Paratabloids [Paperback]

Michael A. Arnzen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2000

"WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO 7-LP EYEBALL!" "I DIED AND WATCHED MY OWN SURGERY!" "ANT JUICE CURES ARTHRITIS!"

Sound familiar? Nearly everyone knows that the stories in the tabloids aren't ral, but pulp newspapers like the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS outsell most "real news" magazines. And that's because--in some suble, unconcious way--the tabloids are reporting the truth.

In PARATABLOIDS, Bram Stoker Award-winning horror writer Michael A. Arnzen captures that truth in 22 poems that steal actual headlines from the tabloids and tell the truth in a way that only Arnzen can. These poems all relish the outre, the insane, and the grotesque, telling the untold--and often quite touching--stories that lie right under the surface of the headlines.

"This is poetry like you've never heard it before!"

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael A. Arnzen is the author of GRAVE MARKINGS (Dell Books, 1994), recipient of the Bram Stoker Award and the Internation Horror Critics Guild Award for Best First Novel. His short fiction has appeared in numberous venues, including THE YEAR"S BEST HORROR STORIES. Arnzen has authored two other collections of poetry: CHEW AND OTHER RUMINATIONS (Mastication Publications, 1990) and more recently, WRITHING IN DARKNESS (Dark Regions Press, 1997).

Arnzen currently teaches creative writing and literature at Seton Hill College (Greensburg, PA) and he is on the editorial board for the academic journal, PARADOXA: STUDIES IN WORLD LITERARY GENRES. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Oregon, where he recently finished a dissertation entitled THE POPULAR UNCANNY.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Ozark Triangle Press (March 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893816044
• ISBN-13: 978-1893816046
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,354,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Arnzen (http://gorelets.com) is an award-winning author of horror and dark suspense fiction, a poet, and an English professor. His trophy case includes four Bram Stoker Awards and an International Horror Guild Award for his often funny, always disturbing stories. The best of these appear in the Bram Stoker Award-winning career-length retrospective, Proverbs for Monsters, which Dread Central called "a guided tour of insanity and the macabre, with a few moments of touching grace combined with repulsive terror...[which] serves to document the evolution of a great writer."

Arnzen holds a PhD in English from the University of Oregon (where he researched his non-fiction book, The Popular Uncanny) and he is presently a Professor at Seton Hill University, where he teaches horror and suspense fiction in the country's only graduate program in Writing Popular Fiction (http://fiction.setonhill.edu).

Arnzen resides near Pittsburgh, PA, with his wife of many years, Renate, and a brood of deranged cats.

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"In a little over a decade, Michael A. Arnzen has achieved what few writers manage in a lifetime. He has become the master of a brand of literature that is uniquely his own, and I do not doubt that his approach to horror will soon (if it has not already) be referred to as 'Arnzenian.' When you begin an Arnzen story, you embark on a journey where the old maps do not apply. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory, barreling through landscapes more fascinating and twisted than any previously encountered. Be assured, you will be amazed, startled, amused, and creeped out along the way, but whatever the road has in store, you will not be able to stop reading until the story ends. Horrifying, captivating, ironic -- Arnzenian! -- the works of Michael A. Arnzen are in a class all their own. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride!" -- Lawrence C. Connolly, author of Veins

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you can find a copy of this book..., February 8, 2009

By 

Zelie Nic (Pittsburgh) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paratabloids (Paperback)

I suggest you pick it up. I had a copy, but I foolishly lent it out and haven't heard from it since. Now, I'm havign trouble finding another copy. Kindle owners are in the clear though, as Amazon has a Kindle edition of this book for under four dollars. You might think that's steep for a collection of poems that clocks in under fifty pages... but what could YOU possibly know? You're not even a person.

Honestly, these poems are solid. The subject matter will take you back to memories of a better time, more innocent time, when Weekly World News was still in print and able to be purchased at your local grocers, newstand, adult book store, or gas station. I remember I once had a cheap Washburn semi-hollow "Delta King" guitar that I decoupaged with images and headlines from the popular periodical. I wish I still had that guitar!

Anyway, yes. The poems herein are fun. They can inspire you... to...do...stuff? At the very least, this collection of poems from Seton Hill's Dr. Arnzen will make you consider the secret low-brow tastes of your professors, become a favourite book to 'casually' leave out on the coffee table, and if it fails to do either of these things, it will in the very, very least, make your life a bit more absurd.