references.
These novels, and I already know this by outlining for the
past few months – maybe longer – they will be a new kind of honest and a new
kind of tension that I’ve wanted to explore for a while. And I actually think
these books might upset people, but that’s kinda tough to do these days.
I’m also going to admit that this will be my first attempt
to write something purely for fun. It’ll be my first writing project that isn’t
experimental or political. The series will be available for $5 in print, on
Kindle for $2.99 each, 60 – 70 pages a book. They will be fast paced and brutal
– in a more cinematic way than my other fiction. That’s all I can reveal right
now.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Last Book of Baghdad synopsis for MSAC grant app
Fareed is a commercial book printer in Baghdad during the
Iraq war. As his business slowly deteriorates, he decides to print one last job
– a book of poetry by Irfan Abrahim. What Fareed doesn’t know is Irfan died in
the bombing of Al Mutanabbi Street (book market and cultural hub) in March
2007.
Nisreen Abid’s husband has been kidnapped. She needs more
money to free her husband and a way to get to him. She wanders the bombed storefronts
of Al Mutanabbi Street where she used to work waiting for the kidnappers to
call. One afternoon Fareed shows up asking if anyone can help him find Irfan
Abrahim so he can deliver his newly printed book.
Throughout the novel, Nisreen tricks Fareed into thinking
they are looking for the elusive poet, Irfan Abrahim.
A second plotline follows an Iraqi interpreter working with
the Coalition who is pressured to hear and see evidence that might not be
there. The more the interpreter works with his Unit alongside one particularly
manipulative soldier named Bill, the more he justifies the violence they
inflict. He becomes increasingly paranoid. By the end of the novel, he is a
changed man.
Nisreen and the interpreter’s worlds collide nearly the end
of the book, and no one is sure who the real villain is. Though one thing is
for certain, Irfan’s “last book of Baghdad” will change people’s lives in ways
he never intended.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Maker's Mark cigars
I can forgive how cheesy this is because I joins two of my favorite things on the planet: Kentucky bourbon and Dominican cigars. It's amazing how the Marker's red wax is such a strong brand at this point. They would drip that stuff over baby carrots and sell them to stock brokers for a dollar a piece.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
this evening
3 - 6pm, Max Payne 3
6:30 - 9pm, Restaurant review with Gorelick for the Sun
9:30pm, night cap with Mary
6:30 - 9pm, Restaurant review with Gorelick for the Sun
9:30pm, night cap with Mary
Awesome way to end a day.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
The Heads of My family, My Friends, My Colleagues
It's weird to have two major books come out in the same year. I can only use the word major because I care about them so much – they both come from a place of honesty and caring, but they are very different from each other. Falcons on the Floor can’t be more different from The Heads, as we’re calling it.
This summer, Newlights Press will publish my first full-length book of poems in four years. Most of them have appear, in one form or another, on this blog, but they will be taken off once the book is out. Yes, no more poems on this blog.
56 pages, softcover, with printed and stapled dustjacket that adheres to book through a series of magnetic strips, double signature pamphlet stitched, 8 1/8” x 5 1/8”
Letterpress dustjacket & cover, digitally printed pages, staples, magnets
Edition of 100
2006
There’s a lot to be excited about with this book. Undoubtedly, the construction will be unlike any other book. Aaron Cohick makes some of the most beautiful printed objects in the world of fine books and prints. Even if you think my poems are complete shit, you should buy it so you can sell it 20 years from now for eight times the original retail value.
Another reason to be excited: blurbs by Dorethea Lasky and CA Conrad, two of my favorite poets. I’m not just saying that. They’re hysterical and brilliant and national treasures of the poetry community.
ETA for The Heads of My family, My friends, My Colleagues is July or August 2012.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The Last Book of Baghdad update
51k words hammered out on the first draft which I've gone back to over the course of this past year and edited as I went. I typically try not to edit while I write, but at points where I was stuck on the tension or motivations, I found it helpful to refine parts and dig back into the language. After 16 months of writing, this thing is nearly done -- or pretty close. There's been some really rewarding parts of this process, but the most fascinating to me was creating a "villain" out of circumstance. Much like Khalil, who you empathize with in Falcons on the Floor, this villain isn't evil; he's simply been forced into an unmanageable situation. The level of abuse he will inflict and they way he justifies it, is the most compelling component of the story. Or at least one of the components.
Equally, the hero, Nisreen (Salim Abid's mother) justifies her methods as well. I'm not sure which is "worse."
Monday, May 7, 2012
Jamie Iredell asks Haneen Alshujairy
New interview questions here:
http://www.falconsonthefloor.com/p/excerpts.html
http://www.falconsonthefloor.com/p/excerpts.html
Friday, May 4, 2012
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