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Author Archive
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Posted in Uncategorized on September 27, 2011 by Holly HuckebaDrinking Buddies
Posted in authors, books, humor with tags Boogie Monster Dance Kit, books for children, cartoon, clippy, Kevan Atteberry on September 23, 2011 by Holly Huckeba
A cartoon by the talented Kevan Atteberry.
Kevan’s work has appeared in Microsoft Office, among other fine publications. He is the illustrator of many books for children
Junk Talk Interview with Ned Vizzini, author of, It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Posted in authors with tags author, author interview, BE MORE CHILL, Holly Huckeba, interview, IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY, Ned Vizzini, TEEN ANGST? NAAAH, THE OTHER NORMALS, UNCLE TUMBA on June 20, 2011 by Holly Huckeba
Ned Vizzini is the author of TEEN ANGST? NAAAH…, a collection of personal essays about high school, many of which were published by the New York Press. He went on to write a young adult fiction novel, BE MORE CHILL and several years later he wrote another novel, IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY, which was later made into a major motion picture (pictured). FUNNY STORY is a work of fiction, but it’s largely based on Vizzini’s own experience with mental illness, suicidal ideation and a week spent in a psychiatric hospital when he was 23 years old. Most recently, he has released a limited-edition comic he wrote while in high school, UNCLE TUMBA, the tale of a septuagenarian monk and his pet pig ($2 on Etsy).
Junk interviewed Ned Vizzini about his high school comics project, his current efforts to educate about mental illness, and writing fiction and memoir.
Holly Huckeba for Junk Talk: In your senior year at Stuyvesant High School, you applied for early admission to Harvard and landed an interview with admissions staff. Your comic, UNCLE TUMBA, may have played a role in the eventual outcome of that interview, with the chief criticism leveled against UNCLE TUMBA being its use of profanity and other naughty bits. When you look back at that interview and your decision to try and sell UNCLE TUMBA to the interviewers, what do you think is the “lesson learned”? If you had it to do all over again, would you change anything, either creatively (content) or politically (the interview)? Or would you do it all exactly the same?
Ned Vizzini: The lesson learned is that you shouldn’t be too interesting in your college interviews. I wanted to get into Harvard, so of course I felt stupid that I tried to sell UNCLE TUMBA and basically got this look from my interviewers like, “This guy’s weird.” What can I say—it was my Italian peddler heritage. If I could go back and do it again, I’d change the content and curb my entrepreneurship, but thankfully I can’t.
Yaaaay! Bite Your Nails! by Jeffrey Brown
Posted in journal updates with tags autobio comics, comics, graphic art, Jeffrey Brown, journal update, Memorial day, nail biting, special bonus edition junk, Yaaaay! Bite Your Nails! on May 30, 2011 by Holly HuckebaWhen I heard Jeffrey Brown speak on an autobio comics panel at Stumptown Comic Fest in Portland, I knew I’d struck gold: cartoonists creating strips that were explicitly memoir.
Bonanza!
I sent Jeff an email, telling him a little about Junk, inviting him to check out our site and submit if he wanted. He told me he didn’t really have anything related to addiction except perhaps one strip about nail biting.
Ka-ching!
So, here we go, folks. We’re launching our first Comics Edition at Junk, presenting Jeffrey Brown’s piece, “Yaaaay! Bite Your Nails!”
Help us get the word out. This is going to be fun.
Erin Murphy’s “Slow Burn” Sizzles
Posted in journal updates with tags Erin Murhpy, junk update, sizzles, slow burn on February 16, 2011 by Holly HuckebaTim and I are pleased to publish new work by Erin Murphy on Junk. When “Slow Burn” showed up in our inbox, all I wrote to Tim was, “Wow.” Fortunately, I gained enough vocabulary to write Erin back right away and tell her “Yes, we want it!”
Because Junk publishes monthly, we needed to be patient about delivering her story to you, but now that the time is upon us, we hope you agree that it was worth the wait.
Enjoy!
Need by Dinty W. Moore Available Now
Posted in journal updates with tags Dinty W. Moore, journal update, Need on December 15, 2010 by Holly HuckebaJunk presents the first of its visual arts submissions: “Need,” by the esteemed Dinty W. Moore.
Tim and I were so excited when we saw this photo. Not only were we happy to receive a submission from Dinty Moore, but the photo reveals so much about the effects of addiction. The setting reflects the desperation and defiance of the addict. The composition and framing of the subjects illuminates a network of need—the girl holds a protective hand over what might be a baby strapped to her belly, track marks riddling the back of her knee. The dog pines for the girl’s attention, its leash dangling uselessly. And the bottle of wine—almost a study itself—lies drained to the dregs.
And what does this piece tell us about Mr. Moore? It’s almost as mysterious as what the poor child in the picture holds in her arms. We know the photo was taken in Florence, Italy, in the late summer of this year. Perhaps a vacation? Possibly business? What does it say when a photographer visits one of the jewels of the Renaissance and returns with a photograph of a junky as mournful and evocative as this?
We don’t know. We can only guess, dear reader.
What we do know is that this is a fine piece of visual nonfiction, and we are pleased as punch to present it here on Junk.
-XS
Call for Submissions: Visual and Performance Memoir
Posted in editor's corner on December 4, 2010 by Holly HuckebaSince Junk’s launch in November, we’re received a steady stream of submissions, and Tim and I are pleased to see some good, quality work. Next week, we’ll publish the first of our visual submissions, and we’re excited. Most of the work submitted to date has been prose, which is great, we love the written word—have no fear, writers! But we’d also like to put in a plug to visual and performance artists. We want to see your work!
We want photos, comics, paintings, drawings, performances, from people who are willing tell a story about their own addiction or the effect of addiction on them from someone else. Self-portraits can be revealing; a recent trip to a museum exhibit of Picasso’s work reminded us of this. One of our favorite visual artists, Cindy Sherman, combines storytelling, photography, and performance in an intriguing way. Or maybe you are a singer-songwriter with work you’d like to share to our audience—we watch YouTube, too.
You don’t have to be Picasso or Cindy Sherman to get our attention. We’re just trying to get YOUR attention. Submit!
Take, Eat by Lee Martin
Posted in favorites with tags family, favorites, food, food allergy, Lee Martin, Sweet, what we like on March 21, 2010 by Holly HuckebaI really liked Lee Martin’s story about food and family. Food allergy is a useful analogy for the effects of addiction: Even when it poisons our body, we crave that to which we are addicted. It is not uncommon to feel love, yearning and loss–sometimes decades later–for things we lose to sobriety. Family as well as food.
I pulled the car into a parking spot in front of Hovey’s. “We’re just killing time, right?” I said to Deb, and she agreed to go inside.
That wasn’t the whole truth, that part about killing time. I wasn’t aware of it then, but I am now. Somewhere inside me that evening was the ridiculous belief that I could walk into Hovey’s, order anything I wanted from the menu and make myself at home, order a Big Murt and fries and a chocolate shake, and shoot the breeze with the waitress about the holiday basketball tournament at the high school, the Christmas lights at the park, the dark days of winter we’d face together, by golly, in this small, wink-you’ll-miss-it town.
